Your Health, Lead, And This Administration

By: Gustavus
Published On: 7/9/2007 10:32:50 AM

In the mid-1920s oil companies began adding lead to gasoline in this country.  (For a history of this subject see this article in the Nation.)  The health problems this would generate were known even when the lead additions were begun.  It is estimated that "about 68 million young children had toxic exposures to lead from gasoline from 1927 to 1987."  It took a long fight by many environmentalists to slow down this poisoning of our environment, but in 1973 the EPA began mandating a reduction in the amount of lead in gasoline used in passenger cars.

The results of this EPA effort were remarkable.  From 1986 to 1995, average lead concentrations in U.S. urban air decreased 78%.

Additional research has shown that the effects of lead in our environment are even worse than originally thought.  For example, this extraordinary article in the Washington Post details studies that strongly indicate a link between lead exposure and later criminal activity.  The article describes research by economist Rick Nevin:

The theory offered...is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States. It offers a unifying new neurochemical theory for fluctuations in the crime rate, and it is based on studies linking children's exposure to lead with violent behavior later in their lives.

The article summarizes Nevin's research:
The centerpiece of Nevin's research is an analysis of crime rates and lead poisoning levels across a century. The United States has had two spikes of lead poisoning: one at the turn of the 20th century, linked to lead in household paint, and one after World War II, when the use of leaded gasoline increased sharply. Both times, the violent crime rate went up and down in concert, with the violent crime peaks coming two decades after the lead poisoning peaks.


[The last paragraph of the original article contained an incorrect reference, and I have according deleted it.]

Comments



They have weakend so many rules (VA Breeze - 7/9/2007 10:59:22 AM)
how our food is grown, processed and inspected; lumber manufacturing, the water we drink and swim in..leaving a toxic legacy for the next generation?


Giuliani takes credit for crime reduction (Andrea Chamblee - 7/9/2007 12:23:07 PM)
But Freakonomics shows that it's better family planning and reduction in lead poisoning. I blogged here about the Fairfax scientist who wrote this report discussed in the Post.

Note that the Bush administration already corrupted cost-benefit analysis of pollution reduction in favor of the oil and timber industries, while it took undeserved credit for reducing crime.  Now we can see the faux cost-benefit analyses they've done on environmental issues needs fixing for one more reason: Crime reduction saves the huge tax costs of incarceration as well as the cost in human lives of criminals and their victims.