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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.
For information about additional events, please visit our searchable calendar of events at http://www.partnersforchildren.org/conferences.html.
November 1 - 3, 2006
Providence, Rhode Island
This conference is an educational and networking conference for certified lead professionals; public health, housing and community development officials; lead and healthy homes grantees; environmental consultants and contractors; facility operators and managers; health educators and community advocates. Two educational program tracks are featured: 1) educational track on lead poison prevention, lead hazard control and healthy homes issues; and 2) educational track on detecting and remediating environmental hazards in housing and commercial buildings.
November 2 - 3, 2006
Berkeley, California
at the Claremont Hotel
The Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers (BCERC) Network is pursuing epidemiological and biological studies investigating the influence of Early Environmental Exposures on mammary gland development and the potential of these exposures to alter the risk of breast cancer in later life. The latest scientific findings from the BCERC will be presented along with results from investigations in other studies in the field. This scientific meeting seeks to build on the growing interaction between biologic and epidemiologic lines of research inquiry. Community participation and advocacy concerns will continue to be highly integrated into the discussions. Content will include the basic biology of breast development, environmental exposures that influence breast development and future breast cancer risks, and public health communication of the risks associated with these exposures. Advanced registration for the meeting is required for meeting attendance and associated activities. All meeting activities will be conducted at the Claremont Hotel. Participants are expected to stay for the entire duration of the meeting. Registration and abstract submission forms will be available Summer 2006.
Website: http://www.bcerc.org/2006mtg/
Contact: Kaya Balke, kaya@cc.ucsf.edu
November 2 - 3, 2005
Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Sacramento, California
at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street
Contact: 916-703-0234 or heather.cornwell@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
Abstracts: by November 6, 2006
Conference: March 29 - 31, 2007
Washington, DC
at the Howard University School of Law
It has been more than 25 years since the Warren County protest that arguably gave birth to the environmental justice movement in this country. It has been twenty years since the United Church of Christ published Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, a nationwide study that further documented the association between hazardous waste facilities and the racial composition of the communities hosting such facilities. It has been ten years since the United Church of Christ, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Center for Policy Alternatives published Toxic Waste and Race Revisited, a study that found that the associations documented in Toxic Waste and Race were just as active as they were in the original study. The National Small Town Alliance, the Howard University School of Law, and the United States Department of Energy are teaming with others to review the environmental justice movement and to determine the State of Environmental Justice in America. This effort will team with communities, scholars, researchers and others to issue a comprehensive report and conduct this conference.
Call for papers: The conference planners are inviting individuals to submit a short abstract of no more than 250 words that describes the current state of environmental justice in one of the areas listed below, preferably placing your discussion in the context of changes that have occurred in the selected area since Warren County. For a list of suggested topics, please contact ejinamerica2007@yahoo.com. Abstracts are due November 6, 2006.
Contact: Michelle Hudson, hudsonmi@saic.com
November 9, 2006
Paris, France
at UNESCO, Room 1, 125 Avenue de Suffren, 75015
The Paris Appeal, and international declaration on disease due to chemical pollution, has been signed by more than one thousand key scientific and medical personalities and by 200,000 European citizens. It is also supported by the Standing Committee of European Doctors which represents all medical doctors (i.e. 2 million) in the 25 member states of the European Union. This conference is being organized by the Association for Research and Treatments Against Cancer (ARTAC), Health and Environment Alliance and the Collaborative on Health and the Environment.
Website: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/che-events/739
November 18, 2006
8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
at the University of Minnesota, 300 West Bank Office Building, Room 142, 1300 S 2nd St
This half-day training program will introduce participants to a new clinical resource for practitioners, the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit. The toolkit, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 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. For more information, visit the website or contact Kathleen Schuler as listed below.
Website: http://www.iatp.org/foodandhealth/peht.cfm
Contact: Kathleen Schuler, kschuler@iatp.org
February 1 - 2, 2007
Washington, DC
at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
discounted registration rate until November 17th
The conference theme is "Integrating Environment and Human Health." Over 850 scientists, policymakers, businesspeople, and civil society representatives will explore the linkages between the environment and human health. The conference will address the many essential roles the environment plays on our well-being as well as the multi-dimensional relationships between human health and environmental components, which may have far-reaching consequences for society. Over 120 experts will speak in plenary sessions, symposia, and topical breakout sessions.
Website: http://www.NCSEonline.org/2007conference/
Contact: conference2007@ncseonline.org
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.
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is the national nonprofit organization representing the state and territorial public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia. ASTHO's members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy, and to assuring excellence in state-based public health practice.
ASTHO is seeking to fill an Analyst, Environmental Health Policy position in Washington, DC. The policy analyst reports to and assists the Director, Environmental Health Policy, principally with project deliverables for federally funded environmental health-tracking projects. This project focuses on the collection, integration, analysis, interpretation, and communication of data about environmental hazards, exposures to environmental hazards, and human health effects potentially related to environmental hazards. The policy analyst will spend considerable time working on a risk communications project and will assist and support other ASTHO environmental health projects as necessary. Specific duties and the application contact are listed at http://www.astho.org/index.php?template=employment.php (Search for "analyst" in "District of Columbia".) A bachelor's degree and experience are required. The salary is in the high $30's to low $40's with excellent benefits.
The National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF) is seeking an Associate, Health & Environment. The goal of the Health & Environment Program is to improve public health by advancing environmental health literacy. The program includes projects involving partnerships with health professional organizations, public health groups and federal agencies to provide environmental education to physicians, nurses and other primary healthcare providers. Candidates should hold a bachelor's degree and possess two years of project management experience, exhibit excellent oral and written communication skills, possess a high level of professionalism and ability to function effectively in a team environment, as well as other skills. To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to health@neetf.org. For more information about NEETF, please visit http://www.neetf.org/health.
by Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail
October 31, 2006
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061031.wxmultiple31/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home
It has long been thought that multiple sclerosis isn't an equal-opportunity disease when it comes to afflicting women and men. In recent decades, far more women have been getting the ailment, with most experts believing that multiple sclerosis in Canada afflicts about twice as many females as males. But a team of researchers combing over Canadian data on those with multiple sclerosis has made a startling discovery: Women with the disease have inexplicably started to outnumber men by a ratio of more than 3 to 1. And what is more, the researchers have found that the gender ratio, rather than being stable as has been commonly thought, has been rising in an almost uninterrupted fashion for at least 50 years, jumping from about 1.9 women for every man for those born in the 1930s, to 3.2 women for every man for those born around 1980.
The rise over this long period has been so pronounced that it has made multiple sclerosis an overwhelmingly female-dominated disease, even though it wasn't originally. Until the 1940s most doctors believed there was no difference in the incident rate based on gender, and it was only in the 1950s and 1960s that physicians began to notice that the disease was more common in women. A paper on the new findings is appearing in the November edition of the journal Lancet Neurology and the researchers who conducted the study of the Canadian multiple sclerosis data are speculating that something new has arisen in the environment in the past half-century to make women far more likely to develop the disease, a factor that inexplicably doesn't seem to affect men.
If multiple sclerosis rates are rising because of an environmentally induced cause among women, the discovery of what this might be would be highly significant because it suggests a possible avenue for preventing the often disabling disease. "What is going on here is something presumably that is preventable," said George Ebers, a professor in the department of clinical neurology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and lead author of the study. "We just need to find out what it is in the environment because it has to be environmental. Your genes don't change over two generations, three generations."
Scientists do not know what causes multiple sclerosis, although the disease is more prevalent in wealthy countries. Canada has one of the highest rates in the world, as do many nations in Northern Europe, which has led to speculation the cause may have something to do with vitamin D. Levels of the vitamin fall off in northern countries during the winter months because sunlight isn't intense enough to allow people to make it in their skin.
For those with multiple sclerosis, the research confirms what has often been the subject of anecdotal observations. Marla Zaichick, who was diagnosed with the illness 10 years ago and is part of an organization called Women against MS, says the gender difference is readily apparent in groups of people with the disease. "You definitely see it," said Ms. Zaichick, who lives in Mississauga. "Yes, you do see men," but women are "just so much more predominant." For Ms. Zaichick, who has a sister with MS and a brother who doesn't have it, one of the worries about the greater odds of women getting the disease is that she has a 10-year-old daughter, Ariel, and is concerned that she may be at higher risk. The paper said "the factors causing the increasing number of women with multiple sclerosis can only be speculated on, but given the short duration over which this is occurring, genetic change can be excluded."
Among the possible factors that could be causing the trend, the paper cited the changing role of women in the work force, dietary habits, changes in the timing of childbearing years, the falling age at which girls have their first period, and changes in outdoor activity levels. If there is a connection to vitamin D, it could be through less time spent outdoors and an increase in time spent indoors at work. Prof. Ebers said a link to vitamin D is "certainly very plausible." Prof. Ebers said previous research on half-siblings has found that mothers seem to be the ones influencing whether their children get MS, suggesting that something is increasing the risk of the disease during fetal life.
The rise in the sex ratio began before women started using oral contraceptives and before woman began smoking in great numbers. About 1,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed this year in Canada, and an estimated 55,000 to 75,000 people are currently living with it. Lifetime medical costs per person with the disease are estimated at about $1.6-million. Most cases are diagnosed between the ages of 15 to 40, making it a disease with large potential economic impact because it generally strikes people in the prime of their adult years.
The disease attacks the protective myelin covering of the central nervous system causing symptoms such as extreme fatigue, loss of balance, speech problems and even complete paralysis. Multiple sclerosis is considered an autoimmune disease, but it is not known why the body's immune system begins to malfunction and attacks myelin. Previous research has made some odd discoveries about multiple sclerosis, such as a recent finding that those born in the Northern Hemisphere in May are more likely to develop it than those born in November, who had the lowest risk. This finding also suggests a role for vitamin D -- but in mothers -- because their May-born children would have less of the nutrient during fetal development, most of which took place in fall and winter.
By looking at a Canadian databank that has detailed information on about 27,000 people with the disease, Prof. Ebers and the other researchers calculated sex ratios starting with those born in 1931 up to 1980, or people who would have a relatively recent diagnosis. There were about 19,500 women and 7,600 men in the database. Because of the large number of people whose information is in the database, one of the most extensive in the world, the results of the research are considered statistically significant and not due to chance.
by Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
October 31, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-10-30-ecoli-bottomstrip_x.htm
The first rule of public health is one most of us learn in kindergarten: Don't eat poop. But that's what the people were eating who were struck down with E. coli in the late summer outbreak tied to bagged spinach, California health officials now say. There was deadly E. coli O157:H7 in water samples taken on the Salinas Valley ranch where the spinach was grown, in wild pigs that rampaged through the fields, in cattle and calves that grazed nearby, and on cow manure in adjacent pastures, says Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the California Department of Health Services. "It's not unusual or unexpected that we'd find O157:H7 in the environment where those species exist," Reilly says. Three people died and more than 200 others were sickened in the outbreak that spread to 26 states.
