Let’s talk about Lead
There are quite a few angles to take an interesting new article in the Washington Post.
Here are a few:
1. Rudy Guilani’s entire political life is based off lies. His handling of 9/11? If not a disaster, at least an incompetent fiasco.
And what about his whole “tough on crime” approach that corresponded to a large drop in NYC crime?
Turns crime dropped because of government initiatives in the 60’s and 70’s that reduced lead poisoning.
2. DragonFlyEye does it again. Just as I’m about to write a long involved article on lead poisoning, he writes one first!
3. Credit where credit is due: The City seems to be cracking down on lead-based paint. The new law requiring inspections of pre-1978 houses (for lead, among other things) before issuing certificates of occupancy seems to work. DragonFlyEye sees signs of good hope.
4. Lead Poisoning is scary. Not only does it cause ADHD and brain damage, but it increases aggressiveness and there is a strong statistical case to be made that it is entwined with the problem of crime. Kevin Drum says that “lead abatement could raise IQs in 6 million children by about 7 points for a cost of only $30 billion or so.” Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings thinks that a national lead abatement program should be supported by both liberal and conservative thought, and has a lot more to say besides.
5. Lead paint is scary, thank goodness for the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning (in Monroe).
6. The USA banned lead-based paint in 1978. It’s been banned in Europe since the early 1900s.
7. The USA banned lead in gasoline in 1986. Great job. That saved thousands of lives, decreased average lead density in blood by 75%, etc. Let me quote Brad Plumer for the rest:
The Bush administration loves lead. Loves it. They want it everywhere. Okay, that’s only a slight exaggeration: Back in 2002, the White House tried to stack an advisory committee on lead regulations with industry types. Last December, the administration announced that it would consider doing away with the standards that cut lead from gasoline, at the behest of battery makers and lead smelters. And its EPA has weakened a rule on removing lead paint from older residences. All that research on the toxic effects of lead exposure? Eh, who needs it.
Let’s go a bit more in-depth.
First of all, the Washington Post article is pretty interesting. Here’s an excerpt:
What makes Nevin’s work persuasive is that he has shown an identical, decades-long association between lead poisoning and crime rates in nine countries.
“It is stunning how strong the association is,” Nevin said in an interview. “Sixty-five to ninety percent or more of the substantial variation in violent crime in all these countries was explained by lead.”
Through much of the 20th century, lead in U.S. paint and gasoline fumes poisoned toddlers as they put contaminated hands in their mouths. The consequences on crime, Nevin found, occurred when poisoning victims became adolescents. Nevin does not say that lead is the only factor behind crime, but he says it is the biggest factor.
But this isn’t the only time we’ve heard this kind of thinking. Even the D&C wrote an article a while back talking about the link between lead exposure and violent crime:
As the scientific evidence builds, many researchers have become convinced that lead poisoning may be linked to juvenile delinquency and even the high homicide rates in aging cities such as Rochester.
“There is a strong and substantial relationship between lead exposure and arrests,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, director of Cincinnati Children’s Environmental Health Center, who has an international reputation for his research into the effects of lead poisoning. Lanphear was in Rochester for a fellowship at the University of Rochester in 1995.
[snip]
The possibility of a connection has been noted by civic leaders including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson, both of whom have linked Rochester’s lead poisoning problem to the city’s high violent-crime rates.
According to the article, research linking lead and aggressive behavior/crimes has been there for a while. And remember, even if lead poisoning did nothing but lower IQ, it’s important to get rid of.
Here’s another interesting tidbit. The D&C ran a story on June 16 regarding an audit of lead abatement policies. Here’s what they found:
Children in Monroe County are among more than 100,000 statewide who are not properly screened for lead poisoning, according to an audit released Thursday by the state Health Department’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
While critical of state efforts to curb lead hazards, the comptroller’s report also highlighted
shortcomings in Monroe County, which it said was the only one of the five counties reviewed
that stops providing services and case management to children when they reach 6 years of age.
And New York State as a whole isn’t a paragon of enlightened governence either:
According to the audit:
# About 35 percent of children in the counties surveyed were not screened for lead poisoning.
# The state’s Advisory Council on Lead Poisoning Prevention had no meetings between 1997
and 2004, and it has not submitted a required annual report in nearly 10 years.
# The state Health Department must improve its oversight of county activities to ensure that the
program is functioning as intended.
