Lead Poisoning Problem Lingers in Cities

In recent decades, lead poisoning in children has gone down significantly. Some large cities have worked hard to eradicate the causes of the problem. But children in some areas are still being exposed to lead through old lead paint and other sources. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports the concern about continuing high levels of lead in children’s blood demands that those cities also tackle the problem:

Transcript

In recent decades, lead poisoning in children has gone down significantly. Some large
cities have worked hard to eradicate the causes of the problem. But children in some
areas are still being exposed to lead through old lead paint and other sources. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports the concern about continuing high levels of
lead in children’s blood demands that those cities also tackle the problem:


In Cleveland, school superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett has found a test that puts her
students in the top ten nationwide. But this is not something that she wants for her
students.


This test finds that 20% of children in Cleveland have too much lead in their
bloodstreams.


“One out of every five children tested in Cleveland has a lead level that exceeds CDC
guidelines. In some parts of our city, I would characterize it as an epidemic.”


Byrd-Bennett is especially concerned about recent statistics from parts of the city
where there are lots of older houses, but most people don’t have the money to get
rid of lead paint. In some neighborhoods, the lead blood levels exceeded federal
standards in about 60% of children tested. Byrd-Bennett says it’s intolerable.


“In a half a dozen other city neighborhoods, at least one of every four children
had an elevated level. We ought to be furious. We ought to want to…
I’m a product of the sixties… we ought to want to have a revolution about this.”


Byrd-Bennett believes high levels of lead in the blood makes it difficult for affected
children to focus, to follow directions, and ultimately, to stay in school. High lead
exposure has been linked to juvenile delinquency, learning disabilities, and lowered IQ
scores.


Dr. Bruce Lanphear studies environmental health at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He
says these problems are not only associated with high exposure, defined by the federal
government as over ten micrograms of lead per deciliter
of blood…


“But perhaps even more striking is if you look at children below ten micrograms per
deciliter… that is, children whose blood lead levels never attained or exceeded ten
micrograms per deciliter… so by all accounts would have been fine, based upon our
existing action level. And what we found is, our estimated deficit, going from less than
one to less than ten, or about ten, was fifteen points in IQ. Huge effects.”


That means even in cities where the percentage of children considered at risk of high lead
levels is low, there’s still reason to be concerned. And there are a lot of children
affected. For example, in Cleveland, nearly 14,000 young children could have low
levels of lead poisoning.


Still, David Jacobs, Director of Lead Hazard Control at the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development is hopeful…


“If we’re smart about this and we work together, I believe we can in fact make lead paint
hazards in our housing stock virtually disappear. This disease can go the way of polio.
We have the know-how now to eliminate this disease.”


Childhood lead poisoning has declined steadily since the 1970s. That’s when cars
stopped spewing leaded exhaust and lead paint was banned. But 40% of homes
around the nation still contain lead paint from the first half of the 20th century. Rather
than getting to kids after they’ve been poisoned, many cities are focusing on how to
prevent exposures in the first place. Parents, landlords, and public agencies usually
shoulder the costs of repainting walls and refurbishing windows. But Dr. Lanphear of
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital believes paint companies should help pay to fix the
problem, because they are partly responsible for it.


“And so all of the problems that we’re seeing today, because for the most part what we’re
dealing with is lead-based paint, has come about because of this deception. And so if we
need to look toward private industry to help us solve this problem, I would suggest we
know exactly where to begin. That may be difficult in the state of Ohio. We have a lot
of paint companies housed here, don’t we?”


Sherwin Williams and Glidden paint companies are both based in Cleveland. The paint
industry says it’s not their fault if houses are poorly maintained and not regularly
repainted. So far, forty lawsuits against lead paint companies have failed.


In the
meantime, some cities, such as Milwaukee and Chicago, have honed in on finding
funding and solving the problem. Cleveland and many other cities have not.


Matt Carroll, Acting Director of the Cleveland Health Department, says the time has
come…


“A lot of lead activity has been going on in this community for a long time. But as a
community have we said, ‘this is how we’re going to try to create a plan to address it?
This is our goal? This is our thing we’re going to say we’re going to accomplish by a certain date?'”


