Homeowners Urged to Get the Lead
Out

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week gets under way Oct. 21, and the
theme for this year is “Protect Our Most Valuable Resource — Our
Children.”

To make that happen, the week is designed to educate parents and
children about the dangers of lead exposure, especially lead-paint hazards
in housing. Many states and communities will offer free lead screening,
and conduct education and awareness events.

Lead is highly toxic and can cause a range of health problems, from
behavioral problems and learning disabilities, to seizures and even death.
Children 6 years old and younger are at greatest risk because their bodies
are growing quickly, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.

Lead exposure among young children has been drastically reduced over
the last three decades, thanks to federal, state and local laws that
banned lead in gasoline and house paint, as well as efforts to reduce or
clean up lead in industrial emissions, drinking water, consumer goods,
hazardous sites and other sources. In 1978, there were about 13.5 million
children in the United States with elevated blood-lead levels. Today,
cialis soft tab pill 310,000 children ages 1 to 5 years old have elevated
blood-lead levels, the EPA said.

The federal government aims to eliminate childhood lead poisoning by
2010, according to the EPA.

Most lead exposure occurs when people eat lead-paint chips or lead
dust. But the EPA estimates that 10 percent to 20 percent of human
exposure may come from lead in drinking water.

To learn more about free lead screenings and Lead Poisoning Prevention
Week, visit this EPA site. To order the DVD What Your School or Child
Care Facility Should Know About Lead in Drinking Water, visit this site.

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Drought Forces Georgia Gov. to Declare Part of
State a National Disaster

Georgia governor Sonny Perdue Saturday declared the northern part of
his state a natural disaster area, and asked for a similar declaration
from President Bush.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Perdue's emergency
measure came a day after state lawyers had argued in federal court that
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should reduce the amount of water it
releases daily to protect endangered animal species. Georgia is suffering
through its worst-ever drought.

“The actions of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife
Service are not only drug dysfunction erectile medication, they are downright dangerous,” the
newspaper quotes Perdue as saying.

Meanwhile, USA Today reports that mandatory water rationing is
just around the corner in Georgia. The state's environmental commissioner
Carol Couch told the newspaper that industrial and commercial water users
will probably have to make “dysfunction erectile pill reductions” very soon.

The drought has hit much of the Southeast hard this year. In addition
to Georgia, it is the worst dry spell ever for North Carolina and
Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky, USA
Today reports.

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Obesity Gets an Airing in British
Parliament

So much of American society is based on its British heritage that it's
unusual to see something of American society become part of the United
Kingdom.

It's not a desirable habit, either. Just as in the United States, the
Associated Press reports, obesity has become part of the fabric of
British life. So much so that UK health secretary Alan Johnson had to
explain its causes in a speech to Parliament Friday.

Johnson said that 60 percent of British citizens might be obese by
2050, the A.P. reports, but he didn't so much blame obesity on bad
eating habits as he did a combination of factors: “a consequence of
abundance, convenience and underlying biology.”

A study by a division the UK's Office for Science concludes that excess
weight has become the norm in Britain, the wire service reports, with
one-in-four adults considered obese, which is still better than the United
States, where one-third of all adults are obese, the A.P. said.

Some of the ways to prevent obesity from taking over the Great Britain,
the government says, are taking action earlier with young, overweight
children; exercising control over high calorie foods; redesigning
levitra vardenafil hcl to demand more physical exertion by residents; and making
employers more responsible for their workers' health.

—–

Impotence Drugs to Carry Hearing Loss
Warnings

New warnings about the potential risk of sudden hearing loss will be
added to the labels of Viagra and other drugs to treat erectile
dysfunction, the U.S. Food and Drug Ed medicine
says.

While it's not clear whether the drugs actually do cause hearing loss,
the FDA said that since 1996 there have been 29 reports of hearing
problems among users of these kinds of drugs, the Associated Press
reported.

The new warnings will be carried by the impotence drugs Viagra, Cialis
and Levitra, as well as the pulmonary hypertension drug Revatio, which
contains the same ingredient as Viagra.

In the 29 reports noted by the FDA, hearing loss occurred within hours
to two days after patients took one of the drugs, said FDA ear-and-nose
specialist Dr. Robert Boucher.

“We don't know enough to say that it's ironclad caused by the drugs,
but we see enough to say we can't ignore it either,” he told the
AP.

People who take the drugs and experience hearing loss or ringing in the
ears should stop the medications and contact their doctor, the FDA
said.

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Sunlight May Decrease Risk of Advanced Breast
Cancer

Exposure to sunlight — which boosts levels of vitamin D in the body –
may reduce the risk of advanced breast cancer, according to a U.S. study
published online this week in the American Journal of
Epidemiology.

The study of 1,788 breast cancer patients and 2,129 women who didn't
have the disease found that women with high sun exposure had half the risk
of developing advanced breast cancer than women with low sun exposure.
However, this effect was noted only in women with naturally light skin
color.

“We believe that sunlight helps to reduce women's risk of breast cancer
because the body manufactures the active form of vitamin D from exposure
to sunlight,” lead researcher Esther John, of the Northern California
Cancer Center, said in a statement. “It is possible that these effects
were observed only among light-skinned women because sun exposure produces
less vitamin D among women with naturally darker pigmentation.”

John and her colleagues emphasized that women should not sunbathe in an
attempt to reduce their breast cancer risk.

“If future studies continue to show reductions in breast cancer risk
associated with sun exposure, increasing vitamin D intake from diet and
supplements may be the safest solution to achieve adequate levels of
vitamin D,” co-researcher Gary Schwartz, of the Comprehensive Cancer
Center at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said in a
statement.

—–

Bad Habits Increase Osteoporosis
Risk

Smoking, excess alcohol consumption, being underweight, lack of
exercise, and poor nutrition are factors that could increase the risk of
osteoporosis later in life, says an International Osteoporosis Foundation
(IOF) report released to mark World Osteoporosis Day on Oct. 20.

Osteoporosis risk factors fall into two main categories, modifiable and
fixed. People can't control fixed risk factors — such as age, gender, and
family history — but they can do things that may lessen their
effects.

Following a bone-healthy lifestyle — including eating a nutritious
diet, getting regular exercise, and avoiding smoking and excess alcohol
consumption — can help build strong bones and prevent fractures, the IOF
said.

By 2050, it's estimated that the incidence of hip fracture (a major
consequence of osteoporosis) will increase by 310 percent in men and 240
percent in women, according to IOF Chief Executive Officer Daniel
Navid.

Report author and IOF board member Professor Cyrus Cooper said if
“people recognize osteoporosis risk factors when they are young and take
appropriate action, it can have enormous positive impact on their bone
health in later years.”