# Thirty-nine of 58 counties statewide were late in submitting reports and plans to prevent
poisoning. Six counties took two years to file their reports.
To read the audit findings, visit www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093007/04s49.pdf.
For a copy of a related policy report, visit www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/health/childleadpoisoning.pdf.
Though the city has increased efforts to get rid of lead in houses, we’ve seen how Monroe County and NYS just don’t really care. Lucky for us, “The county was awarded a $3 million federal grant to help clean up 370 more housing units by providing grants of up to $5,000 to qualified city property owners.”
I work as a construction worker, so I have personal experience with these grants. They’re wonderful. And the city does seem to do a pretty good job on the lead front. For example, if I have to scrape paint of shingles, I have to spray the shingles with water first, or else the city cops will bust me. Though the paint I’m scraping off is latex-based, there is a chance that lead-based paint might be underneath, and water keeps it from turning into dust.
Of course, all these efforts might go for naught. Why? Because Bush’s EPA decided that we don’t have enough lead in the atmosphere, so its encouraging oil companies to disobey it’s own regulations and put more in the gasoline they sell to people.
I learned a lot from the site LeadSafeby2010, created by our local Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning. If lead poisoning freaks you out even a fraction as much as it does me, check it out. You can learn how to support the cause, or how to check for lead in home, and other good information.
Related posts:
The lead coalition is doing yeoman’s work, especially in the hardest-hit areas of our city, to get the word out and clean up housing in this city. It is astonishing that lead paint would be made illegal in 1978 but no laws governing the mandatory removal of said poisons exist nation-wide.
Can you imagine using a kid’s poisoning as the sole indicator if lead problems in a house? How many kids lived in that house undiagnosed before this one got sent to the hospital? That’s precisely what they’re doing elsewhere in the state.
I’ve some experience with the lead coalition. Dr. Richard Kennedy is an amazing man, he has put so much of his life into this. He’s an excellent example of how a determined individual can really make a difference in the lives of poverty-stricken children. We love you Dr. Kennedy!
I’m sorry to do this, but it’s important to recognize what we’re up against:
Again, from the D&C forums:
speedmaster: “Do any of these kids have parents?”
IAMGERMANAMERICAN: “Here is the proof, it has nothing to do with race, heredity after all, go figure, now we have someone and something to blame, and maybe we can score a payday out of it….”
Idiota: “This lead thing is Hillary´s baby”
hodgepdg: “It’s the food, it’s the lead it’s anything but personal reponsibility. We are in deep trouble. I don’t suppose the problems in the city have anything to do with the out of wedlock teenage birthrate. Getting pregnant by multiple men who don’t take care of their kids. The lack of work ethic as evidenced by the scores of individuals hanging out on any street corner in the city at 10:00 in the morning. Enough with this BS.”
IAMGERMANAMERICAN: “…because I am tired of people looking for handouts and trying to always make “White” America feel guilty,”
mph: “We all grew up in homes with lead paint but only the welfare and their liberal gold diggers are sueing.”
Etc, etc, on and on. It’s so sad.
I can believe that you all grew up in a home with lead paint, since your arguments are shallow and pedantic.
I can’t believe it. Lead lowers IQ. By about 6 or 7 points, on average. Try to fix that, and people get all in an uproar.
In fairness, that guy probably does suffer from lead-related brain damage.
Hold the phone. Can someone explain to me the process by which women in the inner city are getting “Getting pregnant by multiple men?” Are they like the people in “Alien Nation,” or what? (non-geeks, see the synopsis of the episode entitled “Three to Tango,” for additional details)
What these idiots are too lead poisoned and Fox poisoned to realize is that the entire country is suffering from this problem, not just the inner city. Maybe if they fixed the problem and lowered the crime rate across the board in this country, people would get off their backs about their guns?
Oh, yeah and P.S.: no one is suing anyone that I know of.
She has irritated me in the recent past, but boo-yaa, boys:
Louise Slaughter is on the case.
I think they’re referring to this article:
Horrors of lead ignite lawsuits: landlords cry ‘unfair’
And to be fair, landlords have a point. I do think it’s unfair to make them responsible for lead dust thrown up by construction down the street, for example.
[...] we reported a bit on the issue of lead poisoning in children.ÂÂ It turns out that Rochester’s own [...]
Again, in fairness, I think that whomever wrote that meant the condition where a woman has multiple children, each with a different father. Not at the same time, of course.