Cleveland city and county health officials are focusing on how to get rid of the lead
problem. They hope to better educate parents, to improve lead testing of children and
homes, and to clean up homes that are poisoned. Like many large and mid-size cities,
Cleveland has a lot of work ahead.


But at least they’re on the road. Many smaller cities and towns don’t even know if they
have a problem because so few children there are tested for lead poisoning.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Julie Grant.

Taking Bite Out of Canine Confrontations

Humans have been living with dogs for some 12,000 years, using them for hunting, protection, and friendship. Yet as both human and dog populations have grown, so too have the problems between the species. Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Julia King has discovered that with warmer temperatures, the furless and the furry often find themselves nose to snout in public places:

Transcript

Humans have been living with dogs for some 12,000 years, using them for hunting, protection,
and friendship. Yet as both human and dog populations have grown, so too have the problems
between the species. Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator, Julia King, has discovered
that with warmer temperatures, the furless and the furry often find themselves nose to snout in
public places:


Fifty-three million dogs live in the United States – more per capita than in any other country in
the world. One out of every three households here includes a canine companion.


Despite the fact that they drink out of toilets and roll in a wide range of things unspeakable, we let
them sit on our sofas, give us big slobbery kisses and ride in the front seats of our cars.


We like to think of our dogs as our better halves. And sometimes they are, with their wagging
bodies and their penchant for forgiveness. And because they forgive us our trespasses, we’re
inclined to do the same for them.


“Oh, don’t you worry,” said a gray-haired lady in the park recently. “My Rover wouldn’t hurt a
flea!” Meanwhile, her dog snarled at my left thigh. Eventually Rover grew bored of tormenting
me and I jogged (ever-so-gingerly) into the sunset unharmed.


But each year some four and a half million other Americans aren’t so lucky; that’s how many dog
bites are estimated annually in the U.S, according to canine aggression experts. Nearly 335,000
victims are admitted to emergency rooms each year. The insurance industry estimates more than
a billion dollars in dog-related liability claims annually.


Despite all the chew toys and rawhides we shower on them, dogs bite us. Not because they’re
bad, but because they’re dogs. They don’t know any of the good swear words. They can’t pound
their fists on the kitchen table, or throw plates when they’re really mad; instead, they have sharp
teeth.


We should love our dogs. But loving them doesn’t mean expecting them to be human; it means
acknowledging that they’re not.


As the weather warms up so, too, does the likelihood that humans and dogs will “mix it up” out
on sunny sidewalks and in public parks. That means those of us with dogs have some added
responsibilities.


Yes, yes… we know… Fido is a perfect dear, wouldn’t harm an ant. Just the same, please do us
all a favor and keep him on a leash.


(Bark!) Hey, ( Bark! Bark! Bark!) get back here!


Host tag: Julia King lives with a man, a kid, and a dog in Goshen, Indiana. She comes to us by
way of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

Government to Be Sued Over West Nile Virus?

Dozens of Canadians afflicted with the West Nile virus will be meeting this month to decide whether or not to launch a class action lawsuit against the Ontario government. A Toronto lawyer says he has as many as 100 clients who want to sue the Ontario government for not presenting all the facts about the risk of the disease. They alleged that public health officials didn’t do enough to protect them from the disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:

Transcript

Dozens of Canadians afflicted with the West Nile virus will be meeting this month to decide
whether or not to launch a class action lawsuit against the Ontario government. A Toronto
lawyer says he has as many as one hundred clients who want to sue the Ontario government for
not presenting all the facts about the risk of the disease. They alleged that public health officials
didn’t do enough to protect them from the disease. Dan Karpenchuk reports from Toronto:


Official Ontario government statistics show there were 374 West Nile cases in the province last
year. But health experts say the number was closer to one thousand. And many of those experts
say the Ontario government played down the threat, keeping critical information out of the public
domain.


Dr. Colin D’Cunha is Ontario’s medical officer of health. D’Cunha has said that the growing
alarm has been driven by hype rather than by facts:


“And I have to remind people that the serious signs and symptoms are seen in less than one per
cent of people who come down with West Nile Virus infection. And to put it in context,
remember that the flu kills about nineteen hundred Canadians each year.”


