Children’s Health Risks
The purpose of this page is to provide information, articles, etc., related to the major danger lead exposure – from air, soil and on surfaces such as playground equipment, etc., – poses to children’s health:
Here is a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site about Childhood Lead Poisoning.
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“ANY LEAD IS TOO MUCH LEAD”
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VIDEOS
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“LEAD IS A POISON AT ALL LEVELS, DOCS SAY”
“We now know that lead is a poison at all levels,” she said, adding that the prior concept that lead levels had to reach a certain threshold to damage a child’s developmental progress or IQ no longer holds true, according to Dr. Helen Binns at the Children’s Memorial Lead Evaluation Clinic in Chicago, who says the message is trickling out slowly to parents and pediatricians alike.”
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REPORT: TEEN HEARING LOSS CONNECTED TO LOW BLOOD LEAD LEVELS
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SOCIAL POLICY REPORT – SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM EXPOSURE TO LEAD: OLD PROBLEM, NEW DATA AND NEW POLICY NEEDS – Claire Cole and Adam Winsler, George Mason University
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MIND GAMES: HOW TOXIC CHEMICALS ARE IMPAIRING OUR CHILDREN’S ABILITY TO LEARN
BY SANDRA STEINGRABER, ORION Magazine, March/April 2011 issue
“WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I SET OUT to find a nursery school for our daughter, Faith, nearly ten years ago we took the decision seriously. I looked at large parent-run cooperatives and visited small home-based operations. Jeff studied the pink towers and chiming bells at the Montessori school on the hill and considered 
the wonder balls and wooden fairies at the Waldorf school in the valley. In the end, we chose a nursery school that operated out of a community center close to home. There was a frog pond out front and a play structure out back. The trees were full of chickadees and nuthatches. We had weighed many considerations in the decision-making process, and we all, Faith included, were happy about it.
That is, until I discovered that, like many of its kind, the school’s beloved play structure —with its wooden gangway, turrets, and tunnels —was made out of pressure-treated lumber, which, at the time, contained arsenic, a carcinogen. A bladder carcinogen, in fact. I am a bladder cancer survivor. I am familiar with this particular disease and all the ongoing medical surveillance it requires. So, after a lot of research and discussion, we eventually decided to move our daughter to a different nursery school. The risk of doing nothing just seemed too high…” Read the rest of the story.
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POPULAR ATTRACTIONS, OTHER SITES EXPOSE DISNEYLAND VISITORS TO EXCESS LEAD, GROUP SAYS
A nonprofit environmental group has sued Disneyland, saying the theme park exposes children to high levels of lead. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation claims that Disneyland needs to do more to protect children in certain problematic areas of the park to comply with California law. Click on the headline above to read more.
