The Longest Lead Study in US History Concludes

A study performed by Kim Deitrich, a University of Cincinnati scientist, on the affects of lead in children has linked lead poisoning with not only learning disabilities in children, but also anti-social and even criminal behavior in both teenagers and adults. It stresses the permanent nature of lead poisoning, going so far as to prove with empirical data that the brain damage resulting from lead poisoning is irreversible.

The study, the longest of its kind, has recently concluded. Blood analysis and associated tests taken from young children—now adults—born between 1979-1984 have shown the cumulative affect lead has on children as well as how it continues to affect them into adulthood.

In this Cincinnati Enquirer article, writer Peggy O'Farrelly sums up some of the study's findings:

“In 1993, the researchers published a study showing that preschoolers who'd been exposed to lead prenatally and in infancy had IQ deficits; higher blood lead levels were linked to lower IQ levels.

In 2008, the group published the first study showing an association between prenatal and blood lead levels and higher rates of criminal arrests, including for crimes involving violence, among 19- to 24-year-olds. Arrest rates were highest among those individuals with the highest blood lead levels measured in early childhood.

In 2009, the group published the first study showing that childhood lead exposure causes permanent brain damage with lifelong consequences. Dietrich and co-author Kim Cecil, a brain imaging specialist at Cincinnati Children's, used functional MRI technology to show the damage done to the brain.”

Deitrich collected the data from over 300 families located in inner-city Cleveland, a known hot-bed for lead.

To play devil’s advocate, one might say that urban areas almost always have a higher crime rate than other areas because the poverty is higher. Any psychologist will tell you that many children born into poverty feel trapped in their economic state and opt into criminal behavior in a last ditch effort improve their lifestyle.

One may also be inclined to deduce that lead poisoning could contribute to that kind of flawed logic.