For Immediate Release Contact: Karen Hinton, 703-798-3109
Karen@hintoncommunications.com

New Research Shows Early Childhood Exposure to Lead
Can Result in Juvenile and Adult Criminal Behavior

 Lead Exposure Explains International Property and Violent Crime Trends and Differences in USA City Murder Rates

Columbia, MD — Are children exposed to lead at a young age more likely to commit crimes as juveniles and adults? A new study says yes. 

Rick Nevin, an independent economic consultant and National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) senior advisor, compared trends in childhood lead exposure to crime rate trends over several decades in nine countries: USA, Britain, Canada, France, Australia, Finland, Italy, West Germany and New Zealand. In all countries, he found that the greater the exposure, the higher the crime rate. Nevin's analysis of USA city murder rates also shows that murder is especially associated with more severe childhood lead poisoning.

 "The research shows a clear link between lead exposure and crime, not just in this country but eight others as well. Nevin's work demonstrates the need for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finalize rules which will help prevent childhood exposure to lead during the renovation, painting and remodeling of older homes," said Rebecca Morley, NCHH Executive Director.

About 38 million U.S. homes still contain lead-based paint, which was banned for residential use in 1978. Of those, about 4 million are renovated each year, exposing many children to significant hazards when contractors fail to follow lead-safe work practices. In the state of Maine, for example, 65 percent of the lead poisoning cases are the result of unsafe renovations of older homes. The EPA rule that governs these practices has been delayed for over a decade due, in part, to industry opposition. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 310,000 children in this country suffer from lead poisoning.

"Young children are being unnecessarily exposed to lead and, as a result, they later suffer behavioral problems and learning disabilities," said Morley.

Lead contaminates household dust ingested by children as they crawl and engage in normal hand-to-mouth activity. Ingested lead travels through the bloodstream to the developing brain where elevated blood lead causes many neurological effects that can impair IQ, learning and behavior later in life, numerous studies have shown. Use of lead in paint in the U.S. peaked in the first half of the 20^th century before the 1978 ban. Per capita use of lead in gasoline surged in the USA after World War II and rose at a slower rate in nations with lower per capita gasoline use. A phased-in ban of lead in gasoline in the USA began in the early 1980s.

A summary of key findings from the Nevin study are available on the NCHH website at
http://www.centerforhealthyhousing.org/html/whats_new.htm

Highlights of the study appear below:

• International Lead Exposure and Crime Trends: The level of lead found in preschoolers in the nine studied countries tracks the property and violent crime rate trends in those countries at the time these preschoolers became juveniles and young adults.  Childhood exposure to leaded gasoline rose from the 1930s through 1970, and all of the nations studied had rising crime rates, as these children became juveniles and young adults. Childhood lead exposure fell in the USA and Canada from the mid-1970s through the early-1980s, as lead exposure remained high in most other industrial nations. Crime rates fell in the 1990s in the USA and Canada, but peaked later in other nations, tracking lead exposure trends in each nation.
• Murder and Additive Exposure to gas lead and lead paint hazards. The 1980-1994 murder rates in the United States mainly reflect trends in large cities. The Nevin study shows that trends in air lead from gasoline explain why the largest USA cities had such high murder rates. In the 1960s, large cities (over a million people) had more than two times the air lead of mid-sized cities (250,000 to a million people). Mid-sized cites had air lead levels that were 40% higher than small cities (100-250 thousand people). Average 1985-1994 murder rates in large cities were 57% higher than mid-size cities, and mid-size cities had murder rates 40% higher than small cities. The 1980s phase-out of the USA gas lead left little air lead difference by city size, and there was little city size variation in 2000-2004 murder rates. Nevin also shows that city differences in circa-1970 childhood lead paint poisoning in severely deteriorated housing, and the additive effects of paint lead and gas lead exposure, also explain much of the variation in 1980-1994 city murder rates. Paint lead contributes to both air and lead dust through paint deterioration, paint scraping and sanding, demolition and other activities that generate dust from lead paint. 
• Shifts in arrest rates by age group in Britain: Gas lead use rose in Britain after World War II (around 1946), and males born during this time had higher offending rates twelve to fourteen years later than their counterparts born before this increase in lead use. In the mid-1980s, British gas lead use fell and males born during this time had lower offending rates twelve to fourteen years later.
• Shifts in California arrest rates by age group: In the United States, gas lead use increased 400% between 1945 and 1955. Twenty years later, the California juvenile index crime arrest rate increased by almost 300 percent from 1965 to 1975. In 1975, California's juvenile index crime arrest rate was twice the adult rate, but juvenile offending plunged in the 1990s, tracking the 1975-1985 decline in USA lead exposure. California's juvenile index crime arrest rate has been lower than the adult arrest rate since 2000.
• Shifts in overall USA arrest rates by age group: In the USA, there was a 1956 interim peak in gas lead use, when lead paint hazards were severe in deteriorated urban slum housing built around 1900 when the lead content of paint was extremely high. Urban renewal programs demolished much of the oldest and most deteriorated slums in the 1960s, and gas lead was phased out in the early 1980s. The property crime arrest rate for youths under age 15 fell 45% from 1970-2003, as the arrest rate for adults over 24 rose 58%. The 45% drop in the under-15 arrest rate compares 1970 juveniles born near the mid-1950s peak in additive exposure to lead paint hazards and gas lead versus 2003 juveniles born after the early-1980s fall in gas lead. The 58% increase in the over-24 arrest rate compares 1970 adults mostly born before the 1950s rise in gas lead (and slum crowding associated with urbanization) versus their 2003 counterparts born before the 1980s decline in gas lead.

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NCHH is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to developing and promoting practical measures to protect children from residential environmental hazards while preserving affordable housing. NCHH develops scientifically valid and practical strategies to make homes safe from hazards, to alert low- income families about housing-related health risks, and to help them protect their children. NCHH also works with governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop standards and programs and guide their implementation through insurers, lenders, federal and state laws and regulations, community organizations, and the courts.

Three things you or your contractors can do to protect your family during home renovations:

1. Keep lead dust away from people.
2. Use the right tools.
3. Work safely and clean up lead dust.

To find a contractor trained to work safely with lead, call 1-800-424-LEAD.

1. Keep lead dust away from people.

• Keep children and pregnant women away from the work area.
• Seal off the work area by covering floors, vents, doors and windows with heavy plastic.
• If possible, remove furniture from the room. Cover any remaining furniture with heavy plastic.

• 2. Use the right tools.

• Use vacuum cleaners and power tools with HEPA filters.
• If you use a power sander or g r i n d e r, be sure it has a HEPA filter as well as a hood to trap dust.
• Never power wash or sand blast painted surfaces.
• Never use tools that create dust, chips, high heat or fumes.
• Never use open flame torches or heat guns at temperatures above 1100°F.
• Never use paint strippers that contain methylene chloride.

• 3. Work safely and clean up lead dust.

• Fix water damage that can make paint peel.
• Wet down the paint before you sand or scrape to control lead dust.
• Use heavy plastic bags to remove dust and other trash.
• After the job, wash floors and other surfaces with soap and water and rinse with fresh water.
• Remember lead dust can be too small to see.
• Consider testing for lead dust after the job is done. Call 1-800-424-LEAD for a list of lead service providers.

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development