The mechanism tying elevation to pollution is allegedly that elevation is a proxy for how upstream you are in the water cycle, since water will accumulate toxins from the ground or being pumped into the water as it goes. [...] And there’s clearly a lot of other factors that are visible in the obesity map at the top of Scott’s original post other than elevation—for example, there’s clearly a large drop in obesity from Kansas to Colorado, even though the state border is in a flat area 100 miles from the Rockies.
Eastern Colorado is topologically very similar to Kansas and I suspect they get more water from wells than the (much more populous) middle of the state.
Isn’t this specific point evidence in favor of SMTM’s hypothesis? Eastern Colorado and Kansas are at similar elevations, but Colorado gets most of its water from rivers that start in Colorado and Kansas gets most of its water from an aquifer (https://geokansas.ku.edu/water-kansas). SMTM suspects aquifers are more contaminated (with lithium?) (https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/10/19/a-chemical-hunger-interlude-h-well-well-well/).
I found this,https://www.cohealthdata.dphe.state.co.us/chd/Resources/briefs/Obesity.pdf which shows the east part of Co. as more obese. (Not sure how it compares to Kansas)
Eastern Colorado is topologically very similar to Kansas and I suspect they get more water from wells than the (much more populous) middle of the state.