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Healthy World Watch May 22nd, 2009
Janelle Sorensen
Friday, May 22, 2009
Fave Finds
• Planning a picnic or barbeque for the Holiday weekend? Make it green and eco-fun using tips from Jenn Savedge at Mother Nature News.
• Got an iPhone? Fill it with green apps like Go Green for great tips, Good Guide for the 411 on green and healthy products, and Seventh Generation’s Label Reading Guide for help becoming a better ingredient detective. Find more at Yappler.
• Got old baby gear? JessTrev at The Green Phone Booth tells us how to recycle our baby junk using BabyEarth RENEW.
News and More
• School Age Lead Exposures Most Harmful to IQ. Testing for lead only in infants and toddlers may be a mistake, a new study suggests. Pediatricians routinely test very young children because this is the age when blood concentrations of the neurotoxic heavy metal tend to be highest. But older children can face significant lead exposures, and lead’s ability to lower IQ, the new study shows, is much greater for exposures in early school-age children than in toddlers.
• Contaminated drinking water may inhibit the immune system's ability to withstand swine flu, according to new research. Specifically, mice exposed to arsenic at concentrations found in low concentrations in many wells had a "feeble" and delayed response to the influenza A (H1N1) virus that led ultimately to swollen, bloody lung damage and a heightened risk of serious illness.
• Dioxin exposure in the womb, extra weight, add up to health problems. New animal research suggests that overweight children may be at unique risk of adverse health problems due to exposure to dioxin before they are born. Overweight mice whose mothers were exposed to dioxin during pregnancy die earlier, tend to have higher blood sugar levels and develop breasts sooner during puberty than those not exposed in the womb.
• The National Children’s Study expands its reach. Three new Study Centers were recently announced for the National Children's Study that will help ensure a representative sample of American children from all races, socioeconomic classes, and regions is followed throughout the length of the Study. The centers in Arizona, New Orleans, and Maine will focus on issues as diverse as cluster asthma diagnoses, Native American obesity rates, and post-Katrina health issues as communities rebuild in Louisiana.
• Synthetic Turf Fields Kicking Up Safety Concerns. Health experts, activists and parents from Seattle to Chicago to Stamford, Mass. worry that children may be exposed to chemicals if they inhale or swallow rubber granules from synthetic turf, known as crumb rubber. Some are calling for a moratorium until the issue is more fully studied.
