To join the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) and the LDDI Working Group, please complete the form at http://www.healthandenvironment.org/roles/register?&phase=registerform. Be sure to mark that you want to join the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative Working Group at the bottom of the application.
1) LDDI's next national quarterly call is scheduled for Tuesday, March 20th at 2:00 p.m. EDT. We will discuss the priorities that emerged in the break-out session at the NCSE meeting in Washington, DC, in early February since they all relate to the work of LDDI members. The purpose of this call would be to discern which of these priorities attracts the most interest of the diverse sectors represented in LDDI. We will then discuss what steps we might take collectively. For those of you who will be attending the LDDI national conference in Atlanta May 10-11th, (please see below), we will then have an opportunity to delve more deeply into how to coordinate our work more effectively on the priorities we choose. A reminder and call-in information will be sent closer to the time.
2) LDDI's National Conference 2007, "Priming for Prevention: An Ecological Approach to Research, Education and Policy" will be held May 10-11, 2007, at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Former US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, among other distinguished speakers, will be presenting at this conference. Check out our new conference brochure and register now on our website: http://www.iceh.org/LDDImeetings.html. Please note the updated agenda at http://www.iceh.org/pdfs/LDDI/LDDINatlAgenda2007.pdf. Some of the sessions have been moved to different times. In addition, we are very pleased that Sandra Steingraber, PhD, has joined our list of distinguished guest faculty and will speak on her new research, "Consequences of Early Puberty in U.S. Girls -- Implications for Learning."
For information about events, please visit our searchable calendar of events at http://www.iceh.org/calendar.html.
March 12, 2007
7:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Concord, California
at Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District Offices, 155 Mason Circle
Join Parents for a Safer Environment (PfSE) when concerns on ineffectiveness of truck-based and aerial pesticide spraying and the risks to public health and the environment are presented to the CCMVCD’s Board of Directors. Show by your presence, that risks of adulticiding to public health and the environment must be considered particularly when there is lack of evidence that adulticiding is effective.
Website: http://www.pfse.net
Contact: Susan JunFish, 925-283-4609 or junfishpfse@hotmail.com
March 16, 2007
7:30 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Houston, Texas
at the Denton A. Cooley Auditorium at the Texas Heart Institute, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, 6770 Bertner Avenue
This activity addresses a number of needs, including environmental health challenges specific to the Gulf Coast, paucity of pediatric environmental health research and educational programs in Gulf Coast region, lack of training in environmental health hazards and disease in children among primary care health professionals and teachers, lack of programs to prevent exposure to environmental health hazards, articulated desire of regional health professionals for accurate and useful environmental health information, articulated desire of physicians, teachers, and others for specific tools for diagnosing and treating children who have been exposed to environmental hazards, lack of training among health care professionals to be advocates for environmental health in children, and desire for practical actions that make a difference.
Website: http://envirohealthhouston.org/symposium07/
Contact: Tamara Greiner, 713-798-8237 or tgreiner@bcm.edu
The Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative welcomes these new members:
Organizational members:
Individual members:
For a full list of LDDI members, please visit http://www.iceh.org/LDDImembers.html.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is accepting proposals to build capacity to address environmental health issues during the prenatal period. The objectives for this solicitation are to (1) increase the capacity of health professionals to address environmental health hazards during pregnancy and (2) ensure that pregnant women have access to information that will help them take actions to reduce environmental exposures.
EPA intends for these grants to develop effective mechanisms to educate pregnant women about environmental health risks, to demonstrate the effectiveness of information dissemination and behavioral change that results in reducing these risks, and to increase the number of health professionals who are fluent in prenatal environmental health issues. EPA expects that such demonstration projects will be adaptable to multiple audiences. EPA intends to award up to 3 grants for a total of approximately $200,000-$300,000. To be considered, all proposals must address both phases of this project: (1) provide outreach and education on environmental health issues to pregnant women and health care providers, and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of the outreach and education to both audiences.
For more information and deadlines, please see http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/finalprenatalsolicitation2%2026%2007_10.htm/$file/finalprenatalsolicitation2%2026%2007_6.pdf.
by Josh Goldstein, Philadelphia Inquirer
March 6, 2007
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/16841956.htm
Most children treated at major pediatric hospitals are given medicines not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in patients so young.
