Environmental Health Perspectives articles from August 2003

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from August 2003

Emerging diseases threaten conservation.(Guest Editorial)
August 1, 2003... In April 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) appeared suddenly, sending shockwaves throughout public health systems and economies worldwide. By July 2003, 8,439 cases had been reported worldwide, with 812 deaths; the economic impacts...

Re: analysis of dioxin cancer threshold.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... Mackie et al. (2003) present an exploratory Monte Carlo meta-regression of selected cohort mortality and exposure data for three dioxin-exposed cohorts [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Ranch Hand, and Seveso] as a...

Exposure to lead and an old way of counting.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... We read with great interest the commentary by Jacobs et al. (2003) on the high cost of improper removal of lead-based paint and would like to address two issues, both related to the monitoring of lead-based paint. The first is the importance of...

Carbon monoxide exposure and carboxyhemoglobin.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... Given recent survey data showing that physicians ask their patients about carbon monoxide less frequently than any other common environmental health hazard (Kilpatrick et al. 2002), I welcome your effort to increase awareness of CO by...

Carbon monoxide exposure and carboxyhemoglobin: response.(Correspondence)
August 1, 2003... In his letter, Donnay objects to the inclusion in our paper (Devine et al. 2002) of a table (Table 2) describing signs and symptoms associated with several levels of carbon monoxide exposure and carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) blood saturation. This...

Mountain tourism: news from Nepal.(Conservation)
August 1, 2003... To honor the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) and the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sagarmatha National Park (SNP), a conference titled People, Park, and Mountain Tourism was held 24-26 May 2003 at Namche...

Health hazards and health care costs.(Economics)
August 1, 2003... The health hazards of environmental pollution have been studied so extensively we almost take them for granted. No one questions the claim that heavy metal and fossil fuel pollutants exact some toll on human health. Air pollution alone is...

U.K. bans tobacco ads.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... The United Kingdom is seeing a progressive ban on tobacco advertising. On 14 February 2003, a ban on most conventional tobacco advertising came into effect. Further bans on tobacco promotions such as coupons and domestic sports sponsorships...

Staph grows stronger.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus cost the United States an estimated $24-36 billion each year. Infections from methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are linked to higher mortality rates than those caused by...

Dogged by allergens.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... In a study comparing how asthma sufferers are affected by several common allergens, including those from dogs, cats, cockroaches, and grass, researchers with the Asthma Clinical Research Network found that exposure to dog allergens caused the...

World water forum diluted.(Policy)
August 1, 2003... Water has been called "the next oil," the commodity over which most future wars will be fought. According to the 2003 United Nations World Water Development Report: Water for People, Water for Life, the demand for sanitary and potable water is...

Drug data for a custom fit.(Pharmaceuticals)
August 1, 2003... When it comes to drugs, one size definitely does not fit all. Now a new resource may help researchers individualize medicine. The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB) is one way that researchers are working toward...

Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics.(ehp net)
August 1, 2003... Occupational and environmental medicine practitioners must know general medicine, but they also have to be aware of the clinical aspects of toxicology, risk assessment and identification of exposures, epidemiology, molecular biology,...

Green bags: the proof is in the pudding.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... Each year, U.K. shoppers use more than 10 billion plastic bags. The bags take up valuable landfill space and can clog waterways and storms drains when discarded improperly. In response to threats of a tax on plastic shopping bags similar to one...

G8 leaders support the environment.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... At a 3 June 2003 meeting in Evian, France, leaders of the world's "Group of Eight" major industrial nations--Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States--released a joint statement on environmental...

Indoor air innovation.(The Beat)
August 1, 2003... When allowed to grow unchecked indoors, microorganisms such as mold, mildew, and fungi can cause allergic reactions, respiratory problems, and digestive upset, especially in asthma and allergy sufferers. To fight these indoor air villains,...

