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Connection Between Lead Poisoning and Criminal Behavior

npr.org

The keynote speaker at a Rochester conference on lead poisoning says there's a definite connection between lead exposure at an early age and criminal behavior later in life.

Dr. John Wright is professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati.

He spoke at the Upstate New York Lead Poisoning Conference.

Wright released tentative results of a new 30-year study of 250 pregnant mothers in catchment areas in Cincinnati known for high levels of lead exposure.

Blood lead levels were measured prenatally through age 6 and a half.

Data was collected on the children through the average age of 30.

Wright says after three decades they were still able to discern the effects of lead on adult criminal behavior.

Wright says those early blood-lead levels are substantive predictors of criminal behavior later in life.

He says it's important children exposed to lead  are screened continually for the onset of problem behavior.

"It can rapidly escalate, it can set off a chain reaction of other problems such as less parent-child bonding, and it will eventually accumulate in serious chronic delinquency, arrest, even incarceration."