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Mine tailings containing lead and other toxic heavy metals
surround the city
of Picher, OK. L.E.A.D. Agency is actively pushing for a quick solution
to this health and environmental hazard. People can get lead in their bodies by breathing or swallowing lead dust. Even children who seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies. There are about 600,000 toxic waste sites across the country. One out of four people in America lives within four miles of a Superfund site. Eighty-five percent of all Superfund sites have contaminated groundwater. In the U.S., about 900,000 children ages 1 to 5 have a blood-lead level above the level of concern. Lead causes learning and behavioral problems. Environmental toxicants are a growing cause of preventable illness in children. Children's smaller body size and developing systems place them at greater health risk than adults. Children's activities put them at higher risk of exposure to hazardous substances that might be in water or soil. Because they are smaller, children receive higher doses of toxicants per pound of body weight. Pound for pound, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults do. Oklahoma has 12 distinct ecosystems - including mesas, sand dunes, wetlands, mountains, and tall grass prairie - second only to Texas, which has 13. Roughly 4% of all lead produced in the US - about 80,000 tons a year - becomes bullets and shot. -Los Angeles Times Lead is largely inert, but in the body it can lead to learning impairments and neurological damage. -Los Angeles Times When exposed to acidic water or soil, bullets and shot dissolve and can enter soil and reach groundwater. -Los Angles Times To Top of Page. |
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Shooting ranges should not be located near wetlands frequented by birds,
and soil should be
monitored to ensure it's not too acidic.
-Rick Patterson Many scientists now believe that even low levels of lead that are under the
government's official safety threshold can significantly reduce IQ in children. Spread across the population, low level lead exposures may be depressing the intelligence of society at large. -Joan Lowy 2004 Lead's toxic legacy over the past century rivals that of tobacco or asbestos and continues today. "Deceit and Denial" - David Rosner It is horrifying that children continue to be poisoned by it (lead). Lead is called a xenobiotic - a foreign substance with no useful role in human physiology, toxic even in minute quantities. Lead belongs to a class of compounds known as heavy metals.
These include
about 40 elements occurring naturally in the Earth’s crust. The lead equivalent in size to one granule of sugar a day is enough to drive a child's blood lead level to over 30 micrograms. Scientists believe that lead and other environmental toxins, like mercury and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), interfere with brain growth. Once the damage takes place, it's permanent. Taking lead out of a child's
environment can lower blood lead levels and reduce the risk of
further 1888 - The Eagle-Picher Mining Company is organized. It dominates a 2,000 square mile area of lead mining in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma. 1947 - The last year Sherwin-Williams produces and sells white lead. Glidden The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission prohibits the use of all lead paint after February 27, 1978. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly three quarters of the homes in the U.S. built before 1980 contain some lead paint. 1991 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls lead poisoning
the A 1995 article in the Atlantic Monthly quotes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - lead poisoning continues to be the No. 1 “environmental disease of children, affecting at least ten percent of all preschoolers.” To Top of Page. CDC, HUD and EPA set a national goal to eliminate childhood lead poisoning as a public health problem by 2010. Childhood lead poisoning can cause serious health problems ranging from poor learning in school to irreversible brain damage. Once ingested, lead inhibits a child's ability to absorb iron, one of the basic building blocks of brain, nerve and bone development. Lead Poisoning is a condition caused by swallowing or inhaling lead. Even small amounts of lead can be harmful. It is easier to prevent lead poisoning than to treat it. Because the symptoms aren't obvious, it is important to get your child tested and know how to lower your child's risks. Do this even if your child seems healthy. The level of lead in your child's blood can be measured. Early detection means early intervention so less damage occurs. Once lead gets in the body, it enters the bloodstream and soft body tissues (such as the kidney, liver, and brain). From there it goes to hard body tissues such as bone and teeth. Lead can be stored in hard body tissues for years. Lead poisoning can affect an unborn child or a breast-feeding infant through the mother’s milk. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding should avoid exposure to lead. Young children aged 6 months to 6 years are at greatest risk of being exposed to lead because they often put things in their mouths. Uncontrolled toxic chemicals and wastes have reached crisis proportions. "Toxics" are perhaps our nation’s Number 1 hidden health problem. A probable carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent, cadmium accumulates in the body and To Top of Page. The concern with children is that they ingest more toxic chemicals in what
they breathe EPA reports that a predatory fish can have more than 1 million times the mercury found in the surrounding water. Mercury is highly toxic. One study found that 1/70 of a teaspoon of pure mercury is enough to contaminate a 25-acre lake. Children can suffer from lead poisoning if you bring lead home on your work clothes or shoes. Young children swallow dust when they put their hands and toys in their mouths. If that dust has any lead in it, the child can be harmed. People of any age can be adversely affected by lead exposure, but young children are especially vulnerable, because their brains are still developing. Lead is a toxin that builds up in the body when it is ingested. Occupational and take-home lead poisoning remain important public health problems. Invisible toxins may be carried home to household members by inadequately protected Lead is used in more than 100 industries. To Top of Page. Lead dust carried from work settles on surfaces in the vehicle and home where it can be ingested or inhaled by young children with normal mouthing behavior and by household members handling workers’ clothing. Children of lead-exposed workers have disproportionately
high BLLs when compared to other children. Reports of take-home lead exposure include work in mining, automotive radiator repair,
battery reclamation, construction, and antique furniture refinishing. Lead is a potent poison that affects multiple body systems.
If only half the 25.5 million tons of durable goods now discarded were reused, more than 110,000 new jobs could be created. -Brend Platt, Institute for Local Self-Reliance 100% of the people recently tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control had Once ingested, lead inhibits a child’s ability to absorb iron, one of the basic building blocks of brain, nerve and bone development. Lead also stunts a broad range of chemical transmitters that affect hearing, sight and perception. Long-term exposure to lead can cause lifelong deficits. Scientific evidence has documented that environmental lead causes academic failure. As long as society allows environmental lead to poison children, those children will fail in school, engage in violence and drug use, and disrupt the education of other students. |
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