To better accommodate our staff schedules, bulletins will be distributed on Wednesdays, starting with this issue.
To join the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI), please complete the form at http://www.iceh.org/LDDImembers.html.
August 6 - 11, 2006
Madison, Wisconsin
at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center
This is an international forum for formal presentation and discussion of scientific advances concerning environmental mercury pollution. The conference organizing committee has set three principal goals for the conference: 1) to enhance the synthesis of information presented at the conference through an integration of focused plenary sessions, poster sessions, conferee discussions, and synthesis papers; 2) to focus and enhance the integration of science and policy concerning environmental mercury pollution; and 3) to increase participation by underrepresented groups, including graduate students, beginning professionals, and representatives of developing nations.
Website: http://www.mercury2006.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1435
Contact: conference organizing committee at info@mercury2006.org
December 4 - 6, 2006
Atlanta, Georgia
Presented by Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Environmental Health, The 2006 Environmental Public Health Conference has a theme of "Advancing Environmental Public Health: Science, Practice, New Frontiers." The conference committee is now accepting submission forms for abstracts for workshops, posters, and exhibits. The deadline is August 1, 2006.
Website: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/conference/abstract_submission.htm
from Washington Toxics Coalition
The State Alliance for Federal Reform of Chemicals Policy (SAFER) is a strategic, tightly coordinated national campaign whose long-term vision is to establish a new precautionary federal chemicals policy by 2020. The core strategy of this state-based campaign is to launch and win a critical mass of comprehensive policy measures in key states to tip the balance for achieving reform at the national level.
SAFER is a new campaign that is a response to one of the most pressing public health and environmental challenges facing the U.S. and the globe- the growing rates of cancer, developmental disorders, asthma, and other health effects caused in part by toxic pollution entering our lives.
The candidate must be deeply passionate about protecting public health and the environment and be persistent in the face of great challenges. We are looking for someone committed to working with a diverse set of groups and individuals spread across the nation as part of a core strategy for building the long-term movement to win dramatic policy changes. We are looking for a candidate who knows how to run complex campaigns. Candidates should have at least 5 years of relevant experience, including work in policy and political settings, coalition management, and fundraising.
While we would prefer the position to be housed with one of the SAFER steering committee members, the location is flexible throughout the United States. The position is open until filled.
Send resume, cover letter, three references, and a brief one-page summary of your list of campaign and coalition building accomplishments to:
SAFER Search Committee
Washington Toxics Coalition
4649 Sunnyside Avenue N, Suite 540
Seattle, WA 98103
The Washington Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization. With 20,000 members across the state, WashPIRG has been advocating for and organizing on public interest issues for two decades. Using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposure, grassroots organizing, advocacy, and litigation, we deliver persistent, results-oriented public interest activism that improves the quality of the environment, our government, and of Washingtonians' lives.
Job Description
WashPIRG's Environmental Advocate would play the following roles: issue expert, political strategist, researcher, advocate, media liaison, political organizer, organization builder. Qualifications include passion and persistence. We're looking for a goal-driven and results-oriented individual who is committed to the public interest, someone with leadership skills and initiative, and the verbal and written skills necessary to make the case that protecting the environment must be a top priority. Candidates should have 3 to 8 years of relevant professional experience, post-college, including (but not limited to) work in political, policy, legal, journalistic or government settings. For more information, please see http://www.pirg.org/jobs/positions/show/55.
Send a compelling cover letter and resume to careers@pirg.org. Please specify which position you are applying for in the subject line of the e-mail, and be sure to mention where you saw our job advertised. We'll carefully consider your application and if we think you're a good fit, we'll be in touch.
Job Description
We are seeking an Executive Director to lead our continued efforts to protect the public interest. We're looking for a talented and dedicated individual who will bring creative ideas and gumption to the environmental and consumer challenges facing Washington state. The director's responsibilities includeo perations, advocacy, campaign strategy, media outreach and fundraising. Qualifications include passion and persistence. We're looking for a goal-driven and results-oriented individual who is committed to the public interest, someone with leadership skills and initiative, and the verbal and written skills necessary to make the case that protecting the public interest must be a top priority. Candidates should have 8 or more years of relevant professional experience, post-college, including (but not limited to) work in political, policy, legal, journalistic or government settings. Advanced degrees, including a JD or masters in related fields, may count toward a candidate's professional experience. Send your cover letter and resume to careers@pirg.org. Please specify which position you are applying for in the subject line of your e-mail, and be sure to mention where you saw our job advertised. For more information, please see http://www.pirg.org/jobs/positions/show/56.
by Rebecca Palmer, Wellington [New Zealand] Dominion Post
July 25, 2006
excerpts from the complete article at http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3742526a7144,00.html
New Zealand researchers -- particularly at Auckland University's Liggins Institute -- are helping to establish how nutrition in the womb influences health throughout life. Dr Coad says it is not only what women eat during pregnancy but also what they eat beforehand that have impacts. "If they are crash dieting or bingeing or just eating very badly, it might have knock-on consequences."
The foetus responds to the environment in the womb by making physiological adaptations that prepare it for life after birth -- a process known as foetal programming. Foetuses short of nutrients tend to be smaller and have smaller organs, allowing them to use the nutrition they get more efficiently. "It's a really good survival mechanism. The downside is there's a cost with that." Researchers have found links between a small birthweight and increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, lung disease and hypertension in adulthood.
Ironically, a woman who diets before or during pregnancy can set her child up for future obesity because her foetus is preparing for a world with little food. "They are just predisposed to becoming obese and, as they get old, diabetes."
But women who suffer from morning sickness do not necessarily deprive their babies of nutrition. "Usually it's just transient," Dr Coad says. The placenta also has "some really good transport mechanisms", she says. However, those experiencing severe vomiting can lose too many electrolytes and need rehydration. In mature women, the body tends to prioritise the foetus, giving it the nutrition it needs first. "There's kind of a hierarchy of importance." In pregnant teenagers, there is more of a balance between mother and child.
Paradoxically, studies have found that undernourished women are less likely to experience morning sickness than those who are well-nourished. Women with a healthy weight should gain between 11.5 and 16 kilograms during pregnancy, according to the Health Ministry guidelines. But the requirements vary -- thinner women may need to gain more weight and obese women, much less.
Vegetarian women are not likely to cause problems for their foetuses, as long as they are careful to have a balanced diet. "A lot of women who are vegetarian are a little bit more nutritionally aware anyway," Dr Coad says. Nutrients that vegetarians and vegans need to pay particular attention to are protein, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and the fatty acids usually found in eggs, meat and fish.
Most women should not avoid common food allergens, though those whose families have a history of hay-fever, asthma or eczema are advised to avoid peanuts and peanut products while pregnant and breast-feeding. DR COAD says alcohol consumption continues to be a concern, especially as many women do not plan their pregnancies. An Otago University study issued this month found 20 per cent of the mothers and pregnant women surveyed had binged on alcohol at some point during their pregnancy. But most had not realised they were pregnant. More than half of the 1256 women surveyed thought it was okay to drink some alcohol during pregnancy, despite new Health Ministry guidelines that advise total abstinence. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause foetal alcohol syndrome, which has varying effects, including unusual facial features and intellectual impairment. At the lower end of alcohol exposure, infants may show learning and behavioural difficulties.
There is no known safe period or safe amount for drinking during pregnancy. "Certainly the changes in the face are associated with drinking early, but the brain is developing all through gestation and afterwards," Dr Coad says. Alcohol can be transferred to a baby through breast milk.
Foodborne illnesses also pose dangers to the unborn child. A raft of foods -- everything from cream to sushi -- can contain harmful bacteria. Pregnant women need to take extra care with food safety and are advised to avoid prepared foods, wash fruit and vegetables well, cook food thoroughly and not eat raw eggs, meats or fish. Listeria is a bug commonly found in the environment, including in plants, animal faeces, dust and soil. Though not a problem for most people, it can be disastrous in pregnant women. Other foodborne nasties include campylobacter, salmonella and toxoplasma. They can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or illness or premature death in an infant. However, Dr Coad says it is uncommon for food to be a cause of miscarriage.
All in all, what women eat and drink before and during pregnancy can have profound impacts on the health of their children. But Dr Coad says many New Zealand women do not actively prepare for pregnancy. "It's quite typical in Westernised cultures, where people don't want to get too ready." A lack of planning means women might inadvertently put their unborn children in danger or miss out on some of the nutrients they need. For instance, the importance of getting enough folic acid during pregnancy is well-known, "but most women don't start till they've had their pregnancy confirmed". Taking folic acid supplements is advised at least four weeks before conception.
If it all seems like a hassle, Dr Coad points out that measures that encourage foetal health -- such as eating nutritious foods and reducing caffeine and alcohol consumption -- are good for women too. "They will probably feel better for it anyway."
by FRED KELLY, Charlotte Observer
July 24, 2006
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/health/15108248.htm
Mecklenburg and several surrounding counties are among the least likely places in North Carolina to test children for lead exposure -- a major health risk for babies living in homes built before 1978. And with uncertain availability of money to pay for protecting children in high-risk areas of Charlotte, some officials are concerned the city won't meet a federal goal to eliminate lead poisoning by 2010.
