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.
CANCELLED: National Conference. We are very disappointed to announce that the conference, "Priming for Prevention: Towards an Ecological Approach to Research, Education and Policy" schedule for May 10 - 11, 2007, at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, has been cancelled due to lack of registrants. We will likely develop a teleconference series with the speakers who were to present in Atlanta so that an even wider audience will have access to this cutting-edge research and an opportunity to discuss ways to address multiple factors that may impact healthy child development. We will post follow-up plans as those are confirmed. Thank you for your interest. We invite you to continue to use our resources and engage in other related meetings, workshops and conference calls.
For information about events, please visit our searchable calendar of events at http://www.iceh.org/calendar.html.
April 20 - 22, 2007
Alexandria, Virginia
If you have a child affected by autism, or if you are a professional working with children on the autism spectrum, attending a DAN! Conference will help you to obtain the latest information on the safest and most effective biomedical interventions for improving your child's condition. The entire agenda is devoted to teaching parents and practitioners how nutrition, intestinal disorders, detoxification and other metabolic issues impact behavior, attention, speech and the general health of children on the autism spectrum. This conference shows strong commitment to bring only the most credible and forward thinking researchers and clinicians to speak at the conferences and to attend the DAN! Think Tanks. Respecting parents' input and direction, this group theorizes, discusses and collaborates on research projects. Only when a consensus is reached, and a biomedical intervention is deemed both safe and effective, is this information presented at a DAN! conference.
Website: http://www.danconference.com/
Contact: Tanya@DANconference.com
April 23, 2007
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Seattle, Washington
at the King County Building
Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have found that a rapid, environmentally friendly catalytic process involving Fe-TAML activators and hydrogen peroxide breaks down two types of estrogenic compounds. These natural and synthetic compounds can mimic or block the activities of hormones in wildlife and humans, which may disrupt the normal functions of the endocrine system and impair development. They could also contaminate drinking water. Fe-TAML (tetra-amido macrocyclic ligand) activators, which are synthetic catalysts made with elements found in nature, originated at Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry under the leadership of Terry Collins, the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry in the Mellon College of Science. King County, in collaboration with other partners, has applied for funding to test this molecule on phthalates in both stormwater and wastewater.
Contact: Heather Trim, 206-382-7007 X215 or htrim@pugetsound.org
April 24 - 27, 2007
Orlando, Florida
at the Doubletree Hotel
This national conference combines the Indoor Environmental Health & Technologies Conference and the Lead and Healthy Homes Grantees Conference. It will present programs that focus on ways of meeting the challenges of preventing environmental illnesses through effective grant administration, health research, best practices, community education and outreach, building maintenance and operations practices, and lead hazard control and healthy homes policies and programs. The joint conference brings together a cross section of public officials, facility operators, industry practitioners and community activists to network and participate in problem-solving sessions designed to help attendees strengthen their abilities to operate effectively.
Contact: Conference Hotline, 800-590-6522
April 26, 2007
1:00 p.m. EDT
Washington, DC
at the Barbara Jordan Conference Center, Kaiser Family Foundation
2007 marks the 10th Anniversary of Executive Order 13045, "Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks." Executive Order 13045 requires each federal agency to identify and evaluate environmental health and safety risks that may hinder children's health. This year provides the children's environmental health community with an opportunity to reflect on the progress to date and to formulate a vision for the future of children's environmental health. A special 10th anniversary event is being planned. Leaders in children's environmental health will share their ideas about how to protect children over the next 10 years. This national seminar is sponsored by EPA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Speakers include Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH; William H. Sanders III, DrPH; Carol M. Browner; Edward B. Clark, MD; Susan Marmagas; and Peggy M. Shepard. You can join this interactive event via Microsoft Live Meeting. You will be able to listen in via telephone and view presentations. Participation is free, but limited. If you are interested in attending, please respond to cmckallagat@icfi.com and indicate that you would like to be a part of our efforts to mark this important anniversary and also look to the future of children's environmental health efforts. Once you have registered, a subsequent email will be sent that includes log-in and other important instructions on running Microsoft Live Meeting. If you are in the Washington, D.C. area and are able to attend in person, please register by sending an email to Carolyn Hubbard at hubbard.carolyn@epa.gov.
Contact: Christopher McKallagat, cmckallagat@icfi.com
April 28, 2007
12:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Tacoma, Washington
at the Rotunda of the University of Puget Sound, Washington
Working titles for workshops to be offered include (1) A Rights-Based Approach to International Family Planning; (2) Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Livelihoods: Global and Local Projects and the Future of Organics; (3) Environmental Justice and Public Health Concerns in Western Washington; (4) Informed and Cost-Effective Food Choices for Washington Consumers; (5) Feminist Perspectives on Population and the Environment and Changing Policy Paradigms; and (6) Creative Activism through the Arts. Overarching summit questions include (1) How does "sustainability" strengthen the relationships between the environmental, reproductive health, and social justice movements? (2) How can consumer choices impact the success of sustainable solutions here and abroad? (3) How can UPS and the local community work together to advance sustainability goals?
Website: http://events.ups.edu/index.php?view=detail&event_id=15686
Contact: Adrienne Lee, alee@ups.edu
April 30, 2007
Every child in every school community should have an environmentally safe and healthy school that is clean and in good repair. Schools in poor condition on the outside often have indoor environmental problems that affect children's health and learning. Healthy Schools Network, Inc., encourages participation in a local event -- anything from writing a letter to the editor to holding a workshop. See the website below for more information and ideas for events.
Website: http://www.healthyschools.org:80/nhs_day.html
Contact: info@fhealthyschools.org
May 2 - 5, 2007
Minneapolis, Minnesota
at Double Tree Park Place Hotel, 1500 Park Place Boulevard
The Annual State Conference features three full days plus two special evenings of nationally recognized speakers and local workshop leaders sharing their expertise on a range of topics important to the autism community. Keynote speakers will include Patrick Schwarz speaking on inclusive education, Marge LeBlanc speaking on echolalia and other speech difficulties, Martha Herbert speaking on environmental issues and autism, Nick Dubin speaking on employment concerns, and Linda Howard, Shanika Taylor and Denise Crammer-Turner speaking on spousal support.
