Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Could Land on Terror List; Lead and Your Health; Commute Congestion: Fees to Cut Traffic?

Aired August 15, 2007 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome. Thanks so much for being with us. It's Wednesday, August 15th.
I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: And John Roberts still on vacation.

I'm Rob Marciano. Good morning.

CHETRY: Nice to see you again, Rob.

MARCIANO: Thanks.

CHETRY: And we begin this hour with a major move by the White House that could have an impact on the war in Iraq, as well as tensions and possibly sanctions against Iran. The Bush administration is considering putting Iran's Revolutionary Guard on its list of terrorist organizations.

Our Elaine Quijano is at the White House.

The reason they're calling this an extreme move is this would be the first time that an actual army connected with a country would be put on this list. What does it really mean, Elaine?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, you know, for sometime, you've heard President Bush say over and over again that he considers Iran a destabilizing force in the world. He's also, though, at the same time, faced criticism that his administration has not been tough enough when it comes to Iran. So, now, the Bush administration is looking to financially target, as you noted, Iran's elite military branch.

Senior U.S. officials say that the Bush administration is in discussions over naming all or part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a specially-designated global terrorist group. Now, this was first reported by "The Washington Post" last night.

Now, why is this significant? You touched on it earlier. Well, it is significant because it would, in fact, mark the very first time that the administration has gone over -- gone after, rather, an organization that is part of a larger government, a sovereign government.

In the past, the White House has certainly gone after individuals or businesses. But with this designation, the Treasury Department would essentially be able to go after the finances of this group and those who do business with it. Officials say though that a final decision has not been made yet, Kiran, on whether or not to go after all or just part of the Revolutionary Guard Corps -- Kiran.

CHETRY: There are also some questions about how effective it would be in terms of being able to choke off finances, how many businesses and how much money is actually generated here in the states that we have control over when it comes to the Revolutionary Guard.

QUIJANO: Well, that, and also, for sometime now, the United States has been trying to send the message that it does not see Iran's role in the world as something of a help, but that has not made any difference in Iran's behavior. Now, of course, the Bush administration is looking at perhaps choking off this money as a way of sending a clearer message, if you will. Yet, there are some who say perhaps this will not be enough.

We'll wait to see. The Bush administration yet debating this. No final decision, as we've said, Kiran, has been made. But likely we'll be hearing more about this in the days and weeks ahead -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, for sure.

Elaine Quijano at the White House for us.

Thank you -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Kiran, we're also watching some extreme weather right now. There are three storms.

Flossie was classified as a tropical storm overnight, pounding Hawaii right now, bringing heavy rains and potentially some flash flooding. There you see some of the video there.

Also, Tropical Storm Dean brewing in the Atlantic Ocean, heading for the eastern Caribbean islands. Dean could become our first Atlantic basin hurricane. There it is spinning towards the Caribbean.

And in the Gulf of Mexico, there's a tropical storm watch out now for parts of Texas and Mexico. The storm is on track to hit southeast Texas tomorrow. It's expected to be mostly a rainmaker.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, we're following the latest on this massive toy recall. And we're hearing from China this morning.

The Chinese government released a statement saying that the small magnets on toys like the Polly Pockets that you see there were made following the guidelines from Mattel. It asked U.S. importers to share some of the responsibility. And according to Reuters, a spokesperson for the Chinese toy industry says it knew as early as March about problems with the small magnets on the toys.

The recall also affects toys that contained lead paint.

Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta to explain just why lead can be so dangerous.

Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.

You know, one of the things, I think, one of the messages here, is not to necessarily panic about this, but to certainly act on it, to look at these recalled list of toys and get rid of some of these toys if they meet some of these criteria for the lead or for the magnets that you just mentioned. A couple of things to point out.

You know, lead-based paint has been one of the biggest concerns for a long time. In fact, before 1978, there were a lot more lead exposure cases than we have now. But, still, about one in 20 children have some sort of health effect from lead contamination. That's the way it is right now, so that's a pretty sobering fact.

