The lead and copper rule: Limitations and lessons learned from Newark, New Jersey.

Flint, Michigan reignited the public discourse surrounding lead contamination in drinking water with Newark, New Jersey recently experiencing its own lead-in-water crisis. Following Flint's experience, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed changes to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), but these changes may not produce better detection of contamination. LCR testing requirements were evaluated for their ability to predict or identify problems from the recent (2015-2019) Newark lead exceedance data.

Cake Decorating Luster Dust Associated with Toxic Metal Poisonings - Rhode Island and Missouri, 2018-2019.

During 2018-2019, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) investigated cases of metal poisonings associated with commercially and home-prepared cakes decorated with products referred to as luster dust. Several types of glitters and dusts, broadly known as luster dust,* for use on prepared foods can be purchased online and in craft and bakery supply stores (1). Decorating foods with luster dust and similar products is a current trend, popularized on television programs, instructional videos, blogs, and in magazine articles.

Dietary Influences on Urinary Fluoride over the Course of Pregnancy and at One-Year Postpartum.

Dietary factors are known to influence urinary fluoride (UF) levels in nonpregnant people. Maternal UF is used as a biomarker of fluoride exposure; however, dietary influences on UF during pregnancy are unknown. We compared UF levels and assessed the associations between UF and five select dietary influences in pregnancy vs.

Blood Lead Levels in U.S. Children Ages 1-11 Years, 1976-2016.

Background: Lead can adversely affect child health across a wide range of exposure levels. We describe the distribution of blood lead levels (BLLs) in U.S.

Association between cumulative childhood blood lead exposure and hepatic steatosis in young Mexican adults.

Background: Exposure to environmental toxicants may play a role in the pathogenesis of Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Cumulative exposure to lead (Pb) has chronic and permanent effects on liver function. Pediatric populations are vulnerable to the toxic effects of Pb, even at low exposure levels.

Dietary fluoride intake over the course of pregnancy in Mexican women.

Objective: To estimate dietary fluoride intake (F) over the course of pregnancy and the overall adjusted difference in dietary F intake by pregnancy stages and levels of compliance with dietary recommendations.

Design: Secondary data analysis from a longitudinal pregnancy cohort study in a population exposed to fluoridated salt. Women were followed during the early, middle and late stages of their pregnancy (n 568).

Use of the CUSUM and Shewhart control chart methods to identify changes of public health significance using childhood blood lead surveillance data.

Background: Local, state, and national childhood blood lead surveillance is based on healthcare providers and clinical laboratories reporting test results to public health departments. Increased interest in detecting blood lead level (BLL) patterns and changes of potential public health significance in a timely manner has highlighted the need for surveillance systems to rapidly detect and investigate these events.

Objective: Decrease the time to detect changes in surveillance patterns by using an alerting algorithm developed and assessed through historical child blood lead surveillance data analysis.

Blood Lead Levels in U.S. Women of Childbearing Age, 1976-2016.

Background: Lead can adversely affect maternal and child health across a wide range of exposures; developing fetuses and breastfeeding infants may be particularly vulnerable. We describe the distribution of blood lead levels (BLLs) in U.S.

An examination of sex differences in associations between cord blood adipokines and childhood adiposity.

Background: Though the physiological roles of adipokines in metabolism, insulin resistance and satiety are clear, literature regarding associations between cord blood adipokine levels and childhood adiposity is equivocal.

Objectives: To determine whether cord blood levels of leptin and adiponectin are associated with adiposity in children 2 to 5 years of age, and whether such associations are modified by sex.

Methods: Leptin and adiponectin levels were measured in cord blood and anthropometric measures were completed on 550 children enrolled in the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals Child Development Plus study (MIREC-CD Plus).

Association between fluoride exposure and cardiometabolic risk in peripubertal Mexican children.

Background: Several animal studies have suggested that fluoride exposure may increase the levels of cardiometabolic risk factors, but little is known about whether fluoride exposure is associated with such risk in humans.

Objectives: We examined the cross-sectional association between peripubertal exposure to fluoride and markers of cardiometabolic risk in 280 girls and 256 boys at age 10-18 years living in Mexico City.

Methods: We measured plasma fluoride concentration using a microdiffusion method.

Prenatal Lead Exposure, Type 2 Diabetes, and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Mexican Children at Age 10-18 Years.

Context: Several cross-sectional studies have assessed the association of lead exposure with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults; however, studies of such associations in childhood are rare.

