Does lead lead to everything bad?

That lead is bad for you is not a new hypothesis, but its long-term effects merit closer scrutiny

A crumbling lead contamination warning sign.
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

I'm skeptical of monocausal explanations for almost anything.

So I was not prepared to be impressed after reading an essay, "America's Criminal Element: Lead", from Mother Jones' Kevin Drum. He posits that a growing mountain of evidence suggests that one factor, and one factor alone, might well account for crime patterns in the United States since the middle of the last century. For incarceration rates. For abortion rates. For lots of bad things. It accounts even for variation of said patterns within neighborhoods, among races and genders and between classes.

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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.