Show Horcr pollution nffoots the crime rate ON HOT SMOGGY DAYS IN THE PIT OF THE LOS ANGELES BASIN SGT CHARLES MEALEY OF THE CENTRAL AREA POLICE PRECINCT BRACES HIMSELF FOR AN ONSLAUGHT OF CALLS ON THOSE SWELTERING DAYS HE SAYS WHEN YOUR EYES BURN FROM THE POLLUTION AND “YOU CANT SEE THE TOP OF A BUILDING TWO BLOCKS AWAY MORE PEOPLE STAY OUTDOORS ARGUE AND CARRY ON” And some of these citizens he notes will clobber each other “That’s when the police have to step in” the veteran cop declares Most policemen would agree that the hotter it gets the more incidents there are of family vio- - g lence muggings and assault And lest you think that this sounds too much like the “lunar theory” (Remember whenpeople believed that die crime rate was higher when the moon was full? Even the police believed it until scientists debunked the myth) once-popul- ties however When it appears in the stratosphere 12 miles above the earth ozone protects us from the harmful rays of the sun But when ozone forms closer to the earth’s surface — the sunlight helps to make ozone when it hits chemicals from car exhaust and industrial sources — it threatens our health Rotton and his colleagues studied two years worth of police and pollution data in Dayton Ohio They found that on warm dry days — high pollution days —there were more assaults and cases of family violence Rotton concludes that without wind rain or humidity to wash away air poisons bad air moves people to mischief To corroborate his theory that warm pollution-racke- d air causes aggressive behavior Rotton ran addi- - Protection Agency (EPA) “So you have to make sure that behavioral changes are due to a chemical in the airj and not some other factor” Reiter studies how chemicals and pollutants affect our brains nervous systems and behavior His is an emerging field called neurotoxicology “One of the problems of this research" he says “is that we are trying to evaluate an abnormal state of the brain when we still don't know enough about how the brain works normally” But the findings which link high levels of both pollution and crime do fit into the growing knowledge that in the long run many chemicals can cause nerve damage and behavioral changes For example scientists have known for 1 Angry ar there is scientific roof that bad air makes bad things happen Evidence that chemicals in the air we breathe affect our brains is growing Scientists suspect S that die airborne toxins turn some people to violence In Los Angeles for example and other cities hot weathccan worsen the effects of pollution That’s By Bandi Londer PARADE MAGAZINE AUGUST 9 1987 PAGE 7 when some people goaded by bad air come out swinging Researchers like James Rotton of Florida International University in North Miami have linked higher crime rates to air fouled with chemicals The worst pollutant according to Rotton is ozone He estimates that every year ozone provokes hundreds of cases of family violence in big cities with bad air Potentially this could be a huge problem Consider for example that of the 300 largest cities in this country one-thir- d have broken the federal clean-ai- r laws on ozone in the last three years “If we reduce the ozone by 50 percent we can reduce the incidence of violence by a thousand cases” says Rotton Ozone has some beneficial proper- - The scene of the crime is likely to be hot and dirty tional tests using mathematical techniques to rule out factors other than pollution His findings did not waver He said: “If you already have some trouble in your life irritating pollutants can push you over the edge” Rotton is now studying how people levels of ozone react to low sub-toxThat is the kind of pollution — usually more than what is allowed by federal clean-a- ir laws — found in large amounts in cities with a population of more than 100000 people Even the scientists advancing these theories agree that blaming antisocial behavior solely on hot dirty air is risky business “Behavior is complex and can be altered by so many things” says Lawrence Reiter of the Environmental ic years that mercury causes brain damage: The 19th century “mad hatters” stammered twitched and trembled from inhaling mercury vapors in London hat factories Today many factories use masks and protective hoods to shield workers from the worst effects of chemicals In recent years scientists have demonstrated that lead lowers children’s intelligence As a result the EPA has slashed the amount of lead allowed in gasoline In time the agency may ban leaded gas altogether “The problem” says Reitter “is how do you interpret behavioral change — and prove it is based directly on a chemical?" This is the question that researchers like Gary Evans of the University of continued |