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10/25/2007: "Industrial poisons may make us insane criminals"

Even low levels of lead can cause brain damage, increasing the likelihood of behavioral and cognitive traits such as impulsivity, aggressiveness, and low IQ that are strongly linked with criminal behavior. The NYTimes has a story on how the phasing out of leaded gasoline starting with the Clean Air Act in 1973 may have led to a 56% drop in violent crime in the US in the 1990s. An economics professor at Amherst College, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, discovered the connection and wrote a paper comparing the reduction of lead from gasoline between states (PDF) and the reduction of violent crime. She constructed a table linking crime rates in every state to childhood lead exposure in that state 20 or 30 years earlier.

[ Other factors are important as well, but we'd be idiots to discount the influence of toxic substances. ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21wwln-idealab-t.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1193069109-tIv/I01qmqYqqX/fw3A7Iw