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Coordinated nationally by the Institute for Children's Environmental Health |
To join the Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment (PCHE) and receive this bulletin, please complete the form at http://www.partnersforchildren.org/members.html#member.
October 5, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
Presenters at this first of a series of four webcasts will be Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, Director, CDC National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Angelo Bellomo, Director, LA Unified School District Office of Environmental Health and Safety. A compelling speaker, and editor of the recently published book "Safe and Healthy School Environments," Dr. Frumkin will provide a broad overview of the many issues related to children's environmental health in schools. He will be followed by Angelo Bellomo, who will describe how he successfully manages environmental health issues for the largest public school district in California using a software tool designed by the district. To sign up for one of the Children's Health Month webcasts, send an email (with the date of the webcast in which you would like to participate) to ICF International at the address below.
Contact: ICF International, chm@icfi.com
October 10 - 14, 2006
St. Paul, Minnesota
The North American Association for Environmental Education's 35th Annual Conference will be a gathering of over 1,000 educators. Conference strands include sustainability; conservation and community education; EE leadership skills; schools, education, achievement, and literacy; and joining forces: environmental justice, health, and education.
Website: http://naaee.org/pages/conferences/index.html
Contact: conferencestaff@naaee.org
October 11, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
The presenter at this second of a series of four webcasts will be Deane Evans, Executive Director, Center for Architecture and Building Science Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology. "High performance school" refers to the physical facility, the school building, and its grounds. High performance schools often have features such as energy efficient design and operation, use of environmentally preferable building materials, healthy indoor air quality, and easy maintenance. Good teachers and motivated students can overcome inadequate facilities and perform at a high level almost anywhere, but a well-designed facility can truly enhance performance and make education a more enjoyable and rewarding experience. Creating one is not difficult, but it requires an integrated, "whole building" approach to the design process. Key systems and technologies must be considered together, from the beginning of the design process. To sign up for one of the Children's Health Month webcasts, send an email (with the date of the webcast in which you would like to participate) to ICF International at the address below.
Contact: ICF International, chm@icfi.com
October 12, 2006
10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Albany, New York
at the Legislative Office Building, Room 711
Key New York State policymakers, researchers and advocates will discuss the current and future status of children's environmental health policy in New York State. Recent advances in children's environmental health policy include the new state-level Children's Environmental Health & Safety Council. Top researchers will also present on key scientific research demonstrating the impacts of exposure to environmental toxicants on children.
Contact: Stephen J. Boese, 212-482-0204 or sboese@healthyschools.org
October 13, 2006
8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
San Francisco, California
at the University of California, San Francisco Laurel Heights Auditorium
This one-day national conference is hosted by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. This second CHE national educational meeting will provide a solid overview of current scientific knowledge regarding environmental contributors to human disease and state-of-the-art efforts to prevent, treat and otherwise improve such impacts. Researchers and health advocates will come from around the country to provide summaries of their knowledge and work. Physician and nurse continuing education credits will be available through the California Academy of Family Physicians.
Website: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/che-events/702
October 14, 2006
Oakland, California
This half-day training program will introduce participants to the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit, a new clinical resource for practitioners. The Toolkit was developed partially in response to the frequent requests by pediatricians for practical, clinical tools that enable providers to incorporate environmental health guidance into everyday practice. It includes materials for both providers and patients on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that may affect child health.
Contact: Lucia Sayre, luciasayre@sbcglobal.net
October 19, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
This is the third of a series of four webcasts. Schools use and manage a range of hazardous and toxic chemicals and products. Classrooms, science laboratories, art studios, vocational shops, athletic fields, maintenance facilities, boiler rooms, and storage closets are just a few examples of where hazardous chemicals and products may be found. Often, existing stocks of outdated, unknown, excessive, or unnecessarily hazardous chemicals are present in schools. These chemicals can pose safety and health risks to students and staff, and a number of widely reported incidents involving such chemicals have resulted in school closures and costly clean-ups. A Schools Chemical Cleanout and Prevention program insures that excess, legacy, unused, and improperly stored chemicals are removed, and puts mechanisms in place through which chemicals are purchased wisely, stored safely, handled by trained personnel, used responsibly, and disposed of properly. In addition, pesticide use can cause possible health hazards for school occupants and contribute to environmental pollution. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a safer, usually less costly option for effective pest management in the school community. A school IPM program employs commonsense strategies to reduce sources of food, water, and shelter for pests in school buildings and grounds. This webcast will share two chemical management success stories -- a schools chemical cleanout campaign with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama, and the Monroe County, Indiana IPM Program. To sign up for one of the Children's Health Month webcasts, send an email (with the date of the webcast in which you would like to participate) to ICF International at the address below.
Contact: ICF International, chm@icfi.com
October 21, 2006
8:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
The conference will address clinically important issues in children's health that are affected by the environment. Children of all ages, including those in the fetal stages of development, can be affected by environmental hazards. Exposure to environmental toxins via air, water, food or soil can have a significant impact on the health of children. The conference will focus on the following areas: the built environment, heavy metals exposure and neurocognitive issues, cancer and environmental exposures and newborn outcomes and environmental exposures. This continuing medical education activity is designated for 7.5 credit hours in Category I of the Physician's Recognition Award of the American Medical Association. Contact hours for nurses will be available through CNMC. Health educators seeking CHES Credits can claim the conference as a category II activity.
Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~macche/conference/
Contact: Aurora Amoah, 866-622-2431 or eohaoa@gwumc.edu
The Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment welcomes these new members:
For a searchable database with a wealth of information about PCHE members, please visit http://www.partnersforchildren.org/members.html.
California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is currently seeking two Administrative Assistants -- one to support our Community Initiatives team and the other to support our Special Research Initiatives Team. The right individuals will possess excellent administrative and computer skills, have a positive attitude, be flexible, and be able to interact with a variety of people. This is an opportunity for the right individuals who want to make a positive contribution towards eliminating breast cancer, and who have interest in community-based participatory research and/or environmental health and disparities. The salary range for both positions is $36,156-$42,396 (mid-point) plus excellent benefits.
The Community Initiatives program strives to support and expand community involvement in research by involving community members and researchers equally in all levels of the research process. Major activities include coordinating outreach efforts throughout California, providing technical support to applicants and offering ongoing support to those teams that receive program funding.
The Special Research Initiatives is an $18 million effort to identify and support research strategies that both increase knowledge about and create solutions to the environmental causes of breast cancer and the unequal burden of the disease.
To view the job description and to apply for the Community Initiatives Program Assistant position, please visit http://jobs.ucop.edu and search for Requisition # 20060229.
To view the job description and to apply for the Special Research Initiatives Program Assistant position, please visit http://jobs.ucop.edu and search for Requisition # 20060228.
by Julia R. Barrett, Environmental Health Perspectives
October 2006
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/114-10/niehsnews.html
Questions about the safety of the plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), particularly in regards to exposure during medical procedures such as transfusions, have swirled for decades, but especially in the last several years, given growing concerns about endocrine disruption. In October 2005, an independent panel of experts convened by the National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (NTP-CERHR) sought to take stock of what is known and identify critical research needs regarding human exposure to DEHP, in particular its potential reproductive and developmental toxicity. Now that the independent experts have had their say, the NTP is weighing in with its interpretation.
Based on the expert panel's report, comments from stakeholders and peer reviewers, and new information published since the experts' meeting, the NTP released a draft brief in May 2006 about DEHP exposure and toxicity. With peer review completed in late August, the brief is now being finalized and will be added to the forthcoming NTP-CERHR monograph The Potential Human Reproductive and Developmental Effects of DEHP. This monograph will comprise the CERHR expert panel report, a list of the panel experts, all public comments made about the report, and the NTP brief on DEHP. Although the brief summarizes what the expert report says, it is more than just an executive summary -- it represents the NTP's view of the various public and peer-review comments and additional research studies received since the report was prepared.
The 2005 expert panel meeting marks the first time the CERHR has had a compound re-evaluated; a previous evaluation was published in 2000. The need for another just five years later underscores the intensity with which DEHP is being investigated. "[Assessing] DEHP again shows that the CERHR process is evergreen," says Paul Foster, deputy director of the NTP-CERHR. "This is the first time that CERHR has gone back and said there's now been a significant amount of water that's gone under the bridge, and we should go back and re-evaluate to see whether or not any of our original conclusions have changed."
According to Foster, the brief distills the intricate and detailed scientific knowledge of the monograph into information that educated laypeople can use to put concerns about the potential for DEHP toxicity into perspective.
Hard Science on a Softener
DEHP is an oily chemical that confers flexibility to rigid polyvinyl chloride plastic. DEHP-softened plastic appears in numerous products, including building materials, food packaging, and medical devices. Because DEHP does not form tight chemical bonds with the plastic, some amount can leach out, and the compound has been detected in packaged foods, indoor air, household dust, and various substances and paraphernalia associated with medical treatment (such as bagged blood and tubing).
DEHP has induced reproductive and developmental problems in male rodents, but there are scant and uncertain data for effects in humans. It is known, however, that low-level human exposure is widespread and that certain populations are more highly exposed. For example, according to the draft brief, newborns and infants undergoing particular medical procedures may have 100 to 1,000 times the exposure experienced by the general population.
Because animal studies indicate that the developing male reproductive system is especially vulnerable to adverse DEHP-associated effects, the expert panel, in its 2005 report, attached "serious concern" to critically ill male newborns and infants receiving prolonged medical treatment. The NTP concurred in its draft brief and also agreed that concern is warranted for male infants younger than 1 year and for the sons of women who underwent certain medical procedures while pregnant. Less concern was attached to low-level exposures in utero or after the first year of life, and there was minimal concern for adverse effects from typical background exposures.
Fairness and Balance
The draft brief is generally deemed fair by both scientists and stakeholders. "To me, it seemed to be very fair based on the discussions and deliberations at the expert review committee," says Foster. The American Chemistry Council's Phthalate Esters Panel considered both the brief and the expert panel's report "fair, but very conservative," says Marian Stanley, the panel's senior director. "We're certainly pleased to see that the areas of concern have been lowered [from the 2000 report] for a couple of cases [children older than a year and pregnant or lactating women]. We think that's justified."
The Phthalate Esters Panel disagrees, however, with the NTP's level of concern about DEHP exposure among newborns and infants. "DEHP medical devices have been used for better than fifty years, and there hasn't been any verified evidence of harm to humans. We don't believe that there needs to be as much concern for critically ill neonates because, as the FDA has said [in a July 2002 Public Health Notification], the treatment outweighs any risks from exposure to DEHP," says Stanley.
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), a coalition of health and environmental groups that, among other issues, advocates replacing DEHP-containing medical devices with alternatives, was satisfied with the NTP's position. "We don't have any quibbles with [who was determined to be] medically exposed, because the panel has expressed serious concern about that and we agree with that," says Ted Schettler, science director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, on behalf of HCWH.
Schettler avoids defining a level of concern for DEHP exposure of pregnant and lactating women: "We remain concerned about that group of women. Whether we want to say it's some concern or more than that, we think it should be emphasized that in the general population, pregnant and lactating women are exposed not only to DEHP but also to other phthalates that work through a common toxicological mechanism. The committee wasn't charged with addressing aggregate exposures to multiple phthalates, but that's the real world."
Outstanding Questions
The question of aggregate exposures is, of course, a scientific dilemma facing the risk assessment community at large, not just the CERHR. Still, says Foster, "I think one of our weaknesses is that we do these evaluations based on single chemicals. I think what's emerging from a lot of the exposure information that's being published, mainly from the CDC but also from others in Europe, is that the population at large is exposed to multiple phthalates. We have not really devised an appropriate method yet for how we handle that and put it into a risk context." He adds that the CERHR system will need to be adapted as new, appropriate methodologies become available.
Another notable challenge is extrapolating results from animal studies to human health. "I think we're going to continue seeing much more research trying to tease out and figure out if the effects we see in rodents are relevant to humans. This isn't cut-and-dried research," says Stanley. Research with nonhuman primates hasn't proven any simpler and represents one of the more contentious reactions to the brief. According to Schettler, there's disagreement about whether nonhuman primates, specifically marmosets, are less vulnerable to DEHP than rodents, as suggested by research published in the October 2005 issue of Birth Defects Research B: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology. Industry-sponsored research indicates that marmosets are a good study model for predicting toxicity in humans, but the October 2005 study, published just as the expert panel meeting concluded, questions that belief, and the debate has not yet been satisfactorily resolved.
Also unresolved are questions about the metabolism of DEHP and its mechanisms of toxicity. The limited epidemiologic data reviewed in the draft brief raise questions that cannot be answered yet. Research is ongoing in all areas, however. "The science is still moving forward; the science is still being created," says Stanley. "As new techniques become available, there at some point is going to come where science suddenly takes a quantum leap and we can start understanding a lot more."
from Environmental Health Perspectives
October 2006
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/114-10/spheres.html
When the EPA announced on 3 August 2006 that it had completed a 10-year review of U.S. pesticide safety, the agency issued a statement full of optimism from administrator Stephen L. Johnson: "By maintaining the highest ethical and scientific standards in its pesticide review, EPA and the Bush administration have planted the seeds to yield healthier lives for generations of American families."
But Johnson's words were met with skepticism, not only by environmental activists, but also by some of the EPA's own scientists. In May, as the agency's deadline for completing its review neared, nine presidents of unions representing EPA scientists and risk managers had written a letter to the administrator, expressing their concerns that the EPA was about to give approval for organophosphate (OP) and carbamate pesticides that may be neurotoxic, especially in developing fetuses, infants, and children. "We think there's a lot of work that remains to be done in terms of getting [adequate] developmental neurotoxicity data," says William Hirzy, a senior scientist in the EPA's Office of Toxic Substances and vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 280. The union leaders are concerned that the EPA administration is too focused on "avoiding lawsuits from the regulated community," Hirzy says. Further, in the absence of adequate data, the leaders fear the EPA is making decisions that err on the side of less restriction rather than more precaution.
EPA administrators, however, have responded that they are confident that their assessments are scientifically valid and that no health risks are posed by the pesticides that have been approved for continued use. "We think we have really set a very high bar for pesticide safety in this country," says Anne Lindsay, deputy director of the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs. "If you are eating food purchased in the U.S., it's really safe."
Two Cancellations
The EPA's pesticide review began in response to the passage of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA). This act required that the EPA reassess the safety of tolerance levels for food-use pesticide residues in or on raw and processed foods. The EPA reviewed tens of thousands of new studies in order to decide which pesticides should be banned and which should have new tolerance assessments. These studies came from labs at the EPA, other governmental agencies, and pesticide companies. Over the past decade, the EPA has also developed new risk assessment tools and methods that they are using to better identify chemicals that may be hazardous to human health or the environment. Throughout the research and analysis phase of the review, the EPA also considered opinions from their own advisory committees, as well as from public health watchdog groups and from interested industries. Once all available research had been analyzed, the agency made decisions about each pesticide's allowed tolerance. After each decision was announced, a 60-day public comment period preceded finalization of the decision.
"The Food Quality Protection Act asked us to take a special look at infants, children, and other subpopulations that might have special sensitivities or susceptibilities," Lindsay says. The act also asked EPA scientists to examine both aggregate pesticide exposures from food, water, and household uses, as well as exposures to different food-use pesticides that might have cumulative effects in the body. From 1996 on, all newly registered pesticides had to meet these safety standards, Lindsay says, but there was still the problem of pesticides that had been registered before the FQPA was enacted. So the EPA embarked on a 10-year mission to reassess all food-use pesticides that had not been proven to meet the new requirements. "The idea was to get all tolerances in the U.S. up to this new high safety standard," Lindsay says.
Congress mandated that the EPA complete all food-use pesticide tolerance reassessment decisions by 3 August 2006. On that date, the EPA announced that it had completed more than 99% of these decisions. The safety reviews still to be completed are those for carbamate pesticides as a class and the carbamate aldicarb in particular. The EPA is currently finishing the assessment of aldicarb, a potent cholinesterase inhibitor. The agency will then be able to issue a review of carbamates as a class, Lindsay says. They've already made individual decisions on four other carbamates, proposing to ban carbofuran and limit the use of three others. In all, the EPA evaluated about 230 pesticide active ingredients and 870 inert pesticide ingredients with nearly 10,000 tolerances, according to Lindsay.
In the most recent actions, announced August 3, the EPA opened for public review its proposal to ban not only carbofuran but also lindane, an organochlorine. Carbofuran is an insecticide that is severely toxic to birds. Most carbofuran uses are being canceled immediately, and the remaining uses will be phased out over the next four years. Lindane is used as a seed treatment for several crops. It is known to build up in the environment and in the human body, and is a suspected carcinogen. Most organochlorines, including DDT, were banned in the 1960s and 1970s, and lindane has already been banned in 52 other countries. But in all states except California, lindane is still permitted for use directly on children for the treatment of scabies and lice -- an application that is regulated not by the EPA but by the FDA.
OP Pesticides and Neurotoxicity
Although the EPA's August decisions proposed complete cancellation only of carbofuran and lindane, while approving many other controversial pesticides, Lindsay points out that the agency had already cancelled numerous pesticides and uses over the 10-year period, most notably on the 32 OP pesticides. A number of these pesticides have been associated with possible cancer effects, fertility problems, or developmental neurotoxicity in animal studies. The primary mechanism through which OP (and carbamate) pesticides work is cholinesterase inhibition: they prevent the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, causing a variety of neurotoxic effects. Although 17 OP pesticides have been cancelled over the past 10 years, many environmental groups -- and some EPA scientists -- were hoping that the agency would refuse to re-register the others in this class. "The OP decision, I think, is a bad one," says Margaret Reeves, a senior scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America. She says her organization recognizes and supports the EPA scientists who sent the letter to Johnson, advising against approval of some of the remaining OP and carbamate pesticides.
According to that letter, too few studies have been done on the developmental neurotoxicity of the remaining food-use OP and carbamate pesticides to make a solid scientific decision about their possible health effects. "[I]n the absence of a robust body of data, FQPA requires EPA to use an additional 10-fold safety factor in its risk assessments when setting pesticide tolerances," the letter stated. The authors requested that the EPA retain this 10-fold safety assurance "as a precaution when reassessing the tolerances for the remaining OP and carbamate pesticides given the existing uncertainty about developmental neurotoxicity."
According to Reeves, even that 10-fold measure of safety might not be enough. Several studies have shown there is a large range of vulnerability to OP exposure among different people, especially infants, due to genetic variability in paraoxonase, an enzyme that breaks these chemicals down in the body. "The intraspecies variability is much greater than often considered and much greater than would be [covered by] the FQPA 10-fold factor," Reeves says.
In a response to the EPA union leaders' letter, however, EPA acting assistant administrator Susan B. Hazen responded that the absence of an official developmental neurotoxicity study on any given pesticide does not automatically warrant retention of the 10-fold safety factor. "Rather," she wrote, "EPA should make a judgment, based on the weight of all of the available scientific evidence, to determine what safety factors provide the statutorily required protection for infants and children."
According to Lindsay, the decision about whether to require a developmental neurotoxicity study of a particular pesticide rests on previous evidence and toxicity data. "We will look at the whole body of evidence that we have," Lindsay says. "If there are signs the chemical has the capacity to cause neurotoxicity, we would go ahead and ask for a developmental neurotoxicity study to be done." Signs that a chemical could be neurotoxic to humans include animal studies that show neurotoxicity, human epidemiological studies that support a causative link between a pesticide and neurological problems, or evidence that the pesticide works through a mechanism already known to be neurotoxic. Says Lindsay, "We think we're pretty much asking for them when it's likely they're going to be needed."
According to Ray McAllister, regulatory policy and science leader for the trade organization CropLife America, the EPA has done a thorough job of investigating the toxicity of OP and carbamate pesticides. "I don't think any two groups of pesticides have been more thoroughly investigated by EPA than these two have," McAllister says. Since 1999, he points out, industry has conducted dozens of developmental neurotoxicity studies on OP and other pesticides, which the EPA took into account in its decision-making process. He adds, "If anything, the approach EPA has taken has been more conservative, more protective, than perhaps they actually need to be, so I don't think we need to worry about the decision not being protective enough."
Others aren't so sure. The authors of the May letter stated they were "concerned that the Agency has not, consistent with its principles of scientific integrity and sound science, adequately summarized or drawn conclusions about the developmental neurotoxicity data received from pesticide registrants." They cited a January 2006 Inspector General report, Opportunities to Improve Data Quality and Children's Health through the Food Quality Protection Act, that points out flaws in the EPA testing process that have yielded a less than "complete and reliable database on developmental neurotoxicity of pesticides ... upon which to base any final tolerance reassessment decisions as required by the FQPA." Among other issues, they wrote, the EPA's required pesticide testing does not include sufficient evaluation of behavior, learning, or memory in developing animals.
It is well known that acute high-level exposure to OP and carbamate pesticides can cause profound neurotoxicity, says Brenda Eskenazi, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the NIEHS Center for Children's Environmental Health Research there. But now there is some evidence that lower-level exposure to OPs could be linked to neonatal neurotoxicity, she says, and a number of studies are now being conducted on potential health consequences to older children.
Most people who are exposed to pesticides are exposed to more than one simultaneously, Eskenazi says, "so it's really hard to say that a single agent is the 'cause' of an observed health problem in human epidemiologic studies."
Precaution and Progress
The EPA union leaders believe that such uncertainty is grounds for banning many of these pesticides under the precautionary principle, which advocates erring on the side of safety in the absence of full scientific certainty. In contrast, say some observers, the current FQPA reregistration process puts the onus on parties other than registrants to demonstrate that a pesticide is unsafe. "Until EPA can state with scientific confidence that these pesticides will not hurt the neurological development of our nation's born and unborn children, there is no justification to continue the registration of the use of the remaining OP and carbamate pesticides," the union leaders wrote. The union letter also argued that the EPA failed in its risk analyses to consider the effects on farmworker families of agricultural pesticide application. According to the letter, the EPA's analyses did not take into account that homes near agricultural fields may be exposed to pesticides that are not approved for home use.
But Lindsay responds that "we actually think that the way we do our risk assessments ensures that, in that scenario, kids and folks in the home will be safe." With the fate of just one pesticide yet unclear, the EPA sees its task as nearly done. "When we've done both the individual reassessment for aldicarb and then the cumulative for those five carbamates, we will have completed all of the FQPA tolerance reassessments," Lindsay says. "It's a real priority for us to get it completed."
Hirzy, for one, doesn't see the pesticide reassessments as a completed task, however. "[EPA officials] think they have dealt with our concerns that we raised in the letter, and we don't think that they have," he says. "I think we need to sit down with them ... and reach some sort of agreement on how the agency will deal more forthrightly with specific concerns that have been raised on the record by EPA scientists."
by John Reid Blackwell, Richmond Times-Dispatch
September 30, 2006
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190899664
A controversial man-made chemical has been found in blood samples taken from some employees of a DuPont Co. plant in Chesterfield County. The substance, known as PFOA, was detected at varying levels in blood samples taken in May and June from workers at the company's Spruance plant, a union representing workers there said. The company confirmed the results. The company offered the blood tests, and 89 employees accepted, after a union that represents many DuPont workers raised concerns about the chemical. The substance has been found in the blood of workers at other DuPont sites such as a plant in Fayetteville, N.C.
PFOA, short for perfluorooctanoic acid, is used in the production process for Teflon, an ingredient in nonstick cookware and all-weather clothing. The federal Environmental Protection Agency says PFOA does not pose a concern to consumers using those products, but the potential health effects on people exposed to higher levels of the chemical are still being investigated and are disputed. Some studies have indicated it can cause liver, developmental and reproductive problems in laboratory animals, the EPA said.
DuPont said it believes PFOA does not pose a health risk to the general public. The company said a health study it is conducting on more than 1,000 workers at a plant near Parkersburg, W.Va., has indicated no association between exposure to PFOA and health problems. The company hired an independent laboratory to analyze the Spruance employees' blood samples. Because the results of individual tests are confidential, neither the company nor the union said how many of the 89 employees tested positive for PFOA. Those who did test positive had PFOA in their blood ranging from 0.5 parts per billion to 800 parts per billion, the union said. The average of those tested was 66 parts per billion.
Because PFOA is a persistent chemical that does not break down in the environment, it has been found at low levels in the blood of the general U.S. population, at a mean level of about 5.6 parts per billion, but it has been found in much higher levels in workers, the EPA said. Jay Palmore, president of Ampthill Rayon Workers, a union that represents about 1,200 local DuPont employees, said the highest PFOA level at the plant -- 800 parts per billion -- was detected in a female employee, but he declined to offer specifics. Palmore said he was one of the employees who took a blood test and that his results showed a PFOA level of 8 parts per billion. "I haven't worked in Teflon since 1976," he said. Now a technical assistant in the research department, Palmore said he has worked in almost every part of the plant in his 33 years there. "We don't know for sure what it is going to do to humans," Palmore said. "To me, it would be a good idea to keep track of it. I don't want to put DuPont out of business. No one wants to do that. I really think it should be a regulated material. The government needs to step in and do that."
An EPA science advisory board said this year that PFOA should be considered a "likely carcinogen." DuPont disputes that. "To date, there are no human health effects known to be caused by PFOA," the company said in a statement. "Based on health and toxicological studies conducted by DuPont and other researchers, DuPont believes the weight of evidence indicates that PFOA exposure does not pose a health risk to the general public."
PFOA was not manufactured at the Spruance plant, and DuPont says only small amounts of it were present in the Teflon production line that operated there from 1953 to 2004. The PFOA controversy has been a repeated source of tension between DuPont and the United Steelworkers Union, which represents 1,800 DuPont employees at other plants, but none at Spruance. That union claims DuPont has failed to protect workers from the potential hazards of PFOA, while DuPont says the union is engaged in a campaign to make the company look bad.
Several times this year, the Steelworkers Union and the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, an environmental-protection group, have collected water samples from sites nearby the plant and its discharge site into the James River. Those samples, the groups said, have shown PFOA contamination in trace amounts in ground and surface water around the plant. After those concerns were raised, DuPont agreed to collect water samples from wells on plant property and the James River in cooperation with the EPA. The results from those tests are pending.
Last year, DuPont agreed to pay a $16.5 million penalty to the EPA for allegedly withholding information about the potential health and environmental risks posed by PFOA after the chemical was found in the blood of workers and in groundwater around the plant in Parkersburg. The company also agreed last year to pay $107 million to settle a lawsuit filed by residents near the plant.
by Douglas Fischer, Oakland Tribune
September 30, 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_4422814
Starting in 2010, Californians will have access to some possibly unsettling information about what's in their bodies. We'll know, for instance, how much ScotchGuard -- or at least its chemical precursors -- contaminate our veins. We all have some, scientists from the manufacturer, 3M, learned a decade ago. The question is how much. We'll have a sense of how much pesticide migrates from the fields to our plates. Or how much flame retardant has seeped from our automobiles, TV consoles and seat cushions into our kids.
On Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a program to track such pollutants and other chemicals. The effort -- the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program -- is the first to track such compounds in a state's citizenry. It should provide some of the best and only data in the nation on how these chemicals contaminate communities and populations, such as farm workers. "Biomonitoring is the triumph of knowledge over ignorance," said Jeanne Rizzo, a registered nurse and the executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund, which has lobbied hard for such a program. "A statewide biomonitoring program will help us find out what we need to know to protect public health so that serious diseases such as breast cancer can ultimately be prevented from occurring in the first place."
The program will select 2,000 Californians for testing of various pollutants. An advisory panel created by the governor and legislature will pick the chemicals, though many expect the program to mimic a similar effort by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That program, widely seen as the "gold standard" for biomonitoring in the United States, has catalogued levels of 148 pollutants -- from lead, mercury and uranium to plastic additives, PCBs and herbicides -- in Americans age 1 and older. Its results helped ban lead from gas.
But how does it work? Biomonitoring tests the body directly for contamination and differs dramatically from other methods of assessing the risk and extent of pollution. Before sophisticated tests could measure the tiny quantities of such compounds in our blood or urine, regulators often measured the amount of pollution in the environment -- dioxin in the air, for instance, or pesticide applied to crops -- and made assumptions on how much worked its way into our bodies. Biomonitoring eliminates such guesswork. "There are literally thousands of chemicals ... used in our everyday products in the United States," Schwarzenegger said. "It's important to know more about how those products are building up in our bodies or how they might be affecting our health ... Biomonitoring will do just that."
The CDC information provides a national snapshot but no state or regional data. Health officials say California data will help them assess public health decisions. One example: Eastern Contra Costa County. Streets in several communities and a school yard have pavement laced with trace amounts of dioxin, an industrial byproduct and perhaps the most potent carcinogen known. Parents, fearful the pavement poses a risk, have asked county officials for testing. Dr. Wendel Brunner, the county's public health director, understands their fears but is equally ignorant of the risk. "Yes, you can be tested for dioxin, but I can't even tell you if your results are above or below average."
by Robin Erb, Toledo Blade
September 29, 2006
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060929/NEWS02/609290357/0/NEWS09
With the possibility of lead-based paint in nine out of 10 homes within its limits, Toledo is expected to join other cities that are going after the companies that once made -- or helped make -- the dangerous paint. The city is poised today to file suit in Lucas County Common Pleas Court against more than a dozen manufacturers of lead-based paints and insurance companies for the lead industry, The Blade has learned. Toledo will ask for an undetermined amount of money to recover the cost of lead paint abatement conducted in past years and to pay for future clean-up expenses, said John Madigan, city law director.
Intact, lead paint does not appear to be a health concern. But over time, the paint can chip, flake, or break down into dust that can be ingested by young children. And with 126,667 of 139,880, or 91 percent, of the city's housing units built before 1978, city officials want to make sure that children aren't exposed. "The likelihood is that a lot of homes have lead-based paint, and in those homes, there's a lot of that paint," said Mike Badik, city housing commissioner. Last year, blood tests on 6,428 Lucas County children found that 599 children had dangerous levels of lead in their blood, up from 534 in 2004, and 557 in 2003, according to the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department.
The average cost of removing lead-based paint from an existing residence is $10,223 per unit, Mr. Badik said. Beyond that, there are the costs the health department spends to screen for lead poisoning and follow-up tests for children who are determined to have a high level of lead in their blood. Additionally, there are the costs for public awareness campaigns to make people aware of the dangers of lead paint. The efforts, though costly, may be paying off: In 2001, blood tests of 711 children showed high levels of lead; in 2002, it was 715 children.
