More on the Plight of U.S. Children in Poverty: A Strange Ignorance

[teacher gal]

Please go here: http://www.azsba.org/static/index.cfm?action=group&contentID=148

I'm not finding how to do a block quote here, so I'm going to just paste an excerpt below for those who would prefer not to go to the URL to read the whole report:

Recently, scientists have documented that during the first three years of a child's life the brain undergoes a dramatic transformation from a disorganized network of neurons into a differentiated learning organ. If during that transformation the body incorporates lead into tissues when calcium is actually needed, the brain is irreversibly damaged. As a consequence, it is nearly certain that the presence of lead in the environment of a child during the first three years of life will cripple the child's brain. This early brain damage from lead poisoning has been linked by careful research to:

1. a ten to fifteen point drop in I.Q. that essentially eliminates the leaders, inventors, artists, and entrepreneurs from the affected populations,
2. an inability to learn because brain tissues constructed of lead do not bind properly to form the neural learning connections,
3. attention deficit disorders because lead damaged brain tissues have a tendency to misfire and disrupt normal concentration,
4. violence because the careful balance of brain structures in the prefrontal cortex that inhibits impulsivity and violence are attenuated, and
5. drug use because untreated sufferers find illegal drugs help to medicate the agitation caused by lead damaged brain cells.

While lead based paints were banned in most western countries during the 1920s & 1930s, the United States continued to use lead-based paints into the 1970s. The explosion of home building after World War Two created vast neighborhoods that were painted with lead based paints. The 30-year useful life of most tract housing structures means those homes are now deteriorating and showering lead dust and paint chips on the unsuspecting children living in low-income housing. It takes a surprisingly small amount of lead to damage developing brains, a few sand-grain sized paint chips will do it.

As long as this lead-laced housing exists, it establishes a well-documented conveyor belt of tragedy. The well-documented prevalence of poverty among children in the United States means many infants are forced to live in deteriorating low-income housing. Those children will inevitably ingest environmental lead from deteriorating paint, be brain damaged, enter school with well-documented learning disabilities, fail to learn, become frustrated with the well-documented agitation of lead-induced ills, find well-documented solace in illegal drugs, and engage in criminal (often violent) acts due to the well-documented lead-induced impulsivity.

Politicians who trumpet the slogan "All Children Can Learn" universally blame public schools for the "achievement gap" and support "high-stakes tests" to punish educators and close down "failing schools" in low-income areas. But as will be documented later in this report, the connection between environmental lead and academic failure is unquestionable. The connection between environmental lead and violence is unquestionable. The connection between environmental lead poisoning among children in low-income communities surrounding "failing schools" is equally well established. And the claim by politicians' that "failing schools" are due to incompetent teaching does not explain why so many of these so-called "failing schools" are wracked by lead-induced violence and drug use.

[smokey nj]

1. K&R

[teacher gal]

2. thank you

[smokey nj]

3. You're quite welcome.

This shouldn't be allowed to sink.

[teacher gal]

4. PLEASE HELP ME KEEP THIS UP THERE PEOPLE! n/t

[teacher gal]

23. pretty please? n/t

[mzmolly]

33. Joining you in this

K and R.

[teacher gal]

5. kick

Hoping for some help to keep this up there.........

[trashcanistanista]

6. Important issue that has not gone away.

K&R.

[teacher gal]

7. And it will not go away

until our nation and our leaders rise to the challenge.

[teacher gal]

8. kick

[w8liftinglady]

9. Kicking-I plan to cover this in a letter to my paper.

The elitist repugs in my area need a lesson.We live in a third-world country.

[teacher gal]

10. Letters to the Editor

can be very powerful. Thank you!

Lord knows the mainstream media are ignoring the plight of the poor.

[bobbolink]

26. Thank you for taking action on this! If only we would ALL write and scream about these things!

I appreciate your efforts!

:yourock:

[teacher gal]

34. I appreciate you too!

Thank you.

