The old saying, "Did you eat paint chips as a kid?" no longer seems that funny. According to MayoClinic.com lead poisoning is a result of exposure to lead in the environment. Although lead is no longer used in paints, gasoline, water pipes and other products, some lead-based products still exist and may pose a health hazard. In addition, much lead remains in the environment years after its initial use. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of lead poisoning. Children are more susceptible to lead poisoning because lead can accumulate in their nervous system as they grow and develop. Death by lead poisoning is uncommon, but dangerous levels of lead in children may cause serious health problems, including lower intelligence and poor school performance.
The threat of lead poisoning lately seems to be on an alarming increase. In a recent front page article in the October 29th issue of the USA Today the cover story read "For many kids, lead threat is right in their own homes." The article covers a number of topics including the threat to the elderly and its connection to crime. USA Today states that after the U.S. government banned lead pain in 1978, and the U.S. oil companies began phasing out leaded gasoline in 1975. Since then, the percentage of children with high levels of lead in their blood has plummeted from 88% in the 1970's to 1.6% in 2005. However nearly three decades after the paint ban, hundreds of thousands of children - most of them under 6 - show signs of lead exposure. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that one in four children live in housing with deteriorating lead paint, part of a toxic legacy from generation past when less was known about the dangers of such substances. But could this be the main problem, could old chipping paint be the reason hundreds of thousands of children are getting sick? Just recently we found out that the answer to that question is no.
CNN.com ran an article titled "Fisher-Price recalls 1M toys". CNN.com wrote "Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys -- including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora, and Diego, characters -- because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead. The world wide recall involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August."
The two articles are both well written and stress the importance of prevention and avoiding lead products. The USA Today talks about having lead in the home by discussing the actual home, including old lead pipes, older windows and lead paint. Although these home improvements could be pricey it is a necessary upgrade to keeping your family safe. On the other hand, CNN.com points out that having lead in the home can not just include your house, but the toys that your children are playing with in that house.
The newspaper article differs from the online article because of the point of view they took. The newspaper seems to be trying to put blame on people for their own misfortune, stating that "poor and minority children in big cities are amongst those hardest hit" also claiming that they could not afford the lead removal or to replace the old windows. The online article however, place the blame for the children getting sick directly on the parent company of Fisher-Price, Mattel Inc. Also stating, "Anytime a company brings a banned hazardous product into the U.S. marketplace, especially one intended for children, it is unacceptable," said Nancy Nord, acting chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission." The two articles differ in many ways but are also very similar, but the main point of them and the only point that matters is the prevention of lead poisoning.
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