No Amount of Lead Is Safe for Kids
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MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — No amount of lead exposure is safe for children, and stricter regulations are needed to protect youngsters from this serious health threat, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says.
There’s growing evidence that even low levels of lead exposure previously considered safe can cause permanent mental, behavioral and school problems in children, according to the pediatricians’ group.
Identifying and eliminating lead sources before exposure occurs is the only reliable way to protect children from this danger, the AAP said. This requires stricter regulations, more federal resources and joint action by government officials and doctors, according to the updated AAP recommendations.
“We now know that there is no safe level of blood lead concentration for children, and the best ‘treatment’ for lead poisoning is to prevent any exposure before it happens,” Dr. Jennifer Lowry said in an academy news release. She is chair of the AAP Council on Environmental Health and an author of the policy statement.
“Most existing lead standards fail to protect children. They provide only an illusion of safety. Instead, we need to expand the funding and technical guidance for local and state governments to remove lead hazards from children’s homes, and we need federal standards that will truly protect children,” Lowry said.
The AAP added that new federal standards defining and testing for lead hazards in house dust, water and soil are needed. The group also wants to see laws that require removal of lead from contaminated housing and child care facilities, and that lead concentrations in water from school water fountains are not higher than 1 part per billion.
Until recently, children were considered to have a blood lead “level of concern” if they had a concentration of 10 or more micrograms per deciliter of blood. But evidence now suggests that problems begin at levels less than half that amount. Those problems can include lower IQ scores, poorer school performance, inattention, impulsivity, aggression and hyperactivity, the AAP said.
Protecting children from lead would save billions of dollars yearly in costs associated with lead exposure, the AAP said. For example, every $1 invested to reduce lead hazards in housing units would save society $17 to $221. The AAP said that benefit is comparable to that of childhood vaccines.
Even though lead is no longer used in gasoline, paint and many other consumer products, many sources of lead exposure still remain. For example, about 37 million U.S. homes have lead-based paint, according to the doctors’ group. The AAP said other sources include contaminated soil and water, and certain toys, hobby materials, dishware, vinyl mini-blinds and other items.
Pediatricians and other primary care providers should screen children for elevated lead levels if they are between 1 to 2 years of age and live in areas where 25 percent or more of housing was built before 1960, the AAP recommended.
The AAP also advises monitoring of children with blood lead concentrations of more than 5 micrograms per deciliter.
The recommendations were published online June 20 in the journal Pediatrics.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on lead.
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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Close to 2 million U.S. children and teens may suffer concussions annually, say researchers who add that the prevalence of head injuries among American youth has been underestimated for years.
Using data from hospitals, doctor visits and athletic trainers, the investigators estimated between 1 million and 1.9 million concussions occur annually among kids aged 18 and younger due to sports and recreation injuries.
But more than half a million of these head injuries aren’t seen in emergency rooms or by physicians, which is why official tallies are usually too low, they noted.
“There is a lot of uncertainty in how many concussions from sports and recreation occur each year because many concussions are not reported,” explained lead researcher Dr. Mersine Bryan, a pediatrician at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
“Better surveillance for concussions due to sports and recreational activities is needed, so we can understand how kids are getting concussions and ways we can prevent concussions,” Bryan added.
These head injuries are often serious. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a blow to the head resulting in concussion can stretch and damage brain cells and create chemical changes in the brain.
For this study, researchers used three national databases to try to target the total number of childhood concussions. Other research has typically been limited to high school head injuries or ER visits, they noted.
They found that among children diagnosed with concussion, nearly 378,000 were seen by doctors; from 115,000 to 167,000 were treated in emergency rooms; and roughly 3,000 to 5,000 were hospitalized, the researchers found.
But between 500,000 and 1.2 million concussions were reported to certified athletic trainers, the researchers added. These accounted for 23 percent to 53 percent of sports- and recreation-related concussions among high school students, Bryan said.
Concussions were tagged as sports-related if medical records mentioned a sport, whether the injury was from a fall, collision or another mechanism. Head injuries were deemed recreation-related if they occurred in playground-type settings or during activities such as bicycling or skateboarding.
One brain specialist said that even these new estimates are likely way too low.
Dr. John Kuluz, director of traumatic brain injury and neurorehabilitation at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, said doctors’ coding errors on medical forms can result in questionable findings.
“The main problem I have with these estimates is that they are based on diagnostic codes,” he said. “Many doctors do not use the code for concussion. I see it time and again — they use a code like closed head injury, because it’s easier to click on.”
If researchers only look for the concussion code, they’ll miss a lot, Kuluz said.
A study published in May in the journal JAMA Pediatrics also found that many childhood concussions go unreported.
In that report, four out of five children were diagnosed at a primary care practice, not the emergency department.
Responding to that report, Dr. Debra Houry, a CDC injury specialist, said more must be done to track pediatric concussions treated outside the ER.
“Better estimates of the number, causes and outcomes of concussion will allow us to more effectively prevent and treat them, which is a priority area for CDC’s Injury Center,” Houry said.
Kuluz said that parents should suspect a concussion after a head injury “when their child is acting different in any way, when they are dazed or confused or dizzy — even if it’s short-lived.”
If you do suspect a concussion, take your child to an emergency room, he said.
But not every child with a bump on the head has a concussion, Kuluz said. “It’s okay to wait a day to see if the symptoms disappear. It’s not always necessary to rush your child to the emergency room,” he added.
“However, if symptoms persist or worsen, or if there is a change in their consciousness, their thinking or the way they act or are sleepy or vomiting, they should seek immediate attention,” Kuluz said.
Complete rest is essential after a concussion to help the brain heal, according to the CDC.
The report was published online June 20 in the journal Pediatrics.
More information
For more on concussion, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
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• Facebook • Twitter • Delicious • LinkedIn • StumbleUpon • Add to favorites • Email • RSSAnton Yelchin — Shifting Device Possible Cause of Fatal Jeep Accident
The Jeep that rolled backwards and killed 27-year-old actor Anton Yelchin was recalled because the shifting mechanism caused drivers to unintentionally leave it in the wrong gear. TMZ broke the story … the ‘Star Trek’ star was leaving his home…
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• Facebook • Twitter • Delicious • LinkedIn • StumbleUpon • Add to favorites • Email • RSSDon’t Get Caught Without Your Sunscreen
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SUNDAY, June 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Heading out on a warm, sunny day? Don’t forget to cover up — with sunscreen.
“Everybody — and I mean everybody — needs sunscreen,” Dr. Jennifer Caudle a family medicine physician at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stanford, N.J., said in a university news release.
“Your ethnicity doesn’t matter; how easily you tan doesn’t matter. If you go out in the sun without sunscreen you are putting yourself at risk for melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of cancer,” she warned.
Sunscreens carry sun protection factor (SPF) numbers, which indicate how much protection they offer against the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The higher the SPF, the greater the protection.
A broad spectrum sunscreen protects against both ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B, both of which can damage the skin and contribute to skin cancer, Caudle explained.
“And a lot of factors can affect sunscreen performance. Swimming and sweating can wash off some sunscreens and most people don’t use enough or reapply sunscreen often enough,” she said.
Many people don’t know how much sunscreen to apply.
“On average, about one ounce. That may not seem like a lot, but it’s enough to cover your palm or fill a shot glass,” Caudle said.
She added that you should reapply sunscreen at least every two hours for maximum protection even if the sunscreen label advises differently.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on sun safety.
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