Website: http://www.ausm.org/educationServices/stateConference.asp
Contact: 651-647-1083 or info@ausm.org
May 4, 2007
12:00 to 1:30
Berkeley, California
at 150 University Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, at the corner of University and Addison
The European Union (EU) recently enacted a sweeping new chemicals policy initiative known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). It goes into force June 1st and will require chemical manufacturers or importers of chemicals in the European Union to obtain chemical, toxicity and exposure information on chemicals produced in volumes of one ton or more per year, and to use this information to assess the health and environmental risks associated with their chemicals. The data requirements increase with the volume of chemical produced. The REACH data requirements represent a major effort to obtain data about the potential hazards for industrial chemicals and are far more comprehensive than similar US requirements. This presentation will describe the REACH legislation, its background and scope as well as its data and testing requirements. The strengths and limitations of the European approach to identify chemicals that pose environmental or health hazards will also be discussed.
Contact: Amy D. Kyle, PhD, MPH, 510-642-8847 or adkyle@berkeley.edu
from Lisette van Vliet, PhD, Toxics Policy Advisor, Health & Environment Alliance
http://www.wecf.org/
The HEAL member organization Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) has read about the EPA grant on building capacity to address environmental health issues during pregnancy (see http://www.iceh.org/bulletins/LDDIbulletin3-7-07.html#art2). WECF is interested in possibly finding a partner organization in the US for a project which they would like to propose. It involves the 'nesting phase' that expectant parents go through and the opportunities to educate parents about environmental health issues related to setting up the nursery/baby's room. If any of you are interested, please contact Sonja Haider at sonja.haider@wecf.org.
by Tom Meersman, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
April 16, 2007
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1122562.html
Article Summary: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Brad Moore informed 3M officials last month that the agency has ample evidence that the two compounds are hazardous substances and that the MPCA will use the state Superfund law to ensure cleanups at three sites where they were dumped years ago. That approach, if approved by the MPCA Citizens Board at its next meeting on April 24, would give the agency more legal control over setting the terms for the cleanups and what to do about plumes of groundwater that have been contaminated. The state needs strong legal underpinnings for enforcement, Moore said, because the compounds, called perfluorochemicals, do not break down in the environment and will be around for a long time. The company stopped making the chemicals -- PFOS and PFOA -- in 2002.
by John Heilprin, Associated Press, WTOP News
April 15, 2007
http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=106&sid=1116047
WASHINGTON -- Companies that make or distribute toys, zippers and other children's products will face tougher government scrutiny to keep out any lead that could poison and kill children or harm their brain development. The Environmental Protection Agency agreed in response to legal pressure to write up to 120 importing and manufacturing companies by the end of the month, instructing them to provide health and safety studies if any lead might be found in the products they make for children.
Article Summary: The EPA letters are part of a settlement it signed Friday with the Sierra Club and another advocacy group, Improving Kids' Environment. The agency also must tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission "that information EPA has reviewed raises questions about the adequacy of quality control measures by companies importing and/or distributing children's jewelry." While the EPA can ban a substance such as lead, only the commission has the authority to ban a product. In December, the commission began taking steps to ban, rather than recall as it has been doing, children's jewelry containing more than 0.06 percent lead by weight. The commission's decision came after it had recalled more than a dozen products in the past two years out of concern about lead. Nationally, inexpensive toy jewelry made with lead or painted with lead paint is sold in vending machines and stores that sell mainly to immigrant communities. Lead, a highly toxic element, can cause severe nerve damage, especially in children. The EPA says lead emissions have dropped more than 90 percent since it was first listed as an air pollutant in 1976, mainly by removing lead from gasoline. Other sources of exposure to it include food and soil, solid waste, coal, oil, iron and steel production, lead smelters and tobacco smoke.
by Delthia Ricks, Newsday
April 14, 2007
http://www.newsday.com/ny-liendo0415,0,4791397.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Scientists are suggesting a common cause for two seemingly unrelated events, the feminization of fish in Jamaica Bay, where the former 50-50 male-to-female ratio has all but disappeared, and enlarged breasts in young boys. The common factor: endocrine disruptors, chemicals found in detergents, cosmetics and other products of daily living that increasing numbers of scientists now believe play havoc with normal hormone activity.
Article Summary: NPEs -- chemicals found in waterways worldwide that are used in some laundry detergents and industrial cleaning agents -- are contained in the hair gels and shampoos used by the three boys featured in a study this year. After the study, the National Institutes of Health took the extraordinary step of advising doctors to ask patients what kinds of personal-care products they use at home. In humans, researchers have only tentative links, but they suggest endocrine disruptors may be associated with an elevated risk of testicular, breast and ovarian cancers. They also suggest exposure may explain puberty occurring at younger ages in girls and the underdevelopment of genitals in some boys. Research regarding the gender change in Jamaica Bay's flounder, including recreating the effect in controlled labs, is considered solid. New work shows similar changes in Atlantic silversides, which are found on the North and South shores of Long Island.
The concern about human harm already has prompted the European Union to ban NPEs, the laundry detergent additive belongs to a family of "surfactants," chemicals that lift dirt and help detergents and cleaning agents do a better job of stain removal. Studies have shown that the chemicals are not broken down by septic systems before they are released into the ground and that the compounds are seeping into groundwater. Anne McElroy, a marine scientist at Stony Brook University, said eating fish from waters tainted with NPEs probably would not pose harm. NPEs do not concentrate in the parts of the fish that make up a fillet, and researchers have shown the chemicals do not pose harm in laundry washed with detergents containing NPEs. Jeanne Rizzo, a registered nurse and executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund, wants federal regulators to identify and ban questionable ingredients in household cleaning agents, cosmetics and personal care products. Toxicologist Dr. Gary Ginsburg, author of the 2006 book "What's Toxic, What's Not," said scientists and legislators should begin a policy discussion about endocrine disruptors because the number of products that contain them are increasing.
by Margaret Philp, Toronto Globe and Mail
April 14, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070414.wcosmetics0414/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home
Article Summary: While Canadians have become savvy about chemicals in their food -- scanning package labels and paying premium prices for organic produce -- little mention has been made of the chemicals that clean our hair and moisturize our skin day in and day out. Yet some of the 10,000 ingredients in beauty products are suspected or confirmed carcinogens, hormone-mimicking chemicals or substances linked to birth defects. Under new federal rules that came into force late last year, cosmetics companies selling products in Canada are compelled to list ingredients on their packages -- a move that has brought this country closer into line with Europe and the United States. In the United States, ingredients have been listed on cosmetics for years, although there are loopholes that allow companies to conceal some suspect chemicals under the vague title of "fragrance" or refuse to name ingredients that are claimed to be trade secrets. In the European Union, more than 1,100 chemicals in cosmetics have been banned outright.
