Latest news with #WestVirginiaDepartmentofHealthandHumanResources
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
There are more ways to make West Virginia healthy
The Biden administration finalized a rule to require utilities to conduct an inventory of water lines, and to replace ones made of lead. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan | Getty Images) I'll hand it to West Virginia lawmakers for being on the forefront of a national movement during the recent legislative session, and educating me while doing so. I hadn't thought much about artificial food dyes, or problems associated with them, until a bill to ban them started gaining traction in February. The synthetic dyes have been a target of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement because they are petroleum-based and have been linked to adverse effects in children. The dyes are found in a range of foods particularly marketed to children, including cereals, candies and drinks. Growing up, I recall often, while bored, reading the nutrition labels as I ate, despite not really understanding the ingredients I saw. Following the legislation's passage and considering what comes next, Del. Adam Burkhammer said, 'we need to look at everything.' If that's true, I encourage people under the Make America Healthy Again umbrella and West Virginia lawmakers to consider ways to address toxins that we've known for a long time are harmful and have been hurting West Virginians. Take lead poisoning, for example. Lead can be found in soil and in some pipes that pump our drinking water. It also was used in paint before 1978. Much of the housing stock in Appalachia is old, and old chipped paint and dust poses a big risk to toddlers. There's no safe level for lead exposure. It can cause behavior problems and mental defects in children. One way to know where lead is a problem is to screen children. And we're not doing that enough. Back in 2021, Clarksburg saw a sharp increase in the number of children who had high lead exposure, likely due to lead service lines. In a presentation on the state's response, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said low screening rates and lack of awareness about the harms of lead poisoning were challenges. They recommended that the state incentivize lead screenings and formulate a state action plan. The Biden administration finalized a rule to require utilities to conduct an inventory of water lines, and to replace ones made of lead. This will be hard work; home and business owners can be hard to reach. Then, typically the utility will be on the hook for replacing the lead pipe up to the home. The owner would have to replace the pipes in the home, which can be costly. Where do policymakers fit into this? The Legislature could allocate more funding to health departments to create and implement lead action plans, including intense screening outreach and education. The state could also identify ways to create (and actually put money into) a fund to help homeowners replace their lead pipes. This lead example has taken a lot of space. So I'll spare the reader similar explanations on other environmental and public health issues that come to mind where I think common ground can be found with the MAHA movement. Those are: Power plant arsenic and mercury emissions that seep into water Groundwater pollution from oil and gas drilling, transportation spills, and manufacturing Air pollution for people who live near factories, plants, major roadways Tobacco use Black lung disease and other workplace injuries and illnesses PFAS, or forever chemical, contamination (which the state did take action on, but unfortunately has been put on pause thanks to the Trump administration) I hope food dyes are just a start. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal judge dismisses lawsuit meant to improve WV's troubled foster care system, problems persist
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, located at One Davis Square in Charleston, (Lexi Browning | West Virginia Watch) A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by foster children in 2019 against the state that sought to mandate changes in the troubled system. West Virginia foster care, which has been overburdened amid the state's substance abuse crisis, continues to house children in hotels and group homes due to a shortage of foster families and appropriate mental health care for kids. There's a shortage of child protective services workers to check on children, and current workers remain overburdened with cases. While problems persist, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin said that the issues can't be resolved by a federal court. 'This court cannot take over the foster care system of West Virginia,' Goodwin wrote in an opinion dismissing the case. 'West Virginia's foster care system has cycled through inaction, bureaucratic indifference, shocking neglect and temporary fixes for years. The blame squarely lies with West Virginia state government.' 'When elected officials fail, the ballot box is the remedy,' he said. A Better Childhood, a New York-based nonprofit organization that brought the lawsuit with the children, said they will appeal the decision. 'We are stunned and shocked by the court's decision,' said Marcia Lowry, A Better Childhood's executive director. She referenced a recent Kanawha County incident where a child in an abuse and neglect case attempted suicide after being placed in a hotel by state CPS. Goodwin's dismissal order came on the same day that Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers ordered a monitor be put in place to oversee CPS placements in hotels and camps. 'Neither the Legislature nor the executive branch have acted to protect children from the horrors of abusive homes, placements in hotels, attempted suicide brought on by despair. Now the court – the last resort to protect constitutional rights – turns its back too and says that it will not protect the children. We plan to appeal as quickly as possible,' Lowry said. The Department of Human Services, which oversees foster care, did not immediately return a request for comment. The lawsuit also alleged that the state failed to properly care for thousands of children by leaving them to languish in the system with no plans for permanent homes. DoHS has tried to have the case thrown out, citing improvements to the system like hiring additional CPS workers. The state has paid more than $6.3 million to Brown and Peisch, a law firm in Washington, D.C. that has provided the state's legal counsel in the case since 2020. Goodwin, in his 19-page order, said he recognized that this result was 'an unsatisfying result to years-long litigation demanding improvement of West Virginia's foster care system.' 'I know that there are children who deeply suffer in the custody of the state,' he wrote. 'This compelled dismissal is in no way an endorsement of the system as it remains … State officials can no longer hide behind this lawsuit to avoid the consequences of their political decisions.' Disability Rights West Virginia also represented children in the lawsuit. 'West Virginia's policymakers and politicians have failed our children, and DRWV has a number of legal initiatives in the works to do what our state leaders fail to do,' said DRWV Legal Director Mike Folio. The organization recently launched a children's first initiative to 'prioritize limited resources to protect West Virginia's children in foster care and the juvenile justice system,' he said.
