1 in 38 kids have lead poisoning, officials say

NEW YORK (AP) ? More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday.

The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk.

Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ. Lead poisoning used to be a much larger concern in the United States, but has declined significantly as lead was removed from paint and gasoline and other sources.

The new number translates to about 1 in 38 young children. That estimate suggests a need for more testing and preventive measures, some experts said, but budget cuts last year eliminated federal grant funding for such programs.

Those cuts represent "an abandonment of children," said David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian who writes books about lead poisoning.

"We've been acting like the problem was solved and this?was a thing of?the past," he added.

Lead can harm a child's brain, kidneys and other organs. High levels in the blood can cause coma, convulsions and death. Lower levels can reduce intelligence, impair hearing and behavior and cause other problems.

Most cases of lead poisoning are handled by tracking and removing the lead source, and monitoring the children to make sure lead levels stay down. A special treatment to remove lead and other heavy metals is used only for extremely high levels.

Often, children who get lead poisoning live in old homes that are dilapidated or under renovation. They pick up paint chips or dust and put it in their mouth. Other sources include soil contaminated by old leaded gasoline, dust from industrial worksites and tainted drinking water

Lead has been banned in household paint since 1978 and was gone from gasoline by the late 1980s.

After lowering the standard, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went back and looked at old blood tests from 1,653 children under 6 to determine how many would have lead poisoning under the new definition.

About 3 percent of them ? or about 50 kids ? had blood lead levels higher than the new threshold of 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Using that result, CDC officials calculated that an estimated 535,000 young children have lead poisoning.

A year ago, when the threshold was 10 micrograms, experts estimated that somewhere between 77,000 and 255,000 young kids had high levels of lead.

These estimates have focused on children younger than 6, who have been considered most at risk of neurological problems due to lead.

Overall, the new CDC study found lead counts were higher on average in children who were poor or African-American, said the CDC's Mary Jean Brown, an author of the study.

Those kids are more likely to live in old housing or in neighborhoods with greater exposure to lead, she added.

The good news: Even with the lower threshold, lead poisoning appears to still be declining. Years ago, some local health departments began tracking the number of kids with blood levels at 5 or greater, and they say those numbers have been dropping steadily.

However, it's likely that many children with lead poisoning have not been diagnosed. In the CDC study, elevated lead levels were discovered for a third of the children only when they were tested by researchers.

"When you look for it, you find it," Columbia's Rosner said.

Once lead poisoning is diagnosed, doctors often refer parents to local health departments to get their homes checked out to try to find the source of the problem. But as demand for investigations grows, there's less money to pay for them. Congress last year cut CDC lead program's budget from about $29 million to $2 million. That ended CDC grants to local health departments for their programs.

Detroit's lead program was all but eliminated because of the federal cut and state and local funding problems, said Bob Scott of Michigan's lead poisoning prevention program.

Other places are struggling to keep up with lead work at the same time they are cutting staff. The Cleveland area has been aggressive about lead poisoning prevention but the loss of CDC funding hurt those efforts.

For example, Cuyahoga County ? which includes Cleveland ? saw its staff for blood testing of children and public education drop from 2 1/2 positions to 1.

"It's unsustainable," said Terry Allan, the county's health commissioner.

____

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lead-poisoning-toll-revised-1-38-young-kids-161220175.html

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Ban pesticides to save bees, say MPs

4 April 2013 Last updated at 20:28 ET By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

The UK government should suspend the use of a number of pesticides linked to the deaths of bees, a committee of MPs has said.

Members of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee are calling for a moratorium on the use of sprays containing neonicotinoids.

Britain has refused to back an EU ban on these chemicals saying their impact on bees is unclear.

But MPs say this is an "extraordinarily complacent" approach.

Wild species such as honey bees are said by researchers to be responsible for pollinating around one-third of the world's crop production.

Stinging criticism

In their report, MPs say that two-thirds of these species have suffered population declines in the UK.

They argue that a "growing body of peer-reviewed research" points the finger at a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

Continue reading the main story

What exactly are Neonicotinoids?

• Nicotine is not just lethal to humans in the form of cigarettes, but the chemical is also extremely toxic to insects
• Neonicotinoid pesticides are new nicotine-like chemicals and act on the nervous systems of insects with a lower threat to mammals and the environment than many older sprays
• Pesticides made in this way are water soluble which means they can be applied to the soil and taken up by the whole plant - they are called "systemic", meaning they turn the plant itself into a poison factory with toxins coming from roots, leaves, stems and pollen
• Sprays like these were praised for being less toxic than many others to beneficial insects like bees when first introduced

"We believe the weight of scientific evidence now warrants precautionary action," said the committee's chairwoman, Labour MP Joan Walley.

"So we are calling for a moratorium on pesticides linked to bee decline to be introduced by 1 January next year."

Following on from research published in January by the European Food Safety Authority that suggested these chemicals posed an "unacceptable" threat to bees, the European Commission proposed that neonicotinoid sprays be restricted to crops not attractive to pollinators.

