[Oe List ...] Thanks to colleague Dr Bruce Lanphear: new CDC recommendation

[Ellen & David Rebstock]

What a thrill to hear!  Say, Bruce, when is that book you Dad said you
should write coming out?
Ellen & Dave Rebstock

2012/1/26 Ellie Stock <elliestock at aol.com>

> Hi folks,
>
> In 2000 I became part of a presbytery PC(USA) partnership with Peru
> related to hunger issues.  One focus was addressing lead and other heavy
> metal contamination in La Oroya, Peru and also here in the St Louis region
> (Herculaneum) caused by the same US-owned company.  From time to time the
> partnership has been helped by the research of colleague Dr. Bruce Lanphear
> who specializes in lead and other toxins as they relate to health issues,
> particularly related to children.
>
> I wanted to share a bit of good news I received yesterday in an email from
> Perry Gottesfeld (OK International) who is a member of a scientific
> advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) *that has
> made a formal recommendaton on childhood lead poisoning prevention that
> changes a policy that has been in effect in the U.S. since 1991 and is
> commonly used in other countries based on the same World Health
> Organization (WHO) recommendation and cut-off.  Previously, World Health
> Organization and EPA and CDC and other groups used the standard that only a
> blood lead level over 10 ug/dl was a "level of concern."  Most medical
> laboratories around the world have adopted this level as the "normal" or
> "acceptable" cut-off listed on blood test reports going to physicians and
> hospitals.  The new recommendations eliminate the use of the term "level of
> concern" and acknowledge that based on a comprehensive review of the
> scientific literature, there is no known safe level of exposure to
> children.  The new guidance calls for specific response actions for
> children with blood lead levels in the upper 2.5% of the population
> feometric mean (currently 5 ub/dl in the U.S.)  These lower levels
> currently impact approximately 450,000 children in the U.S. but millions
> more in developing countries*.  [Many children in La Oroya, Peru have
> blood lead levels as high as 30-60 ug/dl and would be hospitalized if they
> lived in the U.S.]
>
> As early as 2001 (and probably earlier) colleague Dr. Bruce Lanphear
> (formerly at Children's Hospital in Cincinnati and now a professor in
> Vancouver) was writing that there were "no safe blood lead levels and
> that blood lead levels as low as 1 ug/dl were harmful, especially for
> children and pregnant women.  The results of tests indicating this were
> published in 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Bruce has been
> on many advisory boards related to toxins and health.  His work (along with
> a few other prophets in the wilderness) contributed to this latest CDC
> recommendation (despite years of opposition by government agencies and
> contaminating corporate entities).
>
> Lead contamination continues to be a major environmental issue not only in
> the US (lead paint, lead smeltering) but also in developing countries
> (where lead is mined and smelted, where leaded gasoline is still the norm)
> and growing industrial nations (like China, where many of our lead
> batteries for computers, cars, toys, etc. are produced).   Standards such
> as this not only help to improve the health of people in the US but also
> act as leverage for global health standards.
>
> So, thank you to you Bruce and your colleagues for your past work and
> continuing work which has had a much broader impact.  Its a joy to see such
> research translate into policy.
>
> Aren't you proud, Nancy?
>
> Ellie Stock
> elliestock at aol.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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