Because E. coli lives in the gut of warm-blooded animals (though it likes cattle and deer best), it gets transferred between them via what the squeamish call "fecal contact." People have been experiencing such contact for as long as there's been farming. Before the advent of modern agriculture, all fields were fertilized with manure, and wild animals were abundant. But today the pathogenic reality of agriculture is different -- and deadly. "The microbial world has changed, but people haven't quite caught up with it," says Douglas Powell, a professor of pathobiology at Kansas State University in Manhattan. It's certainly caught up with us. There have been 20 reported outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce or leafy greens since 1995. And Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is tracking a salmonella outbreak, possibly linked to produce, which has sickened at least 172 people in 18 states.
Troubling trends
Several trends have converged to create a perfect storm of dangerous produce:
These trends are causing scientists to rethink their assumptions about how bad bugs get into our food. And if conventional wisdom about the transmission of food-borne illnesses is wrong, getting rid of them is going to be a whole lot harder, says Jack Guzewich, an epidemiologist at the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
A call for action
Companies are going to have to start talking not just about how natural and wholesome their food is, but exactly what they are doing to protect customers from microbial illnesses, says Powell. A newly assembled group of produce buyers is calling on three of the major produce industry associations to come up with new, enforceable food safety standards. The buyers represent some of the biggest food retailers, including Safeway, Costco and Denny's restaurants. They sent a letter to the Produce Marketing Association, United Fresh Produce Association and Western Growers Association last Thursday. They set a Dec. 15 deadline for putting together safety protocols for lettuce and leafy greens and a Feb. 15 deadline for melons, tomatoes and green onions. "We believe the power to change the industry is in the hands of the buyers," says Tim York, president of Markon Cooperative and leader of the ad hoc group.
by Angela Epstein, UK Daily Mail
October 31, 2006
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=413581&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source=
She's just a teenager and lives in the country -- but Bethan already has 17 different gender-bending chemicals in her blood. As our disturbing tests reveal, many adults have TWICE that...and it's common household products that are to blame: They seem innocuous but many everyday household products -- from face creams to computers and even carpets -- contain chemicals that could seriously damage our health. Several studies have recently linked gender-bending chemicals to genital malformation, infertility and cancer. Last week a study for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) suggested that they could account for the rise in breast cancer -- over the past 30 years the number of cases has risen by 81 per cent.
These chemicals are known as hormone disruptors or EDCs (endocrine disrupting chemicals). They upset the delicate hormonal development of an embryo, fooling targeted cells into behaving differently. Or they act as a blocker, preventing natural hormones such as the male sex hormone testosterone from functioning properly. Both men and women can be affected by exposure to such chemicals, both inside the womb and later in life. The worry is that some chemicals can bio-accumulate (build up in body fat). There may only be a small amount in the environment, but they accumulate through the food chain. They get into our water supply, are ingested by fish and are passed on to humans. With each step in the chain more chemicals are passed on. We are, therefore, potentially exposed to a huge amount.
EDCs also settle in fatty tissue such as breast tissue, which could explain the rise in breast cancer, says Dr Andreas Kortenkamp, director of the Centre of Toxicology at London University's School of Pharmacy, who produced the latest study for the WWF. 'It is well-known that natural hormones play a role in the development of breast cancer,' says Dr Kortenkamp. 'This raises the question whether chemicals that mimic hormonal activity could be a cause, too.' He says that, in isolation, many EDCs may not pose a dramatic health risk. 'The concern is that there are so many of them in circulation in our environment and no one yet knows the long-term effect of this cocktail of chemicals.' The WWF is pushing for a precautionary approach and is campaigning for strong EU chemicals regulation.
In the meantime, experts suggest we limit our exposure. Some of the more worrying chemicals are:
The only way to assess your individual exposure is by having a special blood test, which will reveal if you have any of these gender-bending chemicals. Here three people have their levels checked. Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Unit, comments on the results. Although there is no set guideline as to what is a 'dangerous' level, Professor Sharpe explains: 'The problem is we don't know their long-term effect so you don't really want any in your system.'
Bethan Jones, 14, lives on a farm in Welshpool, Wales, with her parents Enid, 53, and Arwel, 46, and her brother Alwyn, 11.
Chemical Test Results
OCPs: 2
PCBs: 11
Flame retardants: 3
Phthlates: 1
TOTAL: 17
Bethan says: I have always been a bit of a tomboy. I love playing football and doing sport and I don't bother with make-up. So I was shocked when I heard about a study which said that girls with high levels of PCBs in their blood preferred masculine-type games. Eleven types were found in my blood. I've been told this is lower than the adult testers, but then I'm half their age and it's not the same as not having any there at all. It was weird to think these chemicals could influence the way I play. I don't understand how all these chemicals could get into my bloodstream. I live a healthy outdoor life. I'm always helping on my parents' farm and my mum cooks great home-made meals every night. We eat lots of meat such as lamb and beef, with vegetables from our farm or local markets.
My mum stopped using a microwave because she was worried about the possible effects on our health. She also stopped using nonstick pans, and instead of air fresheners we keep the windows open as much as we can. Our farmhouse is quite old and the furnishings are very old-fashioned so I was surprised to find I had flame retardants in my blood. The only toiletries I use are shampoo, conditioner and soap -- nothing fancy, but it's scary to think that the phthlates could have come from such ordinary products. Dad does use some kind of chemical spray on some of the fields but I'm never nearby when he does. Anyway, the pesticides found in my blood have been banned for many years -- which shows how long they stay in the environment. The fact that I had two pesticides in my blood when I noticed that one of the other testers Matt, who doesn't live on a farm, has three, suggests that living nearby has nothing to do with it. It seems these things are everywhere. It's horrible to think that some of these chemicals could affect my health or the health of any children I have in the future. It's a long way off, but it is a worry just the same.
Expert's verdict
Bethan's results really brings home the effects of exposure to environmental chemicals. She's a young, growing girl but already has many chemicals in her blood. Bethan is almost 30 years younger than Beth, yet had an equal number of phthlates. Phthlates can be risky for the developing foetus -- they can get into breast milk and could be passed on to any children that Bethan may have. Bethan should try to limit her exposure now. And especially when the time comes for her to plan a family. We don't know what role they will play in her future.
Beth Williams, 42, an ecology lecturer, lives in Stourport, Worcestershire, with her partner Andrew Sharkey, 43, an operations director and their children Shamus, 15, and Connie, 13.
Chemical Test Results
OCPS (pesticides): 2
PCBs: 22
Flame retardants: 3
Pthalates: 1
PFCs: 2
TOTAL: 30
Beth says: In my late 20s I was diagnosed with cancer in the soft fatty tissue of my right leg. I had liposarcoma, which is extremely rare. Although I was successfully treated with surgery and radiotherapy, it did make me think about what could have triggered the disease. I then found out that there is a potential connection between liposarcoma and pesticides -- the chemical residues can build up in fatty tissues. I realised that ordinary fruit and vegetables could have put my health at risk -- which is why for several years we have grown our own fruit and vegetables organically. That's why I couldn't believe that my blood contained two types of OCPs -- or pesticides. I imagine that some of the chemicals come from food packaging. I lead a busy life, juggling family and work life and we can eat ready-made or takeaway meals four times a week.
I also sit in front of a computer -- which exposes me to brominated flame retardants in the dust coming from the machine -- for a few hours every day. I'd never thought about this but now I'm terribly worried. I was also surprised by the presence of flame retardants. We live in an old Victorian terrace with few modern appliances and around 50 per cent of the house is tiled.
Even more alarming was the discovery of a phthalate in my blood -- I already knew that these had gender-bending properties and I deliberately don't use many cosmetics, so where did this come from? The results of the blood tests shocked me. They made me realise how exposed we are on a daily basis to potentially hazardous chemicals. As a result, I'm now going to make some changes to my routine. If I needed to buy a new sofa I'd get one second-hand because the level of flame retardants would be much lower. I use chemical-free shampoos. But I still have no control over the gender-bending chemicals in the environment.
I'm particularly worried about the link between these chemicals and breast cancer. I have several friends in their 40s fighting the disease. As a child I don't remember any of my mother's friends having the disease at that age. We are clearly doing something very wrong to ourselves, to our bodies and the environment.
Expert's verdict
OCPs and PCBs were banned many years ago so the fact they're in Beth's blood now is a potent illustration of how persistent these chemicals can be. They accumulate in fat in the food chain -- such as in milk and animal products -- and build up over the years. That is a major worry for all of us, including Beth. I am surprised that only one phthalate was found since they are absolutely everywhere. The greatest threat they pose is to a developing foetus, so thankfully Beth isn't at the stage in life where she is planning to have a family. Some of the other chemicals in Beth's blood may be connected to breast cancer, so Beth should carry out regular self-examinations.
Matt Farrow, 32, a website manager, lives in Goldaming, Surrey with his partner, Jackie Drennan, 32 and their 12-week-old daughter, Molly.
Chemical Test Results
OCPs: 3
PCBs: 23
Flame retardants: 6
TOTAL: 32
Matt says: I've always strived to live a really healthy life. I don't smoke and I like to exercise regularly: I go running, use the gym, and cycle to work. I'm a vegetarian and even with a new baby in the house, we always make sure that we eat freshly-cooked meals every evening. We also try to use environmentally-friendly household products such as Ecover as well as hypoallergenic soaps and shampoos. So I was really angry when I received the results of my blood testing. It seems that despite my efforts to live a blameless life my body is still exposed to and absorbs potentially hazardous chemicals.
I seem to have a lot of flame retardants -- I wonder if they come from the new mattress and sofa that I bought this year. It has certainly made me think twice about buying any new furnishings for the house. I do sit in front of a computer for long periods of time -- up to 12 hours a day -- so maybe that has caused my exposure. I was also surprised by the PCBs since I believe they often get into the body through contaminated fish -- and I'm a vegetarian. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, only around 50 per cent of which are organic. But this is now going to have to change as there were pesticides in my blood, too.
It took us six months to conceive our first child. Looking back, I wonder if chemicals could have played a part? Now that I am a father I worry how much this could compromise my baby's health in the future. She is being breast fed at the moment but some chemicals can get into breast milk. At some point she will go onto formula milk, yet Bisphenol A has been found in babies' bottles. She is at such a vulnerable stage of her life. While we do everything we can to limit her exposure it seems this chemicals are everywhere.
Expert's verdict
Matt can't directly transfer chemicals from his body to his daughter's in the same way as a breast-feeding mother. But his partner could have similar results and that is worrying. Chemicals found in Matt's blood might have caused DNA damage to sperm -- he mentioned that it took six months to conceive. He also has a high level of PCBs which -- because of the rising rates of testicular cancer and their potential link to chemicals -- means he should regularly check himself. It is the unknown of the effect of any of these chemicals in any amount in our blood that is troubling so even though Matt's results seem better than the those of the others, he may not be safe.
by Kim Rahn, Korea Times
October 30, 2006
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006103018275111960.htm
The more mercury pregnant women are exposed to, the greater chance they have of giving premature birth to babies, according to a study. Research on 85 pregnant women conducted by Ha Eun-hee, a professor of Ewha Womans University's preventive medicine department, showed that women with high levels of mercury in cord blood are three to five times more likely to give premature birth, which is to deliver a child in less than 37 weeks of pregnancy. Ha announced the study results on Friday during a meeting of the Korean Society for Preventive Medicine.