Public health agencies and private doctors are supposed to test all Medicaid recipients and assess the risk for other children at ages 1 and 2. Exposure to lead can cause learning disabilities, neurological and kidney damage and, in rare cases, death. But Mecklenburg, Union, Lincoln and Gaston counties reported that 25 percent or fewer of all children ages 1 and 2 were tested in 2005. That places the four counties among the 10 worst for screening in North Carolina. The statewide average is 40 percent for all children. In Mecklenburg, 45 percent of Medicaid recipients ages 1 and 2 were tested last year, compared with 56 percent statewide. Similar statistics for the other area counties were not available. "It's definitely not good enough," said Ed Norman, an epidemiologist for the N.C. Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. "With Medicaid recipients we should be testing 80 to 90 percent."
Of all children tested last year, more than 1,100 N.C. infants and toddlers had -- according to nationally recognized medical standards -- dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Nine were in Mecklenburg County. "It doesn't seem right in this day and age" that children are exposed to lead poisoning and are not tested, said Tom Vitaglione, a senior fellow at Action for Children North Carolina, a child advocacy group. "There is a justice issue underlying this."
State and local health administrators say screening rates in North Carolina have doubled in the past decade and far surpass those in neighboring states. South Carolina, for instance, tested only 8 percent of all children age 6 and under in 2004, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
`A significant child health issue'
Mecklenburg officials say they lag partly because they have focused on reaching those who are the most at risk. But officials cannot explain why they failed to meet a federal law requiring testing for Medicaid recipients, widely considered the group highest at risk for lead poisoning. "This is a significant child health issue and it's completely preventable," Norman said.
Experts give varied reasons why children aren't tested, ranging from a lack of public awareness to limited access to medical care for the poor. In some cases, they said, private doctors believe testing is unnecessary because their patients face little threat of exposure. Class also plays a role, some advocates argue, saying politicians have not made the issue a priority in recent years.
A bill that would give tax credits to homeowners who abate lead hazards has languished in the state legislature for more than a year, Norman said. "It's viewed as a poor person's disease," he said. "That doesn't get you far when you're trying to get your share of resources."
How kids are exposed
Lead can be found in inexpensive jewelry, toys and other items, but N.C. children are most often exposed through house paint in older homes. The federal government banned lead-based paint in 1978. Charlotte has more than 110,000 homes built before 1978, nearly half of which lie within a four-mile radius of uptown. The city has inspected more than 1,000 of the homes since 1998 and found 85 percent contained lead hazards, said Diane Adams, lead abatement coordinator.
Nakevia Harvell of Charlotte said she suspects that her daughter, DeJonia, tested positive for lead poisoning four years ago because they lived in an aging public housing project. DeJonia, now 6, has not suffered afflictions, but her mother sometimes fears the worst. "It's scary," Harvell said. "You can't feel too safe when it comes to lead."
Addressing the hazard
In the past eight years, Charlotte has spent $11 million to eliminate lead hazards in older homes. With the help of federal funds, the city doled out grants to landlords and homeowners averaging $5,600 for replacement windows, doors, paint and other items. But to continue the program, Charlotte must win a $3 million federal grant this fall. In October, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development will hand out money to 40 municipalities across the nation for lead abatement. Some 200 communities typically apply. If the Charlotte does not receive the money, city officials may have to offer loans to homeowners to entice them to address the hazard. "That would be a tough sell," Adams said. "We would have to scramble."
by Anna Smyth, Scotsman
July 24, 2006
http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1070362006
MOISTURISE, moisturise, moisturise is the mantra of most women, but many of those creams claiming to keep our skins smooth and wrinkle-free contain parabens, which may not be so kind to your health. Parabens are used frequently in face moisturisers and body creams because they can inhibit microbial growth, so extending the shelf life of products both in-store and at home.
However, researchers at the Clinico Hospital in Spain have proposed a possible link between parabens and breast cancer, after finding increased levels of environmental parabens in breast tissue removed from cancer patients. The study cited cosmetics as one of the most common sources of the absorbed chemicals. According to the lead scientist, Dr Nicolás Olea, cosmetics that include oestrogenic substances (parabens, phthalates and some ultraviolet filters such as benzophenone) strengthen the effects of the female hormone, which drives the development of cancer.
Dr Chris Flowers, a toxicologist and the director general of the cosmetics trade association, the Cosmetic Toiletry and Perfumery Association (CTPA), suggests there is little scientific concern: "There is actually no evidence that parabens are absorbed through the skin, but even if they were the quantities required to effect cancer growth would be staggering."
If you share the concerns of the Spanish scientists, check the ingredients list on the back of all your beauty products -- the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark found that 77 per cent of rinse-off cosmetics contain parabens (the figure rises to 99 per cent for leave-on cosmetics such as sunscreens). You might not see the word parabens, but that does not mean they are not there, as these chemicals might be listed as methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben or butylparaben.
When buying your moisturiser also look out for diazolidinyl urea, which has similar preservative qualities. The American Academy of Dermatology has found this chemical to be a primary cause of dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin which can be both uncomfortable and unsightly.
Deodorants
IN 2004, Dr Phillippa Darbre published findings in the Journal of Applied Toxicology that stated a link between the parabens used in deodorants and breast cancer. After traces of the chemicals were found in breast cancer tissues, the team of scientists at the University of Reading proposed that their use in the underarm area allowed the substances to be absorbed easily into the breast and called for their safety to be reviewed. It was the first study to suggest the accumulation of these substances in human tissue. While there was no evidence to suggest the parabens had caused the cancer -- and Cancer Research UK has confirmed there is no direct link -- it does imply that if used over a long period, the chemicals will build up in your body. Further reviews have found that deodorants which contain parabens are in the minority, but it is important to check your brand's label if you want to be as toxin-free as possible.
Hair dyes
THERE have been many scare stories about the continued use of permanent hair dyes, mainly focusing on the properties of arylamine, an ammonia derivative. In 2001 researchers at the University of Southern California found that women who used permanent dyes could double or treble their risk of developing bladder cancer. Women who coloured their hair every month for 15 years had the greatest increase in risk. Swedish researchers also found that continued use for 20 years or more could almost double the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The link between permanent dye and the disease is unclear, but the scientists suspect that some of the chemicals may affect the immune system, so triggering the onset of arthritis. Semi-permanent or temporary dyes don't have the same effect.
Hair removal cream
MOST women feel a slightly uncomfortable sensation when using depilatory creams, or a stinging irritation afterwards. This could be owing to the thioglycolic acid used in the majority of brands to break down hair. In mild concentrations, it causes nothing but a little skin irritation, but on contact with your eye it may burn and leave the cornea cloudy. Commercial creams must not be more than 5 per cent thioglycolic acid, to ensure their safety. "The concentrations of thioglycolic acid used in depilatories are high enough to cause damage to the hairs," says Flowers, "but provided they are used as per instructions and washed completely off the skin, they should cause no adverse reaction. It is true that some cosmetics have hazardous properties in certain forms or concentrations, but it is the job of the cosmetic scientists to ensure that domestic substances are safe."
Shampoo
THE rich soapy lather which gives us that squeaky-clean feeling when washing our hair is usually produced by sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), used in many foaming bathroom products. For some it can cause irritation, scalp rash and allergic reactions. Flowers insists that though in large quantities the chemicals in shampoo can be irritants, in approved cosmetics there is no health risk. "There are rumours that SLS is carcinogenic, but no scientific studies have shown a link between shampoo and cancer. At a high concentration, if SLS were not washed off the skin, it would certainly irritate the skin but the cosmetics industry would never use it in those quantities, or in that form."
If you use an anti-dandruff shampoo, you should also look out for the antifungal chemical zinc pyrithione, which aims to tackle the root cause of skin flakes. Although considered safe for external use, avoid swallowing it as it can have serious health implications. Lab tests on rats found that ingested zinc pyrithione caused progressive hind-limb weakness, muscle wastage and penile prolapse.
Soap
Propylene glycol is a solvent found in dozens of bathroom products, including some soap, lotions and baby wipes. Much has been made of the fact that this chemical which we put on our skin can also be used as anti-freeze. A US study published in the journal Pharmacology, found that although it is a relatively safe substance, overdoses of propylene glycol have been associated with serious adverse effects. When ingested, propylene glycol can cause depression of the central nervous system -- and while adults are less likely to get soapy water in their mouths, this is something to take on board when choosing soaps for children and babies. In milder cases, it can cause hives and exacerbate eczema. However, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review -- an independent body which tests the safety of cosmetic ingredients -- has concluded that the chemical is safe for domestic use in concentrations of up to 50 per cent.
Nail polish
THE major concern with nail varnish is the inclusion of phthalates, which are termed "endocrine-disrupting" chemicals, meaning they tinker with our hormonal balance. They are also included in hairsprays and vinyl flooring. But the ones to watch for in your beauty products are dibutyl phthalate, diethyl phthalate or dimethyl phthalate. The World Wildlife Fund has raised concerns about the impact of this hormonal shift. "You won't get ill immediately after using these products, but we don't know what the lifelong consequences may be of disrupting the hormonal system, and there are suggestions that they affect the way the reproductive system develops in pre-natal males." There is no conclusive proof that they cause damage in cosmetic concentrations, and therefore no recommendations for their use to be restricted, however next time you are painting your nails, you might want to consider that the European Commission has restricted the use of phthalates in soft toys that might be sucked by young children.
