On his recent visit to Accra, Ghana, President Barack Obama stated: "Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long."
He should include his own country in this analysis because good governance has certainly been lacking in the USA especially where child development is concerned.
Let's have a look at how this situation has materialized through a collusion of political and corporate governance. A governance that has contributed to disturbing health patterns amongst our community.
A study, published in 2007 by a Cornell research group found that an astonishing 40 percent of deaths worldwide were caused by water, air and soil pollution. Among the most dangerous pollutants is lead.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that more than 400,000 children in the United States under the age of five have elevated levels of lead in their blood.
Lead is a toxic heavy metal which disproportionately affects children. This is because children are developing tissue and organs. Of particular importance is their brain development and the negative effects lead toxicity can have on the brain.
Once lead enters a child's blood stream it will circulate for days to a week, and then leave the blood stream. However, while the lead may leave the blood stream, it diffuses into tissues including the muscles, livers, kidney and brain.
The lead stays in the tissue for weeks, and then it migrates into the bone and is incorporated into the bone matrix alongside calcium. 70-80% of lead a child is exposed to goes into bone and stays there.
Pregnant women reabsorb bone calcium to nourish the fetus; lactating mothers reabsorb bone calcium to produce milk. So females with significant exposure mobilize lead and lead levels will rise in women during pregnancy.
A group of independent epidemiological studies shows that fetal exposure to levels of lead previously considered safe is linked to impairment of infant mental development.(Nature 329, 297-300 (24 September 1987).
More recent studies also confirm that lead exposure at around 28 weeks gestation is a critical period for later child intellectual development, with lasting and possibly permanent effects. (Environmental Health Perspectives, May, 2006)
The average lead level in US children is about 2 micrograms/deciliter (ug/dl). The Center for Disease Control defines 10 ug/dl or greater as lead poisoning. Lead levels ranging from 10 to 45 ug/dl are considered mild-to-severe. Anything over 45 ug/dl is considered severe. http://www.keene.edu
What developmental effects can it have on a child?
I.Q. – children risk losing two to three I.Q. points per 10 micrograms/deciliters of lead. However, the normal range of variability in I.Q. tests can be 5-10 points in a typical child. Other problems include;
- Learning Disabilities
- Problems Paying Attention
- Disorganized Approach to Learning
- Poor Work Completion
- Increased Aggression
Lead is also listed by the EPA and other agencies as a cancer-causing chemical, and lead exposure has been linked to higher rates of infertility in women, an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure, among other health problems. Center for Environmental Health
Scientists are increasingly concerned that there is no safe level of lead exposure, especially for pregnant women and young children.
So what's being done to safeguard our children?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as authorized by Congress, has impaneled a group of experts since the 1970s to advise the government on how to best protect children from lead poisoning. Due to this committee's recommendations, the incidence of elevated lead levels in children has been reduced substantially over the past several decades.
Initially, in 1975, the CDC had officially defined lead poisoning as the presence of more than 30 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood; the CDC altered its standard. The lead poisoning threshold was lowered in 1985 to 25 micrograms per deciliter and, in 1991, was further reduced to 10 micrograms.
Due to emerging scientific evidence that has shown a health threat from even lower levels of lead exposure in 2002, the CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention was preparing to consider whether to revise the federal standard for lead poisoning set most recently in 1991.
According to numerous sources familiar with the committee's work, the advisory group at this time was likely to rule in favor of a more stringent federal standard for lead poisoning, reflecting the latest research linking ever-smaller amounts of lead exposure to developmental problems in children.
Just a few weeks before the committee's scheduled meeting, at which the question of toughening the standard further would be discussed, the George W. Bush administration intervened. Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), took the unusual step of rejecting nominees selected by the staff scientists of a federal agency under his own jurisdiction.
In place of the respected researchers the CDC staff had recommended, Thompson's office appointed five individuals who were all distinguished by the likelihood that they would oppose tightening the federal lead poisoning standard.