Lead was used in paints until 1978. By that time, health officials had linked lead poisoning to learning and behavioral problems in children. At certain levels, it can cause convulsions, coma, or even death.
Each year, the city pays a portion of the costs of screening, abatement, and public awareness campaigns. It was not immediately clear how much has been spent over the past several years, but "it's significant," Mr. Madigan said. "Now we have a chance to recover these damages that we have incurred and continue to incur," he said.
Earlier this year, a Rhode Island jury issued a landmark ruling that three companies that once made the lead paint created a public health crisis. Further, the jury determined that companies could be held responsible for the clean-up costs. The Providence, R.I., law firm that represented Rhode Island approached Toledo attorneys earlier this year about a possible lawsuit. Akron and Columbus are pursuing similar litigation, Mr. Madigan said. An attorney for the Providence law firm, Motley Rice, declined comment yesterday.
But Mr. Madigan confirmed yesterday that at least three of the defendants that will be named in the Toledo lawsuit are Sherwin Williams, Millennium Holdings LLC, and NL (National Lead) Industries -- the same three companies named in the Rhode Island lawsuit.
Also representing the city will be local attorneys Andrew Lipton and George Gerken. The two men represented several former employees and contract workers for the Brush Wellman beryllium company. The plaintiffs sued Brush Wellman, claiming the company overexposed them to dust of the metal, beryllium, which can cause an incurable, often-fatal lung illness. Most of the suits were settled after a law change, Mr. Gerken said. But Mr. Gerken refused to comment on the city's pending action against the paint companies. Mr. Lipton could not be reached. Mr. Madigan said the attorneys will get a portion of any monies from a successful suit, but the city pays out nothing to the lawyers until then.
by Mike Hughlett, Chicago Tribune
September 29, 2006
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609290243sep29,1,4912607.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
The nearly 600 bottles of shampoo seized by Cook County sheriff's police this summer said "Head & Shoulders." But the stuff inside was good for neither head nor shoulders: It was contaminated. The shampoo was counterfeit, falsely labeled with a venerable brand owned by consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. It was one of the first busts in Cook County involving potentially hazardous fake goods.
The traffic of counterfeit goods into this country, usually originating from China, is growing steadily. Counterfeit-related seizures by the U.S. Customs Service rose 125 percent during the past five years ending in September 2005, topping 8,000 busts last year alone. Increasingly, those fakes are ordinary household goods--shampoo, batteries, razors--not just the usual luxury knockoffs like Gucci handbags or the ubiquitous fake prescription drugs like Viagra. "We are seeing a little more of a broader range of products counterfeited," said Therese Randazzo, risk management director in U.S. Customs' Strategic Trade Office. "There has been a growth in consumer products, everyday products."
Sometimes those everyday fakes can be dangerous, too, much more so than a counterfeit Rolex watch or bogus Nike shoes. For instance, the Head & Shoulders seized in Cook County could have sickened people with weak immune systems, said Penny Mateck, a sheriff's spokeswoman. The shampoo contained several types of "gram-negative" bacteria. Many species of gram-negative bacteria can cause disease.
In a separate incident this summer, Cook County sheriff's police seized almost 60,000 phony Duracell batteries from a warehouse in Elk Grove Village. The batteries contained mercury, a hazardous material not used in real Duracells. They were also improperly made, and prone to explode. The Duracell seizure led to the arrest of an Elk Grove Village wholesaler, a man believed to be a supplier for local convenience stores. In both cases, the fake goods were imported from overseas. The two seizures marked the first time the Cook County sheriff's police uncovered fake goods that could actually hurt consumers, Mateck said, adding that the department has been "very active" for years in pursuing counterfeiting.
There are several examples of potentially dangerous fakes outside of Illinois, too. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in recent months has issued two recalls of extension cords prone to shock or fire hazards. The cords came with counterfeited Underwriters Laboratories (UL) labels. Northbrook-based UL is an independent, non-profit testing lab that certifies the safety of thousands of products, from appliances to bulletproof vests. The UL label was the 25th most counterfeited brand globally in 2005, according to the International Chamber of Commerce. So, it's not surprising that UL spends a lot of time working with the Customs Service to ferret out fakes. During the past 11 months or so, customs has made 105 seizures of goods with phony UL labels, 395,804 products in all. "It has been escalating and escalating," said Brian Monks, director of UL's anti-counterfeiting operations. And UL, he says, has lots of company. "There is probably no industry in the world that does not encounter counterfeiting."
Cigarettes, perfume, sunglasses, consumer electronics, auto parts--all have fallen prey to counterfeiting, a business worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally. "If you don't have a counterfeiting problem, you don't have a successful product," said Paul Fox, a spokesman for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble. The company has more than $60 billion in annual sales, and about $100 million worth of counterfeit P&G goods are seized each year. "You can say, `that's not much [on a percentage basis],' but that's not the point," Fox said. "Counterfeiting fundamentally undermines the trust consumers place in our brands."
Duracell, Head & Shoulders and Gillette are the P&G brands that are most often counterfeited. A common thread among all three, and for that matter, all counterfeits: They're made on the cheap and thus have poor quality, Fox said. The fake Duracells seized in Elk Grove Village contained mercury because they were made with an old technology, one that hasn't been used for years by legitimate battery-makers, Fox said. Manufacturing shortcuts led to the tainted Head & Shoulders, too. "Whoever put this stuff together, they didn't use sterile conditions," said John Flaherty, a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
Traditionally, flea markets and street vendors have been the main retail outlets for counterfeit goods. The Internet also has become a big distribution point in recent years. But the probable destination for the goods seized recently in Cook County -- convenience stores -- is particularly alarming, said Caroline Joiner, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's anti-counterfeiting effort. "The scariest part is when [counterfeits] are in the legitimate supply chain," she said.
Yet Randazzo, of U.S. Customs, said counterfeits are increasingly making their way onto retailers' shelves. In August, for example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Dollar Tree Stores announced a recall of 600,000 counterfeit extension cords tagged with phony UL labels. Virginia-based Dollar Tree Stores is a publicly traded company with about 3,000 stores nationwide. The bum cords, made in China, posed a shock hazard. Earlier this month, another 42,000 counterfeit extension cords with fake UL labels were recalled. The Chinese-made cords, which posed a fire hazard, were sold at local drug, discount and grocery stores.
UL's Monks said it's very rare to find bogus UL labels at established retailers. Flea markets are a more common destination for the fakes. Counterfeiting has flourished because it is highly profitable and less risky than other illegal activities, said Joiner of the U.S. Chamber, which is hosting its third annual anti-piracy summit this week in Washington, D.C. U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez are slated to speak at the event.
Anti-counterfeiting efforts have gotten a higher profile at federal agencies in recent years. But they're also knee-deep in anti-terrorism initiatives. Plus, the distribution and retailing of phony goods is often the terrain of local law enforcement authorities. And they are already straining to cope with drug dealing and violent crimes. Cook County's anti-counterfeiting offensive is more the exception than the rule. "We want to see more [efforts like Cook County's]," Joiner said, "but we understand it's a resource issue."
by Jeremy Laurance, London Independent
September 29, 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1771835.ece
It is the disease women fear more than any other, and its incidence is soaring. Breast cancer cases have hit a new record, official figures show, and the increase shows no sign of slowing. A total of 36,939 women were diagnosed in England in 2004, an 81 per cent increase in incidence of the cancer since 1971, after statistical adjustment for the ageing of the population. Over the year, 41,000 cases were diagnosed in the UK. Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in the UK, even though it principally affects only one gender (there are a few hundred cases each year in men). Lung cancer, the next most common which affects both sexes, was diagnosed in 30,408 individuals in 2004.
The relentless upward trend in breast cancer is driven by increasing prosperity and modern lifestyles, experts say. It accounts for one in three of all newly diagnosed cases of cancer in females. The age-standardised incidence in 2004 was 120.8 per 100,000 population, the highest figure on record, up from 66.9 in 1971. The figures are in Cancer Registrations, the annual statistical report issued by the Office for National Statistics, published yesterday.
The charity Breast Cancer UK has demanded action to halt the rise in the disease. "We believe women have a right to know these frightening statistics and should be asking the Government what it is doing to tackle the causes and prevention of the disease." One woman in nine now develops breast cancer but lifestyle factors, including diet, obesity and family size could account for only half of the increase, and exposure to pesticides and other carcinogens in the environment must be investigated, the charity said.
Cancer is a disease of the elderly and most cancers, including breast cancer, are commoner in older age groups. But breast cancer is increasing in every age group. Among those aged 20 to 34, the disease, though rare, increased by 50 per cent in the three decades from 1971 to 2001. In the 45 to 49 age group it rose by 41 per cent over the same period. The biggest increases have been in the 50 to 64 age group, in which the incidence has more than doubled after introduction of breast-screening which detects tumours too small to be picked up by a doctor performing a clinical examination. Breast-screening was introduced in 1990 but did not become established throughout the country until the mid-1990s. In 2004, it was extended to cover women up to the age of 70.
The rise in breast cancer, seen in all developed countries, is linked with exposure to the female hormone oestrogen, influenced by changes in reproduction and diet. Improved nutrition has meant girls go through puberty and start their periods earlier and women reach the menopause later. Economic progress has led to smaller families, delayed childbirth and less breastfeeding as women have gone out to work. Increased alcohol consumption, obesity and the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have also contributed. Professor Sir Richard Peto, Britains foremost cancer epidemiologist, of the University of Oxford, said: "There has been a slow drift upwards since the 1950s , basically due to society becoming more prosperous. Breast cancer is roughly a disease of prosperity. The rise was much more rapid in Spain because their rate of [social] progress was quicker. "Having fewer children before the age of 30, early menarche [first period], late menopause and being obese or overweight after menopause are all factors behind the increase. "On top of that, there has been the increase due to HRT, though use of HRT has dropped sharply. Women are drinking more and that probably already has an appreciable effect. They are all minor factors but taken together they mean a general trend up."