Research on chemicals in cosmetics is spotty. Many compounds have never been studied. Others are linked to cancer or birth defects in animals but not people -- or show a link to cancer, but at far higher doses than the levels present in cosmetics. To the industry, these studies suggest that their products are safe. To activists, the science overlooks the fact these minute chemical exposures in cosmetics are repeated with successive products -- soap, deodorant, makeup -- every day. In the face of this, the Washington-based Environmental Working Group started an online listing called Skin Deep that ranks the safety of 14,000 cosmetics -- about half of those on the market -- according to their safety as determined by the research available. For the past four years, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in the U.S. has been pushing 500 companies -- most of them small "green" producers -- to sign a pact to substitute toxic ingredients with safe alternatives.
While there is a move to list contents on packaging, many consumers are discovering that these labels leave them confused. Ingredients are listed by unfamiliar Latin names that obscure even benign substances. The Canadian Cancer Society is tossing around the idea of a color-coded logo that would flag possible carcinogens. The Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control committee also has product labeling on their agenda. Some cosmetics ingredients will go under the microscope when Ottawa begins a massive safety review of thousands of chemicals in widespread use that was announced last winter. Outside Canada, a law just passed in California placing the onus on cosmetics companies to disclose to health authorities the details of toxic ingredients linked to cancer or reproductive problems.
by Janet Wilson, Los Angeles Times
April 12, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-toxic12apr12,0,4408158.story?coll=la-home-headlines
California has the nation's highest concentration of minorities living near hazardous waste facilities, according to a newly released study. Greater Los Angeles tops the nation with 1.2 million people living less than two miles from 17 such facilities, and 91% of them, or 1.1 million, are minorities. Statewide the figure was 81%. The study, conducted by researchers at four universities for the United Church of Christ, examined census data for neighborhoods adjacent to 413 facilities nationwide that process or store hazardous chemical waste produced by refineries, metal plating shops, drycleaners and battery recyclers, among others. Though about one-third of U.S. residents are nonwhite, more than half of the people living near such facilities were Latino, African American or Asian American, according to the report.
Article Summary: According to Robert Bullard, a sociologist at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia and lead author of the study, the most potent predictor of where these facilities are sited is not how much income you have; it's race." Although low-income neighborhoods were much more likely to have hazardous waste facilities, some of the areas examined were quite affluent, including one in Seattle that is predominantly Asian, said study coauthor Robin Saha, a sociologist with the University of Montana. The study also found that hazardous waste facilities were often clustered with other potentially dangerous industries, and that the rate of minority residents in areas with multiple hazards was even higher. Sue Briggum, vice president of federal public affairs for Waste Management, which operates several of the facilities examined in the study, acknowledged the problems highlighted by the study. "There's no disputing the facts," she said. But, she added, the industry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have done a great deal in recent years to try to reduce emissions, beef up safety and address other concerns in affected neighborhoods. The study took EPA officials to task for failing to implement an executive order by President Clinton requiring that environmental justice issues and the cumulative effects of clustering such facilities in some neighborhoods be a mandatory part of environmental reviews. EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said the EPA attempts to address environmental justice concerns in its planning and budgeting. But Bullard said the EPA's inspector general and the U.S. General Accountability Office have chastised the agency for its handling of environmental justice issues. President Bush's 2008 budget recommends a 28% cut in funds for such programs, he said.
The report can be accessed online at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/TWARTreport.htm.
by Leslie Land, New York Times
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/garden/12lawn.html
Article Summary: Organic lawn care companies and organic lawn care products have begun to enter the mainstream, part of the same wave that has people buying organic food and hybrid cars. Lawn fertilizers can be made to meet the organic labeling requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency and still deliver the bounce expected of synthetic equivalents. But pesticides are a different story. Organic insect-killers like B.t. and neem can be lethal, but seldom instantly. Organic herbicides can also be a disappointment to people used to instant action. The acid-based herbicides certified for organic growing are less powerful than glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Todd Harrington, owner of Harrington's Organicare, an organic landscape management company in Windsor, Conn., concedes that transitioning a lawn to organic is a slow process that does not show results until the second year, at the earliest. Lawns that have been treated chemically are addicted to chemicals, he said, and must go through a kind of withdrawal. The transition to organic health takes time. Paul Tukey, author of "The Organic Lawn Care Manual" said that lawns can be organic and still be 90 to 95 percent weed-free.
by Marilyn Gardner, Christian Science Monitor
April 12, 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p13s02-sten.html
Article Summary: A national campaign and a website, BigGreenPurse.com, is urging women to shift at least $1,000 of their annual household spending to green products. On average, people spend $18,000 a year on groceries and household goods. For many people, the marketplace question becomes: What should I buy? BigGreenPurse.com founder and CEO Diane MacEachern advises: "You start with the products that make the most difference to you. You also try to focus on the product that has the biggest impact in protecting the planet." Her recommendations include purchasing organic, locally grown food; energy-efficient appliances; fuel-efficient cars; nontoxic cleansers; shade-grown coffee; and phthalate-free cosmetics. MacEachern acknowledges that both time and money are issues for busy women, but she finds that women are willing to spend between 5 and 20 percent more for environmentally friendly products. However, they need information. MacEachern urges women to be more assertive in asking store managers to provide more environmentally friendly products.
by Anthony DePalma, New York Times
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/nyregion/12mercury.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
New York and six other Northeastern states announced yesterday that they have joined in a regional pact to try to force the federal government to enact tougher standards on mercury emissions. Claiming that they have done about as much as they can to reduce mercury pollution within their own borders, the states plan to focus on airborne mercury that drifts into the region from the Midwest, particularly from those states where coal-fired power plants are the prime source of electricity. The Northeastern states acknowledge that they have little power to force other states to reduce smokestack emissions. But by banding together, they hope to pressure the federal government to enact national standards.
