Environmental Health Perspectives articles from December 2007

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from December 2007

Electrochemical sensors for the detection of lead and other toxic heavy metals: the next generation of personal exposure biomonitors.(Review)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Biological monitoring (biomonitoring) can integrate total exposure to a chemical from all potential sources (i.e., air, soil, water, and food residues) and exposure routes (i.e., inhalation, oral, and dermal), thereby offering one of the best...

A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions used to reduce exposure to house dust and their effect on the development and severity of Asthma.(Review)(Report)
December 1, 2007... During the 1960s, hospital admission rates in England and Wales for childhood asthma steadily increased. This trend continued into the 1980s and began a steady decline in the 1990s, with no apparent explanation for this trend (van Schayck and...

Cumulative community-level lead exposure and pulse pressure: the Normative Aging Study.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... In industrialized societies, pulse pressure (systolic minus diastolic blood pressure) increases with age, a trend that accelerates in the sixth decade when the diastolic blood pressure begins to decrease (Franklin et al. 1997). The increase in...

Does the effect of [PM.sub.10] on mortality depend on PM nickel and vanadium content? A reanalysis of the NMMAPS data.(National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study)(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Associations between particulate matter (PM) total mass for [PM.sub.10] (PM with an aerodynamic diameter < 10 [mu]m) and [PM.sub.2.5] (PM with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 [mu]m) have been demonstrated for mortality and numerous morbidity...

Health impacts of estrogens in the environment, considering complex mixture effects.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... There is heightened concern worldwide about the impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals present in the aquatic environment that can alter physiological function in wildlife and humans (reviewed by Tyler et al. 1998). Effluents from wastewater...

Drinking water with uranium below the U.S. EPA water standard causes estrogen receptor - dependent responses in female mice.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, is valued for its radioactive properties. Development of nuclear weapons in the 1940s fueled the U.S. government's desire to become independent of foreign sources of U (Ball 1993; Moure-Eraso...

Variations in phytoestrogen content between different mill dates of the same diet produces significant differences in the time of vaginal opening in CD-1 mice and F344 rats but not in CD Sprague-Dawley rats.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... The use of rodent test diets containing up to 350 [mu]g/g diet of total genistein equivalents (TGE) and various rat strains by the Organisation for Economical Co-operative Development (OECD) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...

Tetrahydrofurandiol stimulation of phospholipase [A.sub.2], lipoxygenase, and cyclooxygenase gene expression and MCF-7 human breast cancer cell proliferation.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Housing male or female rats on ground corncob bedding disrupts sexual behavior and ovarian cyclicity. This observation led to the characterization of an endocrine disruptor in corn (Markaverich et al. 2002a). The disruptor activity was...

Effects of chronic and acute ozone exposure on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant capacity in healthy young adults.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Oxidant generation is part of the normal metabolism of many cell types and is critical for homeostasis. Humans have evolved an antioxidant system to protect against oxidative stress--a state of imbalance between oxidant production and...

Elevated risk of carrying gentamicin-resistant Escherichia coli among U.S. poultry workers.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria including Escherichia coli are common contaminants of the industrial broiler chicken environment (Hayes et al. 2004; Khan et al. 2005). Studies conducted in Europe indicate that poultry growers and poultry-house...

Maternal - fetal transfer of domoic acid in rats at two gestational time points.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... The marine toxin domoic acid (DA), produced by the cosmopolitan diatom species Pseudonitzchia, affects numerous organisms in the wild through trophic transfer, including sea birds, manatees, dolphins, and sea lions, as well as humans (Gulland...

Prevalence of self-reported diabetes and exposure to organochlorine pesticides among Mexican Americans: Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1982-1984.(Research)(Survey)
December 1, 2007... A Hispanic individual in the United States has one chance in two of developing diabetes sometime during his or her lifetime (Narayan et al. 2003). Hispanics represent the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. Among the Hispanic...

Ambient levels of air pollution induce goblet-cell hyperplasia in human conjunctival epithelium.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Acute adverse health effects of ambient levels of air pollution have been demonstrated in humans, mostly in terms of respiratory and cardiovascular events (Barnett et al. 2006; Ito et al. 2005; Medina-Ramon et al. 2006; Pope et al. 2002; Samoli...

