Sources of lead during pregnancy and protecting your baby

I think this topic is important and worth spending some more time on, so here goes:

Lead has a half life of 25 years, so it stays around a long time. Your body stores lead in the bones, brain, and teeth. For women, this means that when we are exposed to lead as children, we then expose our children during pregnancy. Pregnancy causes bone loss which releases stored lead back into the bloodstream where it crosses the placenta to the growing baby. A study comparing maternal blood levels during each trimester of pregnancy with cognitive development of the child for the first two years of life concluded that fetal lead exposure does have a negative impact on the neurological development of the child and lead exposure during the first trimester seems to have the most impact.

This is certainly scary information for anyone thinking of having children. There are steps you can take to protect your baby. Calcium prevents bone loss, but you need to up your calcium intake before you get pregnant if possible to protect your baby during the most vulnerable window. You can take a calcium supplement or pay special attention to consuming natural sources of calcium. If you are vegan or don't consume dairy, you can eat kale, blackstrap molasses, collard greens, and turnip greens.(For a longer list of calcium rich foods, please see the resources.) You can also have your blood lead level checked before and during pregnancy. Be sure to talk to your practitioner if you have questions or concerns about your lead level during pregnancy.

Resources:
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm
http://leadonthebrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/lead-in-breast-milk-and-during.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1665421/

Time to band together to ban Lead bullets

This Condor has been released back into the wild after chelation therapy to treat lead poisoning

Over 100 environmental organizations have filed a petition with the EPA asking the agency to ban lead shot used in hunting. Their petition estimates that up to 20 millions birds die every year from ingesting lead shot in the US alone. This includes swans, bald and golden eagles, condors, and over 70 other species. This is a national tragedy and a totally preventable one. With an alternative available, there just is no excuse for this to continue.

The use of lead shot for hunting water fowl was banned nationwide in 1991 due to lead poisoning deaths among water fowl and bald and golden eagles. Lead was a primary factor in the decline of the California condors in the 1980's and remains a threat to their recovery. California took steps to limit the use of lead to hunt big game and other mammals in 2008. Both these measures have produced positive results, but it isn't enough. The California measures need to be adopted nationwide.

Resources:
http://www.lead.org.au/lanv10n3/lanv10n3-1.html
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/25/2082149/up-to-20m-birds-eat-lead-die-per.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/condor/
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017656

Flouridated water contributes to lead poisoning

I came across an interesting study published in 2010 about the combined effects of lead and fluoride. Most water supplies in the US and a lot of our food supply is fluoridated. Dr. Sawan and his team used rats to study the effect that fluoride has on lead absorption. They divided the rats into groups and gave them different combinations of lead and fluoride and lead or fluoride alone. They found the highest levels of lead in the teeth and the bones of rats exposed to fluoride together suggesting that fluoride aids the body in absorbing lead. I also found the results from three other studies by Macek (2006) and Masters and Coplan (2000, 2007) that found higher levels of lead in silico-fluoridated communities and higher blood levels of lead in children in fluoridated communities where lead is already present in the environment. 

Another explanation for the correlation between higher levels of lead and fluoridated water supplies are the types of chemicals typically used in municipal water systems known as fluorosilicates. These fluorosilicates have a special relationship with lead. They are commonly used in industrial applications as solvents to remove surface lead from leaded-brass machine parts. So, what does that mean for all of us drinking the water? Fluorosilicates cause more lead to leach from the pipes, fixtures, and faucets and be passed on to you and your children. 


resources:
http://www.enviroblog.org/2009/07/recipe-for-a-toxic-brew-lead-pipes-fluoride-and-disinfectants.html
http://www.joaoaquila.com/2012/03/Limit-Fluoride-to-Prevent-Lead-Poisoning-study-says/
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_28eb9c0a-c250-11e0-93a4-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_health/health2/18-08-flouride-problems-lead-leaching-plumbing.htm
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Limit+Fluoride+to+Prevent+Lead+Poisoning,+Study+Says.-a0221218249
R.D. Masters and M. Coplan. “Brain Biochemistry and the Violence Epidemic: Toward a ‘Win-
Win’ Strategy for Reducing Crime” Super-Optimizing Examples: Across Public Policy
Problems, Stuart S. Nagel, ed., Nova Science Publishers, Inc, New York (1999).
R.D. Masters and M. Coplan. “Water Treatment with Silicofluorides and Lead Toxicity,”
Intern. J. Environmental Studies 56, 435-449 (1999).
http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/chem_background/exsumpdf/fluorosilicates.pdf

