environmental causes of violence - princeton election.pdfVIP

Physiology Behavior 99 (2010) 260–268 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Physiology Behavior journal homepage: www. elsevi /locate/phb Environmental causes of violence David O. Carpenter a,⁎, Rick Nevin a,b a Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY 12144, United States b National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, MD 21044, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Violent and anti-social behavior is usually attributed to social factors, including poverty, poor education, and Received 8 July 2009 family instability. There is also evidence that many forms of violent behavior are more frequent in individuals Received in revised form 18 August 2009 of lower IQ. The role of exposure to environmental contaminants has received little attention as a factor Accepted 1 September 2009 predisposing to violent behavior. However a number of environmental exposures are documented to result in a common pattern of neurobehavioral effects, including lowered IQ, shortened attention span, and Keywords: Lead increased frequency of antisocial behavior. This pattern is best described for children exposed to lead early in PCBs life, but a similar pattern is seen upon exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and methyl mercury. Although Methyl mercury not as extensively studied, simi