They found that, for teens in the U.S., early lead exposure from private well drinking water increased the risk of juvenile delinquency, research they published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to that and the information about household water source, the research team secured a third dataset, this one from the North Carolina Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, looking at blood lead measurements. The researchers found that, compared to children with municipal water, those relying on private wells had a 21% higher risk of being reported for any delinquency and a 38% increased risk of being reported for serious delinquency after age 14.