NPR – Jasmine Garsd
“Every child’s ability to succeed in school is influenced by lots of external factors: teacher quality, parenting, poverty, geography — to name a few. But far less attention has been paid to the power of a child’s bedroom walls. Or, rather, the paint that’s on them and the lead that may be in that paint. A new study published in the Harvard Educational Review suggests that efforts to reduce kids’ lead exposure have led to tangible academic gains in Massachusetts. Researcher Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, an associate professor of economics at Amherst University, has been studying the effects of lead exposure since the 1990s. The metal piqued her interest as a grad student at Harvard, when she was pregnant with her first child and living in older, lead-rich housing. “Lead is a very useful metal, which is kind of how we got in this situation” Reyes says. “Throughout history people keep using lead despite the fact that it has these neurotoxic effects.” Those effects, in kids, can lead to reduced IQ and a whole host of behavioral problems.”(more)