There is a blood test to get this checked out. If you're concerned about this because your kid has been putting these toys in his or her mouth or something like that, you can get a blood test at your pediatrician's office. It's usually just a pinprick test. It might need to be followed up with other tests.

One of the biggest concerns here is that oftentimes you can have lead poisoning or lead intoxication before any symptoms develop, so you want to make sure if you're concerned about it to get it checked early.

CHETRY: You need to figure out just when and where we should be concerned. You can't inhale them, right? And they can't be absorbed through the skin, so it has to be a child would actually be chewing the paint off of a toy.

If your child has been playing with a toy months on end, how concerned should you be about whether or not you need to head to your pediatrician and get this test?

GUPTA: Well, if they've been playing with it just, you know, in their hands for months on end, it may not be as big a concern. But if they're putting it in their mouth or chewing it, or if you've actually seen some of it flake off, that's obviously a bigger concern.

Let me try and give you a little bit of perspective.

You know, if you look at a pencil eraser, for example, something that size, if a kid has been eating something that size every day for two to four weeks, that could certainly cause a lead intoxication. So look at their toys; if you see lots of chips like that gone over a certain period of time, that could be of concern.

Again, though, you know, the concern is sort of the paramount thing here, because if there is a concern, get the blood test early so that you can try and prevent any of the problems that you might get with lead intoxication. In kids, it could cause developmental delays. It sort of affects the central nervous system and preferentially affects a growing central nervous system.

Kids absorb lead at five times the rate that adults do, and their developing bodies are affected by it. So again, you know, try and get it checked early.

CHETRY: Right. And quickly, does their diet, poor diet affect whether or not their bodies absorb the lead as well?

GUPTA: Yes, it seems to very much so. In fact, there's a couple of interesting statistics.

Sixteen percent of impoverished children in certain communities are more likely to have lead intoxication versus other communities. That's a pretty high number. The reason appears to be diet, for a large extent of it, or old homes with lead-based paint. But certain things in your diet such as calcium, such as iron, such as zinc, if you're getting plenty of that in your diet, it seems to really thwart, if you will, the lead effects in your body, and that's because lead tries to displace those things. If you have enough iron, calcium in your diet, it will sort of fight the lead back.

CHETRY: Wow, that's important to note as well.

Sanjay, thanks for breaking it down for us.

GUPTA: Thank you.

CHETRY: Also, should the U.S. government have done more to check these imports from China? Do we have the capacity to do so?

Senator Dick Durbin chairs the committee that oversees the toy industry, and we're going to ask him when he joins us live in the studio in about 10 minutes -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Kiran, other headlines new this morning.

The White House is condemning suicide bombings in northern Iraq as barbaric. Five simultaneous attacks hit two small towns 60 miles west of Mosul. Two hundred people were killed, 200 were hurt. Right now, 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops are fighting al Qaeda in the Diyala River Valley.

The colonel leading the operation described just how entrenched al Qaeda is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. Andrew POPPAS, 5-73 AIRBORNE SQUADRON: They had a hierarchy both in terms of judicial, the political -- they had a police force that maintained, they had transportation units. They had a military wing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: The U.S. military plans a number of operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq over the next month. And from the hardwood to the court. An NBA referee accused of betting on the same games as he officiated is expected to plead guilty this morning in federal court. Commissioner David Stern called the betting scandal the most serious situation the league's ever faced. No other refs or players have been named.

And a member of the Rutgers women's basketball team is suing Don Imus for slander and defamation of character. Kia Vaughn claims the shock jock's comment that got him canned was sexist, racist and damaging to her reputation.

On "AC 360" last night, Vaughn's attorney addressed what's believed to be the first lawsuit by a player in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ANCOWITZ, ATTORNEY FOR RUTGERS PLAYER: Very often in this business and in other businesses you hear the phrase "It's not about the money." Well, in this case, it kind of is about the money.

Kia would like to set up a scholarship fund that would chair research and study of the issue of bad speech, of foul speech, of evil and malevolent speech in society, especially racist and misogynistic and sexist speech. And that's what we intend to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: The suit also named CBS, MSNBC and Imus' producer. It was filed on the same day Imus and CBS settled their legal differences over his firing in April, paving the way for Imus to return to the airwaves -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning.

And the Dow opening down 200 points. Futures not looking so great. And overseas markets show that it could be another rocky ride today.

Ali Velshi is here with more on what you should know and what you should do if you're an investor.

Hi, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.

The Dow closed 207 points lower yesterday, as you mentioned. That was the fourth day in a row that it closed lower.

Now what happened is we're looking at overnight. Asia was lower, European markets are lower. One of the reasons the Dow got hurt yesterday was news from Wal-Mart and Home Depot that wasn't great, but also, a wholesale inflation report showing some inflation at the wholesale level.

Now, in about an hour and a bit, we're going to get the retail inflation report, that's the CPI, what you and I paid for goods. Here is the thing. If inflation shows -- comes in as being high, that's going to hurt markets because it's going to shatter any hopes that the Fed will reduce interest rates.

When the Fed reduces interest rates, it makes money easier to borrow, it makes it cheaper to borrow. People borrow more, they spend more, they create demand, and demand creates inflation. The Fed doesn't want inflation. So, if we see an inflation reading for July in just over an hour, you're going to see the futures taking a bigger dive.

At the moment, futures are up about 64 points right now, indicating a lower open. European markets are still lower, but I think we'll get a better reading in just over an hour. That last hour of activity between 8:30 and 9:30, when U.S. markets open, is when we're going to get a real read as to how things are going.

We are obviously, as you mentioned earlier, at that point where people are starting to get concerned about whether this is technically a market correction. Are we going to get down a few hundred more points and actually have lost 10 percent from that Dow that was 14,000 not so long ago? So this is definitely worth keeping an eye on -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Ali Velshi, you will be doing it for us. Thanks so much.

Alina Cho is at the Brooklyn Bridge with a billion-dollar plan for your morning commute. Would paying to drive into town trim down traffic? Quite a controversial plan.

Hi, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kiran.

You're absolutely right, it is controversial. And some would say environmentally friendly.

You know, we're in the middle of rush hour now, and anyone who has been to New York can tell you it's an absolute nightmare to get from point A to point B. Eight hundred thousand cars come into Manhattan on any given work day, and that creates a lot of gridlock. So the mayor has come up with a plan that he calls congestion pricing.

It's already been done in London and in Singapore. Essentially, if it passes, between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, cars would pay $8, trucks $21 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan.

Yesterday, the Transportation Department called the idea brash and bold and set aside $354 million if the city can pass and implement the plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY PETERS, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: New Yorkers are fortunate to have leaders willing to stand up and try something different. This plan gives commuters new hope, new choices, and new pass (ph) home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Now, this congestion pricing plan would be the first of its kind in the nation, but it is far from a done deal. Critics say it really amounts to a tax on the working class.

Now, we should also point out that four other cities in the nation will be getting federal funding, including Minneapolis, which is still cleaning up from that bridge collapse. And Miami, where they plan to build something called hot lanes. Drivers would essentially pay extra to bypass traffic, but, Kiran, as you well know, congestion is a problem in every major city in America, including New York, where the population will grow by a million by the year 2030.

So this problem will only get worse -- Kiran.

CHETRY: It doesn't sound like there's an easy solution any way you look at it.

Alina Cho, thanks so much -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Kiran, July home sales hitting an all-time low in more than a decade. What's causing the slump in California and why potential buyers are holding back.

Also, toxic toys still on the shelves and more we may not know about. Who is to blame? And should the government be doing more?

We're asking those questions and more next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Some of the best shots in the morning in our "Quick Hits" right now.

A typhoon slamming the Philippines, turning roads into rivers, trapping people in waist-deep water. The storm now moving toward Taiwan.

And wildfires exploding across Wyoming. One couple running from a wall of fire after being forced to leave their homes. Firefighters are battling the monster from the air and from the ground.

And a bit of a facial for London's so-called Gherkin building. Crews washing the windows for the first time since it opened three years ago, giving new meaning to soap on a rope.

How would you like to have a lunch break 540 feet from above the ground? Scary stuff.

CHETRY: Wow, it really is. It looks like something out of "Spider-Man".

Rob, thanks. Well, more trouble in toy land this morning. Mattel's latest massive recall affects nine million toys, many of them involving small magnets that can be swallowed by children and pose a risk. This is the second Mattel recall this month of Chinese-made toys contaminated with lead paint, another big concern.

So what needs to be done to deal with the problem?

Joining me now, Senator Dick Durbin. He chairs the committee that has oversight of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That is the commission that oversees the toy industry.

Senator Durbin, good morning and thanks for being with us.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Good to be with you.

CHETRY: You know, a lot of parents concerned this morning. What are you guys proposing to try to stop this from happening in the future?

DURBIN: Well, this is nothing new.

CHETRY: Right.

DURBIN: All the headlines we've seen about pet foods and toothpaste and toys and jewelry and lead and magnets, the Consumer Product Safety Commission takes a look at defective and unsafe products. Two-thirds are imports and two-thirds are from China, year in, year out.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been geared down -- as government has gotten smaller, there are fewer and fewer inspectors. Maybe one inspector for every 100 shipments. So we need to have an import fee so we can have more inspectors.

We need tougher laws so that those that are going to be regulated understand there is a price to pay if they sell dangerous products. And we also need to say to China and other countries that want to do business in the United States, we are not going to compromise our health and safety standards.

CHETRY: It always seems there has to be a catastrophe for us to stand up and pay attention. I mean, we had countless pets die. We have the concerns of parents not knowing if their kids' toys are safe. Why don't we have better oversight of that before it comes to this?

DURBIN: The laws are written to favor the companies, not the consumers. And as a matter of fact, the commission has to sit down and negotiate the wording of a press release calling for the recall of a product. Sometimes that goes on for weeks.

You talked about magnets in toys. There was a toy called Magnetics. The "Chicago Tribune" did a big series. It turns out that they were negotiating, the commission, for months and months trying to get an agreed statement to recall this dangerous product that literally killed children. CHETRY: Now, you would require that any product designed for kids under 5 would have to be pre-certified by a third-party inspector. All of this would still have to be supervised by the CPSC, correct?

DURBIN: That's right. Senate -- go ahead.

CHETRY: Well, I just want to let you listen to what Nancy Nord, who's the acting chairwoman of the CPSC, said yesterday just about how enormous a task regulating toys is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY NORD, CHAIRWOMAN, CPSC: Our economy is so big, hundreds and hundreds of millions of toys and other products come into this country every day. And the notion that somehow we are going to pre- clear these hundreds of millions of products is naive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Do you agree?

DURBIN: Ms. Nord, of course, comes from the Bush White House. She has this attitude that, let the buyer beware. We're not going to let our children beware.

CHETRY: If we can't rely on some amount of self-policing from these companies, where are we? I mean, we're talking about 15,000 different products they have to look out for. Toys just being one of them, and there are millions of toys.

DURBIN: The commission can't do it with their resources, but the commission can set up a process whereby the importers and retailers demand this third-party inspection before the product comes into the United States. You know, it's something for a company to outsource its production. Companies cannot outsource their responsibility to American consumers.

When families walk into toy stores and all stores, they assume if it's on the shelf it's safe. And the fact of the matter is, the government can do a better job to make it safer.

CHETRY: All right. Let's talk quickly about your trip to Iraq.

You just got back. You were in Iraq, Afghanistan, and some of the other places. No doubt you heard the news today about the Bush administration considering putting Iran's elite National Guard (sic) on the list of state sponsors of terror.

Is that a good idea, in your opinion?

DURBIN: I want to continue to put the pressure on Iran to let them know that we don't want the development of nuclear weapons and we certainly don't want them to continue to send weaponry and bombs into Iraq that endanger our soldiers. I was just in General Odierno's office last week in Baghdad, and he showed me one of these roadside bombs that they had managed to dismantle, made in Iran, clearly made in Iran, that can penetrate any armor that we can build in the United States. So the putting the pressure on Iran is the right move.

