5&5: News and Science Highlights from January 2012

US FDA advice on food colour safety illustrates divide in how to evaluate bodies of evidence. A detailed explanation of how to determine effects on health of an environmental exposure, in the form of a critique of the US FDA evaluation of the safety of artificial food colours, but of strong general interest. Note the resulting correspondence (FDA defence and author response), which serves as an excellent example of what the author describes as “the wide gulf” between FDA interpretations of weight of evidence, and meaningful action to protect public health, with the “FDA essentially [taking] the position that for a study to be considered as evidence of adverse effects, it must be totally free of uncertainties.”

Breast, ovarian and cervical cancer tumour growth, and the flame retardant Deca-BDE. Study showing that PBDE-209 (deca-BDE) can influence a number of biological pathways involved in breast cancer tumour growth, promoting proliferation of various cancer cells, reducing the effect of some cell suicide mechanisms apoptosis, and up-regulating production of some cancer-related proteins. Deca-BDE is one of the most-common flame retardants found in food.

Pros and cons of oily fish consumption: better lipid profile, but more mercury and inflammatory markers. In a clear example of the pros and cons of eating healthy food, this study finds that although children who eat fish have a significantly improved lipid profile, they also have higher levels of blood mercury. Since the blood mercury levels were associated with markers for systemic inflammation, the authors  conclude it is “impossible [to perform] a risk-benefit analysis of fish consumption”.

Ubiquitous exposure to personal-care phthalates and BPA associated with increased body mass, obesity. A prospective study, in which 97% of the study participants were exposed, finds that children who are more exposed to phthalates typically found in personal care products are heavier. A large, cross-sectional Chinese study finds an association between BPA exposure and abdominal obesity; and Fred vom Saal publishes a paper reviewing how EDC exposure during foetal development causes abnormalities in the homeostatic control systems required for maintaining a normal body weight throughout life.

Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Children Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds. JAMA study finding an association between higher exposures to PFCs and reduced humoral immune response to routine childhood immunizations. Nature reported on the study, quoting the lead author as saying: “The effect in PFCs was much stronger than we had seen for PCBs. It’s likely this is going to be a programming effect that is going to stay with these kids for their whole lifetimes.”

Connecting the Dots: Why It’s So Hard to Pin Down Environmental Causes of Cancer. A US magazine for cancer patients looks at why it’s hard to find the causes of the range of diseases which is cancer.

Sweden worried by triclosan-treated worktops. Kitchen worktops impregnated with the biocide triclosan could pose a risk to the environment and human health when thrown away, Sweden fears. Regulators in the country are examining the need for new labelling and waste rules.

EPA dioxin limits: will food politics trump science? The US food industry is worried a new Environmental Protection Agency review of safe exposure levels for dioxins could deem the average American diet dangerous. This story is of general importance not only because the EPA dioxin review is likely to have international significance, it seems the level which the EPA will set as safe could be based in politics as much as in science. The NRDC provides a two-art commentary (Part 1 | Part 2) of what has been happening behind the scenes.

Researcher Frederick vom Saal wants bans on BPA, endocrine disruptors. Interesting and comprehensive account of the work of scientist and environmental advocate Frederick vom Saal, about his research on endocrine disrupting chemicals and his conviction that chemicals policy fails to tally with scientific evidence of potential harm.

New conflicts of interest at EU food safety authority. Le Monde: In French, but an important report on findings that an EU expert working group convened to advise the European Food Safety Authority on an initiative to reduce toxicological testing of chemicals is composed almost entirely of researchers with a publishing history favouring the initiative which they are supposed to be evaluating.

5&5: News and science highlights from December 2011

View our full archive of over 1500 news stories and studies at: http://delicious.com/contaminanthealthscience

News

Metastatic Breast Cancer in Pleural Fluid. Picture: Flickr / Ed Uthman

What role does the environment play in cancer risk? In December, two reports were published on the effect which environmental and lifestyle factors might have on overall risk of cancer and on breast cancer specifically. The complexity of the issues presented a stern challenge to media coverage; here we have collated the best articles and commentary.

7 Foods You Should Never Eat. Fox News asks food scientists about what they would completely avoid in their diet. An eye-opening article which is nowhere near as hysterical as it sounds.

Runaway Growth: Forty years into the “War on Cancer,” casualties are mounting. “Most reports on the upcoming 40th anniversary of the War on Cancer will counter disappointment that cancer remains uncured with tidings of new gene-based therapies. You’re unlikely to hear that you have more chance of getting cancer than when the War on Cancer began.” One article in an excellent 4-part series explaining many of the issues facing those concerned with cancer prevention. Other articles are:

• Soft-Pedalling Prevention. “It’s hard to believe we’d need to argue that preventing illness is preferable to trying to cure it. It’s as if we’d abandoned sewage-treatment systems because we have antibiotics for cholera.”
• Gauging the danger posed by carcinogens. “Our environmental regulatory system requires no rigorous toxicological testing of chemicals [before] marketing them. It promulgates legal limits on [individual] chemical releases, largely overlooking that we are all exposed to trace amounts of many contaminants. It is still no one’s job to make sure that the total burden of toxic exposures is not too much for any one of us.”
• Coming Clean: Can we solve the problem of carcinogens in the environment? With cancer now 50 percent more common than when President Nixon launched the US “war on cancer” in 1971, there’s mounting evidence of how such chemicals affect health — and a few ideas what to do about it.

US Tox21 to begin screening 10,000 chemicals. The US NIEHS has formally begun testing the toxicity of 10,000 compounds under its revolutionary ToxCast/Tox21 program, a high-speed robotic screening system. The compounds include consumer products, food additives and industrial chemicals, and will also test mixture toxicity.

Relative Risk, One Result at a Time. American Scientist neatly summarises some of the emerging issues around chemical pollution, including mixture effects, endocrine disruption and the possibility that even very low doses of substances might cause harm.

Science

Immunotoxicity of Perfluorinated Compounds: Recent Developments. Review finding that “risk of immune effects for humans and wildlife exposed to PFCs cannot be discounted, especially when bioaccumulation and exposure to multiple PFCs are considered”.

Visual of the Month: Application of computational systems biology to explore environmental toxicity hazards. Disease–chemical associations network, from a DDT-based case-study investigating the usefulness of computational systems biology in ascertaining links between exposure to an environmental pollutant and adverse health effects.

“The circles represent diseases, with colors representing phenotype categories: red, reproductive disorders; blue, neurodevelopmental-related diseases; green, cancers; gray, other diseases. Rectangles represent the three chemicals studied. The heavier the weight of the connecting lines, the greater the number of proteins linking a chemical to a disease.” (Adouze & Grandjean, 2011) Click to enlarge.

Prenatal Exposure to PCBs and DDE and Birth Weight: A Meta-analysis within 12 European Birth Cohorts. The results of this analysis of grouped data suggest that current exposures to PCBs – while generally lower than 40 years ago – are still harmful to the growing fetus. EHN provides a synopsis here.

Dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations in mother’s serum and the timing of pubertal onset in sons. This epidemiological study finds an association between maternal PCB serum concentrations and acceleration in some, but not all, measures of pubertal onset. Animal studies have previously demonstrated that timing of pubertal onset can be altered by prenatal exposure to dioxins and PCBs.

Cancer from foetal exposure to a carcinogen depends on the size and timing of the dose. Animal study finding that the same carcinogen will cause different cancers later in life, depending on the stage of pregnancy when the foetus is exposed and how big the dose is. Synopsis at ScienceDaily.

5&5: News and science highlights from November 2011

News

For our full news archive, visit: http://delicious.com/contaminanthealthscience/News

Exposure Science and the Exposome: An Opportunity for Coherence in the Environmental Health Sciences: Exposure scientists Lioy and Rappaport describe how studying the “exposome” could be a major boon to research in environmental health, allowing quicker identification of potentially harmful agents, and deeper and more directed study of what those agents are.

Anti-PVC push in health care grows: The American Public Health Association this week passed a resolution urging facilities such as hospitals, schools and nursing homes reduce the amount of PVC they use, especially with phthalates.

EU Food Safety Authority finds compliance with pesticide rules is increasing: A report which needs to be understood in context. Although residues of individual pesticides are decreasing, the total number of pesticide residues is increasing (see this chart by PAN Europe), potentially resulting in a net increase in pesticide residues on food. The total toxicity of this mix is not a factor in assessing residue safety.

Survey asks women if they know what’s in their makeup and hygiene products: A survey of 1,000 Portland women found they generally trust the cosmetic products they use – even though didn’t know what was in them and believe there may be health risks associated with their use.

Regulatory development of the month: MEPs call for more action from EFSA on BPA. Members of the European Parliament grilled Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, executive director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), about how the agency plans to tackle the potential dangers associated with bisphenol A (BPA). For our full archive of regulatory developments, visit: http://delicious.com/contaminanthealthscience/Regulation

Science

For our full science archive, visit: http://delicious.com/contaminanthealthscience/Science

Prenatal Concentrations of PCBs, DDE, DDT and Overweight in Children. Prospective epidemiological study suggesting that prenatal organochlorine exposures may be associated with overweight in children and makes boys in particular more susceptible to weight gain from a high-fat diet.

In Favor of Controlling Proven, but Not Probable, Causes of Cancer. Nuanced and thoughtful exchange about the value of expanding cancer prevention efforts beyond agents which definitely cause cancer to also include measures to limit exposure to probable carcinogens. Position in favour of status quo; position in favour of expansion.

Perfluorinated compounds are related to breast cancer risk in Greenlandic Inuit: An extraordinary increase in breast cancer has been observed in the Inuit population of Greenland and Canada. Here, researchers observe for the first time a significant association between serum PFC levels and the risk of BC in Greenlandic Inuit.

The Emerging Role of EDCS in Insulin Resistance: Implicating Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Evaluation of whether or not EDCs may play a role in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, a condition related to insulin resistance and apparently affecting 30-45% of the western population.

Next-generation brominated flame retardants found in Nordic environment: Researchers have found emerging flame retardants, increasingly used since the phase-out of PBDEs, in samples from all environmental media collected in the Nordic region.