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closeLead and Violence
Posted by plosmedicine on 31 Mar 2009 at 00:27 GMT
Author: John Wright
Position: Associate Professor
Institution: University of Cincinnati
E-mail: john.wright@fuse.net
Submitted Date: June 30, 2008
Published Date: July 7, 2008
This comment was originally posted as a “Reader Response” on the publication date indicated above. All Reader Responses are now available as comments.
A close read of our paper would reveal that we controlled for a range of competing variables, including maternal drug-use, social class, and educational levels. None accounted for the lead-->crime relationship. We are well aware of the geographic distribution of lead and its correlation with race.
Blacks are significantly more likely to be exposed to pb than any other demographic group. Even so, this in no way alters the toxicokentics of pb ingestion, its association with nervous system functioning, or its association with (mis)behavior.
We again point to the prospective nature of the methodology, the resilience of the association, and the strength of the coefficients.