The Minnesota Department of Health’s Environmental Health Division recently published a study of mercury exposure levels in newborns from communities surrounding Lake Superior. The study found that 8% of tested newborns had mercury levels above the safe dose limit for methylmercury (the form of mercury found in fish) set by U.S. EPA. This is the first study of its kind to directly measure and report mercury levels in newborns, a group vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of mercury. The study used residual dried blood spot samples from the newborn screening programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/studies/newbornhglsp.html
Bulletin Board
- The next meeting of the Community Values Advisory Board is scheduled for June 4, 2012.
- Michigan Neonatal Biobank has in excess of 1.5 million dry blood spot cards in inventory.
- The Carls Foundation has generously awarded a grant to the Michigan Neonatal Biobank to fund the continuing development of Biobank inventory in the coming year.
- Nine Biobank Assistants have been accepted to Medical School during the past three years and six others are preparing for careers in medical related fields.
- Visit us in Booth 2618 at the APHA Conference in San Francisco October 28-31.
Biobank News
- Wayne State University’s Honors Seminar held their December 5 class at the Michigan Neonatal Biob... more
- Michigan is one of eight states participating in the newly developed Virtual Repository of Dried ... more
- Wayne State University's Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is currently using Michigan N... more
Biobank Images
South Africa
Nomvume P. Magaqua , Consul General South Africa learns more about the Biobank during a tour led by Director, Nancy Christ
FOX 2 Al Allen interview with Nancy Christ
Mike Brennan, Editor and Publisher Mitechnews.com interviews Michigan Neonatal Biobank Director Nancy Christ