ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Early life lead exposure from private well water increases juvenile delinquency risk among US teens.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Human Exposome: Integrating the Environment, Human Health, and Society for the Next 60 years.Environmental science & technology · 2026Review
- Mixture effects of air pollutants on Parkinson's disease in adults ages 40+ in the United States from 2002 to 2016.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2025Article
- Panoramic lead-immune system interactome reveals diversified mechanisms of immunotoxicity upon chronic lead exposure.Cell biology and toxicology · 2025Article
- Examining risk assessment implications of genetic and dose-dependent dynamics of lead exposure in breastfeeding using the collaborative cross mouse population.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2025Article
- Effect of Community Water Service on Lead in Drinking Water in an Environmental Justice Community.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- US drinking water quality: exposure risk profiles for seven legacy and emerging contaminants.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2024Review
- Disparities in Toxic Chemical Exposures and Associated Neurodevelopmental Outcomes: A Scoping Review and Systematic Evidence Map of the Epidemiological Literature.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
- Article
- Naturally occurring metals in unregulated domestic wells in Nevada, USA.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Legacies of inequality, legacy lead exposures, and improving population well-being.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Early life lead exposure from private well water increases juvenile delinquency risk among US teens.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Private Well Water Safety: Practical Counseling Strategies for Primary Care.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFMReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Early life exposure to environmental lead (Pb) has been linked to decreased IQ, behavior problems, lower lifetime earnings, and increased criminal activity. Beginning in the 1970s, limits on Pb in paint, gasoline, food cans, and regulated water utilities sharply curtailed US environmental Pb exposure. Nonetheless, hundreds of thousands of US children remain at risk. This study reports on how unregulated private well water is an underrecognized Pb exposure source that is associated with an increased risk of teenage juvenile delinquency. We build a longitudinal dataset linking blood Pb measurements for 13,580 children under age 6 to their drinking water source, individual- and neighborhood-level demographics, and reported juvenile delinquency records. We estimate how early life Pb exposure from private well water influences reported delinquency. On average, children in homes with unregulated private wells had 11% higher blood Pb than those with community water service. This higher blood Pb was significantly associated with reported delinquency. Compared to children with community water service, those relying on private wells had a 21% (95% CI: 5 to 40%) higher risk of being reported for any delinquency and a 38% (95% CI: 10 to 73%) increased risk of being reported for serious delinquency after age 14. These results suggest that there could be substantial but as-yet-unrecognized social benefits from intervention programs to prevent children's exposure to Pb from private wells, on which 13% of the US population relies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.