In several neighborhoods across California, many children face an invisible health threat: lead poisoning. Found in paint dust from homes and apartments built before 1978, long-term exposure to lead has been shown by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to cause health problems ranging from anemia to learning disabilities.
In November, The Dignity Fund supporters claimed victory when San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a unique cash infusion for aging and disability services inspired by similar efforts a quarter century ago to benefit kids: The Children’s Fund.
Millions of Californians depend on a polluted water supply, but in the vast majority of places, the contamination is removed, and clean fresh water flows into homes, schools and businesses. Not so for as many as 160,000 people who regularly get doses of arsenic, nitrates, industrial solvents or bacterial contamination as they drink, cook and bathe. In some parts of the state, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley, water supplies are drying up altogether, because of the state’s drought.
At Step Up Ventura, outreach workers are trying to address homelessness’ impact on children by intervening as early as possible. Each week, a two-person team visits with homeless families living in shelters or transitional living facilities and who have children ages 0 to 5.
The largely Latino, immigrant and working-class community of Oxnard is fighting a proposal to build a fourth power plant in the city.
Esther Schiller, who suffers from extreme asthma, is a clean-air advocate of a particular kind—she crusades for smoke-free housing. Years ago, when cigarette smoke wafted into her classroom at Sun Valley Junior High School, the former teacher said it triggered a severe upper respiratory infection that caused a life-threatening reaction.
L.A. is on the road toward a transportation revolution. It’s been a slow start but with a new, well-utilized Expo Rail line extension stretching from Downtown L.A. to the beach and more lines under construction, many of L.A.’s famously car-loving citizens are navigating in new ways.
Vitamin D may help women fight breast cancer, new research suggests. Women who had higher vitamin D levels when they were diagnosed with breast cancer fared significantly better than those with lower levels, according to the study, published online Nov. 10 in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Oncology.
Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed into law SB 877, which requires the state Public Health department to collect information on the circumstances surrounding any death caused by physical force or power against someone, including homicides and suicides.
The burgeoning electronic cigarette industry is on the defensive in California this year as the debate over the devices moves to the November ballot. If approved by the voters, Prop 56 would levy hefty taxes on so-called vaping devices and add $2 per pack to the price of traditional tobacco burning cigarettes.