To join the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) and the LDDI Working Group, please complete the form at http://www.healthandenvironment.org/roles/register?&phase=registerform. Be sure to mark that you want to join the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative Working Group at the bottom of the application.
September 24 - October 1, 2006
simultaneous events will take place in the Northeast, the Southeast and the West Coast
The tour theme is "Environmental Justice for All; Reclaiming our Health and Communities Tour '06." The purpose of EJ Tour '06 is to bear witness to the casualties of our failed economic and environmental policies and how our addiction to oil and chemicals is causing Americans -- especially infants and children, workers, indigenous peoples, and communities near industrial facilities -- to bear the heavy burden of chemical contamination. Buses with environmental and health specialists will roll from city to city to work with local communities to highlight their toxic contamination problems. Each visit will include a public event or teach in about local problems and solutions, and will generate public attention and media coverage. The effect of the tour as a whole will be to build stronger links with local environmental justice organizations and raise the profile of environmental justice and health concerns nationally.
Website: http://ej4all.org/
Contact: Virginia Giordano, National Director, 212-598-2181 or vgpnyc@aol.com
October 3, 2006
1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sustainability is more than a social, environmental, and economic concept; it is becoming a corporate imperative. With sustainability indexes, including the Dow Jones, ranking corporations on their implementation of sustainable practices, it is increasingly important to integrate business practices that will meet the "triple bottom line" -- economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social responsibility. Chemists and chemical engineers are in the driver's seat to affect sustainability from the molecular level. Green Chemistry is an innovative, non-regulatory, and economically driven approach toward sustainability. As defined, Green Chemistry is the design, development, and implementation of chemical products and processes in order to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of substances hazardous to human health and the environment (Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice). Panel discussions and active participation are an integral component to the teaching method.
Website: http://www.processSummit.com
Contact: 888-999-6288 toll-free in the U.S.
October 5, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
Presenters at this first of a series of four webcasts will be Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, Director, CDC National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Angelo Bellomo, Director, LA Unified School District Office of Environmental Health and Safety. A compelling speaker, and editor of the recently published book "Safe and Healthy School Environments," Dr. Frumkin will provide a broad overview of the many issues related to children's environmental health in schools. He will be followed by Angelo Bellomo, who will describe how he successfully manages environmental health issues for the largest public school district in California using a software tool designed by the district. To sign up for one of the Children's Health Month webcasts, send an email (with the date of the webcast in which you would like to participate) to ICF International at the address below.
Contact: ICF International, chm@icfi.com
October 10 - 14, 2006
St. Paul, Minnesota
The North American Association for Environmental Education's 35th Annual Conference will be a gathering of over 1,000 educators. Conference strands include sustainability; conservation and community education; EE leadership skills; schools, education, achievement, and literacy; and joining forces: environmental justice, health, and education.
Website: http://naaee.org/pages/conferences/index.html
Contact: conferencestaff@naaee.org
October 11, 2006
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT
The presenter at this second of a series of four webcasts will be Deane Evans, Executive Director, Center for Architecture and Building Science Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology. "High performance school" refers to the physical facility, the school building, and its grounds. High performance schools often have features such as energy efficient design and operation, use of environmentally preferable building materials, healthy indoor air quality, and easy maintenance. Good teachers and motivated students can overcome inadequate facilities and perform at a high level almost anywhere, but a well-designed facility can truly enhance performance and make education a more enjoyable and rewarding experience. Creating one is not difficult, but it requires an integrated, "whole building" approach to the design process. Key systems and technologies must be considered together, from the beginning of the design process. To sign up for one of the Children's Health Month webcasts, send an email (with the date of the webcast in which you would like to participate) to ICF International at the address below.
Contact: ICF International, chm@icfi.com
October 13, 2006
8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
San Francisco, California
at the University of California, San Francisco Laurel Heights Auditorium
This one-day national conference is hosted by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. This second CHE national educational meeting will provide a solid overview of current scientific knowledge regarding environmental contributors to human disease and state-of-the-art efforts to prevent, treat and otherwise improve such impacts. Researchers and health advocates will come from around the country to provide summaries of their knowledge and work. Physician and nurse continuing education credits will be available through the California Academy of Family Physicians.
Website: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/che-events/702
October 14, 2006
Oakland, California
This half-day training program will introduce participants to the Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit, a new clinical resource for practitioners. The Toolkit was developed partially in response to the frequent requests by pediatricians for practical, clinical tools that enable providers to incorporate environmental health guidance into everyday practice. It includes materials for both providers and patients on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that may affect child health.
Contact: Lucia Sayre, luciasayre@sbcglobal.net
from the US Environmental Protection Agency
The US Environmental Protection Agency recently launched a 3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools and Child Care Facilities campaign aimed at encouraging voluntary actions to reduce potential exposure to lead in drinking water. Part of EPA's "3Ts -- Training, Testing, and Telling" initiative is a call for civic groups, corporations, public authorities, and the media to join forces in bringing this critical health issue to the forefront.
The Guide for Community Partners offers materials and templates to help your organization to implement a local program of education and advocacy. By lending your organization's support on a grassroots level, you can help us raise your community's awareness of the health effects associated with lead exposure, the heightened vulnerability of young children, and the importance of reducing potential sources of contamination from school and child care facilities.
More information and the 3T booklet are available on the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/schools/partners.html.
The National Association for the Dually Diagnosed (NADD) Family Issues Committee is having their 2nd Annual Silent Auction at the 23rd Annual NADD Conference that is being held in San Diego, California, from October 25-28, 2006. We are seeking donated items for the silent auction which is the Family Issue Committee annual fundraiser. The proceeds from this event will help provide scholarships for family members to attend NADD Conferences. The items donated should be portable in size (for travel). Examples of items for donation are books, artwork, gift certificates.
If you are interested in donating an item(s) or have questions, please contact: Elizabeth Arnold, Chairperson of the Family Issues Committee. Phone: 519-832-5554, e-mail: arnoldr@bmts.com.
from National Geographic
October 2006
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0610/feature4/index.html
My journalist-as-guinea-pig experiment is taking a disturbing turn. A Swedish chemist is on the phone, talking about flame retardants, chemicals added for safety to just about any product that can burn. Found in mattresses, carpets, the plastic casing of televisions, electronic circuit boards, and automobiles, flame retardants save hundreds of lives a year in the United States alone. These, however, are where they should not be: inside my body.
Âke Bergman of Stockholm University tells me he has received the results of a chemical analysis of my blood, which measured levels of flame-retarding compounds called polybrominated diphenyl ethers. In mice and rats, high doses of PBDEs interfere with thyroid function, cause reproductive and neurological problems, and hamper neurological development. Little is known about their impact on human health.
"I hope you are not nervous, but this concentration is very high," Bergman says with a light Swedish accent. My blood level of one particularly toxic PBDE, found primarily in U.S.-made products, is 10 times the average found in a small study of U.S. residents and more than 200 times the average in Sweden. The news about another PBDE variant -- also toxic to animals -- is nearly as bad. My levels would be high even if I were a worker in a factory making the stuff, Bergman says.
In fact I'm a writer engaged in a journey of chemical self-discovery. Last fall I had myself tested for 320 chemicals I might have picked up from food, drink, the air I breathe, and the products that touch my skin -- my own secret stash of compounds acquired by merely living. It includes older chemicals that I might have been exposed to decades ago, such as DDT and PCBs; pollutants like lead, mercury, and dioxins; newer pesticides and plastic ingredients; and the near-miraculous compounds that lurk just beneath the surface of modern life, making shampoos fragrant, pans nonstick, and fabrics water-resistant and fire-safe.
The tests are too expensive for most individuals -- National Geographic paid for mine, which would normally cost around $15,000 -- and only a few labs have the technical expertise to detect the trace amounts involved. I ran the tests to learn what substances build up in a typical American over a lifetime, and where they might come from. I was also searching for a way to think about risks, benefits, and uncertainty -- the complex trade-offs embodied in the chemical "body burden" that swirls around inside all of us.
Now I'm learning more than I really want to know. Bergman wants to get to the bottom of my flame-retardant mystery. Have I recently bought new furniture or rugs? No. Do I spend a lot of time around computer monitors? No, I use a titanium laptop. Do I live near a factory making flame retardants? Nope, the closest one is over a thousand miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Then I come up with an idea. "What about airplanes?" I ask. "Yah," he says, "do you fly a lot?" "I flew almost 200,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) last year," I say. In fact, as I spoke to Bergman, I was sitting in an airport waiting for a flight from my hometown of San Francisco to London.
"Interesting," Bergman says, telling me that he has long been curious about PBDE exposure inside airplanes, whose plastic and fabric interiors are drenched in flame retardants to meet safety standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration and its counterparts overseas. "I have been wanting to apply for a grant to test pilots and flight attendants for PBDEs," Bergman says as I hear my flight announced overhead. But for now the airplane connection is only a hypothesis. Where I picked up this chemical that I had not even heard of until a few weeks ago remains a mystery. And there's the bigger question: How worried should I be?
The same can be asked of other chemicals I've absorbed from air, water, the nonstick pan I used to scramble my eggs this morning, my faintly scented shampoo, the sleek curve of my cell phone. I'm healthy, and as far as I know have no symptoms associated with chemical exposure. In large doses, some of these substances, from mercury to PCBs and dioxins, the notorious contaminants in Agent Orange, have horrific effects. But many toxicologists -- and not just those who have ties to the chemical industry -- insist that the minuscule smidgens of chemicals inside us are mostly nothing to worry about. "In toxicology, dose is everything," says Karl Rozman, a toxicologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, "and these doses are too low to be dangerous." One part per billion (ppb), a standard unit for measuring most chemicals inside us, is like putting half a teaspoon (two milliliters) of red dye into an Olympic-size swimming pool. What's more, some of the most feared substances, such as mercury, dissipate within days or weeks -- or would if we weren't constantly re-exposed.
Yet even though many health statistics have been improving over the past few decades, a few illnesses are rising mysteriously. From the early 1980s through the late 1990s, autism increased tenfold; from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s, one type of leukemia was up 62 percent, male birth defects doubled, and childhood brain cancer was up 40 percent. Some experts suspect a link to the man-made chemicals that pervade our food, water, and air. There's little firm evidence. But over the years, one chemical after another that was thought to be harmless turned out otherwise once the facts were in.
The classic example is lead. In 1971 the U.S. Surgeon General declared that lead levels of 40 micrograms per deciliter of blood were safe. It's now known that any detectable lead can cause neurological damage in children, shaving off IQ points. From DDT to PCBs, the chemical industry has released compounds first and discovered damaging health effects later. Regulators have often allowed a standard of innocent until proven guilty in what Leo Trasande, a pediatrician and environmental health specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, calls "an uncontrolled experiment on America's children."
Each year the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviews an average of 1,700 new compounds that industry is seeking to introduce. Yet the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act requires that they be tested for any ill effects before approval only if evidence of potential harm exists -- which is seldom the case for new chemicals. The agency approves about 90 percent of the new compounds without restrictions. Only a quarter of the 82,000 chemicals in use in the U.S. have ever been tested for toxicity. Until recently, no one had even measured average levels of exposure among large numbers of Americans. No regulations required it, the tests are expensive, and technology sensitive enough to measure the tiniest levels didn't exist.
Last year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took a step toward closing that gap when it released data on 148 substances, from DDT and other pesticides to metals, PCBs, and plastic ingredients, measured in the blood and urine of several thousand people. The study said little about health impacts on the people tested or how they might have encountered the chemicals. "The good news is that we are getting real data about exposure levels," says James Pirkle, the study's lead author. "This gives us a place to start."
I began my own chemical journey on an October morning at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where I gave urine and had blood drawn under the supervision of Leo Trasande. Trasande specializes in childhood exposures to mercury and other brain toxins. He had agreed to be one of several expert advisers on this project, which began as a Sinai phlebotomist extracted 14 vials of blood -- so much that at vial 12 I felt woozy and went into a cold sweat. At vial 13 Trasande grabbed smelling salts, which hit my nostrils like a whiff of fire and allowed me to finish.
From New York my samples were shipped to Axys Analytical Services on Vancouver Island in Canada, one of a handful of state-of-the-art labs specializing in subtle chemical detection, analyzing everything from eagle eggs to human tissue for researchers and government agencies. A few weeks later, I followed my samples to Canada to see how Axys teased out the tiny loads of compounds inside me. I watched the specimens go through multiple stages of processing, which slowly separated sets of target chemicals from the thousands of other compounds, natural and unnatural, in my blood and urine. The extracts then went into a high-tech clean room containing mass spectrometers, sleek, freezer-size devices that work by flinging the components of a sample through a vacuum, down a long tube. Along the way, a magnetic field deflects the molecules, with lighter molecules swerving the most. The exact amount of deflection indicates each molecule's size and identity.
A few weeks later, Axys sent me my results -- a grid of numbers in parts per billion or trillion -- and I set out to learn, as best I could, where those toxic traces came from. Some of them date back to my time in the womb, when my mother downloaded part of her own chemical burden through the placenta and the umbilical cord. More came after I was born, in her breast milk.
Once weaned, I began collecting my own chemicals as I grew up in northeastern Kansas, a few miles outside Kansas City. There I spent countless hot, muggy summer days playing in a dump near the Kansas River. Situated on a high limestone bluff above the fast brown water lined by cottonwoods and railroad tracks, the dump was a mother lode of old bottles, broken machines, steering wheels, and other items only boys can fully appreciate. This was the late 1960s, and my friends and I had no way of knowing that this dump would later be declared an EPA superfund site, on the National Priority List for hazardous places. It turned out that for years, companies and individuals in this corner of Johnson County had dumped thousands of pounds of material contaminated with toxic chemicals here. "It was started as a landfill before there were any rules and regulations on how landfills were done," says Denise Jordan-Izaguirre, the regional representative for the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "There were metal tailings and heavy metals dumped in there. It was unfenced, unrestricted, so kids had access to it." Kids like me.
Now capped, sealed, and closely monitored, the dump, called the Doepke-Holliday Site, also happens to be half a mile upriver from a county water intake that supplied drinking water for my family and 45,000 other households. "From what we can gather, there were contaminants going into the river," says Shelley Brodie, the EPA Remedial Project Manager for Doepke. In the 1960s, the county treated water drawn from the river, but not for all contaminants. Drinking water also came from 21 wells that tapped the aquifer near Doepke.
When I was a boy, my corner of Kansas was filthy, and the dump wasn't the only source of toxins. Industry lined the river a few miles away -- factories making cars, soap, and fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals -- and a power plant belched fumes. When we drove past the plants toward downtown Kansas City, we plunged into a noxious cloud that engulfed the car with smoke and an awful chemical stench. Flames rose from fertilizer plant stacks, burning off mustard-yellow plumes of sodium, and animal waste poured into the river. In the nearby farmland, trucks and crop dusters sprayed DDT and other pesticides in great, puffy clouds that we kids sometimes rode our bikes through, holding our breath and feeling very brave.
Today the air is clear, and the river free of effluents -- a visible testament to the success of the U.S. environmental cleanup, spurred by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts of the 1970s. But my Axys test results read like a chemical diary from 40 years ago. My blood contains traces of several chemicals now banned or restricted, including DDT (in the form of DDE, one of its breakdown products) and other pesticides such as the termite-killers chlordane and heptachlor. The levels are about what you would expect decades after exposure, says Rozman, the toxicologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center. My childhood playing in the dump, drinking the water, and breathing the polluted air could also explain some of the lead and dioxins in my blood, he says.
I went to college at a place and time that put me at the height of exposure for another set of substances found inside me -- PCBs, once used as electrical insulators and heat-exchange fluids in transformers and other products. PCBs can lurk in the soil anywhere there's a dump or an old factory. But some of the largest releases took place along New York's Hudson River from the 1940s to the 1970s, when General Electric used PCBs at factories in the towns of Hudson Falls and Fort Edward. About 140 miles (225 kilometers) downstream is the city of Poughkeepsie, where I attended Vassar College in the late 1970s.
PCBs, oily liquids or solids, can persist in the environment for decades. In animals, they impair liver function, raise blood lipids, and cause cancers. Some of the 209 different PCBs chemically resemble dioxins and cause other mischief in lab animals: reproductive and nervous system damage, as well as developmental problems. By 1976, the toxicity of PCBs was unmistakable; the United States banned them, and GE stopped using them. But until then, GE legally dumped excess PCBs into the Hudson, which swept them all the way downriver to Poughkeepsie, one of eight cities that draw their drinking water from the Hudson.
In 1984, a 200-mile (300 kilometers) stretch of the Hudson, from Hudson Falls to New York City, was declared a superfund site, and plans to rid the river of PCBs were set in motion. GE has spent 300 million dollars on the cleanup so far, dredging up and disposing of PCBs in the river sediment under the supervision of the EPA. It is also working to stop the seepage of PCBs into the river from the factories.
Birds and other wildlife along the Hudson are thought to have suffered from the pollution, but its impact on humans is less definitive. One study in Hudson River communities found a 20 percent increase in the rate of hospitalization for respiratory diseases, while another, more reassuringly, found no increase in cancer deaths in the contaminated region. But among many of the locals, the fear is palpable. "I grew up a block from the Fort Edward plant," says Dennis Prevost, a retired Army officer and public health advocate, who blames PCBs for the brain cancers that killed his brother at age 46 and a neighbor in her 20s. "The PCBs have migrated under the parking lot and into the community aquifer," which Prevost says was the source of Fort Edward's drinking water until municipal water replaced wells in 1984.
Ed Fitzgerald of the State University of New York at Albany, a former staff scientist at the state department of health, is conducting the most thorough study yet of the health effects of PCBs in the area. He says he has explained to Prevost and other residents that the risk from the wells was probably small because PCBs tend to settle to the bottom of an aquifer. Eating contaminated fish caught in the Hudson is a more likely exposure route, he says. I didn't eat much Hudson River fish during my college days in the 1970s, but the drinking water in my dorm could have contained traces of the PCBs pouring into the river far upstream. That may be how I picked up my PCB body burden, which was about average for an American. Or maybe not. "PCBs are everywhere," says Leo Rosales, a local EPA official, "so who knows where you got it."
Back home in San Francisco, I encounter a newer generation of industrial chemicals -- compounds that are not banned, and, like flame retardants, are increasing year by year in the environment and in my body. Sipping water after a workout, I could be exposing myself to bisphenol A, an ingredient in rigid plastics from water bottles to safety goggles. Bisphenol A causes reproductive system abnormalities in animals. My levels were so low they were undetectable -- a rare moment of relief in my toxic odyssey.
And that faint lavender scent as I shampoo my hair? Credit it to phthalates, molecules that dissolve fragrances, thicken lotions, and add flexibility to PVC, vinyl, and some intravenous tubes in hospitals. The dashboards of most cars are loaded with phthalates, and so is some plastic food wrap. Heat and wear can release phthalate molecules, and humans swallow them or absorb them through the skin. Because they dissipate after a few minutes to a few hours in the body, most people's levels fluctuate during the day.
Like bisphenol A, phthalates disrupt reproductive development in mice. An expert panel convened by the National Toxicology Program recently concluded that although the evidence so far doesn't prove that phthalates pose any risk to people, it does raise "concern," especially about potential effects on infants. "We don't have the data in humans to know if the current levels are safe," says Antonia Calafat, a CDC phthalates expert. I scored higher than the mean in five out of seven phthalates tested. One of them, monomethyl phthalate, came in at 34.8 ppb, in the top 5 percent for Americans. Leo Trasande speculates that some of my phthalate levels were high because I gave my urine sample in the morning, just after I had showered and washed my hair.
My inventory of household chemicals also includes perfluorinated acids (PFAs) -- tough, chemically resistant compounds that go into making nonstick and stain-resistant coatings. 3M also used them in its Scotchgard protector products until it found that the specific PFA compounds in Scotchgard were escaping into the environment and phased them out. In animals these chemicals damage the liver, affect thyroid hormones, and cause birth defects and perhaps cancer, but not much is known about their toxicity in humans.
Long-range pollution left its mark on my results as well: My blood contained low, probably harmless, levels of dioxins, which escape from paper mills, certain chemical plants, and incinerators. In the environment, dioxins settle on soil and in the water, then pass into the food chain. They build up in animal fat, and most people pick them up from meat and dairy products.
And then there is mercury, a neurotoxin that can permanently impair memory, learning centers, and behavior. Coal-burning power plants are a major source of mercury, sending it out their stacks into the atmosphere, where it disperses in the wind, falls in rain, and eventually washes into lakes, streams, or oceans. There bacteria transform it into a compound called methylmercury, which moves up the food chain after plankton absorb it from the water and are eaten by small fish. Large predatory fish at the top of the marine food chain, like tuna and swordfish, accumulate the highest concentrations of methylmercury -- and pass it on to seafood lovers.
For people in northern California, mercury exposure is also a legacy of the gold rush 150 years ago, when miners used quicksilver, or liquid mercury, to separate the gold from other ores in the hodgepodge of mines in the Sierra Nevada. Over the decades, streams and groundwater washed mercury-laden sediment out of the old mine tailings and swept it into San Francisco Bay.
