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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.
September 12 - 14, 2006
Atlanta, Georgia
The Coordinating Center for Health Promotion (CoCHP) will sponsor this conference at the Atlanta Hilton and Towers. This conference will bring together over 2,000 health professionals representing the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention (OGDP), the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), and the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) as well as their partners. Matt Sones, Acting Enterprise Communications Officer for CoCHP, will provide the leadership, assisted by Beth Patterson who will serve as the conference manager. The executive committee will consist of representatives from each CIO. The committee representatives are Denae Ottmann and Melanie Myers from the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention, Barbara Kilbourne from the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, and Claudia Brogan, Stacey Mattison, and John Korn from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The members of the executive committee will be working closely with both internal coordinating center staff and external partners to ensure the success of this event.
Website: http://www.cdc.gov/cochp/conference/
Contact: 770-488-2875 or chronicconf@cdc.gov?subject=2006 National Health Promotion Conference Inquiry
October 13, 2006
San Francisco, California
at the University of California, San Francisco
This one-day national conference is hosted by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment.
Website: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/che-events/702
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) seeks an experienced and visionary professional for the position of Executive Director to provide leadership and oversee all program and administrative aspects of the organization. The Executive Director will report to the Board of Directors and lead the organization's accomplished staff of scientists, campaigners and communications, development and administrative staff as the organization implements its new strategic plan. She or he will have an exemplary track record in U.S. fundraising; campaigning and/or advocacy experience; proven program and coalition development skills; and strong personnel and financial management experience. Also required is experience with some aspects of PANNA's core issues which include pesticides' impacts and policy; sustainable agriculture and pest management; public and/or environmental health; farm worker advocacy; international development and related social, economic and environmental justice issues.
To Apply, please send cover letter and resume to the retained recruiter for this position:
Patrick Shields, President Global Recruitment Specialists
501 Westport Avenue, Suite 285
Norwalk, Connecticut (CT) 06851 USA
Tel / Fax: 203-899-0499
E-mail: Shields@GlobalRecruitment.net
Web: http://www.globalrecruitment.net
To access the complete vacancy announcement, please visit http://www.niehs.nih.gov/vacancy/tenutrac/dir06-05.htm .
The American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) is seeking a dynamic leader to direct a project that will build collaboration between the mental retardation/developmental disabilities network and the environmental health network in the areas of research, policy, prevention and community health. A National Action Agenda has been developed and the Project Director will advance its implementation.
Send a letter of interest and resume, including recent salary history to
M. Doreen Croser
Executive Director AAMR
444 North Capitol Street NW, Suite 846
Washington, DC 20001-1512
Or FAX to 202-387-2193
Or E-mail to dcroser@aamr.org
from the American Public Health Association
During the month-long August Congressional recess from July 31 to September 1, members of Congress will be working from their district and state offices. During this time, APHA spearheads the Public Health ACTion (PHACT) Campaign. Through this campaign, we ask members, partners and colleagues to advocate for public health -- through meetings and calls to your legislators in their district offices and through participation in town hall meetings and other public events hosted. The focus of the PHACT campaign is public health funding and initiatives that support healthy communities and the built environment. Funding for CDC environmental health activities is in jeopardy. We ask that you advocate for level funding for CDC environmental health activities -- providing arguments against cuts using specific programs that are important to you and your state. Both the House and Senate appropriations committees proposed cuts to funding for CDC environmental health activities. In some cases specific programs are slated for cuts. Although no action will be taken on the appropriations bill until after the November election, now is the time for you to encourage your representatives to support CDC environmental health funding. The PHACT Campaign website is http://www.apha.org/legislative/walkhill/ .
by Chris Emery, Baltimore Sun
August 15, 2006
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.md.jewelry15aug15,0,1896135.story
Declaring that the federal government has failed to protect children from lead, Baltimore's health commissioner has announced plans for a citywide ban on the sale of jewelry found to contain dangerous levels of the metal. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the commissioner, said that this month his agency surveyed six sellers of jewelry made for children and found four of 17 products had unacceptably high amounts of lead. "The fact that we keep finding lead in these products, despite the fact that it's unsafe, is a clear sign that the federal regulation has failed," he said yesterday at a news conference.
Federal officials agree that there's a national problem but say they've taken strong steps to curb it. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has negotiated voluntary recalls with a number of companies. In March, for example, Reebok International Ltd. of Canton, Mass., agreed to withdraw from the market 300,000 heart-shaped charm bracelets distributed as gifts with the purchase of certain shoes. Reebok, according to the commission, received a report of a lead poisoning death of a 4-year-old from Minneapolis who swallowed a piece of a bracelet. It was that report, Sharfstein said, that caused him to take action.
Among the suspect pieces of jewelry identified by the health department was a pearl ring, purchased as part of a three-piece "Princess Collection" set from a Claire's store in the Inner Harbor. It contained more than 100 times the level of lead acceptable under federal regulations. Another ring, decorated with hearts and purchased as part of a "Girl Connection" jewelry set from a Port Covington Wal-Mart, contained six times the acceptable lead amount. Testing also showed high lead levels in two other rings purchased at Claire's stores in the city.
The federal limit is 600 parts per million of lead. Young children who mouth or swallow jewelry containing high levels of lead can suffer brain damage or even death, Sharfstein said. Parents of children under 6 years old who suck on their fingers or like to put things in their mouths should be especially cautious about what jewelry they let their kids wear, experts said.
Sharfstein said he plans to institute the new regulation soon after Sept. 29, the deadline for public comment on the proposed ban. The proposal, which does not require action by the City Council or mayor, would require city health officials within six months to randomly test about 100 pieces of jewelry that might be used by children under 6 years old. Products found to exceed the federal limit would be banned from sale in the city. Stores that continued to sell a banned product could be fined up to $1,000 for each offense.
Claire's removed the pearl ring from its Baltimore stores after the high lead levels were discovered, according to Merissa Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the corporation, which has 31 stores in Maryland and mor e than 2,000 stores nationwide. Jacobs said the rings are still being sold in Claire's stores elsewhere in Maryland and around the country, pending in-house lead testing of the product by the company. "We don't have anything that tells us there is a danger with this product," she said. She characterized the chance of the jewelry injuring a child as a "remote possibility." "We believe the jewelry we are selling is safe," she said. "The concern here is only if a small child should swallow the jewelry."
After Wal-Mart was notified of the high lead levels in the heart-patterned ring sold in its Baltimore store, the company pulled the product from its stores nationwide, according to spokesman John Smiley. He said the company is conducting its own lead tests on the rings. "Until we can independently determine if the product is safe, the responsible thing to do would be to pull it from sale," he said. Sharfstein said that what Wal-Mart is doing "is exactly the right response." He said it is "a mistake" for Claire's not to pull all its products off the shelves right away.
Sharfstein said federal regulations concerning lead in children's jewelry are vague and enforcement policies too lenient, allowing contaminated jewelry imported from such countries as China, India, Mexico and Honduras to make its way onto the shelves of U.S. stores. But Patty Davis, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the agency has recently stepped up efforts to keep stores from selling dangerous jewelry. "We believe we are having an impact on the marketplace," she said. Over the past two years, the commission required retailers to recall more than 168 million pieces of children's jewelry due to high lead levels, she said. Of those pieces, 150 million had been imported from India and were sold in vending machines. They were recalled in 2004 after a 4-year-old Oregon boy suffered neurological damage from swallowing a piece of jewelry purchased from a machine.
Davis said most companies comply voluntarily with product recalls issued by the CPSC and companies that refuse to comply can be fined. "About 99.9 percent are done with the voluntary cooperation of the manufacturers, importers and retailers," she said. "We believe that the federal law is working."
The incidence nationally of children 5 and younger with dangerous lead levels in their blood has dropped from 4.4 percent to 1.6 percent in the past decade, she said, attributing the decrease in part to federal efforts to reduce lead in paint, furniture and other products. Sharfstein says, however, that the federal laws and enforcement policy regarding jewelry allow companies too many loopholes. As an example, he said the commission's technical definition of lead poisoning in children -- anything above 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood -- is too high and at odds with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that say no level of lead is acceptable in children.
Sharfstein was joined yesterday by children's advocates and other public health experts in calling for more stringent state and federal regulation of lead in children's jewelry. "The lack of regulation puts children in harm's way when it's not necessary," said Ruth Ann Norton, director of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, a Baltimore nonprofit. "The children's jewelry market should be something that is fun, that parents can rely on to be safe, that basically brings joy," she said, "not something that brings poisoning, harm, irreversible damage or even death."
by Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee
August 14, 2006
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14296630p-15149827c.html
Targeting a new frontier in the fight against smoking, California lawmakers may ban motorists from lighting up near young passengers. The measure would mark the first time that Californians would be prohibited from smoking legal tobacco products on private property not open to the public or employees. No state had passed such a vehicle smoking ban until this year, when Arkansas and Louisiana set a precedent by barring the practice when passengers are under 6 or 13, respectively.
Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat who proposed California's ban, Assembly Bill 379, said some parents don't seem to know -- or care -- about the dangers of secondhand smoke. "If you're too stupid to recognize that on your own, then we have to pass a law to tell you, 'Don't be an idiot, don't smoke with your small kid in the car with you,'" Koretz said. AB 379 makes no exception for vehicles whose windows are open to increase ventilation. It applies to motorists whose passengers are younger than 6 or lighter than 60 pounds. Violators would be subject to a base fine of up to $100, which could rise to more than $350 through penalty assessments for courts, jails, trauma centers and other programs.
Opponents call AB 379 another example of "nanny government" in which lawmakers intrude into private lives or property rights. Critics point to bills in recent years to require children to wear helmets while roller skating, restrict them from buying violent video games, limit their use of tanning salons, and to discourage soda pop sales in schools. "I think we try to micromanage people's lives to an extent that's getting ridiculous, whether it's health or dietary or lifestyle decisions," said Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg. Canciamilla predicted that if AB 379 succeeds in limiting smoking in vehicles, other private property will be targeted next. "The argument would be the same: Why would you let someone smoke in a car with children present? Then, why in an apartment? Or a house?"
But Paul Knepprath of the American Lung Association said that smoking in a car is particularly egregious because toddlers can't escape. "Think of the image," he said. "Young children, strapped into a child safety seat, unable to roll down a window or really control their environment at all -- and they're being exposed to harmful levels of air pollution."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken no position on AB 379, which is pending in the Senate. The governor typically does not commit himself until bills pass the Legislature.
California lawmakers have killed legislation in recent years to limit smoking in apartments or condominiums, and to restrict smoking in vehicles -- a measure by former Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh that was nearly identical to AB 379. Koretz said he introduced AB 379 partly to honor the memory of Firebaugh, D-South Gate, who died in March.
Supporters of Koretz's bill say two relatively new developments improve prospects for passage:
Carmona's report said secondhand smoke can cause respiratory problems, ear infections, asthma attacks and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in infants and children. A survey of middle and high school students two years ago by the state Department of Health Services found that one of every four respondents had been exposed to secondhand smoke in a car within the previous seven days.
Arkansas Rep. Bob Mathis, D-Hot Springs, whose successful legislation was very similar to AB 379, said government has an obligation to protect public health and safety. "A child has rights, too, and sometimes it's incumbent upon government to take care of people who can't take care of themselves," he said.
The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA, two of the nation's largest cigarette companies, have taken no position on AB 379. John Singleton, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, said the company opposes smoking around children but that legislating such a ban can "present some enforcement challenges." "I think it just puts an additional burden on law enforcement to make judgments when they already have, most people would say, a pretty full plate," Singleton said.
The California Highway Patrol does not support or oppose pending legislation, but passage of AB 379 would not force officers to neglect major crimes, spokesman Tom Marshall said. "Our officers prioritize what they need to do in any given situation," he said.
Visitors to Capitol Park in downtown Sacramento, interviewed randomly, had mixed feelings about imposing a vehicle smoking ban. "I'm not a smoker, so I think it will be good," said Naira Garcia, 22, of Riverside. "That way, you're not teaching your kids that smoking is good."
But Mikkel Michelsen, 35, from Denmark said it makes no sense to demonize one unhealthy product while ignoring others. "Why not criminalize junk food and say you can't eat that in front of your kids?" he said. Kathleen Branch, 56, said she smokes but takes pains to avoid exposing children. "I believe that people who need a law to tell them to do that -- they're going to (ignore) it anyway," Branch said.
by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
August 14, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/13/AR2006081300530.html
For years, government scientists who measure air pollution assumed that diesel locomotive engines were relatively clean and emitted far less health-threatening emissions than diesel trucks or other vehicles. But not long ago, those scientists made a startling discovery: Because they had used faulty estimates of the amount of fuel consumed by diesel trains, they grossly understated the amount of pollution generated annually. After revising their calculations, they concluded that the annual emissions of nitrogen oxide, a key ingredient in smog, and fine particulate matter, or soot, would be by 2030 nearly twice what they originally assumed.
That means that diesel locomotives would be releasing more than 800,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 25,000 tons of soot every year within a quarter of a century, in contrast to the Environmental Protection Agency's previous projections of 480,00 tons of nitrogen dioxide and 12,000 tons of soot. The new findings have put pressure on the government to crack down further on diesel engine emissions, a long-standing goal of Bush and Clinton administration officials. Bill Wehrum, the EPA's acting assistant administrator for air and radiation, said recently that his agency hopes to issue draft regulations by the end of the year or early next year for trains and ships that would reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions "on the order of 80 to 90 percent."
Research has linked soot and smog to premature heart attacks, as well as to lung disease and childhood asthma, leading environmental activists to argue that the government has no choice but to impose tighter rules on locomotives. "This is compelling evidence that EPA should move aggressively to clean up this major source of soot and smog," said Frank O'Donnell, who heads the advocacy group Clean Air Watch. "More than 150 million Americans live in areas that violate public health standards for one or both of these pollutants, and a lot of them live near major rail lines. Millions will probably continue to breathe dirty air in the future unless we reduce public exposure to train pollution."
In 2000, Clinton administration officials required manufacturers of trucks and buses to reduce their nitrogen oxide and soot emission by more than 90 percent by 2030; four years later, the Bush administration put the same requirements on off-road equipment used in construction, farming and heavy industry. The EPA announced two years ago that it was drafting rules to clean up trains and marine vessels: Any rule would likely force manufacturers to redesign their engines and install controls on trains' exhaust. "It's a real priority for us," Wehrum said in an interview. "This is a standard we want to get done, and we want to get it done as soon as possible."
The EPA's revised diesel pollution estimates highlight the extent to which shifting scientific data can lead to changes in federal regulations, according to Daniel C. Esty, a Yale environmental law and policy professor. "This new information shows the environmental realm is very dynamic, and you've got to update your regulations to make them consistent" with the new calculations, said Esty, who worked in the EPA under President George H.W. Bush.
According to Association of American Railroads spokesman Tom White, diesel trains are three times as fuel efficient as trucks, having reduced their fuel consumption by 70 percent over the past 25 years, and emit a third of the pollution trucks release when transporting the same weight over a comparable distance. "Today, rail is simply cleaner than trucks," White said. "Nothing that has been said changes that."
Trucks emit more than three times as much soot as trains a year and well over twice as much nitrogen oxide, according to the EPA's most recent data. But locomotives' advantage in terms of pollution is expected to erode over time as diesel-powered trucks and buses meet new federal standards. By 2030, trains will emit almost twice as much soot as trucks: 25,000 tons to 14,000. State and local environmental officials say they need tougher pollution curbs on trains as soon as possible to meet the federal air quality standards that will take effect in the next few years.
Kathleen A. McGinty, head of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, said her state is having such a hard time achieving federal standards that it has begun regulating the design of portable gasoline containers to cut down on emissions. "It really is a situation where we're trying to get blood from a stone," McGinty said. "Transportation is probably the toughest nut to crack, across the board, in terms of air pollution."
Pennsylvania has the fifth-most-extensive railroad network in the nation. McGinty said the proposed standards for train emissions are particularly important because train traffic will increase in the coming years. "For us, clean trains is a growth industry," she said. Communities located near rail yards experience the highest level of pollution. One example is the Houston-Galveston area, where marine vessels and trains accounted for 41 percent of the region's off-road nitrogen oxide pollution in 2002, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. "It will be difficult for Texas to attain the 8-hour ozone standard in some parts of the state unless cleaner engines are federally mandated," wrote Glenn Shankle, the commission's executive director, in a letter to the EPA.
Two years ago, the California Air Resources Board analyzed diesel pollution from the Roseville Rail Yard, the largest service and maintenance rail yard in the West, through which more than 30,000 trains pass each year. The study found that the cancer risk level for as many as 26,000 nearby residents averaged between 100 and 500 in a million, meaning that the exposure nearly doubled the lifetime cancer risk for these residents. "They're breathing in this stuff all the time," said Diane Bailey, a scientist at the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. Bailey added that many trains idle three-quarters of the time they are in rail yards, and that, compared with trucks and buses, locomotives are "lagging so far behind other diesel equipment."
by Paul Raeburn, Scientific American
August 14, 2006
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa004&articleID=000EDC34-3CC0-14C0-AFE483414B7F4945
Dichlorvos, or DDVP, is a household pesticide related to World War II-era nerve agents. In May the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its continued sale, despite considerable evidence suggesting it is carcinogenic and harmful to the brain and nervous system, especially in children. On several occasions, the agency has come close to banning the pesticide -- used in no-pest strips as well as in agriculture -- but has always backed away.
