2002 archives

29 March 2003. A report in the NY Times by Jennifer 8 Lee draws attention to an EPA review of a chemical, called ammonium perfluorooctanoate, which is used to make Teflon and which is released by Teflon during normal use. The chemical is highly persistent and according to the EPA review, poses surprisingly high risks for younger women and girls. A similar chemical, previously used to manufacturer Scotchgard, was pulled off the market by 3M under EPA pressure in 2000. Consistent with NY Times coverage of environmental health stories, Lee's coverage of the story actually soft-pedals the strength of EPA's draft conclusions about the compound, also known as PFOA or C8 (in Dupont's files, its manufacturer). Studies reviewed by the EPA link PFOA to deaths (in newborn rats), prostate cancer, birth defects and adverse effects on internal organ weights. The fact that PFOA literally does not break down in the environment adds significantly to health concerns. The Environmental Working Group has played a key role in drawing attention to health problems of PFOA and related compounds. Much more information is available on their website.

25 March 2003. In the NY Times, Jane Brody explores the arguments about vaccines and autism. She argues that if the mercury-based additive to vaccines, thimerosal, has been causing autism, then its removal from common childhood vaccines should lead very quickly to a decrease in autism rates. Her own conclusion is that thimerosal represents an insubstantial threat to the developing brain, based on several recent studies.

25 March 2003. Carol Kaseuk Yoon reports in the New York Times about a study by scientists at the University of Washington showing that children lower their exposures to pesticides by eating organic instead of conventional produce. "The study's data showed that an organic diet could, under some circumstances, decrease a child's pesticide exposure — as measured from byproducts in the urine — from above the amounts considered to be of negligible risk by the Environmental Protection Agency to levels below." Yoon goes on to quote Yale Professor John Wargo: "This justifies the importance of an organic diet, that organic foods lower a child's exposure. Industry people are saying show me the dead bodies. I don't want people gambling with my kids that way."
More on the study...

24 March 2003. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, reporter Gail Bensinger examines the third generation of Agent Orange's victims Agent Orange. "At the residential treatment center where Phuong [one victim] shares a sunny, aqua- painted room with three other youngsters, Agent Orange is a daily reality. All of the 30 boarders and nearly half of the 100 day students are suffering from its effects: twisted or stunted limbs, bodies covered with tumors, some blind or deaf children, others with faces in perpetual pain." According to Chuck Searcy, the Hanoi representative of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, "the U.S. government is really in denial about Agent Orange. The official policy is not even to discuss it."

17 March 2003. According to Reuters Health, a coalition of consumer and health organizations has called for an immediate ban on playsets made of arsenic-treated wood. The request, made to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, also asks that thousands of playsets already in backyards and school grounds across America be recalled. The recommendation is based on evidence showing that children playing on the structures run an increased risk of cancer, because arsenic continues to leach out of the wood long after it is installed. Evidence cited in testimony before the CPSC by Jane Houlihan, Vice President for Research from the Environmental Working Group, indicates that typical exposures for children may exceed EPA safety standards by a factor of 2000.
More on the recommendation...

11 March 2003. Scientists from the University of Missouri have published an analysis indicating that regulatory testing for endocrine-active substances must be changed radically if there is any hope to detect developmental disruption at low contamination levels. They conclude that current methods are physically incapable of revealing low level impacts mediated by hormone receptors, because at the high levels used, the receptor systems will be saturated (swamped) and incapable of showing any response to changes in contaminant dose. Under these circumstances, it is literally impossible to extrapolate from commonly-used high level experiments to the risks created by low level exposures.

The researchers also suggest that background contamination of experiments by hormonally-active substances is likely to be widespread and to have further undermined regulatory testing, by making it highly likely that this background contamination prevented toxicologists from detecting low level impacts. Instead of finding a real effect, the experiment would have been interpreted erroneously as having demonstrated no effect.

The net result is that the standards currently used may need strengthening by a factor of 10,000 or greater. More...

10 March 2003. In its issue dated 17 March 2003, US News and World Report examines two stories that touch on the neurological impacts of mercury in children. The first, "Heavy Metal Fish," describes new steps being taken to encourage children and women of child-bearing age to limit mercury-laden fish consumption, including tuna, at a time when the Bush Administration appears to be set on a course that will lead to more mercury reaching the environment. The second is about vaccines, and includes comments about the possibility that mercury in vaccines may be causing neurological damage in children. It cites several recent studies suggesting that current formulations of vaccines are not involved in autism.