I don't eat much fish, and the levels of mercury in my blood were modest. But I wondered what would happen if I gorged on large fish for a meal or two. So one afternoon I bought some halibut and swordfish at a fish market in the old Ferry Building on San Francisco Bay. Both were caught in the ocean just outside the Golden Gate, where they might have picked up mercury from the old mines. That night I ate the halibut with basil and a dash of soy sauce; I downed the swordfish for breakfast with eggs (cooked in my nonstick pan).
Twenty-four hours later I had my blood drawn and retested. My level of mercury had more than doubled, from 5 micrograms per liter to a higher-than-recommended 12. Mercury at 70 or 80 micrograms per liter is dangerous for adults, says Leo Trasande, and much lower levels can affect children. "Children have suffered losses in IQ at 5.8 micrograms." He advises me to avoid repeating the gorge experiment.
It's a lot harder to dodge the PBDE flame retardants responsible for the most worrisome of my test results. My world -- and yours -- has become saturated with them since they were introduced about 30 years ago. Scientists have found the compounds planetwide, in polar bears in the Arctic, cormorants in England, and killer whales in the Pacific. Bergman, the Swedish chemist, and his colleagues first called attention to potential health risks in 1998 when they reported an alarming increase in PBDEs in human breast milk, from none in milk preserved in 1972 to an average of four ppb in 1997.
The compounds escape from treated plastic and fabrics in dust particles or as gases that cling to dust. People inhale the dust; infants crawling on the floor get an especially high dose. Bergman describes a family, tested in Oakland, California, by the Oakland Tribune, whose two small children had blood levels even higher than mine. When he and his colleagues summed up the test results for six different PBDEs, they found total levels of 390 ppb in the five-year-old girl and 650 ppb -- twice my total -- in the 18-month-old boy.
In 2001, researchers in Sweden fed young mice a PBDE mixture similar to one used in furniture and found that they did poorly on tests of learning, memory, and behavior. Last year, scientists at Berlin's Charité University Medical School reported that pregnant female rats with PBDE levels no higher than mine gave birth to male pups with impaired reproductive health. Linda Birnbaum, an EPA expert on these flame retardants, says that researchers will have to identify many more people with high PBDE exposures, like the Oakland family and me, before they will be able to detect any human effects. Bergman says that in a pregnant woman my levels would be of concern. "Any level above a hundred parts per billion is a risk to newborns," he guesses. No one knows for sure. Any margin of safety may be narrowing. In a review of several studies, Ronald Hites of Indiana University found an exponential rise in people and animals, with the levels doubling every three to five years. Now the CDC is putting a comprehensive study of PBDE levels in the U.S. on a fast track, with results due out late this year. Pirkle, who is running the study, says my seemingly extreme levels may no longer be out of the ordinary. "We'll let you know," he says.
Given the stakes, why take a chance on these chemicals? Why not immediately ban them? In 2004, Europe did just that for the penta- and octa-BDEs, which animal tests suggest are the most toxic of the compounds. California will also ban these forms by 2008, and in 2004 Chemtura, an Indiana company that is the only U.S. maker of pentas and octas, agreed to phase them out. Currently, there are no plans to ban the much more prevalent deca-BDEs. They reportedly break down more quickly in the environment and in people, although their breakdown products may include the same old pentas and octas. Nor is it clear that banning a suspect chemical is always the best option. Flaming beds and airplane seats are not an inviting prospect either. The University of Surrey in England recently assessed the risks and benefits of flame retardants in consumer products. The report concluded: "The benefits of many flame retardants in reducing the risk from fire outweigh the risks to human health."
Except for some pollutants, after all, every industrial chemical was created for a purpose. Even DDT, the archvillain of Rachel Carson's 1962 classic book Silent Spring, which launched the modern environmental movement, was once hailed as a miracle substance because it killed the mosquitoes that carry malaria, yellow fever, and other scourges. It saved countless lives before it was banned in much of the world because of its toxicity to wildlife. "Chemicals are not all bad," says Scott Phillips, a medical toxicologist in Denver. "While we have seen some cancer rates rise," he says, "we also have seen a doubling of the human life span in the past century."
The key is knowing more about these substances, so we are not blindsided by unexpected hazards, says California State Senator Deborah Ortiz, chair of the Senate Health Committee and the author of a bill to monitor chemical exposure. "We benefit from these chemicals, but there are consequences, and we need to understand these consequences much better than we do now." Sarah Brozena of the industry-supported American Chemistry Council thinks safeguards are adequate now, but she concedes: "That's not to say this process was done right in the past."
The European Union last year gave initial approval to a measure called REACH -- Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals -- which would require companies to prove the substances they market or use are safe, or that the benefits outweigh any risks. The bill, which the chemical industry and the U.S. government oppose, would also encourage companies to find safer alternatives to suspect flame retardants, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals. That would give a boost to the so-called green chemistry movement, a search for alternatives that is already under way in laboratories on both sides of the Atlantic.
As unsettling as my journey down chemical lane was, it left out thousands of compounds, among them pesticides, plastics, solvents, and a rocket-fuel ingredient called perchlorate that is polluting groundwater in many regions of the country. Nor was I tested for chemical cocktails -- mixtures of chemicals that may do little harm on their own but act together to damage human cells. Mixed together, pesticides, PCBs, phthalates, and others "might have additive effects, or they might be antagonistic," says James Pirkle of the CDC, "or they may do nothing. We don't know."
Soon after I receive my results, I show them to my internist, who admits that he too knows little about these chemicals, other than lead and mercury. But he confirms that I am healthy, as far as he can tell. He tells me not to worry. So I'll keep flying, and scrambling my eggs on Teflon, and using that scented shampoo. But I'll never feel quite the same about the chemicals that make life better in so many ways.
from Seoul Chosun Ilbo
September 19, 2006
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200609/200609190015.html
Plastic phobia is sweeping the nation after SBS broadcast a two-part special on environmental hormones on Sept. 10 and 17. The show says environmental hormones in plastic products can cause menstrual cramps, genital abnormalities and precocious puberty. Heating nursing bottles made of polycarbonate generates an environmental hormone called Bisphenol A. Polycarbonate is used for a wide range of products including bottles, sunglasses, blow dryers and electronic fans because it is both transparent and thermostable. Bisphenol A is also used to coat the inner part of cans and water pipes and to produce bottle caps. Environmental hormones are also detected in detergents, perfumes and cosmetic products.
Already sales of plastic products are affected, and glass is booming. Shinsegae E-mart says sales of glass containers, which stood at W50-60 million (US$1=W952) per week, jumped 146 percent to W150 million for a week after the first part of the program aired. Sales of glass water bottles, including baby bottles, increased by 70 percent to W170 million after the program was broadcast from the week before (Sept. 4-10). By contrast, sales of plastic containers, which usually stood at W220-230 million, dropped below the W200 million mark. NewCore Outlet experienced a 50 percent increase in sales of glass containers and a 30 percent decline in sales of plastic containers. Woori Home Shopping sold W180 million worth of glass products in an hour recently, a whopping 40 percent increase compared to its usual sales records.
But some experts say people are reacting too sensitively. We can only presume that environmental hormones negatively affect our body but cannot prove cause and effect clearly, they say. The Korea Vinyl Environmental Council cites a study on phthalates, which are said to be a major cause of genital diseases. A study by an advisory group of the American Chemistry Council concluded that the relationship between phthalates and diseases could not be directly proved, it says. The government has already strengthened regulations on environmental hormones as people's awareness of their risks improved. Some toxic phthalates, which are used to make PVC more flexible, are banned from use in toys not only in the EU but in Korea as well. Nursery bottles made of polycarbonate have also already gone through tests to prove their safety, and only negligible amounts of Bisphenol A are released when they are boiled. There can be problems if they are boiled for too long, but boiling them for sterilization purposes a moment poses no serious threat. The government has banned manufacturing of clingfilm using phthalates.
"In our daily lives we are exposed to agricultural chemicals and chemical substances that are much more powerful than environmental hormones in negatively affecting our body, and we should take into account their complex interaction," says Kim Hyung-sik of Pusan National University's College of Pharmacy. "I don't see an urgent need to become too sensitive about environmental hormones if you don't suffer endometritis or breast cancer and if you are not especially sensitive to them." But Kim said when it comes to children whose hormonal systems are not yet fully developed, it is best to take special care. "Stopping using all kinds of plastic products right now is not a realistic option, but gradually decreasing their use is feasible," he said.
from the Hamilton [Ontario] Spectator
September 19, 2006
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1158617413168&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112101662670
Vastly increased emissions of highly toxic mercury are an unexpected result of climate change in Canada's northern woods. New data suggest wildfires release 15 times more of the poisonous element into the air than previously thought, more than every U.S. coal-fired power plant combined. And those emissions could double again as the boreal forest grows hotter and drier. "This could be quite significant," said Mike Flannigan of the Canadian Forest Service, who co-authored the recently published scientific paper.
Scientists have long known that forest fires release mercury into the atmosphere. But researchers assumed peatlands -- widespread in the vast boreal forest stretching across nearly every Canadian province -- released the potent neurotoxin at the same rate as trees and other so-called "first fuels." But Flannigan and his American colleagues at the United States Geological Service found that mercury tends to concentrate in boggy peatlands.
For thousands of years, that mercury has been accumulating in peatlands, where it is buried and away from plants, animals and humans. But when peatlands burn, mercury is released into the atmosphere, eventually falling to earth where it combines with sulphur to form mercury's most toxic form: methylmercury. And as climate change creates drier boreal forests with longer droughts, especially in the global warming hotspot of northern Canada, fires are likely to burn both larger areas and deeper into peatlands once protected by groundwater.
Of 294 active fires in Northern Ontario, 202 were not under control. Thirty-seven were held or under control, and the rest were being observed. Fire watchers were also seeing fires burn right over wet areas like marshes, which would normally stop flames.
Mercury is a versatile material known for thousands of years. It is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. It is a good electrical conductor, has a very high density and high surface tension, expands and contracts uniformly when pressure and temperature change, and it can kill micro-organisms, including pathogenic organisms and other pests.
Elemental mercury has been used
Mercury compounds have been used
Mercury pollution can threaten the health of people, fish, and wildlife everywhere, from industrial sites to remote corners of the planet, but reducing mercury use and emissions would lessen those threats.
Scientists attending the eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant in August also declared that a significant portion of the mercury deposited near industrial sources comes from those sources and that evidence of mercury's health risks is strong enough that people, especially children and women of child-bearing age, should be careful about how much and which fish they eat.
The conference found:
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
by Jonathan D. Rockoff and Frank D. Roylance, Baltimore Sun
September 19, 2006
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.lead19sep19,0,901388.story
WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators made it easier yesterday for health clinics to test children for lead poisoning, which could bolster prevention efforts -- particularly in cities such as Baltimore with high levels of lead in older buildings. The Food and Drug Administration announced that it was allowing widespread sales of a laptop-size kit that indicates within three minutes whether a person has elevated levels of lead in the blood. "We don't have to wait [while] the lead level in a child's blood is affecting their development," said Dr. John O. Agwunobi, an assistant secretary for health who has worked as a pediatrician in city health clinics.
