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An Updated Lead-Crime Roundup (2018)

61 points by luu 7y ago

jmkd 7y ago
A staggering yet rather unfashionable set of studies supporting the compelling hypothesis that lead exposure in childhood contributes to an increase in violent crime later. One gets the sense that laying blame for specific modern social issues on such external, physical (historical) forces is an uphill struggle; by not providing enough actionable insight for today, the results are too abstract and seemingly inapplicable for us to learn much from them. Yet the evidence is overwhelming. More, it highlights the difficulty faced in acknowledging and reducing the impact of as-yet-unrecognisably dangerous substances and technologies today.
bluejekyll 7y ago
Remember the person who discovered how bad the lead pollution was in the world from leaded gasoline while dating the age of the planet, Clair Cameron Patterson: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson He spent nearly twenty years fighting for lead to be removed from gasoline.
- throw0101a 7y ago
  What's more, the companies involved knew it was toxic from day one: * https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/ https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/ * https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-...
- alexandercrohde 7y ago
  There's a lot to learn about this topic: "In addition to canceling his grants and attempting to prevent his work from receiving public attention, the lead industry also worked aggressively to destroy Patterson’s credibility through the news media.[77]32 Beginning in 1963, several newspapers discounted Patterson’s work by focusing on Dr. Robert Kehoe and other lead industry allies in an attempt to create uncertainty about the effects of lead in the environment.[78-84] Herbert E. Stockinger, chief of toxicology with the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in Cincinnati, Ohio, had just conducted studies and presented data which suggested there had not been increases in environmental lead levels or in the amount of lead in human blood or urine over the past several decades. Rather than address scientific concerns relating to Patterson’s studies, the lead industry attacked Patterson personally and sought to tie him to political activists of the environmental movement. Stockinger himself claimed Patterson’s conclusions were “rabble rousing . . .science fiction” and accused Patterson of “trying to be a second Rachel Carson.”[65] Multiple newspaper articles discussed Patterson’s research in the context of several contrary government and industry reports that claimed lead in the environment was not a major problem and was not created through exhaust emissions, but rather through other industrial wastes. Although these studies were scientifically unsound, they were given equal weight in the media" http://www.anthonyturton.com/assets/my_documents/my_files/1A4_adlerthesis06012006.pdf http://www.anthonyturton.com/assets/my_documents/my_files/1A... [p 76]
- whenchamenia 7y ago
  Too bad its still used by the millions of barrels in Aviation. Why do we still allow tetra-ethyl lead outside antique aircraft?
  - cma 7y ago
    Political donors are more likely to be private pilots than less-wealthy non-donors.
  - throw0101a 7y ago
    Mostly limited to pistol-powered aircraft that use 100LL, and not anything with a turbine / jet engine (which uses diesel-like Jet-A fuel (kerosene family)). The FAA is working on it, but it seems it's not a simple problem: * https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/october/03/faa-sees-mid-2020-completion-of-unleaded-avgas-project https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/october/03...
habnds 7y ago
>It’s important to emphasize that the lead-crime hypothesis doesn’t claim that lead is solely responsible for crime. It primarily explains only one thing: the huge rise in crime of the 70s and 80s and the equally huge—and completely unexpected—decline in crime of the 90s and aughts.
throw0101a 7y ago
An observation: the baby boomers is one of the largest demographic cohorts out there, and they were exposed to lead a lot. So I'm wondering if the way politics was run from the 1980s onward has anything to do with impaired "executive functions that allow people to understand the consequences of their actions".
- spamizbad 7y ago
  Probably, although Boomers are getting up in years and many of the most heavily impacted by lead most likely are not involved in politics either due to death, apathy, or incarceration.
gniv 7y ago
I didn’t know that countries in the Middle East stopped using leaded gasoline much later (90s). This short post linked from the article has interesting speculation: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-terrorism-middle-east-will-decline-half-between-2020-and-2040/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-te...

