Resources for Immigrant Communities
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In the news
March 25, 2025. Newsbreak. “It may be too late”: How Oakland addresses lead contamination puts children at risk, medical experts say. "Lead has been a part of 41-year-old Silvia Guzman’s life since she was a child. She immigrated with her parents and two siblings to San Francisco in 1991. Though the details are fuzzy for her, she said she remembers her mother enrolling her and her siblings in school and telling administrators that her younger brother tested positive for lead when they lived in Mexico. Their response scarred her. 'What I recall from that experience is that feeling of everybody shaming us, my parents, the family,' she said. They told her parents, 'You’re not doing a good job, you brought children in sick. They need to go to treatment. You need to be responsible....When I look back in time, I really don’t think any of us needed to go through that.' The administrators’ reactions, she added, shaped her perception that lead exposure had to do with the fact that she was an immigrant from Mexico—not knowing, yet, that lead is pervasive throughout the Bay Area, and in particular Oakland, where Guzman later relocated and started her own family. [.....] Now, Guzman works to dispel that myth as a promotora for La Clinica’s Healthy Housing Champion’s project, an initiative by the health center to inform Oakland’s Spanish-speaking population about the threat of lead in much of the city’s older housing stock, encourage childhood testing and connect them to treatment. According to a city report, all of Oakland’s predominantly Latino census tracts are in the top percentile of lead risk in the state of California."
January 08, 2025. American Public Health Association. A Public Health‒Community Partnership to Address Lead Poisoning in King County, Washington. "To strengthen lead poisoning prevention efforts among Afghan children, King County, Washington’s Hazardous Waste Management Program partnered with Afghan Health Initiative, a community-based organization. The partnership arranged culturally tailored home visits and follow-ups, in which a health environment investigator and a community health advocate identified lead exposure risks and offered parents guidance. The involvement of an Afghan-led organization significantly increased community responsiveness and case management opportunities, demonstrating how public health‒community collaborations can address health challenges disproportionately affecting refugees and immigrants. Refugee children resettled in the United States have higher average blood lead levels (BLLs) than US-born children.1–4 This disparity stems from pre- and postmigration circumstances. BLLs of newly arrived refugee children strongly correlate with country of origin or last residence,1–4 reflecting known global variance in childhood lead exposure.5 After arrival, refugee children may face further exposure risks if they are resettled into older housing with lead-based paint or plumbing, or if their families unintentionally use lead-contaminated imports like cookware, jewelry, cosmetics, traditional remedies, spices, and toys."
December 12, 2024. Press Release. FDA Issues Letter to Retailers and Distributors Concerning Lead in Certain Imported Cookware. "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a letter to retailers and distributors of cookware products to inform them that certain imported cookware products made from aluminum, brass, and aluminum alloys known as Hindalium/Hindolium or Indalium/Indolium, demonstrate the potential to leach lead into food and that this cookware should not be distributed or sold in the U.S. market."
24 August 2024. Telegraph.uk Why Afghans are being slowly poisoned by their evening meal "Afghanistan has one of world’s highest rates of lead exposure and a mounting body of evidence suggests cookware could be to blame."
Jul 16, 2024. Saanish News. Two lead poisoning cases linked to herbal medicines: Fraser Health. "In a news release Monday, Fraser Health stated the two cases are likely connected with consuming Ayurvedic medicines or opium-containing products. Fraser Health notes that some Ayurvedic medications may contain high levels of heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxins. Some of these products may contain opium and are prepared from the poppy plant — called doda and afeem." More here: 2 B.C. lead poisonings likely linked to herbal medicines prompts warning.
JULY 8, 2024. WFYI. How do language barriers affect lead education outreach efforts? "Lead exposure can lead to long-term consequences for children, especially if not caught and treated quickly. Outreach on the risks of lead often falls to health departments, but what happens when there is a language barrier? Maryori Duarte-Sheffield moved to the United States from Venezuela 24 years ago. She said, at the time, she didn’t know anything about lead and its risks. More than two decades later, she is helping other Spanish-speaking community members through the Marion County Public Health Department."