Hairspray
THERE have long been concerns about the chemicals in hairdressing products -- particularly hairspray, which can so easily be inhaled. Environmental campaigners argue that the copolymers -- plastics to coat the hair -- can cause respiratory problems on contact with the lungs. There have also been studies to show that long-term exposure can affect the foetuses of hairdressers. A Swedish team of researchers found that although there was no clear link between individual exposure and birth defects, frequent perming and spraying during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of having a small baby. The scientists concluded that while the risk seems to be moderate, hairspray contains chemicals, such as ethanol and acetone, that have sometimes been linked to reduced birth weight.
Lipstick
IF you wear lipstick, you will probably get through an average of five lipsticks every year. Between the ages of 16 and 60, scientists predict, you are likely to swallow two pounds of the stuff. Although this poses no serious health risk, the Women's Environmental Network estimates that even as you wear it you absorb 90 per cent of what you apply, meaning your body has to break down and excrete the chemicals involved -- which are likely to include propylene glycol and parabens. That just might make you think twice about licking those lips.
by Melanie Gosling, Johannesburg Star
July 24 2006
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=14&art_id=vn20060724003819434C666973
A study has found mothers tested in rural areas have pesticides, including DDT, in their breast milk. Some of the women had 77 times the international limit for DDT residue in humans, while in some of the babies it was 12 times the World Health Organisation's acceptable daily intake. These shock findings emerged as a new US study shows DDT in mothers is linked to delays in physical and mental development. The study is one of the first to link DDT with human developmental problems.
Banned in most countries because of its harmful effects on the environment, DDT is used in some parts of South Africa to kill malaria mosquitoes. Pyrethroids, found in women's breast milk here, are used as agricultural pesticides. DDT, one of the world's "dirty dozen" organic pollutants, stays in the environment for years after use, enters the food chain and gets stored in the fatty tissue of birds, animals and humans. Barabara Sereda, from the Agricultural Research Council in Pretoria and one of the scientists who conducted the study, said DDT was present in water and soil and had been taken up by crops. "The results are quite scary," she said.
The pesticides were found in the breast milk of 152 women at clinics at Jozini, Mkuze and Kwaliweni in northern KwaZulu-Natal. DDT is used in Jozini and Mkuze to kill mosquitoes, but not Kwaliweni. Between 1995 and 2000 pyrethroids were used for malaria control in the two towns, and then DDT usage was resumed. Mothers from Jozini have the highest residue, followed by Mkuze and Kwaliweni. Mothers in Jozini had life-long exposure to DDT from malaria control. Exposure for those in Mkuze was variable while moms in Kwaliweni had never lived in DDT-treated dwellings. The scientists said the source of DDT in Kwaliweni should be investigated to determine whether water or fish were the source.
First-time moms had the highest levels, meaning first-borns got the highest amount of the pesticide in the breast milk. Scientists said the levels of DDT found in babies warranted strong concern, but believed the malaria threat outweighed the negative effects of DDT at these levels. The peer-reviewed study has been accepted for publication by Environmental Pollution. It is available online.
by Colin Perkel, Canadian Press, Macleans Magazine
July 23, 2006
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/news/shownews.jsp?content=n072308A
TORONTO (CP) -- More than 20 per cent of federally-tested fresh fruit and vegetables sold in Canada show traces of pesticide contamination, according to the latest data, but manufacturers of the chemicals say the numbers prove there's no need for consumer concern. In a new analysis being released Monday, which is hotly disputed by environmentalists and some health experts, CropLife Canada says there's no reason for consumer concern because in almost all cases, the pesticides found on food are well within the safety limits set by Health Canada.
Just a tiny fraction of foods tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency were found to have contamination in violation of the maximum residue limits, with domestic fresh foods faring better than imports. "People think that their food, unless they buy organic, is laced with pesticides," said Peter MacLeod, executive director of CropLife Canada, an industry association of pesticide manufacturers and distributors. "The truth is that they're not."
Federal inspections in 2004-05 turned up chemical residue in just over 22 per cent of both domestic and imported fresh produce, but at levels lower than the maximum residue limits, the analysis concludes. Only 0.65 per cent of domestic and 1.1 per cent of imported fresh produce exceeded those levels. What's important, said MacLeod, is that even when residues were found, they were detected in minute quantities -- in the range of parts per million or lower.
While environmentalists and health advocates agree the amounts are tiny, they say it's impossible to be definitive in asserting they pose no health risk, especially when it comes to children. Some experts worry that some chemicals are unsafe at any level, that many safety standards are out of date, and that Ottawa doesn't test for all chemicals in use.
A key worry is how the toxic cocktail of pollutants interact. "We are concerned about the health effects of low levels of many different chemicals in a person's body," said Sarah Winterton of the group Environmental Defence. "We really don't know the health impacts of low-level exposure, particularly within the context of how many different chemicals we are exposed to every day."
Results of a study released by Environmental Defence last month detected a wide array of toxins in the bodies of seven children and six adults from five families living in different parts of Canada. The chemicals, among them pesticides, PCBs and flame retardants, are known carcinogens, hormone disrupters and neurotoxins. The disturbing findings prompted Health Canada to announce it would study 5,000 people for signs of pollution-related toxins. "Pesticides are among the most widely used chemicals in the world, and also among the most dangerous to human health," according to the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. "They are a leading cause of poisonings here in Canada and have been estimated to account for thousands of deaths each year globally."
But MacLeod said Canadians can be confident that Ottawa is closely monitoring residue levels and their health is being protected. "Even if they hit that maximum residue limit level, there's still a 100-fold safety factor in there before any health effect would ever be shown," MacLeod said. "So (these are) very, very conservative numbers showing a high degree of safety for our food supply."
by Elaine Hopkins, Peoria Journal Star
July 23, 2006
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/072306/TRI_BAELG76L.012.shtml
PEORIA -- While providing good jobs and products that people want, chemical plants also may stink, accidentally explode or catch fire, and their emissions can threaten the environment and human health. Even worse, after Sept. 11, 2001, it became apparent that terrorists could turn a chemical plant into a weapon of mass destruction and in some cities endanger millions of people.
Hoping to prevent toxic terrorism, Congress has been considering measures that would require greater security for chemical plants. Several in the Peoria area could be affected. Legislation has been introduced in the Senate and the House and might come to a vote in September, said Scott Jensen, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council. "It doesn't seem to be highly contentious," he said, but some issues need to be resolved. They include:
Chemical plants likely will be required to conduct vulnerability assessments and create site security and emergency response plans based on their specific vulnerabilities, subject to approval by the secretary of homeland security. Five separate, adjacent chemical plants on U.S. Route 24 across from Mapleton, a town of about 200 people, probably will be affected by the proposed legislation. Other industrial plants, from ethanol manufacturers to farm chemical suppliers, may or may not be included in the final legislation, said Mark Biel, executive director of the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois. Their inclusion likely will depend on which chemicals they use and the quantities used and stored at their facilities, he said.
The trade organization supports this proposed regulation of chemical plants. "We want to see federal legislation passed this year to cover as wide a universe as possible. We want to make sure (all) competitors are required to comply with certain levels of security," Biel said.
The five Mapleton plants are Degussa, Chemtura, Lonza, Air Liquide and SPI Polyols. All manufacture chemicals and products for other industrial processes. Degussa was once known as Sherex Chemical Co., then became Witco Corp., which merged with Crompton and Knowles. A part of Witco then was split off and sold to Degussa Goldschmidt. Crompton recently merged with Great Lakes Chemical and has taken the name Chemtura.
Several years ago, the plants and the town formed the Mapleton Community Advisory Panel, which continues to meet regularly. Studies of risks have been made, and emergency response plans were developed. Disaster drills take place annually, and communications systems are tested monthly. Alice Dailey, the village clerk and postmaster and a member of the panel, said the plants have upgraded security with guards and cameras. "You can't get on the property. You can't get into the buildings" without company permission, she said. "I really think they're safe," she said, adding, "I know the guards." At the most recent disaster exercise in May, the FBI attended and observed, Dailey said.
A glitch in procedures can bring out the "bomb squad," she said. Two years ago, a salesman forgot his briefcase in the office at the Degussa plant, and the Peoria Police Department bomb squad appeared, Dailey said. X-rays revealed that the case contained only papers, but precautions were taken just in case. Jeff Seppa, plant manager at Degussa, said with better fences, new guards and cameras, all the plants have been "proactive without legislation." The plants "don't consider ourselves targets for terrorists," he said, though "we do handle and store hazardous chemicals."
Asked about shifting to less hazardous chemicals, Seppa responded that Degussa is always looking for better products and technologies "that allow us to be safer."
In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency required the company to disclose the risks connected with its use of six industrial chemicals. The most hazardous substance was anhydrous ammonia. A worst-case scenario showed the substance moving up to 3.6 miles from the plant in toxic amounts, affecting both Mapleton and Pekin. The other plant that disclosed risks under the EPA requirements was Lonza Inc. It handled five substances, including methyl chloride, which could travel 3.2 miles but likely would move only one-fourth of a mile, the reports showed.
Today, public information about these risks has been scaled back for fear that terrorists would use the information. But recent accidents showed the tip of the toxic iceberg. On Aug. 21, 2001, a mechanical failure in a chemical reactor at Crompton Corp. caused a fire of liquid triethylene aluminum, sending a few motorists on U.S. Route 24 to hospitals for smoke inhalation treatment. No employees were injured. Safety experts said the community was lucky, as the substance could have exploded if rain had occurred.
A previous fire at Crompton had occurred in April 2001, with smoke threatening children at a nearby elementary school. But emergency procedures were followed, and no one was injured. After the fires, the telephone warning system for community members was upgraded, said Vicki Turner, executive director of Peoria County's Emergency Services and Disaster Agency. The system calls everyone with a listed phone number. "The notification system is better," she said. "Before, it took too long." Sirens also warn people, she said. "If it's not a storm, they know it's a release." A public address system on the siren towers issues instructions, she said.
Toxic emissions also bring regulatory attention. A year ago, Degussa was cited by the U.S. EPA for clean air violations, for emitting a hazardous air pollutant, methyl chloride, and for odor complaints. That case is still pending, an agency spokesman said last week. The company makes chemical products from fats and oils that are used in manufacturing detergents, personal care products and in the oil-drilling industry. Sometimes they smell bad. Odor complaints continue to anger some residents, Dailey said, adding that the plants sometimes are blamed for odors they don't produce, including the smell of dead deer on the highway. Seppa said, "There's an ongoing effort to reduce odors."
The most recent Toxic Release Inventory from the U.S. EPA shows that in 2004 Degussa released 182,863 pounds of nine hazardous chemicals into the air. Crompton released 6,650 pounds of four chemicals. Lonza released 15,990 pounds of nine chemicals. The other two plants were not listed on the report.
by Dan Stockman, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
July 23, 2006
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/15105299.htm
If you could locate your home anywhere, would you place it next to a tank of hazardous materials? What if that material was on wheels and rolled by your home at up to 40 mph? In Fort Wayne, nearly 36,000 people live within a few blocks of the busy railroad lines that cross the city -- railroads that each year carry millions of tons of poisonous gas, corrosive acids and explosives past homes, businesses, schools and child-care centers. An additional 10,000 live close enough to the busy tracks in New Haven to be in danger.
In fact, of the thousands of railcars that roll through the city each year, about one in 20 is carrying hazardous materials, according to federal statistics. But aside from standing near the tracks and logging ID numbers on railcars -- assuming you know how to interpret those numbers -- finding out what is in those cars is nearly impossible. "For security reasons, we don't discuss that with the media," Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband said. "We do provide all that information to the (local emergency planning committee) on request."
Local officials say they get general information about the types of materials that generally move through the city but not specific information on how much or when. Someone wanting to choose a school or a home, then, is left to trust that whatever is being hauled nearby will not spill or leak and would not find out what that material was unless something happened.
Recently, a train rumbled down the tracks over Broadway with tank cars whose placards identified them as carrying highly flammable alcohol and liquids such as diesel or fuel oil. The elevated tracks sit between a grocery store and a child-care center and are lined by hundreds of homes. A derailment and fire could imperil hundreds before they even knew what had happened. Another train carried refrigerated carbon dioxide through the city in its black tank car. Refrigerated carbon dioxide, according to a federal guidebook, can cause dizziness or asphyxia if inhaled, and the containers not only can explode if heated, but also a rupture can cause the tank to rocket, where the escaping gas blasts the tank car through the air.
On a recent Friday, a train rumbled through downtown and past the homes in the East Central neighborhood carrying thousands of gallons of alcohol, plus a tank car full of butane, isobutene or propane. A federal guidebook calls the gases "extremely flammable" and says they can form explosive mixtures in the air. The Journal Gazette identified the chemicals using the federal Emergency Response Guidebook from the U.S. Department of Transportation. But the people who live just feet from the tracks are not told what dangers are rumbling past. "We would leave (public information) up to the public officials, since ultimately they're the ones responsible for public safety, to let them decide what should be shared with the public," Husband said.
Mayor Graham Richard said residents have a right to know what dangers they're facing. "I come down in this case on the side of encouraging higher levels of knowledge," Richard said, "and the ability to make decisions based on facts."
Should the public know?
The federal response to the issue of dangerous cargoes was a proposal that would have increased secrecy: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security proposed removing the placards from railcars hauling hazardous materials because they could point terrorists to possible targets. That idea was scrapped after protests from firefighters who pointed out their lives depend on knowing what's in a railcar in an accident. The federal government has also shown no inclination to remove rules requiring railroads to accept hazardous shipments and at rates comparable to other cargo.
Fred Millar, a homeland security consultant in Washington, says telling the public of the dangers nearby only lets the public make decisions on whether to accept that risk. Hiding it from the public, he said, denies them that opportunity. "Doesn't it make you proud as an American that we can export democracy around the world, but we keep Americans in the dark about what's moving through their cities?" Millar said. Millar contends that if people knew of the tons of dangerous chemicals and explosives roaring past their children's school or where they work, they would work to move them elsewhere. "It's fair to say this is a completely underappreciated hazard," he said.
Millar helped the Washington City Council devise a law banning railroads from moving the most dangerous materials through that city, a move that spurred both lawsuits from the railroads and similar proposals in six other cities. A federal court upheld Washington's law, but the railroads have appealed.
In Washington, the catalyst was terrorism: Hazardous materials move on rails just blocks from the Capitol and the National Mall, where the government estimated 100,000 people could be killed within 30 minutes if terrorists struck during a large event. Millar said Fort Wayne may not be the terrorist target Washington is, but an accidental release could be just as devastating. "The basic consequences are the same -- the chemicals act the same no matter how they get out," Millar said.
Risk of release is small
The railroads insist the chances of an accidental release are remote. "It's as close to 100 percent (safe) as it probably could be, as far as hazardous materials being shipped without incident," Norfolk Southern's Husband said. The Association of American Railroads, a national trade group for the industry, also says railroads are safe and getting safer. Joseph Boardman, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, pointed out recently that despite the enormous amounts of dangerous cargo on the nation's rails, injuries and accidents are few. There were 29 train accidents in 2004 where hazardous materials were released, but those were among 1.7 million shipments of hazardous materials. That makes the risk of a release a tiny fraction of 1 percent.
But even one release can be catastrophic. In January 2005, a Norfolk Southern train was mistakenly switched onto a siding in Graniteville, S.C., where it hit a parked train and ruptured a tanker car of deadly chlorine gas. Thousands were evacuated, hundreds were sickened and nine people died. Experts say if the crash had been during the day, the death toll would have been much higher.
The materials being hauled are so deadly and so voluminous that the railroads have asked Congress to either stop requiring them to carry them or limit their liability. Wick Moorman, Norfolk Southern's president and CEO, told a House subcommittee that his railroad wouldn't carry the cargoes if it didn't have to. "Norfolk Southern does not make these highly hazardous materials. Norfolk Southern does not use these highly hazardous materials. And Norfolk Southern does not make enough money transporting these highly hazardous materials to justify the risks the federal government requires us to take," Moorman testified. "The simple fact is we are putting our company at risk every single time we couple a carload of these highly hazardous materials to one of our trains -- no matter how safely we operate."
The risk is so high it may soon be uninsurable. Insurance executives testifying in the same hearing as Moorman said that few companies will write insurance for railroads because of the hazardous material risk. One more catastrophic loss could wipe out the railroad insurance industry completely, they said. Many of the risks railroads carry come from factors outside their control, but those incidents do raise questions about the safety and security of the nation's rail lines.
Spills recounted
Norfolk Southern's Moorman complained to Congress about an Indiana derailment in Hagerstown, caused by a driver who drove around flashing signals and crossing gates, and an incident in Goshen where vandals were able to derail 11 railcars being stored there. And accidents happen, as well. Parts fail, valves come open and cars leak. According to the National Response Center, a federal agency that serves as the national contact point for reporting all oil, chemical, radiation and biological releases into the environment, there have been 19 accidents involving railroads in Allen County since 2000.
Most of those spills have been motor oil or diesel from the locomotives, but in January 2003 a gallon of liquid magnesium chloride leaked out of a tank car with a loose cover in the rail yard. According to the federal Emergency Response Guide, used by first responders at hazardous material spills, magnesium chloride is an oxidizer that can explosively accelerate fires. In 2000, 100 pounds of anhydrous ammonia leaked from a tank car's hose in Huntington. Anhydrous ammonia, used as a farm fertilizer, can be fatal if inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin, and contact can also cause burns, the Emergency Response Guide says. In September 2003 in Wabash County, an unknown amount of fuming sulfuric acid spilled out of a tank car from a defective rubber gasket. According to the response guide, sulfuric acid can cause severe injury, burns or death if it is inhaled, ingested or touched. And according to a survey of railroad workers, the potential for many more incidents is great: A survey conducted by the Teamsters found that trains and their cargo are not secure, are often left unattended -- even when hauling hazardous material -- and that railroad police were often nowhere to be found. They also said they had not been trained in handling spills.
The Association of American Railroads blasted the survey, saying it "ignores the facts" and called it a self-serving union bargaining tactic. Specifically, they said the 62 percent of those surveyed who said they had not been trained on their company's security plan "is absolutely false" because all employees receive that training and federal regulations require workers handling hazardous materials to get special training.
