What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (One World Essentials)

by Mona Hanna-Attisha

we know lead’s potential to twist behavior, attack every system in the body, erode cognition, and possibly even warp one’s DNA. Lead exposure has been linked to almost every kind of developmental and behavioral problem, including school dropout rates and criminality. A recent study looked at six U.S. cities that could provide good crime data and blood-lead-level data going back to the 1950s. Going neighborhood by neighborhood in New Orleans, it found that a rise in blood-lead levels matched a rise in incidence of violent crime. Econometrics studies looking at worldwide crime trends also show an astonishing correlation between a “lead curve” and a “crime curve.” Where consumption of leaded gasoline declines, so does violent crime. The connection between lead and crime is still speculative, but the correlations are there. And what have we learned about how much lead the body can safely handle? Medical science has now concluded there is no safe level of lead in the human body.