Lead contamination in Philadelphia's Chinatown discovered by Jefferson Emergency Medicine team

Evidence leads to Food & Drug Administration investigation

2011-03-01

(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA – Recently, a research team from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University discovered an alarming amount of lead contamination in ceramic cooking and eating utensils sold in Philadelphia's Chinatown. The team, led be Gerald O'Malley, D.O., director of Clinical Research; and Thomas Gilmore, M.D., resident, purchased and tested a sampling of Chinese ceramics. Using a LeadCheck®, one area on each item was rubbed with a lead-detecting solution. In almost 30 percent of the items, the area turned pink or red, with red indicating a higher concentration of lead. The results were so alarming, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to instigate further studies of ceramics items imported from Chinese and Mexican cookware.

A Walk and a Hunch This whole investigation started as a hunch. Dr. O'Malley began working in the emergency department at Jefferson this past July so he decided to familiarize himself with the neighborhood. On an excursion to Philadelphia's Chinatown, he noticed many shops selling ceramic kitchenware. Knowing that both Mexico and China are major sources of imports containing lead, he wondered if those Chinese ceramics also contained lead. Prior to joining Jefferson, Dr. O'Malley completed a fellowship in medical toxicology at the University of Colorado's Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. In Denver he had been involved with studying the lead poisoning problem that is pervasive among the Mexican population there.

"Lead poisoning is especially harmful to young children because it affects their developing central nervous system and can cause serious problems like learning difficulties, developmental delays, brain damage or even death," said Dr. O'Malley. "Perhaps not as devastating for adults, lead poisoning can still lead to significant health problems like kidney damage and anemia."

Alarming Finding Dr. O'Malley discussed his concern with Dr. Gilmore, and they formulated a plan to purchase and test a sampling of the Chinese ceramics. Together, with a team of interested medical students, the physicians systematically tested the items for lead content and discovered that 25.3 percent of the items tested positive.

"This test only confirms that there is some level of lead," said Dr. Gilmore. "It's possible that the items tested are within acceptable limits, so we can't say they are illegal at this point. However, this makes for a reasonable inference that many are above the limit, especially those where the area became red."

FDA Interested With testing completed, Drs. O'Malley and Gilmore contacted the Health Department and the FDA. The officials were so alarmed at the significant amount of affected items, that the agency is initiating further studies of imported Chinese and Mexican cookware.

One of Dr. O'Malley's former colleagues in Denver, who is the leader of the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, invited him to present Jefferson's findings at a CDC committee meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. O'Malley was unable to attend due to prior commitments, so Dr. Gilmore presented in his absence. After the presentation, the committee members remarked that the potential hazards associated with lead paint and glazes on Chinese ceramics sold in Philadelphia were of great interest to them. In addition, they believe the public health community has not appreciated the potential significance of this particular source of lead exposure.

"The next step in the study is for our team to identify how much of the lead is getting into the food and liquids contained in the contaminated articles through a leaching test," said Dr. O'Malley. "The results of that will quantitatively identify whether or not the levels exceed governmental allowable limits. If it's as high as we suspect, we'll work on eliminating this public health hazard and treating people affected by it. My concern is that this is an unrecognized source of lead poisoning in a large population of patients that aren't normally tested for lead."

### Editor's Note: To read a blog entry about this story, log onto The Daily Dose @ Jefferson: http://www.jeffersonhospital.org/The-Daily-Dose/jefferson-emergency-doctors-discover-lead-danger-in-phillys-chinatown-and-beyond.aspx

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Team delivers development aid via cell phone animations

2011-03-01

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — A farmer in Niger learns how to protect his crops from insects. A resident of Port-au-Prince or a rural Haitian village learns how to avoid exposure to cholera. An entrepreneur in Mali gets step-by-step instructions on extracting the oil from shea seeds to make shea butter she can sell at a local market. These people are benefiting from a new approach to sustainable development education that reaches a much larger audience than traditional methods – and at a fraction of the cost. The initiative, led by a team of extension educators and faculty at the ...

A grudge match between humanity and death -- who wins?

