Food for Preventive Thought
Lead Poisoning – According to the December 2000 estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are almost 900,000 children between ages 1 and 5 with elevated blood levels of the mineral lead. CDC has defined the elevated blood level measurement standard for lead as being 10 micrograms lead per every deciliter of blood.
The CDC organization has previously concluded that one of the most important risk factors for lead exposure is the age of the housing where a person lives. Studies by CDC researchers have found that over 80% of all homes built in the U.S. before 1978 have lead-based paint in or on them. The older the house, the more likely it is to contain lead-based paint.
According to most researchers in the field, heavy doses of lead poisoning are considered to be the cause of learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and other damage to young children. During the first three years of a child’s life, a lot of hand-to-mouth activity occurs, according to them. In other words, very young children are much more likely to consume lead from their homes than any other source.
Poisoning of the human by the mineral lead is clearly preventable – just keep the person and the lead separated from one another. However, there are just too many children that somehow locate that mineral and consume it into their systems.
The Number One Child Killer in the World – There are 29 countries on this planet that make up the “industrialized world”. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has recently reported that INJURIES have now become the leading cause of death among children (less than age 15) within the industrialized world. This replaces the category of “Disease”.
Within our world’s richest nations, the likelihood of death for a child from an injury is now one in 750. There has been a significant improvement in reducing injuries throughout the world during the past 30 years, but disease prevention has improved even faster. Four countries stand out as having the lowest child death rates from injury – Sweden, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands.
The United States is among the four countries with the highest rates. Each year, this country allows over 14 children to be killed out of every 100,000 children residing in the US. Only three countries had worse records during the 5-year period of the UNICEF study – Portugal (17.8), Mexico (19.8), and South Korea (25.6).
The Ten Leading Causes of Death in California — To display this information really requires a chart, age versus rank – because it changes drastically with age. When you examine the detailed chart for only a few moments, you certainly will conclude that some things related to these causes of death are more important than others — more important because they cause more deaths.
No matter who you are or what your mental capability might be, “Congenital Anomalies” would be extremely important to anyone during their first year of life. During the next 33 years of your life, it is “Unintentional Injury and Adverse Effects” which is clearly the leading cause of death. But even within that category, “Motor Vehicle Traffic”, “Drowning,” and “Poisoning” are the most frequent causes of death being reported for everyone.
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