A review by congressional staff members soon uncovered the fact that at least two of the new appointees had financial ties to the lead industry.
One of them, Dr. William Banner, an Oklahoma-based toxicologist and medical director of the Oklahoma Poison Control Center, had previously testified in court on behalf of the Sherwin- Williams paint company in a lead poisoning case.
In his capacity as an expert witness for this manufacturer, Banner declared that, in his view, studies had never adequately demonstrated a link between lead exposure and cognitive problems in children at any level below 70 micrograms per deciliter. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
Today the limit is still 10 micrograms.
Why did the Bush administration not want it lowered?
Was it because in 2003 the USA recorded an estimated 450 t in lead mine production? The value based on the average U.S. producer price, was $435 million. Six lead mines in Missouri plus lead-producing mines in Alaska, Idaho, and Montana yielded most of the total.
Primary lead was processed at two smelter-refineries in Missouri. Of the 23 plants that produced secondary lead, 15 had annual capacities of 15,000 tons or more.
A lead smelter has been in operation in Herculaneum Missouri for over 100 years and is currently operated by the Doe Run Company. Over the last twenty years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) have taken repeated action to bring the smelter into compliance with the clean air standard.
In August, 2000, the Jefferson County Health Department in conjunction with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and Doe Run documented that 15 percent of children under six within one-mile of the facility have elevated levels of blood-lead.
The New York Times reported in 2002 that there are clusters of brain cancer and multiple sclerosis in Herculaneum.
Doe Run have made efforts to reduce emissions from its smokestacks to a projected 34 tons this year, from 81 tons in 2001 and 800 tons annually a generation ago.
After local streets tested as high as 30 percent lead, the company also started operating a street sweeper daily and recently agreed to haul its ore by rail instead of trucks. It has given 426 residents high-performance vacuum cleaners.
Leslie Warden, an alderwoman who went to high school in Herculaneum said " Previously, your neighbors worked there, relatives of neighbors worked there, and pushing the issue would put them out of a job. A lot of people now are thinking: 'That's all well and good, but what are the consequences? Are we sacrificing our children's health and our parents' health for this company?"
The Doe Run company is wholly owned by the Renco Group. Renco Group is a New York City-based holding company controlled by Ira Rennert that invests in other companies across a range of industries of which total revenue for 2007 was $4000.oo M.
Do they have other mining interests?
One of its largest operations is Doe Run Peru. It acquired, the mine from the Peruvian government in 1998. It is situated in La Oroya, which has a population of around 35000.
Any problems there?
The New York-based Blacksmith Institute in 2006 included it in a list of the 10 worst pollution cases in the world.
A study by Doe Run and Peru's Health Ministry showed 99.9 percent of children up to age six in La Oroya have abnormally high blood lead levels.
The study also found that 73% of La Oroya's children between the ages of 6 months and six years had lead levels between 20 and 44 μg/dL, and 23% were found with levels higher than 45 μg/dL, which is almost quadruple the WHO limit of 10 μg/dL.
The company was required by law to build a sulfuric acid plant at a cost of $100 million that, along with other modernization, would capture all toxic gases and end lead pollution by 2007.
However, due to financial restraints cited by the company, this has yet to be built.
In 2006, after a four-year legal battle the Peruvian Environmental Law Society, the court finally ordered the Ministry of Health to declare a state of emergency in the city, and to immediately provide health care for those harmed by the contamination, especially children and pregnant women.
In 2007 a contingency plan was instigated. The Contingency Plan for States of Alert was presented by the government's national environmental council, CONAM, which approved it on Jul. 18 2007 to protect the 35,000 inhabitants of La Oroya from the sulfur dioxide, lead and cadmium emissions from the Doe Run smokestacks.
The plan is the result of two years of debates involving citizen groups, non-governmental organizations and the state agencies in charge of carrying it out, as well as representatives of the company, which will provide much of the financing.
The degree of alert will be determined based on air quality and weather forecasts unfavorable to dispersal of the gases and particulates away from the city, such as lower temperatures and lack of wind. But none of the levels entails ceasing operations at the smelting plant.
