European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday november 24, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 17 by continuous intravenous drip. Since the Medicine is potentially harmful to the kidneys such treatment called Che lation is limited to a week at a time. Follow up blood tatting is required for years and often treatment has to be repeated frequently As Many As 10 times. There Are 15 million american children Between the Ages of 1 and 5, and according to or. Vernon Houk. Director of the cd s Center Lor environmental health. Every child is at risk because Lead is so widely dispersed in our among children Lead toxic Fly is the second most important Public health problem that we Houk said. Malnutrition is number one. Lead poisoning is a preventable disease. It s not like a genetic disease says or. Herbert Needleman chief of psychiatry at children s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh. It s a Man made disease and the information has been around a Long time. It s a measure of society s Lack of commitment to children that we have not done away with it. There is no reason for anyone to suffer Lead because of leads ubiquity almost everyone has a certain amount of it stored in their Bones. Lead cannot be metabolized. It is either excreted or absorbed. If you have a diet that is High in Calcium protein Iron and phosphorous you Are less Likely to absorb Lead Needleman said. If you have a poor diet which is what the poor have you Are More Likely to absorb but Lead poisoning is not a problem of the poor. We have Learned that it is widespread throughout the country and not limited to Blacks or poor Houk said. The highest risk group is probably the child of the Urban pioneers affluent Young couples with one or two children who Are moving Back into the City buying and refurbishing brownstones Houk said. The Sand blasting and paint scraping that goes with renovation releases Lead dust into the air in dangerous Levels. The second most at risk Are the children of Lead Industry workers who do not take the precaution of showering and changing clothes before going Home Laden with Lead Houk said. The third group most at risk Are the poor Black and hispanic children in the inner City All s Peers. Needleman first brought the disease to Public attention in the 1960s with his then controversial studies indicating Lead toxicity contributed to diminished in. Rarely it Lead Poison Long fatal but the damage it does is permanent. The Metal interferes with Normal growth and development of the Central nervous system and causes brain damage and. In severe cases mental retardation. Just one bout of serious Lead toxicity May result in delayed speech development poor verbal processing decreased attention Span and lowered to Levels All critical for effective classroom performance Golub said. The latest studies also show that it interferes with metabolism the body s ability to use food As fuel. Vitamin d metabolism production of nucleotides which act like enzymes and synthesis of blood Are particularly susceptible to Lead poisoning. You can remove Lead from the system and prevent further damage but you can t undo the damage that s already done Golub said. While old paint it the primary source of Lead poisoning fumes of leaded gasoline is a second major source of Poison especially in neighbourhoods bordering expressways. On july 1. The environmental Protection administration Cut the allowable level of Lead in gasoline in Hall to 0.5 Grams per gallon. On Jan. 1. 1986. The allowable amount will be reduced to 0.1 Grams per gallon. The ban on leaded gasoline is expected to reduce the amount of environmental Lead by 20 percent. In most parts of the country it is still permissible to use Lead solder in drinking water pipes. Old canneries still use Lead solder to Seal canned foods and certain Ceramic glazes also contain Lead. An estimated 1.3 million tons of Lead is used annually in. Automobile paints batteries Marine paint welding and hundreds of other Industrial uses. The National Academy of science estimates that 600.000 tons of Lead Are added to the environment As pollution each year. What can be done about Lead poisoning that s simple Needleman said. Lead is put into the environment by people and people can take it advances in skin research save Burn victims help the disfigured by Gayle Young United press International in the world of science there is a Rush to create skin. Researchers Are growing it in la dishes creating plastic like sheets of it artificially harvesting it from the dead and stretching extra pouches of it on living patients. Not Only Are Burn victims with Large amounts of missing skin being saved but people who have lived with disfiguring scars for years Are seeking new. Smooth skin from reconstructive surgeons. It s More common for people with Burns Over a Large percentage of their bodies to live said or. Lee Van Lenton chief of physiological sciences at the National institutes of health outside of Washington. The advances in skin regeneration have been incredible but it s had to be. There is a need for Good healthy the largest Organ of the body skin is vitally needed to keep fluids and important nutrients in while letting out enough heat to keep the body temperature at a comfortable level. Skin is so important that Burn victims without it must have Gallons of water pumped through them continuously until a cover can be found. That used to mean skin grafts where a sliced layer of skin is taken from a healthy site on the body and Laid Over an open wound. But since Many surviving bum victims have unto healthy skin left grafts can Only go so far. Doctors say newly grafted skin is also thin and prone to scarring leaving some victims horribly disfigured. The answer Tome believe May be artificial skin developed at the Massachusetts Institute of technology and tested successfully on dozens of patients at Massachusetts general Hospital in Boston. The skin is composed of polymers which Are chemicals that form repeating structures like a ladder said Lonnis Yannas professor of polymer science at Mit. The chemicals used in the process Are Collagens and carbohydrates derived from cow hide the same chemicals found in human skin he said. A thin membrane of the polymer is Laid Over Tho wound where it interacts with the body s own chemicals and forms a layer of a substance almost identical to skin except it does t contain hair follicles or sweat glands said Yannas. The process which takes a Little Over a week to heal leaves Only slight scars at the edges of the wound and the new skin is soft and pliable. Yannas said the food and drug administration is my t ret orc hot with a action of artificial Ikin. Reviewing the technique and May allow it to be performed at other hospitals within the next year. Other researcher have grown cells irom a patient s epidermis the delicate outer layer of skin in a Petri dish then transplanted strips of the new skin onto the patient s wounds. This process has been around for several years with Good results. Van Lenton said although it Only creates epidermis and not dermis the fibrous and Tough inner layer of skin. Other researchers have compensated for this by grafting the dermis of cadavers onto Burn victims and then covering it with grafts from the patient s own epidermis. Skin irom cadavers is now used As a temporary covering to protect Burn victims Lor up to several weeks while they recover enough to permit the grafting of their own skin. While doctors have never successfully grafted cadaver skin onto a living patient the combination of cadaver dermis and the patient s own epidermis has grown fairly Well. Van Lenton said. Advances have also been made in reconstructive surgery for people with scarred skin. Doctor at Emory Una Verity in Atlanta have created new skin for a number of patients including a 4 year old girl who was burned in a tub of boiling water and scarred Over most her body according to or. Vincent n. Zubowicz professor of plastic surgery at the school. Elastic sacks were placed under healthy skin on the child s neck and legs which were filled every Lew Days with Saline solution he said. In a month s time each sack had expanded to the size of a football with healthy skin stretched Over it. Zubowicz then surgically removed the sacks and hopped the newly expanded healthy skin Over areas of the child s body that had previously been scarred. This technique started with breast reconstruction in California a couple of years he said. Since then we have used it for reconstructive surgery on children who seem More adaptable since they Are still growing. Usually i m sceptical about new discoveries but skin has properties that amaze me More and
