(Press-News.org) Philadelphia, PA -- An initiative in St. Louis targeted the homes of pregnant women to receive inspection and remediation of lead hazards before the birth of a child. According to a study just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology this measure prevented childhood lead poisoning and reduced the overall burden of lead toxicity in children. Historically, the city had used an approach that waited until a child tested positive for lead poisoning, and then addressed home lead hazards to prevent future harm.
"Our data provide evidence that a program of prenatal home screening and lead hazard remediation is effective," reports lead author Daniel R. Berg, MD, MPH, of the Department of Internal Medicine, Family Care Health Centers, St. Louis, Missouri. "Children not only had a lower rate of poisoning, but also a lower average blood lead level. This is significant, since decreased intelligence in children is observed at blood lead levels below the government definition of lead poisoning, and no safe threshold of lead exposure in children has been found."
The Heavy Metal Project targeted the homes of pregnant women from a clinic primarily serving African-American women on Medicaid to receive prenatal home inspection and remediation of lead hazards. Home inspections were conducted by certified inspectors, and when lead was found, remediation efforts included paint stabilization, window replacement, and cleaning. Blood lead levels were obtained from 60 children. The average blood lead level among participants was 2.70 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL) versus 3.63 µg/dL for controls. Blood lead levels greater than 5 µg/dL were found in 13.3% of study participants and 22.5% of controls.
A recent study in Philadelphia that screened and remediated newborns' homes did not show similar results. However, 62.5% of the homes in the St. Louis study underwent remediation, while only 28.2% of the homes in Philadelphia did. The control population in St. Louis was older at the time of blood testing, and St. Louis possibly has a riskier housing environment.
The authors note that ideally, cities would be able to correct lead hazards in all available housing, but this is not financially possible. "Long term solutions will only be possible with well-designed public policies which make use of both private and public monies for building repair, demolition, creation of new affordable housing developments, and targeted home screenings such as the one in our study," says Dr. Berg.
Obstetricians should refer high-risk patients for prenatal home lead hazard screening and remediation, the authors recommend. "Philosophically, this screening is similar to screening pregnancies for potential complications, and newborns for congenital metabolic diseases. Lead poisoning, however, is more prevalent than many disorders," Dr. Berg notes. "Neonatal screening can detect a treatable disease in 1 of 800 newborns, but screening the homes of pregnant women for lead hazards can prevent lead poisoning in 1 of 27 children in the City of St. Louis."
### END
Prenatal remediation strategy significantly reduces lead poisoning in children
2012-03-05
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
UC Davis research shows how the body senses a range of hot temperatures
2012-03-05
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —The winter sun feels welcome, but not so a summer sunburn. Research over the past 20 years has shown that proteins on the surface of nerve cells enable the body to sense several different temperatures. Now scientists have discovered how just a few of these proteins, called ion channels, distinguish perhaps dozens of discrete temperatures, from mildly warm to very hot.
Researchers showed that the building blocks, or subunits, of heat-sensitive ion channels can assemble in many different combinations, yielding new types of channels, each capable of ...
New high definition fiber tracking reveals damage caused by traumatic brain injury, Pitt team finds
2012-03-05
PITTSBURGH -- A powerful new imaging technique called High Definition Fiber Tracking (HDFT) will allow doctors to clearly see for the first time neural connections broken by traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other disorders, much like X-rays show a fractured bone, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in a report published online today in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
In the report, the researchers describe the case of a 32-year-old man who wasn't wearing a helmet when his all-terrain vehicle crashed. Initially, his CT scans showed bleeding and swelling ...
Students of the University of Zagreb will use AxSTREAM to learn about the fundamental principles of Turbomachinery Design and Optimization
2012-03-05
the University of Zagreb, the biggest Croatian University and the oldest continuously operating university in the South East Europe, has adopted AxSTREAM for teaching and research in the field of Axial Turbine Design. The University and SoftInWay Inc. signed a software license agreement to incorporate the Educational Version of AxSTREAM (AEV) into the university curriculum. The students will have an opportunity to use the Turbomachinery Design Software AxSTREAM for their final year projects to design flow path of small Axial Gas Turbines and get a better and real-life understanding ...
