February 17, 2013 | Scientific American
BOSTON—Exposure to lead—so toxic—is a problem of the past, right? Wrong. Since the U.S. took lead out of gasoline in 1976 and banned lead paint in 1978, most health scientists, regulators and the public have considered the problem largely solved. But ongoing testing shows that even though the average concentration of lead in the American bloodstream has dropped by a factor of 10 since the late 1970s, the levels […]
January 29, 2013 | Trust for America’s Health
American taxpayers lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually in medical bills, energy costs and lost wages due to inefficient and unhealthy housing and nearly six million households live with moderate to severe physical housing problems.
November 21, 2012 | American Journal of Public Health
Nanhua Zhang and Hamisu Salihu are with Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Florida, Tampa. Harolyn W. Baker is with MPRO, Michigan’s Quality Improvement Organization, Farmington Hills. Margaret Tufts is with the Office of Health Information, Planning, Policy, Evaluation and Research, Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion, Detroit, MI. Randall E. Raymond is with Detroit Public Schools—Office of Research, Evaluation, Assessment […]
2012 | USA Today
In hundreds of neighborhoods across the United States, children are living and playing near sites where factories once spewed lead and other toxic metal particles into the air. The factories, which melted lead in a process called smelting, closed long ago but poisonous lead particles can still be found in the soil nearby. Families interviewed were unaware of the dangers posed by their yards – and the government has done […]
April 19, 2012 | Detroit Free Press
On an abandoned lot behind Fairview Street on Detroit’s east side, the remains of a former lead foundry are crumbling. A smokestack still stands tall.
Old couches, plastic swimming pools, tires and hundreds of dismantled coffee pots litter the lot. A child’s doll and pink tricycle lie forgotten in the rubble.
In the center of the block, the fence around the abandoned plant at 11031 Shoemaker is peeled back, providing easy […]
April 19, 2012 | USA TODAY
Ken Shefton is furious about what the government knew eight years ago and never told him — that the neighborhood where his five sons have been playing is contaminated with lead.
Their Cleveland home is a few blocks from a long-forgotten factory that spewed toxic lead dust for about 30 years.
The Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators clearly knew of the danger. They tested soil throughout the neighborhood and […]
February 27, 2012 | Everyday Health
Roughly 25 million people in America face the challenge of living with asthma — as do those who love them. Family members worry, feel stressed, and have many questions. But people living with asthmatics can do a number of things to make life easier, both for them and their loved ones.
January 5, 2012 | HealthDay News
Pediatric health experts are applauding a U.S. advisory panel’s recommendation to lower the threshold for toxic lead exposure in children.
Lead, a metal once common in gasoline and house paint, can permanently damage developing brains.
On Wednesday, the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention voted to recommend that the federal government change the standard for lead poisoning from 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to 5 […]
December 19, 2011 | Spotlight on Poverty
This summer, the debt ceiling debate revived the Reagan-era argument that government is the problem, not part of the solution. This focus on reducing the size of government has obscured the cost-saving successes of targeted, collaborative federal anti-poverty programs.
A great example of this approach, and a model for other programs, is the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI), which provides a pathway out of poverty while […]
October 6, 2011 | CBS Detroit
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma is the third ranking cause of hospitalization of children younger than 15 in the United States. It is the leading cause of school absences from a chronic illness in 5- to 17-year-olds, accounting for an annual loss of more than 14 million school days per year. A Wayne State University researcher is now investigating the impact of risky […]