No quick change expected
The danger has some in Fort Wayne worried. Officer Michael Joyner, spokesman for the city police department, has for years watched tank cars sit near or roll past the Three Rivers Apartment high rises, the water filtration plant, the City County Building, the Allen County Jail and St. Joseph Hospital, and worried about what a leak or explosion would do. "They're just sitting there waiting for some disaster to happen," Joyner said.
A disaster could wipe out the city's water supply, cut off the main north-south routes through town, require the evacuation of prisoners, destroy the emergency communications center and even take out the hazardous materials response team at Fire Station No. 1 that would be needed for such an emergency. An explosion or fire could also render the burn unit at St. Joseph Hospital inaccessible or worse. "You could in effect bring this whole city to its knees," Joyner said. "The worst-case scenario is right here in Fort Wayne. ... This would be one for the lesson books."
The mayor agrees, to a point. "Like so many issues, this is a complicated one," Richard said. "When the city is well known for its rivers and its railroads, you obviously give a lot of thought to how we protect public safety and at the same time encourage commerce." So far, Richard said, the city's response has been to give its first responders the best possible training and do all the planning possible in case something does happen. In the meantime, the city is trying to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals that need to be here; recently it stopped using deadly chlorine gas at the sewage treatment plant in favor of something safer.
Bernie Beier, Fort Wayne-Allen County director of homeland security, said training in the city and county is top-notch, much to the credit of Norfolk Southern. He said that each summer the railroad trains first responders for a week at its own expense, working on not only hazardous materials training, but law enforcement and security issues as well. The railroad also works with local officials when there is particularly dangerous cargo expected. "Norfolk Southern has got a fairly tight working relationship with the city and county on the types of materials coming through," Beier said. "There's a very strong comfort level between our first responders and Norfolk Southern."
Although local officials are not told what is on particular trains or given particular times, he said, they are told what materials come through on a regular basis. If there was something ultrahazardous that was expected during a major festival or some other event, Beier said, local officials would ask the railroad to re-route the material, though that has not been done, that he knows of.
Richard said he would consider asking the City Council to enact a ban on hazardous materials rolling through Fort Wayne on its way somewhere else but only after the Washington case works its way through the courts. And most likely, he said, that possibility would be used only as leverage to work with the railroads to find a solution so an outright ban was not needed. "We'll wait to see how the courts deal with that issue," Richard said, since it may run afoul of the Interstate Commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. "Rerouting is really difficult because you have to have parallel track systems."
Millar, the Washington consultant, said cities are gambling with the lives of their residents by allowing hazardous cargo on rails through town. "This is bad stuff. Even in peacetime bringing it through major populated areas is just astonishingly reckless," Millar said. "You're just betting your city on this."
by Jeff Montgomery and Mike Billington, Wilmington News Journal
July 23, 2006
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060723/NEWS/607230344/-1/NEWS01
A recent national report that stressed links between dioxin and cancer is raising concerns in Delaware, where thousands of tons of dioxin-tainted wastes have been spilled, buried or stored. Delaware ranks No. 1 in the nation in the production of dioxins, furans and dioxinlike polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial byproducts that in some cases are routinely trickled into the Delaware River. The Edge Moor wastewater plant, the Delaware City refinery and the Wilmington Amtrak repair shops are among the region's top sources of dioxins and dioxinlike PCBs. The National Academy of Sciences recently confirmed that dioxin is highly toxic and known or likely to cause cancer. Exposure also can lead to birth defects and other health problems.
One now-shuttered Delaware City business, the former Standard Chlorine of Delaware Inc., supplied and then recycled some of the chemicals used to produce the herbicide Agent Orange, a defoliant that made dioxin a household word after the Vietnam War. Experts say this puts Vietnam veterans in Delaware at double the risk for exposure. "Delawareans have probably been more heavily exposed to dioxin than most other populations," said Alan Muller, who directs the environmental group Green Delaware. "Given the near total inaction in Delaware on dioxin-related issues, these reports confirm the need for much more aggressive and timely action to protect the public."
Environmental activist Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice in Falls Church, Va., has made several trips to Delaware and New Jersey over the years to argue against proposals to pump dioxin wastes into the Delaware River. Gibbs said the new report may help government agencies get tough with polluters. "The chemical industry has been stalling the release of this information for 21 years," she said. "Now that it's out, agencies can start building policies for cleanups."
Dioxins, furans and dioxin-like PCBs "are detected at low concentrations in virtually all organisms," scientists have found. In humans, the toxins can cause skin lesions, liver disease and possibly cancer. Other health effects can include thyroid and blood disorders, neurological problems, heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Late last month, another report, this one issued by the World Health Organization, upgraded the risk associated with a chemical found in huge amounts at DuPont's Edge Moor plant.
The state is examining the report to see what, if anything, needs to be done. "We're going to look at it and we may have to have our third-party contractor [for the Edge Moor cleanup] look at it," said Kathy Stiller-Banning, a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control program manager. Edge Moor's plant ranks as the nation's largest producer of dioxin byproducts, a fact that led to a series of cleanup proposals and reviews of plant operating methods. Company, state and community officials have for years debated options for removing or containing a 15-acre, 500,000-ton pile of dioxin-tainted leftovers from ore processing. DuPont is evaluating the new study as well, said, Eddie Johnston, a manager at DuPont's Titanium Technologies Business. "We have just received the report ourselves," he said. DNREC was not immediately able to list other dioxin-contaminated sites in the state.
Earlier studies misleading
Dioxins, furans and PCBs most often form as unwanted byproducts in chemical processes involving chlorine and high temperatures. Delaware, once at the center of the nation's largest chemical complex, had several such industries, including Edge Moor, Standard Chlorine of Delaware and its successor, Metachem Products.
State and federal cleanup studies in Delaware have been complicated because low levels of dioxins are routinely found in the environment, making it harder to link contamination to individual polluters. Rick Hind, toxic programs director for the environmental group Greenpeace USA, said the new academy report ranks dioxins as a major global concern. "What the report does say is that cleanups of dioxin contamination need to go ahead and need to be more strict," Hind said. "That could have a very specific impact on the cleanup of the mountain of dioxin at the DuPont plant in Wilmington."
The EPA singled out Edge Moor for close attention in the late 1990s after finding that some of DuPont's practices produced dioxins and wastes that deserved a "hazardous" label and special disposal restrictions. That created a public controversy over DuPont's plan to permanently seal a 15-acre waste pile along the river east of Wilmington. DuPont officials argued that the dioxins at Edge Moor are a weaker cousin of the most dangerous variety and can remain on site under a protective liner forever. However, the World Health Organization report released June 27 said dioxins like those at Edge Moor should be considered three to 10 times more hazardous than previously acknowledged.
Steve Tindall, a resident of the Cragmere neighborhood northwest of the Edge Moor plant, said Delaware should take the new report seriously. "I would be concerned if they were using old standards when something state of the art is available," he said.
Metachem cleanup
Even higher dioxin concentrations were found at the bankrupt Metachem Products chemical plant north of Delaware City. It's now the site of a federal cleanup that could cost taxpayers $100 million or more. Metachem took over the plant from Standard Chlorine in 1998 and then abruptly shut it down, leaving a 75-acre toxic-waste cleanup problem and more than $60 million in unpaid bills. State officials have said some unapproved practices at the factory increased the chance of creating unwanted dioxin or PCBs. The risks were underscored in 2003, when a Delaware River Basin Commission described Metachem as one of the region's top sources of PCB-tainted runoff to the Delaware River.
Marvin Olson, a Vietnam veteran and longtime resident of the Emerald Ridge neighborhood northwest of the Metachem plant, said odors have dwindled from the factory since the shutdown. He nevertheless criticized regulators for failing to act on known pollution problems. "I saw the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam and in veterans today," Olson said. "I don't think they're doing what they need to to make it necessary for these kinds of places to actually make changes. They're giving them too long a lead time. I work at a nuclear plant, and if we operated the way they do here, we'd be shut down."
The EPA spent millions of dollars processing the abandoned chemicals at Metachem and turning out thousands of huge cubes, three feet on a side. Those cubes are stored at a warehouse near Delaware City, awaiting money to pay for their transfer to one of several toxic-waste incinerators in the nation.
by Michael Casey, Associated Press, Akron Beacon Journal
July 21, 2006
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/15089804.htm
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Some paints in Malaysia, China and India contain dangerously high levels of lead, as much as 300 times the legal limit in the United States, presenting a health risk to children, Ohio researchers said Friday. With safer substitutes readily available, researchers from the University of Cincinnati called for better regulation of, or a worldwide ban on, the sale of lead-based paints. "There is a clear discrepancy in product safety outside the United States," said professor Scott Clark, who led the study published in the September issue of Environmental Research, a peer-reviewed journal. "In today's global economy, it would be irresponsible for us to ignore the public health threat for the citizens in the offending countries -- as well as the countries they do business with," he said.
