World in Brief (8/31/06)

“Ubiquitous” mercury stirs regulators, sparks public action

By Sandy Bauers, The… “Ubiquitous” mercury stirs regulators, sparks public action

By Sandy Bauers, The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — Leila Varella’s son Darius, 9, no longer munches tuna sandwiches for lunch. His mother now regrets the slabs of shark she tossed onto the grill.

Two years ago, amid national concern about mercury in seafood, they plucked strands of hair to be tested in a national survey of mercury levels in the U.S. population by the environmental group Greenpeace.

Darius’ level was slightly high, so Varella nixed the fish.

“Mercury,” said Varella, “is not something he needs.”

It’s not something anyone needs. It can interfere with fetal brain development. At high-enough levels, it can cause other health problems in children and adults.

As evidence of its harm mounts, regulators and public health officials have sought stricter controls, especially on the biggest source: coal-fired power plants. Mercury is everywhere. Part of the Earth’s crust, it is emitted naturally in volcanic eruptions.

But humans are adding far more. About 100 manufacturing processes use and emit some form of mercury — notably from coal-fired power plants — which then falls to the ground and is transformed by microbes in streams and lakes to the more toxic methylmercury.

About 60 unsuspecting children in New Jersey got an extra portion when they attended the Kiddie Kollege day-care center in Franklin Township, N.J, later discovered once to have been a thermometer factory. Tests showed the air inside had elevated mercury levels, as did a third of the children, who now require monitoring.

“The reality is that mercury is a ubiquitous environmental toxin and a significant public-health threat,” said Leonardo Trasande of the Mount Sinai Center for Children’s Health and the Environment in New York.

Number of Americans without health insurance continues to grow

By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — One of the nation’s most vexing public health problems deepened last year as the number of Americans without health insurance jumped by 1.3 million to 46.6 million, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Children accounted for 8.3 million of the uninsured, up from 7.9 million in 2004. Nearly 1 in 5 impoverished children lacked coverage in 2005, and 22 percent of Hispanic children were uninsured.

The new estimates, part of an annual census survey, mark the fifth straight year that the ranks of the uninsured have increased. The new data, which show that nearly 16 percent of Americans lack health coverage, caught many by surprise because unemployment rates were fairly stable last year.

“I thought we’d have a little reprieve,” said Dr. Catherine Hoffman, senior researcher at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. “But the problem doesn’t seem to be abating, even though the economy seemed to have settled in 2005.”

The spike in uninsured children, from 10.8 percent in 2004 to 11.2 percent in 2005, is the first in nearly a decade, Hoffman said.

Out of the shadows

By Jessie Mangaliman, San Jose Mercury News

Hector Vega is co-valedictorian of James Lick High School in East San Jose, Calif., winner of a $20,000 National Merit Scholarship and an entering freshman on a full scholarship at Santa Clara University.

He didn’t speak a word of English five years ago when he arrived from Mexico, but he mastered the language in a year, advanced to honors classes and graduated from high school with a 4.0 grade point average.

Vega is also an illegal immigrant.

Tall, soft-spoken and confident, Vega, 19, is making a risky — some say courageous — choice in sharing his story and declaring publicly, “Soy ilegal.”

In the divisive national debate about immigration reform, the young man from East San Jose is offering a rarely heard personal and public voice, representative of the predicament of thousands of children who were brought here by undocumented parents. Among the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, each year about 65,000 undocumented children graduate from U.S. schools, unable to work legally, or qualify for federal school loans and grants.

“I speak on behalf of many that come here in the quest for a better life,” he said in a valedictory that moved students, parents and teachers to tears. “I am, like many others out there who never give up their hopes, an immigrant.”

The controversial DREAM Act, a provision in the U.S. Senate-approved immigration reform bill, would give legal status to students like Vega.

The Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies opposes it.