Article Summary: A study in today's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found that the sickest children and those undergoing surgery were most likely to get a so-called off-label drug (in this study, drugs given to children younger than the age established by the FDA). But altogether, nearly 80 percent of the children cared for at academic children's hospitals got at least one medicine outside the age parameters approved by the FDA. Researchers examined 90 commonly used drugs ranging from ibuprofen and morphine to dopamine and albuterol. Although their work was confined to hospitalized children, it comes just days after the FDA announced that it was reviewing the safety and effectiveness of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines in infants and toddlers. One problem is that children and adults don't metabolize drugs in the same way, said Donald Mattison, who heads a program at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development that has identified nearly 50 medicines whose use in children most merits further study. The problem is not limited to hospitals. In 2002, Congress mandated that federal agencies identify those medicines whose use in children most merited further research.
from BBC News
March 5, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6411351.stm
US scientists discovered a brain structure involved with memory and emotion had shrunk in children with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A withered hippocampus may make a child less able to deal with stress and raise anxiety, Pediatrics journal reports. The children in the study also had higher blood levels of a stress hormone called cortisol, which has been shown to kill hippocampal cells in animals. This could set up a vicious cycle, where high cortisol causes more hippocampal damage, which in turn raises the anxiety.
Article Summary: Lead researcher Victor Carrion at the Stanford University Medical Center said stress had to be extreme to cause the damage. The 15 children he and his team studied all had PTSD as a result of physical, emotional or sexual abuse, witnessing violence or experiencing lasting separation and loss. Carrion warned that "The major question is whether the smaller hippocampus is a predictor of PTSD or a consequence." He said a study in war veterans with PTSD suggested a smaller hippocampus predisposes to PTSD, not the other way round.
by Tom Avril, Philadelphia Inquirer
March 5, 2007
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16835817.htm
submitted to this bulletin by Ted Schettler, MD, MPH
For parents who live in older homes with lead-based paint, doctors urge special vigilance when the children are young, crawling on dusty floors, and sticking their fingers in their mouths. But in a new, five-year study of children from four cities, including Philadelphia, researchers reinforce the notion that the time for concern doesn't stop with toddlerhood. Seven-year-olds with higher levels of the toxic metal in their blood were more likely to suffer IQ deficits, and independently, they were also more likely to exhibit behavior problems such as aggression -- an area that has not received as much study. The study appears in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics. There was no apparent connection between the children's lead levels at age 2 and their bad behavior five years later. That suggests at least part of the problem at age 7 is continued exposure into the early years of elementary school, said study coauthor Jerilynn Radcliffe, a researcher and psychologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Article Summary: The study highlights a tragedy that continues to bedevil the public-health system decades after lead was banned in paint and gasoline. Millions of older homes contain underlying layers of lead-based paint, which becomes a problem if it flakes and releases dust. Experts have blamed lead for a range of ills, from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children to criminal behavior later in life. The new study was unusual in the steps taken to tease out behavioral impacts that were directly linked to lead exposure, as opposed to behavior problems that were simply the result of having a lower IQ.
by Carey Goldberg, Boston Globe
March 5, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2007/03/05/can_babies_be_protected_from_alcoholic_moms/
submitted to this bulletin by Ted Schettler, MD, MPH
New research in animals suggests that the sins of the mother won't inevitably be visited on the child. Even if a pregnant woman drinks heavily -- despite 25 years of warnings not to -- it may be possible to offset some of the alcohol's toxic effects on her baby's brain after she gives birth. In newborn rats that were fed alcohol to simulate a binge-drinking mother, the alcohol did less damage to memory functions and behavior if the infant rats were given supplements of choline, a nutrient found naturally in such foods as eggs and liver, researchers reported last week in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.
Article Summary: Though most of the 4 million American women who give birth each year drink little, if any, alcohol during pregnancy, an estimated 125,000 continue to drink heavily. Such drinking often results in an array of symptoms known as fetal alcohol syndrome. The baby's facial features may be subtly abnormal; size and weight may fall well below average; and brain effects can range from retardation to hyperactivity. Drinking during pregnancy is considered "the leading known preventable cause of mental retardation and birth defects," said Tom Donaldson , president of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Last week's study is the first to show that choline -- even given after birth -- might be able to reduce some of the adverse behavioral effects of early alcohol exposure. Study author Jennifer Thomas of San Diego State University is often asked whether pregnant women who drink should take extra choline, or whether the parents of babies with fetal alcohol damage should add choline to the babies' diets. It is simply too early to answer those questions, she said, and she lacks data to determine what the correct doses of choline would be for humans.