The lawyer who may bring the suit, says most people were led to believe that the virus would
affect only the sick and the elderly, which has not been the case.


National health officials are now warning that the virus will hit earlier and harder than last year,
and spread across the entire country.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Karpenchuk.

PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM TAINTED FISH (Part II)

The people most at risk from contaminants in fish often don’t know it. Different chemicals found in fish from many inland lakes, including the Great Lakes, can be harmful to human development. State governments issue fish consumption advisories that recommend limiting eating such fish. In the second of a two-part series on contaminants in fish… the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that not everyone learns of the advisories:

Transcript

The people most at risk from contaminants in fish often don’t know it.
Different chemicals found in fish from many inland lakes, including the
Great Lakes, can be harmful to human development. State governments
issue fish consumption advisories that recommend limiting
eating such fish. In the second of a two part series on contaminants in
fish… the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that not
everyone learns of the advisories:


Horace Phillips likes to fish. He can often be found casting a line into a
lagoon off of Lake Michigan on Chicago’s south side. He says he and a lot of
his fishing buddies know about the fish consumption advisories, but he doesn’t
think he eats enough to matter…


“Sure, it’s always good to know, but, as I say, I’m not consuming that much fish.”


That’s because Phillips gives away much of the fish he catches. Like a lot of
anglers, he enjoys the sport, and shares what he catches with friends and
relatives. He doesn’t remember getting a fishing guide when he got his fishing
license, but the retailer was supposed to give him one. It not only outlines limits
on the amount of fish an angler can take, but also includes recommendations
on how much fish he should eat in a given month.


But Phillips says he thinks he learned about fish contaminants from the
newspaper. He never really thought about passing on the warning to people
with whom he shares his fish.


“I suppose the same literature that’s available to me is also available to them.”


But often the people who prepare the fish or who eat the fish don’t have a
clue that there’s anything wrong with the fish.


We should note here that fish is nutritious. It’s a good low-fat, lower calorie
source of protein. Eating fish instead of higher-fat and cholesterol laden foods
is believed to help lower the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes and several forms of cancer. Pretty good food, fish.


But some fish contain PCBs – polychlorinated biphenyls – believed to cause
cancer. Chlordane, a pesticide, has been found in fish. And methyl mercury is
found in some fish. These chemicals can cause serious health problems,
especially for children and fetuses. They can disrupt the systems that
coordinate the nervous system, the brain, and the reproductive system.


Studies have shown women store some of these chemicals in their
fat tissue until they become pregnant. Then, those chemicals are passed
to the child they’re carrying. Studies have indicated that of mothers
who ate three or more fish meals a month, those with the highest exposure
gave birth to children with health problems.


They had significant delays in neuromuscular and neurological development.
Those children continued to show short-term memory problems at age four… and
significant reduction in IQ and academic skills at age seven.


Barbara Knuth is a professor of Natural Resource Policy and Management at
Cornell University. She says given the health concerns with eating too much contaminated fish, the information about restrictions needs to be more widely distributed.


“Where we need to focus effort now is not so much on the angler, but we need to be focusing
on the people with whom they’re sharing those fish, the women, their wives, mothers
of childbearing age, women of childbearing age, children, because that’s where we now know,
scientists now know – who are studying this – where the real health effects are.”


But where to start? After all, the fish might come from a friend… it might be at the deli… it could be on the plate at a local restaurant. There are no rules requiring a notice that fish is from a lake, or the ocean, or farm-raised. So, how do you get the word out?


One federal agency is working to get the information to those at highest risk by going through their doctor. Steve Blackwell is with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.


“We’ve taken on trying to reach health care providers that are serving the target
population, the most at-risk population of women, children, pregnant women and reach those
groups such as OBGYNs, family physicians, pediatricians with this information to help raise
awareness within that group that serves the at-risk population to try and make sure that they’re receiving the message and they’re not telling their patients something different from what the patients may be hearing outside that realm.”


