Born: June 9, 1972
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June 06, 2003 at 07:00 am
No, finger nail biting hurts more...
As I was trying to find links to “finger nail health” for my previous post, I came across an interesting study that stated that, due to the lead content in the locale, children in Russia, who bite their finger nails, have a much higher risk of lead poisoning. “This is because lead can gather under their nails simply by playing in dusty conditions, both indoors and outdoors” (BBC News). Because lead has been known to cause developmental problems in children and also damage their nervous system, they are saying that it is contributing to a generation of children who have a lower IQ.
After reading this article, I had a question: what about the North American inner-city? It is well-known that there is still a very high lead-content in our own inner-cities. And with the amount of turmoil that goes on in these inner city areas, there are bound to be a few nail-biters. This, to me, is a heavy double-edged sword. While gunshots are firing, liquor stores are being robbed, and abuse is occurring in the home, kids (and adults) are nervous, biting their nails, and ingesting large amounts of lead. Lead poisoning, in turn, is creating a class of people who are prone to acting-out and causing strife in their own neighborhoods. Therefore, we have an innumerable amount of people who are essentially being bred for violence.
So, what’s the solution? Nothing that I can see. I am Russian. I bit my finger nails as a child. I still do, in fact. But, now it is not only bad for me. It is bad for society. That really does hurt.
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Comments (4)
I work with at-risk kids who, for the most part, come from “unkind” environements. Many of them are on medications for one psychological diagnosis or another (mostly paid for by the government). They’re all on welfare. They all have case workers. The kids at my school, at least, have many teachers who care for them…
But education, sadly enough, is the least of their worries. Furthermore, education or, more specifically, the things that these kids learn aren’t always retained. Whether this is because of their psychosis, poor upbringing, or poor living conditions can only be dealth with on an individual level.
Yes, education is important, but what needs to be done beyond that presents a greater stumbling block. Maybe, first and foremost, the government must provide healthy environments for this education to take place. I don’t know. It seems like we’ve pigeon-holed ourselves by not acting sooner (healthy environments are nice, but if you put unhealthy people in them, they do no good!).
Still pondering…
http://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/nailb..
new device that prevents the bite, thus breaking the fingernail biting habit.
1) Education
2) Education
3) Education
A recent study in JAMA found that high lead levels are associated with higher blood pressure. I think this is just a confounder in the blood pressure issue, since most people who have high blood lead levels live in the inner city, and those who live in the inner city have poorer access to health care, are less likely to be able to afford medicines even if they have a prescription, and also have to deal with noise pollution and other “inner city” stresses.
Good point Tim, good point.