Did removing lead from petrol spark a decline in crime ?

[dipsydoodle]

Working away in his laboratory in 1921, Thomas Midgley wanted to fuel a brighter tomorrow. He created tetraethyl lead - a compound that would make car engines more efficient than ever.

But did the lead that we added to our petrol do something so much worse? Was it the cause of a decades-long crime wave that is only now abating as the poisonous element is removed from our environment?

For most of the 20th Century crime rose and rose and rose. Every time a new home secretary took office in the UK - or their equivalents in justice and interior ministries elsewhere - officials would show them graphs and mumble apologetically that there was nothing they could do to stop crime rising.

Then, about 20 years ago, the trend reversed - and all the broad measures of key crimes have been falling ever since.
Thomas Midgley at work Thomas Midgley, creator of tetraethyl lead

Offending has fallen in nations whose governments have implemented completely different policies to their neighbours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27067615

[intaglio]

1. Correlation is not causation but ...

I hope that lead is a cause and removing it helps

[Sherman A1]

2. Agreed

I believe that there is never just one answer in this type of thing, but it may be one of the possible answers.

[sarge43]

3. This week's Cosmos also goes into this story

We owe Clair Patterson a great deal; he was a true hero.

[bananas]

10. The Cosmos episode was really well done. nt

[Stuart G]

12. Yes it was. It was outstanding.

The leaded gas industry waged a 20 year battle to keep their product in gasoline. This ep showed how difficult it was to fight against the industry, and the one individual who waged that battle..and won!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stage left]

13. Patterson was a real unsung hero.

I'd never heard his story before. No wonder the right wing fundies don't like Cosmos.

[The Wizard]

4. Lead is a toxin

we're better off with less of it in our air and water. However, it is a shield from radiation.

[L0oniX]

6. Yes ...and it protects Super Man from Kryptonite.

[L0oniX]

5. I believe this is true.

There's are on going studies or research about neurochemical imbalance and how it may relate to the proclivity to become a criminal or commit crimes.

[antiquie]

7. It is an interesting correlation.

[progressoid]

8. Except that we started using lead in gasoline in the 1920's.

Her data only seems to cover a 4.5 decade period.

[mopinko]

9. this needs to get more press

i have seen it before, and i believe it.
we are having a bit of a debate about cops downgrading violent crime. i think they always have and always will, so ups and downs are probably mostly real.
i can only imagine how much persists here, tho.
i kinda refused to test the soil on my microfarm. i am building new soil on top of the old, so it doesnt matter aalllll that much to me. but it is a poison city on a poison planet and organic and all that is a joke on an urban farm.

at least my land was never industrial. i am on the "northshore", which went straight from farmland to nice homes. my plot wasnt even farmed, a farmhouse sat on it. has better soil than the house next door.

[marble falls]

11. Freakonomics suggests it was the availibility of abortions throught the 60's to 90's.....

http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DonohueLevittTheImpactOfLegalized2001.pdf

THE
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
Vol. CXVI
May2001 Issue 2
THE IMPACT OF LEGALIZED ABORTION ON CRIME*

JOHN J. DONOHUE III
AND
STEVEN D. LEVITT

We offer evidence that legalized abortion has contributed signiŽcantly to recent crime reductions. Crime began to fall roughly eighteen years after abortion legalization. The five states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced declines earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s. In high abortion states, only arrests of those born after abortion legalization fall relative to low abortion states. Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime.

<snip>

[yurbud]

14. and the babies that were born were unleaded

[marble falls]

15. Relatively. Lead is tapering.

[IDemo]

16. I filled the gap with nearly 20 years of using leaded solder

Yes, no-lead solder exists but is a royal pain to use, especially on surface mount components as small as the period at the end of this sentence.