Not sure if this is the right section for this but it has to do with crime rates and crime policy so I guess this is the right area. If not, please move. It is a fascinating theory on Lead (Pb) being the real culprit in the rise and fall of crime rates.
As a forward to this article, I recently had my blood lead levels checked and they were elevated. Not horrible but more than twice the limit that the CDC recommends. My real concern is that I am a reloader and frequent shooter and have two small children, both under 5.
I have since changed the way I do everything with respect to reloading and shooting (which was already very hygienically "buttoned down") in an effort to keep my kids from getting even the slightest exposure to lead. It is true that generations of kids were exposed to way worse and the little my kids are exposed to will have small and possibly insignificant effects on them but what parent doesn't want to give their kids every intellectual or emotional advantage within the parent's control.
As I researched statistics and studies on the effects of early lead exposure on children and the subsequent cognitive and behavior problems later in childhood and early adulthood, I came across this extremely compelling article. I say "extremely" compelling because of the way they control for all other factors in their statistical models. 10 years ago I would typically greet statistics with a large number of variables with some measured incredulity but after taking 2 semesters of graduate level statistics a few years ago, I now understand the power of these mathematical tools and no longer ignore them.
Any article that pokes and probes and searches and digs through the data to scientifically "yank out" the likely cause, not just a link, is something I really admire and this article does that. To get the most of it, be sure to read and analyze the graphs/data very closely. So anyway, here's the article:
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead | Mother Jones
As a forward to this article, I recently had my blood lead levels checked and they were elevated. Not horrible but more than twice the limit that the CDC recommends. My real concern is that I am a reloader and frequent shooter and have two small children, both under 5.
I have since changed the way I do everything with respect to reloading and shooting (which was already very hygienically "buttoned down") in an effort to keep my kids from getting even the slightest exposure to lead. It is true that generations of kids were exposed to way worse and the little my kids are exposed to will have small and possibly insignificant effects on them but what parent doesn't want to give their kids every intellectual or emotional advantage within the parent's control.
As I researched statistics and studies on the effects of early lead exposure on children and the subsequent cognitive and behavior problems later in childhood and early adulthood, I came across this extremely compelling article. I say "extremely" compelling because of the way they control for all other factors in their statistical models. 10 years ago I would typically greet statistics with a large number of variables with some measured incredulity but after taking 2 semesters of graduate level statistics a few years ago, I now understand the power of these mathematical tools and no longer ignore them.
Any article that pokes and probes and searches and digs through the data to scientifically "yank out" the likely cause, not just a link, is something I really admire and this article does that. To get the most of it, be sure to read and analyze the graphs/data very closely. So anyway, here's the article:
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead | Mother Jones