Environmentalists and labor unions charge that the latest decision was the product of backroom deals with industry and political interference -- just as they did 25 years ago, when the EPA first considered a ban on DDVP and other similar pesticides. "It's been two decades, and the riskiest uses -- the home uses -- are still on the market," says Aaron Colangelo, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has sued the EPA over the pesticide. "It's bizarre, it's unlawful and it's a complete failure of the agency to protect public health."
DDVP is an organophosphate, one of a group of pesticides developed after World War II, when researchers discovered that insects' nervous systems were more sensitive to nerve agents than the human nervous system. The idea was that small amounts of these agents would be lethal to insects and harmless to people. Questions about their safety arose in the 1970s. The EPA considered a ban on 13 pesticides in 1981, including DDVP, but took no action. The NRDC and labor unions sued the EPA. In the settlement, the agency said it would make a decision on the chemicals' safety by 1986. The EPA missed that deadline. In 1988 it said DDVP deserved "special review," a designation that often leads quickly to a ban. The EPA again failed to act.
In 1996 a frustrated Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act, giving the EPA until this year to make a firm decision on the safety of the estimated 800 pesticides in use in the U.S. The EPA has acted on many of them, but it is unlikely to meet its deadline for completing the pesticide review.
In its decision in May on DDVP -- now the poster child for the agency's failure -- the EPA added some restrictions to household use, saying the pest strips could be placed only in garages, cupboards, attics and crawl spaces. But that is unlikely to limit human exposure, insists David E. Camann of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex. "It's highly volatile, so it doesn't stay where it's put," he says. "It's going to migrate quickly through the air, and people are going to breathe it."
Colangelo says EPA officials told him these restrictions had been proposed by DDVP's maker, Amvac Chemical Corporation in Newport Beach, Calif., and that the EPA had quietly negotiated the details with the company -- something it is not legally allowed to do. The EPA denies that, saying it pursues "a very open and transparent process." Amvac defends the product's safety and denies it colluded with the agency. "There were no 'backroom deals' with the EPA," Amvac said in a statement. The agency's own employees charge, however, that industry is far too involved in these decisions. In a letter written May 24 by their union leaders, they complained that their colleagues in the pesticide program "feel besieged by political pressure exerted by agency officials perceived to be too closely aligned with the pesticide industry." In June the NRDC once again took action, filing a petition charging that the latest decision was negotiated illegally and demanding an immediate ban on DDVP. The dispute is most likely headed to court.
by Andrew Schneider, Baltimore Sun
August 14, 2006
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.lindane14aug14,0,652003.story
After more than a half century of use and thousands of reports of illness and deaths blamed on the pesticide, the federal government has banned all uses of lindane -- except by those who rub it on their scalps and bodies to kill lice and mites. This month, the Environmental Protection Agency banned all uses of lindane as a pesticide, but the Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow its continued use in medicines.
Many public health advocates and environmental activists are expressing outrage, and some are gathering petitions to send to the FDA. "Lindane is a known cause of seizures and has no role in the routine management of lice or scabies," said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. "FDA should re-examine the question of whether it needs to be on the market at all."
The EPA issued the ban on lindane and other pesticides this month as it concluded a congressionally ordered 10-year review of 231 agricultural poisons and their components. Lindane "is recognized internationally as one of the most toxic, persistent, bioaccumulative pesticides ever registered," said Jim Gulliford, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. But Jim Jones, who heads EPA's pesticide office, said his agency has no control over the medical uses of any pesticide that the FDA may authorize.
The FDA says it has no plans to take action. "As lindane has been deemed safe and effective for its intended use, FDA does not have any plans to take further action with this product at this time," said Kimberly Rawlings, an FDA spokeswoman. Some form of lindane-based medication has been marketed since 1951 for the treatment of pediculosis, which is head and pubic lice and scabies, a contagious skin infection caused by the itch mite.
The FDA says it cannot talk publicly about the specific process under which drugs are approved. Government documents indicate that over the years there have been numerous adverse reactions -- illnesses or deaths -- from use of lindane. In 2003, the agency ordered the manufacturer to expand the warnings on the medicines' labels and told physicians that it should only be prescribed in doses large enough for one treatment. The agency believes that the far more rigorous safety warnings and limits on the size of the dose will further protect consumers. In its warning to physicians to prescribe only enough for a single application, the FDA wrote: "Patients are at risk for seriously neurologic adverse events and even death, particularly with early retreatment."
Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, the only U.S. manufacturer of the controversial medical products, markets "Lindane Shampoo" and "Lindane Lotion." No one from the company would be interviewed, but Gordon Dobie, an outside lawyer for the company, said that the claims of harm are overblown. He said that there have been just 22 reports of adverse reactions "and just one lawsuit" since Morton Grove began marketing the products in 1995.
Groups that include the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and state and regional organizations across the country believe the FDA should ban lindane. The critics include Ann Heil, a supervising chemical engineer with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, whose work led California to ban the sale and use of the medication. The medication was found in large amounts in county waste water treatment plants and the system was unable to neutralize it before the cleaned water was discharged into the environment.
Heil also had personal experience with the medication. As she discovered, any child can get lice. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 10 to 12 million people get it a year. The problem cuts across all income groups. "Don't believe that you need to be dumb and barefoot for your children to have a problem with lice," said Heil, who has a master's degree in chemical engineering from Cal Tech. "I remember far too vividly rubbing lindane over my child from toes to neck because he had scabies as did some of his classmates. I stopped and asked myself what in the world was I doing rubbing a neurotoxin like lindane over my child just because a doctor told me so," she said. "I'm a chemist and obviously should have known better and I worry about the other parents out there who just get their prescriptions filled."
In Albany, the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, an umbrella group of several organizations, is trying to get lindane medication banned in New York State. "This substance has been proven repeatedly to be far too toxic to apply to our crops and our pets," said Laura McCarthy, a program associate with the group. "Who can possibly believe it's OK to apply it to our children's heads, which offer little protection to keep it from going directly to their brains?"
Deborah Altschuler says she has a hard time believing that the FDA won't take action. "Lindane's continued availability for use on children and their families in spite of what is known about the hazards of this chemical contradicts FDA's mandate to provide for the safety of the public," said Altschuler, president of the National Pediculosis Association, which was formed in 1983 to protect children from the harmful effects of pesticides used for the treatment of lice and scabies.
Morton Grove Pharmaceutics is suing the Ecology Center, a Michigan environmental group, an employee of the center and two local pediatricians, over the distribution of statements discussing the hazards of lindane. "They have defamed and libeled Morton Grove and done damage to its business and reputation by publishing and distributing information that is totally false and completely without scientific or medical merit," said Dobie, who is with the international law firm of Winston & Strawn. The suit lists 28 specific statements that Morton Grove says are false. Most were in a "briefing package" of excerpts from government and medical studies the center gave to a Michigan legislative committee considering a statewide ban of the medication. Dobie said the group distributed its "false" material on lindane "all over the place."
The Ecology Center's lawyer would not allow its staff to discuss the suit. But Kristin Schafer, program coordinator for the San Francisco-based Pesticide Action Network, said, "The lawsuit is a clear case of harassment." Schafer said she has examined the source of each statement that Morton Grove insists is false. "The Ecology Center has taken those statements from scientific literature, direct quotes from government agencies and, in one case, from Morton Grove's own Web site," she said Friday.
by Richard Gray, Edinburgh Scotsman
August 13, 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1178382006
THE combination of economy and performance has won the hearts of millions of motorists. But Scottish scientists have uncovered disturbing new evidence that diesel engines are causing thousands of deaths each year. Researchers have identified tiny soot particles from diesel exhausts -- 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair -- as the chief culprits in 9,000 fatal heart attacks in the UK annually.
The Edinburgh University team has worked out how the soot particles cross from the lungs into the blood stream, where they cause arteries to harden and clots to form. The findings are the hardest evidence yet of the deadly side-effects of diesel exhausts and will increase the pressure on manufacturers to fit engines with filters as standard. Scotland on Sunday can reveal that proposed new European rules will compel car makers to fit filters to diesel engines from 2008, but even if the law is passed, the most dangerous particles will probably still escape into the environment. The number of diesel-engine cars on the roads in the UK has increased dramatically from 1.6 million to more than five million since 1994.
Researchers at Edinburgh's Queen's Medical Research Institute have identified exhaust particles called PM2.5s as the most damaging to the human body. The miniscule soot fragments are caused by incomplete burning of fuel. While petrol engines create PM2.5s, diesel generates vastly higher quantities because it is a heavier fuel. Professor Ken Donaldson, a toxicologist who helped lead the research team, said: "These particles are so small they pass quite easily through face masks that people often wear to protect themselves from traffic fumes. "Ironically drivers themselves might be most at risk if they are stuck in traffic, as the exhaust fumes from the car in front are drawn directly into their own cars."
The researchers, funded by the British Heart Foundation, identified the particles using a series of experiments that tested the vascular response of volunteers to air with traces of different pollutants. They discovered that while microscopic particles found in the air in unpolluted areas, from substances such as sea salt and soil dust, did not cause any response, those from diesel exhausts caused a rise in artery damage. The scientists believe highly reactive metals and chemical groups in the diesel soot particles interfere with the normal function of blood vessels, reducing their ability to relax effectively, a process that eventually leads to them hardening and thickening.
The levels of exposure pedestrians might expect to encounter while walking along a busy city street were also found to reduce the amount of anti-clotting proteins in the blood by a third. Heart attacks are most commonly caused by clotting in the main arteries after they have become narrowed or partially blocked by fatty deposits. It is thought the particles use up nitric acid in the blood which normally helps to prevent blood vessels from constricting and produces anti-clotting proteins.
Dr David Newby, the lead cardiologist on the project, said: "Compared to other risk factors such as cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking, the role these particles play is less important, but on top of these other things it can be quite significant. The difference is that the whole population is exposed to them unlike these other factors that affect individuals. Air pollution affects everybody as they don't have a choice."
Surging oil prices have seen the popularity of diesel cars rise over the past few years as they are more economical than models that run on unleaded petrol. Last year, diesel cars accounted for more than 35% of total sales compared with just 14% five years ago. Under the European Commission's EURO5 standards, it is hoped filters fitted to diesel engines will slash particulate emissions by 80%. If approved, the directive will come into force in 2008. Some car manufacturers are already offering optional filters for diesel engines.
But experts and environment campaigners claim that under the European limits requiring particle emissions to be cut in weight, the lightweight PM2.5s could still be emitted in high numbers without breaching the regulations. The Edinburgh scientists now plan to test commercially available diesel engine filters for their ability to remove these dangerous particles. Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "It now looks as if proposed anti-pollution legislation will not reflect the latest scientific discoveries about the true health impact of particulate pollution. The problem is not helped by the fact that in Europe vehicle manufacturers continue to lobby to have measures designed to protect health watered down even further."
But the car industry last night insisted that it was already taking steps to cut particles released by diesel engines. Carlo Cucchi, from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, said that total particle emissions from diesel cars had dropped by 82% since 1992. He said: "The removal of the PM2.5 particles emitted by diesel engines will be achieved with the introduction of Diesel Particle Filters, a technology today ready for mass production."
by Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News
August 13, 2006
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/115546066076890.xml&coll=2
The air above the core urban areas of Birmingham is far more polluted than the rest of the area, Jefferson County Health Department monitoring shows. The levels of toxic and cancer-causing chemicals are higher at two monitors in North Birmingham and one each in Wylam and East Thomas than in rural Providence, engineers say. That's no surprise to the Health Department. North Birmingham and Wylam were already known to be the only two in the county failing the standard for general particle pollution. Furthemore, all four monitors were chosen for study because engineers expected them to show the highest levels of pollution.
Providence was picked to provide "background" levels, showing how the air is away from the big pollution sources. The Providence monitor did show some chemicals were elevated enough to require further study, but they were all far lower than the urban areas. The difference in air quality is a violation of civil rights laws, because poor and black communities are exposed to more pollution than others, argues David Ludder, general counsel of the advocacy group Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation. His group has researched such cases throughout the state, in its goal to bring Alabama to adopt rules requiring environmental justice, equal protection from pollution for all.
Jefferson County's air studies are additional evidence that isolated and disadvantaged communities are suffering from pollution at unacceptable levels in Alabama, Ludder said. "Now that we know -- or are on the verge of knowing -- that there is an excessive burden, something needs to be done," Ludder said. "Frankly, it should be done whether the communities are minority or majority or disadvantaged or advantaged. We can't allow the minority and disadvantaged communities to continue to suffer the burden."
But the issue is not a simple question of racism, said Jimmie Coleman Sr., president of the North Birmingham Community. Decades after Jim Crow, Alabama residents are not hemmed into polluted areas. He said he chose to move back to North Birmingham after living in California and North Carolina. "I know long years ago -- I'm talking about when I was a little, bitty boy -- the only places you had to live was in those heavy industrialized areas," he said. "They built that housing so they could put you right up against the smokestacks."
Residents of North Birmingham and neighboring areas are aware that they're living under skies more polluted than others, Coleman said. It's obvious, when many can look out their windows or walk down the block and see a stack continuously blowing black against the sky. But they're also aware that those same plants provide jobs for many of their neighbors, said Coleman, an Alabama Power Co. retiree. "We need the city to grow," he said. "I know what it is, when you're talking about being out of a job."
Ludder's group applauds Jefferson County for its rigorous studies. But Ludder argues that state policy should be changed so that pollution permits could not be issued where it is clear that minority or disadvantaged groups would be unfairly exposed to pollution. Coleman said his group is working with area industries and the Health Department and believes the companies will do their best to clean up the skies over industrial Birmingham, as they have been since the passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1970. "I've been working with this for about 27 years," Coleman said. "I know the pollution we used to have, when it was really high."
by Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune
August 12, 2006
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608120062aug12,0,3402034.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency flew to Chicago on Friday to yank a mercury-filled switch from a wrecked 1984 AMC Eagle. Wearing safety glasses and latex gloves along with a dark business suit, Stephen Johnson joined industry representatives to announce new voluntary efforts to remove the tiny switches before cars and trucks are scrapped and sent to a smelter. The national program, similar to ones already in place in Illinois and several other states, is intended to keep mercury out of the nation's air and water.
But officials acknowledge that all of the vehicle switches will be sent to a recycler that sells the toxic metal on the international market, where it is used by industries that account for some of the world's largest sources of mercury pollution. "We are taking a significant step toward eliminating mercury from the environment," Johnson said during a news conference at Bionic Auto Parts, a West Side salvage yard. "Other challenges remain."
Many cars contain pollutant
Millions of cars on the road contain small but significant amounts of mercury. As recently as the 2002 model year, automakers used mercury in devices that control anti-lock brakes and convenience lights inside trunks and under hoods. Auto companies started installing mercury-free switches after environmental regulators discovered the metal is released into the air when cars are melted by steel mills. Switches in older cars account for as much as 11 tons of mercury pollution each year, according to EPA estimates. Coal-fired power plants are the largest man-made source of the metal, releasing 48 tons a year.
Steel companies pushed for the recycling program to avoid tougher air pollution regulations under consideration by the EPA. But automakers and scrap recyclers held up a deal for two years while the agency and industry groups negotiated who would pay for removing the switches and promoting the program. Several states, meanwhile, adopted their own programs, several of which include financial incentives to ensure industry officials follow through on their pledges.
An Illinois law enacted in the spring requires automakers to pay recyclers a $2 bounty for each switch removed if voluntary efforts fail to remove 70 percent of switches from junked cars by 2009. For the national program, automakers and the steel industry agreed to pay a combined $4 million for collecting mercury switches.
Questions remain, though, about what happens to the mercury once it is removed from cars and trucks. Automakers recently formed a corporation that will send the recycled mercury switches to Bethlehem Apparatus Co., a Pennsylvania firm that refines the metal so other industries can use it. The number of U.S. companies that use mercury in industrial processes or products is declining, largely because of concerns that once the metal gets into the atmosphere it can pose serious threats to public health.
From U.S. to overseas
The Tribune reported Tuesday that tons of recycled mercury are sold each year to loosely regulated industries in developing countries, undercutting aggressive efforts to keep the pollutant out of the environment. Bruce Lawrence, president of Bethlehem Apparatus, acknowledged that much of the mercury he obtains winds up overseas. He said his industry is willing to take mercury off the market if the federal government sets rules for safe disposal or storage. "We're talking with the EPA about it," Lawrence said in an interview. "But for now we have a commodity and there is a demand for it."
Environmental groups also have been pushing for environmental regulators to address the problem. Among other things, the groups are backing legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) that would ban American mercury exports. "This clearly leaves work to be done," Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense, said after joining EPA and industry officials to announce the switch-removal program. "But EPA has taken a step in the right direction."
by Janet Raloff, Science News
August 12, 2006
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060812/fob2.asp
Known largely as a component of rocket fuel, perchlorate is a pollutant that often turns up in soil and water. In dozens of studies, it has perturbed thyroid-hormone concentrations, which can affect growth and neurological development. Data from fish now indicate that perchlorate can also disrupt sexual development. Some of the changes were so dramatic that scientists initially mistook female fish for males. Several females displayed male-courtship behavior and produced sperm.
Richard R. Bernhardt of the University of Alaska in Anchorage and his colleagues focused on threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a tiny marine species. For 3 weeks, the researchers incubated wild-captured adults in clean water or in water treated with 30, 60, or 100 parts per million (ppm) perchlorate. The adults spawned during that period. Each group's offspring were then raised to sexual maturity in similarly treated or untreated water. At spawning age, 10 apparent males per treatment group were each given their own aquariums. Once a day, each male received a 10-minute visit from an egg-swollen female in the same treatment group.
The first sign of something amiss: Among perchlorate-exposed fish, many would-be dads lacked the electric-blue and red coloration that normally signals readiness to spawn. Most of these fish didn't exhibit typical reproductive behaviors, such as nest building, and many ignored prospective mates. Among clean-water males, 80 percent spawned. As the perchlorate concentration climbed from 30 to 100 ppm, successful spawning fell from 50 percent to zero.
Eventually, the bellies of three apparent males began swelling with eggs. They proved to be hermaphroditic females, bearing both fertile eggs and fertile sperm. The perchlorate-exposed true males developed unusually long testes.
Last January, the Environmental Protection Agency suggested limiting perchlorate contamination in natural bodies of water to 24.5 parts per billion. The concentrations used in the new study were at least 1,000 times that limit. However, these doses are still environmentally relevant, argue aquatic toxicologist Bernhardt and his colleagues in the August Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. They say that the test concentrations are similar to or less than those at several contaminated U.S. sites.
The "big surprise" was that perchlorate could produce hermaphroditic females and males with superlarge testes, says ecotoxicologist Gerald T. Ankley of EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Division in Duluth, Minn. Clearly, that's "not something you would have anticipated [from] the way we think perchlorate works," he adds. All the changes observed suggest that perchlorate "is acting like an androgen," or male-sex hormone, notes fish physiologist Ann Cheek of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Confirming this would require cellular analyses of testes and thyroid tissue.
Christopher W. Theodorakis of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville argues that the "intriguing" masculinization may instead point to a new role for thyroid hormones—preservation of reproductive function. "This paper may be telling us there's more to perchlorate—and its effects on the thyroid—than we'd realized," agrees R. Thomas Zoeller, a thyroid endocrinologist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. That "could be pretty profound," he says.
by Barbara Grady, Oakland Tribune
August 11, 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_4166978
WITH computers typically becoming obsolete only a few years after purchase because of constant breakthroughs in technology, a looming problem is what to do with old computers. Unfortunately, the deep innards of computers hold many hazardous materials such as mercury, lead and cadmium. Using computers is not dangerous, environmentalists and computer makers say, because the materials are buried deep in the electronics, under insulators, thick metals and plastic covers. But if and when a computer is sent to a landfill after its useful life is over, the toxic materials could eventually seep out into the ground and possibly the groundwater.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, some 315 million computers became obsolete between 1997 and 2004 and went to landfills where they produced 1.26 million pounds of lead, 2 million pounds of cadmium, 400,000 pounds of mercury and 1.2 million tons of hexavalent chromium. Yuck! What can we do?We've all become so dependent on these machines.
Well, this summer, the EPA, after working with major computer manufacturers and a major electronics association for three years, produced a list of "green" -- or at least greener -- computers than the typical computer made available in the past. It is available at http://www.EPEAT.net and consumers can use it to see what models are more environmentally friendly and why. EPEAT stands for Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. On a directive from the EPA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers began developing three years ago a set of standards for building computers with a minimum amount of mercury, lead and cadmium; with lower power requirements -- be it electricity or battery; with longer usable lifespans; and with a "design for end of life" or safe recycling plans to be offered by the manufacturers. Several manufacturers -- Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino and Dell Inc. of Round Rock, Texas, chief among them -- took up the challenge and started manufacturing computers and notebooks around these standards.
In July, the EPA issued a list of 60 popular desktops, monitors and notebooks that meet these standards. Along with being manufactured with reduced levels of toxic materials and requiring less power, these 60 models are also sold with an "end of life management" plan from the manufacturers, who promise to take them back and recycle them according to standards-set methods. The green computers tend to be each manufacturer's latest models, so they may seem to cost a little more than older models. However, Dell stated its EPEAT-compliant computers cost no more for being so.
This list is available at http://www.EPEAT.net. It shows Hewlett-Packard sells 32 models that are EPEAT compliant with eight desktops, 13 notebooks including its line of Compaq notebooks and 11 monitors. Dell sells 19 models that are EPEAT compliant, including 12 desktops in its OptiPlex and Precision lines, 10 monitors and seven Lattitude and Precision notebooks. Apple Computer's new line of Dual Core Apple iMacs and MacBook Pro notebooks were built as EPEAT compliant as well as its line of Apple Cinema Display monitors. In addition, CTL Corp. of Oregon makes a desktop, the Meridian SL700, that is EPEAT compliant. "Compared to traditional computer equipment, all EPEAT-registered computers have reduced levels of cadmium, lead and mercury to better protect human health and the environment," the EPA said in launching the Web site and public information part of its EPEAT program. It recognized HP, Apple and Dell for their widescale participation.
The lower electricity or battery power requirements of EPEAT-listed models "reduces emission of climate-changing greenhouse gases," the EPA states in its literature. This is important not only for personal convenience but because each year computers and other electronics in use in the United States consume 74 billion kilowatts of electricity -- the equivalent to a year's use by 7 million households. Lastly, the EPEAT-compliant computers are easier to upgrade and recycle -- they have to be to get the designation.
So, what do the toxins do and where are they found in computers? When toxic metals are broken down in recycling plants or landfills, they can create dust and fumes, which if inhaled or ingested by people around the plants or running the plants, can be carcinogenic and harmful to nervous system and reproductive organs.
According to Greenpeace International in a lengthy report issued last summer for a global "Computer TakeBack Campaign" to urge manufacturers to take back their computers at the end of their use, most electronics and computer landfills and recycling centers are in third world countries. There, easier regulation allows them to be stockpiled and where poor citizens are willing to take jobs dismantling electronics goods. In landfills and dismantling centers, the toxins inside computers can become dust particles and airborne. Once airborne, lead, mercury and cadmium can be ingested and build up in the human body.
Lead has been "widely used in electronic goods," according to Greenpeace, most particularly as a component of solders, in the glass of cathode ray tubes and in lead-acid batteries. Lead, if it builds up in the body, can damage the nervous system, particularly those of developing children.
Mercury is found in some batteries and some lighting components for flat screen electronics displays, according to Greenpeace. Because it is highly toxic, manufacturers have been trying to minimize its use. Mercury damages kidneys and the central nervous system. Once in the environment, mercury can convert to its organic methylated form through bacterial activity and accumulates into a highly toxic substance, according to Greenpeace.
Cadmium is used in electronics in some switches and solders, as cadmium metal, and as a component in rechargeable batteries. Cadmium, too, accumulates in the body if ingested in dust particles or fumes and over time can damage kidneys and bone structure.
Recycling your computer has now become a [California] state law. So, before you replace it, think about where the old one will go. Most counties operate electronics recycling centers, such as the Alameda County Computer Resource Center (www.accrc.org) at 1501 Eastshore Highway, Berkeley. It is open business hours each weekday and Saturday mornings. The Computer Recycling Center of Northern California (www.crc.org) teams up with Computers in Education to put old computers to new uses in schools. You can bring your computer to one of three Bay Area Computer Recycling Centers in Sunnyvale at 370 W. Caribbean Dr., in Santa Rosa at 3227 Santa Rose Ave. or in San Francisco, which accepts them at different locations around the city on different dates. Check the Web site at http://www.crc.org/#dropoff or call (888) 887-3372.
by Courtney Bacalso, Orange County Register
August 10, 2006
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1239155.php
A batch of bendable cat and dog toys given to thousands of Orange County children were tainted with lead, the toy's distributor confirmed Wednesday. Tests by Highsmith Inc. showed the toys had 0.277 percent lead, nearly five times the 0.06 percent permitted by federal codes, said Matt Moulder, director of the Wisconsin-based distribution company.
Toys Wednesday trickled back to the five local city libraries that gave them out as prizes for a summer reading program, "Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales." Libraries in Buena Park, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia and Santa Ana sent out notices asking parents to return the toys to their branches, where they can be exchanged. "We have received only a few, but we hope to receive much more as the day goes on," Santa Ana Library Director Rob Richard said. The library gave out 360 toys.
Worry about the tainted toys started after an Indiana librarian learned a hospital had found high lead concentrations in the toys in 2005. The Indiana State Health Department issued a health alert Friday after finding 0.24 percent to 0.4 percent lead in a batch of toys distributed by Indiana-based Kipp Brothers. Highsmith distributed its batch of the toys to 1,000 libraries in 36 states. Moulder said Highsmith is working with Nebraska-wholesaler Fun Express, also known as Oriental Trading, in recalling the Chinese-made items. "Since we sold only a part of these toys that are all over the country, we are suggesting a coordinated effort with all the distributors nationwide to get them recalled," Moulder said.
North Carolina issued a recall Wednesday, and the toys have been discovered in Ohio libraries. Health officials want parents to return the toys to libraries or hazardous-waste sites. The county's four sites are in Anaheim, Irvine, San Juan Capistrano and Huntington Beach. "In talking to parents, we discovered that some parents had already thrown their toys away," Orange Library Director Nora Jacob said.
The five libraries belonged to the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Fullerton, Yorba Linda and Huntington Beach, also members of the collaborative, did not order the toys. County libraries did not carry the toys. Families returned two toys to Placentia and 16 to Orange. Mission Viejo and Buena Park have not received any yet. "We have a place for them, but none have come in," Buena Park Library Director Louise Mazerov said.
by Natasha Singer, New York Times
August 10, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/fashion/10skin.html
TUCKED away on a secluded second floor in Midtown Manhattan, Ted Gibson is the kind of intimate hair salon where people feel comfortable asking stylists for personal advice. But last month, Alexandra Meyers, a British expatriate who lives in New York, found herself asking some unusual questions of her colorist, Jason Backe. "I asked him: 'Can hair dye give you cancer or other serious illnesses? Would it be safer if I went back to being a darker color so I don't have to dye my hair as frequently?'" recalled Ms. Meyers, a natural brunette who said she has her hair fastidiously dyed blond every two weeks to cover dark roots. "I don't want to be alarmist about it, but I think you have to be sure from a health perspective about non-necessary beauty procedures."
Ms. Meyers began reconsidering her hair color last month after she saw a segment on "The View" about a new health study that found that the use of hair dye might slightly increase the risk of getting lymphoma, a group of cancers of the lymphatic system. While some epidemiologists cautioned that the findings were not cause for immediate concern, tabloid headlines like "A Look Worth Dying For" sent clients running to their stylists for reassurance. "We've been bombarded with questions, which is unusual because normally people only ask if hair color is a health issue if they are pregnant," said Mr. Backe, a sought-after colorist whose tinting commands average fees of $500. "I sure hope that hair color doesn't give you cancer, because I am covered in it all day every day."
Set off by news of the study that was recently published in The American Journal of Epidemiology, the nationwide alarm over a possible link between hair dye and cancer underscores the disparity between medical research and its often-breathless press coverage. Television hosts like Matt Lauer of "Today" stoked fears by telling viewers that 10 percent of lymphoma cases in women may be caused by hair dye use. But, pointing to decades of research on hair dye, many epidemiologists say the new study is not cause for worry. "If the results are true, and that's a big if, it would mean that, in the grand scheme of life, using hair dye may present a remote risk to your health, but it would still be less risky than crossing the street, driving a car, not wearing a seat belt or drunk driving," said Dr. Joseph K. McLaughlin, president of the International Epidemiology Institute, a biomedical research center in Rockville, Md. "But that's a big if because no one has demonstrated that hair dye is causal for lymphoma."
Still, the specter of cancer has factitious blondes, brunettes and redheads asking themselves whether they would be willing to fade to black or -- egad -- even gray. For those who view hair dye as the embodiment of their personality, youthfulness and attractiveness, the mere suggestion that the beauty treatment might be risky seemed to constitute a threat to self-image. "For any woman who relies on hair color for creating an identity to which people respond positively by offering her jobs, dates or social approval, the notion that she might have to change her hair color is like saying you may have to throw out a piece of yourself," said Rose Weitz, a professor of women's studies at Arizona State University who is the author of "Rapunzel's Daughters: What Women's Hair Tells Us About Women's Lives."
Once viewed by American women as a risqué beauty treatment, hair color became popular in the 1960's when Clairol started running ad campaigns for its home dyeing kits with slogans like: "Does she ... or doesn't she? Hair color so natural only her hairdresser knows for sure!" Today 54 percent of American women, aged 13 to 69, dye their hair, according to Clairol. Americans spent about $1.6 billion on at-home hair color in 2005, according to Euromonitor International, a market research firm that tracks cosmetics sales.
The alarm about hair coloring was first sounded in 1975 when Dr. Bruce N. Ames, a professor of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper that found that 89 percent of the permanent hair dyes he tested caused genetic damage to bacteria. He called for further studies to look at whether the formulas could be carcinogenic to humans. In 1979, the Food and Drug Administration asked manufacturers to put labels on hair dyes made from a suspect component that said, "Warning -- Contains an ingredient that can penetrate your skin and has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals." Instead, hair dye companies voluntarily removed the ingredient, a coal tar derivative, and the agency reconsidered the warning label requirement.
According to the agency's Web site, several other ingredients that may be used in hair dye formulas have been reported to cause cancer in animals and to penetrate human skin. The cosmetics industry says hair dyes are safe, while environmental groups contend they may be risky. If there is a risk at all, studies so far show it to be small. Among several dozen hair dye studies published over the last two decades, some found no link with lymphoma. But a few studies reported that the incidence of lymphoma appeared to be greater for those with prolonged use of darker-colored permanent hair dyes (which use higher concentrations of dye and and create more of a chemical reaction than temporary blonder shades, researchers said) or who started dyeing their hair before the formulas were changed.
An analysis of 79 hair dye studies that was published last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that hair dye use has "no effect" on the risk of breast and bladder cancers. It did find a "borderline effect" of hair dye on the risk of lymphoma and concluded that, although dye has not been shown to cause these cancers, the link merits further investigation. The paper's authors called for further studies on hair stylists, who have more intense and frequent exposure to hair dye than consumers. "The overall weight of scientific evidence is very convincing that hair dye is safe," said John Bailey, executive vice president for science at the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association, an industry trade group based in Washington. "The industry would never use ingredients having any cloud of remote concern over their safety."
The study that came out last month, however, stoked fears all over again. For the study, researchers in Europe interviewed about 2,300 patients with lymphoma and about 2,400 people without lymphoma. The study found that those who had ever used hair dye were 1.19 times more likely to get lymphoma than those who never used it. Those who colored their hair before 1980 were 1.37 times more likely to get lymphoma. "These are scary numbers," Ann Curry, the "Today" show co-host, warned viewers.
But many epidemiologists consider such rates of increase to be negligible. "Compared to risk factors for other diseases, those numbers are very small," said Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. By comparison, he said, smoking makes people 10 to 60 times more likely to get lung cancer. Because the study relies on people's long-term memories of their grooming habits, which could be faulty, the conclusion that hair dye is linked to lymphoma might turn out to be wrong altogether, Dr. Kramer added.
Dr. Silvia de Sanjosé, a senior researcher at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona and the lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview that people should be relieved rather than worried by her research. "If our data is correct, we are assured that hair dye is not a major risk factor for lymphoma," said Dr. de Sanjosé. She has been coloring her hair for five years and plans to continue, she said. "People should be happy and comforted that the observed effect is minor."
Dr. Michael J. Thun, director of epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, said that if the study proves to be correct, the results would mean that American women who start dyeing their hair might increase the risk of getting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from about 13.6 out of every 100,000 women per year to about 17 out of every 100,000 women per year. "There is substantial uncertainty as to whether there is any hazard at all from hair dye," Dr. Thun said. Still, because so many Americans use hair dye, it is a public health issue that merits further study, said Dr. Kathy J. Helzlsouer, an epidemiology and oncology professor at Johns Hopkins University.
Certainly, many consumers are looking for greater assurance. "I definitely got quizzed by people asking: 'Is hair color safe? Is my hair going to kill me?'" said Kathy Galotti at Louis Licari salon in Manhattan. During her 24 years as a colorist, she has fielded similar questions each time new hair dye research appears, she said. Still, "it may raise concerns, but it doesn't seem to change people's behavior patterns." Sitting in a swivel chair with her hair in foils, Margot Weinshel, a psychologist in Manhattan, agreed. "Is this scary enough for me to stop dyeing my hair and decide to look old?" said Ms. Weinshel, 58, who has been coloring her hair monthly for the last 25 years. "Until they prove a direct link, I'm not worried about it."
Jacki Donaldson, a blogger in Gainesville, Fla., who discusses her breast cancer on the Web site thecancerblog.com, said cancer patients may be more likely to change their routines. After seeing the hair dye segment on "Today," she decided to stop dyeing her own hair. "I recently dyed my own post-chemo brown hair," she blogged. "I think I will let my artificial reddish chestnut hues fade away while I enjoy the plain brown hair that covers my once-bald scalp." Others like Ms. Meyers from Ted Gibson are waiting for more research before they consider returning to their natural roots. "So many things we do on a daily basis -- going on sun holidays, using chemicals, taking supplements -- have risks," Ms. Meyers said. "I'd like to see some real proof about hair dye before I change my routine."
by Anita Weier, Madison Capital Times
August 9, 2006
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=94180&ntpid=0
Kazoua Moua, whose husband goes fishing frequently to help feed their six children, is aware of possible dangers from fish caught in Madison lakes. As a nutrition educator with the UW-Extension for Dane County, she has an awareness advantage that many Hmong and other minorities do not. The fish advisories issued by state authorities tend to be seen more by white men and are sometimes distrusted by minorities when they are aware of them, studies show. "I go to low-income families to teach them how to cook nutritious food and not to eat too much fish," Moua said Tuesday night during a picnic at Brittingham Park featuring Hmong food. Guests included people attending two conferences in Madison this week about mercury, a toxic material that can end up in fish.
Maria Powell, a University of Wisconsin researcher who heads the Environmental Justice Organization and made presentations at both conferences, helped arrange the picnic, which offered a fish salad made with talapia, a fish that accumulates little mercury. The messages at the picnic and the conferences were deadly serious.
Tests conducted by the Mercury Policy Project and the state Department of Natural Resources have shown that levels of mercury in fish from Madison lakes are relatively high. Levels of mercury in fish from the lakes range from 0.1 up to 0.52 parts per million, indicating that "anglers and their families who regularly consume fish could be taking health risks," Powell said. African-American, Latino, Hmong and poor subsistence anglers could be particularly at risk, because they often depend on fish as a free food source and many consider fishing an important social and cultural activity, Powell said.
"According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, generally people should eat no more than four meals a month of fish in the 0.12-0.47 ppm (parts per million) range," she said. "Tests suggest that most Madison fish fall into this range, and some may fall just above it." Guidelines are more stringent for pregnant women, women of childbearing age and children under 15. Those groups are advised they can safely eat one meal a week of smaller fish such as bluegill and sunfish, but only one meal a month of larger fish such as bass and walleye, which can have higher mercury levels.
However, most poor minority anglers are unaware of such advisories from state officials and many eat more than one meal a week of fish caught in local lakes during fishing season, Powell said. Moreover, Moua warned, the "Hmong often eat the whole fish, sometimes including organs like the brain (which can store mercury). I am worried that people are hurting themselves by taking part in a healthy family activity that is central to Asian cultures eating fish that they caught themselves."
Mercury is a toxin that can damage the developing brain, causing learning disabilities and other developmental problems in children. It also can negatively affect an individual's heart and nervous and immune systems. "We are working to persuade local and state officials that more testing is needed to understand the scope of the problem in the Madison area," Powell said. "More importantly, we want the government to do a better job communicating with local subsistence anglers and to do more to reduce mercury sources."
Tests in 1998 showed that sediment in the north end of Monona Bay was a mercury hotspot and had the highest PCB contamination in the lake, she noted. "A recent study by the Department of health and Family Services found that mercury levels in hair of Wisconsin residents exceeded current federal advisories (1 part per million) in 29 percent of men and 13 percent of women," Powell added. Latino, American Indian and Asian groups had the highest proportion of people with levels above 1 ppm. "Unfortunately, no Hmong and very few African-American anglers were tested in the study. We are hoping to work with the DHFS in the future to find out more about mercury levels in these groups of anglers in Madison," Powell said.
The two women presented information about fish test results and the awareness issue today at the Finding Solutions to the Global Mercury Crisis conference at the Hilton Hotel. On Tuesday, Powell presented results of a separate study conducted in Milwaukee and Cleveland, Ohio, at the eighth annual International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant at Monona Terrace. That report found that African-American, less-educated and low-income people are less likely to receive fish advisory warnings and less likely to trust the word of state authorities regarding possible danger in eating the fish. People interviewed for the study also were confused by the fact that the authorities who issue warnings about fish also stock the lakes. Additional confusion can result because organizations such as the American Heart Association and officials such as former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson repeatedly stress the benefits of eating fish as a way of lowering the risk of heart disease and being part of a healthy, balanced diet.
by Michael McLaughlin, UPI
August 9, 2006
http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060808-034510-1446r
WASHINGTON -- Thousands of untested industrial chemicals may threaten the public health -- despite a 30-year old law to review and regulate their use. Chemicals in commercial products often reach the market without the government determining their toxicity to humans and the environment, according to the Government Accountability Office. The problem originates with the Toxic Substances Chemical Act. The GAO says Environmental Protection Agency "reviews of new chemicals provide only limited assurance that health and environmental risks are identified because TSCA does not require companies to test chemicals before they notify EPA of their intent to manufacture the chemicals." The GAO also says TSCA hogties the EPA with a cumbersome process to review "existing chemicals" -- or chemicals already in commerce.
TSCA took effect in 1976 and authorizes the EPA to test the safety of new and existing chemicals. The EPA can impose restrictions on harmful substances after proving they possess "an unreasonable risk" to people or the environment. TSCA has jurisdiction over chemicals like asbestos, lead, radon and other hazardous substances. But it does not oversee every chemical in the market. Other laws regulate chemicals found in pesticides, food additives and drugs.
When TSCA became law, 62,000 chemicals existed. The EPA required tests on fewer than 200 of them since 1976, according to the GAO. But it took action to reduce the risk posed by more than 3,600 of 20,000 chemicals introduced since then. "The standards the law put into place are surprisingly weak," Laura Suchter of the Environmental Working Group told United Press International. Suchter said TSCA is a law "by, of, and for the chemical industry." Suchter did not know of any potentially harmful chemicals introduced to the market after 1976 that evaded EPA safety checks. But the EPA called a pre-1976 chemical compound in Teflon a "likely carcinogen" last year, the Washington Post reported. Dupont, the maker of Teflon, announced plans to phase out 95 percent of the chemicals.
The EPA instituted a companion program to TSCA in 1998 to enhance data collection. Manufacturers and importers voluntarily provide the EPA with test data through the High Volume Challenge Program for chemicals totaling 1 million pounds per year. The EPA received information on more than 2,200 chemicals via this program and considers it an achievement. "This has been a really successful program that can stand on its own," an EPA spokeswoman told UPI.
However, manufacturers or importers might withhold information for chemicals it knows are harmful, because the program is voluntary. The EPA cannot punish companies based on its findings either, according to the EPA spokeswoman. Nonetheless, the EPA affirms the effectiveness of its chemical regulations and dismisses the GAO's concerns. "We feel like the tools available under TSCA are adequate to protect human health and the environment," said the EPA.
Indeed, the chemical industry strongly supports the current regulations. "TSCA is a sound statutory and regulatory system," said Michael Walls of the American Chemical Council in Senate testimony Aug. 2. Walls told UPI the data from GAO is misleading. For instance, roughly 9,000 chemicals are in active commercial use, much lower than the 82,000 the GAO said exist. The American Chemical Council thinks GAO favors overly cautious standards. Scientists do not need to run the full gamut of tests on all chemicals, because they can predict the effects of similar materials. "The GAO is operating on the assumption that a data gap is a data need," Walls told UPI. "It is a robust vehicle that can effectively address emerging chemical issues, while retaining sufficient flexibility to promote innovation and the active involvement of chemical manufacturers in the safe management and use of chemicals," Walls told the Senate.
The GAO finds weakness in the law where Walls sees "flexibility." "EPA's toxicity and exposure data is often incomplete and TSCA's authority to require testing in support of the agency's review process is difficult to use," said John Stephenson of the GAO in his written statement to the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works.
The hearing was the first review of TSCA's performance in more than a decade. Last year Democrats in the House and Senate introduced bills to amend TSCA by requiring manufacturers to more frequently report greater information about chemical substances. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the committee, recommended hesitating to enact tougher regulation, because of the chemical industry's size. "The chemical industry is a crucial part of the U.S. economy. The United States is the number one chemical producer in the world, generating $550 billion a year and putting more than 5 million people to work," said Inhofe in last week's hearing.
Walls said the ACC does not support the new bill.
by Jane L. Levere, New York Times
August 9, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/business/09adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
FACED with proliferating smoking bans and declining cigarette consumption, Philip Morris USA and the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company are test-marketing new smokeless tobacco products, as is the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, the industry leader in the segment. The products have already generated criticism, with industry watchdogs saying that smokeless tobacco provides an alternative in situations where smoking is prohibited. They also say the products will attract teenagers and young adults, many of whom are not smokers now.
None of the companies has claimed that the products are safer than cigarettes. Richard Carmona, a former surgeon general, told Congress three years ago that "smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. Smokeless tobacco is a known human carcinogen." All three of the new products, which sell for $3 to $7 a container, package smokeless tobacco in pouches made of tea-bag-like material that is placed between the lip and the gum. The pouches are discarded after 10 minutes to half an hour and do not require spitting.
Smokeless tobacco sales in the United States are still relatively small -- according to Nik Modi, an analyst for UBS, they represent less than 10 percent of all tobacco sales, compared with an 80 percent share for cigarettes. But, Mr. Modi says, the growth potential is attractive; he estimates that smokeless tobacco sales will jump 7 percent this year. Smokeless tobacco products "are another way for cigarette manufacturers to diversify the mix and improve their margins," said Bonnie Herzog, an analyst with Citigroup. She says the operating margins of smokeless tobacco products can be 10 percent to 25 percent higher than those of cigarettes because of higher prices and cheaper manufacturing and promotion.
Philip Morris's Taboka and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco's Skoal Dry, part of its Skoal brand, are made in this country. Reynolds's product, Camel Snus, is named after its Camel brand and imported from Sweden. Blue Whale, based in King of Prussia, Pa., will introduce a fourth new product -- a smokeless tobacco substitute made of black tea and nicotine extract -- later this month. Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria, began testing Taboka in Indianapolis last month. A direct-mail campaign by Leo Burnett, part of the Publicis Groupe, features coupons offering a $2 discount. Reynolds, a unit of Reynolds American, has been test-marketing Camel Snus in Austin, Tex., and Portland, Ore., since May, promoting it through a direct-mail campaign by Gyro Worldwide; offering free samples in bars; and starting a Web site, http://www.snuscamel.com, designed by Agent 16.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco started test-marketing Skoal Dry in Austin, Tex., and Louisville, Ky., last month. The company is offering free samples and running ads, by Doe Anderson, in newspapers like The Courier-Journal in Louisville, The Austin American-Statesman and The Austin Chronicle. It also has a Web site, www.skoaldry.com, by Ryan iDirect. Blue Whale's smokeless tobacco substitute retails for $5 a can and is not pouched. It will be introduced in Texas, Nebraska, Ohio and western Pennsylvania in August and September, and nationwide in November. Bill Whalen, president and chief executive of Blue Whale, said the company would spend $3.5 million on advertising in the first four states and an additional $10 million nationally.
Mr. Modi estimates that 92 percent of smokeless tobacco users are men. Blue Whale's TV and print ads, by 23k Studios, feature a woman's manicured hand suggestively lifting a can of Blue Whale from a man's rear jeans pocket. The company will also advertise outdoors and on radio, and offer free samples.
Some industry observers question whether Blue Whale's product falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, as a food product that contains nicotine. (The F.D.A. does not regulate products that contain tobacco.) Blue Whale says the F.D.A. has told it that agency approval is not required for its smokeless tobacco substitute. But Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, predicted that the F.D.A. would ultimately ban Blue Whale. "Nicotine is a highly addictive substance," he said. "While nicotine does not cause most tobacco-related disease, if it's delivered in high doses, it can cause significant health harms. Bottom line, nicotine is a substance that is not approved by the federal government for use in any food products." Laura Alvey, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said the agency might "take a closer look" at Blue Whale and its labeling "and how it is marketing itself in order to determine if it falls under F.D.A.'s regulatory authority and it isn't in violation of any F.D.A. regulations."
It remains to be seen how well any these products will sell. David Adelman, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, said "it would be a mistake to underestimate how difficult it is to get people to change their tobacco-consumption habits." And their use remains subject to criticism. Because the pouched tobacco products "may be less harmful than other smokeless tobacco products and cigarettes, the question is, Why not suggest that people switch to them?" said Thomas Glynn, director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society. "That's a very tempting argument, but it is a Pandora's box. There's a lot we don't know about. The products could encourage people to continue smoking who ordinarily would have quit." Mitch Zeller, a health policy consultant who was director of the office of tobacco programs at the F.D.A. during the Clinton administration, said the Web site for Camel Snus "seems aimed at young adult males to get them to start using products." (The site says Reynolds found Snus in Sweden, "home of the world's best meatballs, massage and blondes.") "That's not harm reduction, that's harm creation," Mr. Zeller said.
by Sean Poulter, UK Daily Mail
August 9, 2006
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=399684&in_page_id=1774
Pesticides can cause brain damage and trigger conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, according to scientists. A landmark study claims that chemicals routinely used by farmers in the UK and around the world can result in neurological diseases. The controversial findings will be challenged by the agro-chemical industry, which insists exposure levels for humans are well within safety limits.
Many scientists say there are huge gaps in our knowledge about the impact of pesticides on public health. Earlier this year, a Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution inquiry called for a five-metre buffer zone around crop fields to prevent farmers from spraying pesticides. The commission said this was a necessary precaution until more was known about the effects of chemicals. But Environment Secretary David Miliband rejected the measure, claiming there were no proven scientific reasons for implementing it. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was up to individual farmers voluntarily to impose a spray-free zone.
The latest research into the impact of pesticides on health was carried out by the Energy & Environmental Research Centre at the University of North Dakota. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health, laboratory tests on rats revealed damage to the brain and to the gastrointestinal system. The research team is now evaluating how humans are exposed to pesticides in order to establish what measures are needed to minimise any adverse effects. It is concentrating on the effect of pesticide spraying, rather than consumption of fruit and vegetables.
An EERC statement said: 'During the first year of research, laboratory testing on rats demonstrated that the areas of the brain showing change following pesticide exposure are the same areas involved in multiple sclerosis. Results also show pesticide exposure damages the same brain areas linked to epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. Pesticides can also cause severe damage to the gastrointestinal system and cause neurological dysfunction.'
Director Dr Gerald Groenewold said: 'The results of this study are phenomenally relevant to our region and have global implications.' He added: 'One of the most efficient routes that people are exposed to pesticides is through airborne particles, including pesticides carried on tiny bits of pollen. Within the next few years, this EERC-led partnership will be able to provide objective answers to globally critical questions related to the potential relationship between pesticides and the incidence of neurological diseases.'
Research by a team from Harvard School of Public Health in June reached similar findings. It found that respondents who were in contact with pesticides in 1992 were 70 per cent more likely to develop Parkinson's within the next ten years.
Georgina Downs, of UK Pesticides Campaign, accused the Government of putting the interests of agro-chemical manufacturers ahead of public safety. 'The preliminary findings of this new research are of great concern, especially to babies and children who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of pesticide exposure,' she said. 'We have been highlighting for years the significance of exposure to airborne pesticides. There has never been an adequate exposure assessment in the UK or the EU for the long-term exposure of people who live near regularly sprayed fields.'
The British Crop Protection Association and its U.S. counterpart, CropLife America, said any evidence of a link to Parkinson's disease was 'conflicting and inconsistent'. It said the condition was first diagnosed in 1817, which is well before pesticides were invented. 'We think the results of this study are preliminary at best,' said CropLife. 'They have seen effects in rats. We don't think they have any data that would link disease (effects) to humans.'
from Environment Writer
August 4, 2006
http://www.environmentwriter.org/resources/qa/0706_myers.htm
An interview with Pete Myers and Environmental Health News looks at trends in environmental health news reporting over the last three years. Read the full interview at http://www.environmentwriter.org/resources/qa/0706_myers.htm
from the Breast Cancer Fund
2006
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=206137
Breast cancer rates have been climbing steadily in the United States and other industrialized countries since the 1940s, amounting to more than one million cases per year worldwide. In the United States, a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer has nearly tripled during the past four decades. Less than one out of every 10 cases occurs in women born with a genetic predisposition for the disease, and as many as half of all breast cancers occur in women who have no known risk factors for the disease.
This State of the Evidence report demonstrates that a significant body of scientific evidence links exposure to radiation and synthetic chemicals to an increased risk of breast cancer. It summarizes the findings of more than 350 experimental, epidemiologic and ecological studies and describes some of the ongoing controversies in breast cancer research. The report recommends new directions for future research and includes a 10-point plan to act on the evidence and reduce human exposure to radiation and synthetic chemicals. This plan is based primarily on the precautionary principle, which in part states that indication of harm, not just proof of harm, is grounds for action.
To download the report or the executive summary, please visit http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=206137 .