2011-03-01

FAIRFAX, Va., February 28, 2011—Death can be terrifying. Recognizing that death is inescapable and unpredictable makes us incredibly vulnerable, and can invoke feelings of anxiety, hatred and fear. But new research by George Mason University psychology professor Todd Kashdan shows that being a mindful person not only makes you generally more tolerant and less defensive, but it can also actually neutralize fears of dying and death. "Mindfulness is being open, receptive, and attentive to whatever is unfolding in the present moment," says Kashdan. In his latest research, ...

New marker found for Sanfilippo disease

2011-03-01

Sanfilippo disease is a rare disorder caused by the failure of enzymes to break down specific kinds of complex carbohydrates, resulting in their accumulation in cells and often severe physical and neurological problems – and sometimes early death. In a paper published in the March 4 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Jeffrey D. Esko, PhD, professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, describe the build-up of a novel secondary metabolite in Sanfilippo disease, ...

WSU researcher creates patented personalized therapy that causes cancer cells to kill themselves

2011-03-01

A Wayne State University School of Medicine physician-researcher has developed a personalized therapy to treat a wide range of cancers. The treatment is based on a naturally occurring human enzyme that has been genetically modified to fool cancer cells into killing themselves. The unique concept, patented by Wayne State University, was successfully demonstrated on melanoma cells that are resistant to routine treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Melanoma is a perfect model for testing this new therapy because it is considered the most aggressive form of human ...

Human stem cells from fat tissue fuse with rat heart cells and beat

2011-03-01

If Dr. Doolittle is famous for talking to animals, then here's a story that might make him hold his tongue: According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), scientists have successfully fused human stem cells derived from subcutaneous adipose (fat) tissue with muscle cells from rat hearts. Not only did these cells "talk" to form new muscle cells altogether, but they actually beat. "Recovery of regenerative cells located in the stromal vascular fraction of a patient's own subcutaneous tissue is relatively simple and can be used for ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine study identifies genes associated with binge drinking

2011-03-01

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers have identified two genes associated with binge drinking that may open doors to new, more effective treatments for excessive alcohol drinking. The scientists found that manipulating two receptors in the brain, GABA receptors and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), "caused profound reduction" of binge drinking for two weeks in rodents that had been bred and trained to drink excessively. The study was published online the week of Feb. 28 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. About 30 percent of ...

Intervention helps women manage weight during and after pregnancy

2011-03-01

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Excessive weight gain isn't healthy at any stage of life, but during pregnancy it can do lasting harm to the mother and baby alike. Now researchers at Brown University and The Miriam Hospital are encouraged by a new study describing an intervention that helped pregnant women control their weight. "This study suggests that a lifestyle intervention can help women manage their weight during pregnancy, prevent health problems during pregnancy, and reduce weight retention after having a baby," said study lead author Suzanne Phelan, adjunct ...

Gay rights movement born in 19th century Germany, scholar says

2011-03-01

Same-sex erotic relationships are as old as humanity, but our modern understanding of what it means to be homosexual—and the earliest gay rights movement—started in nineteenth-century Germany, according to an article by historian Robert Beachy from Goucher College. The article, "The German Invention of Homosexuality," is published in a recent issue of The Journal of Modern History. Beachy's book on the subject, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (Knopf), is due out next year. According to Beachy, modern conceptions of homosexuality began, ironically, with an ...

New peptide could be effective treatment for triple negative breast cancer

2011-03-01

A new peptide developed by researchers in Temple University's College of Science and Technology has demonstrated efficacy against triple negative breast cancer. The leptin receptor antagonist peptide, developed by researchers Laszlo Otvos and Eva Surmacz, could become an attractive option for triple negative breast cancer treatment, especially in the obese patient population. The researchers published their findings online in the European Journal of Cancer. According to the researchers, triple-negative breast cancers—which represent 10󈞀 percent of all mammary ...

Development team achieves 1 terabit per second data rate on a single integrated photonic chip

2011-03-01

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28—With worldwide Internet data traffic increasing by 50 percent each year, telecommunications companies that handle this digital torrent must be able to economically expand the capacities of their networks while also adapting to new, more-efficient data-handling technologies. Over the last decade, a development team at Infinera Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif. has pioneered the design and manufacture of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) aimed at meeting that need. This technology has enabled the team to achieve a record one trillion bits per second (1 Terabit/s) ...

Lead contamination in Philadelphia's Chinatown discovered by Jefferson Emergency Medicine team

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: