Lead Poisoning: Gone but Not Forgotten

There was an article on April 21, 2010 featured in the http://www.nytimes.com which describes a mother in Staten Island who has a child who was tested for lead poisoning. The results show that he had double the level of lead than the federal government considers cause of concern about poisoning. This issue has decreased throughout the years that it was almost considered a thing of the past. There are jurisdiction that do not have lead hazard laws which require landlords to check exposed lead based paint if children are living in the home. The compliance in New York City is lacking despite a comprehensive law which was passed in 2004. There was a survey among 120 tenants in Bushwick, Brooklyn which reported 59% of landlords has not followed any of the law.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) http://www.epa.gov will design a regulation that requires renovation and remodeling contractors to be certified in techniques for containing lead dust created during work. As a result, contractors are aware that the cost of renovation projects will increase in cost. This rule would apply to homes that were built before lead paint was banned in 1978. Governor David Paterson is researching ways to incorporate lead inspections into requirements for building permits and state assistance such as money for weatherization projects. The boroughs with the highest amount of lead in the soil are Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HUD) reported there were 31,463 violations in 2009 and the cost of repair reached $6 million. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) http://www.cdc.gov has prevention tips on how to protect children from lead paint, especially those under the age of 6 years who are at risk. It is estimated that 24 million housing units have leaded paint and lead contaminated house dust.

To illustrate this topic, the video "Lead Poisoning in Kids" was provided by the show How Stuff Works on February 20, 2009. It was aired on the Discovery Channel.

Healthcare Professionals and Client Violence in the Workplace

Let's begin by defining workplace violence which is a threat, verbal abuse, physical assaullt or a homicide against workers. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)http://www.osha.gov/ reported that healthcare and social services are the most at risk in any type of environment. Some of the risk factors are: weapons, the increase of mentally ill patients released from hospitals without followup care, long patient waits in emergency rooms, drug abuse, low staff, isolated work areas, and lack of training in how to recognize and handle hostile clients.

Employers have protocal in place such as handbooks detailing the procedures if one should encountera violent situations. Employees are undergoing safety education by utilizing the buddy system. This term is used when co-workers leave a facility in pairs to minimize the chances of an incident occurring to them.

On http://www.nyc.gov/ there was an article posted on February 27, 2007 where Mayor Bloomberg discussed that his office would work towards assaulting an ACS social worker a felony crime. This protection was granted to teachers, police officers, and transit workers.

Last year, my agency organized a safety workshop on how employees could keep themselves safe when working in an unsafe neighborhood. I expected the agency to provide additional training on how to defend oneself from a hostile client. This brings to mind--will an employee be reprimanded if he/she physically defend oneself from such a person or will this be a conflict of interest since we are hired to provide supportive services.