Childhood exposure can affect the brain

kavin submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.sciencenews.org)

The effects of lead weigh heavy on the minds of people exposed to the metal during childhood. Two new studies of adults who lived in lead-contaminated housing as kids find that higher lead levels in the blood during childhood are associated with smaller brains and with an increased risk for violent criminal behavior.

3 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: child development children human behavior law enforcement science and culture lead poisoning lead poisons brain metal

NYTimes article claims that Clean Air Act prevents crime

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.nytimes.com)

We have yet another explanation for the drop in the American crime rate in the mid-1990's: This article cites a study proposing that lead causes brain damage of a sort that makes children less intelligent and more impulsive, that this makes the resulting teenagers more likely to commit crimes, and that the main source of this lead during the twentieth century was not paint but leaded gasoline.

The declining crime rate, she says, matches the declining average lead content in American blood, but with a twenty-year lag

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: crime United States poison toxicology lead heavy metals children parenting pediatrics politics economics human behavior legislation environmentalism air pollution pollution