Lead Poisoning Disproportionate Among Minority Community

Lead exposure is a preventable environmental health concern. As individuals at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum are more likely to be exposed to lead, this exposure may be an important contributor to the achievement gap. The lead in the drinking water caused brain damage, and cognitive problems in youth children. There are many reasons for high level of lead poison in minority community such as urban drinking water systems are more likely to be fluoridated than suburban and rural water systems, affecting blacks and Hispanics more than whites, commonly used fluoridation chemicals cause increased absorption of lead, and this lead-absorbing effect is more pronounced in, and the lack of education about the harm of lead poison in minority community.

Exposure to lead can have an effect on a child’s development and behavior. Exposed to a small among of lead in child development stage will causing speech delay, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, neurological and renal damage, stunted growth, anemia, hearing loss, and in some rare cases mental retardation. Children who have a high level of lead poison may appear inattentive, hyperactive and irritable. They might have problems with learning and reading, delayed growth and hearing loss. 

Food Justice

Food Justice

By Joshua Davison

                Many low income families across the nation have no access to clean water or fresh and healthy food.  This is commonly seen as an issue that is only affecting countries that are war torn or have great amounts of poverty.  This just is not the case.  It is happening right here in America.

                In many poverty stricken urban areas there are “food deserts”.  Places where the only food to come by might be a McDonald’s, a 7-Eleven, or a Pizza Hut.  These places certainly do not have fresh wholesome ingredients that growing adolescents and even adults need to live healthy lifestyles.  In a food desert you are not able to find fresh food for a about a mile around where you live.

One area of Detroit has some couple hundred liquor stores to two grocery stores.  It is obvious that urban planning needs some sort of a revival in the terms of fresh food sources.  We need to build a movement that brings the farm worker back into the urban environment.  An amazon.com of food if you will.  People need to be able to get the food they want and the food that they rightly deserve.  Social issues must take this into effect and to change it.  Does anyone have any ideas on how we might change food deserts in America?

Where have all the open air markets and fresh produce stores gone?!

               

               

Source: http://www.greenforall.org/blog/food-justice-is-environmental-justice-is-social-justice/?searchterm=None

Our Most Recent Nuclear Disaster

Our Most Recent Nuclear Disaster

By Joshua Davison

Fukushima Plant melting down. As seen from the sea.

              

  Since I have been writing off and on all quarter about nuclear reactors and the harm they can impose upon people and their environments, in the go posts and this blog, I thought it would be nice to end up on the Japanese Fukushima disaster.  As you all may already know, after last year’s (almost exactly a year ago) earthquake in Japan the Fukushima Nuclear Plant experienced complete meltdowns in their 1, 2, and 3 reactors.  This means that these reactors means the core of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima accidently melted.  I will not go into details about how this happens, but will go more into how this effects the environment and its people.

                It has been reported that the radiation levels around the meltdown have approached the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, but are not quite as high as that mega disaster.  However, radioactively contaminated tap water had been reported as far away as Tokyo.  With massive amounts of people dying from cancers from the Chernobyl incident it makes you wonder what will come to be in Japan in this respect.  Many people in the surrounding areas have definitely exceeded their safe dose level of radiation during the time period.  Even today, Japan is not letting people into the area for long periods of time.

                We must begin to realize that maybe putting nuclear reactors around large population centers is probably not a good thing in case of meltdowns.  It certainly is not good to put nuclear reactors on highly unstable fault lines like Japan where earthquakes are commonplace.  As always, it is not the fat cat who gets hurt by this disaster, but the thousands of individuals who lost their homes and farmland to high radiation levels.  These people lost their livelihoods and Japan lost a great source of farmland in the Fukushima area because someone decided it was smart to put reactors on unstable fault lines and not keep the machinery up to speck.  When will the higher ups of government ever learn?

They need to start listening to the little man who is the most hurt by things like nuclear reactors, coal plants, or any other pollution inducing factory.

source: http://covertress.blogspot.com/2011/03/meltdown-taking-place-at-japans-daiichi.html