Latest news with #leadpoisoning
New York Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Serial Killers of the Pacific Northwest: Did Toxins Make Them Do It?
MURDERLAND: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, by Caroline Fraser Ever since the first Neanderthal clubbed a fellow caveman in a random act of violence, people have puzzled over the whys behind certain homicidal acts. Crimes of passion, possession, jealousy, rage and lust can be explained. But the serial killer who murders innocents without tidy explanation has kept many people of good conscience, and no small number of cops, up at night. Now comes Caroline Fraser, the lyrically luminescent author of books about a beloved heartland author and the odd mysteries of Christian Science, with a unified theory. It's something in the water — and in the air. She draws a clear line between the crimes committed by some of the world's most awful humans and their exposure to lead and other heavy metals from industrial pollution, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. The effects of lead poisoning on children are well documented. The causal link between this toxic chemical element and serial killers is less so. 'Murderland' is a book-length argument for the lead-crime hypothesis — advanced by a handful of studies in the past— connecting the metal to a host of behavioral problems, including extreme violence. 'Recipes for making a serial killer may vary, including such ingredients as poverty, crude forceps delivery, poor diet, physical and sexual abuse, brain damage and neglect,' Fraser writes. 'Many horrors play a role in warping these tortured souls, but what happens if we add a light dusting from the periodic table on top of all that trauma? How about a little lead in your tea?' Fraser won a Pulitzer Prize for her last book, 'Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder,' which would seem to have little in common with this one. But just as Fraser probed a dark underside to that little house on the prairie, she finds menace beneath all the surface beauty in the far corner of America where she grew up. Even Mount Rainier, one of the most sublime volcanoes on the planet, comes in for a slap against its glacial hide. ''The mountain is out,' people say, self-satisfied, self-confident,' Fraser writes. 'But it is all a facade. The mountain is admittedly 'rotten inside.' Hollow, full of gas. A place where bad things happen.' Earthquakes, epic floods, smoldering peaks lurk, just like the lead from smelters. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Scientists may have solved 2,000-year-old mystery death of Roman baby twins
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Lead poisoning may have played a role in the death of fraternal twin babies from 2,000 years ago found buried facing each other in Croatia, according to a new study. Though it's unclear exactly how the infants died, researchers, including Anna Osterholtz from Mississippi State University, suspect lead poisoning may have played a role. The rare double burial was discovered in the Dragulin cemetery in the Croatian city of Trogir, which was part of the Roman province of Illyricum around 47BC. Archaeologists first excavated the cemetery in 2016 when construction for a new parking lot uncovered ancient stone urns. A DNA analysis revealed the infants were fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, buried together in the first or second century AD. 'They were buried in a single event, suggesting that they died at the same time, possibly as stillbirths,' the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science concluded. Artist's drawing of the double burial ( M Daniel Watkins ) Analysis of the skeletons indicated 'significant metabolic disease' in the infant twins and a 'typical Roman diet with marine foods'. The twins likely suffered from nutritional deficiencies, like scurvy or rickets, with their bodies unable to utilise some nutrients. Researchers suspect their mother was malnourished or suffered from a metabolic disease herself which contributed to the poor health of the babies. Alternatively, the study suggests, the infants may have died from metabolic complications caused by lead poisoning. 'Lead poisoning has been linked to increased rates of miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant mortality as well,' the study noted. 'This is due to the fact that lead exposure on the part of the mother is transmitted through placenta to the fetus and later through breast milk to the infant which may start to display pathological changes.' Previous studies have documented the key role played by lead poisoning in the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman world widely used the toxic metal in its pipes and cookware as well as a food preservative and a sweetener in wine. Researchers found conditions in the skeletons of the twins consistent with the effects of lead poisoning such as increased bone porosity. A recent study of 150 people from ancient sites in Croatia also showed a 'tremendous increase in lead levels during the Roman period', the study said. 'The fact that a similar trend was noticed in several Roman period sites in the immediate vicinity of Tragurium may be additional confirmation for this hypothesis.'