Article Summary: Besides New York, the states cooperating in the mercury agreement are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Under the draft mercury plan announced yesterday, the states would use provisions of the federal Clean Water Act to establish maximum levels of mercury that local lakes and rivers could absorb. For the Northeastern states to meet federal clean water standards, the other states would have to reduce the amount of mercury they put into the air. Throughout the Northeast, mercury contamination has become a growing health concern. Mercury is a metal that occurs naturally. It is released in a gaseous form when coal is burned in electrical generating plants. Smokestack emissions drift across state borders, and the mercury lands far from where it was released. As the mercury falls on lakes and streams, it becomes methylmercury, a neurotoxin that accumulates in fish, with concentrations increasing in larger fish that eat smaller ones. The presence of harmful levels of mercury has led to health advisories limiting the consumption of sport fish taken from thousands of lakes, rivers and streams in the Northeast.
Northeastern states have already tried a similar approach to compel Washington to act on environmental issues. In December 2005, New York and six other states formed a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to curtail smokestack emissions that contribute to global climate change. Several other states subsequently expressed their intention to join the group or form their own, increasing pressure on the federal government. Under the draft mercury plan announced yesterday, the states would use provisions of the federal Clean Water Act to establish maximum levels of mercury that local lakes and rivers could absorb. For the Northeastern states to meet federal clean water standards, the other states would have to reduce the amount of mercury they put into the air.
by Tony Carnie, Independent Online
April 12 2007
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=125&art_id=vn20070412014231916C324256
South African medical researchers have reported alarming evidence of low sperm counts and other damage to the male reproductive system linked to the use of the pesticide DDT in anti-malaria spray campaigns.
Article Summary: The study, published in the international peer-reviewed Journal of Andrology, was one of the largest studies in South Africa to examine the effects of DDT exposure. Professor Tiaan de Jager, project leader and co-author of the study, said that there was now sufficient evidence for the department of health to be concerned about the health impacts of DDT and to consider moving towards safer alternative methods for malaria control. The researchers said there was mounting evidence from around the world that DDT acted as an endocrine-disrupting substance, which altered the normal human hormone balance, lowered testosterone levels and possibly interfered with sexual accessory organs such as the seminal vesicle and prostate gland. The study has shown a direct link between high DDT exposure levels in people whose houses had been sprayed with the pesticide. The journal also lists numerous other medical studies which point to other negative human health impacts associated with DDT. These include a study showing low sperm counts in Mexican men exposed to lower levels of DDT, a study from the University of California, Berkeley, which suggests that children exposed to DDT in their mothers' wombs suffered a measurable decrease in brain development, a study that found that Spanish children exposed to DDE in the womb might be at higher risk of developing asthma, and studies in the United States found a link between DDE and children born with birth defects such as hypospadia, cryptorchidism and polythelia. Researchers warned that long-term exposure to DDT and DDE increased the total accumulated body burden of these chemicals and that young children were most vulnerable. "It is not necessarily the amounts of DDT to which the mother is exposed during pregnancy that is critical, but rather her lifetime exposure and bioaccumulation that determines the level of exposure of the fetus and breast-fed infant," said de Jager.
by Rebecca Renner, Environmental Science & Technology
April 11, 2007
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/apr/policy/rr_PFOA.html
New Jersey officials have issued the most stringent preliminary health-based guidance yet on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) levels in drinking water in the U.S. The guidance, a first step in regulating PFOA, was issued as a benchmark so that water companies can judge whether the low levels of perfluorinated chemicals in their drinking water are safe for humans. New Jersey is the latest state to issue advice on PFOA in drinking water; the guidance follows action in two other states where past chemical industry operations have led to PFOA contamination of drinking water.
Article Summary: PFOA, also known as C8, is a processing aid used in manufacturing fluoropolymers that have a wide variety of applications, including nonstick cookware. The chemical can also be a byproduct of manufacturing fluorotelomers, which are used on grease-resistant food wraps and stain-resistant textiles. Granular activated carbon can remove perfluorochemicals from drinking water. Last year, the U.S. EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) classified PFOA as a likely human carcinogen, but EPA's risk assessment process, a precursor to any regulatory action, is likely to take years to complete, according to the agency. For now, PFOA is unregulated in the U.S., although West Virginia and Minnesota have set recommended safe levels. Early indications are that, in addition to cancer, PFOA may be associated with birth defects and abnormal blood lipids, he notes. However, the low levels that are ubiquitous in the U.S. population have not been clearly linked to any adverse effects. DuPont and other companies that use or make PFOA have agreed with EPA to voluntarily reduce its use. Officials in New Jersey and Minnesota note that they will reevaluate their findings as additional data emerge.
press release from Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
April 11, 2007
http://www.healthyschools.org/Unwanted_Exposure.pdf
submitted to this bulletin by Claire Barnett
Citing irrefutable harm to children from toxic chemicals, rising chronic health care costs, and lack of coordinated, preventive agency responses, leading New York State disability rights, environmental and education organizations joined with the Learning Disabilities Association and Healthy Schools Network at a press conference today in Albany to release a new, landmark report about children's health, Unwanted Exposure: Preventing Environmental Threats to the Health of New York State's Children.
