Studies by UNC, Others Find Lead in Jewelry

If you’re planning to purchase jewelry this holiday season, beware.

Claire’s, J.C. Penney, K-Mart, Lane Bryant, Nordstrom, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart are among the stores selling jewelry tainted with dangerous levels of lead, according to lab tests commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) in Oakland, Calif. Lead can affect brain development and is especially harmful to fetuses, infants and young children.

CEH also reports that a new study from the University of North Carolina has found dangerous levels of lead in the majority of jewelry tested, and it warns that children can be harmed by skin contact with the items. The study will be published in the March issue of the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.

“During this shopping season, parents should not have to worry that jewelry will make their kids sick,” said CEH Executive Director Michael Green. CEH filed lawsuits against the retailers for selling lead-tainted jewelry in June after notifying the companies about the problem last year.

Following the CEH lawsuits, vending-machine suppliers ordered the largest product recall in U.S. history, removing 150 million pieces of potentially lead-tainted jewelry from gumball machines nationwide. But the retailers have refused to take similar action.

Some of the items testing high for lead include brands such as J. C. Penney’s Worthington line, K-Mart’s Juststyle, Sears’ Apostrophe and Mainframe, and Target’s Xhilaration.

For more details, visit the CEH’s Web site.

Neuse Trail Gets Boost From Rep. Miller

The Neuse River Park’s greenway trail has a good friend in Washington.

Rep. Brad Miller, the Raleigh Democrat who represents House District 13 in Congress, has secured $400,000 in federal funding to help pay for the trail’s construction, which is set to begin next year. The money was part of an appropriations bill signed into law earlier this month.

“Raleigh has long been known as a national leader in the greenway movement,” Miller said. “By protecting one of our state’s most beautiful natural resources, we continue to build on the kind of quality of life that people have come to expect here.”

This marks the second consecutive year that Miller has secured funding for the project. Last year the park received $500,000 for planning and engineering design of first sections of the greenway trail. The latest installment will pay for construction of about 4,000 feet of trail south from the proposed Falls of the Neuse Bridge.

The City of Raleigh has led the creation of the 17-mile park, which in addition to offering recreational opportunities to area residents will also help protect the river’s water quality.

“The greenway trails are an essential resource for the physical health of our residents and the environmental health of our area,” said Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker. “Because of the support and leadership of our local delegation in Washington, this greenway segment will be benefiting our neighbors and our community much sooner than we could ever have made it happen alone.”

Raleigh Council Meets Monday on Tree Ordinance

Is saving Raleigh’s trees worth getting out of bed early – or showing up to work a little late?

The Raleigh City Council will hold a special session on Monday, Dec. 20 at the rather unusual hour of 8:30 a.m. to discuss the proposed tree conservation ordinance. Long in development, the ordinance requires developers building houses on large, tree-covered lots to keep 15 percent of the land in trees. For other developments, whether residential or commercial, the requirement is 10 percent. The proposal would also preserve trees along waterways and thoroughfares.

But of course, the powerful development lobby doesn’t like any restrictions on its business, so it’s been fighting the regulations tooth and nail. The Raleigh Planning Commission has taken developers' side and recommended the ordinance be denied as “too complicated.”

Monday’s meeting is especially important, as it will be the last one before at-large representatives and ordinance supporters Neal Hunt and Janet Cowell leave to take their seats in the state Senate. With Hunt and Cowell there, the needed five votes to pass the ordinance are possible if Southeast Raleigh representative James West joins Mayor Charles Meeker and Southwest Raleigh’s Thomas Crowder in approving the ordinance. Without them, only four approvals are likely. For more details on the ordinance and the politics involved, read this story by Bob Geary at the Independent.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex Council Chamber at 222 W. Hargett St. in downtown Raleigh.

UNC Research Links Air Pollution, Suicide

Toxic air pollution could be driving us to despair, says research conducted by a University of North Carolina professor.

The study found that two Salisbury, N.C. communities located near asphalt plants have suicide rates about 16 times the statewide average, suggesting a link between suicide and exposure to air pollutants. The plants mix crushed rock with crude oil derivatives to make asphalt for paving, in the process releasing toxic chemicals including hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide, benzene and arsenic.

The research was conducted by Dr. Richard Weisler, professor of psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill's medical school and Duke University Medical Center and a volunteer with the nonprofit Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. His collaborators were Duke professor of psychiatry Dr. Jonathan Davidson, BREDL toxicologist Dr. Lynn Crosby, BREDL Director Lou Zeller, Clean Water for North Carolina Director Hope Taylor-Guevara, Executive Director Sheila Singleton of the N.C. Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, and Melissa Fiffer and Stacy Tsougas, BREDL interns and undergraduates at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

“We do not know with scientific certainty that the area suicides are linked to hazardous chemical exposures, but we know enough to recommend that it is not worth taking any more chances on the potential association,” says Weisler, who presented his findings last month to the 17th Annual U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in San Diego.

More than 1,500 people live in the neighborhoods, which are situated immediately downwind of a liquid asphalt terminal, an asphalt hot-mix plant, a site where N.C. Department of Transportation dumped solvents used for testing asphalt, and a former petroleum tank farm that’s also contaminated with toxic substances.

From 1994 to 2003, the suicide rate in the neighborhoods as determined by death certificates increased a statistically significant 350 percent, the study found. Two deaths by suicide would be expected for the area over a 10-year period, but seven suicides occurred.

Weisler and his colleagues say a link between hydrogen sulfide and depression is plausible since the substance affects brain neurochemistry, potentially altering moods and triggering the stress response. Carbon disulfide has been linked to personality changes, mood disorders and suicides in occupational settings, according to the researchers.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the UNC School of Public Health plan to collaborate on further health studies of the two neighborhoods and other potential sites with chemical exposures. In addition, UNC epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wing and others at the School of Public Health will further investigate the health of residents who died by suicide.