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MPS lead crisis; RFK Jr. pressed on prevention effort cuts
The Brief The federal government said its program to address and prevent childhood lead poisoning continues to operate, which came as a surprise to Milwaukee leaders. City of Milwaukee health commissioner Dr. Michael Totoraitis said he's concerned to hear the federal government thinks it's helping, though it's not. LaFollette School, Brown Street Academy and Westside Academy remain closed for lead remediation work. MILWAUKEE - The federal government said its program to address and prevent childhood lead poisoning continues to operate. That came as a surprise to leaders in Milwaukee, who asked for its help during the Milwaukee Public Schools lead crisis, but were denied. That denial came in April because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services eliminated the program altogether. City of Milwaukee health commissioner Dr. Michael Totoraitis said he's concerned to hear the federal government thinks it's helping, though it's not. What we know Before U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even said a word during Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, vice chair and Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin criticized Kennedy over his handling of the department. "Your decision to fire staff and eliminate offices is endangering children, including thousands of children in Milwaukee," Baldwin said, in reference to the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android Kennedy testified to it later in the hearing. "We're continuing to fund the program, and in Milwaukee, we have a team in Milwaukee and we're giving laboratory support to the analytics in Milwaukee," Kennedy said. "And we're working with the health department in Milwaukee." Local perspective Totoraitis is helping lead the response to the MPS lead crisis. LaFollette School, Brown Street Academy and Westside Academy remain closed for lead remediation work. FOX6 News: Has the Milwaukee Health Department received funding at all from the CDC on addressing the lead issue? Totoraitis: No, we have received zero funding from the CDC on addressing the lead issue, and the formal support has ended with the termination of the childhood lead team. The city asked the CDC for help back in March. In April, an employee denied the request due to the "complete loss of the lead program." Dig deeper Totoraitis said their expertise would have helped more than MPS. "It came as a pretty big surprise to myself and my team," he said. "There's a very real reality that now, our country is less safe, because there is no one looking for those patterns of potential poisonings at the federal government." Kennedy has said he hopes to restore the lead prevention program. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News On Wednesday, May 21, MPS announced Starms Early Childhood Center had passed inspection and is now deemed safe. The school district plans to clean 54 other schools before classes start in the fall. The Source The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.
CNN
20-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Kennedy said a ‘team' is in Milwaukee to help with lead contamination. The city says that's not true
Pollution Environmental disease Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the federal government has 'a team in Milwaukee' helping the city address a lead crisis in its schools. The city says that that's not true and that it's still not receiving requested aid from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's childhood lead poisoning experts to deal with the ongoing contamination. During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing to review the president's HHS budget request for 2026, Kennedy fielded questions about programs and staff already slashed from federal health agencies. CNN reported in April that the CDC had denied the city's request for help with lead exposures in Milwaukee Public Schools' aging buildings after the agency's lead experts were swept up in widespread cuts at US health agencies. Kennedy and HHS have said that the government plans to continue the work of lead poisoning prevention and surveillance at the new Administration for a Healthy America, rather than the CDC. The CDC's experts have not been rehired. 'None have been rehired from our lead program or our division,' Dr. Erik Svendsen, who was director of the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, which oversaw the childhood lead program, told CNN on Tuesday. In response to questions Tuesday from Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, about the demise of the CDC's childhood lead poisoning prevention program, Kennedy said, 'We are continuing to fund the program, and in Milwaukee, we have a team in Milwaukee, and we're giving laboratory support to that, to the analytics in Milwaukee, and we're working with the health department in Milwaukee.' Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the City of Milwaukee Health Department, said Kennedy's statement 'is inaccurate.' 'The City of Milwaukee Health Department is not receiving any federal epidemiological or analytical support related to the MPS lead hazard crisis. Our formal Epi Aid request was denied by the CDC,' she wrote in an email from CNN. Reinwald said the department did recently get help from a lab technician from the CDC's Laboratory Leadership Service, who was there from May 5 to May 16 to help calibrate a new instrument in the city's laboratory. 'This support was requested independently of the MPS crisis and was part of a separate, pre-existing need to expand our lab's long-term capacity for lead testing,' Reinwald said. Beyond the contamination in schools, the city has ongoing programs to test for and remediate lead in its aging homes. Earlier this month, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked the city's health commissioner, Dr. Michael Totoraitis, if the agency had enough resources to accomplish what it needed to do. 'We have enough of a team right now,' Totoraitis said. 'I think the long-term investigation into the potential chronic exposures of students at the districts is a part that we were really looking to the CDC to help us with, and unfortunately, HHS had laid off that entire team for childhood blood exposure. 'These are the best and brightest minds in these areas around lead poisoning, and now they're gone.' Andrew Nixon, director of communications for HHS, says the CDC is helping the Milwaukee health agency's lab. At the health department's request, he said in a statement Tuesday, 'CDC is assisting with validating new lab instrumentation used for environmental lead testing. Staff from [the Milwaukee lab] are focused on the lead response and other routine testing while CDC will assist with testing validation, laboratory quality management, and regulatory requirement documentation to onboard the new laboratory instrument.' The city says that the CDC lab technician has left and is not expected to return. As of now, it doesn't anticipate any further help from the CDC. 'MHD is proud of the team currently serving Milwaukee families, managing its regular caseload while also responding to the lead crisis in MPS schools. While we would have welcomed federal support, we continue to move forward without it,' Reinwald said in a statement. At the end of Tuesday's hearing, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, made a statement to 'correct the record.' 'There are no staff on the ground deployed to Milwaukee to address the lead exposure of children in schools, and there are no staff left in that office at CDC, because they have all been fired,' Baldwin told Kennedy. 'I look forward to working with you to reestablish that. It sounds like you have a commitment to that, but we need staff in order to make it function.'
CTV News
17-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Health Canada issues a country-wide recall notice for children's jewelry due to high levels of lead
Children's jewelry from Boutique Chic recalled due to high levels of lead. (Health Canada) Health Canada has announced an expanded national recall on children's jewelry over high levels of lead, according to a notice from the agency. Last updated Friday, the recall includes certain products from children's jewelry brand Boutique Chic. Identified in the notice are All Smiles necklaces, bracelets and rings featuring a spinning smiley face charm. Health Canada's testing revealed that the recalled jewelry contains lead in 'excess of allowable limits,' according to the agency. Lead can be extremely toxic to children. Exposure to lead and cadmium can have serious symptoms like anemia, vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions and coma, as well as serious brain injury and effects related to the liver, kidneys, heart and immune system. Some cases of exposure can be fatal, according to Health Canada. The company reported that 2,047 affected units were sold Canada-wide between January and May. No injuries or incidents related to the recalled products have been reported in Canada as of May 15, 2025. Boutique Chic The bracelet and ring models were added to the recall. (Health Canada) The recalled products include: - Boutique Chic All Smiles Spinner Bracelet in the colour Lilac or Yellow Model Number 91811 Batch Number 9672 UPC 771877918117 - Boutique Chic All Smiles Spinner Necklace in the colour Lilac or Yellow Model Number 92209 Batch Number 9674 UPC 77187792209 - Boutique Chic All Smiles Spinner Ring in the colour Lilac, Yellow or Pink Model Number 84533Batch Number 9774 UPC 771877845338 The UPC, model and batch numbers can be found on the back of the product packaging, the notice says. Customers are advised to immediately take the recalled jewelry away from children and return it for a full refund, Health Canada says. The agency notes that according to the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, it is illegal to import, advertise or sell any jewelry to children under the age of 15 containing more than 90mg/kg of total lead. An earlier recall notice issued by Health Canada included the Boutique Chic All Smiles Spinner Necklaces due to lead levels exceeding the 90mg/kg threshold. Consumers can also contact the importer, Creative Education of Canada Inc., by phone at 1-800-982-2642, or via email at productsafety@
