In the USA and other developed countries we tale access to safe drinkable and cooking (potable) water for granted. Today the WHO released a new booklet calling for attention to this need to save millions of people world wide from disease and death because of lack of access to potable water. We have been working to ensure such access for everyone in the U.S.for 200 years, but we still have many families in rural areas without access to safe drinking water.
In an editorial in the Lancet today: The cost of allergic rhinitis in the USA is nothing to be sniffed at. According to a report published last week by the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality, in 2005, Americans spent $11bn on doctors' bills, prescription drugs, and other medical care to relieve allergy symptoms. Although there is no consensus on the reasons for the increased prevalence of allergies, the “hygiene hypothesis” has solid support. First proposed by David Strachan in the 1980s, this hypothesis suggests that children exposed to poor hygiene and increased infections in early life have lower levels of IgE sensitization and allergic diseases. In other words, squeaky-clean modern life could be a contributing factor, and may indeed be harmful to children. Comment: All the activists who rail about dangers from exposures to compounds considered harmful, may be causing the entire population harm . Remember how infections brought from Europe to North American decimated a number of indigenous populations. We need to reconsider how clean our environment should be and whether too clean is harmful.
A follow-up to a recent blog on childhood lead poisoning, new data from the U. Cincinatti published in PLoS Medicine today shows that Childhood lead exposure is associated with region-specific reductions in adult gray matter volume. Affected regions include the portions of the prefrontal cortex and ACC responsible for executive functions, mood regulation, and decision-making. These neuroanatomical findings were more pronounced for males, suggesting that lead-related atrophic changes have a disparate impact across sexes. This analysis suggests that adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes may be related to lead's effect on brain development producing persistent alterations in structure. This research provides biological plausability to the long standing belief that lead poisoning of children causes both learning deficits and antisocial behavior. It also provides evidence for an evironmental cause of behavioral deficits in children from slum areas where lead is most likely to be found.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is today releasing the first ever report highlighting children's special susceptibility to harmful chemical exposures at different periods of their growth. Air and water contaminants, pesticides in food, lead in soil, as well many other environmental threats which alter the delicate organism of a growing child may cause or worsen disease and induce developmental problems. Over 30% of the global burden of disease in children can be attributed to environmental factors. The vulnerability of children is increased in degraded and poor environments. Neglected and malnourished children suffer the most. These children often live in unhealthy housing, lack clean water and sanitation services, and have limited access to health care and education. For example, lead is known to be more toxic to children whose diets are deficient in calories, iron and calcium. One in five children in the poorest parts of the world will not live longer than their fifth birthday, mainly because of environment-related diseases.
Four pilot sites were selected to participate in this new community-based environmental health initiative, based on work with NACCHO's PACE-EH project.:
Cerro Gordo, Iowa;
the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma;
Savannah, Georgia; and
Boston, Massachusetts.
The pilot collaboration sites, which range from urban centers to rural areas, were selected for the project because they had strong local leadership in addressing community issues, experience in working with a wide range of private and public sector partners, and a track record of successfully addressing local health or environmental issues.
Lessons learned from the pilot sites will form the basis for a federal model of collaboration to improve service delivery for community-based environmental health activities at the national level. Information gathered and tools developed will also expand our community-based tool kits and be used to develop targeted training and education for leadership development.
Do you throw money away on bottled water? There are no standards and no testing by state or federal agencies. See today's comments from the New York Times on this ridiculous situation where the PT Barnum's have conned you.
Surprise, surprise. Swimming is good, clean summer fun for small children—but University of Florida experts caution that swim diapers won’t necessarily keep the water clean, and that could spell trouble if sick kids go in the pool. A common illness called Norovirus infection can cause vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. And for children suffering from such an infection that last symptom can render swim diapers ineffective, said Fred Southwick, a professor and chief of the infectious disease division at UF’s College of Medicine. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say no swim diapers are leakproof and that no manufacturer claims its products prevent diarrhea leakage. CDC devoted a page to the topic: . Children with diarrhea shouldn’t be allowed in pools, regardless of their swimwear, Southwick said.
New Research from Oxford University suggests that the dire straits promised by some global warming activists may not occur. As key players in the spread of disease ticks aren’t exactly man’s best friend but, according to Oxford University scientists, they may offer a vital clue that climate change is not to blame for an upsurge in many human diseases. While mosquitoes may be infamous for spreading malaria in Africa it is less well known that ticks spread Lyme disease throughout Europe and Tick-Borne Encephalitis from Eastern France, through Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Eastern Europe including the Baltic States. The common assumption is that upsurges in such diseases in these regions are mainly due to climate change but new research published in PloS ONE contradicts this view.
A new report from the WHO states that In 11 countries -- Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United Republic of Tanzania -- indoor air pollution is to blame for a total of 1.2 million deaths a year. Globally, reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to public health.
"The prevention potential is enormous," said Susanne Weber-Mosdorf, WHO Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments. "Solutions are available, and it is our international responsibility to promote the health and well-being of those affected, who are mostly women and children."
There are many areas in the US where this technique developed at UNC Chapel Hill might work. A simple, affordable household filtration device can reduce the incidence of diarrhea, one of the leading causes of disease and death in developing countries, by up to 40 percent, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown. “This technology has the potential to bring safe drinking water to many people in developing countries around the world who don’t have access to it now,” said Mark Sobsey, Ph.D., professor of environmental sciences and engineering at UNC’s School of Public Health. “These kinds of filters have been used in the developing world since the 1990s, but there was only anecdotal evidence that they actually improved health,” said Christine Stauber, a UNC doctoral candidate who helped direct the project in the Dominican Republic. “It was really exciting to collect scientific evidence in an objective study that showed the filters actually worked, at least in these communities.”
