Leaded gasoline and the 20th-century crime wave

[rstrong]

Leaded gasoline and the 20th-century crime wave

Scientists are amassing evidence that suggests exposure to tetraethyl lead — the additive once used in almost all the gasoline sold in the United States — could account for the dramatic increase in crime that happened in this country between the 1960s and 1980s. As leaded gasoline was phased out, they say, children were exposed to less lead, leading to the decline in crime that began to really kick in in the 1990s....

[Banni]

Hm..... just read the excerpt so far you posted so far, but that's really interesting!

I just wonder how they've narrowed it down to a particular reason.

[Wneglia]

Leaded gasoline and the 20th-century crime wave

Scientists are amassing evidence that suggests exposure to tetraethyl lead — the additive once used in almost all the gasoline sold in the United States — could account for the dramatic increase in crime that happened in this country between the 1960s and 1980s. As leaded gasoline was phased out, they say, children were exposed to less lead, leading to the decline in crime that began to really kick in in the 1990s....

See also

[billy.pilgrim]

The MJ article is extensive. I started to post it a couple of weeks ago when but appears their online edition runs later than the print - it may be there now

granted lead is extremely toxic - why else have glaziers gone mad by 40 for the past 500 or so years and why else have we all believed all painters were drunks until recently


but (big but) the correlation is there but so could correlations to other events. the science in the study leaves out a lot

but it does point out some mayor911 lies

[rstrong]

I just wonder how they've narrowed it down to a particular reason.

They give an alternate theory in the next paragraph. It's almost certainly not the only reason, but it could be one of the major ones.

[Guest]

Scientists are amassing evidence that suggests exposure to tetraethyl lead — the additive once used in almost all the gasoline sold in the United States — could account for the dramatic increase in crime that happened in this country between the 1960s and 1980s. As leaded gasoline was phased out, they say, children were exposed to less lead, leading to the decline in crime that began to really kick in in the 1990s....

I don't have any concrete evidence or links to support this thought, and it is just a thought, but I'm sure we've all noticed an increase in the cases of autism and other behavioral disorders in children over the last couple of decades.

Sitting around the pot-bellied stove, this topic has been hot recently in our coffee circle. Interestingly enough, the subject of leaded gasoline was brought up. Although crime levels when the gasoline was available wasn't discussed, the incidences of childhood disorders increasing with the coinciding phasing out of it, and the rise of so-called 'healthy lifestyles'.

We discussed what we didn't have around anymore as opposed to what once was plentiful and the attitudes differentials that seemed to coincide with the changes.

Whole milk is no longer healthy for kids, artificial sweeteners are the rage, sugar-free soft drinks, soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, more and more artificial flavorings and preservatives, etc.
(for those who served in the military; remember powdered eggs and potatoes? we thought that was the height of artificialdom!)

Just makes you wonder what we are eating these days and what it's doing to our bodies and minds!

[rstrong]

I don't have any concrete evidence or links to support this thought, and it is just a thought, but I'm sure we've all noticed an increase in the cases of autism

Here's some evidence supporting the idea that the increase in autism diagnoses is just that — an increase in diagnoses, not an increase in incidence.

Neuroskeptic: Finally, Hard Evidence Against The "Autism Epidemic"?

...there's a zone of high autism prevalence in California, areas where kids aged 0-4 years old are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition. The epicentre is L.A.; there's actually three overlapping hotspots centred on Santa Monica, Alhambra and North Hollywood.

In these clusters, autism rates are between 2 and 6 times higher than the rest of the state.

Now an interesting thing about these areas was that they're rich in paediatricians, autism advocacy organizations, and money. In other words, there's better access to health services and probably more awareness of autism. This is suggestive evidence that the reason lots of kids get diagnosed here is about diagnosis, not autism per se.

But the blockbuster result is that children born outside the cluster, who later moved home into one, had a higher chance of getting a diagnosis than those who stayed out. The effect was smaller than for kids born inside the hot zone, but it was significant.

That's also consistent with the idea that the clusters are clusters of diagnosis, not autism....

I've noticed that Asperger's Syndrome is this decade's "Twinkie defense." A convenient hard to disprove claim that criminals use to convince courts that they had no criminal intent, understanding or blame.