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Lead Exposure In Children Linked to Violent Crime

By standdown

That's the title of an article in today's Los Angeles Times reported by Thomas H. Maugh II and Marla Cone.  LINKThe first study to follow lead-exposed children from before birth into adulthood has shown that even relatively low levels of lead permanently damage the brain and are linked to higher numbers of arrests, particularly for violent crime. Earlier studies linking lead to such problems used indirect measures of both lead and criminality, and critics have argued that socioeconomic and other factors may be responsible for the observed effects. But by measuring blood levels of lead before birth and during the first seven years of life, then correlating the levels with arrest records and brain size, Cincinnati researchers have produced the strongest evidence yet that lead plays a major role in crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on May 28, 2008 (boomark / email).