Environmental Health Perspectives articles from December 2003

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from December 2003

Human interactions are crucial for sustainable development.(Guest Editorial)
December 1, 2003... In the next few years it will become more important to face the fact that most cultures around the world have not found ways to create sustainable communities and regions. Perhaps we cannot address enough of the necessary factors on the long...

Reviewer appreciation and others news.(Note from the Editors)
December 1, 2003... Part of the very foundation of science rests on the generous and unselfish participation of fellow scientists in the peer-review process. Few never find the time; many frequently find the time; but some nearly always find the time to...

"Birth malformations and other adverse perinatal outcomes": available data sources pose a dilemma.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2003... A recent paper (Schreinemachers 2003) highlights both the opportunities and pitfalls implicit in the use of national public use datasets. Schreinemachers (2003) used the national linked birth and infant death certificate files for calendar...

He who pays the piper calls the tune.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2003... We live in a bizarre world of previously only imagined "Newspeak" (Orwell 1949) in which the meaning of concepts can be redefined into their antonyms under the eyes of an editor--when a scientist who is employed by a large multinational nuclear...

Asthma and air toxics: another potential source of positive bias.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2003... In Ralph Delfino's (2002) excellent review article on asthma and air toxics, he stated that positive bias in traffic studies could have resulted from failure to control for socioeconomic status (SES). We would like to point out an additional...

Another fast-food fear.(Chemical Exposures)
December 1, 2003... Some toxic chemicals may appear where consumers least expect them: on fast-food packaging, says Lauren Sucher, communications director of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) of Washington, D.C. Fluorinated telomers, a type of very...

Home, green home.(Built Environment)
December 1, 2003... The Green Dream House doesn't seem out of place among the surrounding Victorian-style homes in McCook, Nebraska. "When you drive by, you don't think, 'That looks recycled,'" says Bruce Maine, a sustainable design manager with the Omaha-based...

Frozen fuel.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... Japan, a country almost totally dependent on foreign fuel, has embarked on a long-range program to determine the economic and environmental feasibility of extracting frozen methane hydrate that's located off its central Pacific coast. Methane...

South America tracks chemicals.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... To coordinate plans for new national chemical tracking systems, representatives from nine South American countries met at a UN-supported meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in June 2003. These systems will follow the path of chemicals from production...

China's new FDA.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... After a spate of food poisoning that resulted in 138 deaths and more than 7,000 cases of serious illness during 2002, the Chinese government has approved the creation of the new China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). The CFDA will replace...

Building a better brick.(Materials Science)
December 1, 2003... Just another brick in the wall? Not exactly. Partners in a Danish housing project have just finished using a new recycled brick in the construction of 26 houses. Although there are few firm figures to date, recycling bricks this way is expected...

Shareholders speak up.(Trade/Commerce)
December 1, 2003... Producers of agrochemicals and related products are under fire from shareholders who are asking about potentially damaging environmental practices. To reach upper management, many shareholders rely on a tool available only to those who have...

Household products database.(ehpnet)
December 1, 2003... Each day most of us spray, spread, squeeze, pour, and shake any number of chemical products onto our bodies and into our home environments as part of our daily routines. Household shelves display a bounty of chemical products ranging from...

Mar del Plata declaration.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... An October 2003 meeting between children's environmental health experts and pediatrics association leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, has resulted in a new promise to...

Eat your food--and wrapper, too.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... USDA food chemist Tara McHugh has invented new food wraps that biodegrade in the best way--they are edible. The wraps are made in different flavors of dehydrated fruit and vegetable purees, which are combined with vegetable-based lipids to make...

Retail therapy for the environment.(The Beat)
December 1, 2003... Backed by such names as Marks & Spencer, Monoprix, Versace, and Prada, UNEP executive director Klaus Topfer announced a new initiative in June 2003 focused on changing consumer attitudes toward consumption and influencing the $7 trillion global...

Driving cancer research forward deep in the heart of Texas.(NIEHS News)
December 1, 2003... About a decade ago, John DiGiovanni was working as associate director of the Science Park-Research Division (SPRD) in rural Smithville, Texas, one of the world's foremost environmental science centers and a basic research arm of The University...

WTC and low-birthweight babies.(Headliners / Pregnancy Effects)
December 1, 2003... Berkowitz GS, Wolff MS, Janevic TM, Holzman IR, Yehuda R, Landrigan PJ. 2003. The World Trade Center disaster and intrauterine growth restriction. JAMA. 290:595-596. Heavy smoking by pregnant women and exposure to extreme air pollution...

PILGrimage to New York.(NIEHS News)
December 1, 2003... For more than a decade, the NIEHS has strived to enhance community participation in the research-setting agenda. Under the leadership of Kenneth Olden, the institute has established a number of mechanisms by which representatives of community...

