Lead In Petrol Is To 'Blame' For The Rise In Violence ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Sionyn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2013, 08:54:02 pm
content: The cause of the great increase in violent crime that started in the 1960s and peaked in the 1990s may have been isolated: lead. This leads directly to the reason for the sharp decline in violent crime since then: lead abatement programs and especially the ban of tetraethyl lead as an anti-knock agent in gasoline starting in 1996. There are three reasons why this makes sense. First, the statistics correlate almost perfectly. Second, it holds true worldwide with no exceptions. Every country studied has shown this same strong correlation between leaded gasoline and violent crime rates. Third, the chemistry and neuroscience of lead gives us good reason to believe the connection. Decades of research has shown that lead poisoning causes significant and probably irreversible damage to the brain. Not only does lead degrade cognitive abilities and lower intelligence, it also degrades a person's ability to make decisions by damaging areas of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, impulse control, attention, verbal reasoning, and mental flexibility. Another thing that stands out: if you overlay a map showing areas with higher incidence of violent crime with one showing lead contamination, there's a strikingly high correlation.maybe that what starts dave rants off too much lead fumeshttp://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2013, 09:04:51 pm
content: Shoot, here there was a small undetected leak in a TE lead tank in the refinery. around a half million litres missing over the years into the ground and from there into the harbour............At least now you only get unleaded and lead replacement petrol. Funny thing is the unleaded can contain up to 0.2% of TE lead, while the leaded used to contain up to 0.4%.

author: ftransform
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 12:31:26 pm
content: huffin petrol in the arvo aye

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 04:39:22 pm
content: How do you explain California then they banned lead in petrol years before any one else and look at the violence there.

author: Short Circuit
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 05:27:42 pm
content: bullets contain lead, so it's a vicious circle

author: Alana
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 05:30:59 pm
content: No wonder i feel like a psychopath. All those years touching leaded solder

author: jerry507
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2013, 05:33:50 pm
content: Thank God we found out it was just one thing causing all that violence

author: andersm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2013, 02:14:36 pm
content: I think it's an interesting correlation, and I hope the publicity will attract further research. Even if it's a false correlation, it'd be interesting to know why.As a curious coincidence, Thomas Midgley Jr., the scientist who invented leaded petrol, was part of the team that invented Freon. He also participated in ahighly unethical stuntin order to mislead the public about the safety of tetraethyllead.

author: ftransform
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2013, 03:31:05 pm
content: Quote from: andersm on January 09, 2013, 02:14:36 pmWow I read that, and I no longer think that Billy Mayes is a bad guy. This guy is like a car salesman from hell.