Better diagnosis through screening and improved recording of cases in local cancer registries had also contributed to the increase, Professor Peto added. He dismissed as "rubbish" suggestions that exposure to pesticides or other chemicals was fuelling the disease. "There isn't any good evidence [for other causes] over and above changes in lifestyle and improvements in diagnosis and registration," he said.
Ruth Yates, head of statistical information at Cancer Research UK, said it was difficult to offer advice to women on how to avoid breast cancer. "There isn't one thing women can do, such as giving up smoking [to avoid lung cancer]. You can control your weight, eat fresh fruit and vegetables and curb your drinking but it won't make a huge difference, though it will have an impact." She added: "Where women do have a choice is over breastfeeding. In terms of influencing the reproductive factors, that is the most practical thing they can do. We don't want women to beat themselves up over things they can't do."
by Zoltan Dujisin, Inter Press Service
September 28, 2006
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=34928
BUDAPEST -- A coalition of health experts have staged a protest parallel to the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety, expressing concern over a recent policy turn by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that calls for fighting malaria by spraying the controversial DDT chemical. The conference, taking place in Budapest in Hungary, brings together representatives from government bodies, industry groups, scientific associations and non-governmental organisations in an attempt to reach consensus over issues of global chemical safety. The fifth session of this five-day conference, ending Sep. 29, will focus on Chemical Safety for Sustainable Development.
Participants at the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) conference who staged the protest underlined the detrimental effects on human health caused by DDT, such as reproductive disorders, neurological effects, reduced breast milk production and increased risk of breast cancer. Controversy was sparked by a recent WHO statement promoting the widespread use of the insecticide, known for its dangers to both humans and the environment, in global efforts to eradicate malaria.
The decision reverses a 30-year policy by the WHO and contradicts the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which aimed at gradually eliminating DDT, still used in a dozen African countries as a tool to tackle malaria. The coalition of experts also called for a thorough investigation of the internal process that prompted the WHO's policy change. "The WHO is being politicised by U.S.-right wing politics," executive director of the Kenya-based Physicians for Social Responsibility Paul Saoke said during the protest. "We think industries are behind this," added Romeo Quijano, president of the Pesticide Action Network in the Philippines. "If this is true, it shows the triumph of greed over health."
The WHO and other supporters of DDT claim the chemical carries no health risks when used inside people's homes and with due care to avoid its leakage to the environment. The claims have resulted in a large controversy within the scientific community. "Even very small amounts adversely affect human health." Quijano told IPS. "Scientific evidence shows DDT can travel long distances. There has been consensus on this, but now they are distorting evidence." "It will cause huge damage, especially on the next generation to come, and this is still not quantified," Quijano warned. The coalition also claimed DDT destined for public health is often employed in agriculture, resulting not only in health risks but also increased resistance by mosquitoes. "We expect it to occur again," Quijano added.
Backers of DDT insist it is the only cost-effective method of fighting malaria, noting that in some African countries the disease is responsible for slowing their economic growth. But many remain sceptical of some economists' concerns over malaria. "They have no intention to alleviate poverty. Their aim is to create market conditions to maximise profit, even with malaria involved," Dr. Saoke told IPS. "Supporters of DDT won't acknowledge malaria is a problem of underdevelopment, especially in Africa. They think its like fire-fighting, but DDT is no silver bullet." Instead, Saoke and his fellow experts advocate adaptable and community-based approaches, bringing together measures such as the clearing of breeding sites for mosquitoes, moderate chemical control, public health education, and prompt treatment. "In Kenya simple public health measures such as house cleaning have managed to reduce malaria incidence to below 3 percent in an endemic area."
Saoke added that the international chemicals regulation system was being undermined by U.S.-led efforts during the conference. "I'm not happy with the conference. The United States, supported by Japan and Canada, is maintaining a very negative position and trying to make others join. The pressure to continue using DDT is an external one," added Saoke, "from industries, foreign governments, and a serious underground movement bent on undermining international legislation on chemicals."
Quijano shares this view. "Those with economic vested interests, who have profited from selling toxic chemicals, and those who are very resistant to share the burdens of coming up with acceptable solutions to all concerned, are behind all this," he said. "They want to roll back major international environmental agreements which are detrimental to their profits," Quijano told IPS. "We wanted to come up with common solutions, but they even want to kill the process of a stakeholder forum like this conference."
Quijano is concerned the international community will push for a chemical solution to a disease that ultimately derives from poverty. "The approach should be holistic. It is not the chemical use that is the key component of fighting malaria."
Malaria and related diseases are responsible for one million deaths a year, 90 percent of them in Africa. The WHO claiming the spraying of chemicals will re-assume a major role in the fight against malaria, and insists that scientific evidence supports the view that indoor residual spraying does not aversely affect human health when properly carried out. Simultaneously, the WHO is calling for the widespread use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and improved medicinal treatment to accompany the mostly DDT-based campaign.
The policy change is also based on new monetary possibilities, with a large share of responsibility lying on a new 1.2 billion dollar commitment by the United States government. "With serious money finally becoming available to fight malaria, it is more imperative than ever that WHO provides sound technical guidance and programme assistance to ensure timely and effective use of these resources," Dr Arata Kochi, director of WHO's Global Malaria Programme said in an official statement.
by Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service
September 28, 2006
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34923
UNITED NATIONS -- The statistics are mind-boggling: of the more than six billion people in the world today, over one billion have no access to improved drinking water -- a basic necessity for human life -- and about 2.6 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation. And according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, polluted water and lack of basic sanitation claim the lives of over 1.5 million children every year, mostly from water-borne diseases. "Despite commendable progress," says UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman, "an estimated 425 million children under 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply, and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation."
She said those who die are by no means the only children affected. "Many millions more have their development disrupted and their health undermined by diarrhoeal or water-related diseases." In a 33-page report titled "Progress for Children: a Report Card on Water and Sanitation" released Thursday, UNICEF says these "tragic statistics" underscore the need for the world to meet its commitment to one of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The other goals include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and ensuring environmental sustainability. A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015.
Overall, the statistical snapshot of the world's progress towards MDG targets for water and sanitation "offers a mixed message", UNICEF warns. "We cannot be satisfied with current performance," Veneman said. "And we cannot afford to lose the opportunity presented by the Millennium Agenda to transform the lives of the most vulnerable children." She said the international community lacked both sufficient resources and resolve to meet the U.N. goals -- "and it is hard to think of a more potent reason to redouble our efforts than the thought of more than 1.5 million children every year who will not live to see their fifth birthday," Veneman added.
According to estimates by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, developing nations need at least 11.3 billion dollars a year to meet low-cost basic levels of service for both drinking water and sanitation by the year 2015. And more than 80 percent of the total resources will be needed in Asia and Africa. In a detailed breakdown of numbers, UNICEF said that unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88 percent of deaths from diarrhoeal disease, or more than 1.5 million of the 1.9 million children under five who perish from diarrhoea each year. This amounts to 18 percent of all under-five deaths and means that more than 5,000 children are dying every day as a result of diarrhoeal diseases.
On a more positive note, UNICEF points out that four developing regions -- East Asia/Pacific, Middle East/North Africa, South Asia and Latin America/Caribbean -- are on track to meet their MDG targets for safe water. But current progress rates in sub-Saharan Africa and in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) "will leave those regions short".
"The remarkable progress in South Asia and Latin America/Caribbean has placed them on the verge of achieving their drinking-water goals 10 years early," UNICEF said. In both regions, the number of people without access shrank between 1990 and 2004 -- in South Asia from 326 million to 222 million, and in Latin America/Caribbean from 74 million to 50 million. Still unsafe levels of arsenic have been found in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. "The problem is greatest in Bangladesh, where it was discovered that more than 30 percent of the tube wells sunk in recent decades are contaminated with arsenic above the nationally recommended level," the report says.
The UNICEF report singles out sub-Saharan Africa -- which represents about 11 percent of the world population -- where almost a third of all people live without access to safe drinking water. Meanwhile, three regions, namely East Asia/Pacific, Middle East/North Africa and Latin America/Caribbean are also on track to meet their MDG targets on basic sanitation. But the largest gains have been registered in South Asia, where access to improved sanitation facilities more than doubled, from 17 percent in 1990 to 37 percent in 2004, and in East Asia/Pacific, from 30 percent to 51 percent. According to UNICEF, these improvements were primarily driven by gains made in two of the world's most populous nations: India and China. But still low levels of sanitation remain one of Asia's biggest public health threats.
The UNICEF report, however, gives a clean bill of health for the world's industrialised nations, which have reached nearly universal levels of coverage for both water and sanitation. In many of the European countries with transitional economies, water and sanitation infrastructure still needs to be developed or improved. "And all industrialised countries face a substantial challenge in financing the replacement of decaying and leaking infrastructure, which is long overdue for renovation in many cases."
by Margaret Philp. Toronto Globe and Mail
September 28, 2006
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060928.LAKES28/TPStory/National
The United States Coast Guard have started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat. The automatic-weapon drills started earlier this year but came to light only in the past two weeks after information about the Coast Guard's move to create 34 permanent live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes was published in the U.S. federal register.
Since the beginning of the year, the Coast Guard have conducted 24 drills, each time firing about 3,000 rounds of lead bullets about a third of the size of a fishing-line sinker from light-weight machine guns in waters at least eight kilometres from the Canadian border and U.S. shores. Two more target practices are scheduled for this year.
The high-powered drills have stunned environmentalists, boaters and mayors in cities dotting the lakes in both countries who are outraged that the U.S. government would jeopardize the safety of pleasure boaters and commercial fishermen who could stray into the line of fire. Just as infuriating, they say, is the risk of lead exposure to fish and the more than 40 million people who draw drinking water from the Great Lakes. "It was a big surprise on both sides of the border. At first I thought it was an Internet hoax," said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ont., who has written a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to intervene. "The longest undefended border in the world is gone. It's passé. And this is an example of it."
Toronto Mayor David Miller chairs a coalition of U.S. and Canadian mayors working to restore and protect the lakes. He said the target practice violates a treaty signed after the War of 1812 that outlaws military weapons on the Great Lakes, tampering with two centuries of peaceful history. "This is very much the wrong direction, to militarize the border between these two countries," he said in an interview. "It's symbolically important and practically important that the border remain open and doesn't become militarized." "At a time ... when there is interest in restoring the integrity of the lakes," he writes in a letter to the Prime Minister, "it is most disturbing that the U.S. is contemplating exercises that will militarize the lakes, cause pollution and environmental degradation, restrict shipping and recreation, and change the peaceful border between Canada and the U.S."
