To assess the risk of lead poisoning among preschool and school-aged children in Bangladesh, 345 children were screened for blood lead levels (BLLs) from one rural and two urban areas in Bangladesh from September 2007 through January 2008. An urban industrial area at Tongi was identified as a disaster area, where 99% (104/105) of those tested had BLLs ≥10 µg/dL. Industrial emissions and use of leaded gasoline by two-stroke engine vehicles were identified as possible sources of lead in that area. A rural nonindustrial area at Chirirbandar, Dinajpur was identified as another high-risk area, where 14% of the children screened had BLLs ≥10 µg/dL. BLLs at the urban industrial area were significantly higher than those at the rural and urban nonindustrial areas (24.58 ± 10.32, 7.24 ± 6.31, and 2.47 ± 3.32 µg/dL, respectively; p <0.001). Weight-for-age z-scores of the urban children were significantly lower than that of the rural children (-1.41 ± 1.88 vs. 0.20 ± 1.16, p <0.001). Children with elevated BLLs had poorer nutritional status (p = 0.05) than those with normal BLLs. Over 90% of the parents did not know that lead causes health problems. In conclusion, the problem of lead poisoning in children was found to be high in both urban and rural Bangladesh. A universal lead screening for preschool and school-aged children and a lead education program for parents are recommended for implementation in Bangladesh.

Muslims are a growing segment of the American workforce, both in the public and private sectors. With the World Trade Center disaster, public employers are now more aware of the presence of Muslims and, perhaps, concerned about how they will be integrated into their workforce. This article provides a description of Islamic religious practices. It then reviews the role of the First Amendment, state religious freedom acts and civil rights laws as protections afforded to religious persons in the public sector. Through a review of court cases from 1994 to 2001, it describes the status of court protections for Muslim religious practice in the public workforce.

In this moment of populist mistrust of globalization and amid attacks on liberal values of democracy, how can we best train the next generation of public administration professionals to serve a citizenry cynical about democratic governance? The article highlights the transnational philosophical underpinnings of global ethic of public service founded on the democratic values of the rule of law and respect for human rights that are vitally important to developing effective, legitimate, and transparent skillsets that promote trust in public administration and democratic governance.

Information technology for governmental reform has reached a new level of synergy in recent years. Public organizations are rushing to reorganize and adapt to the new technological environment. This paper argues when a rational technological system is institutionalized in terms of becoming the central element that has to be maintained by the organization, the constraints inherent in technology can make institutions less adaptable to social values given the changing demands of society. Since institutions are the embodiment of the public they serve, institutional reform should first deliberate the positive human and social elements within institutions and find ways to utilize technology to improve the public institutions and service to citizens. The paper argues that meaningful institutional reform requires culture to play the central role in refocusing institutional attention towards a deliberative democracy. We should rely on the actors themselves who make decisions rather than upon technology that efficiently acts on those decisions.