There are already some restrictions in place in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. But the idea of a two-year ban did not attract enough support after the UK and Germany both abstained.

Joan Walley says the UK government's approach to the issue is "extraordinarily complacent".

"If farmers had to pollinate fruit and vegetables without the help of insects it would costs hundreds of millions of pounds and we would all be stung by rising food prices," she added.

But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that a ban is not justified at present.

Defra's chief scientist Dr Ian Boyd admitted the research was "very finely balanced".

"Neonicotinoids will kill bees, let me be absolutely clear about that. It is what numbers do they kill and whether it affects populations - the question is whether banning them in any way would be proportional and at the moment the balance of evidence suggests it wouldn't be," he said.

There have been a number of studies showing that the chemicals, made by Bayer and Syngenta, do have negative impacts on both honey and bumblebees.

One study suggested that neonicotinoids affected the abilities of hives to produce queen bees. More recent research indicated that the pesticides damaged their brains.

But Defra argues that these studies were mainly conducted in the laboratory and do not accurately reflect field conditions.

It has published its own work showing that in the field, these chemicals had little effect on bee health, although Defra acknowledges the study lacks statistical power.

They are also calling on the European Commission to agree to a major new field study that would settle the debate.

"That will allow informed decision-making, rather than rushing into a knee-jerk ban based on inconclusive studies," said a Defra spokesman.

Open data

Dr Ian Boyd says that despite being used for 20 years, there has been no satisfactory answer to the key question: what effect are these chemicals having on pollinators in the field?

Given the finely balanced state of the science he says that other factors such as the costs to farmers have to be considered in the decision to keep using these pesticides.

Continue reading the main story

Why are bees in decline?

• Varroa mite - A parasitic mite that sucks the blood from bees. Unless beekeepers control Varroa, their colonies can collapse and die within two or three years
• Diseases - Other viruses are known to affect bees including deformed wing virus, acute paralysis virus, slow paralysis virus and cloudy wing virus. These weaken honeybee colonies by reducing the longevity of adult honeybees
• Neglect - Bee keepers need to work harder than ever to keep their colonies alive because of the dangers posed by infections and to ensure they have enough honey in their hives to keep them going until nectar becomes available again in the spring

"It is a very difficult analysis to do, we really don't have full data - but it does suggest that the cost-benefit trade-off at the moment is weighted to retaining neonicotinoids because if you just cost this in financial terms then you move in the direction of having a significant financial cost to take them out of the system," he said.

But the Commons Environmental Audit Commission rejects this approach, saying that "economic considerations should not form part of environmental risk management decision-making".

The committee also asks for more openness from the chemical manufacturers who should publish their own research on the safety of these products.

This seems to be one thing on which Defra and the committee agree.

"I personally believe that all those data should be open access; I think that everyone should be able to see them," said Dr Boyd.

"There are issues around confidentiality but I don't think any of those are insurmountable," he added.

Pesticide manufacturer Bayer said it "strongly disagrees" with the idea of a two-year moratorium.

With fellow producer, Syngenta, it has produced its own action plan on how to protect bee health.

"There has been a long history of the safe use of neonicotinoid insecticides and it is clear that when they are used responsibly and properly, any impact on bees is negligible," said Utz Klages of Bayer.

"This has already been confirmed by the competent EU and member-state authorities in their market authorisation assessments, based on the extensive safety data that had previously been submitted and proven in many monitoring studies."

The committee of MPs says the government's lack of action is in marked contrast to the efforts of the UK's largest garden chains.

B&Q, Wickes and Homebase have withdrawn non-professional plant protection products that contain neonicotinoid chemicals.

The report has been welcomed by many campaigners including the charity Buglife, which praised the "robust stance".

The issue is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. The European Commission told the BBC that it would continue to press forward with plans for a moratorium.

A spokesman said they were planning to appeal against the recently rejected ban.

In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency is being sued by beekeepers and environmental groups over its "failure" to protect pollinators from neonicotinoids.

Follow Matt on Twitter.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22021104#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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ADAO Fact #3: Asbestos fibers can cause asbestosis, lung, and ...

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013.

The ADAO?s "7 Facts for 7 Days" campaign today shares: "Asbestos fibers can cause asbestosis, lung, and gastrointestinal cancers, and an aggressive cancer called mesothelioma. The average life expectancy of a mesothelioma patient is six-twelve months."

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 100,000 people die annually as a result of asbestos related lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. Without taking a patient?s full history, many cancers attributable to asbestos exposure are not linked to the patient?s exposure. This leaves asbestos-related injuries undereported and patients unaware they may be able to seek compensation.

The only known cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure, but it, too, has issues with underreporting. Reasearchers estimate "conservatively that, globally, one mesothelioma case has been overlooked for every four to five reported cases.¹"

With somewhere between 3000 and 4000 cases diagnosed in the US each year, many doctors will go their whole career never seeing a case, let alone be in charge of diagnosing it. In many cases, mesothelioma is left off the death certificate because it is the underlying cause of pulmonary failure, or a similar primary cause of death. Patients may die of mesothelioma and never even know they have it.

