Advocates for civil rights, environmental justice, and movements promoting social justice require data and may lack trust in public authorities, turning instead to academic scientists to help address their questions. Assessing historical exposure to toxic chemicals, especially in situations of a specific industrial source of pollution affecting a…

Studies from both high and low-middle income (LAMI) countries have documented how being reared in poverty is linked to compromised child development. Links between poverty and development are mediated by the timing and extent of exposure to both risk factors nested under poverty and to protective influences which can attenuate the impact of risk.…

To investigate pesticide use and prevention practices of tangerine growers in Fang district, Chiang Mai province in Northern Thailand. A questionnaire survey of 312 farmers in the study area, in-depth interviews and group discussions. Only 36% of the participants pursued the recommended prevention practices every time they used pesticides.…

The article reviews experimental data on the deleterious effects of environmental lead and cadmium on cognitive functioning of children. (CL)

The relationship between subtoxic metal levels and mild mental retardation and borderline intelligence was investigated through comparison of hair metal concentrations in 135 secondary students with mild retardation or borderline intelligence. Children in the retarded/borderline group had significantly higher lead and cadmium concentrations.…

The article discusses the dangers to children posed by lead in the environment, and briefly reviews selected research on the subject. (Author/DLS)

Research on suicide in latency age children is reviewed and case histories of two nine-year-old children who suicided by shooting themselves and one seven-year-old who died by self-poisoning are presented. Similarities in environmental and family histories and in personality variables are discussed. (Author/BL)

According to the U.S. Public Health Service, lead poisoning remains the most common and societally devastating environmental disease of young children. About 16 percent all American children have blood lead levels in the neurotoxic range. Being poor dramatically increases this risk. The lead industry has long camouflaged lead's toxicity.…

In a developmental center for individuals with mental retardation, blood lead level was determined for individuals who were admitted or discharged over two decades. Analysis indicated a marked decline in blood lead levels, attributed to local lead abatement measures, effective pica management, and reduced environmental lead contamination.…

Early symptoms of lead poisoning in children are often overlooked. Lead poisoning has its greatest effects on the brain and nervous system. The obvious long-term solution to the lead poisoning problem is removal of harmful forms of the metal from the environment. (JN)

Notes that neurobehavioral problems from exposure to lead and other toxins can be observed at doses far below those that cause more obvious signs of exposure. Calls for refining tests of cognitive and developmental skills in exposed children, identifying additional contaminants and mechanisms for behavioral effects, and improving dose- repose…

Biomonitoring is a public health tool that has been used by scientists and researchers for decades to test blood, bone, urine, hair, human milk, adipose tissue, and other body substances for the presence of toxic chemicals, in order to assess what is called the "chemical body burden." Biomonitoring helps to: (1) identify which chemicals…

Complex environmental health problems--like air and water pollution, hazardous waste sites, and lead poisoning--are in reality a constellation of linked problems embedded in the fabric of the communities in which they occur. These kinds of complex problems have been characterized by some as "wicked problems" wherein stakeholders may have…

Focuses on environmental issues that affect learning disabilities and provides a rationale for learning disabilities as a public health and economic-risk issue. The link between learning disabilities and poverty and the impact of low birth weight and lead poisoning are discussed. Action steps are provided. (CR)

This study examines how six national newspapers balanced supporting agriculture (a morally good occupation) with supporting environmentalism (nature as a moral value), in an area in which agricultural and environmental interests conflict--farm use of pesticides. The study showed that, contrary to expectations, newspapers supported social change…