But health authorities and providers in Baltimore were reserving judgment until they know more about the costs and reliability of the new technology. "We're going to be looking at it very carefully to see what its role could be in Baltimore," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. "A number of kids who probably should be tested for lead poisoning aren't being tested. Technology that makes it easier to test should reverse those trends."
Lead poisoning affects 310,000 American children under 6 years of age each year and can cause learning disabilities, developmental delays and even death. It is a particular, although not exclusive, problem for cities such as Baltimore, with old houses and buildings, because children are exposed by eating or drinking dust found in lead-based paint or corroding plumbing.
Until now, the LeadCareII Blood Lead Test System was used only at hospitals and other facilities with highly trained staff. Without such staff, samples needed to be sent to a laboratory that analyzed the blood and provided the results. The FDA's decision makes it possible for clinics, schools, doctors' offices and health fairs with minimally trained staff to use the device. It could expand access to more than 115,000 locations nationwide, the FDA said. According to federal health officials, the kit is simple to use, requiring a small amount of blood drawn from a finger prick or vein. It detects elevated lead levels by running an electric current through the sample. Studies, on 516 blood samples taken over two months, showed the device was 98 percent accurate.
The rapid results should prove helpful to clinics in Baltimore, said Madeleine Shea, an assistant city health commissioner, who oversees the lead poisoning prevention and lead hazard reduction programs. She said city hospitals have had trouble tracking down some children that test results later indicate have high lead levels. "If they are changing addresses, it's hard to follow up," Shea said. "The immediate result helps them get on with treatment and" helps city lead abatement officials identify the source and clean it up.
Baltimore had 854 cases of child lead poisoning last year. Statewide, 1.3 percent of children who were tested for lead exposure registered dangerous levels, which are classified as 10 or more micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. The numbers of cases declined in the city and state, but health officials said there was still a long way to go to reach the goal of eliminating lead poisoning by 2010.
At a news conference, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the acting FDA commissioner, hailed the kit as "simple, accurate and reasonably free of harm." He also submitted to a quick test. Officials said each kit, manufactured by ESA Biosciences of Chelmsford, Mass., will cost $2,200, and each test will cost $7. The $7 price is only half of what it currently costs doctors to send the samples to outside laboratories, according to the company, but the kits may prove expensive for cash-strapped health departments and local clinics. "That's a big outlay, and I doubt Medicaid will pay for it, so who will?" Shea asked.
Shea said Baltimore's Health Department didn't have the funding to buy the kit for clinics. Instead, she said, the agency may try to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the device in an effort to encourage clinics to buy it. It may take some persuasion. Placing the testing technology in a doctor's office would require not only the costly machine, but also the reagents required to run the tests, and the labor to operate it, said Dr. Charles I. Shubin, director of children's health at Mercy FamilyCare. "We would almost have to have a full-time person for the number [of tests] we do," he said. And that would be hard to justify given the meager reimbursement rates provided by Medicaid.
Any new testing technology would also have to be reliable enough to hold up in court, he said. That's because children are usually not treated for very low blood levels because of "significant and serious side effects" from the drugs. Instead, public health officials seek to clean up the child's home environment by pressing the landlord to do lead abatement work. That, Shubin said, is going to require a test result that will survive legal scrutiny.
The new technology, Shubin said, "is going to be a relatively hard sell without striking advantages." Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, said that if cost and accuracy issues are resolved, the new LeadCare II test system should bring the tests to community settings where they can reach children and adults who are not now being tested. "From that standpoint we're pretty excited about the possibilities," she said.
by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press, Knoxville News Sentinel
September 19, 2006
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/health_and_fitness/article/0,1406,KNS_310_5004049,00.html
CHICAGO -- About one-third of attention deficit cases among U.S. children may be linked with tobacco smoke before birth or to lead exposure afterward, according to provocative new research. Even levels of lead the government considers acceptable appeared to increase a child's risk of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the study found.
It builds on previous research linking attention problems, including ADHD, with childhood lead exposure and smoking during pregnancy, and offers one of the first estimates for how much those environmental factors might contribute. "It's a landmark paper that quantifies the number of cases of ADHD that can be attributed to very important environmental exposures," said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
More importantly, the study bolsters suspicions that low-level lead exposure previously linked to behavior problems "is in fact associated with ADHD," said Trasande, who was not involved in the research. The study's estimate is in line with a National Academy of Sciences report in 2000 that said about 3 percent of all developmental and neurological disorders in U.S. children are caused by toxic chemicals and other environmental factors and that 25 percent are because of a combination of environmental factors and genetics. "The findings of this study underscore the profound behavioral health impact of these prevalent exposures and highlight the need to strengthen public health efforts to reduce prenatal tobacco smoke exposure and childhood lead exposure," said the authors, led by researcher Joe Braun of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The study was to be published online today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
ADHD is a brain disorder affecting between 4 percent and 12 percent of school-age children -- or as many as 3.8 million youngsters. Affected children often have trouble sitting still and paying attention and act impulsively at home and at school. Researchers aren't certain about its causes but believe genetics and environmental factors including prenatal exposure to alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs may play a role. Dr. Helen Binns, a researcher at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said the study is a thoughtful analysis but doesn't prove lead exposure is among the causes. It's possible, for example, that young children with ADHD are more likely than others to eat old leaded paint chips or inhale leaded paint dust because of their hyperactivity.
The researchers analyzed data on nearly 4,000 U.S. children 4 to 15 who were part of a 1999-2002 government health survey. Included were 135 children treated for ADHD. They asked whether mothers had smoked during pregnancy but used blood tests to determine lead exposure, said co-author Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 2 1/2 times more likely to have ADHD than children who weren't prenatally exposed to tobacco.
Children with blood lead levels of more than 2 micrograms per deciliter were four times more likely to have ADHD than children with levels below 0.8 microgram per deciliter. The government's "acceptable" blood lead level is 10 micrograms per deciliter, and an estimated 310,000 U.S. children 1 to 5 have levels exceeding that. Based on study estimates, more than 5 million 4- to 15-year-olds nationwide have levels higher than 2 micrograms per deciliter, Lanphear said. Trasande said the study adds further proof that the government should lower its threshold for safe lead exposure.
Exposure to tobacco smoke after birth was not associated with increased ADHD risks, even though childhood exposure to lead was. "Saying there are different periods of vulnerability to different toxins is perfectly plausible," said Dr. Robert Geller, a pediatric toxicologist at Emory University. "There may be very specific periods of vulnerability," depending on when the developing brain is exposed, Geller said.
by Laura Marquez, ABC News
September 18, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2459581&page=1
Mercury contamination is making its way into nearly every habitat in the United States, not just oceans, according to a report that the National Wildlife Federation will release Tuesday. The problem with high mercury levels in certain types of fish has been well documented, resulting in 46 states issuing advisories for pregnant women and children to avoid eating certain types of fish, including tuna and swordfish. High levels of mercury can lead to a wide range of physical ills, including kidney and neurological damage, and can cause fatigue, vision problems and tremors. But this is the first report to expose the problem in such a wide variety of species, 40 to be exact.
The report "underscored how pervasive mercury contamination has become," according to Felice Stadler at the National Wildlife Federation. "Nearly every aspect of our food web has been contaminated. It's difficult to find an ecosystem that's not contaminated, whether it's ocean or forest or coastal waters or wetlands." Scientists found high levels of mercury in bald eagles, songbirds, polar bears and alligators, to name just a few species. Alligator meat is very popular in the southeast, but there is no advisory against eating alligator meat.
Last year Utah issued an advisory for duck hunters, warning people to limit or avoid eating certain duck species because of high levels of mercury. Stadler said this report "raises the question of what ecosystems are safe and immune from toxic contamination."
Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but people release much more mercury pollution that ends up in our forests, lakes, and streams -- 100 tons in this country alone annually. The primary sources include coal-burning power plants, wastewater treatment plants and waste incinerators. The mercury pollution is affecting the reproduction and behavior of fish and wildlife. The report's findings suggest birds with high levels of mercury lay fewer eggs, and the motor skills of certain mammals have been diminished, which affects their ability to hunt and therefore survive.
The report points out "there truly is no link in the food chain untouched by mercury," and according to Stadler, this carries broad implications for humans. "The research shows birds that eat contaminated insects get contaminated themselves," Stadler said. "Turkeys and chickens, which humans eat, eat those same contaminated insects, so this is the tip of the iceberg."
by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Portland Oregonian
September 18, 2006
http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/1158458111245110.xml&coll=7
If voters support the November bond hopes of 11 Portland-area school systems, it will trigger a construction boom that could dot the landscape with an unprecedented number of shiny new green schools. Metro school districts want to build 19 buildings in coming years. If they get the money, most of the districts are considering erecting buildings that meet national environmental and energy efficiency standards.
Six Oregon schools -- including North Clackamas High School and the cafeteria at Beaverton High -- currently hold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications. Portland's new Rosa Parks Elementary School and a school in Canby are awaiting the certification. LEED certification comes from the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit coalition working to promote the construction of buildings that are "environmentally responsible and sustainable."
"In the beginning, people were just building schools with four walls to house kids," said Gregory Churchill, an energy analyst with the Oregon Department of Energy. That is changing, he said, and "it is a really good sign for Oregon." Churchill works with districts interested in making their schools more environmentally friendly and efficient. LEED certification requires that projects meet a number of standards, such as avoiding wetlands, building near public transportation, conserving water, reducing energy use, recycling, letting in daylight and providing clean indoor air. Schools can boost their rating status by including options like waterless urinals, solar panels, furniture crafted from renewable wood and systems that capture rainwater to be used for irrigation.
Sherwood school officials voted Wednesday to design the new elementary and middle schools the district hopes to build to meet LEED standards. "It is important that the district be a good steward of resources," said Mark Christie, Sherwood's school board chair. "We want to show students good modeling so that they continue to make the good decisions that we made all along." Courtney Wilton, the business manager for the David Douglas School District, said his district will build its newest elementary to LEED standards, pending bond approval. Hillsboro, McMinnville, North Clackamas and others are also considering LEED certification or at least building schools close to those standards. A Forest Grove spokeswoman said her district is not far enough along in the design process yet, but "that is something we'd like to do."
