  The recent measurement of atomic parity violation in cesium atoms shows a
$2.3\sigma$ deviation from the standard model prediction. We show that such an
effect can be explained by four-fermion contact interactions with specific
chiralities or by scalar leptoquarks which couple to the left-handed quarks.
For a coupling of electromagnetic strength, the leptoquark mass is inferred to
be 1.1 to 1.3 TeV. We also show that these solutions are consistent with all
other low-energy and high-energy neutral-current data.
