SUBHEAD: There has been no active Hawaii Birth Defects surveillance since 2005 by the Department of Health.
By Brad Parsons on 6 March 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/03/hawaii-birth-defects-unmonitored.html)
Image above: Atrazine stimulates hemoglobin accumulation in daphnia magna, a small aquatic planktonic crustacean. From (http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/2/443/F1.expansion).
In an open letter, Waimea Dr., Jim Raelson, discusses the remarkable incidence of certain rare birth defects- at a rate 10 times the national average- which he and Waimea Dr. Chatkupt have noted. In the letter he notes the fact that "there has been no active Hawaii Birth Defects surveillance since 2005" by the Department of Health due to a "lapse of the registry.
The letter details the type and incidence of the birth defects concluding that "we don't know for sure if we truly have a problem of true clusters because it has not been adequately studied but as clinicians we are seeing suspicious clusters of disease. We also don't know about cause and effect but if we are seeing a true cluster of a disease that has been linked to low level exposure by good studies done elsewhere then that in itself is grounds for real concern that we are seeing serious health problems."
He and Nurse Practitioner Marghee Maupin of the Ho`ola Lahui Community Health Center in Waimea met with some council members to tell them of this.
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By Brad Parsons on 6 March 2014 in Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2014/03/hawaii-birth-defects-unmonitored.html)
Image above: Atrazine stimulates hemoglobin accumulation in daphnia magna, a small aquatic planktonic crustacean. From (http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/2/443/F1.expansion).
In an open letter, Waimea Dr., Jim Raelson, discusses the remarkable incidence of certain rare birth defects- at a rate 10 times the national average- which he and Waimea Dr. Chatkupt have noted. In the letter he notes the fact that "there has been no active Hawaii Birth Defects surveillance since 2005" by the Department of Health due to a "lapse of the registry.
The letter details the type and incidence of the birth defects concluding that "we don't know for sure if we truly have a problem of true clusters because it has not been adequately studied but as clinicians we are seeing suspicious clusters of disease. We also don't know about cause and effect but if we are seeing a true cluster of a disease that has been linked to low level exposure by good studies done elsewhere then that in itself is grounds for real concern that we are seeing serious health problems."
He and Nurse Practitioner Marghee Maupin of the Ho`ola Lahui Community Health Center in Waimea met with some council members to tell them of this.
.
1 comment :
If the extent of birth defects and environmental threats to health were known and publicized on Kauai, it would kill the tourism industry. No wonder we have heard not a peep from the Department of Health since 2005 on these problems, including the fact that the pesticide Atrazine is poisoning Kauai's water everywhere. Kauai will be known as the "Poison Island" rather than the Garden Island. I'm not planning on visiting Kauai anytime soon..
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