According to the study, the 50 percent of the 85 people with the highest levels of mercury had a 3.1 times greater chance of having a premature delivery than the lower 50 percent. The upper 25 percent had a 5.3 times more of a chance than the lower 75 percent. "Mercury in cord blood, which connects the mother and the fetus, is critical to the child, as it directly flows to the fetus," Ha said.
The study disclosed two main reasons for the mercury concentration -- dental treatment with amalgam and fish consumption. Pregnant women who had treatments with amalgam during the pregnancy had an average of 5.15 micrograms of mercury per 1 liter of blood, 1.3 times more than the 3.98 micrograms in women who hadn't had the treatment. The mercury level increased in proportion to the frequency of treatment. Women undergoing the amalgam treatment fewer than three times had an average 4.8 micrograms of mercury in their blood, while those having undergone the treatment three to six times had 5.04 micrograms, and seven times or more 5.2 micrograms. Also, a woman who never had fish during pregnancy had 4.6 micrograms of mercury per 1 liter of blood, while the mercury level of women who consumed fish more than four times per week had an average mercury level of 8.3 micrograms. "The nation should prepare education programs for pregnant women, advising them not to undergo dental treatments with amalgam," Ha said.
Professor Yi Seung-muk at Seoul National University's graduate school of public health said a great deal of mercury in the air above the Korean Peninsula is from China's industrial areas. Yi's team measured mercury levels in the air and followed the path of wind to China. "We obtained Chinese institutes' data about the industrial locations emitting mercury and compared them with our data, which correlated with the Chinese data," Yi said. It was the first South Korean research about mercury pollution from China, although international academic circles have presented studies about the issue. It is said that half of the world's mercury pollutants in the air come from the country with the largest populace.
"Mercury is contained not only in the air, but also in fish. Korea and Japan, which are near China and consume large amounts of fish, have a greater chance of being exposed to mercury than other countries," Yi said. The research was announced at a meeting of the Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment on Friday. Yi will soon present the amount and ratio of pollutants carried to Korea.
by Todd Pitman, Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman
October 29, 2006
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/10/29/29toxictrade.html
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Not long after hundreds of tons of toxic waste were jettisoned around Ivory Coast's main city under cover of darkness, Jean-Jacques Kakou and thousands of others awoke to an overpowering stench that burned the eyes and made it hard to breathe. Three weeks later, Kakou was dead, one of at least 10 deaths authorities suspect were linked to dumping that has thrown light on a growing global trade in hazardous waste. Poison is still being shipped out of industrialized nations to developing nations despite international legislation. "This is a wake-up call," Greenpeace's Helen Perivier said of one of the worst waste scandals of the past decade -- one that saw toxic black sludge dumped at 17 sites in Abidjan on Aug. 19. Two months later, the cleanup is still under way.
Outrage over similar incidents in the 1980s, including the dumping by Italian businessmen of 8,000 drums of chemical waste on a Nigerian beach in 1987, prompted creation of international legislation. The so-called Basel Convention was amended in 1995 to include a ban on toxic waste shipments from industrialized nations, and experts say it has helped stem the flow of many kinds of chemical or industrial wastes to Africa and Asia. But other detritus from the developed world known as electronic waste -- discarded computers and televisions sets -- is growing and might be an even greater concern, environmental experts say. Such waste contains toxins such as lead and mercury or other chemicals that can poison waterways if buried or pour toxins into the air if burned. Some African states, including Ivory Coast, have failed to ratify the main amendment to the Basel Convention. Key nations such as the United States, which produces the most hazardous waste per capita of any country in the world, have rejected it altogether.
Ivory Coast's own tragedy began July 2, when a Korean-built, Greek-managed, Panamanian-flagged tanker chartered by the multibillion-dollar Dutch commodities-trading company Trafigura Beheer BV docked in Amsterdam to discharge its load, according to Greenpeace. The ship, the Probo Koala, had been acting as a storage vessel for unrefined gasoline and Trafigura said it was trying to get rid of "washings" left behind after a routine cleaning with caustic soda. Amsterdam port officials agreed to dispose of the waste for $15,000, but after realizing it was a bigger load and tougher to cope with than expected, upped the price. Trafigura refused to pay, and left.
The ship traveled on to Estonia, and then Africa, where it found a local company in Ivory Coast called Tommy that agreed to dispose of the waste for roughly the original price. But Tommy lacked facilities to get rid of the waste. No company in Ivory Coast has such facilities, said Safiatou Ba N'daw, who heads a special Ivorian government committee set up to deal with the crisis. Ivorian officials and witnesses say more than a dozen trucks contracted by Tommy simply poured 528 tons of the waste at 17 public sites around Abidjan after midnight Aug. 19. People woke to an intense stench -- a mixture of rotten eggs and burnt garlic and onions. By morning, eyes were stinging; noses bleeding; stomachs, chests and ears were aching. Tests later showed the sludge contained mercaptans and hydrogen sulfide, a potent poison that, particularly in confined spaces, can cause blackouts, respiratory failure and death.
Kakou, the 27-year-old construction worker who died three weeks later, fell ill immediately, according to his uncle David Ncho. Kakou suffered asthma but otherwise had been in good health. On the last day of his life, he planned to go to one of the emergency clinics set up to deal with the crisis, and got up early to avoid the horrendously long lines. His family found him dead in the shower.
Ivory Coast authorities have jailed seven people, including four Ivorian officials, the Nigerian head of Tommy and two French executives of Trafigura. All have been charged with breaking local toxic waste disposal laws, said Ali Yeo, a senior Justice Ministry official. Two months later, cleanup workers from Tredi International, a French company, wear respiratory masks and protective clothing while working alongside bulldozers that scoop up tainted sludge and pour it into large steel containers.
by Stacy Shelton, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 29, 2006
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2006/10/29/meshpower1029a.html
Blakely -- In this southwest Georgia farming community, it can be easier to talk about politics and religion than the new industry coming to town. Any other prospective business promising a $2 billion construction project, more than 100 high-paying jobs and millions in tax revenues in a poor, rural county might well expect a news conference with the governor -- or at least a state legislator. But this proposed business is an electric-generating plant powered by coal, an old-fashioned source of energy whose by-products are blamed for triggering asthma attacks and premature deaths.
"It's not like we want to burn coal. We don't have a choice," said F.C. "Butch" Wiggins, a newly elected county commissioner and president of the Bank of Early near Blakely's historic town square. "I've lived in Macon and Valdosta where we had other options. This is a terribly poor section of the state....We need the type revenue this will generate." Wiggins is among a majority of county residents supporting the plant. But a hardy group of detractors, aided by two Atlanta-based environmental groups, continues to fight the plant. Even if the power plant could work an economic miracle in Early -- the state's sixth-poorest county -- they don't want the pollution that comes with it.
One of the opponents, Carleen Logan, a former teacher whose family owns about 800 acres next to the proposed plant site on the Chattahoochee River, says it's been tough going against the "good 'ol boys." "On my first meeting with the Sierra Club, when I understood how much pollution would come, as a grandmother, that's when I said to myself 'I have got to do something,'" Logan said. Two of her four grandchildren have asthma. She worries pollution from the plant will worsen their condition. "It's hard to see children gasping for breath and they're trying to play ball. They're trying to do what children do," she said. State health officials estimate about 11 percent of Georgia children have asthma, and say it's aggravated by nitrogen oxides and other smog-forming pollutants emitted from coal-burning power plants and cars.
Karen Wilson supports Longleaf. She hopes it will mean her husband, who is working a construction job in South Carolina, will be able to find work close to home. And maybe her son, who recently moved to Wyoming for a construction job. "We're doing a lot of damage to the earth, I know we are. But progress keeps on going," Wilson said, then added, "If they don't do it here, they'll just do it somewhere else."
Paper mill already there
Blakely, Early's county seat, is the kind of place where neighbors often give just four digits when passing out phone numbers. There's one high school in the county. Cotton and peanut crops fill the landscape. In the town square, in front of the Early County Courthouse is an 8-foot-high stone monument to the peanut, a tribute to the plant that once made this a prosperous, growing community. But now, nearly one-quarter of the county's 12,000 residents live in poverty. Mobile homes make up one-third of the housing stock.
One of the county's largest employers is also among the state's top 10 industrial polluters: a paper mill on the Chattahoochee River owned by Georgia-Pacific. This is where LS Power Associates, a private energy company based in New Jersey, wants to build a coal-burning plant with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, enough to power more than a million homes. The company has been working on its plans here since 2001. Michael Vogt, LS Power's director of project development, said the biggest reason his company chose Early County for the plant was future need in the fast-growing Southeast. "When we five years ago decided our country needed more coal-generating capacity, we identified regions where we thought it was going to be needed and one of them was the Southeast," Vogt said. "There's not a lot of coal-fired plants."
If built, the plant would be named Longleaf Energy Station. It would be the state's 11th coal-burning power generator. It would be the first coal plant to be built since Georgia Power built Plant Scherer northwest of Macon in the 1980s. Longleaf would also be the state's first "merchant plant," or a plant built by an independent power producer who wholesales the electricity. Potential buyers are utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The state's other plants were built by Georgia Power, an investor-owned utility that sells power directly to commercial and residential customers and is regulated by the state Public Service Commission. Regulators with the Environmental Protection Division are poised to issue a permit for the entire operation in time for the company to break ground next spring. A final public hearing on the permits is planned Nov. 9 at Early County High School.
Coal cheapest, dirtiest
For electric generation, coal is king and is likely to stay that way, widening its lead on natural gas and nuclear even more in the next five to 10 years. Longleaf is just one of about 150 coal plants in the works around the country, including more than a dozen proposed in Texas. New natural gas plants are still being built, and several new nuclear power units are in the works -- including plans for two units at the Georgia Power nuclear plant near Augusta. But according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, new coal-fired plants will start to outstrip new natural gas plants by 2009. That's because coal is the cheapest and most abundant source of electricity available.
It's also the dirtiest. Coal burners are the single largest, man-made source of harmful pollutants in the U.S. Scientists have blamed the industry for its part in everything from acid rain to global warming. In July, the Medical Association of Georgia's board of directors passed a resolution stating that pollution from power plants triggers an estimated 26,442 asthma attacks and 1,362 heart attacks annually, while causing 113 lung cancer deaths. The plants release tiny soot particles that can lodge deep in the lungs, and mercury, which can work its way into fish.
Nationally and locally, environmentalists are demanding that existing plants do more to reduce pollution. They also want utilities to explore alternative energies and increase energy efficiency before building new plants. "We don't want a flood of coal-fired power plants coming into Georgia," said Justine Thompson, executive director of the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest. "From the environmental perspective, this is a big deal."
Self-reporting
At times, the debate over the Early County plant has split families and friends. But usually the fight simmers under Southern politeness. Whether for or against LS Power's plant, they still go to church together on Sunday and say howdy at the town deli. But last week, at a question and answer session in the high school auditorium, about 200 Early County residents and their neighbors publicly picked sides. Supporters wearing blue "Support progress" buttons said they trust LS Power to build the cleanest coal-burning power plant possible, and the state EPD to make sure of it. Opponents said even with modern-day pollution controls, burning coal is still a health hazard. Garrett Bennett, a young physician who recently moved to town with his family, said "Everything in life comes down to a risk-benefit analysis.... At the end of the day, it's about trust. We as citizens have to trust in our elected officials and public agencies to do the best for us." In response to another question from a member of the Early County Development Authority, LS Power representatives said they would not hesitate to move their families next to Longleaf plant. "I believe the environment is safe and protected," said Michael Vogt, LS Power Development's director of project development.