6 March 2003. A story in the Washington Post offers suggestions to home-owners about practical steps they can take to make the home environment healthier. Many of the recommendations involve avoiding use of materials from which volatilie organic compounds (VOC's) will evaporate. According to the article, growing consumer interest in products with these benefits are attracting manufacturers and lowering costs.

5 March 2003. A study of water supplies in New Jersey discovers many chemicals present in trace amounts, according to a story in the North Jersey News. The findings "startled researchers with the variety of drugs, consumer products, and industrial compounds detected." None of the contaminants appeared present at levels sufficient to raise questions about traditional toxicological concerns. But no studies have ever--not once--examined the health impacts of mixtures as complicated as these, nor even the consequences of low level exposures of many of the detected compounds on fetal development in people.
More on mixtures...

5 March 2003. According to the Toronto Star, a study by researchers from Laval University have documented subtle neurodevelopmental effects of exposure in the womb to mercury and PCBs in Inuit children living in far northern Canada. The results parallel earlier findings in studies of children living in the Great Lakes region of the US and they create a dilemma for people and health officials in the region. Exposure comes from eating traditional foods, like fish and seal, which become contaminated by bioaccumulation of chemicals to the top of the food chain. For the most part, however, "the health status of aboriginals who follow a traditional diet is spectacularly better than of those who have taken up the southern lifestyle." While PCB levels appear to be declining, mercury levels are rising. At what point do the health benefits of traditional foods no longer outweigh the neurodevelopmental risks? The dilemma is worsened by the fact that almost all the pollution comes from sources far to the south, carried by atmospheric currents. Hence no local steps can be taken to prevent contaminating the food chain.

4 March 2003. David Kohn writes in Newsday about health safety questions raised by laboratory data on phthalates, ubiquitous additives to many different consumer products, from plastic baby toys to cosmetics to vinyl flooring. They are even "the new car smell in new cars." A growing body of experiments with laboratory animals demonstrate that phthalates can cause developmental errors, but industrial users of phthalates assert there is no evidence phthalates cause harm in people. The problem with then concluding that phthalates are safe, according to Mike Shelby, director of the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction at the National Institute of Environmental Health Services, is no one has done the needed studies: "Industry says there is no human evidence, and that's true," says Shelby. "But the absence of evidence doesn't mean there's no effect. In this case, it means that no one's studied it." More on phthalates...

4 March 2003. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that the EPA has concluded that children run a much greater risk than adults of developing cancer after being exposed to mutagenic contaminants. For a child under 2, the risk is increased 10-fold compared to adults, while for children aged 2- 15 it is increased 2-5 times. This finding is part of a draft report the EPA has prepared for public comment, analyzing children's risks to cancer-causing agents. While details of the mechanism of carcinogenesis vary from mutagen to mutagen, the key to children's greater risk is the fact that, while still growing, their cells are dividing more frequently than adults and are therefore more vulnerable to DNA damage. According to the Times, "to be sure, there are many categories of carcinogens, and children are not at increased increased cancer risk from all of them. Because mutagens damage DNA, children are more at risk because as they grow, their cells divide more frequently than those of adults, perpetuating that damage." The guidelines are available on the EPA website

24 February 2003. According to Reuters Health, scientists call for more research into links between environmental exposures and children's health at a meeting sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "Children are especially vulnerable to pollutants because they breathe in more air and take in more food and liquid, proportional to their size, than adults, said Phil Lee, a senior scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, and former assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services" and CHE chairman.

24 February 2003. The Guardian (London) reports that scientific advisors to the British Department of Health are urging research into factors affecting human fertility. The scientists, members of the Committee on Toxicity of chemicals in food, consumer products and the environment (Cot), are recommending an expert review of the evidence showing how chemicals, working environments, and lifestyles may be affecting the sexual development of boys and their fertility as men

22 February 2003. In an op-ed in the New York Times, science writer/editor Rebecca Skloot asks the "big elephant in the room" question that has been ignored for literally decades of work on fertility treatments. Should these experiments be allowed without federal scrutiny and regulation? Growing scientific evidence indicates that increased risks of birth defects and disease accompany the use of common infertility treatments like in vitro fertilization. Writes Skloot: "If the far-off prospect of cloning can arouse such heated debate, surely the safety of current infertility treatments can do the same. It took scientists decades to figure out that diethylstilbestrol, or DES, a widely used fertility drug of the 50's and 60's, caused cancer and infertility in children exposed to it in their mothers' wombs. Let's not make that mistake again.

