Lead poisoning has been dubbed as the silent epidemic because of its increased prevalence worldwide. According to recent statistics, about three to four million young children suffer from lead poisoning. This type of poisoning is more common among children under six years old, affecting 1 in every 6 children.

One major problem is that most parents are unaware that their child has lead poisoning. Often, it is too late when they have their child tested. High levels of lead in the child’s blood can cause major health problems that include:

• Mental retardation
• Brain damage
• Anemia
• Behavioral and cognitive problems
• Hearing loss
• Kidney and liver damage
• Delayed development
• Hyperactivity

Extreme cases of lead poisoning can also cause death, especially when not treated immediately.

What is Lead?

Lead is a toxic metal that is commonly found in the earth’s crust. Because of its abundance, physical properties and cheap cost, the compound has been used as an aggregate for a wide variety of products including ceramics, paint, solders, pipes, batteries, gasoline, and even cosmetics.

Today, lead can be found in contaminated soil, dust, air and the paint of some buildings and homes built before the 80’s. Lead can also be found in small amounts in drinking water, lead-glazed pottery and lead crystal.

Is your child suffering from lead poisoning?

The only way to diagnose lead poisoning is through a blood test. Parents are highly encouraged to have their child tested for presence of lead in blood starting at 6 months until 24 of age, especially for children who are at risk of lead exposure. For example, if you live in a house built before 1960 and has chipping or peeling paint. Further tests may be conducted depending on the result of blood-lead test.

The test detects and measures the amount of lead present in the blood. You can consult your pediatrician to make necessary arrangements for the test.

How to keep your child safe from lead poisoning?

Here are some safety tips on how you can reduce a child’s exposure to lead:

• Make sure children have no access to peeling or chipping surfaces or chewable surfaces with lead-based paint.
• Vacuuming hard surfaces can cause dust to scatter. Wet mop or wipe hard surfaces instead.
• Wash children’s faces and hands before eating.
• Keep toys and pacifiers always clean by frequently washing it.
• Consult your local health department about lead-testing dust and paint in your home.
• Children should not stay in houses built before 1980’s that is undergoing repair or renovation.
• Create barriers in between lead sources and living or play areas.
• Keep your environment clean and eliminate all possible sources of lead.
• Regularly wet wipe window and wet mop floors.
• Remind children not to play in bare soil. If possible, have them play in sandboxes.
• Make sure children eat nutritious meals, especially calcium and iron, as they help clean the body off these wastes.
• If the soil in your home is likely to be contaminated with lead, put ground cover such as planting grass or adding a layer of sand or gravel.

Learn More

To learn more about household poisons and preventing your child from coming into contact with harmful chemicals enrol in a first aid course with a Red Cross training provider near you. Candidates enrolled in standard first aid and childcare first aid programs will learn the skills to recognize and manage persons that may have succumb to poisons.

Related Video Lead Poisonings

The Red Cross is the leading provider of a number of safety and injury prevention courses. These courses range from life-guarding classes, first aid and CPR rescues for adults, children and infants, and water safety training. This article will focus on the water safety component of Red Cross programs.

The following post is on the Red Cross AWSI Fitness component of the assistant water safety instructor course:

Objectives:

1. Identify how fitness relates to swimming.
2. Identify the components of fitness, the F.I.T.T. principle, and the purpose of using the target heart rate zone.
3. Identify methods for building endurance.
4. Ensure candidates are introduced to the fitness components of the Red Cross Swim programs and the fitness content contained in the Red Cross Swim Journal.
Evaluation Criteria:

1. Identifies why fitness is important in the Swimming and Water Safety Program.
2. Identifies the components of the F.I.T.T. Principle and the relevance of target heart rate monitoring.
3. Identifies two methods of building endurance
4. Identifies how physical principles affect the performance and teaching of fitness activities.
Time: 2 hours (1 hour class; 1 hour pool)

Materials: Scenario cards, flipcharts, pens, paper, newspaper.
Activity: Role-Play (30 min dry)

Candidates will be asked to group together and discuss the scenario card they receive. From the scenario, the group must then provide a role-playing scenario for the rest of the candidates that will provide a solution to the scenario on the card.