Under the permits that EPD would issue, Longleaf would be required to emit far less pollution than any of the state's existing coal-fired power plants. Because of improvements made to pollution control devices, newer plants must utilize newer pollution control technology. For each megawatt of power produced, Longleaf would emit half as much nitrogen oxide as Plant Scherer, about a third as much soot as Plant Bowen in Cartersville and a fraction of the mercury the older plants emit, according to EPD data.
None of that appeases Friends of the Chattahoochee, a group initially formed to oppose a new permit for the paper mill. Sammy Prim, a retired radiologist who lives in Gordon, Ala., a town across the river from the coal plant site, said the EPD will depend on LS Power to accurately report its emissions, just as it does with every other regulated industry. "Now, maybe they are honest, but we don't know," Prim said. "... It's the fox in the henhouse and that's just a poor system to me." Logan, who grew up in Early County, said she's planning to continue fighting the plant. "I had rather live with the wrath of these people for a little while because everyone's going to get over it. I just could not go the rest of my life knowing I didn't try to [fight the plant]," she said.
by Michael Milstein, Portland Oregonian
October 29, 2006
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116192491369340.xml&coll=7
On sunny days, families picnic in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, joggers trot by and teenagers chat on cell phones. You wouldn't know it from the crisp view of a shining Mount Hood, but they're all breathing a soup of toxic air. It's especially full of an invisible but dangerous offender: benzene, spewed from tailpipes of cars on highways ringing the city. Benzene, a potent chemical that causes cancer and blood disorders, is not unusual in major cities with lots of vehicles. But in Portland, it's worse. That's because the gasoline we put in our cars, pickups and SUVs is dirtier.
It holds nearly twice as much benzene as the national average and three times as much as gasoline in California, where strict limits make its gasoline the cleanest. Parts of Portland last year recorded benzene levels about as high as the Bronx borough of New York City -- in some neighborhoods many times above levels considered healthy for long-term exposure. The reason? The federal government requires cleaner gasoline elsewhere -- it makes no such requirement in the Northwest because our skies are considered too clean to trigger regulation. So vehicles in Oregon and Washington, fueled by gasoline made from benzene-rich Alaskan oil, vent about 50 percent more toxic compounds into the air per mile than cars in East Coast and Southern states, data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show.
The skies above humming freeways such as Interstate 5, I-84 and I-405 flow with hidden rivers of these chemicals. Those rivers surge into Portland's urban core, filling downtown, residential neighborhoods and industrial zones like soup in a bowl. Although the EPA now proposes new rules to reduce benzene in gasoline nationally, it would allow gasoline here to remain the dirtiest in the country and pre-empt Oregon from adopting tougher limits of its own -- because states usually cannot override a federal rule. State and local air quality agencies are fighting the approach, saying it leaves people here at unacceptably high risk.
Soaring cancer risks
Assessing the risk is tricky. The more benzene in gasoline, the more ends up in the air. Although the risk of developing cancer from a lifetime of breathing benzene remains slim in Multnomah County -- about 26 in a million, far less than the risk from smoking -- it's more than twice the national average, according to federal data. "The higher the benzene, the worse off you are," said Dave Nordberg, a transportation specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
For people in parts of the city laden with toxic air, however, the risk runs higher. A new analysis by the DEQ, which examined the way bad air swirls through the city, shows benzene concentrations in parts of downtown and the Pearl District at more than 200 times levels considered safe for people breathing it throughout their lives. The analysis was based on pollution data from 1999. But some monitors in Portland last year showed as much benzene in the air as monitors in the Bronx.
Until now, Oregon and federal air authorities focused mainly on pollution that contributes to smog. Some basic measures -- such as the accordion-shaped nozzles on gas pumps -- capture benzene that might otherwise evaporate into the air. But agencies have recently turned much more attention to invisible but harmful compounds such as benzene, setting benchmarks and studying their levels in local air. About two-thirds of benzene in downtown Portland comes from tailpipes of vehicles -- a much larger source of toxic air compounds than industrial smokestacks, the DEQ has found. It's worst close to major highways: Benzene levels measure 10 times higher within 50 meters of a road than 400 meters away.
The DEQ's goal is for no more than one person in a million to get cancer from breathing the air, environmental officials say. But typical Portlanders breathing local air throughout their life run a risk of cancer 66 times higher. Breathing the worst air in the city? Your risk runs 350 in a million, according to the DEQ results. The average Portland resident is almost 10,000 times more likely to get cancer breathing local air than to win the jackpot in Powerball, DEQ figures show.
Benzene, which causes genetic damage and immune system and blood disorders, contributes almost a quarter of the cancer risk. It's the largest contributor of any toxic compound the DEQ examined. But it's only one of many toxins exhaled by cars. The next major contributor to cancer risk is the fine particles in diesel exhaust, a prime cause of lung cancer. Others include formaldehyde and butadiene, which cause respiratory disorders, cancers and immune system problems. "Just the number of cars we have overwhelms everything else," Russell said. "Even our biggest industrial sources are dwarfed by what comes from cars."
The automotive population of the Portland metropolitan area is growing faster than its human population. There are 27 percent more cars now in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties than 10 years ago, according to Oregon Department of Transportation figures. Cars have gotten much cleaner over the decades, and new tailpipe emissions standards pushed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski will help, state officials say. But "the problem is that our car population has skyrocketed," said Monica Russell of the DEQ's air quality program. "So all the gains we made have been offset."
They have also been undercut by our dirtier gasoline. Oregon gets 90 percent of its gasoline from refineries in Washington, and more than 80 percent of that comes from the North Slope of Alaska, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. The oil may have 10 times as much benzene in it as oil from other regions, according to the EPA. Refineries can remove benzene from gasoline, and they do in polluted parts of the country where the government requires it. But that does not include the Northwest. Also, refineries that remove benzene sometimes sell it to chemical companies that use it in the manufacture of other compounds. But there is not a large enough chemical industry in the Northwest to create much appetite for benzene here, Nordberg said. "It makes it more expensive to take it out of our gasoline than other gasoline," he said.
The BP Cherry Point refinery, the largest in Washington, installed a new $115 million unit in 2003 mainly to reduce sulfur levels in its gasoline. But it has the dual benefit of eliminating most benzene. The refinery, which supplies ARCO stations in the Northwest, now produces gasoline with less than half the average benzene levels in the region, said spokesman Mike Abendhoff. The EPA does not reveal levels of benzene in gasoline from individual refineries, saying it's confidential business information. It releases benzene levels only by groups of states, and it lumps Oregon and Washington with Nevada, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. Gasoline in those states has more benzene -- and burning it puts more toxins in the air -- than gas anywhere else in the country, based on refinery data from 2003.
Oregon and Washington appear to have the highest benzene levels within the lower 48 states, based on interviews with state officials and refinery operators. Arizona, for example, gets its gasoline from different sources and has tighter regulations, so its benzene levels are lower.
Nobody decided the Northwest would end up with more benzene -- it just turned out that way. The Clean Air Act began to clamp down on toxic air pollution in the 1990s, but focused first on the most populated, polluted regions, said EPA spokesman John Millett. That left the Northwest out. Pressured by lawsuits, the EPA proposed a new national rule limiting benzene in gasoline starting in 2011. But the limit would be a national average -- some refineries could produce gasoline with more, and others with less. Refineries get credits if they produce gasoline with less benzene. Other refineries could buy credits instead of upgrading facilities to make cleaner gasoline. The EPA is now considering comments and is expected to release a final version in coming months. The trading system is intended to give refineries flexibility to make improvements where it's most cost-effective.
But the EPA predicts that refineries in the Northwest would rely on the trading system to avoid making as many improvements. Although benzene levels in Northwest gasoline would drop, they would remain the highest in the nation, the EPA predicts. "It makes good sense until you realize we're the guys who aren't getting the levels down," Nordberg said.
But Al Mannato of the American Petroleum Institute said the Northwest could actually benefit more than much of the country. That's because the region's benzene levels are so high now, they would be reduced by a larger percentage than those elsewhere. "The areas that are a little higher are still getting benzene levels much lower than they would without this," he said. He also said many refineries have already reduced benzene output in the past few years. More intensive processing to reduce benzene shrinks the gasoline supply because less gas is produced.
But the Oregon DEQ tried to shoot down the trading system. Air Quality Administrator Andrew Ginsburg wrote to the EPA that its approach "puts Oregon citizens needlessly at risk" and leaves the Pacific Northwest with benzene levels twice as high as some other states. He said the EPA should require refiners everywhere to reduce benzene to the greatest extent possible. "By setting up a trading program, they've perpetuated the problem," he said. The weak federal standard also puts the state at a disadvantage, by blocking the state from enacting its own rule, he said. "Instead of making a weak rule," he said, "it's better that they make no rule."
by Manny Fernandez, New York Times
October 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/nyregion/29asthma.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1162272533-6LE2dBFj0vJkha5UVWFbqA
In New York City, air pollution levels have typically been monitored by inanimate objects, at more than a dozen locations around town. But in the South Bronx, from 2002 to 2005, air pollution monitors went mobile. They went to the playground, to the gritty sidewalks, even to the movies. A group of schoolchildren carried the monitors everywhere they went. The instruments, attached to the backpacks of children with asthma, allowed researchers at New York University to measure the pollution the children were exposed to, morning to night.
The South Bronx is home to miles of expressways, more than a dozen waste-transfer stations, a sewage-treatment plant and truck traffic from some of the busiest wholesale produce, meat and fish markets in the world. It is also home to some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates for children in the city.
The N.Y.U. study found that the students were exposed to high levels of air pollutants in their neighborhoods and that children in the South Bronx were twice as likely to attend a school near a highway as were children in other parts of the city. The findings paint a bleak picture of the air quality in one of the poorest sections of the city and have focused renewed attention from community groups and elected officials on curbing pollution from truck exhaust. "The levels did surprise me," said José E. Serrano, the Bronx representative whose district includes the South Bronx. "They are really telling us that this is a very serious problem." Mr. Serrano, who is a Democrat and who helped secure federal money for the study, and the researchers held a news conference this month about the findings.
Ten children from each of four public schools in the South Bronx -- P.S. 154, M.S. 302, M.S. 201 and Community School 152 -- took part in the study. They were given wheeled black and dark blue backpacks outfitted with a battery-powered pump and an air filter, along with other instruments. "You rolled it, so it wasn't really that heavy," said Derrick Reliford, one of the students. The children, who were volunteers ages 10 to 12, each took part in the study for a month. They reported to researchers stationed at the schools twice a day and kept diaries on their asthma symptoms and daily activities. Their lung function was tested, and the filters from their backpacks were regularly changed and analyzed. A van parked near the schools served as an air-monitoring lab.