Boon to wallets, health
While LEED schools can cost a little more up front, going green can save green over time, said Katrina Shum-Miller, who works for a Portland environmental building consultant company. LEED buildings use less water and energy than traditional ones, with power bills showing savings of as much as 40 percent. And increasingly, green schools are being build for the same cost as traditional schools. When North Clackamas built its new high school to LEED standards, the price tag came in at less than a regular high school. "It makes sense economically in the long run, and I also think it is the right thing to do," David Douglas' Wilton said. "We're living in a world where energy is getting more expensive."
The Oregon Department of Energy offers grants and other incentives to help districts recoup additional costs for going green. But cost savings and conversation are not the only benefits. Green schools are simply healthier for students and staff. The low-toxin carpets and paints that are used produce cleaner air to breathe. Studies have shown that daylighting -- using large, well-placed windows to let in natural light -- improves student performance.
Districts also use green schools as learning tools for students. Kids at Clackamas High School can go online and monitor temperatures around the building. A similar system is built into Rosa Parks, and students will also be able to study the school's bioswell area, which catches storm water and cleans it before allowing it to seep back into the ground. With just 30 LEED-certified schools nationwide, this year's bonds provide an opportunity for the Portland-metro area to stand out. "This would be a huge increase," Churchill said. "It would be really something, actually."
by Susan Gordon, Tacoma News Tribune
September 18, 2006
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/6102777p-5348116c.html
Antidepressants and antihistamines, disinfectants and plasticizers, fire retardants and fragrances. Those are just some of the chemicals you might be applying to your lawn. In government-sponsored research published Wednesday, scientists found dozens of medicinal, industrial and household compounds in treated sewage sludge, or biosolids, that are often marketed by local governments as lawn-and-garden enhancements. "No matter what biosolid we looked at, there were some of these compounds in it," said Chad Kinney, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Eastern Washington University.
Kinney is the lead author of the report published in online editions of the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology. His work was supported by the National Research Council. Six U.S. Geological Survey scientists collaborated on the research. They analyzed nine biosolid products, representing four preparation methods. The products came from seven states, including Washington, where 81 percent of biosolids are applied to land or distributed as soil amendments.
Wastewater treatment and biosolid preparation methods failed to remove 25 compounds detected in all of the samples, scientists found. The composition of compounds from the nine products was "reasonably consistent" and may mirror nationwide outcomes, the scientists said. Overall, as many as 55 compounds were detected in one product, and all contained at least 30.
Government regulators, health officials and Puget Sound biosolids producers said there is no immediate risk to public health. The study's authors said more research is needed to determine potential long-term effects on the environment. "We've been using biosolids for over 30 years safely," said Peggy Leonard, biosolids program manager for King County's waste treatment division, which produces GroCo. "As far as I know there is no risk."
Land application of biosolids is a controversial issue in some parts of the country. Experts who have previously complained about inadequate federal scrutiny said the new research points to the need for more study and perhaps additional regulation. Thomas Burke, a professor of public health policy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said Kinney's research and other studies amount to a "wake-up call" to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to scrutinize the effects of chemicals in the waste stream. Current wastewater treatment methods aren't designed to get rid of low levels of chemicals like these, Burke said. "I don't think people understood before this that they might be applying pharmaceuticals and disinfectants to their front lawns."
‘Exceptional quality'
For decades, the EPA has promoted the benefits of biosolids because they contain the same nutrients -- nitrogen and phosphorus -- found in fertilizers. Regulations require biosolid producers to screen for disease-causing micro-organisms, viruses and nine metals. However, state and federal laws do not set limits or require monitoring for organic contaminants. In the Puget Sound area, products include King County's GroCo, Tacoma's TAGRO and SoundGro, Pierce County's biosolid. The EPA classifies them as "Class A exceptional quality" based on the wastewater treatment process and test results.
At EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Rick Stevens, national biosolids coordinator, said in an e-mail message that agency officials stand by existing biosolids regulations to protect human health and the environment. "EPA cannot assess how widespread the occurrence may be for any of the contaminants reported by Kinney," he wrote. "Any reported concentration for any of these compounds in sewage sludge is speculative at this time."
In Olympia, the state Department of Ecology said regulators are concerned about the potential effects, but existing regulations won't be revised unless harm is proved. At the state Department of Health, Rob Duff, director of environmental health assessments, said the new research "shows how pervasive these chemicals are. It's another paintbrush on the big picture of how contaminants move through the environment." However, Duff, who has not read the study, said he does not believe people need to worry about exposure to chemicals in biosolids.
A ‘good start'
Kinney's study does not identify the samples by name. However, King County waste managers know that GroCo was included. Between 2 and 5 percent of King County's treated sewer sludge is sold as GroCo. The rest is sprayed in forests and on wheat farms in Eastern Washington. "I don't think there's any call for alarm," said Leonard, the program manager who likes the results that biosolids produce on her Redmond lawn. She called Kinney's research a "good start," but said it fails to answer such key questions as whether the chemicals break down in soils and whether they pose danger.
In Tacoma, 4,000 tons of TAGRO biosolids in various formulas are distributed annually. The city's Web site touts TAGRO as an EPA award-winning "family of premium soil products" that help the environment. Dan Thompson, the city's wastewater operations manager, said the issues raised by the newly published journal article are not new. "It's something we need to keep our eye on but we're not super concerned at this time. We know these constituents are here. There's no reason to be believe there's a health threat," he said.
More scrutiny sought
Experts who previously criticized EPA's failure to update its scientific analysis of biosolids praised the newly published research. At Cornell University's Waste Management Institute, where soil scientists for decades have raised questions about the land application of sewage sludge, institute director Ellen Harrison said the new research underscores previous calls for increased regulatory scrutiny. "I certainly would not use this material on my garden," Harrison said. "This makes clear monitoring for nine trace elements (as required by EPA) does not give me confidence this is exceptional quality and pure."
Burke, the Johns Hopkins professor, was chairman of a National Research Council committee in 2002 that told EPA the science behind its biosolids regulations was out of date. Some of the chemicals identified in the study already have been proved to disrupt fish reproduction. Others may be benign, but without research, people won't know. "These are things that have biological implications and we have to understand them better," Burke said.
Many of the chemicals detected in biosolids are the same ones found in previous USGS studies of contaminants in surface waters across the country. However, concentrations in biosolids were higher than found in water. The concentrations of chemicals detected in biosolids also exceeded those found in similar studies of treated wastewater, the scientists said.
Broader research
The application of biosolids has been a hot topic for years in various parts of the country, including Southern California, Virginia and Florida. Kinney's study is believed to be the first to measure a wide variety of organic contaminants in biosolids applied to land in the United States. Other similar studies have taken place in Europe and Canada. Kinney and his colleagues set out to determine whether biosolids are a source of soil and water contamination. They concluded that they probably are, and in the article characterize biosolids as a likely "ubiquitous" source of environmental contamination, with unknown, but possibly problematic effects on fish, wildlife and people. "This research is really kind of the starting point," Kinney said. He and other chemists who analyzed the compounds did not evaluate the risks associated with the contaminants they found.
Edward Furlong, a Denver-based USGS chemist who took part in the study, said the concentrations of chemicals detected -- measured in parts per billion -- don't appear to have an immediate, severe effect on plants or animals. However, he and Kinney said their results suggest the need for more scientific research. They said experts ought to explore toxicological effects, what happens after people spread biosolids on the ground and whether contaminants are absorbed by plants, degrade, flow into streams and rivers or are picked up by winds and transported into the atmosphere.
Both Kinney and Furlong were reluctant to respond to questions about how consumers should handle biosolids. "That's out of my area of expertise," Furlong said.
by Tera Camus, Halifax [Nova Scotia] Chronicle Herald
September 18, 2006
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/528731.html
It could happen any day. Unexploded munitions have accidentally detonated in Nova Scotia, and Terry Long, a United Nations expert on ordnance and munitions disposal, says it's just a matter of time before it happens again. "We have munitions out there that are degrading," he said in a recent interview, noting the corrosive sea has compromised the metal casings of some of the naval shells, bombs and artillery that have been dumped in Nova Scotia's waters since the First World War.
Some of those bombs are known to contain wartime chemicals such as mustard gas, choking agents and blistering agents, and they have begun to leak. Canada and other nations commonly dumped unused weapons at sea or in harbours as they approached home base, but the practice stopped in 1975 after NATO studies presented in Helsinki in 1972 showed chemicals will likely leak, potentially harming marine life and human health.
Some of the most cluttered and dangerous deposits of bombs in these parts are corroding in soft silt at the bottom of the Bedford Basin and Halifax Harbour, in the centre of the province's most densely populated region. But thousands of tonnes of other bombs and chemicals are in shallow waters of Sydney Harbour, in Bras d'Or Lake off Eskasoni and off Yarmouth, where a nuclear submarine, rusting in the water, still contains five vertical launch tubes and three live torpedoes. There are more than 3,000 military munitions sites off Nova Scotia, in rich fishing areas or near Sable Island, where explorations for natural gas are ongoing. There are also sites between Cape Breton and Newfoundland at which the United States, under a $100-million deal, dumped an unknown amount of weapons and other military material, including vehicles, from its bases in Stephenville and Argentia after the Second World War.
Mr. Long, a principal in Decommissioning Consulting Services of Ontario, says a cleanup will be unavoidable in the near future. "It's a worldwide epidemic," he said of the dangers lurking in most oceans. Aging bombs can be easily triggered by minor underwater pressure -- the "equivalent to the tap of a pencil," he said, noting that seismic blasts used by companies exploring for gas generate much greater pressure than that. "We've been lucky," he said. "Blindly conducting seismic has the potential to damage soft-skinned chemical weapons that could leach out into the environment. Most likely, these agents are releasing into the environment already from seismic research being conducted off Nova Scotia."
An accidental drop of an anchor by an unsuspecting boater in the Bedford Basin, for example, could also set off a series of explosions like the one in 1945, when a munitions depot caught fire in the area. Boaters are still not permitted to drop anchor due to the vast amount of unexploded munitions. But Mr. Long says a fishing net could also easily pull triggers off unexploded bombs, something many snow-crab fishermen fear happening off the coast of Cape Breton.
In 2003, the Department of National Defence began a five-year, $10-million study to explore 50 munitions sites, some on land, to determine risks. Once that study is completed, the military is expected to develop an action plan if needed. Until that's done, Mr. Long doesn't expect any cleanup to be ordered, given Canada's priorities in the ongoing war on terror overseas, but it's not stopping him and others from getting locals trained for future demolition. Just last Wednesday, Eskasoni First Nation signed an agreement to train local people to use Department of Defence bomb-disposal methods, because there's a large munitions site immediately off the reserve in Bras d'Or Lake. The pilot project will include environmental and hazardous materials management and methods to clean up unexploded ordnance on land and at sea.