Unbuilding for the environment.(Focus)
December 1, 2003... Across the country, deconstruction activity appears to be on the rise as markets for construction and demolition (C&D) wastes emerge and specialty contractors enter the business. Deconstruction has often been described as "construction in...

The price of life in the fast lane.(Spheres of Influence)
December 1, 2003... Since the 1969 opening of the bus-only lane on the Shirley Highway outside Washington, D.C., high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have become a staple feature of American metropolitan transit systems. But as congestion has continued to mount...

Down with road dust.(Innovations)
December 1, 2003... There are more than 3.9 million miles of roadway in the United States, according to the Federal Highway Administration, and, depending on the area of the country you're in, as much as 70% of that road mileage is unpaved. The 1997 U.S....

Firefighter findings: biomonitoring rescue workers after WTC attacks.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2003... As soon as it was evident that the World Trade Center (WTC) was being attacked on 11 September 2001, New York City firefighters responded to save lives. In the weeks of rescue and recovery efforts that followed the disaster, the firefighters...

Insult to newborn immunity: organochlorines in mother's diet.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2003... In remote Atlantic coast villages of Canada, residents of small fishing communities who rely on marine food for subsistence often absorb unusually high doses of chemicals including organochlorines, a group of persistent industrial and...

Flavonoids in food: how potent is their protection?(Science Selections)
December 1, 2003... Telling a child "eat your chemoprotective phytochemicals" is just one way of saying "eat your vegetables--they're good for you!" Now science can back up this parental wisdom with molecular studies that demonstrate plants' disease-fighting...

Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is not a rare disease but a disease that is rarely diagnosed.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... Articles in the literature on alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency have been interpreted as indicating that AAT deficiency is a rare disease that affects mainly Caucasians (whites) from northern Europe. In a recent publication on the worldwide...

Strategies for setting a national research agenda that is responsive to community needs.(Commentary)
December 1, 2003... Setting a national environmental health research agenda requires broad public input, including that from leading scientists, health care professionals, and communities. Contributions from these diverse constituencies are essential to...

Health, wealth, and air pollution: advancing theory and methods.(Review)
December 1, 2003... The effects of both ambient air pollution and socioeconomic position (SEP) on health are well documented. A limited number of recent studies suggest that SEP may itself play a role in the epidemiology of disease and death associated with...

Developmental neurotoxicity elicited by gestational exposure to chlorpyrifos: when is adenylyl cyclase a target?(Research)
December 1, 2003... The developmental neurotoxicity of chlorpyrifos (CPF) involves mechanisms over and above cholinesterase inhibition. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of gestational CPF exposure on the adenylyl cyclase (AC) signaling cascade, which...

Flavonoids as aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonists/antagonists: effects of structure and cell context.(Research)
December 1, 2003... Chemoprotective phytochemicals exhibit multiple activities and interact with several cellular receptors, including the aryl hydrocarbon (Ah) receptor (AhR). In this study we investigated the AhR agonist/antagonist activities of the following...

Effect of bisphenol A on murine immune function: modulation of interferon-[gamma], IgG2a, and disease symptoms in NZB x NZW [F.sub.1] mice.(Research)
December 1, 2003... To investigate the effects of the estrogen receptor-binding molecule bisphenol A (BPA) on murine immune function in vivo, we fed a low dose of 2.5 [micro]g BPA/kg body weight/day to both normal C57BL/6 and lupus-prone NZB x NZW [F.sub.1]...

Profile of urinary arsenic metabolites during pregnancy.(Research)
December 1, 2003... Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic (In-As) from drinking water is associated with different health effects, including skin, lung, bladder, and kidney cancer as well as vascular and possibly reproductive effects. In-As is metabolized through...

Perfluorooctanesulfonate and other fluorochemicals in the serum of American Red Cross adult blood donors.(Research)
December 1, 2003... Perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride-based products have included surfactants, paper and packaging treatments, and surface protectants (e.g., for carpet, upholstery, textile). Depending on the specific functional derivatization or degree of...

The level of maternal methemoglobin during pregnancy in an air-polluted environment.(Research)
December 1, 2003... The objective of this prospective study was to determine if a correlation could be established between the ground-level concentrations of sulfur dioxide and methemoglobin concentrations in pregnant women when a coal-powered thermoelectric power...

Biomonitoring of chemical exposure among New York City firefighters responding to the World Trade Center fire and collapse.(Research)
December 1, 2003... The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) on 11 September 2001 exposed New York City firefighters to smoke and dust of unprecedented magnitude and duration. The chemicals and the concentrations produced from any fire are difficult to...

OECD validation of the Hershberger assay in Japan: phase 2 dose response of methyltestosterone, vinclozolin, and p,p'-DDE.(Research)
December 1, 2003... The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has initiated the development of new guidelines for the screening and testing of potential endocrine disruptors. The Hershberger assay is one of the assays selected for validation based...

