Special Report: Flawed CDC report left Indiana children vulnerable to lead poisoning

[donnay]

People who believe that the CDC has their best interests at heart and will protect you, better think again.

Special Report: Flawed CDC report left Indiana children vulnerable to lead poisoning

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell | EAST CHICAGO, Indiana

In this industrial northwest Indiana city, hundreds of families who live in a gated public housing community with prim lawns and a new elementary school next door are searching for new homes. Their own places have been marked for demolition.

The school, temporarily closed, has been taken over by the Environmental Protection Agency and health officials who offer free blood tests to check residents for lead poisoning. Long after the U.S. lead industry left East Chicago, a toxic legacy remains. Smokestacks at one smelter next door, shuttered 31 years ago, for decades polluted these grounds.

Emissions from the now-defunct U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery Inc, or USS Lead, left a potent hazard in the soil. By early this year, the EPA detected concentrations of the heavy metal so high in some yards that they could pose a serious health risk to families at the West Calumet Housing Complex. Children are told not to play outdoors.

At the 44-year-old housing complex, all 1,100 residents are being forced to move out. Many are outraged about why the dangerous soils weren’t identified and removed earlier.

One reason: Five years ago, a unit of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 19-page report that all but ruled out the possibility of children here getting lead poisoning. (bit.ly/2dAYVOt)

That CDC branch – the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, – conducts public health assessments to examine potential contamination risks and point the way to next steps to be taken by EPA and others.

In its January 2011 report, ATSDR said it reached “4 important conclusions.” Among them: “Breathing the air, drinking tap water or playing in soil in neighborhoods near the USS Lead Site is not expected to harm people’s health.”

ATSDR’s report was built on flawed or incomplete data, a Reuters examination found: The assumption that residents weren’t at risk was wrong, and many of the report’s key findings were unfounded or misleading.

The report said “nearly 100 percent” of children were being tested for blood lead levels in the impacted area. State data reviewed by Reuters show the annual rate of blood lead testing among children in East Chicago ranged from 5 percent to 20 percent over the last 11 years.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...2F+Top+News%29

[angelatc]

public housing community - You get what you pay for.

[Cleaner44]

Five years ago, a unit of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 19-page report that all but ruled out the possibility of children here getting lead poisoning.

Government supplied science - You get what you pay for.

[donnay]

public housing community - You get what you pay for.

So that excuses this agency's malfeasance?

[angelatc]

Five years ago, a unit of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a 19-page report that all but ruled out the possibility of children here getting lead poisoning.

Government supplied science - You get what you pay for.

Funding can be indicative of bias, but it does not disprove evidence. As always, my point remains that bad science never stands up to scrutiny from other scientists, who can and do disprove science with more science. But the typical conspiracy theory falls apart here, because at this point government science is now disproving government science.

[angelatc]

So that excuses this agency's malfeasance?

I do not think the agency should exist, because they are not constitutional. I also do not think that federally funded housing projects should exist for the same reason. So I don't care one whit what happens, aside from wondering how much is this gonna cost me?

[donnay]

I do not think the agency should exist, because they are not constitutional. I also do not think that federally funded housing projects should exist for the same reason. So I don't care one whit what happens, aside from wondering how much is this gonna cost me?

You'll get no argument out of me that these agencies are unconstitutional and need to be abolished. However, for 70 years they have set a false sense of security for people and by their actions and they should be held accountable, regardless.

[donnay]

I wonder how many other areas around the country have this kind of contamination that has been deliberately overlooked?

So many people wonder why American's are dumb...I believe this is done by design.


Scientists Discover How Lead Changes the Brain to Impair Learning and Memory
http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-relea...ad-change.html

[angelatc]

You'll get no argument out of me that these agencies are unconstitutional and need to be abolished. However, for 70 years they have set a false sense of security for people and by their actions and they should be held accountable, regardless.

What are we going to do - send the CPSC after them? Let the people who get free housing sue to get more money from us? There is no accountability - there never is. Unless you're trying to collect rainwater on your own land, that is.

[donnay]

What are we going to do - send the CPSC after them? Let the people who get free housing sue to get more money from us? There is no accountability - there never is. Unless you're trying to collect rainwater on your own land, that is.

You make people aware. Awareness is key. To tell a government agency about another does no good. Once people are made aware of all this deception they do not trust these agencies and start thinking for themselves. Then they can collectively stand up and say, "ENOUGH!"