Post hoc ergo Propter Hoc

This morning while I was feeding Madeline breakfast I decided to catch up on some news. Since the 11 o clock news is only filled with children dying and people being murdered and horrible earthquakes, I've boycotted it for a while. Instead I make my husband watch America's Funniest Home Videos with me so that at least we go to bed laughing, not thinking about horrible the world is.

Anywho, my husband has a penchant for CNN (ick) or shall I say Robin on their morning show. (ha ha) It was on so I just left it on. She had a story about how the more lead that children have in their systems the more violent they were. She went on to site how some new study showed that the more lead in your system the more violent you tended to be. So, as I brunched with Madeline on some bananas and oatmeal, I wondered how that could possibly be true. What on earth could be in the led to make you violent?

Then, I remembered this little book I read recently called Freakonomics. The author states that so many times the media will get all HYPED up over something like this when they aren't looking at the entire picture. So I started thinking..... ok - led. YES there's been a HUGE media freak-out about toys filled with led from China. And I agree it's shameful! But, there's never been a documented case of lead poisoning in a child that came from toys. Most of the cases of lead poisoning came from - you guessed it - old paint. Lead dust to be exact. So houses built in pre-78 will most likely contain paint with lead in it.

As I considered this I thought about the fact that many of my friends (born in the early 80s) lived in new construction. However I realized that many children who grew up in older homes or apartment complexes would have been exposed to lead dust even though I may not have been. Unfortunately, the people who would be forced to live in extremely old, sometimes decaying homes would be the underprivileged. They have enough to overcome as it is without worrying about lead paint inhalation. It is many times those complexes- those "areas" of town that, as soon as they get run down, turn into havens for criminals. And it often repeats itself. Also, there are often muti-generational households in those areas so even children the age of mine could be dealing with true lead danger.

I just thought it was a little ridiculous for CNN to not look at such an obvious link. Not one person thought....."Hmm are there any OTHER possible links between lead paint and violence? Any other socioeconomic or cultural factors?" Nope - might as well just scare every person out there that if they've so much as held a contaminated toy from China their children will be destined for Juvy.

Ironically, my husband send me this article a few hours ago. I don't mean to go all Libertarian on you but - we parents have ENOUGH real things to worry about. I'm so tired of wasting time worrying about stuff that really doesn't matter.