Derrick, 14, took part in the study in 2002, when he was a student at Public School 154 on East 135th Street. The school is across the street from the Major Deegan Expressway. His great-grandmother Evelyn Reliford, 70, said she never thought much about the air pollution in the Mott Haven neighborhood. "I didn't really worry about it until they took the study," said Mrs. Reliford.
Airborne particles like dust, soot and smoke that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter are small enough to lodge themselves deep in the lungs. Studies have linked pollution of this sort to respiratory problems, decreased lung function, nonfatal heart attacks and aggravated asthma, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. E.P.A. officials said these fine particles, a significant portion of which are produced by diesel engine emissions, lead to 15,000 premature deaths a year nationwide.
In the South Bronx study, of the 69 days for which measurements were taken over the three-year period, average daily exposure to fine-particle pollution for a group of 10 children exceeded the E.P.A.'s new standard on 18 days. The standard will be 35 micrograms per cubic meter in December. "I think it's an indicator that these kids are being exposed to very high fine-particle concentrations on a fairly regular basis," said George Thurston, associate professor of environmental medicine at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, who was one of the study's principal researchers.
Walter Mugdan, director of environmental planning and protection for the E.P.A. region that includes New York, said he had not seen the detailed study, which was financed in large part by an E.P.A. grant. He cautioned that there were differences between the methods used by the agency and by researchers to gather data on air pollution. Bronx County is one of 10 counties in the state that exceed current federal air quality standards for fine-particle pollution. "We know that this is an area that has air quality that isn't satisfactory," he said.
Four Bronx organizations that supported the study -- including the Point, a Hunts Point community group -- have asked pro bono lawyers to look into their legal options to get the E.P.A. and the state to improve air quality in the South Bronx. "Hopefully, this will ring the alarm bells a little louder," said Kellie N. Terry-Sepulveda, executive managing director of the Point. New York State must submit a plan to the E.P.A. by April 2008 detailing how it will bring its fine-particle pollution levels into compliance. States that fail to submit or implement their plans risk losing federal highway money. All states must bring their levels of fine-particle pollution into compliance by 2010, though they can ask for an exemption seeking more time, E.P.A. officials said.
The State Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement that the state plan is under development and will be released for public comment late next year. Fine-particle pollution levels are expected to decrease as a result of city, state and federal measures already in place, the statement said. Gov. George E. Pataki signed a bill in August that requires that all diesel vehicles owned by the state or working on state projects use low-sulfur diesel fuel and be retrofitted with the best available technology to reduce emissions.
Dr. Thurston said the findings of the study, which will be published in a scientific journal next year, showed that only 5 to 10 percent of the fine particle pollution was soot from diesel exhaust, but it was that portion that seemed to be having the worst effect on the children's asthma. He said their symptoms, like wheezing, doubled on days when pollution from truck traffic was highest. The study also examined the proximity of expressways to schools. Four expressways -- the Cross Bronx, Major Deegan, Bruckner and Sheridan -- and the Bronx River Parkway run through or around the South Bronx. About one-fifth of all students from prekindergarten to eighth grade in the area go to schools located within 500 feet, or about two blocks, of major highways, the study showed. The research was conducted by the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at the university's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Asthma, which causes wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath, is the most common chronic disease among children. In the Bronx, the borough with the highest percentage of children, the asthma hospitalization rate for boys and girls under 14 is 9.3 per 1,000 children. Of the 10 neighborhood areas in the city with the highest rates, five are in the Bronx. The highest is East Harlem, according to state health data. At the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, the Bronx, there were 7,000 admissions last year; of those, 1,200 were asthma related. "It's definitely a crisis," Dr. Deepa Rastogi, director of the hospital's Asthma Center, said of the borough's asthma rates. Dr. Rastogi and other Bronx asthma experts said air pollution was only one of the factors contributing to the problem. Asthma attacks can be triggered by secondhand smoke, dust mites, pets and mold, in addition to outdoor air pollution.
Dr. A. Hal Strelnick, a professor of family and social medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, said the borough's high rates stemmed from a high concentration of traffic in a densely populated area; poorly maintained housing in impoverished neighborhoods; a lack of access to medical care; and a large population of blacks and Hispanics, two groups with high rates of asthma. He said his own asthma research and the N.Y.U. study showed that the old saying that we all breathe the same air may not necessarily be true in the South Bronx. "We think it's the same air, but it's not really the same air," Dr. Strelnick said.
by Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle
October 28, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/28/FRUIT.TMP
Just about every child in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point knows the location of the nearest corner store or of the local "candy house" -- a makeshift convenience shop, loaded with sugary sweets, that is run out of a neighbor's apartment. But finding the nearest outlet selling fresh produce is another story. "There's no fruit houses!" Ashley Avalos, 18, said with a big laugh. "No vegetable houses -- nothing!" agreed her friend, Tiffany Williams, 18.
The young women, along with another friend, Candice Pierson, 21, spotted a perfect business opportunity to fill this gap -- bringing fresh fruit to their neighbors' homes with their new delivery service, Somethin' Fresh. For $10, they'll take a sack filled with 20 pieces of fruit to any business or home in the neighborhood. On a recent Friday afternoon, they delivered bananas, red grapes, gold kiwis, pluots, Empire apples, Bartlett pears, Asian pears, peaches and Sunkist oranges. Leonard Jefferson, a security guard at the local branch of Union Bank of California, hungrily dug through his bag. "I don't know where you live, but if you didn't bring me my fruit, I'd find you," he told the young women before erupting in a booming laugh. "I eat fruit all through the night. It cleans you out inside and keeps you healthy, and I like to stay healthy."
The nonprofit Hunters Point Family started Somethin' Fresh as part of a growing grassroots movement to bring fresh produce to a neighborhood that suffers from a host of health problems, as outlined in a recent, eye-popping report by the city's Department of Public Health. Residents of Bayview-Hunters Point are hospitalized more than residents in any other neighborhood in the city for almost every common disease, including asthma, heart disease and diabetes, according to the public health report. While myriad aspects of life in Bayview-Hunters Point contribute to this -- including high levels of industrial pollutants and violence that scare some residents into staying inside and not exercising -- the lack of healthy food sold in the neighborhood certainly doesn't help.
According to the report, alcohol, tobacco and junk food are the most commonly sold products in Bayview-Hunters Point stores. Just 5 percent of the food sold in the local stores is fresh produce. "An apple, maybe, or an orange if you go to the right store," Williams said of the typical offerings. "Maybe a banana. Nothing more than that." The lack of fresh produce in Bayview-Hunters Point is particularly glaring when compared with the fare available in the rest of San Francisco, a city known for its high-quality food, gourmet grocery stores and famous restaurants.
Dr. Nadine Burke, a pediatrician with California Pacific Medical Center, studied the availability of healthful food in Bayview versus the Marina for the UCSF School of Medicine in 2005. In the Marina, which was 83.8 percent white and where residents earned a median income of $84,710, there were 112 restaurants, five convenience stores and one fast-food joint. Residents paid an average of $1.09 for a loaf of bread. The average distance to the nearest fresh produce was a quarter-mile, Burke found.
In Bayview-Hunters Point, which was 5.4 percent white and where residents earned a median income of $37,146 annually, there were 28 restaurants, 13 convenience stores and six fast food joints. Residents paid $1.94 for a loaf of bread. The average distance to fresh produce was 1.15 miles. "It's appalling," Burke said. "When you look at rates of heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, etc., it directly correlates with access to some of these basic things that people need to keep themselves healthy, like fresh fruits and vegetables."
Chris Mittelstaedt became acutely aware of this as a member of the San Francisco Chronic Disease Prevention Consortium, run out of the health department. The North Beach resident is the founder of the Fruitguys, which delivers fresh fruit to offices. He thought something as small and basic as fruit could make a difference in the neighborhood. He partnered with Hunters Point Family, which does youth outreach, which chose Avalos, Williams and Pierson, all alumnae of its youth programs, to run a business. They are using Mittelstaedt's produce for free until they can start making a profit on their own. "Before I came into the Somethin' Fresh thing, I had no idea about running a business," said Avalos, a student at City College. "Fruit isn't my passion -- it's the community. It feels good doing something healthy for the community."
Another new home-delivery service, Front Door Farms, has recently sprung up, and six local shop owners have committed to stocking their shelves with healthful food. Both of these stem from the work of Literacy for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit group in Bayview-Hunters Point. Twelve youths, ages 16-21, run Front Door Farms, bringing a mobile farmers' market stand to Malcolm X Academy on Tuesday afternoons and Gloria R. Davis College Preparatory Academy on Friday afternoons. Twice a week, they deliver boxes of organic, locally grown fruit or vegetables to neighbors' homes for $8-$12, depending on the order. So far, they have about 35 clients.
"A lot of things are coming together," said Sudeep Rao, executive director of Literacy for Environmental Justice, noting that the health department, other city agencies and grassroots organizations in Bayview are all taking notice of the problem at once. It's not always easy going, though. Takai Tyler, director of Hunters Point Family, said some residents are leery of fresh produce they've never seen before and don't necessarily know what to do with a papaya, a kiwi or artichoke hearts. "They're just exposed to the junk in the candy houses and the corner stores," she said. "You have to educate people so they understand the connection between what they eat and their health."
Williams, a freshman at San Francisco State who aspires to become principal of her alma mater, Burton High, said she doesn't feel like her neighbors are losing out anymore. "I feel like we were losing out," she said. "But now we're making a difference. People can't really complain about it because it's here now. They just have to take advantage of it."
by Leezel Tanglao, Riverside [California] Press-Enterprise
October 27, 2006
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_B_powersuit28.3841211.html
In what is said to be an effort to prevent more pollution from being released into neighborhoods, a coalition of community and environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against the South Coast Air Quality Management District for two rules that allow new power plants to purchase priority reserve credits. The lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said the district did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act in reviewing the effects of air pollution and other alternatives. "We're looking for real substance out of this lawsuit," said Shana Lazerow, staff attorney for Communities for a Better Environment. The other plaintiffs in the suit include the Natural Resources Defense Council, Coalition for a Safe Environment and California Communities Against Toxics.
"The new rules both prospectively and retroactively undo the clean-air gains our communities can make under the existing regulatory system, a system that already leaves communities literally gasping for breath," Angela Johnson Meszaros, an attorney for California Communities Against Toxics, said in a news release. In September, district trustees adopted two rules creating a credit tracking system and making available air-pollution credits usually reserved by public services such as hospitals, which are allowed to emit selected pollutants in excess of state-mandated limits. The credits can now be purchased by several proposed electric-generating facilities such the Sun Valley Power Project in Romoland. Other power plants affected include Walnut Creek Energy Park in Industry, Malburg Generation Station in Vernon and BP Carson Refinery in Carson, as well as plants in Victorville and Palmdale. "There are untold applications and impacts to these rules. It's not just these six plants," Lazerow said. The district is not fulfilling California Environmental Quality Act analysis and review, she said.
Sam Atwood, district spokesman, disagrees. He said that because the proposed power plants are subject to later review by the California Energy Commission, rule making is exempt from the act's analysis. "Southern California needs clean energy. This is one of the steps we need to take," Atwood said. Atwood said the amendment rules are needed so that state will not have to rely on older power plants that emit more pollutants.
