Using a sample of almost 7000 strong MgII absorbers with 0.4 < z < 2.2 detected in the SDSS DR4 dataset, we investigate the gravitational lensing and dust extinction effects they induce on background quasars. After carefully quantifying several selection biases, we isolate the reddening effects as a function of redshift and absorber rest equivalent width, W_0. We find the amount of dust to increase with cosmic time as (1+z)^(-1.1 +/- 0.4), following the evolution of cosmic star density or integrated star formation rate. We measure the reddening effects over a factor 30 in E(B-V) and we find the dust column density to be proportional to W_0^(1.9 +/- 0.2), which provides an important scaling for theoretical modeling of metal absorbers. We also measure the dust-to-metals ratio and find it similar to that of the Milky Way. In contrast to previous studies, we do not detect any gravitational magnification by MgII systems. We measure the upper limit mu<1.10 and discuss the origin of the discrepancy. Finally, we estimate the fraction of absorbers missed due to extinction effects and show that it rises from 1 to 50% in the range 1<W_0<6 Angstrom. We parametrize this effect and provide a correction for recovering the intrinsic distribution of absorber rest equivalent widths.
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