[Editor's note: A similar article summarizing possible protective effects of turmeric on lead poisoning in rats was submitted to this bulletin by Jackie Lombardo: http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/feb/science/rc_tasty.html.]
by Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times
March 4, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chemicals4mar04,0,3004664.story
For nearly a decade, a federal agency has been responsible for assessing the dangers that chemicals pose to reproductive health. But much of the agency's work has been conducted by a private consulting company that has close ties to the chemical industry, including manufacturers of a compound in plastics that has been linked to reproductive damage. In 1998, the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction was established within the National Institutes of Health to assess the dangers of chemicals and help determine which ones should be regulated. Sciences International, an Alexandria, Va., consulting firm that has been funded by more than 50 industrial companies, has played a key role in the center's activities, reviewing the risks of chemicals, preparing reports, and helping select members of its scientific review panel and setting their agendas, according to government and company documents. The company produces the first draft of the center's reports on the risks of chemicals, including a new one on bisphenol A, a widely used compound in polycarbonate plastic food containers, including baby bottles, as well as lining for food cans.
Article Summary: The Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction is considered important to public health because people are exposed to hundreds of chemicals that have been shown to skew the reproductive systems of newborn lab animals and could be causing similar damage in humans. Sciences International is involved in management and plays a principal scientific investigative role at the federal center. Robin Mackar, a spokeswoman for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which oversees the reproductive center, said Sciences International "has worked for the center since 1998 without any problems" and has participated in reports on 17 chemicals. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) in a Wednesday letter called for an explanation of Sciences International's role and disclosure of its potential conflicts of interest before the panel convenes Monday.
The role of Sciences International in the federal center's work came to the attention of Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on environmental health, last month after some scientists who saw the report on BPA complained that it was biased toward the industry's position that low doses have no effect. Debate over BPA is one of the most contentious environmental health issues faced by government and industry. Traces are found in the bodies of nearly all Americans tested, and low levels -- similar to amounts that can leach from infant and water bottles -- mimic estrogen and have caused genetic changes in animals that lead to prostate cancer, as well as decreased testosterone, low sperm counts and signs of early female puberty, according to more than 100 government-funded studies. About a dozen industry-funded studies found no effects. Shelby, the center's director, in a late February memo to the Environmental Working Group, said Sciences International reviews the scientific literature on chemicals and writes the basic reports, but that conclusions are prepared by the center's panel of independent scientists, which "serves to minimize or eliminate any bias that might possibly be introduced by the contractor."
[Editor's note: See a related article at http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0703040542mar04,1,7253686.column?ctrack=1&cset=true.]
by Rick Weiss, Washington Post
March 2, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030101495.html
The Agriculture Department has given a preliminary green light for the first commercial production of a food crop engineered to contain human genes, reigniting fears that biomedically potent substances in high-tech plants could escape and turn up in other foods. The plan, confirmed yesterday by the California biotechnology company leading the effort, calls for large-scale cultivation in Kansas of rice that produces human immune system proteins in its seeds. The proteins are to be extracted for use as an anti-diarrhea medicine and might be added to health foods such as yogurt and granola bars. "We can really help children with diarrhea get better faster. That is the idea," said Scott E. Deeter, president and chief executive of Sacramento-based Ventria Bioscience, emphasizing that a host of protections should keep the engineered plants and their seeds from escaping into surrounding fields.
Article Summary: Ventria has developed three varieties of rice, each endowed with a different human gene that makes the plants produce one of three human proteins. A recent company-sponsored study done in Peru concluded that children with severe diarrhea recovered a day and a half faster if the salty fluids they were prescribed were spiked with the proteins. Deeter said production in plants is far cheaper than other methods, which should help make the therapy affordable in the developing world, where severe diarrhea kills 2 million children each year. Critics are assailing the effort, saying gene-altered plants inevitably migrate out of their home plots. In this case, they said, that could result in pharmacologically active proteins showing up in the food of unsuspecting consumers. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science policy advocacy group, even though the proteins are not inherently dangerous, there would be little control over the doses people might get exposed to, and some might be allergic to the proteins. Deeter said that Ventria Bioscience has taken steps to ensure that the modified rice will not escape or be mixed with other food crops. Because no other rice is grown in Kansas and because rice can grow only in flooded areas, the risk of escape or cross-fertilization with other rice plants is nil there. The company will mill virtually all the seeds on site -- using dedicated equipment -- to minimize the risk of seeds getting mistakenly released or sold. On Wednesday, the Agriculture Department published its draft environmental assessment, which concluded that the project posed no undue risks. The public can comment until March 30. Recent revelations about unintended contamination of food crops with genetically engineered rice and corn undermine the USDA's credibility, critics said.
by Tom Meersman, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
March 1, 2007
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1031712.html
Chemicals formerly manufactured by the 3M Co. and found in groundwater in the metro area are potentially more dangerous than previously believed, according to state health officials on Thursday. The Minnesota Department of Health revised its recommended maximum concentrations of PFOA and PFOS, two chemicals found in the city wells of Oakdale and more than 200 private wells in Lake Elmo during the past three years.
