Categories: National Center for Environmental Health, Sharing Our Stories
January 29th, 2013 11:24 am ET -
In April 2004, illness and death plagued rural Kenya. No one knew what the source could be. At the core of this mystery, however, was an outbreak— jaundice with a high rate of fatality in the districts of Makueni and Kitui, Eastern Province. Officials were at a loss for answers. Stumped, they were catapulted into a mission to discover the cause of the illness.
The Kenya Ministry of Health (MOH) invited several organizations and agencies to participate in the outbreak investigation including CDC Kenya and CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH)
(Health Studies Branch HSB)
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Categories: Biomonitoring, National Center for Environmental Health, Sharing Our Stories
January 9th, 2013 9:25 am ET -
Dr. Christopher J. Portier
January 6-12, 2013 is National Folic Acid Awareness Week. The following blog post explains the importance of folic acid in the diet of a pregnant woman and her unborn child and the significance of folic acid research and biomonitoring by NCEH’s Environmental Health Laboratory.
A couple of decades ago, about 4,000 babies were born each year with neural tube defects, which are major birth defects of a baby’s brain or spine that can cause severe disability or death. These defects occur during early pregnancy, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. For example, spina bifida is one type of neural tube defect and may cause physical and mental disabilities that range from mild to severe. CDC has played a major role in changes that dramatically decreased the number of babies born with neural tube defects.
Did you Know…
In 1992, the U.S. Public Health Service recommended that all women of childbearing age capable of becoming pregnant consume 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid daily to prevent neural tube defects. Research has shown that a woman’s intake of folic acid prior to conception and throughout the first few weeks of pregnancy can prevent many neural tube defects.
Environmental Health Lab Detects Low Folate Levels
Watch a video to hear individuals with spina bifida and their parents talk about living with neural tube defects.
Folate is a type of B vitamin known to be especially important when cells rapidly divide and grow during pregnancy and infancy. Folate occurs naturally in leafy green vegetables, fruits, and dried beans and peas. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate used in supplements and added to fortify foods.
In the mid 1990’s, NCEH’s Environmental Health Laboratory used blood samples collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to measure folate levels in the U.S. population. CDC found that folate levels were particularly low in women of childbearing age. CDC scientists were concerned because they knew that low folate levels were linked to neural tube defects.
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Categories: National Center for Environmental Health, Sharing Our Stories
October 30th, 2012 2:33 pm ET -
Danielle Buttke processes samples.
Mystery Illness in Ethiopia
A strange new illness was spreading throughout Tigray, the northern region of Ethiopia. People living in remote homes and villages developed swollen, painful abdomens and then lost weight. Some of them had trouble breathing as the fluid in their abdomens crowded their lungs.
Three or four family members in one household might become ill, while others living in the same household did not. In some families, everyone died from the disease. Even children as young as 5 years old became too weak to move, their abdomens swollen with up to four liters of fluid. People were sick, even dying, from an illness that demonstrated symptoms commonly seen in liver disease. But what was causing it?
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Categories: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Health Consultations, Sharing Our Stories
February 15th, 2012 11:54 am ET -
Dr. Christopher J. Portier
High Densitity Polyethylene Cap to eliminate ambient reseases of gases
“The stench was so bad that when I would bake a turkey in my kitchen, the only thing you could smell was the dump,” said Roger Pound. Now, thanks to an Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) intervention, Mr. Pound can once again smell the mouth-watering aromas coming from his kitchen.
Mr. Pound lives a few yards away from the “dump,” the 400-acre A&L Salvage Landfill in Lisbon, Ohio, which began operations in 2001. A&L had not been operating long before neighbors expressed concerns typical of landfill facilities−dust, noise, and appearance. More serious complaints included improper handling of solid waste and a strong rotten egg smell usually associated with hydrogen sulfide.
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Categories: Emergency Preparedness, National Center for Environmental Health, Sharing Our Stories, Tornadoes
January 18th, 2012 2:11 pm ET -
Dr. Christopher J. Portier
An Aarons Rental Store on McFarland Blvd in Tuscaloosa -
On April 27, 2011, Director Tim Hatch began his day at the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) thinking, “My schedule is finally clear.” It wasn’t long before he realized he should “never, ever say that.”
On that day, disaster struck. Tornadoes ripped through the state, causing death and destruction in Tuscaloosa, Cullman, and Birmingham as well as some rural communities in northwest Alabama. From 1:00 to 11:00 PM, Hatch was in the ADPH Emergency Operations Center in Montgomery, tracking the tornadoes and responding to the disaster. Hatch and staff members in health departments across the state were prepared to respond to the problems caused by the tornadoes in part because of the Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response (EHTER) course developed by CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.
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