COVID-19: Santa Clara County hospitals bring in refrigerated trailers as morgues reach near full capacity
KGO
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) At least three hospital morgues in Santa Clara County have run out of space to hold those who have died from COVID-19, and another four are near capacity, according to county officials.
As of Thursday afternoon, 1,028 deaths have been reported countywide since the start of the pandemic. The grim milestone weighs heavily on the minds of many as cases continue to rise throughout the country. It not only leads to strains on the healthcare system, but really leads to deaths and families being torn apart, said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, the county s COVID-19 healthcare preparedness director.
The finding raises troubling questions about how to effectively eliminate the poison from children’s bodies.
The battery recycling industry is responsible for much of the lead soil contamination in poor and middle-income countries.
Decades after the industrialized world largely eliminated lead poisoning in children, the potent neurotoxin still lurks in one in three children globally.
“Once the lead is in the environment, it stays there pretty much indefinitely without remediation,” says study lead author Jenna Forsyth, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “Ultimately, we want to work toward a world in which battery recycling is done safely, and lead never makes it into the soil or people’s bodies in the first place.”
Decades after the industrialized world largely eliminated lead poisoning in children, the potent neurotoxin still lurks in one in three children globally. A new study in Bangladesh by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions finds that a relatively affordable remediation process can almost entirely remove lead left behind by unregulated battery recycling – an industry responsible for much of the lead soil contamination in poor and middle-income countries – and raises troubling questions about how to effectively eliminate the poison from children’s bodies.
Workers dig up contaminated soil and waste at the site of a former lead battery recycling operation in Kathgora, Bangladesh. (Image credit: Pure Earth)
As companies continue to work toward generating, and distributing, a vaccine for COVID-19, an Indian American scientist at Stanford, Aruna Subramanian, and a team at the university continue their work