CHETRY: So you think this move as listing them as a state sponsor of terrorism is a good move?

DURBIN: Moving the guard in Iran, the Iran guard to this level, says to everyone, if you want to do business with Iran, do it at your own peril. We don't want to do business with a terrorist state.

CHETRY: Very good.

Senator Dick Durbin, thanks for joining us today.

DURBIN: Good to be with you.

CHETRY: Rob.

MARCIANO: New information now coming in about the admitted pedophile Jack McClellan and his past, and just what he's doing outside a daycare center.

That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: The irony of pop culture sometimes, right? Well, it appears her answer is now, yes, yes, yes. Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse who sang the song, "They tried to get me to go to rehab and I said, no, no, no," has reportedly entered rehab in America. The British tabloid "The Mirror" says that Winehouse, as well as her husband, checked in with for cocaine and heroin addiction. Her hit song is titled "Rehab".

A Los Angeles court is considering a motion to make the Britney Spears-Kevin Federline divorce papers public. "People" magazine and KNBC TV made that request. The divorce becomes official -- or became official two weeks ago, but apparently the couple is still fighting over custody issues involving their two young sons.

Thousands of people lining up to be yelled at by Simon Cowell. Audition for season seven of "American Idol" hitting Atlanta.

See, Rob, you've got to get back into town. You've got to get back to Atlanta...

MARCIANO: For sure.

CHETRY: ... because, you know, the auditions are happening. They've already auditioned people in San Diego, Dallas, as well as Omaha, Nebraska.

MARCIANO: It's probably the best part of it. Well, in a mean way, it's the best part of the show in the very beginning, where they're just -- they show, you know, the least talented Americans out there. CHETRY: Exactly. When Simon rips people to shreds, I mean -- you can't help it.

Well, here is a look at some of the stories coming up that you can't miss.

One of them, this is so odd. You have to look at the video to believe it. A spontaneous playground fire.

One minute, there are just wood chips next to a slide, and the next minute there's an inferno. This is captured on video, and it was not foul play.

MARCIANO: We should note that this is sped up because it's surveillance video. But you hear about spontaneous combustion. You know, growing up, your science teacher tells you about it, but no one actually ever things it can happen. And here it is caught on tape.

So we're going to talk to a fire marshal and see, you know, what should your kids be doing in the playground? Should we replace all that bark dust, all that mulch, all that wood that keeps your kids safe when they fall off the jungle gym. Does that all need to go?

That's coming up a little bit later on.

Those stories and much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Well, we've been following the story of an admitted pedophile who had a restraining order against him from getting anywhere near kids. Well, this morning we are learning more about Jack McClellan's past.

AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence is live from Los Angeles with more on that.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.

This morning Jack McClellan is in jail, with his bail set at $150,000. Psychologists are starting to speculate whether he's truly a danger to children or a twisted man just out for attention.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice-over): Jack McClellan is very open about what he prefers.

JACK MCCLELLAN, SELF-DESCRIBED PEDOPHILE: It's pretty much in my head now that I am more attracted to girls than women.

LAWRENCE: And how he lives. Sleeping in his car. And collecting Social Security with no steady job.

MCCLELLAN: Just delivered pizzas, wash dishes, just odd jobs.

Oh, man!

LAWRENCE: Police arrested him Monday for hanging around a day care center at UCLA. He's been charged with violating a restraining order which makes it legal for illegal to be within 10 yards of any child in California.

Until recently he lived with his parents outside Seattle. He was also a registered voter, and says he attended community college. He also took pictures of little girls, or as he called them, "LGs." And online, he promoted the best places to watch them.

MCCLELLAN: I mean, certainly anything is possible, but I said 99 percent, you know, I would never do anything illegal with a kid.

LAWRENCE: Psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser says most pedophiles are secretive. Even though she's never examined him, she believes McClellan is either trying to prove a point or gather a following.

STACY KAISER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: He truly believes that what he's doing is OK, and he's trying to get other people possess to sort of join his crusade, if you will.

