Low levels of lead exposure kill an estimated 412,000 people per year in the US according to a 2018 analysis of 14,289 adults who were followed for an average of 19.3 years.

“Our findings suggest that, of 2.3 million deaths every year in the USA, about 400,000 are attributable to lead exposure, an estimate that is about ten times [10X] larger than the current one,” the authors of the paper note.

The one-third of males with the highest lead levels as measured in the kneecap (bone lead levels as opposed to blood lead levels) compared to the one-third with the lowest lead levels were 25% more likely to die from any cause during an average follow-up of 8.9 years according to the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study.

Blood lead levels were not associated with an increased risk of death, only bone lead levels were.

“We found bone lead to be associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in an environmentally exposed population with low blood lead levels,” the authors of the paper concluded.

“This study suggests that cumulative lead exposure from prior decades of high environmental exposures continues to significantly affect risk of death despite recent declines in environmental lead exposure.”

People who had a prior heart attack who were given 40 infusions of EDTA chelation therapy compared to those given a placebo were 18% less likely to die from any cause, have a heart attack, have a stroke, have coronary revascularization, or hospitalization for angina over the next 5 years.

A subset of people who were Type 2 diabetics had a 41% lower risk of these events happening.

EDTA chelation helps to remove heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.

“[A] body of epidemiological data showing that accumulation of biologically active metals, such as lead and cadmium, is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” the authors of the paper note.