Objective: We assessed the prospective associations of prenatal exposure to lead with type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic risk factors in children.

Design: The Early Life Exposure in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants is a birth cohort study of pregnant women and their offspring.

Early Life Exposure in Mexico to ENvironmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) Project.

Purpose: The Early Life Exposure in Mexico to ENvironmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) Project is a mother-child pregnancy and birth cohort originally initiated in the mid-1990s to explore: (1) whether enhanced mobilisation of lead from maternal bone stores during pregnancy poses a risk to fetal and subsequent offspring neurodevelopment; and (2) whether maternal calcium supplementation during pregnancy and lactation can suppress bone lead mobilisation and mitigate the adverse effects of lead exposure on offspring health and development. Through utilisation of carefully archived biospecimens to measure other prenatal exposures, banking of DNA and rigorous measurement of a diverse array of outcomes, ELEMENT has since evolved into a major resource for research on early life exposures and developmental outcomes.

Participants: n=1643 mother-child pairs sequentially recruited (between 1994 and 2003) during pregnancy or at delivery from maternity hospitals in Mexico City, Mexico.

Dietary Intake of Selenium in Relation to Pubertal Development in Mexican Children.

Alterations in pubertal timing have been associated with long-term health outcomes. While a few reports have shown that dietary intake of selenium is associated with fertility and testosterone levels in men, no human studies have considered the association between selenium and pubertal development in children. We examined the cross-sectional association of childhood dietary intake of selenium with pubertal development among 274 girls and 245 boys aged 10-18 years in Mexico City.

Early lead exposure and childhood adiposity in Mexico city.

Background: Prenatal and early childhood lead exposures have been associated with reduced weight in infants and young children, while studies that have examined such associations in children during peripubescence are rare.

Objectives: We investigated the associations of prenatal and early-life exposure to lead with indices of adiposity in peripubertal children living in Mexico City.

Methods: Maternal bone lead (as a proxy for cumulative fetal exposure) was assessed at 1 month postpartum.

Dietary Sources of Fructose and Its Association with Fatty Liver in Mexican Young Adults.

Fructose intake has been associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The objective of this study was to assess the consumption of dietary fructose according to: 1) classification of hepatic steatosis by two indexes and 2) diagnosis of NAFLD by MRI. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 100 young adults from Mexico City.

Response to the US FDA LeadCare Testing Systems Recall and CDC Health Alert.

On May 17, 2017, the Food and Drug Administration issued a safety recall for the Magellan Diagnostics' LeadCare Testing Systems due to the potential for inaccurately low blood lead test results when used with venous blood samples. Concurrently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health alert with retesting recommendations for specific high-risk populations. The purpose of the CDC retesting recommendations was to help identify high-risk individuals so that those potentially impacted by falsely low test results could be retested and receive appropriate follow-up care.

The Flint Water Crisis: A Coordinated Public Health Emergency Response and Recovery Initiative.

Context: The City of Flint was already distressed because of decades of financial decline when an estimated 140 000 individuals were exposed to lead and other contaminants in drinking water. In April 2014, Flint's drinking water source was changed from Great Lakes' Lake Huron (which was provided by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department) to the Flint River without necessary corrosion control treatment to prevent lead release from pipes and plumbing. Lead exposure can damage children's brains and nervous systems, lead to slow growth and development, and result in learning, behavior, hearing, and speech problems.

CDC's Lead Poisoning Prevention Program: A Long-standing Responsibility and Commitment to Protect Children From Lead Exposure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) serves as the nation's public health leader and resource on strategies, policies, and practices aimed at preventing lead exposure in young children. CDC supports and advises state and local public health agencies and works with other federal agencies and partners to achieve the Healthy People 2020 objective of eliminating childhood lead exposure as a public health concern. Primary prevention-the removal of lead hazards from the environment before a child is exposed-is the most effective way to ensure that children do not experience the harmful effects of lead exposure.

Association between maternal urinary speciated arsenic concentrations and gestational diabetes in a cohort of Canadian women.

Background: Epidemiological and toxicological evidence suggests that maternal total arsenic (As) levels are associated with an elevated risk of gestational diabetes (GDM). Uncertainty remains regarding the metabolic toxicity of specific arsenic species, comprised of both organic and inorganic sources of arsenic exposure.

Objectives: We assessed associations between speciated As and GDM using data from the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study.