In utero environmental tobacco smoke exposure alters gene expression in lungs of adult BALB/c mice.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... The incidence of asthma and allergy has increased dramatically during the past 30 years, primarily in industrialized countries (Eder et al. 2006). Although improved availability and quality of medical care account for some of this increase, the...

Meeting report: the use of newborn blood spots in environmental research: opportunities and challenges.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Background and Objectives Dried blood spots (DBS) are routinely collected within 24-48 hr of birth from > 98% of all newborns babies in the United States. DBS are collected using a heel stick with spotting of the blood onto the Guthrie...

Meeting report: threats to human health and environmental sustainability in the Pacific Basin.(Research)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Mission of the Pacific Basin Consortium About 2 billion people live in nations on the Pacific Rim. These include the most populous countries in the world as well as some of the wealthiest and the poorest. As significantly, technical and...

Case report: a metabolic disorder presenting as pediatric manganism.(Environmental Medicine)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Manganese is ubiquitous in the environment. It is essential for physiologic functioning in trace quantities, usually supplied by dietary intake. Adverse health effects are typically associated with inhalation exposures within occupational...

Association of thyroid hormone concentrations with levels of organochlorine compounds in cord blood of neonates.(Children's Health)(Report)
December 1, 2007... It is well established that thyroid hormones are important regulators of brain development during the fetal and neonatal periods of life (Bernal et al. 2003). When maternal and/or fetal thyroid deficiency occurs during pregnancy, the child's...

Household exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood hematopoietic malignancies: the ESCALE study (SFCE).(Children's Health)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Hematopoietic malignancies are the most common childhood cancers, with world age-standardized incidence rates of 43.1, 6.7, and 8.9 per million children in France for leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), respectively...

Determinants of prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in an Urban population.(Children's Health)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as flame retardants (FRs) in plastics, including electronic enclosures and polyurethane used in upholstery cushioning and carpet pads, has increased steadily in the past 30 years (Alaee et al. 2003;...

Chernobyl: relationship between the number of missing newborn boys and the level of radiation in the Czech regions.(Children's Health)(Report)
December 1, 2007... The effect of relatively low doses of radiation from Chernobyl on pregnancy outcome is still under discussion in Europe. After the Chernobyl accident (26 April 1986), an increase in spontaneous abortions was reported not only in the adjacent...

Arsenic in Herbal Kelp Supplements: concentration, regulations, and labeling: doi:10.1289/ehp.10360.(Correspondence)(Report)
December 1, 2007... "Case Report: Potential Arsenic Toxicosis Secondary to Herbal Kelp Supplement" by Amster et al. (2007) is fundamentally flawed, both scientifically and with regard to the regulation of dietary supplements. Amster et al. (2007) claimed to...

Organic versus inorganic arsenic in herbal kelp supplements: doi:10.1289/ehp.10472.(Correspondence)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Amster et al. (2007) reported findings from a case study involving a possible link between arsenic toxicity and the ingestion of a kelp-based supplement. The authors concluded that the arsenic-contaminated supplement was the likely cause of the...

Safe use of herbal kelp supplements: doi:10.1289/ehp.10393.(Correspondence)(Report)
December 1, 2007... In their report of a 54-year-old woman with a 2-year history of worsening alopecia, memory loss, and fatigue, Amster et al. (2007) attributed later-emerging symptoms to arsenic in a kelp-containing (Laminaria digitata) supplement. However, the...

Arsenic in Herbal Kelp Supplements: Schenker et al. respond: doi:10.1289/ehp.10393R.(Correspondence)(Report)
December 1, 2007... We are heartened by the feedback we have received from concerned patients, health-care professionals, herbal supplement retailers, and government health officials regarding our recent case study (Amster et al. 2007), but we certainly understand...

Clarification.(Correspondence)(Correction notice)
December 1, 2007... In the November Focus article ["Carbon Capture and Storage: Blue-Sky Technology or Just Blowing Smoke? Environ Health Perspect 115:A538-A545 (2007)], Jeff Chapman, chief executive officer of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, suggested...

Hyperactive ingredients?(DIET & NUTRITION)(Report)
December 1, 2007... The question of whether food additives such as preservatives, artificial flavorings, and artificial colorings trigger hyperactivity has been debated for more than 30 years. Research generally has not supported food additives as influencing...

Pesticides disrupt nitrogen fixation.(AGRICULTURE)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Talk about a vicious cycle. Some organochlorine pesticides suppress nitrogen-fixing bacteria from replenishing natural nitrogen fertilizer in soil, resulting in lower crop yields, stunted growth, and an ever-greater need for additives to boost...