Please consider signing this petition

I wanted to share this petition asking that the budget for Lead Poisoning Prevention be restored.

http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-restore-funding-to-help-lead-poisoned-children-2

Funding for Lead Poisoning Prevention cut

Funding for the CDC's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program have just been cut by 94%. I can not adequately express how angry this makes me. In January, two expert bodies recommended that the level of concern for blood lead levels be cut in half, possibly quadrupling the number of children officially effected by lead and what is the response? Decimate the funding for the CDC's program. The budget for the CDC's lead prevention programs went from $29.2 million last year to $2 million this year. This money goes to local health departments to fund, education, testing, and data collection. It really worries me what this will do to the availability of services. It is already very difficult to get help in many areas and there is much work to be done on the education side of things as well. A recent study showed that for every dollar invested in lead paint hazard control, there is a return of $17 to $221 or a net savings of $181 to 269 billion. That is huge. If we invest in prevention, we save a huge amount of money down the road. According to Ruth Ann Norton, the Executive Director of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, kids effected by lead are 7 times more likely to drop out of school, earn less money, cost more in taxpayer dollars, and provide less in tax revenue. Bleak predictions for my little guy and the millions like him.



Resources:
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.0800408
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/about/program.htm
http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(12)00002-6/fulltext
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/lead-poisoning-prevention-funding_n_1354205.html
http://www.thedailyactivist.com/social-issues-cdc-lead-prevention-budget-drops/
http://leadsafeillinois.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/cuts-to-lead-poisoning-prevention-program-nbc-nightly-news/ 
http://grist.org/pollution/get-the-lead-out-have-we-already-forgotten-this-lesson/

New Lead Threshold Recommended

The Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention recommended on January 5, 2012 that the CDC lower the level of concern for lead from 10 micrograms to 5 micrograms. The NIH also recently endorsed lowering the threshold. While I am encouraged by this recommendation, I am skeptical that it will make any difference. The CDC has known for several years that an overwhelming amount of research shows damage from lead exposure at levels down to 2 micrograms. What have they done about this? Well they made a nice little FAQ page on their website addressing all the reasons that they are not going to lower the level of concern even though they are aware of the research. It is estimated that if they lower the level, lead poisoning diagnosis will go from 250,000 cases to as many as 1,000,000. That number is staggering. One million children with cognitive delays, memory and attention issues, and other learning disabilities a year! One million children born healthy and irreversibly damage by their environment. One million children like my sweet little boy. We need more awareness of this issue and more safeguards in place. We need better laws on testing imported toys and dishware and more consequences when lead is found in these items. There needs to be protection for renters and buyers of older homes as well and more financial help with professional lead abatement.

Lead Disclosure Legal Requirements - US

In 1992, a law was passed that requires sellers and landlords of certain pre 1978 housing to make certain disclosures about known lead dangers in the home they are selling or renting. Basically, people selling or renting a home built in 1977 or earlier must tell you if they know that there is lead based paint in the home. They must also provide you with the pamphlet titled "Protecting Your Family from Lead in Your Home" and any available written reports.   Home buyers also have to be given a 10 day period to conduct a lead assessment at their own expense.

There are several types of housing exempt from this requirement:

• Efficiencies, lofts, and dormitories
• Housing for the elderly (unless children live there)
• Housing for the handicapped (unless children live there)
• Leases for less than 100 days (short term and vacation rentals)
• Rental housing that has been inspected by a certified Lead paint inspector and found to be lead free
• Foreclosure sales (including HUD REO sales where the seller is Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Rural Housing Services, other state, local, or Federal agencies.)

The law does not require landlords or sellers to actually do anything about the Lead. It also does not require them to test for lead. This requires notification of known lead based paint or disclosure that the home was built before 1978 only.

In my experience, this can be very important. In my rental home that I shared pictures of our lead testing in a previous post, the landlords did not properly disclose the lead based paint dangers in the lease. For that reason, I was able to immediately break the lease without penalty. It is really important to know your legal rights in this and use them when needed.




Resources from the EPA and HUD:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/lead/library/enforcement/fs-discl.pdf 
This link has a good summary handout of the legal requirements.
http://www.epa.gov/region1/enforcement/leadpaint/section1018.html
EPA New England summary of the legal requirements, including sample language for Lead based paints disclosure and numbers to report violations.