Mandated Children’s Blood Lead Level Testing at Age 1 and 2 to Begin in Michigan
New state laws will require young Michigan children to be tested for lead in their blood at age one and two years. There is no safe level of lead. Children exposed to lead can develop a wide range of health issues, including learning and behavioral problems.
Two laws were signed in 2023 to require testing for Michigan children at ages 12 months and 24 months. But it took until now for state health officials to finalize the administrative rules for physicians to follow. “By ensuring Michigan children universally receive a blood lead test at a very young age, we can more quickly address the health risks associated with elevated blood lead levels, which will lead to healthier lives,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says lead exposure can come from numerous sources, “including paint in homes built before 1978, dust, soil, drinking water from older plumbing, jobs or hobbies that involve lead and some imported goods.”
Measles, Vaccination Rates Both Low in Arizona
Measles — declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2002 thanks to widespread vaccination — has hit 22 states this year. Arizona hasn’t reported a single case during the current outbreak, despite its relatively low vaccination rate. The hot dry climate could be a factor, as could demographics and population density. But Arizona is no safe haven from the measles.
The state recorded six cases last year, and public health experts say it’s probably a matter of time before Arizona joins this year’s list.
Nearly everyone who has contracted measles this year was unvaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state public health authorities. Roughly 12% of Arizona children haven’t had the vaccine by the time they start school.
World May Be ‘Post-Herd Immunity’ to Measles, Top US Scientist Says
A leading immunologist warned of a “post-herd-immunity world”, as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada.
The U.S. is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma.
“We’re living in a post-herd-immunity world. I think the measles outbreak proves that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Measles — because it is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases, the most contagious human disease really — it is the first to come back.”
Louisiana Whooping Cough Cases Continue to Surge, 70% of Patients Are Babies
Louisiana’s deadly whooping cough outbreak continues to surge, and it’s doing the most harm to children under the age of one. The state has counted more cases in the first four months of this year than in all of last year —164 so far compared to 153 cases in all of 2024, the Louisiana Department of Health said in a press release Friday. If that pace continues, the state could see more whooping cough cases in 2025 than it has seen annually in the last 35 years.
Last month, Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham confirmed two infants in the state died from whooping cough and shared information about vaccines on social media.
The two infant deaths, first reported by media outlets, were the first whooping cough fatalities in Louisiana since 2018. Some doctors have warned that lower vaccination rates and vaccine misinformation could be contributing to the outbreak.
Study Shows the Connection Between Language Disorders and Handedness
Linguistic symptoms and an onset early in life: Disorders to which this applies are frequently associated with left-handedness resp. Mixed-handedness. The fact that left-handedness resp. mixed-handedness are strikingly common in patients with certain neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders is a frequently reported observation in medical practice.
The reason why handedness is associated with these disorders is probably because both are affected by processes in early brain development. Various studies have explored this link for individual disorders and have sometimes been able to show it, and sometimes not.
A meta-analysis carried out by an international research team from Bochum, Hamburg, Nijmegen and Athens shows that left and mixed-handedness is particularly common in people who suffer from a disorder that manifests itself early in life and is associated with linguistic symptoms. These include dyslexia, schizophrenia and autism. They published their findings in the journal Psychological Bulletin on May, 2, 2025.
The researchers also suspected that left-handedness and mixed-handedness could be associated with diseases that occur very early in life. This is because handedness is also determined at a very early developmental stage.
Parents’ Phone Use May Harm Kids’ Health and Development
As smartphones and tablets become increasingly embedded in daily life, a growing body of research is raising alarms about their subtle yet significant effects on young children.
A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that when parents use technology in the presence of their young children — a behavior researchers call “parental technology use” (PTU) — it may be harming key aspects of kids’ health and development.
The meta-analysis, which combined data from 21 studies across 10 countries and included nearly 15,000 participants, revealed consistent associations between PTU and negative outcomes in children under the age of five. These include poorer cognitive development, increased behavioral and emotional problems, weaker attachment to parents and higher screen time in children themselves.
