Elevated lead levels found in cinnamon products, report finds

(NEW YORK) — Infant mortality rates remained relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023, but racial and ethnic disparities still persist, new provisional federal data released early Thursday finds.

The U.S. provisional infant mortality rate in 2023 was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged from the 2022 rate, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The report also found that infants born to Black mothers still died at much higher rates than those born to white and Asian mothers — more than double the rate of white infant mortality, according to the CDC.

Additionally, changes in the neonatal mortality rate from 3.59 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022 to 3.65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, and the postneonatal mortality rate from 2.02 deaths per 1,000 live births to 1.96 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2022 to 2023 were not seen as statistically significant, the report’s authors said.

Neonatal refers to the first four weeks of an infant’s life and postneonatal refers to the period between 28 days and 364 days after birth.

Dr. Danielle Ely, co-author of the report and a health statistician at the NCHS, said 2022 was the first year there was a significant increase in the infant mortality rate in about 20 years. That the rate did not increase in 2023 shows the rise in 2022 was likely not a fluke, she said.

“So what we’re seeing is that what we were hoping would be just a one-year blip is now a two-year higher rate,” she told ABC News. “It is unfortunate that it did not go down again to where it was in 2021 at least or at least down from 2022. It just quite literally stayed the same, the infant mortality did.”

Black infants died at a rate of 10.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births for white women and 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for Asian women, per the CDC data.

Infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native women also had higher rates than white and Asian women at 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the report.

Data also showed infants born to Hawaiian or Pacific Islander women died at a rate of 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, and those born to Hispanic women died at a rate of 5.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Why racial disparities continue to persist is “the $100 million question,” Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and an expert in infant mortality, told ABC News.

“One of things that’s great about this data is that it helps us work backward. It’s like the canary in the gold mine,” Bechtel, who was not involved in the report, said. “Death is an outcome that everyone agrees on is a problem, but why that problem happens is oftentimes subject to vigorous discussion.”

She said one reason behind the disparities could be that Black mothers have a higher rate of pre-term birth, and pre-term birth is associated with higher infant mortality.

“That has a lot to do with access to timely prenatal care,” Bechtel said. “Trying to get folks access to timely care during pregnancy and timely care that is evidence-based. We also know there is some elements of structural racism that is built into some of the care these women receive.”

Bechtel said the findings show that pregnant people need to be supported financially with access to medical care and by the community helping take care of a child.

“Raising a child can be very daunting, especially if you have socioeconomic challenges or you have to go to work and you can’t take time off after your baby’s birth,” she said. “So we really need to look at policies that support pregnant people.”

Harika Rayala, M.D., MSJ, is a neurology resident physician at the University of Virginia and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — A man who was left paralyzed after diving into a swimming pool as a teenager was recently able to drive again for the first time, eight years after his injury.

Ryley Hopper, 27, got behind the wheel of a specially equipped van on Aug. 14, his first time driving since he was paralyzed from the chest down at the age of 19.

“It’s a very empowering, independent thing,” Hopper told ABC News’ Good Morning America, about reclaiming the freedom to drive again. “I wanted to want something … to find a purpose to attack head on.”

Hopper was a college freshman at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and enjoying a summer swim in his friend’s pool in 2016 when he flipped into the shallow end, hit the bottom and lost consciousness.

His friend, trained as a lifeguard, performed CPR on Hopper to keep him stable until the ambulance arrived.

The accident left Hopper with a life-altering C5-C7 spinal cord injury that resulted in paralysis from the chest down.

He spent nearly a month at Duke University Hospital, including four days in a medically induced coma, before being transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for two months of intensive inpatient rehabilitation.

“In the beginning, I was figuring out what the future would look like … my first goal was to get back to school,” said Hopper, who prioritized returning to UNCW the following fall semester to complete his undergraduate and graduate finance degrees.

With his mother as his caretaker and a supportive community behind him, a couple years after entering the workforce, Hopper said he was ready to “attack this driving thing … and be more in control of my life.”

“It took a while to reset my mindset,” he said, but “minutes after being in the car, the butterflies went away.”

Hopper attributes spending time outside as a factor in his post-injury progress, and for him, driving is an extension of that.

“A lot of healing is done indoors — in and out of physicians’ offices — and the natural world isn’t always accessible,” said Hopper, who said he aspires to one day create a space for people with disabilities to participate in accessible outdoor activities and reconnect with nature.

When setting spinal cord injury recovery milestones, Hopper also underscores the importance of mental health and striving for personal growth.

“I’ve been given a unique perspective because of my injury, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the struggle I’ve been through,” he said.

For others dealing with a spinal cord injury, Hopper reminded them to not forget to find the silver lining.

“Find peace and serenity,” he said. “Once you realize that you’re in a position that grants you a unique perspective on life … it’s a kind of superpower in itself.”

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(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) Hundreds of people gathered outside the WK Kellogg headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday calling for the company to hold up its promise to remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals sold in the U.S.

Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg’s, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.

While Kellogg’s has done so in other countries including Canada, which now makes Froot Loops with natural fruit juice concentrates, the cereals sold in the U.S. still contain both food dyes and a chemical preservative.

In the U.S., Froot Loops ingredients include Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6 and Blue Dye No. 1.

Food activist Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe on social media, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators at the cereal giant’s offices in Battle Creek on Tuesday.

“I’m here for the moms, all the moms, who struggle to feed their children healthy food without added chemicals,” she said.

In response to the protests, Kellogg’s insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying its ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency has said that most children experience no adverse effects from color additives, but critics argue the FDA standards were developed without any assessment for possible neurological effects.

The protests come in the wake of a new California law known as the California School Food Safety Act that bans six potentially harmful dyes in foods served in California public schools. The ban includes all of the dyes in Froot Loops, plus Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3.

The bill was passed by state legislators in August and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.

Studies suggest that consumption of said dyes and colorants banned under the new California School Food Safety Act may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.

While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.

Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.

California previously made history in October 2023, when Newsom signed AB 418 into law, a first-of-its-kind bill that bans four harmful chemicals from candy, cereals, salad dressings and other processed foods in the state starting in 2027.

That law will end the use of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3 in food products sold throughout the state.

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