Children Exposed to Lead Three Times More Likely to Have Behavioral Problems

A new study shows that children who are exposed to lead are nearly three times more likely to be suspended from school by the 4^th grand than those who were not exposed, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Students who are suspended from school are at greater risk of dropping out, twice as likely to use tobacco, and more likely to engage in violent behavior later in life," said first author Michael Amato, a doctoral candidate in psychology and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison, via a press release. "Our study found that children exposed to lead were more than twice as likely to be suspended in the 4th grade, which means that lead may be more responsible for school discipline problems than many people realize."

Background information from the study shows that African-American students are three times more likely to be suspended than white students. This discipline gay was found to cause a 23 percent disparity according to the study in rates of lead exposure.

"We knew that lead exposure decreases children's abilities to control their attention and behavior, but we were still surprised that exposed children were so much more likely to be suspended," said Sheryl Magzamen, a public health researcher who also worked on the UW-Madison study. Magzamen is now an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, via the release.

Researchers cross-referenced medical data from approximately 4,000 children who were exposed to lead with 4^th grade disciplinary records in the Milwaukee school district. Similar findings mentioned previously showed that children more exposed to lead were also more likely to be suspended by the fourth grade.

Previous experiments show that lead exposure can cause a decreased attention span and behavioral problems in animals and people alike.  

"Children exposed to lead don't get a fair start and it affects them for their whole lives," said study coauthor Colleen Moore, a UW-Madison psychology professor emerita affiliated with the Nelson Institute, via the release.

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More information regarding the study will be available via the September 2013 issue of Environmental Research.