Article Summary: Representatives of the disability advocacy, environmental health, children's health and education communities joined together to call on Governor Eliot Spitzer and the legislature to address the public health problem of the undeniable correlation between the growth of learning and developmental disabilities and the proliferation of harmful toxins in the environment. Unwanted Exposure presents a comprehensive set of recommendations for New York State to address the need to protect children from environmental hazards:
[Editor's note: See an article apparently based on this news release at http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/NEWS01/70411037.]
by Jane Kay, San Francisco Chronicle
April 11, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/04/11/BAGCUP6E311.DTL&type=politics
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors reworked a "toxic toy" ordinance Tuesday that now requires the testing of up to 100 child products a year to see if they contain illegal levels of phthalates, a potentially toxic plastic softener. Within 18 months, based on the testing, the city will adopt a list of products that will be illegal to sell in San Francisco. In two years, people who sell or make the items would face fines and jail time.
Article Summary: The supervisors repealed a section of the law that bans toys and child care products made with bisphenol A, a plastic hardener found in polycarbonate baby bottles, food containers and toys. Some felt it had been too tough on retailers who wouldn't know what was in the products. The law lacked enforcement and implementation provisions and didn't include penalties. In a year, the supervisors will reconsider a bisphenol A ban if the state Legislature has not done so. The city is working with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to find testing protocols that are faster and less expensive.
Researchers have found that phthalates interfere with hormonal systems, disrupt testosterone production and cause malformed sex organs in laboratory animals. At low levels, bisphenol A has been shown to alter the function of the thyroid gland, brain, pancreas and prostate gland in animal studies. The amended law makes it illegal for manufacturers, distributors and retailers to sell toys and child care products intended for children under age 3 if the products contain certain levels of six forms of phthalates. The European Union also regulates those chemicals, which are common in polyvinyl chloride. Phthalate manufacturers have sued San Francisco, saying the city lacks regulatory authority. They maintain that phthalate levels in consumer products are too low to pose a threat.
by David Peterson, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
April 9, 2007
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1110460.html
Article Summary: Autism, usually evident before age 3, is a treatable but incurable brain disorder described by the Mayo Clinic as "associated with a range of developmental problems, mainly in communication and social interaction." The number of kids classed as autistic is exploding. A recent study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that autism is found in one in 150 children -- and researchers involved in the study say that may be an understatement. In Minnesota schools, the state's Department of Education reports, the number of students identified as autistic jumped from fewer than 1,000 students a decade ago to nearly 10,000 today.
Autism intervention is costly. According to the United States Government Office of Accountability, programs for a school-aged child with autism costs $18,800 per year compared with $12,500 for average special education per pupil expenditures. In months, three committees of the Minnesota Legislature will hold hearings to explore the reasons why. A debate simmers over what's behind the increase. "Herbicides, pesticides, various pollutants can cause brain disorders in fetuses and babies, and we want to look at that, not only to save costs but save the human costs of these tragedies," said Roseville DFL Rep. Mindy Greiling, who chairs the K-12 division of the Minnesota House Finance Committee. The Combating Autism Act of 2006, which President Bush signed in December, authorizes nearly $1 billion over the next five years to combat autism through research, screening, early detection and early intervention.
by Bette Hileman, Chemical & Engineering News
April 9, 2007
http://pubs.acs.org/email/cen/html/040907093531.html
FOR ENVIRONMENTALISTS and some public health experts, one of the most puzzling practices of modern agriculture is the addition of arsenic-based compounds to most chicken feed. The point of the practice is to promote growth, kill parasites that cause diarrhea, and improve pigmentation of chicken meat. But Tyson Foods, the U.S.'s largest poultry producer, stopped using arsenic compounds in 2004, and many high-end and organic growers raise chickens quite successfully without them. What's more, McDonald's has asked its suppliers not to use arsenic additives, and the European Union banned them in 1999.
Article Summary: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause bladder, lung, skin, kidney, and colon cancer, as well as deleterious immunological, neurological, and endocrine effects. Low-level exposures can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes. Roxarsone is mixed in the diet of about 70% of the 9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the U.S. In its original organic form, roxarsone is relatively benign, but some of the 2.2 million pounds of roxarsone mixed in the nation's chicken feed each year converts into inorganic arsenic within the bird, and the rest is transformed into inorganic forms after the bird excretes it. Three different pathways exist by which roxarsone in chicken feed can contribute to human arsenic exposure. Roxarsone, or its breakdown products, ends up in chicken meat and adds to the dietary intake of arsenic; roxarsone excreted in chicken litter contaminates land and groundwater after the manure is spread on cropland; and the large amounts of poultry litter made into fertilizer pellets for home gardens and lawns contaminate homegrown produce with arsenic and expose the consumer to arsenic dust. Higher levels of arsenic have been found on the Delmarva peninsula in areas where chicken litter is spread on fields and lower levels in areas where chicken manure is not spread. Banning roxarsone in chicken feed would not eliminate all arsenic from chickens or the environment. Some poultry consume water from wells contaminated with natural arsenic. Some are raised on soil contaminated from heavy use of arsenical pesticides in past cotton cultivation. Arsenic also is released from coal-fired power plants. But banning the additive in feed would eliminate a substantial portion of arsenic from the human food chain and some of the arsenic in drinking water.
by Janine DeFao, San Francisco Chronicle
April 9, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/09/BOTTLES.TMP
Glass baby bottles, replaced decades ago by unbreakable plastic, are making such a comeback that parents can't get their hands on them. Online and brick-and-mortar retailers report a run on glass baby bottles in recent weeks that they say was spurred by reports that the most common type of plastic in baby bottles may leach a toxic chemical.
