Chicago - Experts Press Feds To Eradicate Lead Poisoning By 2021
In just five years, the U.S. could end the problem of lead poisoning, a group of health experts argues ― if federal overseers are given more ammunition to attack the problem despite an administration that wants to gut regulations.
A coalition of scientists, doctors and children’s health advocates published an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics on Monday that calls on the government to stamp out lead poisoning in American children by 2021 ― or ensure no child has a blood lead level greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter ― and eliminate lead exposure altogether by 2030.
Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks) advocates for reducing exposure levels to chemicals and pollutants that contribute to neurodevelopmental problems, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
It won’t be easy under an administration that wants to slash environmental and health regulations.
Lead contamination of the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, which caused a rise in the number of the city’s children who had lead poisoning, drew public attention to the problem in 2014. But lead exposure affects communities across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces lead restrictions, estimates 6.5 million to 10 million homes are connected to lead service lines.
Nearly 3,000 areas in the U.S. have higher lead poisoning rates than Flint, according to a Reuters investigation. Exposure to peeling paint in older homes is the biggest source of lead poisoning, disproportionately affecting low-income families.
Forty years ago, 88 percent of young children in the U.S. had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Today, just 2.5 percent of kids ages 1 to 5 have lead levels above the now-lower threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012. (The threshold had been 10 micrograms.) But lead is a neurotoxin that isn’t safe in any quantity. It’s particularly toxic for young children, increasing their risk of brain and nervous system damage.
“Lead is one of those things that people tend to get lulled into a sense that ‘we’ve already dealt with the issue, we took it out of gasoline and regulated the amount in paint,’” said David Bellinger, lead author of Monday’s article and an environmental health professor at Harvard University.
“It took something like Flint for people to realize that there’s just enormous reservoirs of lead out there in the environment … and that all it takes is some human error or some engineering failure and the problem resurfaces,” Bellinger said.
NYSCOF
One easy way to reduce lead exposure is to stop adding it to public water supplies in the first place. Unnecessary, ineffective and harmful fluoride chemicals added in a failed effort to reduce tooth decay in tap water drinkers. The chemical actually is called hydrofluosilicic acid which is a lead- and arsenic-laced waste product of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing never purfied before injecting into the water supplies. Studies show that children living in areas using hydrofluosilicic acid have higher blood lead levels than those living in non-fluoridated areas
A coalition of scientists, doctors and children’s health advocates published an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics on Monday that calls on the government to stamp out lead poisoning in American children by 2021 ― or ensure no child has a blood lead level greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter ― and eliminate lead exposure altogether by 2030.
Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neurodevelopmental Risks) advocates for reducing exposure levels to chemicals and pollutants that contribute to neurodevelopmental problems, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
It won’t be easy under an administration that wants to slash environmental and health regulations.
Lead contamination of the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, which caused a rise in the number of the city’s children who had lead poisoning, drew public attention to the problem in 2014. But lead exposure affects communities across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces lead restrictions, estimates 6.5 million to 10 million homes are connected to lead service lines.
Nearly 3,000 areas in the U.S. have higher lead poisoning rates than Flint, according to a Reuters investigation. Exposure to peeling paint in older homes is the biggest source of lead poisoning, disproportionately affecting low-income families.
Forty years ago, 88 percent of young children in the U.S. had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Today, just 2.5 percent of kids ages 1 to 5 have lead levels above the now-lower threshold set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012. (The threshold had been 10 micrograms.) But lead is a neurotoxin that isn’t safe in any quantity. It’s particularly toxic for young children, increasing their risk of brain and nervous system damage.
“Lead is one of those things that people tend to get lulled into a sense that ‘we’ve already dealt with the issue, we took it out of gasoline and regulated the amount in paint,’” said David Bellinger, lead author of Monday’s article and an environmental health professor at Harvard University.
“It took something like Flint for people to realize that there’s just enormous reservoirs of lead out there in the environment … and that all it takes is some human error or some engineering failure and the problem resurfaces,” Bellinger said.
NYSCOF
One easy way to reduce lead exposure is to stop adding it to public water supplies in the first place. Unnecessary, ineffective and harmful fluoride chemicals added in a failed effort to reduce tooth decay in tap water drinkers. The chemical actually is called hydrofluosilicic acid which is a lead- and arsenic-laced waste product of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing never purfied before injecting into the water supplies. Studies show that children living in areas using hydrofluosilicic acid have higher blood lead levels than those living in non-fluoridated areas
Other studies show that fluoride enhances children's uptake of fluoride.
Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth. Consuming a fluoride free diet does not reduce tooth decay. There's no scientifically sound reason to add fluoride chemicals into our children via the water supply and foods made with that water. Ironcially, fluoride is more toxic than lead.
Politics, not science, keeps fluoridation afloat. Demand fluoridation stop and children's lead levels will also go down and tooth decay rates will not go up because fluoridation has been proven to be a failed concept.
posted by Bill at
9:27 AM
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