Tuma Young, the band's chief executive officer, said Eskasoni signed a partnership with Mr. Long's company in hopes of providing new skills and, eventually, jobs. "We can clean up these sites and provide our people with employment," Mr. Young said. "Eskasoni used to be a bombing range. . . . They used to test bombs here. We found a few munitions. "We have to take a long term view on this ... but these areas, we're already fishing in them. There's a danger of nets hooking, so we got to keep one eye on the problem and one eye on the future."
In 1999, two bombs, one weighing 110 kilograms, were pulled out of silt in shallow waters during a construction project in Bedford. The Canadian navy determined that alloy plugs on the bomb had corroded and the explosives had dropped out, but 400 people still had to be evacuated.
Explosives were scattered all over the harbour after the Halifax Explosion in 1917 and again when a munitions depot caught fire and exploded in 1945. As well, Second World War munitions have been washing ashore for years at the mouth of the harbour from the Clare Lilly, a British ship that ran aground in 1942 just off Portuguese Cove. "In the last couple of years we're really starting to see a lot of different-coloured lobsters -- blue ones, red ones -- coming out of the water. In a lot of areas of the world where chemical weapons are found, you find different colours of species of animals," said Mr. Long, who now lives in Sydney. "It's also been in our experience that these different sites are where some of the highest rates of cancer are as well." A NATO study presented at the Helsinki Convention in 1992 showed underwater discharge of chemical weapons at sea can attack the photosynthesis of plankton and affect the hatching rates of crustaceans.
But dangers are not limited to the sea. Mr. Long's de-mining company, using a high powered metal detector, found dozens of unexploded munitions -- some partly buried -- metres away from several Halifax highways last year. He retrieved and detonated or dismantled them all. "We have to clean up these sites," he said, but he acknowledged that politics and military priorities will play a factor in deciding when that will happen. His company has extensively de-mined areas of Bosnia and Afghanistan and helped India restore fresh-water supplies when the 2004 tsunami in Asia lifted landmines out of the ground near wells.
Halifax served as a main launching point for Allied convoys headed overseas during both world wars, and the harbour contains more unexploded bombs than any other place in North America, according to the military. Explosives were never cleaned up, but because the harbour is so deep the military has said they don't pose a big threat unless they are disturbed. Sonar and remote submersibles are being used in the federal study to determine the types of bombs involved and what should be done with them. It's unknown when the results will be released.
by Marc Levy, Associated Press, Monterey County [California] Herald
September 17, 2006
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/15543416.htm
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania is poised to adopt pollution standards that would require new cars to be cleaner-burning a year from now -- and put the state in lockstep with California's efforts to impose even more stringent requirements by 2009. Smog-reduction rules expected to be adopted for the 2008 model year would have little or no impact on the price of cars or the way they drive, state and industry officials say.
But more stringent greenhouse-gas reductions being sought by California on 2009 model-year cars would result in higher car prices, though advocates and opponents disagree about the amount. Automakers also say the greenhouse-gas standard, now the subject of litigation, would force them to make smaller cars with less horsepower.
Two state oversight boards are set to meet in the coming weeks to decide whether Pennsylvania should follow California standards. Approval appears likely. The administration of Gov. Ed Rendell strongly supports adopting California's tougher pollution standards, while legislation that would prevent or delay such action has stalled in a House committee. The Environmental Quality Board is set to vote Tuesday, while the Independent Regulatory Review Commission would have 30 days to accept or reject the decision. Rendell and state lawmakers have appointees on both boards.
Rendell's top environmental protection official, Kathleen A. McGinty, said Pennsylvania needs to cut vehicle pollution to help the majority of the state's counties meet federal air quality standards. The alternative is forcing expensive pollution cutbacks onto the state's heavy industries and power plants or losing federal highway dollars, McGinty said. If Pennsylvania adopts California's pollution standard, and California's greenhouse-gas rule survives the legal challenge, new cars will get better mileage -- offsetting any sticker-price increases, she said. "The evidence points to customers realizing a savings," McGinty said.
Nine other states, including New York and New Jersey, now follow the California standard. California is able to set its own rules -- which states have the option of choosing over the federal government's less stringent standards -- because it began regulating vehicle pollution before the federal government.
At Feduke Ford in Vestal, N.Y., sales manager Peter McEvoy said customers have not noticed any difference since New York began enforcing the tougher smog standard that Pennsylvania is considering. "In fact, we often sell vehicles to customers in Pennsylvania with the lower emissions equipment on it," he said.
For now, California's pollution standard means cars must produce less smog-forming nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, as well as less cancer-causing benzene. California regulators are locked in a legal battle with automakers over the state's efforts to enforce what would be the world's most stringent rules on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars. If the California Air Resources Board wins the case, 2009 model-year vehicles that are sold to residents of that state -- as well as other states that follow California's rules -- would have to produce, on average, 22 percent less tailpipe exhaust. Heat-trapping greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are believed by most scientists to contribute to global warming. Reductions in exhaust would also have a side benefit, California regulators say: They would make cars more fuel-efficient.
But automakers and some industry analysts say such a greenhouse-gas standard would mean building smaller cars with smaller engines and more lightweight materials like plastic and aluminum. "It wouldn't be able to haul as much, it wouldn't be able to tow as much, it wouldn't have the same passenger space, it wouldn't have the same horsepower," said Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which speaks for nine major foreign and domestic automakers, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. Territo said sticker prices could be forced up by $3,000. Car companies "would have a very difficult time selling that vehicle to consumers," he said.
In their lawsuit, automakers contend that California's greenhouse-gas standard would not regulate pollution, but fuel economy -- which is the sole responsibility of the federal government. The case is set to go to trial in January in federal court in Fresno, Calif. The California Air Resources Board argues that reducing gases that contribute to global warming will yield health benefits and that the requirement should only increase car costs by about $1,000. Only a handful of models currently meet the standard, including gas-electric hybrids.
Some Pennsylvania lawmakers have raised doubts about the wisdom of following standards set in California, and say the Rendell administration is overestimating any air-quality benefit. Some also question whether higher car prices will prompt motorists to drive their older cars longer, thereby reducing the benefit of the tougher greenhouse-gas standard. "If these vehicles cost more, people are going to keep their old vehicles more and that slows down fleet turnover," said Patrick Henderson, an aide to state Sen. Mary Jo White, the Venango County Republican who chairs the chamber's Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
by Roger Dobson, London Times
September 17, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2361804,00.html
CHILDREN whose ring fingers are much longer than their index fingers are more likely to be hyperactive and bullying, research has found. The effect, derived from testosterone exposure in the womb, is particularly pronounced in boys. Children with long index fingers, by contrast, are more likely to be neurotic and sensitive. The findings are the latest in a growing body of research associating the difference in finger lengths with character traits such as sporting prowess, homosexuality, aggression, promiscuity, autism and vulnerability to depression.
A typical male hand has a ring finger longer than the index finger, while on women's hands the index finger is likely to be longer or of similar length. Professor John Manning, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Central Lancashire who spearheaded the new research, said: "High testosterone before birth as indicated by digit ratio produces behavioural problems like temper tantrums, bullying, fights with other children, being hyperactive or being easily distracted." Manning, whose research is published this week in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, added: "The other very strong relationship to digit ratio is found in running speeds -- there is a pretty good chance of predicting who is going to win a race."
Manning and his team measured the ratio between the index and ring fingers of 114 children in Britain and Austria. The researchers then gave the children's parents detailed questionnaires asking them about aspects of their children's behaviour such as hyperactivity, inability to pay attention, poor social skills and bullying. The results shows that the longer a child's ring finger in comparison with the index finger, the more likely their parents were to rate them as hyperactive, aggressive or antisocial, with the association stronger for boys. "For every increment you get an effect," said Manning.
At the heart of the research is the theory that the two fingers are an anatomical record of what went on in the womb in the critical first three months. A long ring finger is an indication that the developing heart, brain -- and hands -- were exposed to higher levels of the male hormone testosterone, while a long index finger is a marker of exposure to oestrogen, the female hormone.
Personality traits such as aggressiveness and fertility, which are strongly linked to gender, were among the first to be studied in relation to finger length. In 2000, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that both men and women with index fingers of similar length to their ring fingers were more likely than average to be homosexual. This particular combination in finger lengths is at the "crossover" point for male and female hand shapes and near the middle of the spectrum of testosterone exposure. This and other early reports caused surprise and some critics said they were little more accurate than palm-reading. Since then, however, the hormone-finger length link has become more widely accepted.
Scientists do not claim finger length is a definite indicator of personality, but they have since found links, for example, between long index fingers in women and a likelihood of being highly fertile, unassertive, neurotic and unlikely to take risks. At the other extreme, men with particularly long ring fingers are more likely than average to be fertile, athletic and aggressive and to have poor verbal skills.
by Katharine Houreld, London Times
September 17, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2361387,00.html
MORE than 26,000 panicking people have crammed into hospitals in the Ivory Coast and seven have died after inhaling fumes from 400 tons of toxic waste unloaded from a European ship in the principal city of Abidjan. Victims with symptoms ranging from breathing difficulties to nosebleeds described scenes of chaos and a shortage of essential medicines. "People are waiting all day in these queues, arriving in the early morning and only leaving the hospitals at night," said Florentine Coulibaly, a patients' spokeswoman. "Even with all the medicines administered, people are going home and their illness is continuing."
Residents of Abidjan, known as the Paris of west Africa, began to complain of a smell of rotten eggs last month, shortly after the Greek-registered Probo Koala discharged a poisonous mix of petrol wastes and cleaning agents, known as slops, from its tanks. The sludge was taken away by a local company and dumped at 10 sites around the city. Within days at least three children were dead from the fumes and the number of people affected has continued to rise sharply. Angry protesters used burning tyres and logs to block roads leading to areas where the waste had been dumped.
Some of the waste, which contains chlorine compounds and hydrogen sulphide -- the source of the rotten eggs smell -- was dumped in ditches in residential areas. Exposure has led to headaches, stomach pains, vomiting and unconsciousness. Doctors say that many patients have returned to hospital several times, since most of those discharged had no choice but to return to their homes near the waste sites. "It is a catastrophe," said Simeon N'Da, a health ministry spokesman. He said 23 people were in a serious condition this weekend. The United Nations and France have sent teams of experts to help deal with the crisis. But a report last week warned that the food chain may be contaminated after some of the waste was dumped in lagoons and the sea.
A Dutch firm that chartered the ship, Trafigura Beheer BV, said: "The company is appalled at what has happened to the health of the people of Abidjan as a result of this incident." It said the waste had been given to an Ivorian firm, Compagnie Tommy, for disposal. The Ivorian government has arrested seven people in connection with the scandal, including officials from the local company. A previous attempt to unload the waste in Amsterdam had failed after the specialist handler, Amsterdam Port Services, decided that it was so highly toxic that higher fees would be required to process it. The Probo Koala left Europe for Africa still loaded with the poisons.
