Lead-Contaminated Candies in Southern Nevada

Resurgent lead poisoning and renewed public attention towards environmental social justice issues: A review of current efforts and call to revitalize primary and secondary lead poisoning prevention for pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children within the U.S.

“…Despite these laws reducing high blood lead levels (HBLLs) in children through conscientious and responsible public health efforts, today children in the U.S. remain continually at-risk for low blood lead level (LBLL) exposures that are still deemed to have concerning neurodevelopmental effects as the brain is particularly sensitive to low-levels of lead [3]. Currently, LBLL environmental exposures are acquired from residual industrial byproducts such as but not limited to: lead-painted toys [9,10]; lead-contaminated candies [11][12][13][14] and their wrappers; [15,16] unabated/improperly abated housing when renovating pre-1978 homes containing lead paint, lead-soldered and/or plumbing delivering water to pre-1978 homes, schools, and others institutions [17]. More recently, events such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Gold King Mine waste-water spill on 5 August 2015 in Silverton, Colorado [18] and Flint, Michigan's 2014 water supply re-routing program catastrophe [19,20] the causes, sources of exposure(s), the associated public health impacts/concerns, and more importantly the environmental social justice issues faced by surrounding populations of children across the U.S. defined as most-at-risk for resurgent lead poisoning.…”

Toxic Remedy: A Case of a 3-Year-Old Child With Lead Colic Treated With Lead Monoxide (Greta)

“…4 A number of such cases have been reported on imported ethnic spices [5][6][7] and folk remedies. 8,9 These lead-tainted products are considered cultural sources of lead that play a role in lead exposure especially among the Hispanic migrant communities in the United States. 3 This case report illustrates lead's potential to contaminate seemingly innocuous products for children's consumption.…”

“…A recent survey of imported Latin American candies in Southern Nevada showed some imported candies to contain 1.46 ± 0.27 mg/kg lead in their wrappers and straws. 9 Research demonstrates that there seems to be no safe threshold for BLL in young children. 3 Some deleterious effects of lead exposure such as lowered IQ and socio-behavioral problems are still evident in children whose BLL is below 10 μg/dL.…”

“…[1][2][3] Recently, there has been an increasing number of reports in the medical literature suggesting a diverse array of possible lead sources such as lead-contaminated condiments, candies, folk remedies, and lead-glazed traditional cookware. [4][5][6][7][8][9] These items, which are rarely suspected as sources of lead toxicity, present a challenge in the diagnosis and management of pediatric lead poisoning cases. Moreover, the focus of current lead poisoning prevention programs is to This article reports the case of a 3-year-old male with an elevated blood lead level.…”