Article summary: Independent tests reported in November found bisphenol A, a chemical that mimics estrogen, in a baby bottle and several toys. Bisphenol A is also found in the lining of food cans, some anticavity sealants for teeth and electronics. Then, in late February, Environment California, an advocacy group, released a report titled "Toxic Baby Bottles" that drew intense national media coverage. When heated, five of the most popular brands of polycarbonate -- the clear, shatterproof plastic used in baby bottles -- leached bisphenol A at levels that have been found to cause harm in laboratory animals, Environment California found. Even at low levels, bisphenol A has been linked to abnormalities in the mammary and prostate glands and the eggs of laboratory animals, scientists say. Animal tests also show bisphenol A can speed up puberty and add to weight gain and may cause changes that can lead to breast and prostate cancer. Makers of polycarbonate bottles and industry representatives say parents have been alarmed unnecessarily about a product that meets federal standards and has been in widespread use for more than 25 years. And some questioned using glass bottles that can shatter. San Francisco recently approved a ban on children's products containing bisphenol A and certain phthalates, the chemicals that soften polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Animal studies also have shown that phthalates interfere with sex hormones. Manufacturers and retailers have sued the city over the ban, which has yet to be implemented.
by Amanda Bensen. Glens Falls [New York] Post Star
April 8, 2007
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/local/e38d5e52525afa58852572b7000372d2.txt
A recent study found that 10 of the top 13 species of fish in the central Adirondacks had average concentrations of mercury above the EPA guidance value. Mercury is fairly harmless in its elemental form, but when it enters watersheds and lakes, it gets transformed into a much more mobile and toxic form called methyl mercury. Then it bioaccumulates, becoming more concentrated at higher levels of the food chain. As it moves from water, to plankton, to fish, to birds, methyl mercury can increase in concentration by a factor of up to 10 million, said Charles Driscoll, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse University. In humans, mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that can interfere with brain development, leading to learning disabilities and reduced cognitive function in children of women who eat large amounts of fish during pregnancy. One recent study estimated that prenatal mercury exposure affects between 200,000 and 400,000 children born in the U.S. each year. In adults, mercury exposure has been linked to higher risk of heart attacks. Nearly every U.S. state has issued one or more fish-consumption advisories related to mercury in the last several years, indicating that the problem is widespread. The Adirondacks are especially susceptible after experiencing decades of acid rain. Coal-fired power plants are currently the largest source of mercury emissions in the U.S., the study found. Although total mercury emissions in the U.S. were cut in half from 1990 to 2002, that reduction was mostly due to stricter pollution controls for waste incinerators. The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation study suggests that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national models have underestimated the extent of mercury deposition in areas near coal-fired utilities and other large emission sources. Looking specifically at an area near a coal-fired power plant in southern New Hampshire, the HBRF team found levels of mercury deposition that were four to five times higher than levels estimated by the EPA's model. Sheehan and other environmentalists think that should raise a red flag about emissions trading, a policy that allows facilities emitting less than the maximum pollution allowance to sell "credits" to facilities that exceed the allowance. Driscoll hopes the HBRF study will encourage policymakers to implement a comprehensive mercury emissions monitoring program, such as the one proposed in March by Sen. Hillary Clinton and others.
by Marie Woolf, London Independent
April 8, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2432470.ece
Parents who are smokers when they conceive a child are far more likely to have girls than boys, an extensive study by paediatricians has found. The chance of having a male baby drops by almost half if both parents smoke during early pregnancy, amid fresh evidence that smoking could "kill" male foetuses in the womb. Smoking not only reduces the chances of conceiving a male child, but could stop male embryos implanting in the womb and cause miscarriages.
Article Summary: The study into 9,000 pregnancies in Liverpool found a startling imbalance in the number of girl babies among parents who smoke. Mothers who smoked during pregnancy were one-third less likely to have male children than mothers who did not smoke. If the father also smoked, and if factors such as the health and age of the mother were accounted for, the chances of having a male child reduces by almost half. Mothers who do not smoke but are exposed to cigarettes from partners are less likely to have boys. The research, by a team of pediatricians led by Professor Bernard Brabin, found that substances contained in cigarettes, such as nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilizing eggs. The hypothesis is that sperm cells carrying the Y chromosome which are responsible for male children are more sensitive to unfavorable smoking related changes in the mother. Smoking reduces estrogen and causes changes to the mother's cervix.
[Editor's note: See a related article about declines in birth rates of males at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07100/776561-114.stm.]
by Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
April 8, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-green8apr08,1,6900028.story?ctrack=2&cset=true
BEIJING -- As China's economy roars ahead, leaving Technicolor rivers and polluted skies in its wake, the world's most populous nation has struggled to craft environmental policies that will appease growing numbers of critics at home and abroad. Traditionally, many of the issues outlined in Friday's ominous United Nations report on climate change have been framed here, as elsewhere, as a trade-off between clean air and jobs. Yet it's also becoming increasingly evident that the division is not so clear-cut. Some studies estimate that pollution exacts a 7% to 10% cost on China's economy.
Article Summary: For two decades, China has made economic growth a priority. The results have been impressive as the country becomes a bigger player on the global stage and hundreds of millions of its people are lifted out of extreme poverty. But the cost has been high. China is home to 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, the World Bank concluded in a report last week. Officials here have acknowledged that 410,000 deaths a year are caused by pollution. And China is projected to surpass the United States and become the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases by 2009. By some accounts, China remains two decades behind the United States in its environmental standards and as much as three decades behind Europe. In response, Chinese leaders have set targets designed to promote alternate fuels, recycling and "green economic growth." These include vows by Beijing to get 16% of the nation's energy from renewable sources by 2020, double today's rate, and to become 20% more energy efficient by 2010. Although environmental awareness among the general public is growing, the picture is still mixed, reflecting divisions within Chinese society. Increasingly prosperous middle-class urban residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing are voicing concerns. But many impoverished rural residents remain more focused on filling their rice bowls than rattling for quality-of-life improvements. Still, the nation is seeing growing outrage and more violent protests as crops wither and children are born with birth defects caused by chemicals leaking from factories. Heart disease and respiratory problems linked to air pollution are among the leading causes of death in China, experts say, with acid rain now falling on 30% of the country. The structure of the Chinese government creates other problems. Although the State Environmental Protection Administration, or SEPA, was elevated to the ministry level a few years ago, it is still far outgunned in terms of personnel and budget by ministries that oversee resource extraction, construction, industry and land use.
by Elizabeth Shaw, Flint [Michigan] Journal
April 8, 2007
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1176028116309860.xml&coll=5
Chemical pollutants that can damage the brain and central nervous system, and can cause learning and developmental disabilities in children, are on the rise from the exhaust stacks at General Motors' Flint Truck Assembly Plant on Van Slyke Road. The plant released 138,375 pounds more of such chemicals, called neurotoxicants, into the air in 2005 than in 2004, according to the latest state and federal reports. That's an increase of nearly 28 percent.
