| Top : 2007 : 2007_02_19 |
How govt decided lunch box lead levelsMon, 19 Feb 2007 04:19:26 GMTBy MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunch boxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe — and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels. But that's not what they told the public. Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public. That data was not made public until The Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago. The documents describe two types of tests. One involves cutting a chunk of vinyl off the bag, dissolving it and then analyzing how much lead is in the solution; the second test involves swiping the surface of a bag and then determining how much lead has rubbed off. The results of the first type of test, looking for the actual lead content of the vinyl, showed that 20 percent of the bags had more than 600 parts per million of lead — the federal safe level for paint and other products. The highest level was 9,600 ppm, more than 16 times the federal standard. But the CPSC did not use those results. "When it comes to a lunch box, it's carried. The food that you put in the lunch box may have an outer wrapping, a baggie, so there isn't direct exposure. The direct exposure would be if kids were putting their lunch boxes in their mouth, which isn't a common way for children to interact with their lunch box," said CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese. Thus the CPSC focused exclusively on how much lead came off the surface of a lunch box when lab workers swiped them. For the swipe tests, the results were lower, especially after the researchers changed their testing protocol. After a handful of tests, they increased the number of times they swiped each bag, again and again on the same spot, resulting in lower average results. An in-house e-mail from the director of the CPSC's chemistry division explained that they had been retesting with the new protocol "which gave a lower average result than the prior report ... ," he wrote. "This shows ... that the overall risk is lower than our original testing would have showed, as the amount of lead dislodgeable is mostly taken out with the first wipe and goes down with subsequent wipes." Vallese explained it this way: "The more you wipe, the less lead you actually find. With fewer wipes we got a higher detection of lead presence. We thought more wipes was closer to reflecting how you would interact with your lunch box. It was more realistic." The test results also show that many lunch boxes were tested only on the outside, which is unlikely to be in contact with food. Vallese said this was because children handle their lunch boxes from the outside. As a result of their tests, the CPSC issued a public statement last year reassuring consumers they had nothing to worry about: "Based on the extremely low levels of lead found in our tests, in most cases, children would have to rub their lunch box and then lick their hands more than 600 times every day, for about 15-30 days, in order for the lunch box to present a health hazard." Vallese said the commission stands by those statements. But the results were disconcerting to experts who reviewed them for the AP. "They found levels that we consider very high," said Alexa Engelman, a researcher at the Oakland, Calif.-based Center for Environmental Health, which has filed a series of legal complaints about lead in lunchboxes. "They knew this all along and they didn't take action on it. It's upsetting to me. Why are we, as a country, protecting the companies? We should be protecting the kids. I don't think in this instance they did their job." Said Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif.: "I am concerned that the CPSC has failed to protect children from an unnecessary hazard they have known about for some time. We should protect our children by banning lead in all children's products." Although these test results are only now being aired publicly, the CPSC did provide them to the Food and Drug Administration last summer. The FDA's reaction was completely different from the CPSC's. In July, 2006, after receiving the test results, the FDA sent a letter to lunch box manufacturers warning them that their lead levels might be dangerously high and advising them that the FDA might take action against them because the lead would be considered a food additive if it rubbed off onto kids' lunches. "The lunch boxes containing the lead compounds may be subject to enforcement action," said the letter. In response to the FDA warning, Wal-Mart stopped selling soft lunchboxes with vinyl liners, and offered refunds to customers who wanted to return the ones they already had. "The safety of our customers is always a top priority for Wal-Mart," said store officials in a written statement last summer. Other manufacturers have recently revamped their manufacturing processes to eliminate lead, or stopped making the lunch boxes altogether. Those changes have been prompted in large part by pressure from the Center for Environmental Health and several other nonprofit advocacy groups in New York and Washington State that have been testing lunch boxes and publicly airing the results for several years. In Connecticut, where the safe threshold is 100 parts per million, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has demanded that lunch boxes must be lead-free. "Lead, lunch and children are a perilous mix," Blumenthal said. "The discovery of lead in children's lunch boxes is appalling. Our law is clear: Lead-laden lunch boxes are illegal." Other states, including California, New York and Illinois, have forced specific manufacturers to pull their products from store shelves after individual boxes were found to have levels above 600 ppm. Lead is a stabilizing agent in vinyl, but there are other chemicals that can be used instead of lead. Almost every lunch box found with lead in the vinyl lining was made in China. But they are distributed worldwide. Other information in the documents include an e-mail from Canadian health officials, who found more than 600 parts per million of lead in seven of the 11 lunch boxes they tested. Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, a trade association representing the leading manufacturers of vinyl, said his organization defers to the regulatory agencies. "The CPSC was pretty clear that they did not see a danger in these lunch boxes. The FDA had a slightly different take on it. But basically, we have not seen any indication of actual harm from the lunch boxes," he said. Public health experts consider elevated levels of lead in blood a significant health hazard for U.S. children. Studies have repeatedly shown that childhood exposure to lead can lead to learning problems, reduced intelligence, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. There is no lead level that is considered safe in blood, and recent studies have shown adverse health effects even at very low levels. "I don't think the Consumer Product Safety Commission has lived up to its role to protect kids from lead," said Dr. Bruce Lamphear, a lead poisoning specialist at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. "As a public agency, their work should be transparent. And if one is to err on the side of protecting children rather than protecting lunch box makers, then certainly you would want to lower the levels." Dominican prostitutes test AIDS vaccineSun, 18 Feb 2007 17:28:07 GMTBy JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer LAS GUARANAS, Dominican Republic - Leaving her tin-roofed brothel for the day, the 42-year-old prostitute journeys to the capital for an injection that might save not only her life, but possibly millions more around the world. Jacinta Julia Adams Fernandez, a mother of three, is one of 175 Dominican prostitutes lending their bodies to a trial of what New Jersey-based Merck & Co. hopes will prove to be a vaccine against the virus that causes AIDS. Since turning to prostitution after a divorce 13 years ago, Adams has seen friends and co-workers die from the disease. Prostitution is illegal but widespread here, largely ignored by the authorities. "It's rare for anyone who lives here not to know AIDS and what it can do," said Adams, a heavyset woman dressed for work in a tight-fitting yellow dress and bright red lipstick. AIDS is the leading killer of people aged 15 to 44 in the Caribbean, claiming 24,000 lives in 2005, a rate second only to that of sub-Saharan Africa. And according to the United Nations, nearly three-quarters of those infected live on the island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. At least 70,000 of the Dominican Republic's 9 million people are HIV positive, and discrimination discourages many from seeking testing or treatment. Among prostitutes, about 3.6 percent are infected, although researchers report rates as high as 12 percent in some areas. The prostitutes, who will spend much of the next four years traveling to Santo Domingo for injections and checkups, were recruited from brothels across the country. They are among some 3,000 people in eight countries testing the experimental vaccine — a combination of deactivated cold viruses and synthetically produced HIV genes meant to train the body to destroy infected cells. Any long-term risks will take years to discover, but once doctors explained there was no way to contract the disease from the vaccine, they found plenty of volunteers at Adams' brothel in Las Guaranas, a town of dirt streets and low-slung houses surrounded by rice fields about 75 miles north of Santo Domingo. Many were turned away because of pregnancy, conditions like high blood pressure or because they are already infected. Participants don't know whether they are getting the drug or a placebo. Even if the results are promising, a vaccine would be several years away from reaching the market. The program pays the women's meals, transportation and $30 for a lost day's work. A handful have dropped out, and the clinic provides health training and occasional gifts like bags of cosmetics to keep others from losing interest. Participants get three injections over their first seven months in the study, and then must keep reporting back for four years of close monitoring. For many, the greatest reward is pride. "We are doing it for the world," said 38-year-old Lucila Mendoza Ovalle. The other test sites — Haiti, United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica and Peru — all have the same strain of HIV, said Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore. The strain is also found in Europe, meaning a formula that works here could find a lucrative global market. A trial was launched Thursday in South Africa to see if the vaccine would have any effect on African strains. The Merck trial, currently in the second of three testing phases — each of which is to last several years — is one of 17 sponsored by the HIV Vaccine Trial Network, a Seattle-based group supported by the U.S. government. The trial is "is an extremely important step, but not the only one," said Dr. Jorge Flores, chief of vaccine research for the AIDS division at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He stressed the importance of education and research into other strategies, like microbicides in vaginal gels. Even a vaccine that reduces the level of HIV in future infections would be a victory. "A 90 percent, 80 percent reduction