New Lead, Mercury Test Explored
The Utah Department of Health is exploring ways to test newborns for exposure to lead and mercury. If this state can find a practical means in which to determine how many babies have high-levels of these toxins in their bodies, it may provide a model for other states to follow.
Preliminary testing of 2,000 babies showed a handful of them had dangerous levels of one of the metals, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. Children are usually only tested if their doctors or parents suspect a problem.
"Mercury is just a very, very nasty substance," Cherise Udell, founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air, said in the article. "You definitely want to know how much of it is being emitted, how it is accumulating up the food chain, what kind of accumulation [is found] in babies. It will affect their neurological development."
The article states that the National Children's Health Study will track 100,000 children in the United States - including 2,200 in Utah - from the womb to age 21.
Utah may be the only site in the study that will monitor mercury exposure and links to autism, asthma and other conditions, Rod Larson, who is working on the study as director of industrial hygiene for the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, told the newspaper.
"The reason: Utahns are exposed to several sources of mercury pollution, from coal-burning power to mining activity to being downwind of gold mines in Nevada," the article states.
According to the National Children's Study Web site, New Jersey is not represented among the 105 study locations nationwide for 2007. Burlington, Middlesex, Passaic and Warren counties, however, are part of the study for 2008-2010.
New Jersey is downwind of many coal-burning plants in the Midwest, and parts of the Shore area have a large population of autistic children. For these reasons, we should eagerly await the study's findings and hope the results will benefit children all across the country.
For more information on the study, see: http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/
Here's the link to the article: http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_7434248
Preliminary testing of 2,000 babies showed a handful of them had dangerous levels of one of the metals, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune. Children are usually only tested if their doctors or parents suspect a problem.
"Mercury is just a very, very nasty substance," Cherise Udell, founder of Utah Moms for Clean Air, said in the article. "You definitely want to know how much of it is being emitted, how it is accumulating up the food chain, what kind of accumulation [is found] in babies. It will affect their neurological development."
The article states that the National Children's Health Study will track 100,000 children in the United States - including 2,200 in Utah - from the womb to age 21.
Utah may be the only site in the study that will monitor mercury exposure and links to autism, asthma and other conditions, Rod Larson, who is working on the study as director of industrial hygiene for the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, told the newspaper.
"The reason: Utahns are exposed to several sources of mercury pollution, from coal-burning power to mining activity to being downwind of gold mines in Nevada," the article states.
According to the National Children's Study Web site, New Jersey is not represented among the 105 study locations nationwide for 2007. Burlington, Middlesex, Passaic and Warren counties, however, are part of the study for 2008-2010.
New Jersey is downwind of many coal-burning plants in the Midwest, and parts of the Shore area have a large population of autistic children. For these reasons, we should eagerly await the study's findings and hope the results will benefit children all across the country.
For more information on the study, see: http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/
Here's the link to the article: http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_7434248
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