Article Summary: Acceptable values for the chemicals PFOA and PFOS were lowered after ongoing laboratory research around the country showed that exposure to the chemicals was affecting the liver and thyroid functions in various monkeys and that it appears to be causing developmental problems in mice. The Health Department decided that the health-based value for PFOA should be lowered from 1.0 parts per billion to 0.5 parts per billion, and for PFOS from 0.6 parts per billion to 0.3 parts per billion. An Environmental Protection Agency scientific panel recommended last year that PFOA be classified as a likely carcinogen. The values are concentrations that health officials believe pose virtually no risk if consumed over a lifetime. Last November, EPA lowered its "drinking water action level" for PFOA to 0.5 parts per billion for a groundwater cleanup plan in West Virginia that involved DuPont, which also used the chemical. The Health Department did not propose to change its guideline for PFBA, which is believed to be less toxic than PFOA, Stine said. The current well advisory guideline for PFBA will remain at 1 part per billion, he said, which is protective even for those who may drink extra water, such as pregnant women, nursing mothers and small children.
by Matt Shipman, Inside EPA
March 1, 2007
http://insideepa.com/secure/docnum.asp?f=epa_2001.ask&docnum=312007_data
A key House lawmaker is pushing legislation to ensure that EPA and other agencies gather health effects, exposure and other data necessary to address concerns that pollution is disproportionately harming low-income and minority communities. Risk experts say the data is critical for environmental justice groups pushing policymakers to do more to limit communities¹ exposure to harmful pollution, in part because a recent report from environmental justice groups showing minorities¹ proximity to hazardous waste sites does not provide sufficient data to estimate health risks.
Article Summary: Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) earlier this year introduced H.R. 398, a bill intended to fill current data gaps on environmental health effects in low-income communities that could be used by EPA to make environmental justice determinations, a Solis staffer says. The Solis staffer says H.R. 398 seeks to create programs to collect cumulative data on health effects and exposure pathways in environmental justice communities in order to "inform regulatory decision-making at EPA." A second Solis staffer adds that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has said he will introduce identical legislation in the Senate, but that Obama is currently looking for a Republican co-sponsor. The bill would establish an interagency working group (IWG) that would be charged with, among other things, crafting a federal research agenda to support data collection and evaluation related to environmental health concerns.
by Jane Akre, Common Ground
March 2007
http://www.commongroundmag.com:80/2007/03/plastichassle.html
Article Summary: Cheap, durable and convenient, plastic has been the country's chosen miracle-material since World War II. When added to polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the petroleum-based industrial chemicals in plastic -- chief among them plasticizers such as phthalates -- make our upholstery comfier and our pipes more flexible. To keep up with the world's affection for all things plasticized, the U.S. produces a billion pounds of phthalates a year. Today, phthalates are one of the top offenders in a group of 70 suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we spray in our homes and yards and use in our makeup, nail polish, detergents, flame retardants, plastic bottles, metal food cans and even children's toys. When we're done with these products, we flush them down our sinks or burn them in our incinerators, where their runoff filters into our national waterways. Even if you eschew plasticized products in your personal lives, it's impossible to avoid contamination; EDCs are in the bodies of every man, woman, child and fetus in the U.S. EDCs are thought to profoundly affect one of the body's main communication networks -- the endocrine system -- by either mimicking natural hormones or blocking their uptake to the body's receptor sites. Short-circuiting hormones can disturb everything from human development and behavior to reproduction and immunity. And scientists believe even the tiniest hormone variation at certain critical points in fetal development can have a profound effect on a child's future health. Beyond EDCs, public waterways are contaminated with growth hormones and antibiotics from cattle feed, residual hormones from birth control products and other medicines, waste chemicals and pharmaceuticals. These substances can pass intact into the water supply through conventional sewage treatment facilities, dumps and landfills, or wash off into surface water and even percolate into ground water from animal waste fertilizers contaminated with traces of such compounds.
The publication of zoologist Theo Colborn's Our Stolen Future concerned Congress enough that it ordered the EPA to create a screening system for endocrine disruptors. The resulting 1996 Food Quality Protection Act was the most ambitious toxicology program ever conceived. Yet so far, the EPA hasn't conducted a single test. The EPA, citing technical difficulties and facing a proposed budget cut, predicts it will be 2009 before it establishes a testing protocol. Meanwhile, the agency approves about 700 new chemicals a year, relying on the manufacturer's assurances for safety. As scientists continue to tackle testing our chemically saturated environment, EDC damage to human health is likely to rank up with cancer as the environmentally induced medical concern of our time. Meanwhile, you can take action by pressuring your local officials and reject the plastic world in favor of the real deal.