Article Summary: GM spokeswoman Sharon Morton said the plant's releases are all within legal limits set by state and federal safety standards. Increased emissions are directly linked to increased production at the plant, she said. Pollution controls have gotten better -- 2.4 pounds of toxic chemicals per truck in 2004 versus 13.1 pounds of toxic chemicals per truck in 1996. In that same time period, production increased almost 600 percent. Some of the new toxic releases are due to a new solvent used to clean the paint line -- which Morton says actually provides a net environmental benefit because the used product is recycled instead of being burned or sent to a landfill. It's not known how much of the truck plant's pollution may be inhaled by people, as no air monitoring is required or being done in nearby neighborhoods. Wind and rain play a huge role in air quality at any given moment, also. Everybody is different in their ability to break down these chemicals, according to Flint Township allergist Dr. Gerald Natzke, former head of the Genesee County Environmental Health Committee and current president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine. Many won't suffer any health impacts at all. Others -- children, the elderly and the chronically ill -- could be up to 100 times more susceptible, he said.
by T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times
April 8, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-amvac8apr08,0,3553877.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Article Summary: Amvac Chemical Corp. has fueled double-digit revenue growth through an unusual business practice: It has bought from larger companies the rights to older pesticides, many of them at risk of being banned or restricted because of safety concerns. While profitable, Amvac's focus on older pesticides has come at a cost to human health and the environment, according to EPA and state records, regulatory investigations and a string of lawsuits. Accidents involving the company's pesticides have led to the evacuation of neighborhoods and the poisoning of scores of field workers in California and elsewhere. One organophosphate, mevinphos, was banned in the U.S. in 1994 after a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that it was responsible for poisoning more field workers in California than any other agricultural chemical. Amvac continues selling the product overseas, including in Latin America, South Africa and Australia. Eric G. Wintemute, Amvac's chief executive, defended the company's record. In a series of interviews, he said Amvac's chemicals give farmers the tools to protect crops that feed people throughout the world. He said that in most poisoning cases involving Amvac products, regulators found that the pesticides were used improperly. Environmental groups contend that Amvac has used stalling tactics and legal threats to blunt EPA efforts to restrict its pesticides.
In 1993, a National Academy of Sciences report raised concerns that organophosphates might affect children's neurological development. A few years later, the EPA launched a decade-long review that would ultimately impose bans and tighter restrictions on the compounds. Keeping old chemicals on the market, says Charles Benbrook, chief scientist for the Organic Center, a nonprofit group in Rhode Island that promotes organic farming, has "perpetuated completely unnecessary, high-risk exposures for both farm workers and the environment." The pesticide in pest strips, DDVP, has also come under fire. In 1988, the EPA placed DDVP under special review, requiring manufacturers to prove the chemical's safety or face a ban on the product. In 1995, the EPA proposed to prohibit all residential uses. Then, in April 2006, the EPA relaxed its safety standards after new Amvac tests showed that young lab animals were not more vulnerable to the gas. Still, the agency required the company to reduce the size of the strips and place new cautionary language on labels warning against using the strips in enclosed spaces. Environmental groups are suing the EPA, contending that the decision was based on incomplete data and that the new labels are confusing. They contend that Amvac wore down agency officials with legal threats and sheer determination. Amvac's latest battle is over one of its biggest sellers: metam sodium, the third most widely used pesticide in the country. Once in the soil, the compound gives off a gas that kills bugs and bacteria, and since the late 1980s, the chemical has been linked to several mass poisonings. The result is similar to a tear gas attack — victims suffer watery eyes, constricted throats and difficulty breathing, followed by vomiting and dizziness. In 2003, the EPA reported that metam sodium played a role in one-fifth of all poisoning incidents in California affecting 10 or more people. A preliminary EPA analysis in 2004 suggested that the safe use of metam sodium required buffer zones as large as a mile between fields and population centers. The EPA and California are expected to announce new restrictions on the use of metam sodium and other soil fumigants this year.
[Editor's note: See a related article about a lawsuit involving Amvac at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-amvac16apr16,1,4694403.story?ctrack=3&cset=true.]
by Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail
April 7, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070407.CHEMICAL07/TPStory/Environment
Bisphenol A is ingested by practically everyone in Canada who eats canned foods or drinks from a can or hard plastic water bottles. Now a controversy is raging over the safety of widespread public exposure to the chemical, which is known to act like a synthetic female sex hormone.
Article Summary: Derived from petroleum, bisphenol A is the chief ingredient in polycarbonate, the rigid, translucent hard plastic used in water bottles and many baby bottles. It's also used to make the resins that line most tin cans, dental sealants, car parts, microwaveable plastics, sports helmets and CDs. It is one of the highest-volume manufactured chemicals in the world. The intense debate over bisphenol A is that it challenges the main tenet of modern toxicology that the dose makes the poison. The belief that rising doses make a substance more dangerous is the basis of all government regulations that seek to set safe exposures for harmful chemicals. Bisphenol A doesn't follow this seemingly common-sense rule. Researchers say bisphenol A isn't a conventional harmful agent, such as cigarette smoke, but behaves in the unconventional way typical of hormones, where even vanishingly small exposures can be harmful. In living things, hormones latch onto receptors in cells, turning vital biological processes on or off much like a switch controls a light. When cells are exposed to low doses of hormones, whatever activity they control is stimulated, but at higher doses these receptors are overwhelmed and stop their activity. That is why a hormonally active compound may have one effect at a low dose and no effect at a higher exposure.
