Posted on 06/06/2007 8:01:49 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
The lead that recently poisoned a San Joaquin County girl did not come from her house's paint, public health nurse Gale Heinrich said. It came from her tea parties.
"She was drinking her juice in these," said Heinrich, holding a piece of glazed terra cotta pottery, imported from Mexico.
The glaze contained lead, which leached into the child's drinks. Now the small cup is part of an educational display in Heinrich's north Stockton office. It sits among candies, home remedies, mineral supplements, cosmetics, vinyl mini blinds - all lead-tainted.
San Joaquin County documents about 100 borderline and 20 full-blown cases of lead poisoning every year.
Lead poisoning, especially among children, harms mental development.
"In the early '90s, paint was really all we knew about," said Heinrich, who oversees the county's childhood lead poisoning prevention program. Now, she said, as many as half of lead poisoning cases can be traced to imported products used in many immigrant communities, whose families aren't always aware of their risks.
"It's still a problem," she said. "It's still out there, and it's really sad."
It takes a blood test to detect lead poisoning, and many children show no symptoms.
In some cases, a poisoned toddler will have delayed speech, Heinrich said. A school-age child might seem aggressive or have trouble paying attention.
Lead poisoning can be treated, but the harm it does to a child's brain can't be reversed.
"Usually, these kids are in special education for the rest of their lives," she said.
Pam Khang is a health worker with the Lao Family Community of Stockton.
Her own childhood fevers were treated with pay-loo-ah, a bright red powder that can consist of as much as 90 percent lead.
"My dad and my mom, we lived in town," Khang said. "Every single time we were sick, my dad or my mom went to the herb man, and he gave it to them."
As an adult, Khang learned from Tung Tran - an outreach worker who assists Heinrich in the Public Health Services Department - that the remedy is dangerous.
"It is full of lead. ... It's not good for children to have," Khang said. "I tell all my parents that that's not good for children. Trash it."
Tran visits health fairs and community organizations to discuss lead poisoning. Sometimes he visits neighborhoods, knocking on doors to talk with parents about potentially harmful products, such as pay-loo-ah, used mainly in Southeast Asian households.
It isn't the only home remedy with a high lead content. Latino children with empacho - a stomach ailment - sometimes are treated with azarcon or greta. The orange and yellow powders are nearly 100 percent lead, according to the California Department of Health Services.
Also in Heinrich's office are pieces of tainted jewelry, a small vial of surma - an eyeliner that has caused lead poisoning in Pakistani families, she said - and tamarind candies, imported from Mexico.
Stockton mother Rosa Chavez said her three children enjoy such candies, sold commonly in flea markets, corner stores and from ice cream trucks. But she knows that some have been found to contain lead. "I'm careful," she said. "I don't want them to have anything dangerous."
I’m surprised the Dollar Stores aren’t mentioned in this piece.
All we get from them is junk.
bingo
Do they have lead in their things????
Next they’ll use drain cleaner ...........
That’s what I’ve heard. I think mostly stuff from China, but maybe also other third world countries. That includes toys, the stuffing in soft toys is supposed to be nasty, etc. Never buy anything from them that you ingest, even their toothpaste.
Heavy metals are ubiquitous in our modern world; they were common enough in the ancient world too! I take 250 mg daily of EDTA (ethylene diamine tetracetic acid) which is the old standby treatment for lead poisoning. This minor amount of EDTA chelates heavy metals over a period of years as well as the calcium deposited in my arteries. To prevent deficiencies in metals that I require I also supplement daily with chromium III, vanadium, etc. The brand that I have used for years is Oral Chelator by Vitamin Research Products along with the Extend Ultra formula and Advanced Essential Minerals. BTW, my heart CT scan shows almost no calcium deposits in my arteries after many years of fighting high cholesterol.
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