Lead

Not my usual line of interest, but I found this fascinating.  It is a very well written story, by Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, about the relationship between atmospheric lead levels (primarily from leaded gasoline) and violent crime.  Here is a chart from the article:
The correlation is pretty spectacular, and the article deals with all the arguments that it might not be causative.  Well worth your time to read at least part of it, if for no other reason than to remind yourself of what real journalism looks like.

Comments

Poll P. said…
This was fascinating. Not a bit surprising, and makes one think about what other unintended consequences we've gestated.
January 3, 2013 at 8:49 PM
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