Will This New U.S. Project Make the World’s Children Smarter?

First, a quiz:

1. What’s a reason rooted in biology that young Americans today have higher I.Q.s on average than those of us who grew up in the 1970s or earlier?

2. What kills perhaps 1.5 million people or more each year around the world?

3. A new American initiative aims to save vast numbers of lives around the world and add millions of points to our collective I.Q. by reducing what?

The answer to all three questions has to do with a health crisis that most people are barely aware of: lead poisoning.

Lead is a neurotoxin, and the dangers aren’t new. Benjamin Franklin warned in 1786 about the perils of drinking rainwater that had trickled off a lead roof.

But in a disgraceful chapter in American business history, companies found that lead additives made for pretty paint colors and smooth engine performance, so in their greed they resisted regulation.

“Lead helps to guard your health,” one paint company declared. So vast numbers of children were poisoned, and even today,