99
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
99 points (100.0% liked)
things that are mildlyinteresting
689 readers
1 users here now
post things that are mildly interesting
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I'm not an expert on pollution, but leaded fuel is extremely nasty stuff. There's a pretty substantial correlation between a big drop in violent crime and the ban on leaded fuel.
Here is a Forbes article... Mostly because it was the first to come up.
That is one of the most brutal claims of correlation I've ever seen, those two graphs are offset by 23 years.
Edit: not disputing leaded gas is bad for you, it for sure is.
The theory is that lead is extremely bad for developing minds. Hence the roughly 20 year offset. Kids exposed to it grew up to be a little nastier. Fully formed minds aren't as susceptible.
Again, I'm not an expert, but I'd be shocked if breathing in lead wasn't really really bad.
Lead is really bad for you.
But you've now made the leap from correlation to causation on what was already an incredibly shaky premise.
They are distinct concepts. We can agree that lead is bad for you without trying to bring murder rates into it.