SCENARIOS INCLUDE:
> Parent approaches you, the instructor, and wants to know the importance of his/her child maintaining physical fitness.
> A swimmer in your lessons asks you to re-teach him about the F.I.T.T. Principle – particularly what it stands for.
> A co-worker asks you to provide a list of sample activities to maintain cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility in the water.
Ø An adult asks you what is the purpose of the Target Heart Rate Zone.

Note:

Take a Red Cross CPR and first aid course to make sure you can keep you lesson safe.

Activity: Methods for Building Endurance (30 min dry/ 15 min wet)

Take candidates through a sample of various endurance activities. Be sure to point out that the use of Over Distance Training is helpful in building endurance. Have candidates swim a short distance to begin with. As each lesson progresses, challenge them to increase the distance. This principle is used to develop endurance in the lower levels. They are not expected to be able to complete the distances of the Red Cross Swim Program distance swim on the first day of the lessons. Build up slowly and make it fun!! Have them playing a game such as What Time is it Mr/Mrs Shark where they have to swim a short distance back to the edge. As endurance increases, so can the activities. Try the Newspaper Relay. The object is to keep the newspaper dry to the other side of the pool. Swimmers take a newspaper and swim on their back to the other side. Make sure they are reading the news out loud—it adds to the fun! Partner swims or silly swims where you eliminate the use of arms or legs are also fun ways to build endurance. Make sure to stretch afterwards. For examples of stretches to use, see Appendix L.
Activity: Synchronized Swimming and Eggbeater (15 min wet)

Have candidates try out the synchronized swimming activities listed in the AWSI Manual page 11.3. Break them into two groups. One group is responsible for breaking down one of the skills of synchronized swimming into smaller progressions and a game. The other group is responsible for doing the same for eggbeater.
Activity: Fitness Activities for Working on Cardio, Intervals, Endurance and Speed (30 min wet)

Take candidates through the following drills. Once done, have them use their manuals and worksheets to determine when these activities would best be used in the Red Cross Swimming and Water Safety Program. How could they change the activities to meet the needs of different age groups (as defined in chart on pages 4.5 – 4.6 in the AWSI Manual)?

Cardio
Swim 200m; take pulse at end of each 50m
Intervals
Swim 5 x 25m lengths of Front Crawl. Take a 10 second rest between each length.
This gives your body time to recover to swim the next length.
Increasing endurance
Swim 25m, swim 50m, swim 75m, swim 100m, and time yourself.
Increasing speed
Try to swim one 25m length of the pool in 2 minutes.
Repeat the activity 4 more times each time trying to decrease your time by 5 seconds.

Other Considerations:
- Experiment different ways to make fitness fun (games).
- How fitness relates to swimming

To learn more about the Red Cross program take a AWSI course with the Red Cross. To become a qualified Red Cross instructor it is important to have a good knowledge and skill base in first aid and CPR.

Vancouver First Aid Ltd will be updating its page to include the following locations:

• Britannia
• Yaletown
• East Vancouver

The pages will have the following URL’s:

• http://vancouverfirstaid.ca/about/locations/Britannia
• http://vancouverfirstaid.ca/about/locations/Yaletown
• http://vancouverfirstaid.ca/about/locations/EastVancouver

The pages will include information about the courses offered which will be updated by Mark. The pages will also include the address of the location (in bold), types of first aid and CPR courses offered, and a google map of the location inbedded in the page. Places pages will be created for each of these locations.

Possible Further Expansion within two months:

• UBC
• http://vancouverfirstaid.ca/about/locations/UBC
• Point Grey
• http://vancouverfirstaid.ca/about/locations/PointGrey

Both these courses will meet the previously mentioned criteria of what will be placed on the pages.

Special Thanks to Eric Quan for his updates.