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The lead-violence correlation is very, very interesting. What always makes me wonder is how much historical effect environmental factors like this must have ha
by douche 9y ago
The lead-violence correlation is very, very interesting. What always makes me wonder is how much historical effect environmental factors like this must have had. Lead used to be ubiquitous, between paint, pipes, roofing, glass, solder - the Romans even cooked in lead vessels at times.
There's probably no way of ever teasing out all the different factors, but when you read accounts of what daily life was like in, say 18th century London, and a.) violence was quite common-place, and b.) virtually everyone kept themselves inebriated enough to fail a breathalyzer at all times. Probably b.) contributed a good deal to a.), but if everybody is also suffering from low-level chronic lead poisoning...
- snovv_crash 9y agoNever mind cooking in lead vessels, they used lead acetate as an artificial sweetener in their food. I've often wondered if this was something that contributed to their downfall.
- wil421 9y agoI'm sure it didn't help Caligula. It seems a lot of crazy acting emperors could be linked to lead poisoning. It makes me think what people 50-100 years will think about our diets. They put sugar in everything!
- tcoppi 9y agoMore likely to be the huge amount of plasticizers that have been making their way into our diet, imo.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoYou know, it would explain a lot of things if, over the last 10 or 20 years, something were slowly driving more and more people crazy...
- posterboy 9y agoThe Opium epidemic lead to a freaking trade war [1]. How about crack cocaine and other designer drugs, incl. highly potent cannabis, alcohol and cigarettes as factors? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
- Tharkun 9y agoWhat makes it worse is that the Romans knew lead was toxic. But they thought its effect was limited to the production process, which was mostly done by slaves and other people of no apparent value.
- naasking 9y agoCrime and violence has been falling steadily over the past century too. Makes you wonder if this significant social change isn't because of better education, social programs, etc., but simply because of other factors like this that we're simply unaware of.
- ceejayoz 9y agoAs pointed out elsewhere in the thread, different countries phased out tetraethyl lead in gasoline at different times, and their respective drops in crime correlate well with those dates.
- Gibbon1 9y agoNo one disputes that other factors are important. For instance cultural attitudes about violence are important. As is the reach of civil government. Not to mention that in the US violence is a particular problem because of ready access to handguns. My take having read about this theory for about ten years now it looks like the preponderance of the evidence says that lead exposure is at least as significant as the above. Meaning it's not just this study, it's all the other ones as well. With the lead thoery you have the following. 1. A known mechanism. Lead cause brain damage with poor impulse control. 2. Dose response correlation between lead exposure and violent crime. Thing that freaks me out is what did exposure to lead and resulting poor impulse control do to politics in the US.
- bjourne 9y agoIt hasn't. See this graph f.e https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/homicide-rates-in-the-united-states-1950-2010-and-canada-1961-2009-pinker-2011-jpg.jpg https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/homici... In many countries, violent crime exploded in the late 1960s and then increased until the mid 1990s after which it began decreasing again.