Nearby chimpanzee populations show much greater genetic diversity than distant human populations
2012-03-05
Chimpanzee populations living in relatively close proximity are substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents, according to a study published today in PLoS Genetics. The study suggests that genomics can provide a valuable new tool for use in chimpanzee conservation, with the potential to identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or the provenance of a sample of bush meat.
Common chimpanzees in equatorial Africa have long been recognized as falling into three distinct populations, or sub-species: western, central ...
Mystery deepens around dark core in cosmic collision
2012-03-05
SAN FRANCISCO -- Five years ago, San Francisco State researcher Andisheh Mahdavi and his colleagues observed an unexpected dark core at the center of Abell 520, a cosmic "train wreck" of galaxy clusters. With new space-based telescope observations, they have confirmed that the core really does exist. But they are no closer to explaining why it is there.
When galaxy clusters crash into each other, the bright matter of galaxies sticks together with the mysterious substance called dark matter, leaving behind hot gases. Or at least that is what astronomers have observed in ...
Do More In Less: 2012 EzPaycheck Payroll Software Boosts Small Businesses In Downturn
2012-03-05
Payroll and check printing software provider halfpricesoft.com released the new version of ezPaycheck payroll software, which can simplifies the time-consuming payroll tasks and helps small business do first thing first. This new version is customized for small businesses with less than 20 employees with straight-forward user interface design and form level help buttons.
Main updates in the new edition paycheck software include:
- the latest tax changes on the federal and state tax tables
- the new W2 and W3 forms for Year 2012 tax season
- the new Form 940 for ...
Protecting living fossil trees
2012-03-05
Scientists are working to protect living fossil trees in Fiji from the impact of climate change with cutting-edge DNA sequencing technology.
Dr Peter Prentis, from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty, said the findings would enable researchers to understand how biological diversity is generated.
"Fiji is a hotspot for biodiversity. Most of the species that occur in Fiji aren't found anywhere else in the world," he said.
"My project looks at how island species in these ancient groups of trees originated."
Dr Prentis will use $150,000 DNA sequencer technology, called ...
DeskCenter USA Inc. is Presenting New Version 9.4 at CeBit 2012
2012-03-05
March 1, 2012 Long Beach, NY USA DeskCenter USA, Inc. is presenting the new version 9.4 at CeBIT 2012
DeskCenter USA, Inc., the independent distributor of DeskCenter Solutions AG., announces that it will present the new Version 9.4 for private review at CeBit 2012.
This will be the first time that the new version 9.4 of the "DeskCenter Management Suite" will be shown to the public. Due to the success and great market acceptance of this full featured IT Management solution in the last few years, we have chosen to show all the new features during private product ...
R-loops break down gene silencing
2012-03-05
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have figured out how the human body keeps essential genes switched "on" and silences the vast stretches of genetic repeats and "junk" DNA.
Frédéric Chédin, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, describes the research in a paper published today (March 1) in the journal Molecular Cell. The work could lead to treatments for lupus and other autoimmune diseases, by reversing the gene-silencing process known as cytosine methylation.
"R-loops" are the key, say graduate student Paul Ginno, ...
Cell highlights BGI studies on single-cell sequencing, leading to a new era of cancer research
2012-03-05
March 2, 2012, Shenzhen China – BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, developed single-cell genome sequencing technology and published two research papers for cancer single-cell sequencing in the research journal Cell. In the papers, which were published today in the same issue of Cell, BGI researchers applied their new single-cell sequencing (SCS) method to identify the genetic characteristics of essential thrombocythemia (ET, a kind of blood neoplasm) and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC, a typical kidney cancer), and demonstrated that single cell analyses ...