Children face exposure to pesticides
Wed, 16 May 2007 01:05:47 GMTBy GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer
STRATHMORE, Calif. - On Grandparents Day, Domitila Lemus accompanied her 8-year-old granddaughter to school. As the girls lined up behind Sunnyside Union Elementary, a foul mist drifted onto the playground from the adjacent orange groves, witnesses say. Lemus started coughing, and two children collapsed in spasms, vomiting on the blacktop.
She and the little girls have since recovered without apparent lasting effects. But an Associated Press investigation has found that over the past decade, hundreds, possibly thousands, of schoolchildren in California and other agricultural states have been exposed to farm chemicals linked to sickness, brain damage and birth defects. The family of at least one California teenager suspects pesticides caused her death.
There are no federal laws specifically against spraying near schools, and advocates say California and the seven other states that have laws or policies creating buffer zones around schools to protect them from pesticides don't do enough to enforce them.
"The regulations are inadequate. In the vast majority of cases, people who didn't follow the laws received at best a $400 fine," said Margaret Reeves, a scientist with the Pesticide Action Network, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco.
The pesticide industry says it is committed to safety, and regulators say they are doing their best to enforce the laws.
"Everyone wants to protect children," said California Department of Pesticide Regulation spokesman Glenn Brank. He said his agency is doing what it can to enforce the law with a shortage of agricultural inspectors.
In the Strathmore incident last November, grandparents said the spraying was being done less than 150 feet from the children. Tulare County authorities fined an unlicensed pest removal company $1,100 for spraying a restricted weed killer that morning. But no action was taken over what witnesses said happened to the children.
Because no one reported the incident as a case of pesticide drift, county agricultural inspectors never swabbed the jungle gym or took grass samples, making it impossible to establish whether pesticide had, in fact, drifted onto the playground.
The Environmental Protection Agency does not keep comprehensive national figures on students and teachers sickened by drifting pesticide.
In California, the No. 1 farm state and the one with the best records, there were 590 pesticide-related illnesses at schools from 1996 to 2005, according to figures given to the AP by the state. More than a third of those were due to pesticide drift, the figures show. Activists say that those numbers are low and that many cases are never even reported.
In California's long, flat interior, spraying season lasts seven months, from March through September. When citrus trees blossom and grapevines climb trellises, Lemus prays to the Virgin Mary that her granddaughter won't come home with her eyes watering and head pounding, unable to breathe.
Tulare County, where she lives, is one of the nation's most fertile farm regions, with more than half the schools within a quarter-mile of agricultural fields, according to the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
As suburbs push close to farmland, the rate of pesticide poisoning among children nationwide has risen in recent years, according to a 2005 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that 40 percent of all children sickened by pesticides at school were victims of drift — pesticide carried on the breeze.
Research on pregnant women exposed to common pesticides has suggested higher rates of premature birth, and poor neurological development and smaller head circumferences among their babies.
The effects on children of small, repeated exposures over a long period of time are unclear, said University of California, Berkeley epidemiologist Brenda Eskenazi.
But acute pesticide poisoning can cause nausea, blurred vision, an abnormally fast heart rate, paralysis and death.
Chrissy Garavito, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, died in Fontana in 1997 of a heart rhythm disturbance her mother believes was triggered by exposure to chemicals sprayed at the school. Authorities never confirmed that pesticides contributed to her death.
In 2001, pesticide poisoning nearly killed Elena Dominguez, then a sixth-grader in Wenatchee, Wash.
One day, after playing Frisbee during gym class across the street from an apple orchard, she passed out at her desk.
"She was in a stupor," said her mother, Cindy Dominguez. "She couldn't talk, her eyes were rolling back in her head."
Emergency room doctors dismissed Elena's abnormally fast heart rate as a symptom of dehydration, gave her intravenous fluids and sent her home. Three weeks later, it happened again.
"I was at a track meet and all of a sudden I felt really, really tired," said Elena, now 18. "I made it to the finish line and just fell over."
Investigators found her clothes were soaked in the pesticide Endosulfan I; it had been picked up from residue on the grass and absorbed into her bloodstream through her skin. Officials later found five other pesticides on school grounds and fined the apple grower for forging his applicator's license.
The Dominguez family sued the orchard owner and the Wenatchee school district, which established rules requiring students to stay inside after a spraying, among other things. State officials believe it is the only district in Washington with such limitations.
But keeping students inside may not be enough. Two years ago, 600 students and staff members were evacuated from an Edinburg, Texas, elementary school after pesticides drifted from a cotton field into the school's air conditioning system. Thirty-nine people developed nausea and headaches.