61 points by luu 7y ago

jmkd 7y ago

A staggering yet rather unfashionable set of studies supporting the compelling hypothesis that lead exposure in childhood contributes to an increase in violent crime later. One gets the sense that laying blame for specific modern social issues on such external, physical (historical) forces is an uphill struggle; by not providing enough actionable insight for today, the results are too abstract and seemingly inapplicable for us to learn much from them. Yet the evidence is overwhelming. More, it highlights the difficulty faced in acknowledging and reducing the impact of as-yet-unrecognisably dangerous substances and technologies today.

bluejekyll 7y ago

Remember the person who discovered how bad the lead pollution was in the world from leaded gasoline while dating the age of the planet, Clair Cameron Patterson: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Cameron_Patterson He spent nearly twenty years fighting for lead to be removed from gasoline.

throw0101a 7y ago
What's more, the companies involved knew it was toxic from day one: * https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/ https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/ * https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-...
alexandercrohde 7y ago
There's a lot to learn about this topic: "In addition to canceling his grants and attempting to prevent his work from receiving public attention, the lead industry also worked aggressively to destroy Patterson’s credibility through the news media.[77]32 Beginning in 1963, several newspapers discounted Patterson’s work by focusing on Dr. Robert Kehoe and other lead industry allies in an attempt to create uncertainty about the effects of lead in the environment.[78-84] Herbert E. Stockinger, chief of toxicology with the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in Cincinnati, Ohio, had just conducted studies and presented data which suggested there had not been increases in environmental lead levels or in the amount of lead in human blood or urine over the past several decades. Rather than address scientific concerns relating to Patterson’s studies, the lead industry attacked Patterson personally and sought to tie him to political activists of the environmental movement. Stockinger himself claimed Patterson’s conclusions were “rabble rousing . . .science fiction” and accused Patterson of “trying to be a second Rachel Carson.”[65] Multiple newspaper articles discussed Patterson’s research in the context of several contrary government and industry reports that claimed lead in the environment was not a major problem and was not created through exhaust emissions, but rather through other industrial wastes. Although these studies were scientifically unsound, they were given equal weight in the media" http://www.anthonyturton.com/assets/my_documents/my_files/1A4_adlerthesis06012006.pdf http://www.anthonyturton.com/assets/my_documents/my_files/1A... [p 76]
whenchamenia 7y ago
Too bad its still used by the millions of barrels in Aviation. Why do we still allow tetra-ethyl lead outside antique aircraft?
- cma 7y ago
  Political donors are more likely to be private pilots than less-wealthy non-donors.
- throw0101a 7y ago
  Mostly limited to pistol-powered aircraft that use 100LL, and not anything with a turbine / jet engine (which uses diesel-like Jet-A fuel (kerosene family)). The FAA is working on it, but it seems it's not a simple problem: * https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/october/03/faa-sees-mid-2020-completion-of-unleaded-avgas-project https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/october/03...

habnds 7y ago

>It’s important to emphasize that the lead-crime hypothesis doesn’t claim that lead is solely responsible for crime. It primarily explains only one thing: the huge rise in crime of the 70s and 80s and the equally huge—and completely unexpected—decline in crime of the 90s and aughts.

throw0101a 7y ago

An observation: the baby boomers is one of the largest demographic cohorts out there, and they were exposed to lead a lot. So I'm wondering if the way politics was run from the 1980s onward has anything to do with impaired "executive functions that allow people to understand the consequences of their actions".

spamizbad 7y ago
Probably, although Boomers are getting up in years and many of the most heavily impacted by lead most likely are not involved in politics either due to death, apathy, or incarceration.

gniv 7y ago

I didn’t know that countries in the Middle East stopped using leaded gasoline much later (90s). This short post linked from the article has interesting speculation: https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-terrorism-middle-east-will-decline-half-between-2020-and-2040/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/prediction-te...