In 1978, the United States introduced regulations restricting lead content in paint to 600 parts per million after studies showed that children who eat or breathe in flaking paint chips or dust can suffer brain damage and other health problems. But Clark said he found paint containing dangerously high levels of lead easily available in hardware stores in Malaysia, China and India. About 50 percent of the paint sold in China, India and Malaysia has lead levels 30 times higher than is permitted in the U.S., although some had as much as 300 times the American limit. Other surveys found similar levels of lead in paints in Indonesia, Peru and the Seychelles, Clark said. In Singapore, where lead levels in paint are supposed to be held to the same standards as in the United States, about 10 percent contained too much of the metal, the study found.
"Lead-based paints have already poisoned millions of children in the United States and will likely cause similar damage in the future as paint use increases in Asian countries and elsewhere," he said. "Our findings provide stark evidence of the urgent need for an effective worldwide ban on the use of lead-based paint." Officials in China couldn't be reached for comment. Telephones weren't answered Friday at the China Coating Industry Association and China's State Administration for Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Clark said his findings also underline the fact that Asian products decorated with lead paint are increasingly being sold in America. In recent years, products ranging from Chinese toys to Indian jewelry have been pulled from U.S. department store shelves because they contained dangerous levels of lead. Clark's team sampled 80 paints in the four countries over two years. The countries were chosen at random.
by Rick Callahan, Associated Press, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
July 20, 2006
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/15085201.htm
INDIANAPOLIS -- The state's annual warnings against eating some fish caught in Indiana's waterways aren't reaching enough Hoosiers, leading some people to unknowingly eat catches tainted with industrial contaminants, public health advocates said Thursday. The state this week released an annual fish consumption advisory listing the waterways where fish are tainted with mercury and PCBs, and detailing species with highest concentrations.
But public health advocates contend that many people never see the detail-filled advisory, particularly low-income anglers whose families rely on caught fish for part of their diet. Indra Frank, a Hoosier Environmental Council board member, said she's fearful that women of childbearing age might be eating tainted fish and unwittingly causing neurological defects in their developing fetuses. "The state goes to a lot of effort to put together information on the quality of fish, but the problem is that the people who need it the most aren't getting that information," said Frank, who is a pathologist.
Exposure to PCBs can cause neurobehavioral and immunological changes in children, while mercury can affect the developing brain and nervous system of children.
LaNetta Alexander, an environmental epidemiologist at the State Department of Health, said the agency has been working to reach out to more low-income residents and those who might eat frequently fish caught in the state's waters. The agency had a booth at last week's Indiana Black Expo event in Indianapolis to get the word out about fish consumption and will have a booth at next month's Indiana State Fair. Alexander said the agency is working to provide pregnant women or mothers receiving assistance through the state's WIC clinics with information about safe fish consumption.
The state health department produces the fish consumption advisory with assistance from other state agencies. Last year, no copies of the guide were printed, although the information was available on the Internet. This year, Alexander said the state has printed about 4,000 copies of the guide -- and mailed three-quarters of those to state agencies and individuals who requested them. Russ Grunden, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said the DNR is working with the health department on a Spanish-language version of the fish consumption guide, and is producing its own handout to educate anglers about toxins in the state's fish.
Many of the state's waterways are tainted with mercury and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as other industrial contaminants that have worked their way up the food chain into fish, particularly older, larger ones. Activists want the state to post signs along Indiana's waterways warning about the risks of eating the fish they catch. State lawmakers considered a provision during last year's legislative session that called for placing such signs along rivers, lakes and streams, but it was eventually dropped. Grunden said DNR has no current plans to post such signs and that doing so would posed daunting challenges because thousands of versions would be needed for various sections of the waterways. "You can't just make several thousand copies of the same sign and post them," he said.
Although the state has not erected signs, some counties, including Marion County, have put up their own signs, said Dean Ford, founder of the advocacy group Friends of Sugar Creek. Central Indiana's Montgomery County, where Ford lives, put up signs along waterways in that county in the 1990s, but he said many of those signs have been vandalized or washed away in floods. He said he's amazed that such signs have not been placed statewide. "It's infuriating to me that they refuse to inform the public. By not putting signs up, they're just keeping it secret," he said. "We have families who are exposing their kids unwittingly."
by Wes Smalling, Santa Fe New Mexican
July 20, 2006
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/46702.html
New Mexico's 314,000 anglers each spend an average of 11 days a year in pursuit of trout, bass, catfish and other species in lakes and rivers around the state. But are the fish they catch safe to eat? The New Mexico Environment Department cannot answer that question with any certainty for most waters in the state. New Mexico does not allocate any funding to the Environment Department for the agency to check sportfish for contaminants such as industrial chemicals and pesticides. However, the agency's lone fisheries biologist, Gary Schiffmiller, has been able to scrape together some grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other sources over the past few years to begin testing fish from a handful of the state's waters.
Schiffmiller's most recent work has been funded by a $150,000 federal grant, which was enough to collect and test about 50 composite samples of fish at $3,000 per study. As the results have come in from each study, it's been more and more bad news almost everywhere he's looked. This year, channel catfish in Abiquiú Lake, carp in Cochiti Lake and catfish and carp in stretches of the Rio Grande near Los Alamos, were found to be unsafe to eat because they are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of industrial chemicals suspected of causing cancer and other serious health problems. The state released a fish-consumption advisory for those waters in January.
In Southern New Mexico, samples of channel catfish, walleye, largemouth bass and white bass collected from Brantley Reservoir near Carlsbad in 2001 and 2005 have showed levels of the banned pesticide DDT that in some instances are three times higher than the EPA's do-not-eat guidelines. This year the state issued a fish-consumption advisory for Brantley and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish made catch-and-release mandatory at the lake.
Right now the Environment Department is waiting on lab results from fish samples collected earlier this year from Ute, Conchas, Elephant Butte and Navajo reservoirs. There is not enough grant money left to check many of the state's other popular recreational fisheries such as El Vado, Heron, Santa Rosa and Sumner lakes, Schiffmiller said. "We just haven't had the budget to deal with it, but I think that's going to change," he said. "What I would like to see is the Legislature allocate some money for this. I hope that would happen."
Schiffmiller said there is enough money left from the grant to conduct follow-up studies this year in the Rio Grande around Los Alamos, Abiquiú Lake and Cochiti Lake. He also hopes to sample the Pecos River both upstream and downstream of Brantley Reservoir, and other lakes in the Carlsbad area to determine the extent and magnitude of the DDT contamination there, but there might not be enough money to get to it. "Right now I don't want to tell people that the fish (around Carlsbad) are safe to eat," he said.
The pesticide DDT was banned in the United States in the early 1970s. The DDT in Brantley, which has mostly broken down into DDD and DDE, probably comes from very old sediments that were churned up after the McMillan Dam was breached when the Brantley Dam was completed on the Pecos River in 1991, Schiffmiller said. "I think the level you're seeing of DDT in Brantley is essentially there forever," he said. "For anyone who's alive today, it's going to be there for the rest of our lives."
Widespread contamination
In 1995-96, the state checked more than 2,000 miles of New Mexico's waterways for mercury, but only recently has anyone begun testing fish for other contaminants. Reservoirs at lower elevations, such as Brantley, tend to be more at risk than other waters because they accumulate so much sediment. PCBs and DDT tend to settle in the muck at the bottom of lakes and slow-moving rivers and build up in the fat tissues of fish and animals that eat fish. Bottom-feeders, typically have the highest concentrations of contaminants.
PCBs are a family of more than 200 chemicals that were once used in plastics, capacitors, solvents and other industrial applications. They were banned from production in 1977 because they are probable carcinogens. Biologists first detected PCBs in New Mexico in storm runoff following the Cerro Grande Fire that burned in and around Los Alamos in 2000. PCBs also unexpectedly turned up that year in studies of storm runoff in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. "Now, we think we're going to find (PCBs) in varying concentrations just about everywhere," Schiffmiller said.
DDT contamination tends to be concentrated in smaller areas than PCBs. DDT also is present in the Rito de los Frijoles at Bandelier National Monument, a small stream where fishing has been banned. Decades ago, the forests of that area were sprayed with DDT and crews used to clean their pesticide equipment near the stream, Schiffmiller said. "If you eat a fish that's really hot with DDT, you're not going to feel sick," he said. "But if you're eating them over the long term, that can raise your risk of cancer. It's a lot like smoking."
According to the Environment Department, no fish from Brantley Reservoir should be eaten. Also, do not eat catfish from Abiquiú Reservoir, carp from Cochiti Reservoir, carp in the Rio Grande from Frijoles Canyon to Pojoaque Creek, and catfish from the Rio Grande from Otowi Bridge to Pojoaque Creek. For anglers wanting to eat their catches from other waters, the EPA recommends avoiding carp, catfish and older, bigger fish of most species. Younger trout, salmon, walleye, bass and sunfish should be OK.
Exposure to PCBs and DDT can be reduced by filleting the fish, removing organs and cutting off as much fat as possible. Fish should be baked or grilled and fat poured off before eating. "This is not true for mercury," Schiffmiller said. "Mercury is all through the fish, and there's no way to cook it out."
New Mexico has fish-consumption advisories in 26 lakes and reservoirs and five river segments because of mercury. A list of guidelines for each body of water and species of fish is on the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Web site at http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us.
