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Kids Drink Contaminated Water at Schools, but Testing for Lead Isn’t Required
When the state of New York became the first in the nation to require all public schools to test their drinking water for lead in 2016, Keyry Broncano learned that water drawn from 68 different taps at her high school contained dangerously high lead levels. Whenever states, counties or school districts have decided to test the water in their schools, lead has often been discovered.
Many school buildings have aging infrastructure that is more likely to leach lead into the water. And children are the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of lead poisoning. But despite an increased awareness of the danger posed by lead in water, there is no national mandate that requires testing drinking water in schools and child-care facilities. As of 2021, a report found that only 18 states and the District of Columbia had some kind of requirement for school testing.
After the high lead levels were discovered in 2016, East Ramapo Central School District shut down taps in all of its schools. Some water fountains were covered up with trash bags and tape. Children began bringing water bottles from home, and standing jugs of filtered water were placed in hallways along with cone-shaped paper cups for drinking.
Eight years later, the district has still not fixed its taps. Harry Grossman, a school board member who retired last month after 10 years on the board, said the district did not have enough money to fix them and instead provided bottled water.
Research Finds Association Between Prenatal Exposure to Plastics and Autism in Boys
Florey researchers have found evidence of higher levels of the plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in pregnant mothers who gave birth to sons with autism.
Research published in Nature Communications, led by Florey scientists Dr. Wah Chin Boon and Professor Anne-Louise Ponsonby, supports the hypothesis of a possible link between autism and exposure to plastic chemicals in the womb.
“Our work is important because it demonstrates one of the biological mechanisms potentially involved. BPA can disrupt hormone-controlled male fetal brain development in several ways, including silencing a key enzyme, aromatase, that controls neurohormones and is especially important in fetal male brain development. This appears to be part of the autism puzzle.”
Kids Worldwide Are Consuming More Sugary Drinks
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Kids and teens around the world are consuming more sugary drinks, increasing their risk of future health problems, a new study finds.
Young people consumed nearly 23% more sugar-sweetened beverages in 2018 compared to 1990, according to the report published Aug. 7 in the BMJ.
“Sugary beverages increase weight gain and risk of obesity, so even though kids don’t often develop diabetes or cardiovascular disease when they are young, there could be significant impacts later in life,” said lead researcher Laura Lara-Castor. She’s a postdoctoral scholar in nutritional epidemiology at the University of Washington.
The study provides the first global estimates of sugary drink intake by kids and teens, researchers said.
A Booming Industry of AI Age Scanners, Aimed at Children’s Faces
In 2021, parents in South Africa with children between the ages of 5 and 13 were offered an unusual deal. For every photo of their child’s face, a London-based artificial intelligence firm would donate 20 South African rands, about $1, to their children’s school as part of a campaign called “Share to Protect.”
The company, Yoti, had developed an AI tool that could estimate a person’s age by analyzing their facial patterns and contours. But to make it more accurate — and to bolster the company’s clientele of government agencies and tech firms — its developers needed more photos of kids.
With promises of protecting children, a little-known group of companies in an experimental corner of the tech industry known as “age assurance” has begun engaging in a massive collection of faces, opening the door to privacy risks for anyone who uses the web.
The companies say their age-check tools could give parents a better sense of control and peace of mind. But by scanning tens of millions of faces a year, the tools could also subject children — and everyone else — to a level of inspection rarely seen on the open internet and boost the chances their personal data could be hacked, leaked or misused.
Gallup Poll Reveals How Teens Cope With Negative Emotions — and Why ‘They Want to Be Heard’
A new Gallup survey explored how young Americans cope with stress, anxiety and other big emotions — and the results were mostly positive.
The research was done in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation and Dr. Lisa Damour, a bestselling author and clinical adolescent psychologist who served as a consultant on Pixar’s movie “Inside Out 2.”
Ohio-based Damour and the rest of the team dove deep into the Gen Z experience, exploring the relationship between teens and their parents and other support systems.
The data revealed that young Gen Zers are using a “range of healthy coping mechanisms” to deal with challenging feelings, according to a press release. More than half of Gen Z respondents reported listening to music as a coping mechanism, while 45% said they play video games, 45% connect with friends and 39% talk about their feelings.
Recurrent Wheezing in Children Linked to ‘Silent’ Viral Infections
Nearly a quarter of children with recurrent wheezing have “silent” lung infections that would be better treated with antiviral medications than commonly prescribed steroids that can carry lifelong side effects, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine reveals.
The discovery came after pediatric pulmonologist Dr. W. Gerald Teague was inspired to investigate large numbers of children with stubborn wheezing cases referred from community providers and through the UVA Health Emergency Department. Teague and his collaborators have published their findings in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
After screening more than 800 children and teens with severe wheezing, he and his collaborators determined that 22% had undetected lung infections that did not display typical cold symptoms. The infections do not respond to corticosteroids commonly used to treat wheezing. In fact, the researchers found that higher doses of the steroids may put children at increased risk for lingering lung inflammation, in addition to known side effects such as irritable behavior, reduced bone density and suppressed growth.
Teen Girls Say They’re Feeling Less Sadness and Despair, CDC Reports
With families around the country preparing to go back to school, there is promising news about teen mental health: Girls seem to be feeling a little better. The percentage of teen girls who expressed persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness has declined since 2021, from 57% to 53%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
They’re also less likely to attempt suicide. In 2023, 27% of surveyed girls had seriously considered ending her life, compared to 30% in 2021.
Just a year ago, the CDC reported that teen girls were suffering through an unprecedented wave of sadness and trauma, with many reporting they were unable to do regular activities such as schoolwork or sports.
The new findings, which include feedback from more than 20,000 students nationwide, offer a glimmer of hope following years of worsening mental health among young girls — especially since the pandemic.