LAWRENCE: Already one other self-proclaimed pedophile in L.A. has gone online, offering McClellan a place to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's creepy. It really is disturbing.

LAWRENCE: Disturbing, yes, but as far as we know, he has done nothing illegal. Police say McClellan never posted naked pictures, and what he said online falls within his right to free speech.

MCCLELLAN: I really don't think the community has anything to fear for me going out and grabbing a kid. I mean, that's probably the biggest fear, but, I mean, I have no history of doing that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Now, as far as we know, that is true. But McClellan has blogged about the fact that he would like to cuddle with young girls, and he has shown a determination to go to the places where they're likely to be -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right, thank you so much, Chris. We're going to have much more later on a couple, a husband and wife, that are trying to close the loopholes, as it were, when it comes to people like McClellan and see whether or not that can help keep them away from children.

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: Colon cancer could be caused by something you eat. Is there a reason to worry about red meat, as well as sugary sweets? We're going to talk to Dr. Gupta about it coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

MARCIANO: We want to talk about one kind of cancer that's scientifically linked actually to what you eat, and now there's even more new proof.

Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from Atlanta with the details.

Good morning, Sanjay.

You know, last night, I had ropa viaha (ph), tonight I'm thinking about a steak, and you'll tell me tomorrow I may die. Please.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what they call a high-fat, high red-meat diet, Rob?

MARCIANO: What's that?

GUPTA: They call it the Western Diet, because it's named after much, because we eat too much of that. And for a long time we've known that a diet like that is actually associated with colon cancer. Now that's something that we've already known. What's new here and what's interesting is that for people who have already had colon cancer, who've have that diagnosis, may have had surgery or chemotherapy, continuing a diet like this actually gives you about 3 1/2 times increased risk of developing colon cancer again, and possibly dying from approximate it.

Now the Western Diet typically consists of eating red meat five to seven times a week, eating sugary desserts at least once a day, and eating a lot of refines grains instead of whole grains. That's the Western Diet. Again, it can increase your chance of getting colon cancer again -- Rob.

MARCIANO: OK. So now what is it about sugars and red meat that makes it bad for your colon exactly?

GUPTA: Well, that's a good question. We don't know exactly why that is. A lot of people have researched this. One theory is that these types of foods actually cause spikes in insulin. That's a hormone, essentially, that's produced in your body, and that hormone can actually drive, can fuel, if you will, tumors. So what may have otherwise been an inconsequential tumor or not a tumor at all, all of a sudden with these spikes of insulin you can actually get that tumor to grow, and that turns out more so in the colon than other places that it can cause that to happen.

MARCIANO: So then what are the best diets to actually follow in order to avoid this?

GUPTA: You know, when people have this diagnosis of colon cancer and then they've gotten treated for it, with either surgery, or chemo or perhaps both, they had this critical window to act, to change their lives. We find that people sort of follow either one of two patterns. Either they completely change their lives, or they don't change at all, figuring this isn't going to happen to me again. Obviously you want to be the first person, first type of person, to change your diet, eat less red meat, obviously, eat more whole grains, and really cut down on the sugar. As far as less red meat, one to two times a week perhaps.

And I know from you describing Kiran's eating habits, maybe this is some advice you can give her as well, Rob.

MARCIANO: Well, she had an omelet this morning.

GUPTA: Does ham count?

MARCIANO: Does ham count? And the jalapeno peppers, does that help anything?

GUPTA: Red meat just one to two times a week, Kiran. You got to cut it down a little bit.

MARCIANO: I'll tell her, but she doesn't listen to me very much. Thank you, Sanjay.

Well, if you have a question for Sanjay, e-mail us. Head to CNN.com/americanmorning. Sanjay will answer your questions tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Coming up on American morning, spontaneous playground fires.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was quite shocking seeing how fast the fire actually spread to the equipment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: A playground suddenly catches fire. All captured on video. But no one tampered with it, so how did it happen? And is your local playground at risk? What you need to know next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: Well, there's another worry about the South's summer heatwave. Take a look at this surveillance video. That's a playground, check it out, engulfed in flames in Arlington, Texas. I mean, it's sped up a little bit, but fire investigators suspect it went like this. Lots of rain, the wood chips started decomposing, and over time the extreme heat ignited the chips.

