Drape a red cape around the Clean Air Act and stamp a
big 'S' on its chest - the environmental policy of the
1970s may have done more to reduce violent crime than
any other single crime fighter, according to new
research by an Amherst College economics professor.
Jessica Wolpaw Reyes has found a link between the
Clean Air Act policy which, among other things, banned
the addition of lead to America's gasoline, and a
drastic drop in violent crime.
"The big implication of this is the idea that
environmental policy can serve as social policy," Reyes
said. "We need to think about the large scale effect of
environmental policies."
Reyes' journey to "out" lead as a criminal instigator
began in the late 1990s, a time when criminologists and
social scientists were pondering a surprising drop in
violent crime.
According to FBI crime statistics, violent crime fell
by 35 percent between 1993 and 2003, Reyes said. This
drop followed a sharp increase in brutal behavior.
"With the increase in crime, everyone was predicting
social collapse under the increasing burden of
increasing crime," Reyes said. "When it (crime) started
going down, it was just inconceivable. People had no
idea what to make of it."
For answers, Reyes decided to look at lead, a potent
neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bone
over time, that had been banned from gasoline in the
1970s. It was curious to Reyes that this ban coincided
with the reduction in crime just as children of the late
70s and early 80s were reaching adulthood.
In 1970, the average child had 18 micrograms of lead
per deciliter of blood.
Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
is concerned about any child with 10 or more micrograms
of lead per deciliter of blood. In the 1990s the average
child had about 3 micrograms, Reyes said.
Lead poisoning can affect nearly every system in the
body without providing obvious symptoms, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lead
poisoning or long-term exposure can cause learning
disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high
levels, seizures, coma and even death.
Before the Clean Air Act of the early 1970s, gasoline
used in cars carried lead. Car fumes were the leading
source of lead in the air, Reyes said.
"You had an entire population exposed, breathing it
in," Reyes said.
The lead effect was particularly chilling on
children, who are more susceptible to the harm of lead
exposure because they are still developing
neurologically.
Reyes compared the rise and fall of lead-exposure
with violent crime rates, but with a 20-year lag. The
delay was used to account for children exposed to the
highest levels of lead in 1973 to reach their most
violence-prone years in the early 1990s.
Reyes made her state-by-state comparisons using a
model that considered 12 factors including local
economy, poverty rates, higher education and number of
prisons.
"When you reduce lead exposure by 10 percent in
childhood then 20 years later those adults can expect
their violent crime rate to be 7 to 8 percent lower,"
Reyes said.
"That scales up to a pretty big effect because it's
such a big reduction in lead exposure."
In addition to reducing crime, Reyes also asserts
that the decrease in lead exposure may have had an
affect on the overall intelligence of the nation. On
average, children who took IQ tests in the 1990s scored
seven to 10 points better than children tested in the
1970s.
"The Clean Air Act is just an amazing public health
policy success," Reyes said.
Reyes acknowledges there are some nay-sayers to her
theory, but she contends time and more research will
bolster her find.
"People will ask, How can this be? We're not all
committing violent crimes?'" Reyes said.
"But maybe the effects are not always as obvious as
that. Maybe I'm a little more compulsive than I would
have been if I had not been exposed to lead."
******
A call for help from your head
gear
Brycen L. Spencer calls his invention
the "OnStar of helmets," a protective hat that could
call for emergency assistance in the case of an
accident.
Spencer, a University of Massachusetts undergraduate
student, is one of a handful of students who recently
won cash to develop unique inventions through the
business-sponsored UMass Technology Innovation
Challenge.
Using the $1,250 Spencer won, he will develop his
Wireless Impact Guardian (WIG) into a prototype over the
winter break. The WIG is a helmet that can call for help
using a cellular communication network.
The protective head-gear would be equipped with
acceleration and impact meters, an alarm, voice
communication capabilities and a GPS navigator. Upon
impact, the helmet would sound an alarm to alert the
wearer that the head gear is preparing to call for help,
Spencer said. The wearer can cancel the call if
necessary. If the call goes through an emergency service
will be notified of an accident and given location
coordinates via the GPS system. Spencer sees his helmet
aiding the 57 million bicyclists and 2.5 million ATV
riders in the nation as well as motorcyclists, skiers
and equestrians, among other sportsmen.
"I just think that this could really help people,"
Spencer said.
The Technology Innovation Challenge is run by the
College of Engineering, the Isenberg School of
Management and the College of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics. Prize money is sponsored by Wolf-Greenfield
and Saint-Gobain High-Performance Materials and other
businesses.
Competitive teams of students and alumni work with
faculty and external advisors to conceive a product and
create a business plan for its commercialization. In
May, product prototypes are judged and more prize money
is awarded.
Kristin Palpini can be reached at
kpalpini@gazettenet.com
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