[Editor's note: A related article is published at http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-11/117315996466490.xml&coll=1.]
by Erika Engelhaupt, Environmental Science & Technology
February 28, 2007
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/feb/science/ee_perchlorate.html
Perchlorate, found nearly everywhere, has become a fiery topic over the past few years. The chemical, which occurs both naturally and as a residue from explosives and rocket fuel, interferes with thyroid function and is particularly dangerous to children.
Article Summary: In research published today, a team led by Neil Sturchio of the University of Illinois Chicago reports on advances in perchlorate fingerprinting that could help resolve some hot debates surrounding the chemical's origin. Communities with perchlorate contamination want to know where it came from and who is responsible for cleaning it up, and isotopes can help answer those questions. The technique developed by Sturchio's group is a step toward identifying sources of perchlorate. Eventually, Sturchio's team hopes to be able to pinpoint a particular manufacturer. "They're not there yet, but this is a critical step," says Jackson.
by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston [West Virginia] Gazette
February 28, 2007
http://wvgazette.com/section/News/2007022821?pt=10
Federal investigators are continuing a criminal probe into DuPont Co.'s handling of issues surrounding the toxic chemical C8, the company said in a new financial filing. Prosecutors have subpoenaed several former DuPont employees to testify about the matter before a federal grand jury, DuPont said in the new filing. That adds to DuPont's previous disclosure in May 2005 that the company had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice for records about C8.
Article Summary: For years, C8 -- and DuPont's emissions of it -- have been basically unregulated. But in the past few years, C8 has come under increased scrutiny. Fueled in large part by internal DuPont documents uncovered by lawyers for Wood County residents, the EPA has begun a detailed review of the chemical and sued DuPont for allegedly hiding information about C8's dangers. C8 is another name for perfluorooctanoate, and is also known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. At its Washington Works plan south of Parkersburg, DuPont has used C8 for more than 50 years, most notably in the production of Teflon. Glenn R. Evers, a former DuPont engineer, has argued publicly that DuPont covered up the dangers of C8 leaching from paper food packaging. Before going public in November 2005, Evers testified in a deposition that DuPont discovered in a 1966 study that chemicals like C8 could be transferred to food if they are used as package coatings. Allegations have also surfaced that DuPont had water tests that showed C8 in residential water supplies in concentrations greater than the company's internal limit, that at least one pregnant worker from the Parkersburg plant had transferred the chemical from her body to her fetus, and that it covered up the results of one study that found troublesome levels of C8 in the blood of non-plant workers who live near the Washington Works plant.
by Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle
February 28, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/28/BAGFUOCKIU1.DTL
Toys and child care products that contain certain chemicals would be banned in California under a bill introduced Tuesday by a San Francisco assemblywoman. Democrat Fiona Ma's "toxic toy" bill, which mirrors a San Francisco law, would ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of the products beginning in 2009 if they contain bisphenol A. The chemical is a building block of hard, polycarbonate plastic. The legislation would also limit chemicals called phthalates, which soften polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, in products intended for children 3 and under. Environmental groups support the bill; chemical manufacturers and some toymakers and retailers oppose it.
Article Summary: Bisphenol A, a chemical that mimics estrogen, is also used in liners of food cans, some anti-cavity sealants for children and electronics. Activist group Environment California released results of a test it ordered from an independent lab, which found that name-brand baby bottles leach bisphenol A. Those test results are consistent with other data showing new polycarbonate bottles leach small amounts of bisphenol A in levels that have caused abnormalities in the mammary and prostate glands and the female eggs of laboratory animals. Animal tests also show bisphenol A can speed up puberty and add to weight gain. Steve Hentges, an industry spokesman at the American Chemistry Council, criticized the tests ordered by Environment California and performed at the University of Missouri, one of the few labs that can do the tests. The tests didn't adequately simulate the real use of bottles and the exposure to babies, he said. In any case, the leached amounts were low, he said. Pat Hunt, a biosciences professor at Washington State University at Pullman who has studied the effects of bisphenol A on lab animals, countered that the simulation used in the test contracted by Environment California was appropriate. There is no single protocol for the leach tests, she said. Consumers heat, wash and store liquid in the bottles in many different ways. Frederick vom Saal, a biological science professor at the University of Missouri, said the amounts of bisphenol A that leached from the bottles were 1,000 times higher than levels associated with changes to mammary glands, disruption of hormones and the early onset of puberty in lab animals. Vom Saal was not directly involved in conducting the tests.