So could your local playground be at threat? joining us now from the burnt-out playground is Arlington, is Deputy Fire Marshal Keith Ebel.

Good morning, Keith.

No doubt you've seen this video. When we saw it here in the studio, we were shocked. What was your reaction when you saw this video?

DEP. KEITH EBEL, ARLINGTON, TX FIRE DEPT.: Good morning, Rob. When we saw the video, we were kind of amazed that we were able to catch that spontaneous combustion and the fire actually consuming the consuming the playground shortly after the fire was discovered on the video.

MARCIANO: And break it down for us. We kind of gave a 1-2-3 as to how this happens. You hear about it in science class and high school, but you don't actually believe that spontaneous combustion can happen. Break it down for us. What are the steps that are involved and what should we look out for?

EBEL: Absolutely. Spontaneous combustion in the fire service -- and we've know this for years -- and it's an organic material that basically decomposes. As the product decomposes, organic material decomposes, it causes a reaction, which gives off heat.

What I have here in front of me are some the wood chips that are taken from the playground. It's natural wood. It's organic. It's no different from the grass you use, grass clippings. And when they're compact over a period of time and they get wet, they don't have the chance to dry, they build up heat internally as they decompose. You generally won't see it on your landscaping. You put in landscaping and flower beds because it's generally a few inches deep. The stuff we see back here behind me is 12 inches deep so it has a chance to compress itself and not air dry.

And over a period of time from the water getting down in there and decomposing the wood, until it breaks itself free and finds air or oxygen, then it's the same combustion to the material that is burning, and it could be anything from these wood chips to grass, or anything like that.

MARCIANO: So thinner is better, but there are obviously thicker near the playground to kind of cushion the fall if somebody were to jump or fall off the jungle gym.

Just how hot does it have to be? Obviously your part of the country has been baking in a heatwave. Is that the main problem, other than the moisture in this wood?

EBEL: Well, it's not so much the ambient outside temperature. It's what's being down inside the wood mulch or the organic product. If it builds up enough heat around it, what you'll have no matter how much water you would put on the outside of a periphery area it would turn it to steam and not put that actual fire out, so it has more to do with -- go ahead.

MARCIANO: I'm sorry. This can happen anywhere just about anywhere, it seems. It doesn't have to be blazing hot. It doesn't have to be a hundred degrees. You just need that thick pile of mulch, and possibly in somebody's backyard. What should parents look out for when they send their kids off to the playground? I mean, should they be concerned about this?

EBEL: Well, I would be more concerned -- our concern in the fire service is fire safety was how fast the playground burned. The spontaneous combustion, you'll probably going to see wisps of smoke come out from under the organic material, and you'll have plenty of time to get away from it but it's the actual playground equipment that we're most concerned about, how fast it burned.

MARCIANO: You got wood. You got plastics there. And we should also note that, again, this video was sped up, and you've made the point that it typically takes time. You'll see some smoldering. You'll see some smoking. The kids will have time to get out of the way, yes?

EBEL: Yes, absolutely correct. But like we were saying, with that video sped up, if you slowed that down to real time from the time that camera actually broke into the surveillance, 60 seconds later we had 100 percent involvement of the playground equipment. That was our concern as far as a fire-safety standpoint.

MARCIANO: Deputy Fire Marshal Keith Ebel from the Arlington, Texas Fire Department, thank you very much for your insight this morning.

EBEL: Thank you, Rob.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Popular toys recalled for putting kids at risk for lead exposure. Could your child be at risk, and how could you tell?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is working on the story for us. Hi, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Good morning, Kiran.

As we've been researching the story, one of the most common questions we get is who should get tested for lead poisoning and what does that test involve? I'm going to introduce you to a mom and her son who struggle with that decision, and follow them to the doctor's office to see what they found out. That's coming up in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com