Childhood lead exposure impairs cognition and raises aggression and dropout

Evidence

Other dangerous toxins include high quantities of lead, a highly toxic metal, found in housing, soil, and water sources in poor communities. Despite lead’s toxic characteristics, it was used for centuries in paint, gasoline, batteries, ceramics, and many other products, creating major public health problems. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) approximately 250,000 children between the ages of one and five years have over the CDC-recommended safe level of 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood (www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead). Medical research demonstrates that exposure to lead has serious neurological and probable behavioral effects on children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (2005), the most definitive effects of the toxicity of lead poisoning are cognitive impairments; however there is convincing evidence that other aspects of brain or nerve function, especially behavior, may also be affected. The same organization reports that students with elevated levels of lead are not only less attentive and hyperactive, but also show low rates of graduation from high school, evidence of reading disabilities, and increased aggression (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005). — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1239

Categorization

• SEED: The neuroscience link between lead exposure in poor communities and lower graduation is fodder for an eco-justice essay: schools can’t fix ‘deficit’ learning outcomes while kids breathe lead — reframes the deficit-model critique from ch21 with a hard physiological cause.
• XREF: Directly extends ch21 deficit-model critique: elevated lead is a physiological cause of the very learning ‘deficits’ blamed on poor families. — connects to: A federal study found most Chester children carry unsafe blood lead levels. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 208; Changes in childhood lead exposure are responsible for a 56% drop in violent crime in the 1990s, via effects on impulsivity, aggression, and IQ. — NBER Working Paper Series (Reyes, lead exposure and crime); Lead accumulates in the body and damages the brain, kidneys, and fertility (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Lead accumulates in the body and damages the brain, kidneys, and fertility #expands (0.90)
• Lead poisoning costs the US billions of dollars and millions of IQ points yearly #expands (0.85) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 37
• Children absorb lead more readily and face higher exposure risk than adults #expands (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1773