Test all criminals for lead and use chelation therapy to cure
them

Lead 'turning children to crime'  
By Michelle Roberts
BBC News health reporter, Washington DC  


Exposure to lead at low doses can cause aggression, it is claimed
Lead pollution may be turning children into criminals, US experts
fear.
Exposure even at low doses can cause aggression and behavioural
problems in children, the scientist who first linked lead to lower IQ
believes.

Dr Herbert Needleman, of Pittsburg University, found youths arrested
for delinquency had higher levels of lead in their bones than others.

Other psychosocial factors are likely to be important, but cutting
lead could cut crime, he told a US conference.

Routinely checking lead levels in every child when they are aged one
and two would also help, he told the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.

 It affects the prefrontal lobes of the brain which are important in
the regulation of behaviour

Dr Herbert Needleman

"It's not expensive and you could pick up the ones who might develop
problems early on before they appear," he said.

'Extra support'

Those children found to have high lead levels could be given extra
support at school, for example, as well as removing them from the
source of the exposure, he said.

Lead is known to be toxic to the brain and governments around the
world have taken steps to reduce environmental lead with measures such
as unleaded petrol and by removing lead from paint.

But Dr Needleman claims growing evidence suggests even very low-level
exposure is still doing harm.

"Lead is a poison," Dr Needleman said.

"It affects the prefrontal lobes of the brain, which are important in
the regulation of behaviour.   People are looking for personal
responsibility

Larry Silverman
Environmental attorney

"We know that criminals have disturbances in the prefrontal lobes too,
so the chain of evidence is pretty strong."

His research looking at lead levels and delinquency, published in the
journal Neurotoxicology and Terotology in 2003, found teenagers
arrested for crimes had readings four times higher than teenagers who
did not have a criminal record.

However Larry Silverman, an environmental attorney in the US, told the
conference: "Even if you say it's down to lead...you are not doing
them a favour.

"People are looking for personal responsibility."