Lead in Environment Causing Violent Crime - Study

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=624

"Lead in Environment Causing Violent Crime - Study", Reuters, February
18, 2005,
Link:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7677126

Lead left in paint, water, soil and elsewhere may not only be affecting
children's intelligence but may cause a significant proportion of
violent crime, a U.S. researcher argued Friday.

He said the U.S. government needs to do more to lower lead levels in
the environment and parents need to think more about where their
children may be getting exposed to lead.

"When environmental lead finds its way into the developing brain, it
disturbs neural mechanisms responsible for regulation of impulse. That
can lead to antisocial and criminal behavior," said Dr. Herbert
Needleman, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Needleman's team, using a technique called X-ray fluorescence, found
very low levels of lead in the bones of children.

Needleman cited several studies that associate crime with high levels
of lead either in the bodies of those accused or in the environments
they came from, including one that showed the average bone lead levels
of 190 juvenile delinquents were higher than those of adolescents not
charged with crimes.

His study suggested that between 18 percent and 38 percent of
delinquent crimes in the Pittsburgh area could be attributed to lead
toxicity in the adolescents.

Another one tested 300 delinquents and found those with higher lead
levels reported more aggressive feelings or behavior disorders.

"The brain, particularly the frontal lobes, are important in the
regulation of behavior," Needleman told a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.

"Exposure to lead, at doses below those which bring children to medical
attention, is associated with increased aggression, disturbed attention
and delinquency. A meaningful strategy to reduce crime is to eliminate
lead from the environment of children."

Taking lead out of most gasoline has contributed to a sharp reduction
in the level of lead in the blood of Americans over the past 30 years.

But lead is still found in paint, some types of fuel for older
vehicles, older water pipes and in the soil.