20 February 2003. Stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times report on a suppressed EPA report on children's health and the environment. According to the Journal: "A partial draft, titled "America's Children and the Environment," notes that states increasingly are issuing warnings about dangerous mercury levels in fish. It says there is mounting evidence that mercury is collecting in the blood of women of child-bearing age. The evidence is also increasing, warns the EPA report, that high doses of mercury can cause mental retardation and other neurological disorders in infants." The Journal story examines utility and coal industry pressure on the Administration to not implement stronger mercury standards.

Not covered by either story: While the WSJ story describes a battle within the Bush Administration about mercury, it fails to report that a key source of political pressure to stall on the report's release as been the Office of Management and Budget's John Graham. In principle, OMB has no role to play in this report because it is a scientific finding without regulatory impact. In fact, according to EPA sources, Graham's office insisted on reviewing the document.

And finally, a note abour press wars. When the Administration learned that the Journal had obtained a full copy of the report and was preparing to run a story, it leaked selective portions of it to the New York Times. Hence the Times coverage provides a far rosier interpretation.

11 February 2003. The LA Times reports that the EPA is proposing to relax industrial toxic emission measures, responding to business complaints that standards are too costly. Affected industries include petrochemical plants, pulp mills, automobile manufacturers and steel mills. "The emissions at issue are not hazardous because of smog-forming potential, but because they can lead to cancer or damage the brain or a developing fetus."

10 February 2003. The New York Times reports that delegates attending a U.N. conference in Nairobi " endorsed a global crackdown on pollution caused by mercury, although the United States blocked efforts for binding restrictions on its use." The story cites CDC data from its recent body burden report, to the effect that one in twelve pregnant women in the US have unsafe mercury levels, threatening neurological development in more than 300,000 babies in the US. Exposures are likely to be much worse elsewhere, as national and state programs in the US to alert consumers to mercury exposures are far more aggressive than in other countries.

9 February 2003. A large study by Maryland public health scientists finds that blood lead levels beneath the current OSHA "action level" for industrial workers is associated with a 46% increase in mortality of exposed people. The increases are observed in circulatory diseases and cancer. More...

8 February 2003. Writing in the New York Times, Jennifer Lee reports that scientists at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have concluded that exposure to arsenic in playground structures made out of chromated copper arsenate-treated wood increases the risk of bladder and lung cancer in children. "This pesticide contains arsenic, a known carcinogen, which bleeds from the wood. Young children can ingest the arsenic when they put their hands to their mouths or when they touch food or toys which are then placed in their mouths. The study projects that between 2 to 100 children out of one million will get bladder and lung cancer from their exposure to the arsenic."

The CPSC report concluded that "hand-to-mouth behavior is the primary source of exposure to arsenic from CCA-treated wood playsets. Young children who routinely put their hands in their mouths (generally children under 6 years of age) can then ingest the arsenic directly from their hands or indirectly when they touch food or toys, which are then placed in their mouths." It recommends hand-washing with soap immediately after play on a playset made from CCA wood. If a decision is made to remove the structure, it should not be burned as this will liberate arsenic into the air. It also recommends that children should not eat while on CCA-made structures. It does not mention, however, that picnic tables around the country are made with CCA wood.

It is also important to note that this CPSC finding is based exclusively on the carcinogenic toxicity of arsenic, not other health endpoints. CPSC based this approach on the assumption that this is likely to be the most sensitive endpoint. This assumption is likely to be invalid, based upon recent findings that arsenic interferes with gene expression under the control of a hormone called glucocorticoid, at extremely low levels. Hence CPSC's assessment is likely to underestimate the risks of CCA-treated wood.

4 February 2003. Martin Mittelstaedt reports in the Toronto Globe and Mail on a new analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme which concludes that the world's environment is increasingly contaminated by mercury, a developmental neurotoxin. "According to the report, millions of children may already be suffering ailments -- ranging from learning difficulties to impaired nervous systems-- due to dietary mercury. The report concludes that "The available data indicate that mercury is present all over the globe, especially in fish, in concentrations that adversely affect human beings and wildlife." Mercury contamination enters the environment via multiple pathways, with burning of coal for electricity production and waste incineration accounting for 70% of global emissions. Emissions are growing most rapidly in Asia. Atmospheric transport carries mercury pollution literally around the globe.

