Lead and Your Health

While this is of interest historically,lead exposure remains a serious and oft over-looked problem to the people in Idaho's Silver Valley. It is Toxic America
The Secret History of Lead
Since the virtual disappearance of leaded gas in the United States (it's still sold for use in propeller airplanes), the mean blood-lead level of the American population has declined more than 75 percent. A 1985 EPA study estimated that as many as 5,000 Americans died annually from lead-related heart disease prior to the country's lead phaseout. According to a 1988 report to Congress on childhood lead poisoning in America by the government's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, one can estimate that the blood-lead levels of up to 2 million children were reduced every year to below toxic levels between 1970 and 1987 as leaded gasoline use was reduced. From that report and elsewhere, one can conservatively estimate that a total of about 68 million young children had toxic exposures to lead from gasoline from 1927 to 1987.

The most recycled item is...

60-Second Earth -  April 18, 2010

What's the Most Recycled Product in the U.S.?

It's not paper, plastic or even aluminum. David Biello reports

Perhaps the most common manifestation of our urge to be "green" these days is recycling.
After all, it makes intuitive sense to get the most use out of any given object. And when it’s applied, recycling generally works as designed, turning waste paper into fresh paper or old aluminum cans into new ones.
But how much of our waste really gets recycled? According to the EPA, roughly one-third of our total trash is reused, a percentage that has grown every year since the first Earth Day in 1970--and really took off in the 1990s.
The most recycled product? It's not aluminum cans: only half are recycled. Or even office paper, at more than 70 percent. It's the lead acid batteries from your car. More than 99 percent of such batteries wind up recycled. Keeping toxic lead out of landfills and waterways.  
That's a good thing as long as the recycling is done properly. Unfortunately, dismantling old lead acid batteries incorrectly is one of the 10 worst pollution problems for the globe, according to the Blacksmith Institute. And that's no way to celebrate Earth Day.

LEAD

Lead Health Issues Remain Major Concern

UPDATE: May 2010 - Heavy Metals Poisoning Part 1


While lead levels in face paint and toys remain a focus, more impetus needs to be placed on the impact of lead and other heavy metals and how they impact people the health of those living in N. Idaho's Silver Valley where EPA is moving ahead with its toxic waste dump adjacent to the National Historic site and Sacred Native lands at the Cataldo Mission.

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Before children apply face paint for Halloween, parents should know that some face paints contain lead and other heavy metals, a U.S. advocacy group says.

Lisa Archer, national coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics at the Breast Cancer Fund, says the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent 10 children's face paints to an independent lab to test for heavy metals and review ingredient labels of Halloween products sold at a seasonal holiday store.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that parents avoid using cosmetics on their children that could be contaminated with lead, Archer says.

The report, "Pretty Scary," found:
-- Ten out of 10 children's face paints contained lead ranging from 0.05 to 0.65 parts per million.

-- Six out of 10 children's face paints contained nickel, cobalt and/or chromium, which are top allergens in children. The metals were found at levels ranging from 1.6 to 120 ppm -- many of them far exceeding industry safety recommendations of 1 ppm.

To learn more about the study see: www.safecosmetics.org/prettyscary.

To learn more about the issues surrounding the nation's largest lead Superfund site read more here -

Silver Valley Action

Silver Valley Action Photo Album

Petition

Heavy Metal

Even if you do not live in the 1500 square mile area of this Superfund site you can help by supporting the work and signing the petition.

In a related article, Why your doctor should know where you have lived, environmental exposure is listed as a health risk.  This question was always included in the process of taking a complete health history when I worked as a nurse practitioner.  It is part of what I taught my students when I was teaching at the college level.  Why it has been lost in the process over the years is a mystery I am sure, but it is important.  It still is just one part of what a complete health history should include; what you are exposed to in your work is as important, and also what you use at home and in your garden.  Reason why you should have a running copy of your own medical record in your possession, just as people do in other countries.