The health risks posed by mercury-contaminated fish is sufficient to warrant issuing a worldwide general warning to the public-especially children and women of childbearing age-to be careful about how much and which fish they eat.
Developed at the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant last August in Madison, Wis., the declaration is a synopsis of the latest scientific knowledge about the danger posed by mercury pollution. "The policy implications of these findings are clear," said James Wiener, a Wisconsin Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse who served as technical chair for last summer's conference. "The declaration and detailed analyses presented in the five supporting papers clearly show that effective national and international policies are needed to combat this global problem."
From the University of Edinburgh today, scientists have devised a way in which water can be analysed by villagers, whose wells may be affected, without the need for laboratory technicians to carry out complicated analysis. Arsenic poisoning is thought to affect up to 100 million people worldwide, with around million people believed to develop cancer as a result. While skin cancer is the most common cancer, arsenic poisoning can also cause various blood cancers or cancer of the kidney or bladder.
The test uses a colour-coded system where the water turns red, remains the same or turns blue depending on whether there is a major contamination of arsenic, a small amount of arsenic present or no arsenic at all.
From Rice University today. Discovery of unexpected magnetic interactions between ultrasmall specks of rust is leading scientists at Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) to develop a revolutionary, low-cost technology for cleaning arsenic from drinking water. "Arsenic contamination in drinking water is a global problem, and while there are ways to remove arsenic, they require extensive hardware and high-pressure pumps that run on electricity," said center director and lead author Vicki Colvin. "Our approach is simple and requires no electricity. While the nanoparticles used in the publication are expensive, we are working on new approaches to their production that use rust and olive oil, and require no more facilities than a kitchen with a gas cooktop." See Nov 10 Issue of Science Magazine
From the University of Cincinnati today we find that Teenagers who experienced high blood-lead levels during childhood appear to suffer more accidental injuries than those who had lower lead exposure, according to new research conducted by University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health experts.
Participants with varying childhood blood-lead levels were surveyed to determine the relationship between lead exposure and injuries during adolescence. These included sprains and cuts, most of which occurred at home and affected the upper extremities. Using advanced probability tools, the UC research team showed that the injuries were more likely to occur in adolescents who had experienced elevated blood-lead levels when they were younger.
How much more damage do we have to see from childhood lead exposure befroe we adopt housing standards for all families with chlidren, to ensure that the dwellings in which they live are safe from harm? We have known how to do this since the City of Ypsilanti, Michigan, changed its housing code 50 years ago, yet there are only a handful of communties who have adopted such codes nationwide.
This study from UC, to be published in September, calls for a ban on lead-based paints world wide. The researchers say that lead-based paint production poses a global health threat, and a worldwide ban is urgently needed to avoid future public health problems. About 50 percent of the paint sold in China, India and Malaysia—none of which appear to have regulations on lead—had lead levels 30 times higher than U.S. regulations. In contrast in Singapore, which has well-enforced regulations, only 10 percent of paint samples were above U.S. regulations, the highest being six times the U.S. limit. The researchers state that “Paint manufacturers are aggressively marketing lead-based paints in countries without lead content restrictions,? says a professor of environmental health at UC. “In some cases, companies are offering the same or similar products, minus the lead, in a regulated country.?
The WHO has just published a new report "Preventing disease through healthy environments: Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease" which again shows that progress in improving health comes not from medical care but from fairly simple pubic health environmental changes. Diarrhoeal disease and Malaria can be prevented in large part by environmental; modifications. The executive summary is well worth reading by all of us in public health.
Just because the president of a company appears in a company advertisement does not mean one should trust it. Think about the Sharper Image ads. for Ionic Air Purifiers. Now from UC Irvine comes a story that scientists verify that ionic and other air purifiers add to pollutants already in a room at levels that can exceed health standards
These results mean that people operating air purifiers indoors are more prone to being exposed to ozone levels in excess of public health standards,? said Sergey A. Nizkorodov, assistant professor of chemistry in the School of Physical Sciences at UCI.
A fascinating study reported in "Science" this week refers to the issue of introducing a 'Gall Fly' which lays eggs in flower heads of an invasive weed, reducing seeds and spread of the weed, Fine! Now the researchers find that the Deer Mouse which is a reservoir for a number of zoonsies inimical to humans has enhanced ability to live through winter by feeding on the gall fly grubs.
An important editorial from the Lancet today discusses the interaction of children, their environment and some common diseases. Much of the data comes from the work of "Children's Health and the Environment in North America: a First Report on Available Indicators and Measures" The report is hyperlinked to the editorial. The report discusses criteria for issue inclusion and focuses, in the first iteration, on asthma, lead poisoning and water borne diseases with a hope that governments will use the data to set policy. In the U.S. we are at least 40 years behind the curve in preventing childhod lead poisoning.
From University College London. this report:
Ozone is being wrongly blamed for many of the deaths during hot weather spells, finds a new UCL (University College London) study. UCL scientists warn that amidst all the concerns over air pollution, the more basic health message of staying cool when the weather is hot' may be being forgotten.
The study, published online in the journal Environmental Research, modelled the daily mortality rate of people over 65 (who suffer most of the heat-related deaths) in Greater London from 1991 to 2002. The model included daily temperatures, humidity, sunshine and wind and assessed any effects of atmospheric ozone, particulates and sulphur dioxide. UCL researchers then analysed general mortality trends for days when mean air temperatures exceeded 18C.