O Happy day for malaria treatment.(The Beat)(Report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... A new understanding of malaria pathogenesis could guide the development of new antimalarial drugs. A study published in the 30 October 2007 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that people with blood type O were 66%...

Breastfeeding trumps DDT.(The Beat)(Report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Given that a number of organochlorine pesticides such as DDT can be passed from mothers to infants through breast milk, breastfeeding has been questioned as the best way to feed babies of exposed mothers. Pre- and postnatal exposures to these...

Artisanal diamond mining gets a hand.(The Beat)(Report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Although artisanal diamond mining doesn't use toxic chemicals such as mercury in the way artisanal gold mining does, the process does contribute to deforestation and remove tillable land from cultivation, and is associated with higher rates of...

Cats as sentinel species.(CHEMICAL EXPOSURES)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Pet cats may be like canaries in coal mines when it comes to evaluating the health impacts of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), persistent chemicals used in carpet pads, furniture, and electronics. Chronic PBDE exposure may partly explain...

The clot thickens: new clues to PM action.(PARTICULATE MATTER)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Particulate matter (PM), largely sooty particles from the exhausts of diesel vehicles and fossil fuel--burning power stations, has long been associated with increased cardiovascular events, with peaks occurring within 24 hours of spikes in...

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.(ehpnet)(Report)
December 1, 2007... A third of the world's population lacks sufficient vitamins and minerals in their diet. Each year nutritional deficiencies contribute to the deaths of 1 million children under the age of 5 years and 50,000 women during or just after childbirth....

Folic acid lowers blood arsenic.(The Beat)(Report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Arsenic-contaminated drinking water occurs in at least 70 countries, and chronic arsenic exposure, which currently affects 100 million people worldwide, is linked with adverse health effects including certain cancers and cardiovascular disease....

Child asthma hospitalizations plunge in NYC.(The Beat)(Report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... A September 2007 report from the Office of the New York City Comptroller outlines a number of health disparities among the city's income groups. Despite several negative findings, one statistic is positive: hospitalization due to asthma-related...

Making over Egypt's mudbrick industry.(The Beat)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Cairo, Egypt, has some of the world's worst air pollution, partly due to local factories' use of mazot, a petroleum by-product that when burned releases substantial amounts of greenhouse gases and nearly 60 other pollutants. A Canadian agency...

Nutrigenomics The Genome - food Interface.(Focus)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Efforts to unveil the etiology of human disease often recapitulate the nature versus nurture debate. But today's biologists concede that neither nature nor nurture alone can explain the molecular processes that ultimately govern human health....

Blue power turning tides into electricity.(Innovations)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Water has been used by humans as anenergy source in the form of tide mills and water wheels for nearly 2,000 years. As a large-scale power source, however, tidal and wave energy is at roughly the same stage of development that wind power was at...

Keep the sprays away? Home pesticides linked to Childhood cancers.(Science Selections)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Previous studies have suggested a link between pesticide use in the home and childhood hematopoietic tumors, the most common type of childhood cancer. A new epidemiologic study of French children diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma in 2003 or...

Dietary dose: rodent feed affects ED screening results.(endocrine-disrupting)(Science Selections)(Report)
December 1, 2007... As the U.S. EPA begins its program to test endocrine-disrupting effects of pesticides, researchers caution that routine screening methods could distort results [EHP 115:1717-1726; Thigpen et al.]. The team discovered that some commercially...

Uranium in drinking water: low dose acts as endocrine mimic.(Science Selections)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, is well known as a radioactive toxicant capable of damaging the kidneys and DNA. A new study has shown for the first time that uranium also acts as an estrogen mimic in mice at concentrations...

Stress reaction: ozone and co-pollutants linked with oxidation.(Science Selections)(Report)
December 1, 2007... Past studies have hinted that several air pollutants can cause oxidative stress in people, suggesting one mechanism behind diseases such as lung cancer, asthma, and increased cardiopulmonary illnesses and deaths. The evidence has gained more...

Global Environmental Governance.(Book review)
December 1, 2007... By James Gustave Speth and Peter M. Haas Washington, DC:Island Press, 2006. 179 pp. ISBN: 1-59726-081-9, $40 Global Environmental Governance provides a very eloquent and concise statement of the key international events and milestones, as...