Trump Policies Will Create More Crime Via Lead Poisoning

We all know that Trump is going to be a disaster for the environment and there is virtually nothing we can do besides relentless resistance to stop him right now. But you really have to wonder what these people think or if they think at all. People have known about the dangers of lead since 2000 BC. Lead-based additives in wine were first banned in Germany in the late 1600s, though not specifically for health reasons. Lead paint was banned in Australia in 1914 because of the health impacts on children.

None of this had much impact in the US, where lead paint wasn’t banned by law until 1970. In addition, we did our part to make sure we poisoned ourselves and the rest of the world by pushing a lead additive to gasoline, essentially spewing the toxic material into the atmosphere for decades. That wasn’t phased out in the US until 1990 and other countries, especially in the Mideast, have only just stopped the practice.

The connection between lead and adult violence and criminality is overwhelming and compelling. Just read all the stuff that Kevin Drum has written on the subject. The drop in serious crime this century is highly correlated to the first wave of children who grew up without lead being spewed into the atmosphere. This 15 to 20 year delayed correlation in the drop of violent crime has occurred in many countries that banned leaded gasoline at different times.

With that knowledge, you can only guess what one of new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s first actions was. He signed a rule that would allow the use of lead bullets for hunting in US parks and reserves. This, of course, was something on the NRA’s wish list under the guise that lead bullets are cheaper. The reality is there are plenty of unleaded bullets for the same price. It is just part of the NRA’s fanaticism that there should be no regulations on anything to do with firearms. To show the extremism of the NRA thinking, an NRA spokesman described the rule prohibiting lead bullets as an “arbitrary attack on our hunting heritage”.

While lead bullets in national parks will not have any effect on the crime rate, studies show that the use of leaded bullets kill around 20 million birds and other animals due to lead poisoning each year. 100,000 tons of lead are added to the environment each year through the use of lead by sportsmen, through leaded bullets, lead weights for fishing, and other means. The California condor remains an the endangered species list primarily because of lead poisoning. A study in North Dakota showed that nearly 60% of the meat that deer hunters consume had some lead content.

Zinke’s order is bad enough but now Reuters is reporting that, as part of Trump’s slashing of the EPA, the funding for lead cleanup will be cut by about 30%. States will be left to pick up the difference, which, of course, many of them will not. As Kevin Drum points out, we continue to deal with the fallout of the incarceration state that we created in response to what was essentially a health epidemic driven by lead poisoning. Rather than rolling back those antiquated rules and laws, the Trump administration intends to roll back one of the programs responsible for massive crime reduction. It’s insanity.

Trump’s dystopian vision of America is dark and dangerous. He constantly repeats the lie that murders are at a 45 year high when the reality is that they are slightly above historic lows. He depicts inner cities as wastelands of crime and drugs. None of that is true. The cruel part is that his policies may actually create the dystopian world he currently thinks exists.