The South Coast Air Quality District oversees air-pollution for portions of Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties and all of Orange County. At the September meeting, district officials told trustees that the region is experiencing first- and second-stage power emergencies, and shortages are projected through 2010. About 2,300 megawatts will be needed to meet the region's needs by the same year, according to the California Energy Commission. Under these rules, the priority reserve credits would be available during a four-year period. "Our belief is that the South Coast Air Quality Management District is following state law in allowing California Energy Commission to take the lead in these types of projects," said Charlie Parnell, spokesman for Edison Mission Group.
Parnell said the lawsuit should not delay the 500-megawatt Sun Valley Energy Project. He predicted and that the courts will dismiss the suit. The project, which is off Rouse and Matthews roads in Romoland, will provide enough energy to power central air conditioning for 165,000 residential customers during peak times. The plant is still aiming for a 2008 start date.
by Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun
October 27, 2006
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.cough27oct27,0,548505.story
With cough and cold season fast approaching, Baltimore's health commissioner and a group of leading pediatricians warned parents yesterday not to give children 5 years old and younger the over-the-counter medications designed to relieve those ailments. The remedies do no good and might cause harm, they said. Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein said the deaths of four Baltimore children in the past six years have been tied to the medications, which parents often consider so benign that they exceed the recommended dosage. One child died this year; all were under age 4.
But doctors are not simply concerned about excessive dosing. Dr. Janet Serwint, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician, said side effects such as suppressed breathing and elevated heart rate and blood pressure can occur even at standard doses. "I'm aware of cases of children who have had reactions or side effects and have been dosed correctly," Serwint said. Sharfstein said he has sent a letter containing the warning to the Food and Drug Administration, asking the federal agency to take appropriate action. In signing the letter, Sharfstein and Serwint were joined by the pediatric directors of eight city hospitals, including Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical Center, and the president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "The bottom line is that there is no evidence that the products are effective, and we know they've harmed children," Sharfstein said.
The FDA has not issued warnings or taken regulatory action against giving the medicines to young children. Last year, however, it warned against abuse of dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant found in many preparations, saying the drug can cause death and injuries that include brain damage, seizures, loss of consciousness and irregular heartbeat. In issuing the warning, however, the agency was responding to the deaths of five teenagers who had taken excessive doses to get high. It called the thrill-seeking behavior "a disturbing new trend," but added that the medication can be "safely used in cough suppressant medicines."
This year, an industry group, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, defended the use of the medicines at recommended doses. The group was responding to a warning by the American College of Chest Physicians not to give the remedies to children 14 and under. "Cough is very common in children," Dr. Richard S. Irwin of the University of Massachusetts Medical School said in a statement from the college on treating cough. "However, cough-and-cold medicines are not useful in children and can actually be harmful." The Maryland Poison Center tallied 900 cases of children overdosing on cough-and-cold preparations in 2004, Sharfstein said.
"It's understandable that parents are trying to make their children feel better, but experts we worked with are very concerned that [parents] are risking more harm than warranted, given the absence of any evidence of benefit," Sharfstein said. According to Serwint, several studies have established that children on the medications do not fare better than those taking placebos. She said parents can help their children by suctioning nasal secretions, keeping children hydrated with liquids and using cool-mist humidifiers. Children who are miserable with fever can safely receive acetaminophen or ibuprofen at recommended doses, Serwint said.
Dr. Daniel Levy, who heads the Maryland pediatrics association chapter, said he believes that cough-and-cold medications can prolong symptoms by drying up mucus that is part of the body's immune response. Though Sharfstein and the doctors did not list brand names, they said the drugs typically include combinations of antihistamines, cough suppressants and decongestants. They are marketed under a variety of names and make varying claims but are very similar in their ingredients, Serwint said.
Cough suppressants, which act on the central nervous system, can suppress a child's breathing, Serwint said. "Decongestants can cause blood vessels to get smaller and constrict, and can lead to side effects of increasing heart rate and blood pressure," she said. Antihistamines "make patients very sleepy but sometimes make people jittery." In some cases, antihistamines and decongestants cause young children to have visions of bugs or spiders crawling on them, she said. The sensation, a type of hallucination, goes away when the drugs leave the child's system.
In an article published in 2001, Serwint and three co-authors detailed case studies of three children who were admitted to Hopkins with side effects of the medications. One of the children died. The child, a 9-month-old boy who had coughed for six days but did not have a cold, turned blue and struggled to breathe, and died at a hospital despite 20 minutes of advanced life support. "After review of the autopsy findings and tests, the medical examiner determined the cause of death as mixed drug intoxication secondary to the ingestion of these drugs," said the authors, writing in the journal Pediatrics. The child had received numerous doses of cough-and-cold preparations. An autopsy found the presence of a decongestant, antihistamine and cough suppressant -- along with acetaminophen.
Though the FDA has not taken action, Sharfstein said awareness of the drugs' side effects has grown in recent years. When he trained as a pediatrician in the 1990s, Sharfstein said, he was taught that the medications are ineffective. "But there's a big discrepancy between the scientific evidence on these products and what parents actually do," Sharfstein said.
by Jessica Marshall and Peter Aldhous, New Scientist
October 27, 2006
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg19225755.100
They are supposed to be grassroots organisations representing the interests of people with serious diseases. But Drummond Rennie, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, believes that some patient groups are perilously close to becoming extensions of pharmaceutical companies' marketing departments. "There's a crisis here," he contends. Rather than grassroots, the word Rennie uses to describe such organisations is "astroturf". Originating in the black arts of politics and public relations, astroturfing is the practice of disguising an orchestrated campaign as a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion.
Other health specialists don't go as far, but they are still uneasy about the financial relationships between drug firms and prominent patient groups. "I think there are grounds to be concerned," says Joel Lexchin, who studies pharmaceutical policy at York University in Toronto, Canada. He and others point to instances in which representatives of patient groups, sometimes in close contact with corporate public relations teams, have spoken favourably about drugs at meetings or press conferences.
It is easy to see the appeal for pharmaceutical companies. Patient groups provide people with information about available treatments for a particular disease and offer support to those affected by it. They campaign for treatments to be financed by publicly funded health insurance programmes, and some patient representatives are members of advisory committees that consider drugs for approval. Firms would clearly have much to gain by filtering their marketing messages through such organisations, which tend to engender more trust than do multinational companies.
Self-policing
Patient groups rely largely on public donations for support, and must adhere to the financial and lobbying restrictions that apply to all public charities. However, when it comes to the type of information the groups provide, they are largely self-policing. Many groups were founded by patients or their family members, and they range from small, volunteer-run organisations to large operations with executive staff.
So is the charge of astroturfing fair? How much money are patient groups typically taking from pharmaceutical and medical device firms, and does this affect their behaviour? To investigate, New Scientist conducted the largest survey to date of industry donations to patient groups based in the US -- the biggest single market for drugs and medical devices. As well as taking a random sample, we identified groups associated with conditions for which companies have been accused of "disease-mongering" -- encouraging an expansion of the boundaries of an illness in order to boost sales of a treatment for it (see "How the groups were selected", below). Though these allegations are unproven, we decided it was important to investigate whether any patient groups have received unusually large proportions of their funding from industry.
In each case, we tried to determine the percentage of a group's total funding that came from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in the most recent year for which figures were available. This was not always easy, as US non-profit organisations are not required by law to disclose their donors' identities. Tax returns and annual reports provided some of the information, but in most cases, obtaining a figure required the group concerned to provide it voluntarily.
The extent of industry funding varied widely (see chart on the article web page). In some cases the cash amounts were enormous -- more than $23 million in the case of the American Heart Association, the largest organisation studied, although this accounted for just 4 per cent of its total funding. Small proportions of funding may not be cause for concern, Lexchin says, unless they go toward activities like creating biased treatment information. "It depends how the money is used." Lexchin also believes there is a need for greater transparency about where such donations are coming from, so patients can evaluate for themselves the information the groups are providing.
In total, seven groups received 20 per cent or more of their funding from pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including all four linked to the conditions over which accusations of disease-mongering have been made. One of these groups, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, said it received more than half of its 2005 funding from industry. The group did not provide an exact percentage, but combined information from its annual report and tax return reveals that 77 per cent of its revenue for 2005 came from 15 major donors, 12 of which are drug or device companies. Only one other organisation, the Colorectal Cancer Coalition, or C3, received a greater proportion of its revenue from drug and device firms. This group, part of our random sample, is only in its second year of existence. Director of operations Judi Sohn says C3 is working to diversify the organisation's funding sources to make its finances more stable.
So are companies specifically targeting those groups which offer the greatest potential for marketing their products? In general, groups in our survey that received more than 20 per cent of their funding from industry did seem to be associated with conditions that affect a significant number of people, for which a specific therapy exists and which require long-term treatment, therefore creating the potential for substantial profit. The Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Foundation, for instance, received more than $450,000 of its $1.4 million revenue in 2005 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and nearly $178,000 from Boehringer Ingelheim. GSK's drug Requip was approved for the syndrome in 2005, while Boehringer Ingelheim has a drug pending FDA approval. Both drugs are intended to control the symptoms of RLS over long periods. While these symptoms can seriously disturb sleep, critics claim that their prevalence has been exaggerated by GSK and in media reports.
The extent of industry funding of the RLS Foundation is "pretty incredible", says one such critic, Steve Woloshin of Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. However, both the RLS Foundation and GSK reject accusations of disease-mongering. GSK is clear that Requip is indicated for moderate to severe RLS only, says company spokeswoman Holly Russell. "The main sense we get from patients is an enormous sense of relief," she adds. "Show me the scientific article that says that people who don't have the condition or people that have very mild RLS are flocking to take drugs," says Georgianna Bell, executive director of the RLS Foundation.
By contrast, groups in our survey that received no industry funding seemed to be for diseases that drug companies have little opportunity to profit by. For example, the people supported by Faces, the National Craniofacial Association, are typically treated with surgery, while the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation is for people with a disorder of the body's connective tissue for which there is no specific treatment. The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association received just 0.6 per cent of its $16 million budget for 2005 from pharmaceutical companies. This neurodegenerative disease is typically fatal within four years of diagnosis, and there is only one drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat it. Aventis, which manufactures the drug, provided $10,000 to the association.
The timing of donations also suggests a link to marketing interests, though donations to individual groups can vary from year to year for various reasons. Pfizer, for example, was a major donor to the RLS Foundation in 2003 and 2004. In July 2004 the firm announced that it had ceased developing its candidate RLS drug, and the following year donations to the patient group ceased. Meanwhile, concerns about the safety of psychiatric drugs in children, which reached new heights in 2004, have hit the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation hard. Its donations from industry fell from about 40 per cent of its total revenue in 2004 to 20 per cent in 2006. "Pharmaceutical companies are not as willing to support us because of increased scrutiny around psychiatric treatments in children," says Susan Resko, the foundation's executive director. As a consequence, she has had to lay off more than half of her staff.
It should come as no surprise that a company would donate where its commercial interests lie, but is this a problem? Some groups argue that the funding allows them to expand their operations and serve more patients than they would be able to otherwise. "Should I say no to company donations and not benefit all the people that we serve?" asks Virginia Ladd, president of the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association. Ladd claims the organisation could not raise enough money for national campaigns if it had to rely on individual donations alone.
