Heavy Metals


  • Lead Poisoning
    • The section that I found most interesting was the childhood lead toxicity section specifically.  I didn't know that the guts of children absorb lead more readily than an adults.  To think that there are long term effects such as severe cognitive, attentional, and behavioral impairments is really scary.  What is even more scary is probably the fact that lead toxicity could be undiagnosed because it can be asymptotic.  This can also have negative side effects for people who maybe are undocumented living in a rural area who don't have access to a doctor.  The lead poison could go undiagnosed for even longer which just shows how disadvantage can accumulate for some populations.  I think it is really good that there is a lot more prevention than before.  Making laws and regulations around things like gasoline and paint have an impact on the health of the public and on a larger scale.  
  • Environmental health response to a severe outbreak of childhood lead poisoning in Nigeria
    • I think some of the remediation solutions to reduce exposure, build local, state, and national capacity to respond to health crises, and ensure environmental remedies are sustained with safer mining practices.  It seems like during the intervention a great number of children (2,400) received treatment.  I think what is unfortunate is that more than 400 children under 5 weren't able to receive help in time.  I think its great they got international agencies to collaborate with the Nigerian health authorities.  This not only gets more help to the people who need it, but it also spreads awareness to more international agencies and more people.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 2, 2018 at 11:29 PM

    Module 9 Group 4 Comments:

    Jillian- Six chemicals. I agree with you it’s crazy that most of these chemicals are in products! And even more so how metals impact cultural food practices, I am sure this is true for many cultures who eat food. I agree the most important principle is the prevention of waste. Lead exposure in children is very sad and I like you found this very informative and glad there are prevention measures in place.

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