Once a state of alert is ordered, it will be recommended that the most vulnerable – children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with respiratory or cardiovascular illnesses – should not be outdoors between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm local time, the worst period of the day for exposure.
Doors and windows of homes, schools and hospitals should be closed, and food sold on the street should be covered.
The population in general should cover mouth and nose with scarves and handkerchiefs when outside.
The Doe Run complex's main chimney emits an average of 1.5 tonnes of lead and 810 tonnes of sulfur dioxide every 24 hours.
Recently the company has threatened to close the plant down if forced to implement modernization that would halt emissions from the plant. As the company is the only big employer in the isolated region, Doe Run's 4,700 workers support the operations despite the health risks. Last December, they rallied to pressure the government to grant Doe Run until 2010 before enforcing modernization.
Is Doe Run short of money?
Well, the owner of this property (on the right) is Ira Rennert, investor. The approximate property value is $185 million; size: 63 acres, 110,000 square feet (with a 66,000 square feet house); features: 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, 3 dining rooms, 3 swimming pools, 164-seat theater.
Maybe. But folk running the company don't appear to be. Ira Rennert's individual net worth at U$6Bn according to Forbes (update, Forbes March '09 has $4bn), has a 63 acres $185m mansion in The Hamptons. (how Ira Rennert made his money)
Does he have connections with the USA governing body?
One of the companies his Renco group partly owns is AM. General.
AM General is an American heavy vehicle manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, best known for the civilian Hummer and military HMMWV. Humvees are currently in use by the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Navy at locations throughout the United States and overseas.
In 1998, AM General sold the brand name to General Motors, but continued to manufacture the vehicles. GM is responsible for the marketing and distribution of all Hummers produced by AM General.
On August 20, 2004, it was announced that Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings company would form a joint venture with AM General's current owner, Renco Group, to give Perelman 70% ownership of AM General. The deal reportedly cost close to US$1 billion.
Mr. Ronald O. Perelman is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, a diversified holding company with interests in consumer products. Estimated Annual Sales:$6,263,400,000.
Among the principal interests of MacAndrews & Forbes are: Revlon, Inc., Panavision, Inc., Allied Security, TransTech Pharma, and Scientific Games Corporation.
Ronald O. Perelman became director in 2003 at Scientific Games Corporation. Joseph R. Wright became CEO of Scientific Games on January 1, 2009. He has been a member of the Board since 2004.
In the 1980's he served in the U.S. Government under President Reagan as Deputy Director. Then Director of the Federal Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President and a member of the Cabinet, and earlier as Deputy Secretary of Commerce.
He was one of the few individuals who received the Distinguished Citizens Award from President Reagan. He was later appointed to the President's Export Council by President George H.W. Bush as Chairman of the Export Control Sub-Committee and was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Commission on the U.S.
Today we have a new administration which recently came to the aid of GM. In July 2009 GM came out of bankruptcy.
The new GM is largely owned by the U.S. Treasury. The U.S. government pumped about $20 billion into the company to keep it afloat and has promised about $30 billion more to restructure.
Does that mean more money to keep Hummers in production? More dividend payments for Ira Rennert and friends?
Maybe…. While not suggesting these guys use their political connections to keep the money rolling in, this article's main objective was to highlight how the political spectrum is interconnected with industrial corporations.
It's aim is to show how this partnership defies scientific logic in allowing lead levels to remain high to the detriment of child development. A partnership that allows profit to be diverted to certain individuals as opposed to making our environment safe. So while the administration is giving billions to motor companies, spare a thought to where part of the lead, that fills these vehicles batteries, ends up.
Perhaps some bail out money could be allocated to make these polluting mines and smelters safe. If not, maybe Obama should consider the companies responsible liable. After all, that's what good governance is about; looking after the environment and the well being of its children isn't it?
Fossil Fuel
Cornflake
PT (David Alexander)