is going to be acceptable for the time being," said Dr. Ellen Koenig, who heads one of two Santo Domingo clinics testing the formula. Margarita Ramirez de los Santos, 24, said she volunteered after her brother and sister-in-law died of AIDS. "I am worried about my health," she said. Meanwhile, Adams' brothel insists on more familiar methods — condoms and frequent testing for HIV. And if a client refuses to use protection? "We kick him out," Adams says with a laugh. Some cocoa may improve brain blood flowSun, 18 Feb 2007 19:41:46 GMTBy RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer SAN FRANCISCO - A nice cup of the right kind of cocoa could hold the promise of promoting brain function as people age. In an increasingly aging world, medical researchers are seeing more cases of dementia and are looking for ways to make brains work better. One potential source of help may be flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that can increase blood flow to the brain, researchers said Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ian MacDonald of England's University of Nottingham reported on tests given to young women who were asked to do a complex task while their brains were being studied with magnetic resonance imaging. Among the women given drinks of cocoa high in flavanols, there was a significant increase in blood flow to the brain compared with subjects who did not drink the cocoa, he said. This raises the prospect of using flavanols in the treatment of dementia, marked by decreased blood flow in the brain, and in maintaining overall cardiovascular health, he said. The next step, MacDonald said, is to move from healthy subjects to people who have "compromised" blood flow to the brain. Norman Hollenberg of Harvard Medical School said he found similar health benefits in the Cuna Indian tribe in Panama. They drink cocoa exclusively. But the cocoa typically sold in markets is low in flavanols, which usually are removed because they impart a bitter taste, Hollenberg said. He also said the findings do not mean people should indulge in chocolate. "Chocolate is a delight. It can never be a health food because we have a calorie problem," Hollenberg said. But, he added, in cocoa a lot of fat is removed from the chocolate. "I see a bright future for cocoa," he said. Hollenberg, an expert in blood pressure, studied the Cuna because those who live on native islands do not have high blood pressure. He said he found that when tribe members move to cities, their blood pressure rises. A major difference is the consumption of their own prepared cocoa, which is high in flavanols. In native areas, that is all they drink; in cities they adopt the local diet. In addition to having low blood pressure, Hollenberg said, there are no reports of dementia among the native Cuna. Henriette van Praag of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discussed the effects of a specific flavanol, Epichatechin, in tests in mice. She said when that chemical was added to their food, the mice showed improved ability to solve a maze and remembered it longer than mice without the flavanol. She said Epichatechin affected the hippocampus, the brain area important in memory. In a study reported a year ago, older men in the Netherlands who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death. The researchers said, however, it was too early to conclude that chocolate led to better health. The men who ate more cocoa products could have shared other qualities that made them healthier. Hagen Schroeter of Mars Inc., the candy company that paid for some of the research reported Sunday, said that cocoa long has been studied for potential medical benefits. He noted that in addition to cocoa, flavanols occur in other foods such as fruits, tea and wine that have been associated with dilation of the arteries. Mars last year announced plans to market a line of products under the name CocoaVia which is high in flavanols. Other major chocolate companies, including Hershey's, have started promoting the flavanol content of their dark chocolates. ___ On the Net: American Association for the Advancement of Science: http://www.aaas.org Grocery industry prepares for bird fluSun, 18 Feb 2007 19:11:36 GMTBy TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer OMAHA, Neb. - Stocking up on food is as simple as a trip to the grocery store, a veritable land of plenty for Americans. "It's so easy when you have three grocery stores in your vicinity," said Becky Jones of Omaha, who stocks up once a week for her family of three. "You think: how could you possibly not get what you needed?" But will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes? For Jones, the prospect of not having access to food is frightening. She said most people, herself included, only have food on hand for three or four days. Unlike other critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and health care, the food industry isn't getting much help from state and federal governments when it comes to disaster planning. That puts the burden on individual supermarket chains and wholesalers to deal with a potentially large number of sick workers that could affect store operations and disrupt the food supply. "The industry is actively thinking through contingency plans, so if it should happen, our members would be well prepared to deal with it," said Tim Hammonds, president of the Food Marketing Institute, an advocate for grocery wholesalers and retail supermarkets nationwide. The U.S. http://www.fmi.org/foodsafety/avian_flu.htm Center for Biopreparedness Education: http://www.bioprepare.org/ Pandemic flu information from the U.S. government: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ |