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.

5&5: News and Science Highlights from October 2011

NEWS

Breast cancer: Any link to pollutants remains hazy: Detailed article in the LA Times about suspicions that incidence of breast cancer is influenced by environmental pollutants. There is strong evidence from animal studies, but finding proof in humans is challenging: latency periods, unknown exposures and combined multiple risk factors all muddy the waters.

Advising parents in the face of scientific uncertainty: an environmental health dilemma: Excellent, in-depth article about how to communicate environmental health issues to parents. On the one hand, these threats may be the least of some people’s worries (and their doctors’ as well). On the other, these issues can be a source of great concern, even though the potential health effects involved for individuals are far from certain.

EFSA announces new review of safety of BPA: The European Food Safety Authority has announced a fresh review of its opinion on the safety of BPA, following the publication of two reports preceding a French National Assembly vote banning “the fabrication, import, export and placing on the market of all food contact materials containing BPA from 1 January 2014”.

Philadelphia becomes hotbed of autism research: Interesting article about research being undertaken to obtain more information about how the environment may trigger autism, important in the context of recent findings that the disease is not as dependent on genetics as previously thought.

Two New Reasons to Worry about Air Pollution: Obesity and Diabetes: Forbes looks at how arguments against tighter controls on air pollution begin to unravel in the face of a spate of new studies that have found a rather convincing correlation between the presence of small particulate matter and both obesity and diabetes.

SCIENCE

Perinatal exposure to BPA increases adult mammary gland progesterone response and cell number: Mice exposed around birth to environmentally relevant doses of bisphenol A (BPA) experience changes to long-term hormone response and breast development which may increase the propensity to develop cancer. Study summarised in ScienceDaily.

Impact of Early-Life Bisphenol A Exposure on Behavior and Executive Function in Children: In this study, published in the medical journal Pediatrics, gestational BPA exposure was found to affect behavioural and emotional regulation domains at 3 years of age, especially among girls. The findings were covered by TIME, while a mouse study also published in October found further evidence that BPA may cause behaviour change.

In utero exposure to bisphenol-A and anogenital distance of male offspring: Ano-genital distance is becoming an increasingly well-recognised biomarker of harm to the male reproductive system. This epidemiological study found that a highly significant relationship between maternal exposure to BPA and reduced AGD in their sons.

Chronic consumption of farmed salmon containing persistent organic pollutants causes insulin resistance and obesity in mice: Study finding that mice fed on a diet high in salmon contaminated with POPs were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and become obese, providing further evidence of a role for POPs in these conditions. Farmed fish can be relatively heavily contaminated with POPs, mainly because of contaminated feed. EHN published a synopsis of these findings.

Prenatal Concentrations of PCBs, DDE, DDT and Overweight in Children: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study: This epidemiological study finds that prenatal organochlorine exposure may be associated with overweight in children, in particular making them more susceptible to weight gain from a high-fat diet.

5&5: News and science highlights from September 2011

For daily updates on the latest news and science about how chemicals affect health and developments in chemicals policy, visit our archives on delicious (now containing over 1,300 links to scientific studies and news stories): http://delicious.com/contaminanthealthscience

News

Safety testing. New screen IDs vascular system’s chemical enemies: Cell-based tests can predict with a high success rate if chemicals will damage the developing vessels that carry blood throughout the body, according to research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The laboratory tests are being developed and refined as a way to allow more rapid testing of chemical safety and to reduce the use of animals in toxicity testing of chemicals.

Chemicals Policy. American Medical Association – Time for new policy on environmental risk: The attention surrounding problems associated with bisphenol A is but an indication that more needs to be done to assess the risk of chemicals in the environment, says the AMA in a call for “a national, modern and comprehensive policy”. Such an approach “require[s] a full evaluation of the health impacts of newly developed chemicals and those now in use”.

Green chemistry. Are Flame Retardants Safe? Growing Evidence Says ‘No’: Solid overview of the use of halogenated flame retardants, industry’s reliance on them for preventing oil-based materials from burning (some estimate that 1/3 of the weight of plastics in aeroplanes is deca-BDE), and the potential alternatives.

BPA. Bisphenol A: ANSES issues call to reduce exposure of the most susceptible populations: The French food safety agency ANSES has contradicted EFSA’s position on BPA, concluding from its own review of the evidence that “wherever it may be replaced, it must be done,” and “immediately in materials in contact with food.” Unlike EFSA, AMSES appears to regard evidence of toxicity in animals as sufficient for limiting human exposure; EFSA generally dismisses animal data unless it can be interpreted into a TDI calculation.

Disease Prevention. Scientists and health professionals urge UN to tackle non-communicable diseases: In an open letter, more than 100 scientists, health professionals, civil society representatives and other stakeholders, led by Dr Annie J Sasco and André Cicolella from France, urge the UN and WHO to tackle the challenge of non-communicable diseases by global action, especially in low-and-medium income countries, including environmental health factors and occupational disease prevention.

Science

Interpreting Evidence. Bisphenol a and adult disease: making sense of fragmentary data and competing inferences: Discussion of Chinese epidemiological research which did not find a dose-response relationship between BPA exposure and incidence of diabetes, including limitations of the study, how to interpret the fragmented data we have on BPA, and the direction research needs to go to provide clearer answers.

Diabetes. Consumption of POPs via Farmed Salmon Causes Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Mice: Study indicating “that intake of farmed salmon fillet contributes to several metabolic disorders linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity, and suggest a role of POPs in these deleterious effects.” Fish feeds based on fish oil are heavily contaminated with POPs, and this study adds to evidence that POPs play a role in obesity and diabetes.

Endocrine disruption. Environmental endocrine disruptors and endocrine diseases in children: A French medical review of the mechanisms by which EDCs may cause harm and why they are such a cause of concern. “The impact of EEDs depends on their number and on the period and duration of exposure. […] Environmental endocrine disruptors are a major public health concern as is confirmed by the mobilization of international health agencies on the matter.”

Thyroid. Monitoring of PBDEs concentration in umbilical cord blood and breast milk from Korean population: This study of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in umbilical cord blood and breast milk from a Korean population have found exposure levels to be similar to those in Europe, and also identified a link to increased levels of thyroid hormone.

Flame Retardants. Not enough data to risk assess 50% of flame retardant substances in consumer products in domestic environments: For 22 of the 42 flame retardants currently in use in domestic goods, there is not enough data to allow a REACH risk assessment to be prepared, finds this EU study.