June 24, 2024. King5News. Despite an incoming Washington state law, lead-ridden imported cookware remains for sale. State officials are still figuring out how it will identify and purchase dangerous cookware when the new law takes effect in 2026. "It wasn’t until his family’s arrival in the United States in January that Hamidullah Shabaan learned the possible cause of the concerning behavior by his 6-year-old twins. 'They were crying. Even they were … breaking glass and they were eating glass,' said Shabaan, from the living room of his apartment in Redmond. He had first noticed the learning disabilities and developmental problems when his children were 3 years old in his native Afghanistan. 'I was thinking my son is going to lose his mind,' said an exasperated Shabaan. Answers came from blood tests the boys received when they arrived in America. Both had high levels of toxic lead in their bloodstreams. Lead can stunt growth and development in children. 'So, the doctors ... explained to me and then I understood. It’s going to be very, very dangerous, especially for the kids,' said Shabaan. It’s exactly the kind of story that pushed Washington to become the first in the nation to pass a state law earlier this year that will restrict the amount of lead in cookware to less than five parts per million lead. Shabaan’s family was fortunate to arrive in King County where extensive research following cases like Shabaan’s pinpointed high levels of lead in Afghan children to traditional aluminum pressure cookers that are common in Afghanistan households. Tests by the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program showed the pressure cookers, that are advertised as aluminum products, actually contained tens of thousands of parts per million lead. It's not just Afghan cookware. Subsequent testing by King County showed lead in a wide range of imported aluminum pots and pans. Many of these items are a click away on websites like Amazon and Etsy."
Heavy metal poisoning caused by Chinese folk remedies in psoriasis patients: a retrospective analysis. Abstract: Psoriasis, characterized as a chronic relapsing disease with a protracted course, often drives patients to seek relief through Chinese folk remedies (CFR). Nonetheless, the complex compositions of these remedies frequently result in unintended adverse effects, notably various types of heavy metal poisoning. Our study involved an exhaustive collection and analysis of clinical data from psoriasis patients who developed heavy metal poisoning due to CFR usage, admitted to Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital from January 2011 to October 2023. Our analysis identified 44 cases of mercury poisoning, 17 of lead poisoning, 21 of arsenic poisoning, and 4 instances of mixed heavy metal poisoning. The folk remedies used ranged from fumigation and inhalation to skin application and oral administration. Distinct pathogenic characteristics were observed in each poisoning type. After treatment with metal chelating agents, all patients experienced a reduction in heavy metal levels in their bodies, accompanied by varying degrees of symptom alleviation. This study underscores the vital necessity of opting for formal, medically approved treatments for psoriasis, thereby avoiding the hazardous consequences of unregulated folk remedies that may lead to severe heavy metal poisoning.
February 15, 2023. New Bedford Light. Undocumented immigrants fall through the cracks with child lead poisoning. "Doctors see higher level of immigrant children with elevated lead levels; advocates say immigrants are reluctant to report lead paint problems for fear of deportation. When children are poisoned by lead paint, the state has systems in place to help. But those resources are often out of reach for children in families of undocumented immigrants. The parents fear that allowing a lead inspector into their home could lead to deportation. Their landlords have little incentive to remove the hazard. And funding programs for lead paint removal require documentation that they don’t have. 'They don’t trust anything that has to do with officials,' said Helena DaSilva Hughes, director of New Bedford’s Immigrants Assistance Center. 'They’re afraid that it’s going to expose their immigration status.' "
FEBRUARY 17, 2022. The Land. ‘We’re not doing to, we’re doing with’: Hyperlocal health clinics empower Cleveland immigrant communities
Lead Safety Resources for immigrant communities
Minnesota Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health (*not lead specific)
Akron Childrens' Hospital Videos on lead poisoning (Excellent source of publications and video)
Keeping Immigrant Families Safe and Healthy. "This book, written by Ngo Hna, a refugee provides the information that you need to maintain a safe and healthy home for you and your family.
Happy, Healthy, Lead-Free Me! Simple Steps and Resources for Parents
Academic Studies
18 June 2019 Association between self-reported length of time in the USA and blood lead levels: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013– 2016. "Objectives The aim of this study is to determine the association between length of time in the USA with blood lead (BPb). Design Population-based cross-sectional study using data from the 2013–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants 5933 men and women (≥15 years); subgroups of men only (n=2867), women only (n=3064) and women of childbearing age (15–45 years) (n=1580). Primary and secondary outcomes The primary outcome was BPb concentration. The main exposure variable was self-reported number of years spent in the USA, categorised as: born in the USA; 0–4 years; 5–9 years; 10–19 years and ≥20 years. We used linear regression models adjusted for race/ethnicity, education, blood cotinine, age, sex (as appropriate) and accounted for complex survey design. Results Women of childbearing age who have lived 0–4 years in the USA have, on average, a 54% (95% CI 36% to 75%) higher BPb compared with women born in the USA. Corresponding results for all women, men and the entire population were 49% Similar, statistically significant, results were observed for other time periods (5–9 years, 10–19 years and ≥20 years); the magnitude of the association decreased with increasing time in the USA. Conclusions This study provides additional evidence that newcomers to the USA may be a population at higher risk of elevated BPb.
February 2018. Prevention of Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Child Refugees and Other Susceptible Populations