The type B brevetoxin (PbTx-3) adversely affects development, cardiovascular function, and survival in medaka (Oryzias latipes) embryos.(Research)
December 1, 2003... Brevetoxins are produced by the red tide dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The toxins are lipophilic polyether toxins that elicit a myriad of effects depending on the route of exposure and the target organism. Brevetoxins are therefore broadly...

Hazardous effects of effluent from the chrome plating industry: 70 kDa heat shock protein expression as a marker of cellular damage in transgenic Drosophila melanogaster (hsp70-lacZ).(Research)
December 1, 2003... Hazardous effects of an effluent from the chrome plating industry were examined by exposing transgenic Drosophila melanogaster (hsp70-lacZ) to various concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 1.0, 10.0, and 100.0 [micro]L/mL) of the effluent through diet....

Silica exposure and systemic vasculitis.(Grand Rounds)
December 1, 2003... Work in Department of Energy (DOE) facilities has exposed workers to multiple toxic agents leading to acute and chronic diseases. Many exposures were common to numerous work sites. Exposure to crystalline silica was primarily restricted to a...

Use of biomarkers to indicate exposure of children to organophosphate pesticides: implications for a longitudinal study of children's environmental health.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2003... Because of their history of widespread use in the United States and unknown long-term health effects, organophosphate pesticides (OPs) are being considered as a chemical class of interest in planning for the National Children's Study, a...

A randomized trial of education to prevent lead burden in children at high risk for lead exposure: efficacy as measured by blood lead monitoring.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2003... In this article we report on the effectiveness of a community-based, culture-specific, controlled trial of intensive peer education aimed at preventing lead burden in children 0-36 months of age within a neighborhood with high risk for lead...

In vitro activation of cord blood mononuclear cells and cytokine production in a remote coastal population exposed to organochlorines and methyl mercury.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2003... Remote coastal populations that rely on seafood for subsistence often receive unusually high doses of organochlorines and methyl mercury. Immunosuppression resulting from prenatal exposure to organochlorines has been reported in wildlife...

Effect of endosulfan on male reproductive development.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2003... There is experimental evidence of adverse effects of endosulfan on the male reproductive system, but there are no human data. Therefore, we undertook a study to examine the relationship between environmental endosulfan exposure and reproductive...

Monica Mendez receives 2003 Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award.(NIEHS Extramural Update)
December 1, 2003... The Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) is pleased to announce that Monica Mendez is the recipient of the sixth annual Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award. The award was presented to Mendez on 11 November 2003 at the SBRP Annual Meeting at...

Superfund Basic Research Program.(Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
December 1, 2003... The Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) was created as a network of multi-and interdisciplinary teams of researchers to address the broad, complex health and environmental issues that arise from the multimedia nature of hazardous waste...

Exploratory centers for interdisciplinary research.(Fellowships, Grants & Awards)
December 1, 2003... In addition to the biological sciences, biomedical research encompasses a large number of scientific disciplines, including the behavioral, quantitative, engineering, and computer sciences. Distinct disciplinary perspectives represent...

NIH support for conferences and scientific meetings.(Fellowships, Grants & Awards)
December 1, 2003... This program announcement (PA) provides updated guidelines for NIH support of scientific meetings. It replaces the guidelines issued by the NIH Guide on 30 October 1998 and is effective with the 15 December receipt date for cycle III...

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Green Chemistry Awards.(Fellowships, Grants & Awards)
December 1, 2003... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting nominations for the 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. These prestigious presidential rank awards recognize innovative chemical technologies that incorporate "green"...

Interactions between stem cells and the microenvironment in vivo.(Fellowships, Grants & Awards)
December 1, 2003... The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and...

Calendar.(Announcements)(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... 2004 January 4-9 January, Sun-Fri. Chemistry. Education Research & Practice. Bethesda, Maryland. Information: Gordon Research Conferences, PO Box 984, West Kingston, RI 02892-0984 USA, 401-783-4011, fax: 401-783-7644, e-mail:...

Achieving Sustainable Freshwater Systems: a Web of Connections.
December 1, 2003... Edited by Marjorie M. Holland, Elizabeth R. Blood, and Lawrence R. Shaffer Washington, DC:Island Press, 2003. 312 pp. ISBN: 1-55963-928-8, $65 cloth. ISBN: 1-55963-929-6, $30 paper. This book collects chapters written by participants...

New books.(Announcements)
December 1, 2003... Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Agriculture M. Vaarst, S. Roderick, V. Lund, W. Lockeretz, eds. New York:CABI Publishing, 2003. 448 pp. ISBN: 0-85199-668-X, $120 Asthma: Social and Psychosocial Factors and Psychosomatic...