Pesticides initiative: basic training for health care providers.(NIEHS News)
August 1, 2003... Getting the U.S. health care world to adopt the tenets of the recently launched Pesticides Initiative may be a rough sell, according to participants at a June 2003 national forum to further the effort, held in Washington, D.C. Doctors and...

Inhibiting IKK-[beta] and NF-[kappa]B prevents systemic inflammation but increases local injury.(Immune Response)
August 1, 2003... Chen LW, Egan L, Li ZW, Greten FR, Kagnoff MF, Karin M. 2003. The two faces of IKK and NF-[kappa]B inhibition: prevention of systemic inflammation but increased local injury following intestinal ischemia-reperfusion. Nat Med 9:575-581. The...

Environmental knights of the roundtable.(NIEHS News)
August 1, 2003... A key challenge in environmental health is the joining of disparate influences and perspectives to create a unified understanding of issues pertinent to the field. Committed to this quest are the members of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable...

Conservation medicine: combining the best of all worlds.(Focus)
August 1, 2003... A third-grader can figure out the easy labels: someone who practices biology is a biologist; ecology, an ecologist. But what do you call a practitioner in the fledgling field of conservation medicine? "I don't know," says Peter Daszak,...

Subjective science: environmental cost-benefit analysis.(Spheres of Influence)
August 1, 2003... Last February, in a legislative proposal to reduce power plant emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested that the economic value of saving the elderly from early death caused by air pollution was less than that of...

Solvent shakedown: the mechanochemistry alternative.(Innovations)
August 1, 2003... Solvents are the proverbial double-edged sword; they allow many chemical reactions not possible in the solid state, but many are also toxic, which means their manufacture, storage, use, and disposal are a matter of great environmental concern....

Toxic oil timeline: diagnosing effects decades later.(Science Selections)
August 1, 2003... Two decades after contaminated cooking oil caused widespread sickness in Spain, patients with so-called toxic oil syndrome (TOS) continue to report neurologic symptoms. Accurately assessing these symptoms--which include headache, insomnia, and...

Setting the stage for illness: mercury exposure and autoimmune disease.(Science Selections)
August 1, 2003... The current scientific literature abounds with studies of the strongly suspected link between exposure to inorganic mercury (iHg) and autoimmune disease, a family of often debilitating and sometimes fatal conditions. Although no human...

ALS and lead: the polymorphism possibility.(Science Selections)
August 1, 2003... Although the etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an often fatal neurodegenerative disease, is still largely unexplained, research suggests that lead exposure may be a risk factor. Freya Kamel of the NIEHS earlier led a group that...

Low-dose exposure to inorganic mercury accelerates disease and mortality in acquired murine lupus.(Research)
August 1, 2003... Inorganic mercury (iHg) is known to induce autoimmune disease in susceptible rodent strains. Additionally, in inbred strains of mice prone to autoimmune disease, iHg can accelerate and exacerbate disease manifestations. Despite these well-known...

Effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on estrogen receptor-[beta] expression in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus.(Article)
August 1, 2003... Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can disrupt the reproductive axis, particularly when the exposure occurs during the vulnerable developmental periods. Some effects of environmental endocrine disruptors such as PCBs may be exerted through...

Exploring bias in a generalized additive model for spatial air pollution data.(Article)
August 1, 2003... During the past few years, the generalized additive model (GAM) has become a standard tool for epidemiologic analysis exploring the effect of air pollution on population health. Recently, the use of the GAM has been extended from time-series...

Proinflammatory and cytotoxic effects of Mexico City air pollution particulate matter in vitro are dependent on particle size and composition.(Article)
August 1, 2003... Exposure to urban airborne particulate matter (PM) is associated with adverse health effects. We previously reported that the cytotoxic and proinflammatory effects of Mexico City P[M.sub.10] ([less than or equal to] 10 [micro]m mean aerodynamic...