Every group in our survey that received a high proportion of funding from industry denied that it biased their mission. Companies have no input into how the money is used, they said, and some added that they had turned down funding that they felt came with strings attached. Most of the organisations also stressed that they do not endorse specific drugs or therapies, and that any treatment information posted on their website is approved by a medical advisory board. "We're extremely conscious of our ties with any of our funders," says Catherine Rice, executive director of the International Essential Tremor Foundation. "It's got to be an arm's length away."
Critics claim, however, that dependence on industry funding can unintentionally compromise an organisation's objectivity. "I think it's naive to think that you aren't being influenced," says Douglas Ball of Kuwait University, who has studied patient groups in many countries, including the US. Lexchin agrees: "Psychologists talk about the 'gift relationship'. The patient organisations are getting something and feel the need to repay that gift. Whether they are conscious of it or not is really irrelevant."
Sharon Batt of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has just begun to study patient group behaviour and funding after years working in breast cancer advocacy, where she noticed a general pattern. Organisations that accept pharmaceutical funding "tend to advocate for faster review and availability of drugs, greater insurance coverage, and they tend to see 'direct-to-consumer' advertising as a benefit to patients", she claims. Groups that maintain financial independence, on the other hand, "emphasise safety over speed and are critical of direct-to-consumer advertising", she says (see "Virtuous but poor", below).
Information on the websites of some groups in our survey raises further questions. For example, the treatment section of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance's site was developed with an "educational grant" from Neuronetics, a company which gave at least $10,000 and possibly as much as $150,000 to the alliance in 2005. One page describes transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) which both aim to treat mood disorders by stimulating neural activity. Neuronetics makes equipment for TMS, which has not yet been approved as a treatment. Nevertheless, the site provides web links and telephone numbers for Neuronetics and Cyberonics, a VNS equipment maker that donated between $150,000 and $500,000 to the alliance in 2005. The AMD Alliance International, which is for people with a common cause of sight loss called age-related macular degeneration, did not provide information on its industry funding. A note posted on the organisation's website in June "loudly applauded" the US approval of Lucentis as a "ground-breaking treatment". International rights for marketing Lucentis are held by Novartis Ophthalmics, the alliance's "founding global sponsor".
Whether or not such examples represent inappropriate corporate influence, critics argue that such groups should be more transparent about where their funding comes from -- especially since they are a vital source of information and people will expect them to be impartial. "Groups should publicise how much money they've gotten from which companies and what it is used for," Lexchin says. Ball's team recently examined the websites of 69 national and international patient groups, and concluded that they gave insufficient financial information to evaluate whether a conflict of interest existed. Annual reports, which were provided on 37 sites, were often inconsistent with information found elsewhere, while only seven itemised donations from pharmaceutical firms and none chose to list the total proportion of industry funding. "Basically, it's a muddle, which these organisations haven't thought about coherently," says co-author Andrew Herxheimer of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford.
Some patient groups don't provide information on their funding as a matter of policy. The public relations consultant for the Neuropathy Association told New Scientist that the information was "proprietary", and wouldn't discuss the group's guidelines on receiving donations, while the director of the National Spasmodic Dysphonia Association called the subject "a sensitive topic for our board", and declined to provide figures. Families for Depression Awareness similarly declined to answer our queries.
Complete disclosure of industry funding by patient groups is almost unheard of, but the massive American Heart Association, which boasts an annual revenue of more than $650 million, is leading the way. This month, it will begin posting an itemised list of pharmaceutical and medical device company donations on its website. Until now, most patient groups have been shielded from public scrutiny of their finances. "There is a tendency not to want to criticise the motives of the patient groups, because a lot of them are made up of people who are pretty seriously sick," says Batt, herself a breast cancer survivor. She argues that such organisations need to put their house in order and accept the need for greater transparency. Only then, claim the critics, will patients be able to make informed judgements about which groups they can really trust.
How the groups were selected
We selected 20 US patient groups operating on a national level with annual revenues of more than $100,000, plus five with revenues exceeding $10 million, pulling them at random from the GuideStar database, which provides information on US non-profit organisations. In addition, we identified four further groups, again with annual revenues exceeding $100,000, associated with bipolar disorder, restless legs syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These conditions were highlighted in April by the journal PLoS Medicine as being susceptible to "disease-mongering" by the pharmaceutical industry.
Virtuous but poor
Just two groups identified in New Scientist's survey -- the National Women's Health Network (NWHN) and Breast Cancer Action -- refuse to accept donations from pharmaceutical or medical device companies. "We want women to know that when they come to us, they are getting independent information," says Amy Allina, the network's programme director. "We think of ourselves as virtuous, but poor." The NWHN was a prominent advocate of one of the clinical trials in the Women's Health Initiative, the largest-ever study of post-menopausal women, which investigated the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The trial was halted in 2002 after finding that HRT increased women's risk of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer. "We have been very active critics of the ways drug companies have promoted HRT," says Allina. On its website, the NWHN stresses that women who choose to have HRT should take the lowest dose possible for the shortest time.
The same basic information is also posted on the website of an organisation not included in our survey, the Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR), but its position on HRT seems more ambiguous. The society's president and chief executive officer, Phyllis Greenberger, told The Washington Post in September 2005 that she believed the risks of the treatment had been exaggerated, and described her own experience with HRT over more than 10 years. "I feel better, I have no side effects and in my case I see no downside," she told the newspaper. SWHR does accept funding from the drug industry -- including from Wyeth, a manufacturer of the hormones used in HRT.
by Lidia Wasowicz, United Press International
October 27, 2006
http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20061026-041131-4041r
SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite a flurry of new studies, neither those who champion nor those who challenge the notion that childhood immunizations are to blame for a surge in autism diagnoses in America's children are ceding their case. Each side offers science that has certain limits, which are promptly criticized by the other. The complaints run the gamut: conflicts of interest that preclude objective conclusions, study sizes too small to provide definitive answers, lack of the required replication of results, faulty or manipulated methodology. Neither side is free of vested interests. Many parents have filed claims or lawsuits. Many scientists have ties to vaccine makers or sell their expertise in court cases.
Fearing an erosion in a strategy that has clearly benefited public health by stamping out such scourges as polio and rubella, the medical establishment is deeply protective of the vaccine program and committed at all cost to the notion of "herd immunity." In pushing for universal immunization as the key to disease prevention, the plan also pushes the wrong buttons with some families who resent having to expose their children to a perceived danger for the sake of others.
When it comes to credibility, each side sees the other as having a checkered past. Parent groups and their supporters get criticized for flip-flopping -- from the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to the mercury-based preservative thimerosal once commonly used and still found in some children's shots to immunizations in general -- in laying blame not just for autism but also for learning disabilities, behavioral problems, other neurodevelopmental disturbances and even diseases like asthma and diabetes. It may turn out all of these factors had a role in autism's ascent, those who view thimerosal with a suspicious eye respond.
Mainstream medicine, in turn, gets faulted for backing a seizure-associated whole-cell pertussis vaccine for years before switching to a safer version. Health risks linked to the live polio and original rotavirus immunizations -- including life-threatening bowel obstructions in as many as 99 infants and death in two -- also tested public confidence in governmental guarantees of safety.
Doctors see the changes they have made in these areas as proof of their willingness to admit their mistake and act to correct it when a problem emerges. "If one were to do a search of the Cochrane database, which is the international consortium that evaluates the quality of medical research, there is nothing to suggest that thimerosal (in vaccines) has any role in any medical condition," said Dr. Steven Kmucha. He is an otolaryngologist, allergist and sleep specialist, governor for the San Francisco Bay Area of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Board of Governors and expert consultant to the Medical Board of California who has served on the medical school faculty at Yale and Stanford universities and chaired a variety of committees on environment and public health. "In fact, the literature available from around the world nearly unanimously suggests no harmful effect despite lots of speculation and chatter in the non-medical press," he added.
That "speculation and chatter" are getting louder and blunter. Among disclosures that let sparks fly, the Los Angeles Times in early 2005 published the contents of a 1991 Merck and Co. Inc. memo it had obtained in which a scientist who once worked for the drug giant calculated 6-month-old infants who received all their vaccinations on time could be exposed to a dose of ethylmercury (the kind present in shots) as much as 87 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency's safety guideline for maximum consumption of methylmercury (the kind found in polluted fish). A few months later the debate heated up a few more degrees with allegations by a member of an American political dynasty that health authorities failed to act even after incriminating evidence against thimerosal was brought to their attention. The contention came from environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In running publicity-generating interference for parents who hold vaccines responsible for their children's developmental differences, Kennedy wrote a hair-raising article that alleged government officials, scientists and vaccine makers had tried to keep from the public evidence of thimerosal as a toxic trigger of neurological damage.
Most mainstream research on the issue comes from flawed and manipulated population studies, Kennedy contended in an article replete with allegations of secret meetings of federal health officials, physicians and pharmaceutical company executives, hidden agendas, concealed data and "lost" documents. The piece reiterated some material covered in the best-selling book, "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy" (St. Martin's Press, 2005), in which author David Kirby, while portraying both sides of the vaccine controversy, paints the parents' plight with a more sympathetic brush.
Kennedy's "Deadly Immunity," published June 16, 2005, in Rolling Stone magazine and online at salon.com, was cheered as an enlightening exposé and jeered as a titillating tirade, along the thimerosal party lines. Central to the story was a review of immunization data of 124,170 children provided by more than half a dozen large health maintenance organizations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Safety Datalink. That's a storehouse of some 7 million medical records the agency uses to monitor adverse reactions to inoculations.
The original evaluation, launched in the aftermath of the discovery of unexpectedly high levels of mercury exposure in some infants, suggested children getting thimerosal-containing shots faced a greater likelihood of developing neurodevelopmental disorders than did those with zero exposure. The results were discussed at an invitation-only meeting in June 2000 at a Georgia retreat center, detailed in Kennedy's article, Kirby's book and a transcript thimerosal opponents posted on the Internet. Subsequently, the CDC put the study through several more generations of information inclusion, exclusion and analysis that led to a final finding of no increased risk. Critics made much of what they deemed research tampering and result fixing.
On the other hand, the investigator involved in both studies, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, defended what he called typical progression of scientific inquiry leading toward the ultimate conclusion; when new data are entered, it's natural for the final outcome to change. In this case, he said, the earlier version failed to account for such key factors as low birth weight, which can boost the odds of developmental delays. Lost in all the hubbub was the wiggle room in the final version of the study, which not only declined to categorically discount the possibility of an association between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental problems but also urged further exploration of the issue -- a task the CDC has undertaken, Verstraeten said in a subsequent response to the critics. In the study, Verstraeten, who, skeptics like to point out, by then had left the CDC for a job with British vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline, and his coauthors concluded: "No consistent significant associations were found between (thimerosal-containing vaccines) and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Conflicting results were found at different HMOs for certain outcomes. For resolving the conflicting findings, studies with uniform neurodevelopmental assessments of children with a range of cumulative thimerosal exposures are needed."
