THE toxic effects of lead could be more far-reaching than we thought. Monkeys exposed to the heavy metal during infancy may be predisposed to develop the equivalent of Alzheimer’s disease.
“We’re not saying that lead exposure causes Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s a risk factor,” says Nasser Zawia of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, whose team discovered the link.
Zawia’s team fed baby monkeys infant formula milk laced with low levels of lead, then followed their progress until the age of 23. While the adult monkeys did not show symptoms of Alzheimer’s per se, post-mortem analyses of their brains showed that the lead-fed monkeys had…