Whether the doctors are actually passing on the concerns about contaminated fish is a
whole other question. But assuming they are, there’s still another concern. Many of the women who are most at risk might not see a doctor until the day the baby is due. Poor women… the very same women who might rely on fishing for a good part of their diet… might not be told
about the risks.


And so their children are born into poverty… and the added burden of chemicals that can hurt their development. Blackwell says reaching those women is something the federal government cannot do alone.


“You want to reach those people through local leaders, through churches, through
institutions that aren’t medical.”


And that’s best done, Blackwell says, by local government, not the federal
government. But state budgets are strapped. And, in some cases, states are
reluctant to raise awareness of an issue that they really can’t fix. A source within
a state agency told us that an higher-ranking official indicated to
him that he didn’t want to assign a full-time person to work on fish contamination
awareness alone because it would send the wrong political message. Another state stopped publishing fish consumption advisories as a budget cutting move… that is… until local reporters exposed that particular budget cut.


In short, warning pregnant women and women of childbearing age about the dangers of
eating too much contaminated fish and how that could damage their children’s
intellectual and physical development has not gotten enough attention yet to become a
political priority.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Kids Using More Prescription Drugs

Environmentalists and health officials often worry about the widespread use of antibiotics in cattle. But a recent report points to another concern: the rising use of such drugs in children. Researchers found a jump in the number of children taking prescription drugs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki reports:

Transcript

Environmentalists and health officials often worry about the widespread use of antibiotics in
cattle. But a recent report points to another concern: the rising use of such drugs in children.
Researchers found a jump in the number of children taking prescription drugs. The Great Lake
Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki reports:


The survey was conducted by MEDCO, a pharmacy benefit management firm, and a division of
drug maker Merck. It found that prescription drug-use in children under 19 increased 85% over
the last five years. Although children still take fewer drugs than adults, MEDCO researchers say
it was the first time usage increased faster for kids than all other age groups.


The top drug use was antibiotics, with more than a third of the surveyed patients receiving such a
prescription each year. Health officials have expressed concern that the overuse of such drugs
could lead to drug-resistant bacteria.


A MEDCO researcher said the good news is that antibiotic use has at least flattened out. The
increased incidence of allergies, though, has not and the use of prescription allergy medicine
doubled from about 6% in 1997 to nearly 12% last year. Health officials suspect nearly twice as
many children today have allergies than 25 years ago.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Urycki.

Doctors Urge Kyoto Sign-On

Some physicians are concerned about the United States not attending the final talks on the Kyoto Protocol on global warming held in early November. The physicians say global warming is already a problem and is adding to a number of public health threats. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Some physicians are concerned about the United States not attending the final talks on the Kyoto Protocol on global warming held in early November. The physicians say global warming is already a problem and is adding to a number of public health threats. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.


Some physicians believe the increase in infectious disease outbreaks such as West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and Hantavirus are connected to global warming. They say the warming already seen contributes to the spread of the viruses. The warming also could be causing more volatile weather –such as sudden storms in some parts of the Great Lakes region. That can cause flooding of sewer systems that lead to illnesses. Bob Musil is the Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He says the group is encouraging politicians to upgrade sewer systems to cope with the changes.


“There are sudden storm surges, sudden precipitation leads to flooding in combined sewage and storm drains. In the state of Michigan in our report we discussed this problem. And we actually, as physicians, go and talk to the responsible officials.”


But the physician’s group says adapting to the changes only treats the symptoms. Musil says the long-term problem can only be dealt with by reducing air pollutants that cause global warming, something the group says the U-S is refusing to do right now. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Lester Graham.

Controversy Over Re-Using Medical Devices

Health care providers are struggling with ways to reduce the cost
of medical care. But one money-saving tactic is raising concerns about
patient safety. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson
reports:

Herbal Remedies Moving Mainstream

There are thousands of herbal products on the market today.
They generate over 4 billion dollars in sales a year. And many doctors
are taking more notice. Some physicians see a need for more credible
research on herbs and minerals. And they want other doctors to
communicate more with patients that are considering using these
products. Now one doctor has designed some guidelines on herbal
treatments. He hopes this will initiate more discussion and research
about these dietary supplements. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Todd Witter has more.