Medley #15: A Poisoned Environment – A Side-Effect of Poverty | Live Long and Prosper

Medley #15: A Poisoned Environment – A Side-Effect of Poverty | Live Long and Prosper

Medley #15: A Poisoned Environment – A Side-Effect of Poverty

Let’s review.

Lead in the environment damages children…permanently. It lowers their school achievement, causes behavior and growth problems, and can increase criminal behavior.

Educational Researcher David C. Berliner discussed the impact of environmental toxins such as lead in his 2009 paper, Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success. He wrote,

It is now understood that there is no safe level of lead in the human body, and that lead at any level has an impact on IQ. Small doses from paint on toys or in cosmetics have the power to subtly harm children. The present-day cut off for concern about toxic effects is usually a measured lead level of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood (10 μg/dl). Anything higher than this is considered unsafe by the U.S. government. However, a five-year study of 172 children indicates that lead causes intellectual impairment even at much lower levels…

Now, in 2019, ten years later, we’re still discussing the damage that lead poisoning does to our children…and we’re still blaming the low achievement of lead-damaged children on schools, teachers, and parents through our reliance on test scores and our underfunding of those schools serving children who need the most help.

[The following is from the Environmental Protection Agency. I reccomend that CONTINUE READING: Medley #15: A Poisoned Environment – A Side-Effect of Poverty | Live Long and Prosper