Diminished experience-dependent neuroanatomical plasticity: evidence for an improved biomarker of subtle neurotoxic damage to the developing rat brain.(Article)
August 1, 2003... Millions of children are exposed to low levels of environmental neurotoxicants as their brains are developing. Conventional laboratory methods of neurotoxicology can detect maldevelopment of brain structure but are not designed to detect...

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated activity of particulate organic matter from the Paso del Norte airshed along the U.S.-Mexico border.(Article)
August 1, 2003... In this study, we determined the biologic activity of dichloromethane-extracted particulate matter < 10 [micro]m in aerodynamic diameter (P[M.sub.10]) obtained from filters at three sites in the Paso del Norte airshed, which includes El Paso,...

Assessment of dietary exposure to some persistent organic pollutants in the Republic of Karakalpakstan of Uzbekistan.(Article)
August 1, 2003... A 1999 study heightened long-standing concerns over persistent organic pollutant contamination in the Aral Sea area, detecting elevated levels in breast milk and cord blood of women in Karakalpakstan (western Uzbekistan). These findings...

Temperature, air pollution, and hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases among elderly people in Denver.(Article)
August 1, 2003... Daily measures of maximum temperature, particulate matter [less than or equal to] 10 pm in aerodynamic diameter (P[M.sub.10]), and gaseous pollution (ozone; nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide) were collected in Denver,...

Assessment of potential risk levels associated with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference values.(Article)
August 1, 2003... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) generally uses reference doses (RfDs) or reference concentrations (RfCs) to assess risks from exposure to toxic substances for noncancer health end points. RfDs and RfCs are supposed to...

Neurologic outcomes of toxic oil syndrome patients 18 years after the epidemic.(Environmental Medicine)
August 1, 2003... Toxic oil syndrome (TOS) resulted from consumption of rapeseed oil denatured with 2% aniline and affected more than 20,000 persons. Eighteen years after the epidemic, many patients continue to report neurologic symptoms that are difficult to...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, lead, and genetic susceptibility: polymorphisms in the [delta]-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase and vitamin D receptor genes.(Environmental Medicine)
August 1, 2003... Previous studies have suggested that lead exposure may be associated with increased risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Polymorphisms in the genes for [delta]-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) may...

Environmental threats to children's health in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.(Children's Health Review)
August 1, 2003... The Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions contain half of the world's children and are among the most rapidly industrializing regions of the globe. Environmental threats to children's health are widespread and are multiplying as nations in...

Distribution and determinants of mouse allergen exposure in low-income New York City apartments.(Children's Health Article)
August 1, 2003... Previous studies of mouse allergens and laboratory-animal-worker-related allergy and asthma suggest that quantifying mouse allergen levels in homes could augment our understanding of inner-city asthma. We hypothesized that levels of mouse...

Low birth weight and residential proximity to PCB-contaminated waste sites.(Children's Health Article)
August 1, 2003... Previous investigations have shown that women exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are at increased risk of giving birth to an infant with low birth weight (< 2,500 g), and that this relationship is stronger for male than for female...

Summary of a Workshop on Regulatory Acceptance of (Q)SARs for Human Health and Environmental Endpoints.(Mini-Monograph)
August 1, 2003... The "Workshop on Regulatory Use of (Q)SARs for Human Health and Environmental Endpoints," organized by the European Chemical Industry Council and the International Council of Chemical Associations, gathered more than 60 human health and...

Methods for reliability and uncertainty assessment and for applicability evaluations of classification- and regression-based QSARs.(Mini-Monograph)
August 1, 2003... This article provides an overview of methods for reliability assessment of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models in the context of regulatory acceptance of human health and environmental QSARs. Useful diagnostic tools and...

Use of QSARs in international decision-making frameworks to predict ecologic effects and environmental fate of chemical substances.(Mini-Monograph)
August 1, 2003... This article is a review of the use, by regulatory agencies and authorities, of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) to predict ecologic effects and environmental fate of chemicals. For many years, the U.S. Environmental...