EPA officials say they have no real idea how often pesticides waft onto school grounds. The EPA must register pesticides before they are sold, but federal law does not restrict where they can be sprayed.
"We implement the laws that Congress gives us," said Ruth Allen, an EPA epidemiologist.
Once the EPA approves a product, federal law requires manufacturers to report any "unreasonable adverse effects on the environment of the pesticide" that their products cause. Activists say industry is essentially allowed to police itself.
CropLife America, a national organization representing suppliers of farm pesticides, said their use near schools is well-regulated.
"We're really committed to public safety," said spokeswoman Donna Uchida. "Any kind of use of a pesticide has a labeling requirement that is imposed to protect human health and the environment."
California has some of the strictest pesticide laws in the nation. Under state law, growers and pest control companies can be fined if pesticide drifts from a field and sickens people.
A 2002 state law allows county authorities to establish a no-spray buffer zone of a quarter-mile around schools. But Tulare County has not done so. State officials said they did not know how many counties have set up such buffer zones.
Lemus and environmentalists are pushing for pesticide-free zones throughout California.
"Why don't they tell us they'll spray beforehand so we can bring our children inside?" Lemus said.
Study Diabetes drug use spikes in girls
Wed, 16 May 2007 06:08:18 GMTBy LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer
TRENTON, N.J. - The number of adolescent girls taking drugs for Type 2 diabetes nearly tripled in just five years, while use of chronic medicines for psychotic behavior and insomnia roughly doubled among boys and girls aged 10 to 19, a study shows.
Meanwhile, adolescents' use of drugs for depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, leveled off or dropped in the last two years, after widespread new warnings about safety concerns.
The study, an analysis of prescription drug use from 2001 to 2006 among 370,000 insured children aged 10 to 19, was conducted by Medco Health Inc. of Franklin Lakes, N.J., the country's biggest prescription benefit manager, and released exclusively to The Associated Press.
Experts say the findings raise questions about physical and mental health problems in youth, the appropriateness of putting them on strong, long-term medicines mostly designed for adults, and whether it might be better to focus on other strategies, such as counseling, exercise and changes in diet, caffeine intake and bedtime routine.
"There's increasing use of medication in children the last 20 years, but does that mean we're treating them successfully or that we're overmedicating?" said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Probably both, he said, but some children aren't getting needed help.
Dr. Wayne Snodgrass, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on drugs, said the levels of medication usage found in the study might be appropriate, but it's hard to know without details on why each prescription was written.
"It deserves watching," he said, particularly because adolescents' brains are still developing. Snodgrass said worried parents should question their child's doctor about their treatment or seek a second opinion.
The most striking trend was a 167 percent spike in girls 10 to 19 taking pills for type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes. Medco found it jumped from 0.1 percent in 2001 to 0.27 percent in 2006; among boys, prevalence up 33 percent, to 0.08 percent.
Dr. John Buse, president-elect of the American Diabetes Association, said those figures are a bit higher than prior data but track U.S. increases in diabetes and obesity the past 15 years.
"It's really scary to think about people in their teens developing a disease that in the past only developed in the 40s, 50s and 60s," Buse said.
The big gap between the sexes, he said, likely is partly due to girls taking a generic diabetes drug, metformin, linked to weight loss and also prescribed for a hormonal condition that involves abnormal insulin function, causes male sex traits and increases cancer risk.
Also, hormone changes in puberty can trigger insulin resistance, or prediabetes. Puberty starts a couple years earlier in girls, so many more girls than boys in the study were in puberty.
Medco found prevalence of kids taking antipsychotic drugs, once called major tranquilizers, roughly doubled, with about 1.2 percent of boys and 0.75 percent of girls taking them in 2006.
Widely used antipsychotic drugs — including Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and Clozaril — are approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, but not children.
Insel said the drugs often are prescribed for kids for disruptive behavior and other unapproved uses, particularly to kids previously on antidepressants and ADHD drugs.
A federal survey of doctors' office practices estimated a sixfold jump from 1993 to 2002 in patients aged 20 or younger prescribed antipsychotic drugs, to 1.224 million. It found 38 percent of those prescriptions were for disruptive behavior such as ADHD, 32 percent were for mood disorders including depression, 17 percent were for developmental disorders such as mental retardation and autism, and 14 percent were for psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Meanwhile, Medco found use of prescription sleeping pills nearly doubled, to about 0.3 percent of boys and 0.44 percent of girls.
