Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Cadmium, which is highly toxic, is often found in industrial workplaces and recently there has been a growing awareness of workers and home owners alike being affected by cadmium poisoning.

Cadmium exposure can occur from sewage sludge, fertilizers, polluted groundwater, mining run-off and foods grown in contaminated soil. Regardless of how it occurs, cadmium is highly risky to the human body and has a variety of adverse effects on health.

Let's say you're one of those super-aware individuals who take every possible measure when it comes to safety. You have a state-of-the-art security system at your house, you look both ways before crossing the street, you check the backseat before getting in your car, you've had every vaccine possible, etc. You're safe, right? Nothing can possibly harm you when you've taken countless preventative measures to ensure your personal safety. You think you're safe, right?

Think again. You may have taken every preventative measure you thought possible, but what about the dangers you don't even know exist? What about cadmium?

You're probably wondering "what is cadmium?" The natural element is found as a mineral in the Earth's crust. But the fact that it's natural doesn't make it safe. Cadmium, which is highly toxic, is often found in industrial workplaces and recently there has been a growing awareness of workers and home owners alike being affected by cadmium poisoning.

Given its prevalence in industrial areas, its obvious how such workers come in contact with the mineral. What's not obvious is why it's been affecting homeowners? What, exactly, is cadmium doing near home sites and how are homeowners coming in contact with it?

Cadmium exposure can occur from sewage sludge, fertilizers, polluted groundwater, mining run-off and foods grown in contaminated soil. Regardless of how it occurs, cadmium is highly risky to the human body and has a variety of adverse effects on health.

Some of the aadorable effects resulting from exposure resemble flu-like symptoms. Individuals often experience fever, headache, chills, sweating, and muscular pain and weakness. If death does not occur, symptoms generally resolve in about three days.

However, not everyone who's exposed to the toxin is that lucky. Some individuals who experience chronic cadmium poisoning develop lung or prostrate cancer, kidney damage, bone disease, pulmonary emphysema, anemia, teeth discoloration and, in severe cases, even death.

Just when you thought you'd safeguarded yourself from all things harmful, you're exposed to the secret, silent killer lurking acircular your home. So how, exactly, do you know if cadmium is a problem where you live? And what can you do to eliminate its threat?

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Last Sunday, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, wrote an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times that was highly critical of our media's role throughout the Democratic primary. Her thesis is that the news media is presenting "Cliffs Notes-like" news of the presidential candidates and neglecting its duty to present more analytical and probing segments/articles. She makes a awesome point that the media has given us pointless information as to whether Barack Obama is a good or bad bowler and how much Hillary Clinton made last year. Here is an excerpt from her article that I feel should be read in its entirety:

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden's health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama's bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties.

What's more, the news media cut candidates like Joe Biden out of the process even before they got started. Just to be clear: I'm not talking about my husband. I'm referring to other worthy Democratic contenders. Few people even had the chance to find out about Joe Biden's health care plan before he was literally forced from the race by the news blackout that depressed his poll numbers, which in turn depressed his fund-raising.

And it's not as if people didn't want this information. In focus groups that I attended or followed after debates, Joe Biden would regularly be the object of praise and interest: "I want to know more about Senator Biden," participants would say.

But it was not to be. Indeed, the Biden campaign was coveruddy more for its missteps than anything else. Chris Dodd, also a serious candidate with a distinguished record, received much the same treatment. I suspect that there was more coverage of the burglary at his campaign office in Hartford than of any other single event during his run other than his entering and leaving the campaign.

Who is responsible for the veil of silence over Senator Biden? Or Senator Dodd? Or Gov. Tom Vilsack? Or Senator Sam Brownback on the Republican side?

The media has to be accused or at minimum the people running our major news outlets. The New York Times didn't even do a follow-up piece to Mrs. Edwards' Op-Ed, inadvertently proving her correct: the media runs with what is light, sensational, and content that helps facilitate advertising dollars.

The top news stories from Monday 4/28/08: "Economic Stimulus Checks Start Coming Today," Barack and Hillary in a dead heat in national polls (without mentioning either candidates' policies or remarks on current affairs i.e. gas, housing crisis, Iraq, etc.), and Annie Lebowitz's photo of Miley Cyrus' bare back. There was nothing about Bush vetoing the Dodd-Frank housing bill. There was very little on how much home prices had dropped in the first quarter of this year. However, there was a late news story in the dead in regards to whether or not Roger Clemens had an affair with a then underage counattempt singer.

How much longer can we point a finger at a vast majority of our country's media, which is continuing to abandon news stories that focus on erudite issues that are suppose to inform us and, instead, moves towards presenting more sensational news stories and broadcasts?  A more informative, more vigorous press is our responsibility. We have to want it. And if the news continues to be reported in a "fluffy" manner, that doesn't stimulate our intellect and leaves us in the dark, then that is just a reflection on what a majority of our counattempt wants to know and to be told.

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