Recalled cinnamon-flavored products sold at local Dollar Tree locations have been removed from store shelves.
Products included in the nationwide recall include WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit purée pouches, Schnucks cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches and variety packs, and Weis cinnamon applesauce pouches.
Becca Alliston, the clinical director for the Wayne County Health Department, said the health department visited Dollar Tree locations and asked that the recalled products be removed from shelves. The department later checked the stores and confirmed the products have been removed. Dollar Tree was the only physical vendor for the products, which were also available through Amazon.
The products, produced in Ecuador, contained as much as 2,000 times the highest recommended amounts of lead and have sickened children across the United States. Becca Alliston, the clinical director for the Wayne County Health Department, updated the county’s health board Dec. 19 about the recall.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers any lead in children’s blood to be bad. Children who might have consumed the recalled products can be tested at the health department, 100 S. Fifth St., Richmond.
Lead testing is always free for children younger than 7.
Health First Indiana
The health department is working to find partners that will help achieve the 16 key performance indicators for the new Health First Indiana program.
Increased public health funding in 2024 comes with more required core services that the health department cannot solely provide. Alliston is searching for existing services and partners that the health department can assist by providing funds.
“I want to find out exactly what we’re doing in the 16 KPIs,” said Dr. David Jetmore, the county’s health director. “I want to move these needles. I want to move these indicators. I want something to happen.”
COVID update
Jetmore told board members that three Wayne County residents died from COVID-19 during November, raising the 2023 total to 19. State statistics show 371 Wayne County deaths during the four years of COVID-19.
Case and death totals have been increasing across the state, Jetmore said. Wayne County’s caseload rose 41% in November compared to October. The county’s seven-day rolling case average is 12.
Member resigns
Board member Dr. Jon Igelman has resigned from the health board.
Igelman, who is 90, told the board that there’s a time when someone needs to fish or cut bait.
“It’s time for me to cut bait and leave the fishing to the rest of you,” Igelman said, drawing laughs.
Jetmore said it was enjoyable having Igelman on the board, and that Igelman always contributed to the meetings.
Igelman’s resignation follows Bob Coddington’s November resignation from the seven-member board. The board is compiling names of prospective members that it will forward to Wayne County’s commissioners for appointment to the board.
A version of this article appeared in the January 3 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.