Mercury occurs naturally in soils or can be deposited into the water from the atmosphere from the burning of coal in power plants. "You'll find mercury virtually everywhere," Schiffmiller said. "New Mexico has the highest mercury emissions of 11 western states from its power plants." Most mercury found in fish has combined with methane to form methylmercury, a highly toxic organic compound. It accumulates in the muscle tissues of fish throughout their lifetimes so older fish tend to have more of it in their bodies. Low-level exposure to mercury is not considered hazardous for most, but it is dangerous for children and pregnant women.
New Mexico is not alone in having dangerous levels of toxins in some of its wild fish. The EPA has released fish-consumption advisories on 25 percent of river miles and 35 percent of lake acres in the United States, not including the Great Lakes. A fish-consumption advisory is in effect on 100 percent of the Great Lakes. About 65 percent of U.S. coastal waters are under fish-consumption advisories, including 92 percent of the Atlantic Coast and 100 percent of the Gulf Coast.
from SPX, TerraDaily
July 19, 2006
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Bird_Brains_Shrink_From_Exposure_To_Contaminants_999.html
The regions in robins' brains responsible for singing and mating are shrinking when exposed to high levels of DDT, says new University of Alberta research--the first proof that natural exposure to a contaminant damages the brain of a wild animal. "These residues have been persisting since the late 1960s--that's what is really disturbing," said Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk, a post-doctoral research fellow in the U of A's Department of Psychology. "It has been years since it has been used and still has this effect."
The new research, published in Behavioural Brain Research, strongly suggests that exposure to environmental levels of DDT causes significant changes in the brains of songbirds. Previous studies have suggested that exposure to DDT residues affect the brain, but none have actually demonstrated it. The research team, including Iwaniuk's supervisor, psychology professor and Tier II Canada Research Chair Douglas Wong-Wylie, used American Robins to test the idea. Birds are more susceptible to the effects of pesticide residues and other contaminants in the environment than other animals.
As well, American robins are often exposed to high levels of DDT and other chemicals because they rely heavily on earthworms as part of their diet. They specifically chose these birds in the Okanagan Valley because at that location they are exposed to high levels of DDT, but relatively low levels of other chemicals.
The researchers captured 18 nestlings and then hand-reared and observed them for two years. They then sectioned the brains and examined the size of several brain regions. "We found that the regions sensitive to reproductive hormones--song production and courtship behaviour--were most affected by DDT," said Iwaniuk. "Song production is extremely important in attracting a mate or to mark out a territory. "The issue is not that DDT is killing these robins but if they are growing up in this one area and then move to another, they won't be able to attract any females." These effects were most prominent in the males, some of which experienced up to a 30 per cent reduction in brain region size compared to males at lower DDT exposure levels.
Whether this also applies to other animals and humans is unclear because there is not yet a strong understanding of how these chemicals in the environment affect the brain, but it is possible that humans exposed to similar levels of DDT will also be at risk of neurological damage. "The take-home message is that people need to be more cognizant of their use of pesticides and herbicides," said Iwaniuk. "People need to be careful about using chemicals in their homes or farms. Who knows the effects these will have down the road."
from Canadian Press
July 19 2006
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060719/toxic_politicians_060719/20060719?hub=Canada
TORONTO -- New Democrat Leader Jack Layton is slated to become the first of several prominent politicians to have their blood tested for chemical contaminants when he provides a sample on Thursday. The testing is part of an environmental group's campaign to highlight Canadians' exposure to toxins -- especially when it comes to children. "Canada is one of the worst polluting industrialized nations in the world," said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence. "We're at a critical point."
With Parliament currently reviewing the country's pollution laws, Smith said it's vital that political leaders are engaged in the process and show leadership on the issue. Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, Health Minister Tony Clement and Liberal health critic John Godfrey will also give blood, while Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has not responded to a request by the Environmental Defence to be tested. The samples of blood will be tested by an independent laboratory for 102 compounds that fall into seven broad categories, ranging from pesticides like DDT and heavy metals such as mercury, to various air pollutants and flame retardants. The results should provide a snapshot of Canadians' exposure to harmful chemicals, many found in ordinary products, which can cause cancer or other serious health issues.
Layton could not be reached Wednesday, but said in a statement that all Canadians need to understand the health hazards of pollution. "We know that even the youngest children have these contaminants threatening their health," Layton said. "It's time the federal government got serious about reducing emissions and controlling pesticide use."
Environmental Defence issued the challenge to the politicians last month after releasing a study that found the bodies of seven children were contaminated with a range of toxic chemicals, among them PCBs and flame retardants. The children, and six adults, were from five families in Vancouver, Toronto, Sarnia, Montreal and Quispamsis, N.B. The study found an average of 23 known or suspected toxins -- including carcinogens, hormone disrupters and neurotoxins -- in the children. The adults were contaminated by 32 chemicals, and had higher concentrations of some products no longer in use, such as DDT and PCBs.
In response, Health Canada promised a national study in which 5,000 people will be monitored for toxic contamination over a two-year period, starting next year. Neither Clement nor Ambrose was available Wednesday, but a spokesman for the environment minister said she would likely be tested within a couple of weeks. "Our government firmly believes that health and the environment are closely linked," said Ryan Sparrow. "That's why we're taking steps to reduce pollution and that's why both ministers are taking the steps and these tests in order to highlight the problem."
Smith said he hoped that testing the politicians would "put a face" on the problem and drive home the scope of the issue. There is no doubt toxins will be uncovered in the politicians, he said. "The only question is how much and at what levels."
by Jon Hamilton, All Things Considered
July 19, 2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5568609
Men and boys with autism have fewer neurons in a part of the brain involved in memory and emotion, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California in San Diego and the MIND Institute at UC Davis. The study, which appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, offers the latest evidence that this area of the brain, called the amygdala, may be one of the keys to understanding autism.
For a long time, it wasn't clear how the brains of people with autism differed from other brains. That began to change in the 1980s when a group of scientists examined the entire brain of a man with autism who had died at age 29. Researchers sliced his brain into thousands of thin sections for study. Dr. Margaret Bauman of Harvard University was part of the group that did the research. She says scientists used microscopes to compare slices from the autistic brain with matching slices from the brain of a typical man who had died at age 25. "We could look at identical sections in the autistic brain and in the control brain, and we could look at them side by side," Bauman says. "We went through this entire brain."
One place they found a difference was in the amygdalae, two almond-shaped clumps of cells deep in the brain, one on each side. They're critical to processing certain emotional reactions, particularly fear. Bauman says it looked as if the brain cells in the amygdala of the man with autism were smaller and more densely packed. "We were pretty excited about it at that time," Bauman says. "This was the first time anybody had shown any definite abnormalities at a microscopic level about brains and autism."
Since then, scientists have been trying to get a better understanding of exactly what's different about the amygdala of a person with autism. In the new study, scientists compared the brains from nine people with autism with the brains from ten typical people. The people ranged in age from 10 to 44 and had died from a variety of causes. Dr. David Amaral of the MIND Institute says the team used automated techniques to estimate the number of brain cells in each amygdala. Amaral says the brains of people with autism were clearly different. "Overall there was a decreased number of neurons in the amygdala, and then particularly in one subdivision of it called the lateral nucleus," he says. The lateral nucleus communicates with a part of the brain that controls perception.
Typical brains had about 12 million neurons. Brains from people with autism averaged about 1 million fewer. Amaral says it makes sense that there would be a difference in the amygdala because people with autism tend to be very anxious. "The amygdala's involved in appreciating dangerous situations in the environment and generating an appropriate response to danger, which is probably fear and escape," He says. "Probably in a pathological state, this leads to anxiety."
Brain-imaging studies have already shown that, in boys with autism, the amygdala develops early and stops growing around the age of eight. In typical boys, the amygdala continues to grow until age 18. Amaral says it's possible that this early development accounts for the reduced number of neurons later in life. He says too much early activity in the amygdala also could produce abnormal fears -- which might be an explanation for some of the other problems associated with autism. "If you have abnormal fears," Amaral says, "how would that contribute, for example, to the development of normal social behavior or to the development of learning and memory and other areas?"
Amaral says scientists are a long way from knowing, in part because the number of brains they've studied from people with autism is still only in the dozens. "By contrast, if you think of something like Alzheimer's Disease, probably tens of thousands of brains have been looked at," he says. "And it's pretty clear now where the pathology starts in Alzheimer's and what it looks like and what brain regions are involved. We're still in pretty early stages of trying to establish the pathology of autism." That may be changing. An autism research group has recently set up a system to encourage the donation of brain tissue from people with autism. Amaral's study is among the first to take advantage of that system.
from ScienceDaily
July 18, 2006
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060718221113.htm
This article was sent to the LDDI listserv separate from the bulletin by Sylvia K. Mueller.
Scientists know that children of women who smoke during pregnancy can develop hearing-related cognitive deficits. For the first time, researchers believe they have evidence that not only implicates nicotine as the culprit, but also shows what the substance does to the brain to cause these deficits. In a study using rats, Raju Metherate, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior, and colleagues from UC Irvine, showed that nicotine exposure during the equivalent of a human's third trimester led to hearing-related cognitive problems. This is the first time a study has demonstrated this causal link. Further tests then revealed that the probable cause of the deficits was damage to the receptors in the brain that are sensitive to nicotine, which seems to occur when humans or animals are exposed to the substance during development. The study appears this week in the early online issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.