Bisphenol A leaches in trace amounts from food and beverage packaging. Scientists suspect bisphenol A has its fingerprints all over the unexplained human health trends emerging in recent decades hinting at something going haywire with sex hormones, including the early onset of puberty, declining sperm counts and the huge increase in breast and prostate cancer, among other ailments. Manufacturers -- which include some of the world's biggest chemical companies -- insist bisphenol A is harmless. To date, international regulatory bodies, most recently the European Food Safety Authority in an assessment issued this year, have given the benefit of the doubt to the industry on these disputes. Last year, Environment Canada and Health Canada classified bisphenol A as "inherently toxic," and companies making it will be challenged by the assessment to prove that continued use is safe. Currently, there are no regulations limiting bisphenol A leakage from consumer products. In March, the first U.S. class action lawsuit alleging harm from bisphenol A was launched against five makers of baby bottles. It was filed in Los Angeles shortly after a U.S. environmental group found the hormone mimic leaching from the bottles when they are heated, something many parents do to formula or milk.
by Kevin Miller, Bangor [Maine] Daily News
April 6, 2007
http://bangordailynews.com:80/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=148366&zoneid=500
State lawmakers heard hours of testimony Thursday on a measure to ban a common chemical flame retardant that critics describe as a potential neurotoxin increasingly found in toddlers and in mothers' breast milk. Manufacturers defend the flame retardant as a proven lifesaver. Parents, health professionals, firefighters and representatives of environmental organizations rallied behind a bill that would phase out the use of "deca," a chemical added to the plastic casings around televisions and other household products. Deca is a member of the family of flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, which are under increasing scrutiny worldwide. Deca and other PBDEs are showing up in the environment and, perhaps most alarmingly, in human breast milk. The Maine Legislature banned use of two other PBDEs -- known as "octa" and "penta" -- in household products beginning last year based on evidence that the chemicals caused brain and health problems in laboratory mice. But lawmakers deferred action on deca -- the most widely used flame retardant in televisions -- pending study of whether there were safe, commercially available alternatives.
Article Summary: Critics and defenders of deca disagreed Thursday over whether deca poses health risks. A recent study by researchers at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Southern Maine found that newborn lab mice subjected to deca had decreased grip strength, thyroid problems and more errors on mental tasks. Critics contend that deca and other PBDEs slowly seep from televisions and other products, often in the form of dust that is then inhaled. Studies show that deca breaks down naturally into octa and penta, both of which have already been banned as toxins. Representatives of the manufacturing sector have countered this suggestion. Laura Ruiz with Albemarle Corp., a major manufacturer of deca as well as other flame retardants, added that one of the most popular alternatives, a chemical referred to as "RDP," is classified as a toxin that contains hazardous components. The new bill, LD 1658, would prohibit the sale of most consumer products made with deca beginning in 2010. Democratic Rep. Hannah Pingree of North Haven, the bill's sponsor, said that safer alternatives are clearly available.
by Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times
April 4, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-na-chemicals4apr04,1,7111569.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
The National Institutes of Health has temporarily suspended a federal contractor that had been reviewing the health dangers of chemicals for the government while also working for the chemical industry. In addition, the NIH will convene a new advisory panel to investigate all toxicology program contracts for conflicts of interest and report back by July 1.
Article Summary: Sciences International, an Alexandria, Va., consulting firm, played a major management and scientific role at the federal Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, which is responsible for deciding which chemicals harm human reproduction. The company prepared the center's preliminary reports on the risks of about 20 chemicals. In response to recent revelations of the firm's financial ties to more than 50 chemical companies and groups, the NIH told Sciences International to conduct its own internal investigation. Sciences International reported that it was paid by three industry associations to perform consulting work on three chemicals that it also reviewed for the government reproductive health center -- styrene, ethylene glycol and soy formula. Sciences International also in recent years worked for BASF and Dow Chemical, two manufacturers of bisphenol A. The company wrote the health center's draft report on the chemical, which is found in polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and other containers. Bisphenol A mimics estrogen and has been linked in animal studies to prostate and breast cancer and reduced fertility. Sciences International asserted that "no conflicts existed that impaired judgments or objectivity" were present because employees who conduct the government reviews "have historically been insulated" from the firm's other work and were unaware that other employees were working for the industry associations. He also outlined steps the firm would take to find and report potential conflicts. Critics of Sciences International assert that a self audit is not very credible and focuses on narrow conceptions of conflict of interest. Sciences International said in promotional material for clients in 1999 that its role as a federal contractor would be beneficial to regulated industries, an implication labeled as "inappropriate" by David Schwartz, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
[Editor's note: See a follow-up story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301979.html.]
by Emily Bazar, USA TODAY
April 4, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-04-public-housing-smoking_N.htm
Tenants in some public housing complexes can no longer light up in the one place that seemed safe from smoking bans: their own homes. From California to Maine, at least 36 public housing authorities have made their apartments smoke-free, says Jim Bergman, director of the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project. Such policies are not unusual in private dwellings. The trend has accelerated in government-subsidized rentals in the past year. Housing officials say they made the change to protect non-smoking tenants from secondhand smoke, prevent cigarette fires and reduce the cost of rehabbing smokers' apartments.
Article Summary: Secondhand smoke is a concern because air is recirculated and smoke travels into other units in some projects. All bans forbid new tenants smoking indoors, Bergman says. Some forbid current residents smoking in their apartments, some allow them to smoke until they move out, and some set a deadline for quitting. Some ban outdoor smoking near the building. Smokers' rights groups and fair-housing advocates say the bans are hard on the poor, who don't have many housing options.
by David C. Bellinger, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
March-April 2007
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17405692&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
Abstract: The potential exists for developmental exposure of children to myriad chemicals, many of which are known to be neurotoxic. Some, such as the organophosphate pesticides, are specifically designed to attack the central nervous system. Despite the known and suspected risks associated with such exposures, critical aspects of the dose-response relationships are unknown or, at best, poorly characterized for the overwhelming majority of chemicals. Among the major knowledge gaps for most chemicals are the critical window(s) of vulnerability, the threshold or "no observed adverse effect level," and the host/environmental characteristics that modify individual vulnerability. Investigation of the role of genetic polymorphisms in determining vulnerability has barely begun. In the real-world, children are not exposed to a single chemical at a time but to complex mixtures of chemicals, and we have only a minimal understanding of the way in which exposures might interact with one another. Effective medical/environmental treatments for the adverse effects associated with chemical exposures are largely unknown, rendering primary prevention of exposure the most effective strategy for protecting children.