The Ivorian government resigned over the scandal, throwing into confusion a fragile peace process that has been maintained since the 2002-03 civil war. President Laurent Gbagbo yesterday named a new cabinet, dropping his environment and transport ministers, both of whom have come under heavy criticism. "It complicates the situation greatly ... this is a political crisis," said Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at Chatham House and chairman of a UN panel of experts on the Ivory Coast.
by Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
September 16, 2006
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=fba166fa-f05a-4920-a1d7-34f6cce224eb&k=90922&p=2
The B.C. government won a major victory Friday in its lengthy battle to get multinational tobacco companies into court over the issue of smoking-related health-care costs. The B.C. Court of Appeal sided with the province in a unanimous ruling that says B.C. courts do have jurisdiction over foreign tobacco companies. That should clear the way for the government's civil case against major tobacco companies on allegations of deceptive marketing, inadequate health warnings and the targeting of children in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
The companies could still try to appeal the jurisdictional question to the Supreme Court of Canada. But that court already decided last year that provinces have the constitutional right to sue tobacco companies for smoking-related treatment costs. "This is a big win for us," Attorney General Wally Oppal said in an interview Friday. "This is another significant road block that has now been removed for us." Oppal, a former appeal court judge, said it is important that the ruling was unanimous, making it less likely that the tobacco industry would be granted leave to appeal to the country's highest court. "This victory means that foreign tobacco companies named as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as their Canadian affiliates, will now be required to answer allegations of wrongdoing in the courts of British Columbia," Oppal said.
Health Minister George Abbott said the ruling could mean B.C. is able to recover billions in health-care costs going back decades. "The decision means that the multinational industry is not immune from lawsuits by the provinces to recover our health-care costs. B.C. is holding the tobacco industry accountable for its deceptive marketing practices that harmed so many British Columbians." Kathryn Seely, of the Canadian Cancer Society's B.C. and Yukon Division, said the province is one step closer to making the tobacco companies accountable for the ill effects of their products. "It is an important preliminary victory against big tobacco," Seely said.
She said one of the most important facets of Friday's ruling is that the court accepted that the foreign companies "directed the behaviour of their subsidiaries. And they are the ones with the deep pockets which means at the end of the day, if the B.C. government is successful in its litigation, there is more money or damages to draw from," Seely said.
The B.C. government's attempt to make tobacco companies financially accountable started under the New Democrats a decade ago and was continued by the Liberal government. "All of the decisions have been positive since the legislation was pared down a few years ago," Seely said.
When the case gets to trial, the B.C. government will assert that "among other indiscretions, tobacco manufacturers marketed 'light' cigarettes as safer when they knew they were not; targeted children in their advertising and marketing; conspired to suppress research on the risks of smoking and to invalidate the public warning on the risks of smoking; and are responsible for health-care costs associated with smoking."
Fifteen senior lawyers have been representing the tobacco companies, which include R.J. Reynolds, Rothmans Inc., British American Tobacco Investments, and Philip Morris Incorporated. R.J. Reynolds lawyer Jeffrey Kay said his client is disappointed with the ruling. "We are considering our options," Kay said Friday. Kenneth Affleck, who was on the legal team of Rothmans Inc., said it is too soon to know if any of the tobacco companies will decide to seek leave to appeal. And he said they may have different legal positions on the issue. "They may not all take the same view as to what is the appropriate thing to do. "This is brand new stuff. We just got the answer back from the Court of Appeal, so we've got to think about it pretty carefully," Affleck said. "Sometimes it is wise to apply for leave to appeal because you don't like the judgement you've just seen. But in some circumstances, you might decide that applying for leave to appeal just isn't going to get you anywhere ... We may decide that we've got an excellent defence in this case so let's just get on with it."
Some of the companies had argued that they were not present in B.C., meaning the B.C. court did not have jurisdiction. But the Court of Appeal judges disagreed. "Although particular defendants may not have been present in British Columbia, the activities alleged against the joint breach defendants are wrongs situated in British Columbia and the harm that resulted was situated in British Columbia," the ruling said. "This is enough to demonstrate a meaningful connection between the jurisdiction and the foreign defendants."
by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times
September 16, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/world/africa/16malaria.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
WASHINGTON -- The World Health Organization on Friday forcefully endorsed wider use of the insecticide DDT across Africa to exterminate and repel the mosquitoes that cause malaria. The disease kills more than a million people a year, 800,000 of them young children in Africa. Dr. Arata Kochi, who leads the group's global malaria program, unequivocally declared at a news conference on Friday that DDT was the most effective insecticide against malaria and that it posed no health risk when sprayed in small amounts on the inner walls of people's homes. Expanding its use is essential to reviving the flagging international campaign to control the disease, he said.
Dr. Kochi has powerful allies on DDT and, more broadly, on using insecticide sprays, in Congress and the Bush administration -- an odd bedfellows coalition for an agency of the United Nations, which has often been at odds with the White House. At the news conference, Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, who leads President Bush's $1.2 billion malaria undertaking, stood at Dr. Kochi's side and described spraying with insecticides as a tool "that must be deployed as robustly and strategically as possible." The health organization's news release quoted Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma. "Finally, with the W.H.O.'s unambiguous leadership on the issue, we can put to rest the junk science and myths that have provided aid and comfort to the real enemy -- mosquitoes," said the senator, a medical doctor.
Dr. Kochi said the most substantive change in the W.H.O.'s guidelines on the use of insecticides would extend the reach of the strategy. Until now, the agency had recommended indoor spraying of insecticides in areas of seasonal or episodic transmission of malaria, but it now also advocates it where continuous, intense transmission of the disease causes the most deaths. Dr. Kochi's new policies and abrasive style have stirred the small world of malaria experts. Dr. Allan Schapira, a senior member of the W.H.O. malaria team who most recently oversaw its approach to insecticide spraying, resigned last week. Reached Thursday on his cellphone, Dr. Schapira declined to comment on his reasons, except to say that they were professional. He did not return messages left Friday. His successor, Pierre Guillet, a medical entomologist, said Dr. Schapira quit because he was uncomfortable with the new approach on insecticide spraying.
There are fierce debates among experts over when it is best to use indoor spraying or mosquito nets impregnated with insecticides that last up to five years, though most agree that both spraying and nets are important tools. Dr. Kochi said in an interview that half the professional staff of the W.H.O.'s malaria program has left "one way or the other" since he took over in October. He described Dr. Schapira as the "main brain" behind the past approach. "He was professionally insulted by me," Dr. Kochi said. In answer to a question, Dr. Kochi acknowledged that he had indeed told members of the staff in meetings that they were stupid. "They are very inward looking, and they do not communicate outside the malaria field," he said. "It's ridiculous."
Dr. Kochi earlier headed the W.H.O.'s tuberculosis campaign until he was forced out after his blunt manner alienated important partner organizations. He has brought the same in-your-face approach to malaria. In January, he demanded that 18 drug companies -- all named -- stop selling some forms of a new malaria drug he believed could speed up drug resistance. If they did not comply, he threatened to try to disrupt sales of their other medicines. In April, he accused the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, through which rich countries finance health campaigns, of ignoring W.H.O. rules that forbid treating malaria with herbal-based therapy alone -- a charge that Dr. Bernard Nahlen, a senior adviser at the Global Fund, called "outlandish" on Friday.
There are now 17 African countries using at least some indoor spraying of insecticides to combat malaria. Only 10 of them use DDT -- Eritrea, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Swaziland, South Africa, Mauritius, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Zambia -- the W.H.O. said. Too many countries in Africa have shied away from DDT, Dr. Kochi said, because of the nasty environmental reputation it earned in an earlier era when it was widely sprayed on crops -- dangers that do not apply when spraying small amounts indoors. DDT has carried a special stigma since the publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," which helped set off the environmental movement in America by documenting how mass spraying of DDT entered the food chain, causing cancer and genetic damage and threatening to wipe out some bird species, including bald eagles.
The nonprofit group, Beyond Pesticides, distributed news releases on Friday opposing the W.H.O.'s new policy, saying a dependence on pesticides like DDT "causes greater long-tem problems than those that are being addressed in the short-term."
Dr. Kochi said some African countries had also been reluctant to use DDT because of fears that European countries would block food exports if crops were tainted by even minuscule amounts of DDT. In an interview, he called on leaders of the European Union to publicly encourage African countries to use DDT against malaria. Uganda, for one, has not used it because of what Dr. Kochi called "a bureaucratic standoff between the ministry of health and the ministry that oversees trade." A spokesman for the European Union, Alain Bloedt, said Friday that it was too late in the afternoon to get a reply. Dr. Kochi said he himself did not worry about whether he would lose his job if he took on too many influential players. Success will require many difficult changes, he said. "I don't want to fail."
from Forbes magazine
September 15, 2006
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/09/15/hscout534890.html
A now-banned pesticide that still lingers in the environment could be damaging human brain cells and prompting the onset of Parkinson's disease, a new study suggests. Animal and human cadaver studies appear to link exposure to dieldrin, an organochlorine pesticide, with Parkinson's disease, researchers say. "We can't say at this point that pesticides cause Parkinson's disease, but we feel it accelerates the process," said Kurt Pennell, an associate professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.
Pennell and his group report that levels of dieldrin in the autopsied brain tissue of 14 Parkinson's patients were more than three times those of 12 similarly aged people who didn't have the disease. The researchers also exposed mice to repeated low-level doses of dieldrin to simulate environmental exposure that humans might encounter. The mice's brain tissue showed significant reductions in the uptake of dopamine, a neurotransmitter. And, levels of carbonyls -- a marker of oxidative stress -- were increased substantially in the brain of dieldrin-treated mice, Pennell reported. "Our research shows that elevated levels of dieldrin are associated with Parkinson's disease in humans, which is supported by an animal model study that correlates low-level exposure to dieldrin with early markers of Parkinson's disease," he explained. The researchers presented their findings Thursday at the American Chemical Society annual meeting, in San Francisco.
Dieldrin was banned in the 1987 but, Pennell said, "It's very persistent and remains in the ground. It accumulates in lipid tissues, including the brain." Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, affects an estimated 500,000 people in the United States, and about 50,000 new cases are reported annually. These numbers are expected to increase as the population ages. The disorder appears to be slightly more common in men than women, and the average age of onset is about 60, according to the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Prior epidemiological and laboratory studies have suggested a link between chronic exposure to persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and Parkinson's disease. Dr. Rajesh Pahwa is director of the Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorder Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center, in Kansas City. He said that while the study isn't "major news, it is interesting in that it shows postmortem Parkinson's disease patients' brains had higher levels of pesticide compared to normal controls. And this study has confirmed other work correlating pesticide exposure with the illness." But, Pahwa added, "This is a small [study] and questions remain. For example, were the Parkinson's brains more exposed to these chemicals or were the Parkinson's patients unable to clear or metabolize the dieldrin?"