Children with auditory processing deficits can have a number of hearing-related problems. They may have difficulty understanding speech in a noisy environment, not understand information that is presented verbally, and may not be able to tell the difference between similar sounds. "This study is significant because it suggests to us precisely what aspect of smoking is so harmful in pregnancy when it comes to cognitive hearing deficits," Metherate said. "Most women who smoke find it difficult to quit during pregnancy. For them, doctors often prescribe a nicotine patch. While that does protect the fetus from the well-known physical under-development related to harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke, exposure to nicotine appears to be enough to cause serious problems on its own, in terms of brain development."
Chemicals known as neurotransmitters act as message carriers between cells and bind with receptors on the cells' surfaces, much like a key fits into the lock. If the receptors are damaged, they can no longer bind properly with the neurotransmitter. Nicotine shares a receptor with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is important for a number of cognitive functions. Researchers believe that when people are paying attention to something, such as an important sound, acetylcholine is released into the brain. It then interacts with the nicotinic-acetylcholine receptor and, the UCI study showed, thereby enhances sensitivity to that sound. If that receptor is damaged due to prenatal exposure to nicotine, acetylcholine cannot bind with it and increased sensitivity to the important sound is lost. "While verbal function cannot be measured in an animal, this establishment of a causal relationship between prenatal nicotine exposure and auditory-cognitive deficits is an important step forward in reinforcing these previous findings in humans," Metherate said.
According to the researchers, given the importance of acetylcholine to a number of brain functions, a loss of nicotinic-acetylcholine receptors may have a negative effect on other higher cognitive functions and may also impair vision and other senses. Nicotine does seem to actually enhance cognitive processing when administered to adults, a finding that has also been shown in previous studies. The researchers found that in this study, nicotine appeared to enhance auditory function in the adult rats, but only if they had not been exposed to the substance during development.
Researchers placed electrodes in the animals' auditory cortex, then exposed them to different frequencies of sound. They found that nicotine made the cortex much more responsive to sound if the rats had not had exposure to nicotine during their early development. In the case of previous exposure, there was no increased sensitivity to sound. According to Metherate, this occurs most likely because the nicotine is mimicking the action of acetylcholine on their shared receptors and increasing responsiveness to sound if those receptors had not been previously damaged.
Collaborators on this study from UCI were Norman Weinberger, research professor of neurobiology and behavior; Frances Leslie, professor of pharmacology; Kevin Liang, graduate student researcher in neurobiology and behavior; Bonnie Sue Poytress, laboratory assistant in neurobiology and behavior; and Yiling Chen, associate specialist in pharmacology. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, both parts of the National Institutes of Health.
About the Study: In the study, the researchers treated one group of one-week-old rats with nicotine and another group with saline, for five consecutive days. One week after birth, rats are in the same developmental stage as a human fetus in the third trimester. Two months later, as adults, the rats were placed in a two-chamber box and taught to cross from one chamber to the other during a five-second tone in order to avoid a shock. Researchers found that after four days of training, the animals treated with saline moved to the other chamber in most of the trials. By contrast, the rats treated with nicotine avoided the shock on significantly fewer trials. Some animals never learned to correlate the tone with the coming shock. Tests showed that the animals did not have a hearing problem -- they could hear the tone, but could not always relate it to the expected behavior -- in this case, moving to a different chamber to avoid the shock. Additional tests to determine the nature of the underlying problem were performed by placing electrodes in the animals' auditory cortex to record brain activity, and showed that the nicotinic-acetylcholine receptor did not function properly.
by Erin Gartner, Associated Press, Charlotte Observer
July 18, 2006
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15067514.htm
RALEIGH, N.C. -- It could be a father hugging his children after a day's work in the tobacco field, or pesticide residue on his clothing washed with family laundry. Maybe it was children playing in farming fields outside their homes. A new study suggests all could be factors in high levels of pesticide exposure detected in children of migrant workers in eastern North Carolina, where an estimated 21,000 people in the heart of the state's agriculture industry work in vast fields of tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce.
Educating workers and pushing for more enforcement of safety laws are central to protecting workers and their children from chemicals, experts say. "We know that exposure to these pesticides creates all kinds of problems, we just don't know exactly how much," said Thomas A. Arcury, lead researcher for a study conducted by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study analyzed urine samples from 60 children between the ages of 1 and 6 who lived with migrant farm workers in six North Carolina counties in 2004. The study looked for specific metabolites the body produces after being exposed to pesticides.
The study found the metabolite level in the North Carolina children was generally higher than the national averages of slightly older children, the only comparison data available, and either the same or higher than levels found in similar studies in Washington state, California, Texas and Oregon. Scientists weren't sure if the levels were high enough to cause harm, the study said. Researchers concluded the results "are of concern," because exposure to pesticides has been linked to health issues ranging from nausea to cancer, problems in lung and brain development, and even death. "This information is helpful, but it's only a snapshot at a particular time," said Allan Noe, spokesman for CropLife America, a trade group of pesticide manufacturers. He noted that some of the national comparison data goes back to 1999.
But advocates said the study would be helpful in pressuring officials to focus on enforcement of safety rules, said Fawn Pattison, executive director of the Agricultural Resources Center, a nonprofit that supports the use of nontoxic pesticides in North Carolina. "It certainly informs policy makers, and the officials charged with regulating this industry, about dealing with the health and environmental questions that are exposed by this research," Pattison.
Programs to educate farmworkers and farmers about pesticide safety have been under way for years, but with the recent surge in immigration -- North Carolina saw its illegal immigrant population grow 43 percent to 300,000 from 2000 to 2004, according to the Pew Hispanic Center -- advocates say the need to educate workers has increased. "Most of them come from Mexico, but little groups of them come from all over the world, and a lot of them travel with their families," said Omar Lainez, community education coordinator with Legal Aid North Carolina's Farm Unit.
The nonprofit group visits migrant and seasonal farmworkers at camps, sometimes set up near crop fields, to teach them about pesticide safety and the legal remedies available, such as the right to ask employers for proper safety equipment and what pesticides are used, Lainez said. "The workers normally don't say anything, because they're afraid," he said, adding that has seen empty pesticide containers near or inside homes. "There's a lot of lack of education out there."
Education efforts focus on three areas: parents who work in fields and bring home pesticides in clothing, living in substandard housing where pesticides may be used to combat insects and rodents, and living near fields where pesticides may drift or children may play. CropLife America completed a two-year education effort in February to distribute booklets and DVDs in English and Spanish about pesticide safety in counties with large agricultural populations, Noe said.
Concern has heightened since three workers for Ag-Mart, which grows tomatoes in eastern North Carolina, had babies with serious birth defects. A state report released in May said pesticide exposure may have caused the defects, but stopped short of making a conclusive link.
Wake Forest researchers hope their study will add to the growing stockpile of information about pesticide use and children, who may be at greater risk from small doses of chemicals that can harm their developing brains and lungs. "It's the larger picture," said Arcury, who directs the school's Department of Family and Community Medicine. "I think we need to do a better job of educating farmworkers."
The study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, an agency of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of Centers for Disease Control.
news release from Mercury Policy Project
July 11, 2006
WASHINGTON -- In light of new testing by Defenders of Wildlife showing higher-than-expected levels of mercury in canned light tuna, advocates are urging U.S. agencies to take more precautionary measures to protect low-income and vulnerable Americans from exposure to mercury. "The U.S. Government should stop subsidizing the tuna industry at the expense of exposing America's poorest and most vulnerable to mercury, a known neurotoxin," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project. "Like in Hawaii, we recommend that other animal protein substitutes be offered in Federal low income food assistance programs."
In 2005, the U.S. government purchased nearly 10 million pounds of tuna from the fishing industry at a cost of over $16 million dollars. (For more detailed information, see Web link at end of press release.) Federal programs that purchase and distribute tuna include:
"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, canned tuna is the fish most consumed by pregnant women and children -- hence it is probably their largest exposure to mercury," said Bender. "Yet USDA's Women, Infant and Children program (WIC) provides over 8 million low-income women and children with 26 ounces of tuna per family per month, based on Food & Drug Administration advice which mistakenly assumes that all light tuna has low mercury levels."
Bender said that at least one state WIC program, Hawaii, has convinced USDA to allow canned salmon, a low mercury substitute, to be offered along with canned tuna. Yet other states can only provide canned tuna since it is the only animal protein source allowed under the Federal WIC program.
Testing done by Defenders of Wildlife concluded that tuna imported from many Latin American countries, including several samples from Ecuador, had significantly higher mercury concentrations than the FDA had previously attributed to light tuna. More importantly, testing found that the average mercury content in the imported light canned tuna sampled was more than twice the average for light tuna that the FDA found in their test samples and well above their cutoff for "low-mercury" fish.
The entire report and advice on how to protect your family from high levels of mercury exposure from consumption of light canned tuna can be found at http://www.defenders.org/tunamercury. Information obtained from a U.S. Congressional Office on Federal "Tuna Purchases, All Commodity Programs, FYs 2004-2005" can be viewed at http://www.mercurypolicy.org/new/documents/TunaPurchasesByProgramFYs20042005.pdf. For additional information, see http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/22/tuna/print.html
Contact: Michael Bender, 802-223-9000 or 802-249-8543