Use of QSARs in international decision-making frameworks to predict health effects of chemical substances.(Regulatory Acceptance of (Q)SARs)
August 1, 2003... This article is a review of the use of quantitative (and qualitative) structure-activity relationships (QSARs and SARs) by regulatory agencies and authorities to predict acute toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, and other health effects. A...

NIEHS SBIR and STTR programs.(NIEHS Extramural Update)
August 1, 2003... The NIH/Department of Health and Human Services Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a set-aside program for small business concerns to engage in federal research and development with the potential for commercialization. This...

Fellowships, grants, & awards.(Announcements)
August 1, 2003... The Fetal Basis of Adult Disease: Role of the Environment It is recognized that 2-5% of all live-born infants have a major developmental defect. Approximately 40% of these defects are thought to be due to the effect(s) of an adverse...

Calendar.(Announcements)
August 1, 2003... September 5-12 September, Fri-Fri. National Safety Council Congress & Expo. Chicago, Illinois. Information: National Safety Council, 1121 Spring Lake Drive, Itasca, IL 60143 USA, 800-621-7619, fax: 847-940-2386, e-mail:...

Endocrine Disruptors in Wastewater and Sludge Treatment Processes.
August 1, 2003... Edited by Jason W. Birkett and John N. Lester Boca Raton, FL:Lewis Publishers, 2003. 295 pp. ISBN: 1-56670-601-7, $99.95 doth. Concern over exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and their potential impacts on wildlife and humans...

New books.(Announcements)
August 1, 2003... Achieving Sustainable Freshwater Systems Marjorie M. Holland, Elizabeth R. Blood, Lawrence R. Shaffer Washington, DC:Island Press, 2003. 312 pp. ISBN: 1-55963-928-8, $65 doth; 1-55963-929-6, $30 paper The Automotive Industry and the...

The reality of pharmacogenomics: optimizing therapeutic decision making.(Guest Editorial)
August 15, 2003... It is now well established that significant interindividual variability exists in the disposition and pharmacologic effects of certain medications. Influences such as environmental exposures, nutritional status, co-morbidities, severity of...

Fingerprinting cancer development.(Proteomics)
August 15, 2003... In the world of cancer, early detection is critical for successful treatment, but early diagnostic tools are in woefully short supply. Among ovarian cancer patients, for example, 80% of cancers are diagnosed at a late stage, and, as a result,...

The EGP at five years.(Environmental Disease)
August 15, 2003... More than 100 scientists, public health professionals, and physicians gathered in Boston 7-9 June 2003 for a symposium, Genes, Environment, and Disease, that provided research updates on the NIEHS Environmental Genome Project (EGP) and its...

Genes and environment: a SNPshot.(Meeting Report)
August 15, 2003... Have you ever heard someone try to dispel concern about their smoking by describing elderly relatives who were lifelong smokers? This gambit usually fails, but there actually is something to the excuse. Increasingly, researchers are uncovering...

The Pharmacogenetics Research Network and the Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base.(txgnet)
August 15, 2003... In the United States, much of the pharmacogenetics research sponsored by the federal government is overseen by the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN). Formed three years ago, the PGRN is based at the National Institute of General Medical...

A big circuit model.(Metabonomics)
August 15, 2003... You can call it metabolic profiling, metabonomics, or metabolomics; one speaker at a recent conference called it "biochemistry grown up." Scientists aren't settled on exactly what to call it, but this addition to the growing list of "-omics"...

Toxicoproteomics: a parallel approach to identifying biomakers.(NCT Update)
August 15, 2003... Toxicoproteomics is the use of global protein expression technologies to better understand environmental and genetic factors, both in episodes of acute exposure to toxicants and in the long-term development of disease. Integrating transcript,...

Pharmacogenomics: the promise of personalized medicine.(Focus: pharmacogenomics)
August 15, 2003... Imagine being able to walk into your doctors office and present a "smart card" encoded either with the sequence of your genome itself or with an access code granting permission to log on to a secure database containing your genomic information....