Far more people are killed on Toronto streets by illegal U.S. guns crossing the border, he said, than bloody-minded terrorists from Canada crossing south. "The idea that terrorists are flooding across the Great Lakes is utter nonsense," he said. Until this year, U.S. Coast Guard vessels carried only handguns and small-calibre rifles. But anti-terrorist furor has led to a bolstering of firepower. "We're trying to be prepared in case something happens," said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier. "I don't know what it is, but I know I want to be prepared for it when it happens. We need to conduct these live-fire exercises so we are prepared for whatever it may be. If we are not prepared for it, there are going to be questions about why we weren't prepared for it."
The Coast Guard said the drills have so far been conducted without a hitch. By way of safety precautions, broadcasts on marine radio bands will be made repeatedly a few hours before training begins, and a second Coast Guard vessel will monitor boat traffic around the training zones during the shooting exercises. But critics on both sides of the border say that many small pleasure boats are either not equipped with marine radio, seldom tune in, or could mistakenly wander into the unmarked firing range.
Others are raising alarms about the impact of tens of thousands of bullets made from lead, which has been linked to brain-development and behaviour problems in children. In recent years there have been efforts to reduce lead in the lakes, including the banning of lead paint and a more recent campaign asking fishermen to replace lead sinkers. "We've spent years removing lead from the Great Lakes," said Mary Muter, a long-time cottager and vice-president of the Georgian Bay Association, a coalition of cottage owners and boaters. "As a Canadian, these are binational waters and this is just offensive." The Coast Guard commissioned a study from a consulting group, stating that while lead from spent bullets could be passed up the food chain, the drills would pose "no elevated risk" to the environment or human health.
As for the shaky status of the world's longest undefended border, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambra Dickie, said that Canada and the United States signed a written agreement three years ago articulating that moves to arm U.S. law-enforcement vessels with light machine guns in U.S. jurisdiction do not violate the spirit of the treaty. That treaty, the argument goes, was drafted to ensure peace in the Great Lakes by forbidding weapons of war such as cannons on sailing ships. "We don't have any cannons or rocket launchers or anything like that," CPO Lanier said.
by David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post
September 28, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092701995.html
The number of dangerously smoggy days in the Washington area has declined by more than 40 percent since 2003, but the region still does not meet federal standards for healthy air, according to data released yesterday. From 2003 to 2006, the region has had 63 days in which the levels of ground-level ozone -- a harmful gas formed when the sun heats polluted air -- was high enough for Code Orange, Code Red or Code Purple warnings. From 1999 to 2002, there were 114 such days, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Officials said yesterday that they were encouraged, believing the reduction in bad air days was a sign that local and national anti-pollution measures were having an effect. "The air's cleaner," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of COG's air quality committee. "But not clean enough." That's because the Washington region, which has exceeded smog limits repeatedly since 1977, still hasn't improved enough to meet the smog standards the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin enforcing in 2009. At that point, a violation could trigger a loss of federal transportation funding. Moreover, local environmental groups were wary of the report, wondering whether cooler weather, not reduced smog, was partly responsible for the improvement.
This might seem like an odd year to tout progress in reducing air pollution. An early August heat wave caused several Code Orange days, with residents warned against exercising or working outside. In July, the region had a Code Purple day -- the worst rating and its first in more than a year. Jeff King, an air quality planner at COG, said this summer offered some confirmation that progress was being made: Although it was far hotter than in 2005, it had the same number of unhealthy air days -- 19. That appeared to mean that less smog was around for the sun to heat. "We did have some pollution problems, but it wasn't as severe as we'd had in the past," King said.
The pollutants that help create bad air days come from sources as diverse as power plants, cars, gas pumps and paint fumes. In explaining the reductions in bad air, local officials cited changes almost as varied. Mendelson credited new federal rules limiting the amount of nitrogen oxide in power-plant emissions and curbing auto pollution, as well as several local policy changes. Montgomery County bought more energy from wind power. The District required power companies to derive more of their electricity from renewable sources. Fairfax County retrofitted its school buses to produce cleaner emissions.
Mendelson said moves such as those could continue to reduce smog, even as the region adds millions of residents and thousands of miles of roads. "So far, the region has continued to grow significantly, and yet we're polluting less," he said.
Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch said the apparent good news was tempered by the fact that the Washington area still regularly suffers through Code Orange days and worse. "If we're still seeing eight or 10 dirty air days in the area, that to me is still a sign that we're not there yet," O'Donnell said.
by Ron Seely, Wisconsin State Journal
September 28, 2006
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=100646&ntpid=1
Bruce Baker, deputy administration of water for the Department of Natural Resources, was shocked at the letter the agency received late last year from St. Louis-based Monsanto Chemical. A week before, Monsanto convinced a joint legislative committee of the need for an independent study of the health effects of alachlor ESA -- a chemical in an herbicide used by farmers and manufactured by the company -- that state health and environmental officials had worked for nearly 14 years to regulate. Studies by the state and federal government and even by Monsanto showed the chemical causes anemia when given to lab rats at high levels, though the science is not clear on its effects on humans.
Now, after years of study, Monsanto was asking for another review of the science, outlining in the letter how the independent study should be run and providing names of experts it wanted used. The committee agreed to Monsanto's request, but the DNR and the state Department of Health and Family Services refused to go along with it. As a result, the Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules killed the proposed health standard this month. Since the state's groundwater law was passed in 1984, health standards have been set for 130 chemicals, but this marked the first time the Legislature has killed a regulation on an agricultural chemical sought by state health and environmental agencies.
Critics are now questioning whether the vote has crippled the state's ability to regulate dangerous chemicals in drinking water and whether Monsanto played too large a role in the process. "If this happened with this one chemical, what are we going to see with future chemicals?" asked George Kraft, director of the Central Wisconsin Groundwater Center. "I think it makes the process uncertain."
Richard Renk, the owner of Renk Seed of Sun Prairie, which grows seed corn for farmers, is skeptical of the state's failure to set a standard for the chemical. Renk's company stopped using Monsanto's herbicide Lasso -- which breaks down to create alachlor ESA -- more than 10 years ago, he said, because there are numerous alternatives. Since then, alachlor ESA has been found at levels near the proposed health standard of 20 parts per billion in the well the company uses for drinking water, Renk said.
Testing by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection found alachlor ESA in 28 percent of private wells statewide and more than 40 percent of wells in southern agricultural areas where the chemical has been regularly used on row crops such as corn and soybeans. Why, Renk asked, would a legislative committee not regulate a chemical that has been found in wells throughout the state and for which there are alternative and less dangerous weed killers?
Those critical of Monsanto's role in the process cite the company's letter to the DNR about the study. To Baker of the DNR, it was an indication that the requested study was not going to be independent. He and others were already skeptical because under the agreement struck by the company with the Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Monsanto would also pay for the study -- something even Joel Kronenberg, Monsanto's lead toxicologist said made him uncomfortable.
Yet Kronenberg said the company was not purposefully delaying the regulatory process and instead had legitimate disagreements with scientists from DHFS over how the research was being interpreted, as well as the methodology used to derive the proposed health standard. In his testimony on the proposal, Kronenberg said the company did not oppose a public health standard for alachlor ESA. "The goal was to make sure Wisconsin used sound science," Kronenberg said. Several other agricultural groups, including the Farm Bureau, also opposed the regulation.
Still, Baker said existing research showed enough health effects from alachlor ESA to warrant action without further study. He and other regulators believe that, with the support of the rules committee, Monsanto succeeded in throwing up a roadblock that was likely to result in a yearslong delay. That's partly why the DNR refused to go along with it, Baker said. He said it seemed Monsanto was trying to disrupt what has been an effective process, laid out under the state's groundwater protection law, for setting limits on the amounts of potentially dangerous chemicals in Wisconsin's drinking water. "It's a very unusual precedent in a process that's worked very well," he said of the rules committee action. "What it says is that instead of a company that has resources having to follow the process, they can see now that it's a lot easier to just use politics to get a rule thrown out."
Other groundwater experts such as Kraft -- who isn't directly involved in the alachlor ESA case -- agree the Legislature set a bad precedent and jeopardized future efforts to protect Wisconsin residents from dangerous chemicals in their wells. Democrats on the committee and others who favored the regulation were outraged. "I'm very angry that Monsanto had so much influence over this," said Sen. Robert Jauch, D- Poplar, a member of the rules committee. "The Legislature's ultimate decision was to completely ignore the science and, for the first time, to ignore the conclusions of public health."
But Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, co-chairman of the rules committee, defended the vote, arguing the limits would be an undue hardship on farmers who use Lasso on corn and soybeans. He said his understanding of the science is that there is little danger from the chemical at the levels it is found in most wells. And he added that few wells tested in the state actually exceeded the proposed standard of 20 parts per billion. Finally, he said, he is fed up with the DNR's regulatory zeal. "They're out of whack again," Grothman said. "They just don't like people or what people do."
Though the chemical remains in many wells throughout the state, the use of Lasso has declined as farmers turn to other alternatives. According to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, it is used on less than one percent of the state's corn crop. Baker argues that the decline in use calls into question the argument that the proposed regulation would be an undue hardship on farmers. He also said the regulation is necessary despite decreasing use because the chemical remains long after the herbicide Lasso breaks down.
Renk said the potential danger and the presence of alternative weed killers argue for regulation to safeguard drinking water. "Anything we use, if it's contaminating the groundwater, you need to do something. It's a public resource and it has to be protected," Renk said.
Kronenberg, Monsanto's toxicologist, said the company's studies showed lab rats developed blood problems such as anemia when exposed only to very high levels of alachlor ESA. Differences arose between the company and Wisconsin scientists over how much the level at which impacts show up in rats should be multiplied to set a standard for humans and to build in an extra degree of safety. The DNR sought a level of 20 parts per billion. Monsanto and other agricultural groups argued that was unnecessarily strict and wanted it set higher. Grothman also said the standard was too tough, especially because other states haven't taken such an aggressive approach. Wisconsin would be the first state to set health standards for the chemical, though Florida banned its use.
