Environmental Health Perspectives articles from December 2006

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from December 2006

Environmental justice and the NIEHS.(DIRECTOR'S PERSPECTIVE)
December 1, 2006... The NIEHS relationship with the environmental justice community is much like that of a family--we have a long history, we are integrally connected, and unfortunately, we don't always communicate well. I recently met with our environmental...

Hormesis is biology, not religion.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2006... Should hormesis, as Thayer et al. (2006) implied in the title of their letter in the November 2006 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, be dismissed by scientists, regulators, and others as simply a new faith-based religion? No. Hormesis...

Statistical issues in farmworker studies.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2006... Barr et al. (2006) surveyed statistical issues related to farmworker exposure studies. However, they made several factual and conceptual errors that need to be called to the readers' attention. First, Barr et al. (2006) claimed incorrectly...

Statistical issues: Barr et al. respond.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2006... Mage et al. criticize our article (Barr et al. 2006), stressing six "... factual and conceptual errors that need to be called to the readers' attention." We appreciate their careful reading of our work, and they raise several important points...

Cox models for ecologic time-series data?(Correspondence)
December 1, 2006... In a recent article, Lepeule et al. (2006) proposed using Cox regression with time-dependent covariates to estimate the acute health effects of air pollution. Their results were similar to those they obtained in a previous case-crossover...

Cox models: Lepeule et al. respond.(Correspondence)
December 1, 2006... We read with interest the letter by Lumley et al. regarding our article (Lepeule et al. 2006), and we appreciate their comments and interesting suggestions. Our results (Lepeule et al. 2006) showed that the Cox model (Cox 1972) approach...

Erratum.(Correction notice)
December 1, 2006... The November 2006 Focus article "Fertile Grounds for Inquiry: Environmental Effects on Human Reproduction" [Environ Health Perspect 114:A644-A649 (2006)] contains two incorrect citations. Swan et al.'s review of declining human sperm counts...

Pollutants may put on the pounds.(OBESITY)
December 1, 2006... The worldwide obesity epidemic is usually blamed on overeating and underexercising. But limited evidence has suggested a few environmental contaminants may also be playing a role. Now some of the first detailed evidence implicating organotins,...

Blood test to detect lung cancer.(ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE)
December 1, 2006... Lung cancer kills more Americans each year than all leukemias and cancers of the breast, prostate, and ovary combined. But a new diagnostic that may allow early detection of the dominant form of the disease could change that grim picture. A...

Painting an epidemic.(LEAD)
December 1, 2006... The control of lead-based paint in residences has posed an ongoing public health challenge for decades. Now researchers have shown that several Asian countries are still selling paint with lead levels exceeding U.S. standards. The team warns in...

Pop toxicology?(FOOD SAFETY)
December 1, 2006... Excessive consumption of carbonated soft drinks has been putatively linked to health effects including dental caries, obesity, and osteoporosis. An August 2006 study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a private research group in...

Debugging without methyl bromide.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... Food and farming uses are among the few applications still allowed for the pesticide methyl bromide, which has been largely phased out under the Montreal Protocol. Now engineers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a new...

EPA PM standard standoff.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... Internal documents from the EPA show that the agency could be protecting more lives each year if it had adopted stringent particulate air pollution standards advocated by an agency advisory panel. The documents reveal that 5,000-10,000...

The biomonitor.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... On 29 September 2006 California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger enacted a statewide program, one that is both voluntary and confidential, to measure levels of chemical contaminants in people. The program, the first of its kind in the United...

Musician spreads word about water.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... UN statistics show that nearly 2 million children die each year because of unclean water supplies and poor sanitation. Now popular musician Jay-Z is set to star in a documentary titled Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life, part of a larger...

Inventorying emissions in Mexico.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... September 2006 witnessed the publication of Mexico's first national inventory of atmospheric air emissions, which was produced with support from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and U.S. partners. The inventory provides detailed...

New hope for Nepal's environment.(The Beat)
December 1, 2006... Over the past decade, ongoing civil war between Maoist and government forces in Nepal has disrupted many conservation activities in the country. A ceasefire was declared in May 2006, however, and a month later the parties agreed to establish a...

Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute.(ehpnet)
December 1, 2006... The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), based at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is the research and education arm of a three-part program established by the state's 1989 Toxics Use Reduction Act (the program also...

Change of venue: taking environmental mutagen research to the developing world.(NIEHS News)
December 1, 2006... The health of a nation could be said to depend upon the public health expertise of its scientists. In the United States and other developed areas of the world, it can be fairly simple to gain access to a variety of useful public health...

Inflammatory enzyme modulates motor neuron damage in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.(Neurodegenerative Disease)
December 1, 2006... Approximately 30,000 patients in the United States currently have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons that...

Signs of the times: biomarkers in perspective.(Focus)
December 1, 2006... During the last decade, the health sciences have experienced a major shift in orientation. With the rise of genomics and advances in molecular biology, scientists have increasingly moved away from population-based approaches to health toward...

