from the gained’t-somebody-poison-the-children!?! dept

With all of the conversations we’ve had prior to now few months concerning the decline of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) underneath the management, or lack thereof, of RFK Jr. and Donald Trump, you might need been left with the impression that all the things at HHS is damaged past restore. However that’s not completely true. Regardless of the rash of funds, workers, and grant cuts which have kneecapped HHS, you’ll be able to nonetheless get an excessive amount of data from the HHS web site, for example. For instance, right here is the CDC website’s web page offering data about lead poisoning in the country. It describes how the company started measuring blood lead ranges (BLLs) nationally in 1995 to seek out the place elevated BLLs exist, particularly in kids, with a view to deploy federal assets to fight its prevalence. The CDC web page has this to say about BLLs usually by way of their impression on kids.

There is no such thing as a recognized protected BLL. Publicity to guide can severely hurt a baby’s well being. Hundreds of thousands of youngsters are being uncovered to guide of their properties, rising their dangers for:

  • Injury to the mind and nervous system
  • Slowed progress and growth
  • Studying and conduct issues (e.g., lowered IQ, ADHD, juvenile delinquency, and legal conduct)
  • Listening to and speech issues

Effectively, I’m no physician, however gosh golly gee, that appears dangerous! Like, the type of factor a federal authorities that has defending its personal inhabitants as a supposed chief goal would need to fight. And, in touting its personal progress on that very same web page, the CDC agreed on the time the web page was written in 2024.

The lower is most definitely a results of an intense coordinated effort to manage or eradicate lead sources in kids’s environments by:

  • Authorities officers
  • Healthcare and social service suppliers
  • The communities most in danger

The Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH), which is a baby company of HHS, has its own page on the topic as well. There they speak once more about how this was traditionally a a lot bigger drawback, however one that also stays and must be addressed by way of a coordinated and certain federal effort.

Researchers estimate that half of the U.S. population, more than 170 million people, had been uncovered to dangerous lead ranges in early childhood. “The scope of such widespread publicity, notably from the late Fifties to the early Nineteen Eighties, suggests the legacy of lead continues to form the well being and wellbeing of the nation in methods we don’t but absolutely perceive,” in response to the researchers. Lead publicity is related to IQ loss, for which even small deficits can have a significant adversarial impact on folks’s lives and on society.

The Biden-Harris Administration actively works to guard communities from lead publicity. Greater than 9 million properties, colleges, daycares, and companies obtain their ingesting water by way of a lead pipe, placing folks prone to lead publicity. An entire-of-government effort is deploying assets throughout federal, state and native governments to deal with lead hazards. Learn extra on this Could 2024 transient: $3 Billion to Change Poisonous Lead Pipes and Ship Clear Ingesting Water to Communities Throughout the Nation.

There’s not a variety of ambiguity in any of this. Lead poisoning and any degree of BLLs, notably in kids, are issues worthy of combatting. To say that we don’t need lead within the blood of our kids must be as uncontroversial a place as one can take. And, but, it seems that one of many victims of HHS’ funds slashing is the very program designed to assist native communities, notably these in poorer areas.

On April 1, the workers of the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program was terminated as a part of the company’s discount in power, according to NPR. The workers included epidemiologists, statisticians, and advisors who specialised in lead exposures and responses.

The cuts had been instantly consequential to well being officers in Milwaukee, who’re presently coping with a lead publicity disaster in public colleges. Six colleges have needed to shut, displacing 1,800 college students. In April, the city requested help from the CDC’s lead experts, however the request was denied—there was nobody left to assist.

That Milwaukee instance is an fascinating one, because it affords us yet one more alternative to look at RFK Jr. merely obfuscate and/or lie in response to it. In a listening to, members of Congress requested RFK Jr. straight concerning the Milwaukee situation. Kennedy assured these lawmakers that he had a crackerjack workforce from HHS on the bottom within the metropolis engaged on this. Seems, not a lot.

Milwaukee Well being Commissioner Mike Totoraitis advised NPR that that is false. “There is no such thing as a workforce in Milwaukee,” he stated. “We had a single [federal] workers individual come to Milwaukee for a quick interval to assist validate a machine, however that was separate from the formal request that we had for a small workforce to truly come to Milwaukee for our Milwaukee Public Colleges investigation and ongoing assist there.”

Kennedy has additionally beforehand advised lawmakers that lead consultants on the CDC who had been terminated could be rehired. However that assertion was additionally false. The health department’s own communications team told ABC that the lead consultants wouldn’t be reinstated.

Look, I notice that we’re in a courageous new world wherein Trump officers can simply do no matter they need, say no matter they need, and that all of them have an expectation that they’re untouchable. However in some unspecified time in the future, there should be penalties for a Cupboard member sitting earlier than Congress and mendacity by way of his enamel. Hearings. Inquiries. Fees for contempt of Congress, or for mendacity underneath oath. One thing. Something.

Kids are struggling and can undergo even worse due to this nonsense, all whereas Kennedy performs “pin the tail alone bullshit” with lawmakers. This merely can’t go on.

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