LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Walmart announced Thursday that it would remove from its shelves nationwide children's products that a consumer group said tested for high levels of lead.
The Oakland, Calif.-based Center for Environmental Health said this week that tests it commissioned on children's products sold at Target Corp. and Walmart stores identified products that contained lead above legal limits.
Minneapolis-based Target agreed to remove two toddler chairs that the group cited, while Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. initially said it would pull the items only from its California stores. Both companies pulled the items from their online businesses.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said Thursday that "out of an abundance of caution" the company has stopped nationwide sales of items that include toy boxing gloves and foam bead jewelry.
"We're concerned with the Center for Environmental Health's findings and are taking this very seriously," Lopez said. "We have passing test results from Consumer Product Safety Commission-accredited labs for these items and will continue to investigate this matter."
The Center for Environmental Health, funded by a grant from the California attorney general's office, tests children's products to see whether they comply with regulations. The California attorney general's office said it had contacted the retailers, based on the center's test results.
The center had criticized Walmart for not immediately stopping sales nationwide. Walmart says it has comprehensive testing standards and that it works with suppliers to ensure products don't violate regulations.
Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/10/14/1209718/walmart-pulls-allegedly-lead-tained.html#ixzz12T0xKqva
By CHUCK BARTELS
Friday, October 15, 2010
West Nile Virus Update 10/15/2010
No new activity to report in Washington. West Nile virus activity remains at 2 birds and 126 mosquito pools found in Benton, Grant, and Yakima counties. No reports of infected people or horses so far this season. Definitely, a different viral transmission pattern than last year, when 34 people, 68 horses, 22 birds, and 341 mosquito pools had been reported by mid-October 2009.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Health officials warn of deadly mushroom spotted in Western Washington
Local health officials are warning people foraging for mushrooms to exercise caution after a case of poisoning from the "death cap" species of mushroom that has now been reported locally.
A Bellevue woman was hospitalized last month after eating the poisonous mushroom; she has since recovered.
The Amanita phalloides species, sometimes called "death cap" mushrooms, are highly toxic, public health officials warned. Those mushrooms cannot be distinguished from safe mushrooms using taste or smell.
"It takes extensive knowledge to know which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are poisonous," Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County, said in a stateent. "Amanita phalloides look very much like some edible types of mushrooms and increasingly can be found in the wild, in local parks, and even in our own backyards. Only people who really know what they're doing should eat mushrooms they've picked themselves."
Symptoms of poisoning by these mushrooms include abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The first symptoms usually start within six to 24 hours of ingestion. Poisoning may result in damage to the liver and other vital organs, or even death.
Fleming says although cases of poisoning from the "death cap" mushrooms have been reported in Portland and British Columbia, the poisonous mushrooms were thought to be rare in Washington state until recently. There have been increasing numbers of the mushrooms spotted this fall, perhaps due to the wet weather.
If you desire to go picking mushrooms and want to know what to look for, the Puget Sound Mycological Society offers mushroom identification clinics for the public on Mondays from 4-7 p.m. at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture through the end of October.
You can find more information at www.psms.org or call (206) 522-6031.
If you suspect you may have eaten a poisonous mushroom, do not wait for symptoms to appear. Call Washington Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 right away.
KOMO 4
A Bellevue woman was hospitalized last month after eating the poisonous mushroom; she has since recovered.
The Amanita phalloides species, sometimes called "death cap" mushrooms, are highly toxic, public health officials warned. Those mushrooms cannot be distinguished from safe mushrooms using taste or smell.
"It takes extensive knowledge to know which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are poisonous," Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health - Seattle & King County, said in a stateent. "Amanita phalloides look very much like some edible types of mushrooms and increasingly can be found in the wild, in local parks, and even in our own backyards. Only people who really know what they're doing should eat mushrooms they've picked themselves."
Symptoms of poisoning by these mushrooms include abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The first symptoms usually start within six to 24 hours of ingestion. Poisoning may result in damage to the liver and other vital organs, or even death.
Fleming says although cases of poisoning from the "death cap" mushrooms have been reported in Portland and British Columbia, the poisonous mushrooms were thought to be rare in Washington state until recently. There have been increasing numbers of the mushrooms spotted this fall, perhaps due to the wet weather.
If you desire to go picking mushrooms and want to know what to look for, the Puget Sound Mycological Society offers mushroom identification clinics for the public on Mondays from 4-7 p.m. at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture through the end of October.
You can find more information at www.psms.org or call (206) 522-6031.
If you suspect you may have eaten a poisonous mushroom, do not wait for symptoms to appear. Call Washington Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 right away.
KOMO 4
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Rabies alert: Don't pet the bats
They're furry and cute, but they're not your friends.
The Washington State Department of Health is warning people to steer clear of bats, the most common source of rabies exposure for people in this region.
So, listen up: Don't feed the bats. Don't chase them or trap them. Just keep your distance, and seek help if you're bitten.
"It's preventable, but rabies annually kills 55,000 people around the world, half of them children under age 15," according to a health department warning released Wednesday.
Rabies is nearly always fatal if it goes untreated, though medication administered soon after a bite can prevent the disease from developing.
That said, rabies is rare in Washington. The state has only identified two cases where humans have been infected by rabies during the past 20 years, though 148 people have already been treated for possible exposure to the disease this year.
State health officials report 74 of those treatments were made necessary by encounters with -- you guessed it -- bats. Most of the others resulted from bites by dogs or other animals.
Between 5 and 10 percent of bats tested every year in Washington have rabies, state officials said Wednesday. Raccoons, skunks and foxes are also often found to be infected.
There are three reasons health officials say people should seek immediate treatment for rabies:
* If you're bitten by or have contact with saliva of a bat or other potentially rabid animal.
* If you wake up to find a bat in the room, tent or area where you're sleeping.
* If there's a bat in a room with a child or adult who isn't capable of describing what happened.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/223866.asp
The Washington State Department of Health is warning people to steer clear of bats, the most common source of rabies exposure for people in this region.
So, listen up: Don't feed the bats. Don't chase them or trap them. Just keep your distance, and seek help if you're bitten.
"It's preventable, but rabies annually kills 55,000 people around the world, half of them children under age 15," according to a health department warning released Wednesday.
Rabies is nearly always fatal if it goes untreated, though medication administered soon after a bite can prevent the disease from developing.
That said, rabies is rare in Washington. The state has only identified two cases where humans have been infected by rabies during the past 20 years, though 148 people have already been treated for possible exposure to the disease this year.
State health officials report 74 of those treatments were made necessary by encounters with -- you guessed it -- bats. Most of the others resulted from bites by dogs or other animals.
Between 5 and 10 percent of bats tested every year in Washington have rabies, state officials said Wednesday. Raccoons, skunks and foxes are also often found to be infected.
There are three reasons health officials say people should seek immediate treatment for rabies:
* If you're bitten by or have contact with saliva of a bat or other potentially rabid animal.
* If you wake up to find a bat in the room, tent or area where you're sleeping.
* If there's a bat in a room with a child or adult who isn't capable of describing what happened.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/223866.asp
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