Obstructing authority: does the EPA have the power to ensure commercial chemicals are safe?(Spheres of Influence)
December 1, 2006... Before 1976, the U.S. government had virtually no records of what chemicals were imported, manufactured, used, or released into the environment and no way of regulating these chemicals before they appeared on the market. That changed when...

Fluid movement.(Innovations)
December 1, 2006... Each Christmas, toy stores sell music boxes featuring miniature skaters that magically circle and spin around a mirrored surface. These figures are controlled by magnets hidden beneath the "ice." That same principle is being used by scientists...

Thyroid alert: low iodine and perchlorate effects in women.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2006... Perchlorate, an oxidizer in solid rocket fuel, is widely found in groundwater, drinking water, milk, vegetables, fruit, grain, and forage crops. Large doses of perchlorate have been shown to inhibit iodide uptake and reduce thyroid hormone...

Picking up on preservatives: new biomarkers for gauging paraben exposure.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2006... As scientists seek to characterize human exposures to chemicals, they need more valid, accurate biomarkers--telltale molecular signatures that indicate a particular exposure has occurred. A team from the CDC has now provided the field with a...

Adding up to ADHD: effects of early exposures.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2006... Many studies have documented health risks of childhood exposures to lead and tobacco smoke. Both exposures have been implicated in the development of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. A team of researchers now...

Unwelcome guest: airborne staph in homes.(Science Selections)
December 1, 2006... Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most prevalent causes of infections of the blood, skin, soft tissue, and lower respiratory tract, spreads through close contact with contaminated people and surfaces. Although a few studies hint that airborne...

Research opportunities for college undergraduates and high school students.(NIEHS Extramural Update)
December 1, 2006... As part of the Strategic Plan, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has announced two new initiatives to enhance opportunities for young, motivated high school and undergraduate students to participate actively in research...

Environmental health sciences core center grants (P30).(Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
December 1, 2006... The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) invites applications from qualified institutions for support of the Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers. These centers are designed to build infrastructure in the field of...

Independent scientist award (K02).(Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
December 1, 2006... The Independent Scientist Award (K02) is intended to foster the development of outstanding scientists and enable them to expand their potential to make significant contributions to their field of research. It provides 3, 4, or 5 years of salary...

Autism, brain, and environment.
December 1, 2006... By Richard Lathe London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006. 288 pp. ISBN: 1-84310-438-5, $24.95 Autism rates have risen to "epidemic" proportions, as we hear from media reports. Yet understanding why has so far been elusive, and a...

New books.(Announcements)
December 1, 2006... A Primer on Environonmental Decision-Making: An Integrative Quantitative Approach Knut Lehre Seip, Fred Wenstop New York:Springer, 2006. 496 pp. ISBN: 1-4020-4073-3, $149 Advanced Analysis of Gene Expression Microarray Data ...

Unidentified inert ingredients in pesticides: implications for human and environmental health.(Commentary)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: By statute or regulation in the United States and elsewhere, pesticide ingredients are divided into two categories: active and inert (sometimes referred to as other ingredients, adjuvants, or coformulants). Despite their name, inert...

Global environmental change: what can health care providers and the environmental health community do about it now?(Commentary)
December 1, 2006... The debate about whether global environmental change is real is now over; in its wake is the realization that it is happening more rapidly than predicted. These changes constitute a profound challenge to human health, both as a direct threat...

Prioritizing environmental issues around the world: opinions from an international central and Eastern European environmental health conference.(Commentary)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: As the next generation of scientists enters the field of environmental health, it is imperative that they view their contributions in the context of global environmental stewardship. In this commentary, a group of international...

Nanoparticles: health effects--pros and cons.(Review)
December 1, 2006... With the advent of nanotechnology, the prospects for using engineered nanomaterials with diameters of < 100 nm in industrial applications, medical imaging, disease diagnoses, drug delivery, cancer treatment, gene therapy, and other areas have...

In vivo assessment of arsenic bioavailability in rice and its significance for human health risk assessment.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Millions of people worldwide consume arsenic-contaminated rice; however, little is known about the uptake and bioavailability of arsenic species after arsenic-contaminated rice ingestion. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we assessed...

Elevation of cellular BPDE uptake by human cells: a possible factor contributing to co-carcinogenicity by arsenite.
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Arsenite ([iAs.sup.III]) can promote mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of other carcinogens. Considerable attention has focused on interference with DNA repair by inorganic arsenic, especially the nucleotide excision repair (NER)...

Fonofos exposure and cancer incidence in the agricultural health study.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: The Agricultural Health Study (AHS) is a prospective cohort study of licensed pesticide applicators from Iowa and North Carolina enrolled 1993-1997 and followed for incident cancer through 2002. A previous investigation in this...

Parabens as urinary biomarkers of exposure in humans.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Parabens appear frequently as antimicrobial preservatives in cosmetic products, in pharmaceuticals, and in food and beverage processing. In vivo and in vitro studies have revealed weak estrogenic activity of some parabens....

