Peer Review Article Versus Popular Press Article on Lead Poisening

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says that lead exposure in children may cause comas, seizures, and death. Because a child’s brain is still developing, the damage of lead exposure is more severe. Not only does lead affect the way the brain physically develops, but lasting neurological and behavioral damage includes lower IQ scores, higher risk of attention deficit disorders and hearing impairments, decreases in impulse control, and potentially violent behavior. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician who runs the pediatric medical residency program at Flint’s Hurley Medical Center, studied blood lead level tests and found that the percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels had gone from 2.4 percent to 4.9 percent citywide (Barry-Jester). Hanna-Attisha’s findings showed a rise to sixteen percent in neighborhoods where lead levels were known to be elevated in the water. She points out, "Lead only last in body a short time … and when you screen them, it's no longer elevated. So we've missed children's peak lead levels and that's why everyone says it

(Campbell, 2016). Two giants in childhood lead poisoning research and advocacy, Dr. Philip Landrigan and Dr. David Bellinger, summarize the adverse effects of lead very completely, yet succinctly: “Lead is a devastating poison. It damages children’s brains, erodes intelligence, diminishes creativity and the ability to weigh consequences and make good decisions, impairs language skills, shortens attention span, and predisposes to hyperactive and aggressive behavior. Lead exposure in early childhood is linked to later increased risk for dyslexia and school failure.”(p. 3).

Potential lead contamination from drinking water presents a significant health risk. Recent examples of this lead contamination include Flint, Michigan, a city that experienced a large increase in the number of people, especially children, who exhibited symptoms of lead poisoning. A March 9, 2016 article in the Washington Post reported data from the Environmental Protection Agency that indicated approximately 350 schools and day-care centers across the US failed lead tests approximately 470 times between 2012 and 2015. Seven years ago, according to the Post, a study concluded that hundreds of young children in Washington, DC, had potentially damaging amounts of lead in their blood due to contamination in the city’s tap water. The toxin can cause permanent developmental and behavioral issues.

The population addressed in this paper focuses mainly on the minority of African American/Black Children who have experienced lead poisoning in the United States of America in the state of Michigan. Within Michigan there will be review of Genesee county, which will be compared with the city of Flint, MI, a city located in Genesee county.

Imagine you're drinking a cup of water and every single drop is poison. This could be happening to you. 50% of the United States have lead in their drinking water. This is because of lead based pipes. Lead based pipes have been leaching lead into water which connects to drinking water. It can also be because of the state's water utilities that might have lead in their water. ( EPA's safe drinking water information system database reports, three, 2016 by Isabella DC, USA Today) says Lead can cause brain damage, cancer, seizures, hearing loss, learning disabilities, and more!

The major sources of lead here were gasoline, paint chips and water from old plumbing. After lead was removed from gasoline and paint, blood lead levels (BLL) in children decreased on average from 16 mcg/dL to less than 3 mcg/dL. Residual lead persists in the environment, however. A toxic level is currently defined as 5 mcg/dL. In U.S. children age 1-5, the prevalence of BLLs >10 mcg/dL decreased from 88% to 4.4% between 1976 and 1994 and further dropped to 0.8% by 2010. Yet there are still almost half a million children in the U.S. with levels >5

At the age of just a year old, Reginald Cureton, a Detroit middle schooler, was just a year old, a blood test proved he had four times the level of lead in his blood that was concluded as lead poisoning. His parents were baffled and doctors said it would alter his brain development and hinder his skills as a child. Reginald's elementary school suggested numerous times that he repeat the third grade. This lead his parents to do test him for any mental stagnancies and he was diagnosed with ADHD. Now in middle school, Reginald and his family's fight against lead- exposure is continued and as strong as ever as they are taking extra precautions to reduce his lead exposure in any way possible (Lead-Exposure Problems Spotlighted in Detroit) . Unfortunately

Everyone is susceptible to the dangers of lead contamination; but children are especially at risk. High levels of lead in children can lead to brain and kidney damage and damage to red blood cells. Low levels of lead can also cause problems that are less life-threatening but can be just as devastating, like low IQ, hearing and language impairment, reduced attention span and poor school performance. In adults, exposure to lead can lead to an increased risk for high blood pressure. Pregnant women and their fetuses are extremely vulnerable to lead. In women, lead increases the risk of infertility and miscarriages; in fetuses, lead can cause low birth weight, premature birth and impaired mental and physical development.

Kevin Drum’s article on lead, in short, is an argument for the removal of lead from the environment while mainly focusing on the link between crime and the use of tetraethyl lead in gasoline. Drum believes that cleaning up the lead from the environment in the US would improve crime rates, increase the cognitive performance of the general population, and generate hundreds of billions a year. These are fairly outlandish claims until he further examines what lead does to the early development of children.

There are multiple reasons to expect that a person's lead exposure as a child could affect

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, and 81% of homes were built prior to 1978 when lead paint was eliminated. The state requires lead screening for all infants and toddlers. In 2015, 82% of Boston children were tested; 2.7% of those tested had lead levels >5 μg/dL on screening tests, with 2.3% testing 5-9 and 0.36% testing >10 on confirmatory testing . In June 2016 Massachusetts DPH compared data on racial make-up by census tract and rate of elevated lead levels and concluded, “After adjusting for old housing stock, poverty, and English language isolation, race/ethnicity is a driving factor of lead exposure”. Despite laws supporting abatement, the DPH estimates that only 10% of older homes have been deleaded.2 Massachusetts has a Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program that helps families reduce exposure to prevent poisoning and detect elevated levels to facilitate treatment.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s, lead poisoning was found to be prevalent in the slums of the inner cities. These areas were referred to as the "lead belt" because these run down houses were havens for lead exposure. The flaking paint on walls, the chipping plaster ceilings, and the old furniture exposed these children to a real hazard. Pica was an important contributing factor and children, ages 1 to 3 were at the greatest risk. Siblings in these situations were often affected and recurrence was common because the lead paint was not removed. The prognosis for these children became worse with each recurrence (Chisholm, 1982).

In the united states, Lead poisoning seems to be one of the most common and preventable environmental problem in children. When compared to the US borne children, Prevelance of this poisoing is 1.6%high in refugee kids.(2)

Approximately 24 million housing units have deteriorated lead paint, and have increased the levels of lead-contaminated house dust since lead paint was banned from being used in houses and other industries since 1978 (Lead Prevention). The original problem was lead poisoning from paint, and was a global issue because the manufactured paint for houses, toys, and other items that needed paint, contained this chemical around the world. The original purpose of putting the chemical into paint was to help speed up the drying of the paint, the lead increased permanency, it helped preserve a fresh look and appearance, and it assisted in resisting the moisture the causes corrosion. Unfortunately, it helped all of these factors making it a useful chemical, but after the effects of the chemical were found in people and animals, it became an environmental hazard. (Healthy Homes/ Lead).

Exposure to lead occurs mainly via inhalation of lead-contaminated dust particles or aerosols, and ingestion of lead-contaminated food and water. The factors that influence lead absorption are age and physiological status. Flora (2006) said that the absorption rate for children may be