Children’s Health

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May 17, 2012 | 2:54 PM | By

Candy is Bad for Kids … Because It Might Be Laced with Lead

Yes, a candy named "Toxic Waste" was recalled. (Image: California Department of Public Health)

By Lyssa Rome

Just like that, the number of children at risk for lead poisoning jumped five-fold yesterday as the Centers for Disease Control announced that it cut its threshold for lead poisoning diagnosis in half. The new diagnosis will occur at five micrograms per deciliter of blood. The former threshold was 10.

Health advocates have worked to alert the public to the risks of lead in paint, toys and even jewelry. But lead can also be found in – of all things tempting to children – candy. Candy with high levels of lead may not taste unusual. In fact, some kinds of lead even taste sweet.

Lead is a major environmental health risk. It affects almost every system in the body, including the brain and other organs, but the symptoms aren’t always obvious. For children, exposure to even minute quantities of lead can cause long-term developmental problems, including lower IQ, and the damage may not be reversible.

“It is not entirely clear where the lead in many of the products is coming from.”
California’s Department of Public Health began testing candy for lead in 2007 and has done 5,700 tests since. Over the years, it has issued warnings [PDF] not to eat 188 different sweets.

Most of those candies are imported, mainly from four countries: Mexico, Malaysia, China and India. That’s where the candies come from, but what about the lead itself? Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, environmental health, Lead Poisoning
May 7, 2012 | 4:45 PM | By

Lessons Learned from the War on Smoking, Applied to Obesity

Could a public campaign against obesity help people in the same way anti-smoking campaigns have? (Dave Whelan: Flickr)

Could a public campaign against obesity help people in the same way anti-smoking campaigns have? (Dave Whelan: Flickr)

Expect to hear a lot about obesity prevention in the coming days. A four-part HBO documentary about the obesity crisis debuts next week. Today, the Centers for Disease Control opened a major conference examining strategies to help Americans with this significant health challenge. At a report released this morning, researchers said obesity prevalence will increase about 33 percent in the next 20 years — climbing from one-third of Americans affected now to a 42 percent rate by 2030.

And believe it or not 42 percent is good news — that’s down from the 50 percent estimated in prior years.

Despite first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and its greater attention on childhood obesity, many public health leaders are frustrated with slow progress and say more must be done. They call for a different approach, using strategies similar to those used in the anti-tobacco movement. It was only after anti-tobacco advocates embraced community-based activism that smoking rates began to drop from a high of 42 percent in the mid-1960s to just over 19 percent today, they say. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Money, Policy, Children's Health, Obesity
April 6, 2012 | 7:22 AM | By

“Model” Dental Program Ultimately Painful for Children

By Kelley Weiss, Center for Health Reporting

(Ethan Denney: Flickr)

(Ethan Denney: Flickr)

Since February, reports from the CHCF Center for Health Reporting and The Sacramento Bee have painted a grim picture of low-income children waiting for months or even years to see a dentist in Sacramento. And now some state lawmakers are calling for immediate action.

Almost two decades ago the state started a managed care pilot program in Sacramento County for children’s dental care. Since then, several families have described harrowing instances of long wait times and unsuccessful attempts to get through the red tape.

Alisa Erickson testified at the state Capitol on March 15th about her 18-year-old daughter’s struggle to get dental care in Sacramento.

“Her cheek was actually swollen and she was in so much pain, that she missed school, she could not sleep because every time she laid down … her tooth would throb so bad she’d start crying,” Erickson says.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, Dental Health, Medi-Cal
April 4, 2012 | 3:26 PM | By

The Greatest Health Risk to Children? No, It’s Not Drugs

(Ian Britton: Flickr)

People polled cited unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle as greatest threat to children's health. (Ian Britton: Flickr)

Nearly half of people surveyed in a poll released today say an unhealthy diet combined with lack of physical activity are the greatest health risks facing California children today.

In addition, almost three in four respondents to the Field Poll — 73 percent — said prevention efforts, while starting with the family, must extend to the broader community, including health care providers, schools, community organizations and beyond — to food and beverage companies and fast food restaurants.

“Voters acknowledge they have a role to play,” Mark DeCamillo, Director of The Field Poll told me. “They should be involving the larger community and lots of different entities, companies included should be taking some responsibility in reducing obesity in kids.

The poll surveyed 1,000 registered California voters and was funded by The California Endowment. (The California Endowment is a supporter of KQED). Respondents across political parties, ethnic backgrounds and household incomes all agreed a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are the major health risks to children. Illegal drug use was a distant second at 22 percent.

More than half of respondents (60 percent) said that the neighborhood where a child is raised makes a difference in their health. A strong majority (68 percent) said a comprehensive program to prevent childhood obesity — including building parks and promoting neighborhood safety — would be worth it, even if it cost billions of dollars.

“Californians understand that health happens in schools, in neighborhoods, and with prevention,” said Dr. Robert Ross, CEO of The California Endowment, said in a statement. “Regardless of age, ethnicity, income or political ideology, they recognize that investments in prevention save money over the long run.”

Support for “soda tax” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, childhood obesity, Children's Health, Soda Tax
March 30, 2012 | 2:00 PM | By

Autism on the Rise: But Why?

By Kamal Menghrajani

Profile Picture of a Boy

(Getty Images)

It was news that startled many. A new study from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention suggests that the prevalence of the disorder is much higher than previously thought. Up to 1 in 88 children is expected to develop autism or a related disorder, which is a 23 percent jump from the rate the CDC found just 2 years ago. Perhaps one million children and teens across the country are affected.