But Dr. Henry Anderson, chief medical officer for the Division of Public Health at the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, defended the agency's studies as well as the conservative approach to setting a standard. "Clearly there were blood changes seen," Anderson said of the rat studies, "and at levels that are statistically significant." Anderson agreed there is a need for more studies of health impacts, especially since studies to date have only been on rats. Because of the lack of data for humans, Wisconsin approached setting a standard very conservatively, Anderson said, seeking a big margin of safety by setting a standard up to 10,000 times higher than the lowest statistically significant impact shown in rat studies. "The statute says we're clearly supposed to do that," Anderson said.
Baker agreed. The groundwater law is aimed not at lessening the health impacts but at eliminating them, he said. "The reality is that we'd prefer to have nothing there," Baker said of contaminant levels. Ironically, according to Kraft and Baker, the 1985 groundwater law was put in place partly to avoid the endless studies and delays that had previously accompanied attempts to regulate pesticides. Baker said the DNR suggested to the rules committee that it put a health standard in place pending the scientific review and make adjustments later as needed. The agency has used such an approach in the past.
But the rules committee agreed to Monsanto's request for an independent scientific review. A week later, the DNR received the letter from the company outlining how it wanted the study conducted. "That was a huge red flag to us," Baker said. "... I've never seen anything like that in my time here." The Department of Health and Family Services also refused to go along with the study. Allowing Monsanto to pay for the review, wrote DHFS secretary Helene Nelson, "creates a regulatory development process open only to those who have the ability to pay and sets an unhealthy precedent." Even Kronenberg, Monsanto's lead toxicologist on the issue, said he was troubled by that. "We should not be paying for the peer review," he said.
Baker said it is the owners of contaminated wells who are the ultimate victims in the story. "They end up with no answers at all," Baker said. "When they find (alachlor ESA) in their wells, they have absolutely no ability to solve the problem."
from the University of Alberta, ScienceDaily
September 27, 2006
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060926183059.htm
submitted to this bulletin by Chemical Sensitivity Network
A study of construction workers in the Netherlands, conducted in part by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, links low birth weight and birth defects to paternal, airborne exposure to organic solvents such as paints, thinner and cleansers. The study, although preliminary in its parent-reported assessment of birth outcomes and small numbers of reported cases, is the first of its kind to link concentrations of solvents in the air to these health outcomes, said Dr. Igor Burstyn, a University of Alberta professor of occupational and environmental health, who co-authored the study with researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. "This is the first time we have good exposure data in such a study, but more robust investigations are needed to guide policy-makers," Dr. Burstyn said.
The study focused on questionnaires filled out by a random sample of 398 painters exposed to a mixture of chemicals present in organic solvents and 302 carpenters with little or no exposure, in the period of three months before the last pregnancy. Workers employed as painters three months before their partners became pregnant were on average six times more likely than the carpenters to father congenitally malformed babies (e.g. defects of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urogenital and central nervous systems.) In addition, the painters exposed to the chemicals were 50 to 100 per cent more likely to produce low birth-weight babies, depending on the level of exposure, compared to unexposed carpenters.
The researchers are unsure of how the chemicals are contributing to birth defects, and previous studies are inconclusive. Of particular concern, said Dr. Burstyn, is that all of the levels of exposure to solvents investigated in the study were well within Dutch regulations and occupational exposure limits established in the United States and Canada. Therefore, they had previously been considered safe. "Now it is less certain whether these exposures are safe," Dr. Burstyn said.
The findings show a need for more research, especially among workers who are exposed to supposedly less harmful water-based paints that were introduced to replace traditional solvent-based paints formerly common in the Netherlands. "We need to evaluate and compare the influence of resulting solvent exposures on reproductive health," said Dr. Burstyn, who collaborated previously on a study showing that water-based paints did not eliminate solvent exposure among construction painters.
Organic solvents are widely used in many industries including plastics, metals, electronics, shoemaking, furniture manufacturing, painting, printing and dry cleaning. The study was funded in part by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research with support from the Dutch Union for Construction Workers.
by Gilbert Chan, Sacramento Bee
September 27, 2006
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/29918.html
In the past six months, nearly 50,000 toxic mercury light switches have been pulled from clunkers sitting in auto junkyards across California as a new environmental initiative took off, state officials announced Tuesday. The program, backed by nine automakers and the California Auto Dismantlers Association, is aimed at easing the financial burden on the state's 1,400 auto recyclers and reducing dangerous mercury air emissions. The initiative also has served as a framework for a landmark national program unveiled in August. "We established a model in California that other states are going to follow ... in order to get mercury out of the environment," said Bill George, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
This spring, the state, automakers and dismantlers group reached a three-year accord over the collection and disposal of mercury light switches found in cars and pickups built before 2003. The auto industry has phased out mercury in newer models. In 2005, California law started requiring auto dismantlers to take out the switches before vehicles are crushed or shredded for their steel. Dismantlers, however, have argued that automakers should bear the cost of managing the recycling effort. As part of the accord, the manufacturers' alliance, which includes DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., will pay for collecting containers of the switches from the dismantlers and disposing of them.
Mercury, a toxic liquid metal, can cause mental impairment, memory loss and other problems in the nervous system. It is especially dangerous to pregnant women and young children. From 1974 to 2002, U.S. automakers installed more than 200 million light switches containing 250 tons of mercury. If these hood and trunk switches are not removed, the mercury is released as the junkers are crushed and melted for the steel.
About 13 million cars and trucks are recycled annually nationwide. Officials estimate a single switch contains a gram of mercury, enough to contaminate a 20-acre lake and make the fish unsafe to eat. In California, 700,000 of the 2.5 million vehicles shipped to dismantling yards are shredded annually. The state leads the nation with an estimated 11.6 tons of mercury that can be salvaged.
Just four states -- California, Maine, Minnesota and New York -- have enacted mandatory switch removal laws. Eight others have voluntary programs. In August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a national program financed by the auto and steel industries. The $4 million program includes incentives for auto dismantlers to collect and ship the mercury switches.
Under the California program, nearly 50,000 switches containing about 100 pounds of mercury have been collected since March. No comparable figures were available for last year. "The amount of mercury that has been recovered already ... is enough to contaminate one-third of the drinking water in the state of California," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste during a news conference outside the Capitol.
Ron Dumas, owner of Autogater in Roseville, said the program provides some financial relief to mom-and-pop operations. While the total disposal cost can range from $300 to $700 a year, dismantlers estimate they shoulder expenses such as recordkeeping and labor that equal about $3 for each switch removed. "It's one of those things that incrementally leads to putting guys of out business," Dumas said.
by Rebecca Renner, Environmental Science & Technology
September 27, 2006
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/sep/science/rr_fertilizer.html
Researchers recognize three major sources of perchlorate in the food chain: military-industrial activities, agricultural use of Chilean nitrate fertilizer, and natural atmospheric sources. The relative magnitude of each source has long been subject to speculation. New research published today on ES&T's Research ASAP website shows that the historical use of Chilean nitrate fertilizer is as large a source of perchlorate in food as military-industrial activities are, with natural atmospheric sources coming in far behind.
Perchlorate is as controversial as it is ubiquitous. The potential health risks from this thyroid disrupter and the huge potential costs of cleaning it up have made the issue one of the most highly politicized scientific debates of the decade. "We wanted to address the general pervasive presence of perchlorate," says Purnendu "Sandy" Dasgupta of Texas Tech University, who led the team that wrote the paper. "Precipitation was attractive, but it's not enough. Most people, including myself, have focused on military-industrial sources of perchlorate," he says. "But the numbers don't support it. Stepping back, the best way to get something into the food chain is fertilizer."
In the past, perchlorate contamination from military activities occurred during manufacture, or when rocket fuel past its prime was washed out of missiles and other devices onto the ground and eventually into groundwater. Chilean nitrate fertilizers, produced from rock deposits, are naturally contaminated with perchlorate, but their use diminished in the 1950s with the advent of synthetic fertilizers. Military and agricultural activities no longer lead to perchlorate contamination. Rocket fuel washout is now properly contained, and in 2000, Chilean nitrate producers instituted processing changes that removed perchlorate from their product. Atmospheric reactions generate small amounts that fall to earth when it rains.
Production and use estimates of perchlorate are hard to come by: the military considers the numbers secret, and fertilizer producers won't share them, saying they are proprietary information. Dasgupta's team engaged in document detective work to check and cross-check estimates for each military-industrial and agricultural source. The researchers used their own analyses of rainwater and others' analyses of ancient groundwater to estimate atmospheric sources.
To rank the sources, Dasgupta's team estimated the historical sources of perchlorate that could account for the current legacy of water pollution. In terms of production or importation, over the past 60 years, the military-industrial estimate dwarfs the others: 10,600 metric tons (t) per year (yr) compared with 750 t/yr for Chilean nitrate fertilizer and 130-640 t/yr for precipitation. But not all of the perchlorate produced for military and industrial use was washed out to become a water contaminant. Some was used to propel missiles and for outer-space exploration, and some still resides in existing devices. As a result, no one knows how much of the military-industrial perchlorate contributed to water pollution. "This is a big uncertainty," says Dasgupta.
The Chilean nitrate, however, was used exclusively on agricultural land. This increases the impact of that perchlorate by 5.5 times, to 4200 t/yr, the paper shows. For military-industrial dumping to equal fertilizer as a source, some 40% of the military-industrial perchlorate had to have been dumped. This seems unlikely, the authors note. Dasgupta hastens to add that pockets of high levels of perchlorate pollution may still exist for which the military-industrial complex is solely responsible.
William Herz, Vice President, Scientific Programs at the Fertilizer Institute, a trade group, says that he is skeptical of the paper's conclusions because the estimates ignore studies on the current impacts to food crops of irrigation water contaminated by military-industrial sources. The estimates for these sources also appear low and are based on sketchy data, he says. In addition, Herz questions the detailed calculations that Dasgupta's team used.