Arsenic exposure and age- and sex-specific risk for skin lesions: a population-based case-referent study in Bangladesh.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: The objective of this population-based case-referent study in Matlab, Bangladesh, was to assess the susceptibility to arsenic-induced skin lesions by age and sex, in a population drinking water from As-contaminated tube wells. ...

The world trade center disaster and the health of workers: five-year assessment of a unique medical screening program.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Approximately 40,000 rescue and recovery workers were exposed to caustic dust and toxic pollutants following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC). These workers included traditional first responders, such as...

Isolation of Staphylococcus aureus and antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from residential indoor bioaerosols.
December 1, 2006... OBJECTIVE: In this study we evaluated the levels of Staphylococcus aureus and antibiotic-resistant S. aureus in colony-forming units (CFU) per cubic meter of air. DESIGN: We used Andersen two-stage samplers to collect bioaerosol samples...

Urinary perchlorate and thyroid hormone levels in adolescent and adult men and women living in the United States.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Perchlorate is commonly found in the environment and known to inhibit thyroid function at high doses. Assessing the potential effect of low-level exposure to perchlorate on thyroid function is an area of ongoing research. ...

Whole-body lifetime occupational lead exposure and risk of Parkinson's disease.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Several epidemiologic studies have suggested an association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and exposure to heavy metals using subjective exposure measurements. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between objective...

Using supervised principal components analysis to assess multiple pollutant effects.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Many investigations of the adverse health effects of multiple air pollutants analyze the time series involved by simultaneously entering the multiple pollutants into a Poisson log-linear model. This method can yield unstable...

Mold and endotoxin levels in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: a pilot project of homes in New Orleans undergoing renovation.(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: After Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleans homes remained flooded for weeks, promoting heavy microbial growth. OBJECTIVES: A small demonstration project was conducted November 2005-January 2006 aiming to recommend safe...

The tobacco industry's role in the 16 Cities Study of secondhand tobacco smoke: do the data support the stated conclusions?(Research)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Since 1996, the tobacco industry has used the 16 Cities Study conclusions that workplace secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposures are lower than home exposures to argue that workplace and other smoking restrictions are unnecessary....

Workgroup report: public health strategies for reducing aflatoxin exposure in developing countries.(Research)
December 1, 2006... Consecutive outbreaks of acute aflatoxicosis in Kenya in 2004 and 2005 caused > 150 deaths. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization convened a workgroup of international experts and health...

Exposures to environmental toxicants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in U.S. children.(Children's Health)(Disease/Disorder overview)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the association of exposures to tobacco smoke and environmental lead with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Health and...

Dog ownership enhances symptomatic responses to air pollution in children with asthma.(Children's Health)(Clinical report)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Experimental data suggest that asthma exacerbation by ambient air pollutants is enhanced by exposure to endotoxin and allergens; however, there is little supporting epidemiologic evidence. METHODS: We evaluated whether the...

Early environmental exposures and intracellular Th1/Th2 cytokine profiles in 24-month-old children living in an agricultural area.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Children who reside in agricultural settings are potentially exposed to higher levels of organophosphate (OP) pesticides, endotoxin, and allergens than their urban counterparts. Endotoxin and allergens stimulate maturation of the...

Response inhibition during Differential Reinforcement of Low rates (DRL) schedules may be sensitive to low-level polychlorinated biphenyl, methylmercury, and lead exposure in children.(Children's Health)
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Animal studies have shown that exposure to common, low-level environmental contaminants [e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead] causes excessive and inappropriate responding on intermittent reinforcement schedules. The...

An approach for assessing human health vulnerability and public health interventions to adapt to climate change.(Mini-Monograph)
December 1, 2006... Assessments of the potential human health impacts of climate change are needed to inform the development of adaptation strategies, policies, and measures to lessen projected adverse impacts. We developed methods for country-level assessments to...

Comparative risk assessment of the burden of disease from climate change.(Mini-Monograph)
December 1, 2006... The World Health Organization has developed standardized comparative risk assessment methods for estimating aggregate disease burdens attributable to different risk factors. These have been applied to existing and new models for a range of...

Assessment of human health vulnerability to climate variability and change in Cuba.(Mini-Monograph)
December 1, 2006... In this study we assessed the potential effects of climate variability and change on population health in Cuba. We describe the climate of Cuba as well as the patterns of climate-sensitive diseases of primary concern, particularly dengue fever....

National assessment of human health effects of climate change in Portugal: approach and key findings.(Min-Monograph)
December 1, 2006... In this study we investigated the potential impact of climate change in Portugal on heat-related mortality, air pollution--related health effects, and selected vectorborne diseases. The assessment used climate scenarios from two regional...

Climate variability and change and their potential health effects in small island states: information for adaptation planning in the health sector.
December 1, 2006... Small island states are likely the countries most vulnerable to climate variability and long-term climate change. Climate models suggest that small island states will experience warmer temperatures and changes in rainfall, soil moisture...

Climate change, health, and vulnerability in Canadian northern Aboriginal communities.
December 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Canada has recognized that Aboriginal and northern communities in the country face unique challenges and that there is a need to expand the assessment of vulnerabilities to climate change to include these communities. Evidence...