[bread_and_roses]

11. Thank you for posting this. More capitalism at its finest, while the "personal responsibility" crew

smugly places the blame square on the victims - victims of this this preventable "social neglect/abuse" added to so many other social abuses. But hell, let's just put them all in prison, right?

edit for spelling

[teacher gal]

14. thanks kenzee13 n/t

[scarletwoman]

12. Here's how to do a block quote

The instructions are in the "HTML lookup table" --
the link shows up above the message window when you compose a
post.

Here's what you do:  type [div class=excerpt], paste the text,
then close with [/div].  This will give you a block quote for
the text you wish to post.

sw

[teacher gal]

15. Thank you! If i'm not too late

I'll fix that into a block quote.

[teacher gal]

16. too late n/t

[scarletwoman]

18. No problem -- your post was still easily understandable.

Thanks for posting it -- this is important information.

sw

[teacher gal]

22. thanks again

Trying to keep this up there.

[theHandpuppet]

13. Kicking

:kick:

[teacher gal]

35. keep on ki cking

don't want this thread to be lost

[AikidoSoul]

17. I'll kick yours if you'll kick mine

it's about the same topic but involves many more substances:

This press release

http://www.iceh.org/pdfs/LDDI/LDDIConsensusPressRelease2-08.pdf

is discussed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2898387

50 Scientists' say Children's Brains Must Be Protected From Everyday Neurotoxins --1 in 6 children now have developmental disabilities!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
CONTACTS: Elise Miller, MEd - [phone]; [e-mail]
Steve G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT – [phone]; [e-mail]
PRESS RELEASE ICEH CONSENSUS STATEMENT: http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html

Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI)

Publishes Scientific Consensus Statement on Environmental Factors

February 20, 2008, Seattle, WA. The Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative published today the Scientific Consensus Statement on Environmental Agents Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (available at http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html).

This statement, signed by more than 50 scientists and health professionals nationally and internationally, summarizes the latest science about environmental contaminants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities and developmental delays.

The statement, which has a glossary and over 200 references, was drafted and reviewed by a prestigious committee of scientists and health professionals based in North America. They concluded: “Given the established knowledge, protecting children from neurotoxic environmental exposures from the earliest stages of fetal development through adolescence is clearly an essential public health measure if we are to help reduce the growing numbers of those with learning and developmental disorders and create an environment in which children can reach and maintain their full potential.”

“We know enough now to move on with taking steps to protect our children. This document pulls that knowledge together to further this vital effort," said reviewer Martha Herbert, PhD, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric neurologist with subspecialty certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Other researchers on the review committee underscored the cost-savings, policy-related and ethical implications of this consensus statement.

“We could cut the health costs of childhood disabilities and disease by billions of dollars every year by minimizing contaminants in the environment,” said Phil Landrigan, MD,MSc, of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Investing in our children’s health is both cost-effective and the right thing to do.”

“The overwhelming evidence shows that certain environmental exposures can contribute to life-long learning and developmental disorders,” noted Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, with the Science and Environmental Health Network. “We should eliminate children’s exposures to substances that we know can have these impacts by implementing stronger health-based policies requiring safer alternatives. Further, we must urgently examine other environmental contaminants of concern for which safety data are lacking. ”

“The proportion of environmentally induced learning and developmental disabilities is a question of profound human, scientific and public policy significance,” said lead author Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, of the Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders, “and has implications for individuals, families, school systems, communities and the future of our society. The bottom line is it is our ethical responsibility to ensure all children have a healthy future.”

This document is designed for researchers, health professionals, health-affected groups, environmental health
and justice organizations, policymakers and journalists to use as a resource for understanding and addressing
concerns about links between environmental factors and neurodevelopmental disorders.


see:

http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html

This needs to be covered by the mainstream press!

[teacher gal]

19. Will do! n/t

[Karenina]

39. And don't forget to x-post your OP there!

Thank you both! Environmental destruction and contamination are severely interfering with this planet's ability to support life forms such as erraaa... OURS?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

20. K&R n/t

[teacher gal]

21. OUR NATION'S CHILDREN

SHOULD BE PRIORITY ONE!!!!!!!

[KillCapitalism]

24. K&R, great thread. n/t

[teacher gal]

25. I'm trying to keep it up there.

Thank you.