2 February 2003. A story in the Los Angeles Times written by Miguel Bustillo reports that the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California EPA are concerned about health implications of perchlorate contamination in the Colorado River, a source of drinking water for more than 15 million people in the US southwest. Even at low levels, perchlorate interferes with thyroid action and may thus disrupt developmental processes under thyroid control, including brain development. The principal source of contamination is an old rocket fuel production site in Nevada. Health authorities are also questioning whether the use of this water for irrigation of lettuce crops may extend the risks to a much wider array of Americans who purchase produce grown in southern California. The Department of Defense disputes the possibility that the low level exposures could be a health risk.

31 January 2003. Two studies released this week provide new insights into the levels of contaminants experienced by the American public. One, conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control, measured the levels of 116 compounds, including an array of heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, traces of second-hand smoke, organochlorines, and organophosphate pesticides. Almost 8,000 people age 1 and older were included in the survey, with specific sample sizes varying from compound to compound. The second study, by CHE partners the Environmental Working Group, Commonweal and the Mt Sinai School of Medicine, looked more intensely at a much smaller group, measuring 210 chemicals in 9 people. Of the 210 sampled, 167 were found, an average of 91 compounds per person.

The results of the two studies combined contained messages of hope and of concern. The good news is that when protective measures are put in place, for example, with lead and DDT, over time contamination levels fall. It is also good news that compound-by-compound, most Americans have relatively low levels.

The bad news is that we all contain many contaminants, most of which are poorly understood even one-by-one, and none of which are known to be safe in the mixtures in which they always occur. The other half of the bad news is that many of these chemicals, even at low levels, are biologically active, and that an increasing body of scientific evidence indicates plausible links between the low level exposures and biochemical changes associated with health problems that appear to be increasing in people.

More on the CDC study...
More on the CHE partner study...

30 January 2003. The Attack of the Flack: A PR flack funded by the tobacco and chemical industries takes a vitriolic swipe at CHE and its members.

28 January 2003. Rescue workers at Ground Zero continue with health problems, according to a study by Mount Sinai's Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. As reported by the Washington Post, the study involved a random sample of workers screened last July and August. "Seventy-eight percent of them had suffered lung ailments and that 88 percent had experienced ear, nose and throat problems during the months immediately following the attack. About one-fifth of the patients showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and more than half received referrals for psychiatric care."

25 January 2003. Supporting recommendations in a report issued by a consortium of environmental, health, labor and human rights organizations, an editorial in the New York Times calls for domestic legislation that would require US companies to make public information about activities overseas that would be prohibited or require disclosure by US domestic law. Citing the success of the US EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) in reducing industrial emissions by 50% during the first decade following the TRI's implementation, the Times argues that "The idea of an international right to know is a creative and, for the companies, a not particularly burdensome new approach. American companies could still behave badly if they chose to do so. The law does not prevent irresponsible mining companies in Peru from spilling mercury on local roads, or toy makers in China from employing children. But they would have to tell the public about these practices, and let the market, and public opinion, go to work."

24 January 2003. In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times reminds readers that the source of funding for scientific research can taint the process, especially when there are economic interests at stake. The editorial focuses on medical research and biases introduced by companies seeking to gain competitive advantage for their products. It fails to note, however, that the situation it describes in medical research on disease treatment is actually far more prevalent in research examining the health impacts of chemical exposures. Federal and independent funding of medical research may not be sufficient to counterbalance the biases of research underwritten by private interests, but it is vastly greater in amount than independent funding available to examine health risks associated with chemical exposures. Here, research by chemical interests with an economic stake in the outcome dramatically outweighs independent investigations. As a result, scientific literature on chemical exposures is littered with false assurances about safety.

24 January 2003. A story in the Wall Street Journal describes a new report by US PIRG on industrial releases of toxic contaminants in the United States. The report, based on a zip-code by zip-code analysis of the US EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, documents a long-term trend that has led to a big increase in emissions in the South relative to the Northeast US. "Thirteen Southern states, stretching from North Carolina to New Mexico, were responsible for producing nearly half of all toxic releases known to cause cancer." The report allows on-line readers to look state-by-state for sources of toxic emissions, and provides separate analyses for cancer-causing contaminants vs. those that induce neurological, developmental, reproductive and other types of health damage. The story in the Journal cites medical concerns that evidence increasingly links exposure to a range of health conditions, including multiple sclerosis, lupus, breast cancer and asthma.