Benzene's adverse effects: microarrays reveal breadth of toxicity.(Science Selections)
August 15, 2003... Benzene is both widely used and widely studied. Yet, although the chemical is strongly associated with leukemia in humans, questions remain regarding its mechanism of action. Hoping to better understand the genetic mechanisms behind benzene's...

Effect of SNPs on Ops: age and race variations explored.(Science Selections)
August 15, 2003... Newborns produce substantially less of the enzyme paraoxonase-1 (PON1)--which detoxifies organophosphate pesticides--than do adults, potentially leaving them more vulnerable to organophosphate exposures. Genetic differences in PON1 activity are...

Increased influence of genetic variation on PON1 activity in neonates.(Toxicogenomics)
August 15, 2003... PON1 (paraoxonase-1) detoxifies organophosphates by cleavage of active oxons before they have a chance to inhibit cholinesterases. The corresponding gene PON1 has common polymorphisms in both the promoter (-909, -162, -108) and the coding...

Mechanisms of benzene-induced hematotoxicity and leukemogenicity: cDNA microarray analyses using mouse bone marrow tissue.(Toxicogenomics)
August 15, 2003... Although the mechanisms underlying benzene-induced toxicity and leukemogenicity are not yet fully understood, they are likely to be complicated by various pathways, including those of metabolism, growth factor regulation, oxidative stress, DNA...

Genetic variation in genes associated with arsenic metabolism: glutathione S-transferase omega 1-1 and purine nucleoside phosphorylase polymorphisms in European and indigenous Americans *.(Toxicogenomics)
August 15, 2003... Individual variability in human arsenic metabolism has been reported frequently in the literature. This variability could be an underlying determinant of individual susceptibility to arsenic-induced disease in humans. Recent analysis revealing...

Gene expression of inflammatory molecules in circulating lymphocytes from arsenic-exposed human subjects.(Toxicogenomics)
August 15, 2003... Long-term arsenic exposure is associated with an increased risk of vascular diseases including ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and carotid atherosclerosis. The pathogenic mechanisms of arsenic atherogenicity are not completely...

The fetal basis of adult disease: role of the environment.(Fellowship, Grants, & Awards)
August 15, 2003... It is recognized that between two-percent and five-percent of all live-born infants have a major developmental defect. Approximately 40-percent of these defects are thought to be due to the effect(s) of an adverse exposure of a genetically...

Genetics, behavior, and aging.(Fellowship, Grants, & Awards)
August 15, 2003... This program announcement (PA) solicits novel research integrating genetics, behavior and aging. Human and non-human studies are needed to advance our understanding of the genetic and environmental influences and processes affecting variability...

Gene-environment interactions influencing alcohol-related phenotypes and diseases.(Fellowship, Grants, & Awards)
August 15, 2003... The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is seeking research grant applications on the role of gene-environment interactions underlying susceptibility to alcohol-related phenotypes including alcohol dependence, relapse,...

Calendar.
August 15, 2003... 2003 September 12-16 September, Fri-Tue. Global Aspects of Technology Transfer: Biotechnology. Big Sky, Montana. Information: Gordon Research Conferences, PO Box 984, West Kingston, RI 02892-0984 USA, 401-783-4011, fax: 401-783-7644,...

Paraoxonase (PON1) in Health and Disease: Basic and Clinical Aspects.
August 15, 2003... Edited by Lucio G. Costa and Clement E. Furlong Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic, 2002. 216 pp. ISBN: 1-4020-7282-1, $95 cloth. Paraoxonase (PON1) in Health and Disease: Basic and Clinical Aspects is a complete and timely review of the...

New Books.
August 15, 2003... Analyzing Microarray Gene Expression Data Geoffrey J. McLachlan, Kim-Anh Do Hoboken, NJ:John Wiley & Sons, 2003. 320 pp. ISBN: 0-471-22616-5, $89.95 Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics Eric Lander, ed. Palo Alto, CA:Annual...