[teacher gal]

27. another boot by golly n/t

[teacher gal]

28. OK..

.....so I'm obsessed. Keep it up there. Please.

[teacher gal]

29. don't want this thread to die n/t

[teacher gal]

32. kick n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. The right-wing approach is to plump up the egos of affluent people by

telling them that poor children are "lazy" or "inferior," or that poor parents "don't care" about their children.

Lead paint is not the only culprit. You can add malnutrition and excessive stress and trauma. When I worked with street kids, they'd talk about having nothing to eat but Bisquick pancakes for days at a time, or about their earliest memory being the cops breaking down the door and brandishing guns to arrest a family member.

[teacher gal]

31. :You are so right

As a public school teacher (and I am not in a large urban area) I see the impact of these things daily.

[BlooInBloo]

36. Pfft. Everybody knows that they're poor because they're lazy and want to be poor...

... And anyways, since when is intellect needed to be a leader?

[flashl]

37. Ignorance and bootstrap myths are spread through wide dissemination of stories like:

College Graduate Leaves Comfortable Life for Poverty Experiment:Building a Life on $25 and a Gym Bag

Thank you for your work.

[caseycoon]

38. K&R! n/t

[dajoki]

40. K&R

Another in the list of evidence against our government on their ignorance or arrogance to the poor.

[teacher gal]

41. thanks for supporting this thread

a morning kick before work

[dajoki]

42. I will try...

to check in on it and keep it going, its too important.

[bobbolink]

43. You're so good, dajoki!

:hug: :yourock: :hug:

[teacher gal]

46. I want to

thank dajoki,demgurl and others who helped keep this thread going. Because it is such an important issue, I'm going to try to keep it up tonight as much as I can as well.

Again, thank you very much for caring about this issue and helping me keep the thread up! We need many, many more people speaking up for our nation's children.

[dajoki]

59. Yes we do...

need as many people as we can get to speak up for our nation's children. I keep saying this, but our government should be embarrassed by the entire issue of poverty and homelessness. They want us to go away and be quiet, we have to show them that we will not be put in our place, and confront them with their huge embarrassement!!

[demgurl]

44. Just kickin' for an important subject.

Thanks for posting this.

[Beaverhausen]

45. K&R

[teacher gal]

47. kick

spread the word

[RayOfHope]

48. From one teacher to another, kick

early elementary special ed. I see evidence of this with several of my students.

[teacher gal]

51. thanks for the kick

I need all the help I can get keeping this thread of there.

[varelse]

49. Here's a kick for this

how horrible to think this has been known and ignored for decades :(

[teacher gal]

50. varelse

thanks for the kick

[dajoki]

52. keep it up top n/t

[teacher gal]

53. yeah n/t

[dajoki]

57. Good Night Kick n/t

[midnight]

54. Sorry I was over the 24 hour recommendation time period, and

could not recommend this important post. What I find appalling is that for over twenty years teachers have just asked for smaller classrooms to accommodate and include learning for all children at different levels. Instead we make all kinds of strange demands on them-the strangest to date is no child left behind. Come on people. It is simple- smaller classrooms. If teachers have the demands of ddl students let's help them out even more and give them the support they need. I'm a dreamer and I believe that scientist will take this challenge and come up with a treatment. Let's unleash the scientist on this one. Let's put the slum lords on notice. Let's bring money to these homes and green them. The technology exists and their are plenty of young and older workers willing to earn a living greening these older homes. I cannot say it enough, but Hillary Clinton was dead on when she said it takes a village to raise a child. We have to come together, and give to these children, and get rid of poverty. Let's make poverty the final discrimination we will no longer tolerate.

[teacher gal]

55. no problem about not being able to rec!

Your comment helps keep it at the top...thanks so much midnight.

[teacher gal]

56. Well, I gotta

give it another bump up there.

[teacher gal]

58. bam n/t

[Karenina]

60. Doesn't anyone remember "that" Star Trek episode?

:kick:

[teacher gal]

61. another kick and requesting help

keeping this near the top. I am sick and cannot stay on much tonight.

Any help greatly appreciated.