For those with a history of asbestos exposure, consistent check ups and letting your doctor know your increased risk factors is very important. For those diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, understanding treatment options, finding experts, and gaining support are all vitally important. Dr. Arthur Frank discusses ""Why Is Asbestos Bad for My Health?" and answers many of these questions in today?s ADAO Asbestos Awarness Week piece:

In locating an expert, do some online research and seek the opinions of true experts, someone who has experience treating many patients, not just one prior patient. Seek the opinion of a doctor in his or her specialty. Oncologists can give information on chemotherapy, but may not be best qualified to discuss surgical options. Conversely, surgeons may not be able to discuss the latest chemotherapy treatments. Some doctors have cross-disciplinary titles such as surgical-oncologists, who can comment on surgery and chemotherapy treatments.

Read the rest of the article here. To learn more about asbestos diseases and their treatment, please view the links below:

Footnotes

1. Global Magnitude of Reported and Unreported Mesothelioma

? Mesothelioma News Main Page.

Posted: Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013 at 1:29 pm; filed under Asbestos & Mesothelioma Studies, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), Organizations.

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Source: http://www.mesotheliomacenter.org/mesothelioma-news/2013/04/03/adao-fact-3-asbestos-fibers-can-cause-asbestosis-lung-and-gastrointestinal-cancers-and-an-aggressive-cancer-called-mesothelioma-the-average-life-expectancy-of-a-mesothelioma-patient-is-six-twelv/

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Zeitgeist Borders shows a world of Google searches

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

The world has new borders, or at least new ways of looking at the old ones. Two computer scientists have developed an application that mines Google Instant's autocompletion feature to paint a picture of the planet as Google measures it.

Google Instant works by offering up search results while users are typing in their query, based on what people commonly search for in their part of the world. Screenshots of amusing suggestions are an internet phenomenon, but Antoine Mazi?res from INRA-SenS and Samuel Huron of INRIA, both in Paris, France, used Google's algorithms to measure cultural trends instead.

The system is called Zeitgeist Borders. It lets anyone collect and analyse autocompletion suggestions from around the world for a certain phrase, pushing searches through all of the different top-level domains that Google runs, such as google.fr in France. The results are displayed on a world map, with the most popular words to complete a search term displayed for each country - though it works in English only.

Google limits the number of queries it will handle over a certain period of time, blocking IP addresses that rapidly make 10 queries, which prevented Mazi?res and Huron from doing a larger statistical study. However, the researchers have opened up the application's source code, and are currently working on ways to get around the limits. "A larger-scale analysis would allow systematic analysis of the cultural differences between countries," they write in a paper on the system which they will present next month at the Web Science conference in Paris.

One of the oddest findings was over a query about children. "Most countries ask 'why kids are the worst', or [why they] lie, but India is the only one asking why they 'vomit' and 'don't eat'," Mazi?res wrote.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/2a56c9f5/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Conepercent0C20A130C0A40Czeitgeist0Eborders0Egoogle0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Notre Dame students highlight method for 3D printing skeletons of living animals

Can you really claim to love your pet if you haven't printed out its skeletal structure for your mantle? Sure everyone expresses themselves in different ways, but the "3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets" outlined by a team of Notre Dame students and a rep from MakerBot certainly beats getting your pet's face printed on a sweater. The researchers have outlined a method for CT scanning live mice, rats and rabbits and printing out their skeletal structures in plastic. There are some cool research applications for such functionality, but more importantly, who could ask for a creepier gift for the pet owner in your life?

Filed under: Peripherals, Science, Alt

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Pentax K-30 DSLR adds 15 new color options, gets both matte and gloss finishes

You might recall the weather-sealed delights of Pentax's K-30, but if you don't, perhaps a new palette of colors will leave a more permanent impression. The 16.3-megapixel DSLR can now be picked up in 15 new finishes, split between gloss and matte, and includes Bordeaux (that'll be deep red), White, Orange, Yellow, Green, Silver and Blue colors. However, it's still not the most customization options Pentax has offered. The K-30 has a long way to go if it wants to best the 100 variants of its mirrorless sibling, the Q10. Each one retails for $800, but to get the full catalog, you'll have to pass the digital doors of Pentax's online store.

Filed under: Cameras

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Source: Pentax Store

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/02/pentax-k-30-dslr-15-new-color-options/

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Former Windows Phone Exec, Charlie Kindel, Joins Amazon To Work On ?Something Secret? - Possibly Phone-Related

Former Windows Phone developer evangelist, Charlie Kindel, has joined Amazon to head up an undisclosed project. Kindel left Microsoft in 2011 to work on his own startups but, according to his LinkedIn profile, is now at Amazon. The profile lists him as 'Director, something secret' at Amazon and notes he is "building a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon".

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/QZY60wAoWM4/

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