This morning on KQED’s Forum, autism experts discussed the significance of the new numbers and what progress is being made in the field of autism research.

The first question on everybody’s mind was whether the new number represents a true rise in the rate of autism – or is simply a reflection of the fact that more doctors are recognizing it.

“We’re not sure what the increase is due to. We do know that better identification, better diagnosis, and availability of services is contributing,” said Coleen Boyle, Director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the CDC. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: KQED blogs, Policy, Autism, Children's Health
March 23, 2012 | 3:37 PM | By

Fear of Math Can Light Up Kids’ Brains

By: Kamal Menghrajani

Some school children respond with fear when facing math problems. (Alan Levine:Flickr)

Some people are afraid of atomic explosions (atomosophobia), Bolsheviks (bolshephobia), nose bleeds (epistaxiophobia), forests (xylophobia), or long words (sesquipedalophobia).

But for many elementary school kids, the phobia is much more common. It’s math. Teachers have known this for a long time, but now scientists are looking inside these kids’ brains in search of clues.

As reported in this month’s Psychological Science, scientists have found that the brains of kids with “math anxiety” light up with fear when they are presented with math problems. This brain response also partially shuts down the part of the brain involved in problem solving and mathematical reasoning.

Stanford Professor Vinod Menon is a neuroscientist and lead author on the study. “The same part of the brain that responds to fearful situations–such as seeing a spider or a snake– also shows a heightened response in children with high math anxiety,” he says. “And that was a surprise to us.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health
March 21, 2012 | 10:36 AM | By

Global Experts Meet in Oakland to Share Ideas on Children’s Health

Malaria, tuberculosis, HIV — these are the communicable diseases many people associate with death in the developing world. But increasingly diseases like diabetes, heart disease and conditions related to obesity have become the ticking “time bomb” that public health experts are desperately trying to prevent form exploding.

Healthier school lunches can help fight obesity and its related diseases. (Photo: USDAgov/Flickr)

The Public Health Institute (PHI) convened the first-ever conference focusing exclusively on children and non-communicable diseases this week in downtown Oakland. Experts from around the world gathered to exchange ideas about how to prevent diseases that were once thought to be illnesses of the developed world from spreading globally. It’s no coincidence that the conference is being held in Oakland. “Poverty is a root cause of a lot of the problems that bring diseases like this to the fore, and it’s something that we grapple with on a daily basis in Oakland,” explained Jeff Meer, PHI’s special advisor for global health. “If we can get a handle on how poverty relates to illness in Oakland, then we can understand it in Bujumbura and Kigali.”

The four most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are diabetes, cancer, chronic lung disease and chronic heart disease. “Most of us think of them as illnesses that strike in rich, highly developed countries; but the fact is that there is a tidal wave, an epidemic of non-communicable diseases that is striking populations all over the world, and striking, frankly with great ferocity in very poor places that have fewer resources than we do to deal with them,” Meer told me. A tidal wave indeed — two-thirds of deaths worldwide can be attributed to NCDs according to Meer. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, Diabetes, Obesity
February 8, 2012 | 5:36 PM | By

Kids, Food Ads, and The First Amendment

(Ed Uthman: Flickr)

(Ed Uthman: Flickr)

I know this is a health blog and not a law blog, but there’s certainly plenty of overlap. The Supreme Court’s upcoming consideration of the Affordable Care Act springs to mind, for starters. Now, we have public health and the law intersecting over food marketing and children.

Since 2006 when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) filed its landmark report Food Marketing to Children and Youth, health advocates have been agitating to alter the mediascape of advertising children are immersed in every day. Food companies spend more than $1.6 billion [PDF] each year marketing food and beverages to children and teens. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, First Amendment, Food Advertising
February 7, 2012 | 11:51 AM | By

Screen All Kids for Cholesterol?

It could raise awareness or lead to overtreatment, depending on whom you ask.

By Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News

(epSos.de: Flickr)

(epSos.de: Flickr)

One in 500 kids has an inherited disorder that causes high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol that may require medication to control. However, since the problem doesn’t create observable symptoms, as many as half of these kids don’t know they have the condition. To help identify these children, late last year an expert panel convened by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommended that all children be screened for high cholesterol, once between the ages of 9 and 11 and again between ages 17 and 21.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Policy, Children's Health, High Cholesterol
January 24, 2012 | 2:02 PM | By

Common Chemical May Affect Children’s Immune Systems

Pizza boxes are often coated with PFCs to repel water or grease. (Eddie Welker: Flickr)

Pizza boxes are one consumer product often coated with PFCs to repel water and grease. (Eddie Welker: Flickr)

Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, have been used for decades. This class of chemicals has both industrial and consumer uses, including in fast food wrappers, pizza boxes and stain-resistant clothing. In a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers looked at children and found that higher levels of PFCs were associated with lower antibody response to routine immunizations, including diphtheria and tetanus.

PFCs are so ubiquitous … “you can find them in polar bears.”
Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health led the team that looked at more than 600 children. Researchers looked at how children responded to vaccines, because the antibodies produced in response to vaccination can be easily measured and are a marker for immune system function. Researchers also quantified PFC levels. ”What we saw was that the children did not quite react the way we wanted them to to the vaccines,” he said in an interview. “The higher the exposure to the PFCs, the lower the antibody reaction in the blood.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Place Matters, Children's Health, Immune System, PFCs