Crumbling Infrastructure and Learning Impairment: A Call for Responsibility

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

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Citation: Levin ED. 2016. Crumbling infrastructure and learning impairment: a call for responsibility. Environ Health Perspect 124:A79; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP69
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The author declares he has no actual or potential competing financial interest.
Final Publication: 1 May 2016

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We have known for many decades that lead exposure in children causes long-lasting cognitive dysfunction (Byers and Lord 1943; McKhann 1932). A great number of basic and human health studies have shown in great detail the neural mechanisms and behavioral consequences of developmental lead intoxication and how early-life lead exposure can lead to lifelong cognitive and emotional impairment. We have learned that even quite low levels of lead exposure can cause persistent cognitive impairment (Lanphear et al. 2005).
The removal of lead from gasoline and paint was one of the great successes of the environmental health movement (Needleman 1998), and lead levels in our children have declined steadily over recent decades (Jones et al. 2009). However, that improvement has stopped in recent years (NCEH 2016) and in some places reversed, like in Flint, Michigan, where a deteriorating public water system has resulted in elevated lead levels in people’s drinking water (Hanna-Attisha et al. 2016). Deferred maintenance and deteriorating infrastructure do not just resul...

Source: EHP Research - May 2, 2016 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Web Admin Tags: Editorial Featured May 2016 Source Type: research