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Showing posts with label neurological damage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neurological damage. Show all posts

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Lead Paint - Industry Has Yet to Meet Its Responsibility

Bill Moyers recently interviewed Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, public health historians and authors of several books, including Lead Wars, about the politics of toxic substances. 


"And the industry said over 50 years ago that this was an insoluble problem, it was a problem of, caused by slums, it was a problem caused by who they called uneducable parents. And so that they washed their hands of the problem and they have still washed their hands of the problem. Parents have played, excuse me, paid the cost of lead poisoning. Landlords have even paid the cost of lead poisoning. The government has paid the cost of lead poisoning. The industry has not paid to get that lead off the walls so future generations of children can be protected." Gerald Markowitz

Click here to see the entire video recording of the program: "Toxic Disinformation" aired on PBS May 17, 2013.

California Public Entity Lead Paint Lawsuit Trial Starts (Bloomberg 7.15.13)


Monday, January 21, 2013

UN Announces Treaty to Restrict Use of Mercury

Over 140 governments meeting at a United Nations forum in Geneva have agreed to a global, legally-binding treaty to address mercury, a notorious heavy metal with significant health and environmental effects.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury – named after a city in Japan where serious health damage occurred as a result of mercury pollution in the mid-20th Century – provides controls and reductions across a range of products, processes and industries where mercury is used, released or emitted.

These range from medical equipment such as thermometers and energy-saving light bulbs to the mining, cement and coal-fired power sectors, according to a news release issued today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which convened the negotiations.

“After complex and often all-night sessions here in Geneva, nations have today laid the foundations for a global response to a pollutant whose notoriety has been recognized for well over a century,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“Everyone in the world stands to benefit from the decisions taken this week in Geneva, in particular the workers and families of small-scale gold miners, the peoples of the Arctic and this generation of mothers and babies and the generations to come. I look forward to swift ratification of the Minamata Convention so that it comes into force as soon as possible,” he added.

The treaty, which has been four years in negotiation and which will be open for signature at a special meeting in Japan in October, also addresses the direct mining of mercury, export and import of the metal and safe storage of waste mercury.

Pinpointing populations at risk, boosting medical care and better training of health care professionals in identifying and treating mercury-related effects will also form part of the new agreement.

UNEP noted that mercury and its various compounds have a range of serious health impacts, including brain and neurological damage especially among the young. Others include kidney damage and damage to the digestive system. Victims can suffer memory loss and language impairment alongside many other well documented problems.

Among the provisions of the treaty, governments have agreed on a range of mercury-containing products whose production, export and import will be banned by 2020. These include batteries, except for 'button cell' batteries used in implantable medical devices; switches and relays; certain types of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs); mercury in cold cathode fluorescent lamps and external electrode fluorescent lamps; and soaps and cosmetics.

Certain kinds of non-electronic medical devices such as thermometers and blood pressure devices are also included for phase-out by 2020.

Governments also approved exceptions for some large measuring devices where currently there are no mercury-free alternatives. In addition, vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative have been excluded from the treaty as have products used in religious or traditional activities.

Read more about toxicity of mercury:
Dec 20, 2012
The US EPA has announce that mercury, a hazardous substance, that was dischardged by EI DuPont in the Pompton River in NJ will be removed. For decades it has been known that mercury exposure causes illness and ...
Nov 26, 2012
Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational & Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has released a guide to treatment for elemental mercury ((the pure form of the metal, when it is not combined with other ...
Mar 05, 2010
For example, nearly 70 years ago, on December 1, 1941, the U.S. Public Health Service ended mercury's use by hat manufacturers in 26 states through mutual agreements. The kinds of conditions that put hat-makers and ...
May 09, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will discuss plans to address high levels of contaminants, including PCBs, mercury and dioxin, which are present in Passaic River mud adjacent to Riverside Park in Lyndhurst, New ...

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

NFL, Like M.D.'s, Was Slow to Recognize Concussion Risk =Orentlicher & David

Professor George W. Conk
The internationally recognized expert on complex liability claims, Professor George W. Conk,  of Fordham Law School reports in his blog, TORTS TODAY, of a forthcoming law review article, Concussion and Football: Failures to Respond by the NFL and the Medical Profession, 8 (1) FIU Law Review.

He states, "Brain injury in the NFL has gained the attention of public health authorities who have documented that NFL players die of neurodegenerative disorders at a rate triple the national average.  The NFL finds itself and the game on the defensive."

Click here to read the complete blog post: NFL, Like M.D.'s, Was Slow to Recognize Concussion Risk =Orentlicher & David

Read more about "brain concussions" and football

Dec 19, 2012
Football Concussions – An Epidemic Failure of Safety. Story after story is now emerging of the tragedy of head concussions incurred during the sport of football. While the a battle is brewing over jurisdictional issues involving ...
Apr 19, 2010
He remarked that former football players have donated their brains for pathological research concerning CTE and its association with multiple concussions playing the sport. It has been alleged that CTE results in early ...