Environmental lead exposure poses a risk to educational performance, especially among poor, urban children. Previous studies found low-level lead exposure was a risk factor for diminished academic abilities, however, this study is distinct because of the very large sample size and because it controlled for very low birth weight and early preterm birth–two factors closely associated with lower academic performance. In this study we examined the association between lead concentration in whole blood (B-Pb) of Chicago Public School (CPS) children and their performance on the 3rd grade Illinois Standard Achievement Tests (ISAT) reading and math scores. We examined 58,650 children born in Chicago between 1994 and 1998 who were tested for blood lead concentration between birth and 2006 and enrolled in the 3rd grade at a CPS school between 2003 and 2006. We linked the Chicago birth registry, the Chicago Blood Lead Registry, and 3rd grade ISAT scores to examine associations between B-Pb and school performance. After adjusting for other predictors of school performance including poverty, race/ethnicity, gender, maternal education and very low birth weight or preterm-birth, we found that B-Pbs below 10 μg/dL were inversely associated with reading and math scores in 3rd grade children. For a 5 μg/dL increase in B-Pb, the risk of failing increased by 32% for reading (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39) and math (RR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.26, 1.39). The effect of lead on reading was non-linear with steeper failure rates at lower B-Pbs. We estimated that 13% of reading failure and 14.8% of math failure can be attributed to exposure to blood lead concentrations of 5 to 9 vs. 0 to 4 μg/dL in Chicago school children. Early childhood lead exposure is associated with poorer achievement on standardized reading and math tests in the third grade, even at very low B-Pbs. Preventing lead exposure in early childhood is critical to improving school performance.

Agricultural work is one of the riskiest occupations for the eyes. Protective eyewear can prevent eye injuries in upward of 90% of cases. Latino migrant and seasonal farm workers (LFWs) are at particular risk of eye injury because of economic, social, and cultural barriers to safe employment. The goal of this project was to determine the perceived benefits and barriers to use of protective eyewear during agricultural work among LFWs. In the year 2000, 55 workers who spent at least part of their time working in Illinois and Michigan as seasonal, hired farm workers were interviewed either individually (9) or in six focus groups (46) regarding their perceptions of eye hazards and the factors that encourage or discourage the use of protective eyewear. Subsequently, safety glasses and training on eye safety were delivered by promotores de salud to LFWs from the same cohort over two summer seasons. During the second season, the promotores observed the use of safety eyewear by farm workers at least once...

AMA's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment is used to rate loss of function and determine compensation and ability to work after injury or illness; however, there are few studies that evaluate reliability or construct validity. To evaluate the reliability of the fifth and sixth editions for back injury; to determine best methods for further study. Intra-class correlation coefficients within and between raters were relatively high. There was wider variability for individual cases. Impairment ratings were lower and correlated less well for the sixth edition, though confidence intervals overlapped. The sixth edition may not be an improvement over the fifth. A research agenda should include investigations of reliability and construct validity for different body sites and organ systems along the entire rating scale and among different categories of raters.