"The fact that these kids have to get a prescription pill to go to sleep at night is amazing," said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical official, adding parents should try slowing kids down at night with curfews on caffeine and computer use, for example.
He said Medco's numbers reflect drug use among adolescents covered by private or government insurance, but in general kids in the Medicaid program use more prescription medications and those with no insurance take significantly less.
Use of ADHD drugs leveled off in girls in 2006 at 3.5 percent and dropped in boys to almost 8 percent, while antidepressant use dropped in both sexes in 2005 and 2006, to about 4 percent of girls and 3.2 percent of boys.
Insel said those trends make sense, given that after the drugs ago got stringent warnings about problems such as suicidal thoughts a couple years ago, many parents became concerned about side effects and pediatricians worried about their liability for prescribing the drugs.
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On the Net:
http://www.medco.com
Army opens injury prevention lab in Ky.
Wed, 16 May 2007 00:01:01 GMTBy KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writer
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Soldiers get sprained ankles, torn ligaments and stress fractures just like competitive athletes, so the Army is opening a laboratory that applies the science of sports medicine to the battlefield.
Fort Campbell opened its Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement Laboratory on Tuesday with scenes straight out of a sports drink commercial: A soldier running on a treadmill with a mask to measure his breathing; another soldier tracking his endurance on a stationary bike; computers displaying their progress on charts.
"We do these same tests on the Pittsburgh Steelers," explains Scott Lephart, the project's principal researcher from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "We know that an offensive lineman and a defensive back need different training, and that's the same approach we are taking with these soldiers."
The first-of-its-kind military lab is designed to figure out how soldiers get hurt and develop programs to prevent injuries.
The http://www.campbell.army.mil/
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center: http://www.upmc.com/home.htm
Boston suburb diets to curb obesity
Wed, 16 May 2007 18:19:51 GMTBy RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
SOMERVILLE, Mass. - More fruits and vegetables were added to school lunches. Restaurants offered smaller portions. Crosswalks even got a fresh coat of paint to encourage walking and biking.
The whole city of Somerville went on a diet to curb childhood obesity. And researchers say it worked.
Tufts University nutrition experts found public schoolchildren in this Boston suburb avoided gaining about a pound of excess weight compared with their 8-year-old counterparts in two nearby communities.
The results of the study were published last week in the journal Obesity. The report covered the first year of the 2003-04 study involving 1,696 children in first, second and third grades.
If other communities take similar steps, the findings could help children avoid becoming overweight as they grow older, said Christina Economos, who led the program called "Shape Up Somerville: Eat Smart Play Hard."
Researchers picked Somerville, a city of 77,500, because it has a large population of minority children in low-income families. Only 3 percent of the town's land is set aside for children to walk and play safely, a situation that fuels a sedentary lifestyle.
In the weeks before the study, researchers met with parents, teachers and school officials to explain the importance of avoiding meals high in fat and sugar and encouraging children to be active, Economos said.
Children began seeing fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and other fruits in school cafeterias. They were told they could eat as much as they wanted. School cooks started using fresh ingredients instead of frozen foods. They also turned to olive and canola oils and replaced fried foods with baked products, including potatoes with cheese.
More than 90 teachers were taught a new health curriculum, and the program leaders learned yoga, dance and soccer to encourage children to be more active before, during and after school.
Since the study ended, the city has kept up with many of the activities and healthier eating plans.
Kayla Brown, 10, feels the difference.
"I always got tired when I walked home," said Kayla, a fourth-grader who gave up snacking on milk and cookies after school in favor of fruit or carrots and dip. "Since I have been eating more healthier foods at school, I just feel so excited, and I walk home and I never get tired."
Encouraging children to eat fresh fruits was easy. Getting them to munch on vegetable dishes was more difficult. Students were enticed to taste new foods and vote on what they would like to see on their plates.
"If it looks good, they'll take it. And if it tastes good, they'll keep eating it," school food-service director Mary Jo McLarney said.
Researchers also sent newsletters to parents and other members of the community each month offering health tips, coupons for healthy foods and updates on the project.
They also posted a physical activity guide and a healthy snack list on the city and public elementary school Web sites. Somerville school nurses were trained to keep track of students' weight gain and counsel families with a child at risk of becoming overweight.
Some businesses supported the effort. Twenty restaurants agreed to offer healthier meals — including low-fat dairy products, smaller portions, and fruits and vegetables as side dishes.
The study was funded with a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also contributed a grant to make roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
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On the Net:
Medical journal Obesity: http://www.obesityresearch.org/
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy: http://nutrition.tufts.edu/