Pahwa suggested that the causes of Parkinson's are most likely complex, and may be due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. "Maybe these studies could lead us to a biomarker for the disease or for people who are being exposed to the disease," he said. Pennell said, "It is hard to say that exposure to dieldrin is causal, but as people live longer they're more likely to get Parkinson's." That means exposure becomes more relevant. "Baby boomers could have been exposed to these chemicals before they were banned and now as they age, we could see more disease."
Dieldrin and other banned pesticides should dissipate in the environment during the next few decades and become less of a factor in the development of Parkinson's disease, said study researcher Gary Miller, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at Emory University. "Today, people are being exposed to much lower levels of pesticides than people were 30 or 40 years ago," Miller said in a prepared statement. "I would predict that over the course of the next several decades that we will see a decrease in the incidence of Parkinson's disease."
by Thomas Peele, Contra Costa [California] Times
September 15, 2006
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15525440.htm
Sheets of decayed metals, hull coatings and lead paint more than one-third of an inch thick peeled off two obsolete U.S. Maritime Administration ships when marine growth was scrubbed from their hulls at the Port of Richmond last month, according to a report prepared for the federal government. The toxic material was left in San Francisco Bay, much of it adhered to thick seaweed and barnacles that accumulated on the ships for more than 35 years as they were anchored in the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet near Benicia.
When the cleaning was done in early August, a Maritime Administration spokeswoman said only organic materials would be left in the water. But the report prepared for the administration states, "marine growth across the flat bottom of the hull appeared to peel away in pieces up to several square feet at a time adhered to sections of corroded steel flakes. ... Corroded metal and old flakes ... appeared to maintain a consistent maximum thickness of approximately .375 (of an) inch. These flakes seemed to be made up of tightly bound marine fouling over brittle advanced corrosion wastage and aged hull coating," reads the report prepared by employees of the company that did the work, Underwater Resources Inc. of San Francisco.
The Times obtained the document from the Coast Guard under the federal Freedom of Information Act after it obtained the document from the Maritime Administration. The Coast Guard also released photographs of the ships, showing badly rusted hulls with paint chipping away in large sections and thick grasses visible below the waterline. The photos also show the large chips of decayed metals described in the report.
Lead paint dissolving in the Bay represents the most immediate environmental threat, said a ship disposal expert and chemical engineer. "Having lead in the water is not good. It can dissolve and kill marine life," said Raymond Lovett, technical director of the Ship Recycling Institute in Philadelphia.
The Maritime Administration did not know about material entering the water until it received the contractor's report, spokeswoman Shannon Russell said in an e-mail Thursday. She did not say who from the administration monitored the work or why it was not halted when it became obvious the metals were peeling from the ship. "We will continue discussing the concerns raised in this report with the Coast Guard," Russell said. Coast Guard spokeswoman Angela McArdle said it would examine the report and take any needed steps. It was unclear Thursday, she said, if Coast Guard officers in Washington in charge of the program that requires the ships be cleaned knew of the report. The president of the company that did the work did not return messages Thursday.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board said water engineers had yet to read the report, but would investigate further. A water quality engineer last month said the work was done without the board's knowledge, and the board was unaware of the work until the Times reported on it. "The impression that we had is that they were using a cleaning method that would not release hazardous materials into the Bay," water board spokesman Will Brunhs said Thursday. "They told us (one thing) and this report tells us (another thing)." Russell said the water board would be involved in future ship cleaning.
An environmentalist familiar with the ships said the Maritime Administration lacks credibility when it comes to protecting local waters. "Of course you can't get marine growth off the ships without getting metals in the water," said Saul Bloom, director of the San Francisco environmental group Arc Ecology, which has monitored the Suisun fleet for years. "The hull coating is tributal tin. There could be PCBs mixed in to the paint. This is a problem for San Francisco Bay."
The work was done under a Coast Guard order issued in late June that requires ships leaving the administration's three reserve fleets to have their hulls cleaned of marine growth that could be transported to areas of the world where it is not native. The program is designed to slow the spread of invasive species. McArdle last month said the Coast Guard acknowledged the environmental risks of ordering the ships cleaned because of their age and condition. On Thursday, she said the report could become a Catch-22 for the administration's ship disposal program because the vessels cannot be removed without being cleaned but may be too brittle to clean safely.
Three World War II Victory ships were cleaned last month under the Coast Guard order -- two in Richmond, one in Alameda -- before being towed to Brownsville, Texas, to be cut up for scrap. Each ship was 439 feet long with a beam of 63 feet at its widest point. At Richmond, the materials were removed from 90 percent of the underwater portion of their hulls, the report states. There was no report immediately available on the work done in Alameda.
Growth on the ships was so heavy that divers quickly wore down the nylon scrubbers they were using and had to order more, the report states. They also used hand scrapers to remove some of it, the document states. Under the Coast Guard order, hand scrapers were to be used only on the ships' propellers because of concerns that hand scraping would rip away hull materials.
In addition to the material ending up in the Bay, "the hulls of the ships are a third of an inch thinner," Lovett said. The report states that the cleaning left the ships' hulls with "pronounced surface corrosion." Divers banged the hulls with hammers. When the blows didn't penetrate, the ships were pronounced "structurally competent" for the 45-day tow to Texas scrapping yards. The ships departed Richmond on Aug. 13.
Separate Maritime Administration ship condition reports prepared recently for the three Victory ships cleaned in Richmond and Alameda describe them as being badly corroded, their decks covered with paint chips and their holds filling with what was described as oily water. The Coast Guard approved all three for towing to Texas, although one of the them, the Barnard Victory, failed its initial inspection and needed additional work to make it safe for towing. An additional Victory ship in the Suisun fleet is scheduled for scrapping but Russell said the administration is "awaiting further guidance" about how to proceed.
by Neil Osterweil, MedPage Today; reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD
September 14, 2006
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/AlzheimersDisease/dh/4106
submitted in a separate message to this listserv by Ted Schettler, MD
Review
BALTIMORE -- A lifetime of exposure to lead can weigh down the minds of older adults, researchers here have found, adding two to six years to the normal cognitive effects of aging. A study of community-dwelling adults ranging in age from 50 to 70 showed that higher lead levels in the tibia, a measure of cumulative lead exposure, were associated with worse performance in seven cognitive domains revealed a study reported in an early online release in Neurology.
These cognitive domains were learning, memory and visual-motor tasks, said Brian Schwartz, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues. "The analysis showed the effect of community lead exposure was equivalent to two to six years of aging," said Dr. Schwartz and colleagues. "If lead is associated with lower cognitive performance, this may suggest possible treatment and prevention options for older adults." The negative effects of lead exposure on cognitive function in children under the age of six are well documented, and measurable lead levels are found in all individuals, the authors noted. "Population-based studies in the 1970s documented average population blood lead levels exceeding 15 to 20 µg/dL," they wrote. "This past widespread use has led to lifetime cumulative doses in most older Americans, who are now entering a period of life when age-related decline in cognitive function is prevalent."
Because lead accumulates in bone and has a clearance half-life of about 20 to 30 years from cortical bone, it can be measured non-invasively with x-ray fluorescence techniques. In contrast, lead levels in blood generally indicate recent exposure. The authors looked at a diverse population of 991 community-dwelling adults from the ages of 50 to 70 who were randomly selected from 65 contiguous neighborhoods in Baltimore. They measured lead levels in the tibias of the participants with 109Cd-induced K-shell x-ray fluorescence, and assessed their cognitive function with standards tests for language, processing speed, eye-hand coordination, executive functioning, verbal memory and learning, visual memory, and visuoconstruction.
The investigators performed a cross-sectional analysis using multiple linear regression to evaluate associations of recent and cumulative lead exposure with cognitive function. They found that the mean blood lead level was 3.5 (standard deviation 2.2) µg/dL, and that the mean tibia lead level was 18.7 (11.2) µg/g. Higher levels of lead in the tibias of the participants, but not in their blood, were consistently and significantly associated with worse cognitive function in all seven domains tested, after adjustment for age, gender, the presence of the Alzheimer's-prone genotype APOE-E4, and the testing technician (six domains P<0.01, one domain P<0.05).
In multivariate models, the association between tibial lead levels and impaired cognitive function was attenuated by years of education, household income, and race/ethnicity. The authors speculated that the effect could be due to lead exposure in early life leading to lower educational achievement and less remunerative occupations, or to unmeasured factors such as cardiovascular health that could be related to race or ethnicity and might modify the effect of lead on cognition. They also considered that "it is possible that higher tibia lead levels are associated with lower secondary school quality or innate intellectual ability, and that the association of tibia lead with lower cognitive function is explained by its association with these other factors."
It's also possible, they noted, that the race/ethnicity might be more closely correlated with lifetime lead dose than tibial lead measures. The authors proffered several possible explanations for the neurotoxic effects of cumulative lead exposure. "Lead may alter energy metabolism in mitochondria and synaptosomes," they wrote, "and can interfere with several calcium-dependent processes, including the activity of protein kinase C. Recent evidence also suggests that lead accumulates in myelin, inhibits integral enzymes there, and may contribute to ultrastructural changes, or other changes in myelin. This last finding is particularly relevant given increasing interest in the myelin hypothesis of neurodegenerative diseases."
-->by Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati Enquirer
September 14, 2006
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060914/NEWS01/609140363/1077
The Cincinnati City Council unanimously approved a new law Wednesday aimed at eliminating childhood lead poisoning by 2010. The 8-0 council vote, with one member absent, sets in motion a plan to develop a full-time county housing court, lower the level of lead poisoning in children that prompts action by the city Health Department, and creates lead-safe renovation practices. The plan comes less than three months after "Lead's Dangerous Legacy," an Enquirer report that showed the city's Health Department wasn't forcing property owners to clean up lead hazards and that hundreds of children were being poisoned.
"Because of The Enquirer's coverage, a series of deficiencies in the Health Department was brought to our attention," Mayor Mark Mallory said. "It was important to move fast." The day the story ran Mallory asked Councilman Chris Monzel, chairman of the Education, Health and Recreation Committee, to come up with a plan to fix the problem. "I'm very happy with the final product," Mallory said. Cincinnati Health Commissioner Noble Maseru is out of town and could not be reached for comment.
The Enquirer report looked at thousands of properties where children were poisoned by lead. The report showed that hundreds of homes are contaminated by poisonous lead paint and the Health Department was not forcing property owners to fix the problems. The Health Department had filed just two criminal complaints by late June, despite 300 open cases in which property owners ignored cleanup orders.
Lead experts criticized the Health Department, the Board of Health and City Council for dragging their feet and ignoring repeated warnings that homes coated bot