Other scientists welcome the work. "The relative contribution of different perchlorate pollution streams has been a hot topic of debate for years," says Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. "It is good to see a quantitative treatment of the subject, rather than one that relies on guesses or conjecture," adds Sharp, whose comments reflect those of most other scientists contacted for this article. "The scientific community's understanding of perchlorate in the environment, while incomplete, continues to grow, and this paper makes an important contribution," says U.S. Air Force scientist Greg Harvey. "I think additional studies in areas like Orange County, Calif., and others that went through intensive agricultural development in the first half of the 20th century should be illuminating," he adds.
by Louise Barnett, London Independent
September 27, 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1761673.ece
Nearly a third of food and drink products tested by a government watchdog body last year contained traces of pesticides, and in 1.7 per cent of cases the chemical residues exceeded maximum legal limits. A further 30.2 per cent of the 3,787 items surveyed had pesticide traces within those limits, the Pesticide Residue Committee said yesterday in its annual report. In 2004, only 1.09 per cent of the samples contained pesticide traces above the statutory limits. The increase was due to more imported exotic fruit and vegetables being tested, the committee said.
Levels of pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables destined for schools as part of the "five-a-day" scheme were broadly similar to those in the general food supply chain, the report said. Of the 166 samples tested which were destined for schoolchildren, 132 contained chemical traces at or below the maximum permitted levels. Another three of the samples had residues which were above the legal limits. Items tested in the overall survey included fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, cereal products, tea, olive oil, fruit juice and infant foods. No residues were found in chicken, eggs, infant formula, kidneys, milk or swede. The samples of imported and home-produced food were collected from UK shops, markets, ports and wholesale suppliers.
Yesterday's report summarises the findings of 39 surveys carried out in 2005 as part of the committee's monitoring programme. Ian Brown, the committee's chairman, said most of the pesticide residues were not a cause for health concern among consumers. "I cannot overemphasise the importance of continuing to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day," he said. "The health benefits far outweigh any concern about pesticide residues."
The Pesticide Residues Committee advises ministers, the Food Standards Agency and the Pesticides Safety Directorate. The committee has an annual budget of around £2.2m and carries out a continuing programme of food and drink monitoring. The committee publishes its findings every three months and summarises them in annual reports.
by Tan Ee Lyn, Reuters
September 27, 2006
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP136993.htm
HONG KONG -- Liza Ng, a public relations executive living in Hong Kong, has no time or inclination to cultivate the sporty, tanned look. Instead, she spends hundreds of dollars every month on face masks, scrubs and creams to whiten her complexion. "I love to be pearly white because that is more beautiful," the 38-year-old said. Ng is not alone.
Women across Asia pay exorbitant prices for cosmetics that promise to whiten their skin and give them a fair, frail look which for centuries has been considered a sign of beauty in women in China and across much of the region. But the demand for skin-whitening cosmetics -- which can cost as much as $385 for a 50-ml bottle -- has more than a monetary cost. Health experts say that mercury -- a potentially deadly substance that helps to keep skin white -- has been found in a number of skin-whitening cosmetics.
"In Hong Kong, there are no strict rules for product labelling and you can buy cream that says it is mercury-free, but when we examine it, it is full of mercury," said Christopher Lam, a professor of chemical pathology at the Chinese University. Lam, who also works at the Prince of Wales Hospital, said there have been isolated cases of mercury poisoning seen in women who used such creams. "There may also be cases going to other doctors, not exclusively us," he added.
Mercury blocks an enzyme that is required for the formation of melanin, the dark pigment in our skin. But constant, heavy exposure to mercury is dangerous. It attacks the central nervous system and can result in brain and kidney damage.
Toxic cosmetics?
Questions about the safety of cosmetics came into focus last week when Chinese regulators said they found two toxic metals, chromium and neodymium, in nine SK-II products, a brand owned by Procter & Gamble. Three of the products purport to whiten skin. The two metals are banned for use in cosmetics in China. Chromium is carcinogenic and can cause eczema, while neodymium, which is used in magnets, can cause eye and skin irritation. SK-II has said it does not add chromium, neodymium or other heavy metals into its products and was very concerned about the Chinese findings. But it added that heavy metals exist in the environment, such as in the water and air. The company also said it would investigate if "minimal trace levels of these heavy metals may be presented in the SK-II production process". Nevertheless, Procter & Gamble took its products off the shelves in China last Friday pending a probe by a Chinese health and safety watchdog to check whether its products carried possibly harmful metals.
While drugs are regulated and need to pass trials proving their efficacy and safety before they are sold, there is little governance over cosmetics even in more advanced places in Asia. "There are no regulations requiring manufacturers to prove their cosmetics are effective, so you can claim anything you want," said Allen Chan, chemical pathology assistant professor at Chinese University.
In a study of 38 skin whitening creams in 2000, Lam and his colleagues found that eight of them contained excessive mercury. One exceeded limits used in the United States by 65,000 times. Five were made in China and three in Taiwan. "When we did an x-ray of the offending cream, it didn't allow the x-ray to go through. It was radio-opaque," said pathologist Michael Chan at the Prince of Wales Hospital.
The experts called on consumers to be more sceptical about cosmetic company promises to whiten their skin. "We do not know of any ingredient (used in cosmetics) that is effective and that has proven long-lasting effect in whitening the skin," said Lam. "There is not much cosmetics can do to improve (whiten) the complexion." They called on consumers to use brands produced in countries with strict product labelling and which have good manufacturing practices, and to buy from reliable shops.
Governments must do their part, they said. "We should have import restrictions. Imports without good, certified labels should not be allowed in," Lam said. With manufactured skin-care products now under the microscope for traces of dangerous metals, women in Asia might find themselves turning to an age-old home remedy to temporarily whiten skin -- yoghurt. (US$1 = HK$7.8) (Additional reporting by Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul)
by Tanya Talaga, Toronto Star
September 25, 2006
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1159180391467
More than 5,800 Ontario residents are expected to die prematurely this year because they are breathing dirty air, warns a new report from the Ontario Medical Association. Breathing pollutant-laden air will cost the province almost $1 billion this year in lost productivity and treatment of smog-related illnesses, the OMA says in the report obtained by the Star.
The Greater Toronto Area was under a smog alert yesterday. "The impact polluted air is having on the health of Ontarians is dramatically worse than we had initially estimated," said Dr. Greg Flynn, president of the OMA. "We are paying the price for poor air quality with our lives and if we don't take action immediately, the cost will continue to rise significantly." Science is now available to see the long-term effects of pollution, of how the toxins affect tissue, causing adverse health reactions beyond asthma attacks and breathing difficulties -- including contributing to heart attacks and lung cancer.
Smog is a mix of pollutants, made up of mostly ground-level ozone, created from burning gasoline and from other volatile organic compounds found in things like solvents and paints. The OMA says it now has "clear scientific evidence" of premature deaths for a number of other pollutants such as ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. "The cost of inaction is clearly much higher than any price our province could pay to improve air quality," Flynn said. The report estimates the cost of lost workdays from illnesses related to air pollution -- including caregivers' time -- at $374 million this year, rising to almost $467 million by 2026. Health care for air pollution related illnesses, including hospital stays and medications, will cost about $507 million this year, and nearly $702 million by 2026.
The last OMA study, released five years ago, estimated 1,900 deaths that year due to smog-related illnesses. The sharp increase is a result of two factors: Improved understanding of how pollutants harm the body over time and the fact many more pollutants are now being tracked. The additional deaths expected this year are also the result of lifetime exposure to dangerous pollutants and the permanent effects on our body, the OMA report notes. "A physician cannot cure someone whose tissue has accumulated the effects of smog over time," the report says. "All that we can do then is try to manage the illness."
People with asthma suffer greatly for days, even weeks, after a smog alert, said Dr. Mark Greenwald, vice-president of the Asthma Society of Canada, and co-founder of the Asthma Summit happening at York University today. "The asthmatic takes a much longer time to recover," he said. "The trigger is sudden but the effects are longstanding." Asthmatics say breathing the bad air feels like a plastic bag is over their heads, said Greenwald. "They are afraid and living with this on a daily basis." Greenwald said the problem of premature deaths caused by air pollution is worse for asthmatics because they don't have good, long-term control of their disease.
A news conference today will outline some of the major findings of the Illness Costs of Air Pollution report, including:
The report was created using a sophisticated software model developed by the OMA in 2000 to estimate the health effects and economic costs of smog in Ontario.
from Reuters, Scientific American
September 22, 2006
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=1592104031CEAA405B8A103C399E2633
NEW YORK -- The risk of death due to stroke is associated with exposure to high concentrations of air pollution about 2 hours before death, Japanese investigators report. Because this risk appears to be independent of 24-hour particulate matter levels, they suggest that air quality standards be based on hourly data, as well as 24-hour levels. Particulate matter, or PM, is the term used to describe the tiny particles emitted by automobiles, especially diesel vehicles.
Dr. Shin Yamazaki, an epidemiologist at Kyoto University, and associates collected data from the 13 largest cities in Japan regarding concentrations of suspended particulate matter 7 m diameters or higher (PM7), ambient temperature, plus other components of air pollution, from January 1990 to December 1994. During that period, 17,354 residents age 65 or older died due to hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, and 46,370 died from ischemic stroke, the type caused by blood clots.
According to their analyses, reported online in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the odds ratio (OR) of death from ischemic stroke was increased with temperatures above 30 degrees centigrade in the warmer months compared with moderate temperatures of 15 to 22 degrees (OR 1.333). In contrast, the risk of death due to bleeding in the brain was increased in cold weather (0 to 8 degrees, OR 1.225). However, during warmer months, high 1-hour mean concentrations of PM7 increased the risk of death from hemorrhagic stroke nearly 2.4-fold, an association independent of 24-hour mean PM7 concentrations.
In contrast, death due to ischemic stroke was not associated with 1-hour PM7 levels. Yamazaki's team suggests this discrepancy may be due to the longer interval from ischemic stroke onset to death, or to the fact that inhaled particles raise blood pressure, a risk factor for bleeding in the brain.
Moreover, they write, "during the 4 years covered by this study, there were 443 hours in which the concentration of PM7 was over the 1-hour air quality standard (in Tokyo), and that 49 of those hours (11 percent) occurred on days when the 24-hour mean concentration of PM7 was within the air quality standard for 24-hour periods." They propose that, if hourly measures of air quality are not available, stricter standards for 24-hour mean levels of suspended particulate matter may be an effective substitute.