24 January 2003. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Rosie Mestel describes indications emerging from a series of studies of birth outcomes that the risk of several rare birth defects/diseases are increased in children conceived through in vitro fertilization. Release of a new Dutch study in The Lancet is the latest indication. Their research reveals a a four- to seven-fold increase in the rate of retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eye. Earlier studies published within the past two years had linked in vitro fertilization to heightened risk of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and Angelman syndrome. Because the normal rates of these diseases are extremely rare, the increase in risk indicated by these studies does not translate to a high risk for in vitro births, but according to the LA Times "a growing number of scientists and doctors think the reports are a cause for unease."

Prevention of infertility should become the first line of defense.

23 January 2003. In a comprehensive investigation, the Detroit Free Press reveals that lead contamination in soil--the legacy of industrial lead smelting and also the use of lead in gasoline--continues to poison children in the Detroit area. According to the newspaper's research "thousands of children in America's older, industrial cities grow up playing in toxic dirt in their backyards and neighborhoods." Ten percent of soil samples analyzed by an independent scientist had lead contamination above EPA's level of concern for children's play areas.

23 January 2003. The Institute of Medicine of the US National Academies has issued a report concluding that the links between chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Agent Orange are strong enough to justify paying health benefits to veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. This reverses the IOM's prior position which had been based upon examining all types of leukemia together. Because of CLL's similarity to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which the IOM had already concluded was linked to these exposures, in this new analysis the IOM considered CLL separately. This new approach solidified the link.

According to IOM: "In addition to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and now CLL, there is sufficient evidence of a link between exposure to chemical defoliants or their contaminants and the development of soft-tissue sarcoma and chloracne in veterans. Also, scientific studies continue to offer limited or suggestive evidence of an association with other diseases in veterans -- including Type 2 diabetes, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, and multiple myeloma -- as well as the congenital birth defect spina bifida in veterans' children." The contaminant considered most likely to be involved in these health effects is dioxin.

Coverage in the New York Times on 24 January.

18 January 2003. A study of criminally-delinquent teenagers in Pittsburgh reports a highly significant association between delinquency and bone-lead levels. These results indicate that the loss of impulse control (or increased dropout rate) caused by lead poisoning create circumstances where lead-poisoned teenagers are more to commit serious criminal offenses than teenagers without elevated lead levels. More...

18 January 2003. Writing in the Boston Globe, reporter Anne Barnard describes the wide gap between what men with prostate cancer are told about the impact of surgery on sexual performance, and what actually happens most of the time. Surgeons will promise that sex without devices is possible in up to 80% of cases, but the reality is just the opposite. "One large-scale study of prostate cancer survivors found that, 18 months after treatment, 60 percent could not get an erection firm enough for intercourse."

Yes, medical advances in treating malignancies like prostate cancer have achieved dramatic improvement in survivorship. But the cancer itself still extracts an important toll on life. In this case, it's impotence. Children suffering from brain tumors have life-long legacies of the disease and the treatment, even though they are cured of the cancer itself. Women after surgical treatment for breast cancer struggle with the psychological and physical impact of mastectomy. These examples, and many more, emphasize the need to focus on prevention, on reducing the incidence of cancer, not just decreasing the mortality rate once cancer develops. A exclusive focus on "cure" misses entirely how best to advance public health protections, and any individual or organization that uses cancer mortality data to buttress an argument that we are winning the war against cancer should be suspected of abetting interests that place a secondary value on public health.

17 January 2003. The New York Times reports on research in two neighborhoods in New York City, Dominican Heights and Harlem, that finds an association between exposure to environmental contaminants and low birth weight and small head circumference. Dr. Frederica Perera, the lead author of the study, told the Times that the results were particularly troubling because these birth outcomes are predictors of "poor health and mental problems later in life." More on the study...

13 January 2003. Results from work on the common organochlorine contaminant hexachlorobenzene raise questions about its possible involvement in diseases of the male reproductive tract, including prostate cancer. These studies, conducted in cell cultures and in mice, show that low levels of HCB enhance prostate responsiveness to androgens, while high levels suppress it. More...

9 January 2003. Do scientists with strong findings who conclude that more research is necessary without making precautionary recommendations simply serve the status quo? Peter Montague, editor of Rachel's News, challenges the CHE community to think about this provocative question.

1 January 2003. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the rate of autism in metropolitan Atlanta is ten-fold higher than would be expected on the basis of prevalence rates observed in prior decades, and consistent with recent findings. While this new research does not resolve whether the change is due to real increases in prevalence or to changes in diagnostic criteria or reporting incentives, it provides an important benchmark for future work. More...