Exposure

Despite dramatic progress in reducing Americans' exposure to lead over the past 25 years, a growing body of research finds that children and adults still face health risks from even very low levels of the toxic metal in their blood. A recent government study, prepared with help of researchers from Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, tallies the wide-ranging damage low-level lead exposure can do, beyond the well-documented effects of reducing youngsters' IQ and undermining their ability to learn and control their behavior.

The Maryland state school board adopted regulations Tuesday that require more concussion training for those responsible for student-athletes and beef up protocols for addressing head injuries. In addition, the board will convene an advisory board to recommend limits on exposure to contact in sports in which concussions can occur. The unanimous vote to adopt the regulations concludes a months-long process to tackle the issue in Maryland, which included emergency regulations and a 21-member task force made up of physicians, athletic trainers and school administrators.

State health officials are seeking the public's advice on how to deal with new federal guidelines expanding the number of young children deemed at risk of harm from low-level lead exposure. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is considering whether to have local health departments follow all young children testing positive for low levels of toxic lead in their bloodstream, or to leave the least exposed youngsters to doctors and other health care providers to track. Earlier this year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention effectively halved its long-standing threshold for acting on low-level lead exposure in young children.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is turning up the floodlights on Center Stage . It's been not quite two years since the British-born playwright became artistic director of Maryland's largest regional theater. With his production of two button-pushing dramas nicknamed "The Raisin Cycle," the beams emanating from 700 N. Calvert St. are strong enough to be spotted in distant places, from the Big Apple to the Badger State. Articles about the cycle, in which both plays run in repertoire and have the same casts, have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The man who apparently died of exposure to last week's cold weather was identified yesterday as a 34-year-old homeless man who frequented a Salvation Army shelter, county police said.The state medical examiner's office in Baltimore has not determined a cause of death for Raymond Heffelfinger, but police believe he succumbed to subfreezing temperatures. Children walking on a trail near the 700 block of Oakwood Road about noon Friday found the body. Police said Mr. Heffelfinger apparently slipped on ice two days earlier and was knocked unconscious.

Former Washington Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. denied exposing himself to a woman janitor in a men's room at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and asked yesterday for a jury trial on charges she filed against him A trial on misdemeanor assault and exposure charges was to take place before a District Court judge in Glen Burnie yesterday, but Barry asked for a jury to hear the case. The trial was tentatively set for Tuesday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court. Custodian Terry Jenkins of Baltimore complained that Barry shoved her July 6 in a restroom that was closed for cleaning.

County police arrested a second man Thursday in connection with a series of indecent-exposure incidents along the Baltimore-Annapolis Trail, just one day after they took another suspect into custody, authorities said.Officer Eric Snair of the Eastern District answered a call about a man running nude on the bike trail about 6 p.m. He drove his car onto the trail and went north until he was almost behind the Horizons, an office building in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway, where he saw an unclothed man hiding behind bushes across from the building.

Myles Conway did not want to be left out.The rising senior at St. Mary's could have spent his Fourth of July weekend navigating the waters of Marathon Bay in Greece. Instead, he took to the artificial turf fields of Loyola College for the Top 205 Lacrosse Camp.Lacrosse's version of the Nike and Five Star summer basketball camps, the Top 205 attracts more than 600 high school seniors and a few juniors clamoring for the attention of the 90 college lacrosse coaches on hand. Few of the area's top players are willing to miss the four days of instruction, competition and, most of all, exposure.

Preliminary tests of students and staff members at Baltimore's Fairmont-Harford High School revealed nine cases of very low lead exposure, too minor to require treatment and impossible to link to building renovations, health officials said yesterday."

WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown says there are "a massive number" of Persian Gulf War veterans suffering from mysterious ailments that may be linked to toxic environmental exposures.The number of veterans seeking VA medical examinations for possible environment-related illnesses has more than doubled to nearly 4,000 since mid-March and is expected to continue to grow, Mr. Brown said yesterday.More than 650,000 U.S. troops served in the Persian Gulf war. About 4,100 have been deemed by the VA to have service-related health problems, including 32 for environmentally related disabilities.

Baltimore County health officials found a rabid cat in the Milford Mill area and are looking for anyone who may have been exposed to the animal. The feral cat was gray, tan and white and lived among a group of other cats near Rhonda Court. The animal has since died of rabies. Health officials are seeking anyone who may have had exposure to the cat between March 28 and April 12. They are also encouraging neighbors to keep pets - particularly cats - indoors as they attempt to capture the other feral cats in the neighborhood.

An Annapolis man was charged with indecent exposure linked to several incidents in an area surrounding Forest Hills Avenue, the city police department said Tuesday. Miguel Avelar Medina, 29, was charged with three counts of second-degree assault, three counts of indecent exposure and three counts of fourth-degree sex offense, police said. Medina was arrested in Wheaton. cwells@baltsun.com twitter.com/cwellssun

A task force charged with strengthening Maryland policies regarding head trauma in student athletes called Tuesday for more staff training, parental notification of concussions and further study of ways to limit such injuries. The state school board voted Tuesday to accept the recommendations and field public comment on them. The majority of the proposals are designed to beef up a set of emergency regulations the board approved in July. Edward Sparks, co-chair of the task force and executive director of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, called the group's report "a working document" that was produced after months of research on practices in other school districts across the nation, the Ivy League and the National Football League.

Scientists who study sleep understand that light has a dark side, because it can interrupt natural rhythms, causing the mood and learning problems that go with lack of rest. Johns Hopkins University researchers have taken the understanding a step further and to a cellular level, finding that exposure to bright light at night appears to create these problems by itself, even apart from sleep patterns. Since the research was published online weeks ago in the journal Nature, biology professor Samer Hattar, who led the research team, has been much in demand as a speaker.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against a Columbia-based medical staffing agency claiming it acted negligently in 2008 by hiring and placing a medical technician who allegedly went on to expose the plaintiffs to hepatitis C. The lawsuit also says the firm and UPMC Presbyterian, the Pittsburgh hospital where the technician allegedly came in contact with the plaintiffs, knew he had put patients at risk by stealing narcotics but never informed...

State health officials are seeking the public's advice on how to deal with new federal guidelines expanding the number of young children deemed at risk of harm from low-level lead exposure. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is considering whether to have local health departments follow all young children testing positive for low levels of toxic lead in their bloodstream, or to leave the least exposed youngsters to doctors and other health care providers to track. Earlier this year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention effectively halved its long-standing threshold for acting on low-level lead exposure in young children.

More than 200 chemicals -- many found in urban air and everyday consumer products -- caused breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today. Writing in a publication of the American Cancer Society, researchers said that reducing exposure to the compounds could prevent many women from developing the disease. The research team from five institutions analyzed a growing body of evidence that links environmental contaminants to breast cancer, the leading killer of U.S. women in their late 30s to early 50s. Experts say that family history and genes are responsible for a small percentage of breast cancer cases but that environmental or lifestyle factors such as diet are probably involved in the vast majority.

New Town assistant coach Tony Biggers, trainer Ferron Carter and MarylandHoops.net analyst Edgar Walker are teaming up to host a boys basketball showcase Friday and Saturday at Leadership Through Athletics in Lansdowne. On Friday, there will be discussion on recruiting, including tips on social media, NCAA academic standards and more. On Saturday, players will be measured and tested before going through several drills and then scrimmaging in front of several Division II and III coaches.