The CDC, which had judged the early raw material and interpretation inadequate for making a credible call, has stood by the much-publicized later results -- as has the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. But even such notable endorsements have failed to stem the tide of skepticism. In a move seen by thimerosal critics as significant, former American Academy of Pediatrics official Neal Halsey wrote a letter critical of Verstraeten's study to the journal that published it. Halsey suggested an independent review of the data and evaluation of vaccine safety and noted public confidence in vaccines could be enhanced if the same agency that recommends inoculations did not also assess their safety, as the CDC then did.
That double-duty -- denounced by some as a serious conflict of interest -- was broken up when the government entity separated its national immunization program, which promotes inoculation, from its vaccine safety branch, which monitors the potential risks of the shots. The decision to split the office was announced Feb. 18, 2005 -- a day after a panel of medical experts recommended the CDC ease outside investigators' access to its highly guarded vaccine database, a step the agency had resisted on the premise it would compromise the privacy of patients whose medical histories are contained therein.
(Note: In this multi-part installment, based on dozens of reports, conferences and interviews, Ped Med is keeping on eye on autism, taking a backward glance at its history and surrounding controversies, facing facts revealed by research and looking forward to treatment enhancements and expansions.)
by Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle
October 26, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/26/BAGEFM010Q1.DTL&hw=bisphenol&sn=001&sc=1000
A group of chemical manufacturers, toymakers, retailers and the owner of the children's store Citikids filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging San Francisco's ban on the sale of toddler toys and child-care products that contain certain chemicals suspected of being toxic substances. The suit argues that state law, including the California Hazardous Substances Act, pre-empts the San Francisco ordinance. Today, the plaintiffs are expected to ask San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch for a hearing, during which they will seek a preliminary injunction to delay the Dec. 1 effective date of the ordinance until the matter is resolved in court.
City officials already had promised business groups that they would hold off enforcement until after the holidays. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted the ordinance in June. It prohibits the sale, distribution or manufacture of toys and child care products intended for use by children under the age of 3 if they contain phthalates, which are used to soften polyvinyl chloride (or PVC) and bisphenol A, which is common in hard, clear plastic. The ordinance does not include penalties for violations.
The law is based on the city's "precautionary principle." The supervisors said they wanted to err on the side of caution and protect the youngest children. A similar ban on phthalates in children's toys and child care products went into effect in the European Union in July. For years, members had reviewed a growing number of studies showing that some phthalates caused cancer and reproductive damage in laboratory animals, raising questions about what the chemical could do to humans.
San Francisco, however, is the only city in the world to ban bisphenol A in toys and child care products for youngsters. Bisphenol A is used to make polycarbonate plastic, the substance used to make hard clear plastic baby bottles. Lab studies have shown that bisphenol A can leach out of baby bottles. In animal experiments, at low doses, it has caused cancer in rats. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and scientific bodies in Europe and Japan have said that low levels of bisphenol A pose no health risk to humans, the lawsuit said.
In addition to arguing that state law pre-empts the city's effort, the suing parties contend that the supervisors failed to comply with Proposition I, a voter-approved measure that requires an economic review of legislation that might have a material impact on the city before it goes to a vote. "No report was prepared, and the city's determination that no report was required -- when the ordinance will so egregiously impact toy retailers, grocers and consumers -- was an abuse of discretion," the suit said.
In a press release, Richard Woo, owner of Citikids Baby News on Clement Street, said, "The volume of our sales will drop and so will the number of our employees, since we won't be able to keep them." Other plaintiffs are American Chemistry Council, California Retailers Association, California Grocers Association and Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.
A spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office declined to comment on the suit. "We haven't been served with a complaint. It would be premature for us to comment on it," said spokesman Matt Dorsey.
from BBC News
October 26, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6086824.stm
The extra risk is likely to be caused by health problems that make it difficult for these couples to conceive in the first place, scientists believe. Fertility treatments, such as IVF, may contribute too, an American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting heard. But the experts stressed the overall risk was still relatively low. They said couples should be counselled about the risks and encouraged to improve their health before undergoing fertility treatment.
Professor Mary Croughan, who led the University of California research on 4,000 women and their children aged up to six years, explained those with fertility problems were also more likely to have other health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes, and were more at risk of pregnancy and labour complications. She said: "What has caused them to be unable to conceive goes on to cause problems. It is as if a brick wall has stopped you becoming pregnant. Treatment allows you to climb over the wall, but it is still there and it goes on to cause problems."
Raised risk
Her team found the risk of five conditions -- autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, seizures and cancer -- was 2.7 times higher among the children born to 2,000 women who experienced fertility problems than among those born to the 2,000 women who did not have difficult conceiving. For autism alone, the risk was four times higher. Moderate developmental problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities or serious sight or hearing disorders were also 40% more common in the children born to the couples who struggled to start a family.
Stuart Lavery, a spokesman for the British Fertility Society, questioned how valid the findings were because of the wide range of fertility problems and treatments the women had. "There is no doubt that people who have difficulties with their fertility have difficulties conceiving and carrying pregnancies, although it has not been shown that it is the infertility that is causing the problems," he added.
Clare Brown of Infertility Network UK said continued work was needed to ensure treatment was safe for couples and potential children. At the same conference, doctors heard how Britain should consider paying women thousands of pounds to donate their eggs. US clinics often pay women up to $10,000 (£5,200) per IVF cycle. In comparison, British clinics can offer £250 plus travel and childcare expenses. A spokesman for The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said it had no plans to review the £250 cap, set last year.
by Janet Pelley, Environmental Science & Technology
October 24, 2006
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/oct/science/jp_triclosan.html
Triclosan, widely used in soaps and toothpastes for its ability to kill bacteria, has been found to hasten the transformation of tadpoles into adult frogs. The new research, published online September 29 in Aquatic Toxicology, is the first to show that triclosan can act as an endocrine disrupter at concentrations found in North American streams. Although sewage treatment plants remove most of the triclosan washed down the drain, the chemical makes its way into U.S. streams at readily detectable levels. More than 55% of streams examined in 2002 had a median concentration of 0.14 parts per billion (ppb).
Previous studies have shown that triclosan, which has a similar chemical structure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers and PCBs, bioaccumulates in fish and is present in human breast milk, according to Caren Helbing, who is a molecular biologist at the University of Victoria (Canada) and a coauthor of the study. Intrigued by triclosan's structural similarity to thyroid hormones, which orchestrate growth and development in wildlife and humans, Helbing and her colleagues set out to determine whether triclosan could interfere with thyroid-hormone activity in frogs.
When the team exposed young bullfrog tadpoles -- which do not yet produce thyroid hormones -- to triclosan alone, they did not observe any significant changes. However, when the tadpoles were exposed to triclosan and thyroid hormones together, the scientists documented a mosaic of impacts. The triclosan effects included significant weight loss and accelerated hind-limb development. Helbing and co-workers also detected elevated activity in the brain of genes linked with uncontrolled cell growth, and decreased gene activity in the tail fin. The data suggest that triclosan, at concentrations as low as 0.15 ppb, is capable of perturbing a fundamental hormone signaling mechanism that is nearly identical in frogs and humans, she says.
"This experimental design is very clever because [Helbing] looked at both the presence and absence of thyroid hormone," says Tom Zoeller, an endocrinologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. If Helbing had merely exposed the tadpoles to triclosan alone, she would have missed adverse effects on the thyroid system, he says. But because she added thyroid hormone along with triclosan, she could see that the triclosan made the thyroid hormone much more potent than it would have been under normal circumstances. These results hint that triclosan does not mimic thyroid hormones but instead speeds up their impact, says Cathy Propper, an endocrinologist at Northern Arizona University. Although the mechanism is unknown, triclosan may be making protein receptors in the cell more sensitive to thyroid hormones, Zoeller speculates. Because thyroid-hormone signaling is essential for the development of the human brain and body, the new study raises red flags for human health, Zoeller says.
Current screening programs for endocrine disrupters, such as the protocols being considered by the U.S. EPA, might miss the effects observed by Helbing and her team, Zoeller says. Tests of contaminants might not be conducted in the presence of natural hormones, or animals might be tested at a stage of life when the targeted responses aren't sensitive to thyroid hormones, he says. Triclosan producers declined to comment on this study for this story.
"The insidiousness of these compounds in the environment is that they don't necessarily have a direct impact but can be inappropriately sensitizing or desensitizing animals to their own endocrine environment," Propper says. The question to ask, she continues, is: "Do the antimicrobial gains you get from using triclosan outweigh both the risks to wildlife and the potential human health risks associated with it?"
by Andrew Bridges, Associated Press, North County [California] Times
October 24, 2006
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/25/health/17_37_1410_21_06.txt
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials won't put new restrictions on the use of a mercury-based preservative in vaccines and other medicines, denying a petition that sought the limits because of health concerns. A group called the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 seeking the restrictions on thimerosal, citing concerns that the preservative is linked to autism. In a reply dated Sept. 26 but made public only Tuesday, the FDA rejected the petition. "Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA's conclusion that all currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products containing thimerosal are safe," Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, the FDA's assistant commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition.
"We're not accepting that answer," said Dr. Mark Geier, one of the petitioners. The group now plans to seek a court order that would force the FDA to withdraw thimerosal from all vaccines and medicines unless the agency can show the preservative is safe, Geier said. Thimerosal, about 50 percent mercury by weight, has been used since the 1930s to kill microbes in vaccines. There have been suspicions that thimerosal causes autism. However, studies that tracked thousands of children consistently have found no association between the brain disorder and the mercury-based preservative. Critics contend the studies are flawed.
Since 2001, all vaccines given to children 6 and younger have been either thimerosal-free or contained only trace amounts of the preservative. Thimerosal has been phased out of some, but not all, adult vaccines as well. Most doses of the flu vaccine still contain thimerosal, though manufacturers produce versions free of the preservative for use in children. The FDA said it was in discussions with those manufacturers to increase the supply of thimerosal-free flu vaccine. There also are minute amounts of mercury, as thimerosal or phenylmercuric acetate, in roughly 45 eye ointments, nasal sprays and nasal solutions, the FDA said. Various antivenoms for black widow and snake bites also contain thimerosal.
by Maffini MV, Rubin BS, Sonnenschein C, and Soto AM, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
July 25, 2006
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16781053&itool=pubmed_DocSum
submitted to this bulletin by Chemical Sensitivity Network
Epidemiological studies have reported that during the last 60 years the quantity and quality of human sperm has decreased and the incidence of male genital tract defects, testicular, prostate and breast cancer has increased. During the same time period, developmental, reproductive and endocrine effects have also been documented in wildlife species. The last six decades have witnessed a massive introduction of hormonally active synthetic chemicals into the environment leading some to postulate that the diverse outcomes documented in human and wildlife populations might be the result of extemporaneous exposure to xenoestrogens during development. The estrogen-mimic bisphenol-A (BPA) is used as a model agent for endocrine disruption. BPA is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins from which food and beverage containers and dental materials are made. Perinatal exposure to environmentally relevant BPA doses results in morphological and functional alterations of the male and female genital tract and mammary glands that may predispose the tissue to earlier onset of disease, reduced fertility and mammary and prostate cancer.
