Tristan Olivier of Lead Survey argues that harm from leaded fuel, paint and dust exposure is linked to violent crime and can last a lifetime.
C
ompelling research over decades has established an ever-stronger link
between child lead exposure and violent criminality. The delay between cause and effect for different categories of crime is typically 19-23 years. The lead/crime link is largely blamed on the use of tetraethyl lead as an ‘anti-knock’ agent in petrol. Since its removal, however, the main sources of lead exposure are now considered to be from the widespread use of lead-containing paint and other lead-containing materials (LCMs), including water supply pipework. Lead paint-related exposure risks arise from
because it is ‘used’ for bone and blood formation. As well as direct poisoning effects, lead also acts as an antagonist, compromising the body’s ability to metabolise other essential minerals, such as zinc and magnesium.
In adults lead exposure affects fertility and pregnancies.
Children from poorer backgrounds are likely to have greater likelihood of lead exposure because of less well-maintained housing. In addition, research has shown that children of Afro-Caribbean descent can be at greater risk because of their superior ability to absorb calcium – which lead, if inhaled or ingested, readily replaces.
The Lead/Violence/Crime Research
Forty years ago, in 1974, The Ecologist magazine published an 11-page article by D. Bryce-Smith and H.Waldron on the subject of ‘Lead, Behaviour and Criminality’.
Toxic Legacy
of lead in petrol and paint and its relationship with Crime in the UK
Lead poisoning and Juvenile crime update
everyday wear and tear as well as from DIY disturbances and commercial repair, maintenance, refurbishment and demolition activities.
In the UK, up until now, there has been little willingness to recognise the necessity for a long-term solution to the society-wide consequences of lead exposure – despite the United Nations Environment Programme and World Health Organisation initiative known as GAELP: The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paint. The UK’s not-for-profit Lead Paint Safety Association (LiPSA) has lent its voice and support to the aims and objectives of this collaborative effort since its launch in 2010.
Lead exposure risks are so far off people’s radar that LiPSA has fielded calls from Health England, the Environment Agency and General Practitioners requiring guidance on a subject you’d expect them to understand rather better.
Case Study
One UK child’s lead-poisoned status was not confirmed as a major part of his condition until paediatricians had been scratching their heads for five years. Now in his early teens, he requires 24-hour residential care and has a mental age of 11 months. His name is Henry.
28 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – SUMME R 2014 The Adverse Health Effects
Lead is a neuro-toxin that affects brain development, behaviour and learning in children. It damages that part of the brain’s cognitive function responsible for impulse control and decision-making. Boys can be up to 5 times more vulnerable than girls, and lead exposure can increase the incidence of ADHD by up to 4 times. Childhood and life- time lead exposures are known contributors to early onset dementia, hypertension and cancer.
Case Study
There can be significant overlaps between lead exposure and Special Educational Needs provision (including Autistic Spectrum Disorders – ASD). Because of the UK’s ‘blindness’ to lead exposure, lead poisoned children are being misdiagnosed as having ASD because routine blood lead testing is not standard procedure. Without appropriate environmental investigation, avoidable lead exposure effects get even worse and even more expensive and difficult to manage.
Because the body ‘sees’ lead as calcium or iron, it is easy to understand why children and women of reproductive capacity are most vulnerable to its adverse health effects –
Pre school blood lead
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
... British Average Pre-school Blood Lead ... British Index Crime in Nevin (2007)Analysis ... British Index crime trend 2002-2012
Crime rate per 100k
150,000 125,000 10,000 75,000 5,000 2,500 0
1950- 1955- 1960- 1965- 1970- 1975- 1980- 1985- 1990- 1995- 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Lead Year: Crime Year (19 year lag)
www.ricknevin.com
The ability of chemical substances to affect behaviour have been known ever since the discovery of alcoholic fermentation. In the context of lead exposure, however, few appreciate the microscopic exposure levels that can cause adverse effects without any sign of visible clinical symptoms. Unless you are looking for the problem, how would you know it existed at all?
Rick Nevin’s 9-country research into lead exposure and criminality provides consistent and valuable detail. Leaded fuel exhaust emissions rose steadily in the US from the ‘40s through the early ‘70s and nearly quadrupled in that period. As unleaded fuel started to be introduced lead emissions plummeted. Albeit with a 20-year time-lag (approx.) crime rates rose correspondingly through the ‘60s and
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