Environmental Health Perspectives articles from January 2006

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from January 2006

Environmental health and Hurricane Katrina.(Guest Editorial)
January 1, 2006... Hurricane Katrina caused enormous physical destruction, environmental degradation, and human misery (Travis 2005). Full remediation will take years, and many decisions that are fundamental to the restoration and rejuvenation of the Gulf Coast...

Looking forward.(Note from the editor)
January 1, 2006... With this issue EHP bids a warm goodbye to Tom Goehl, our Editor-in-Chief since October 2001. Tom is a true altruist, always believing that the role of EHP is to impact the human condition by providing a forum for scientific information to be...

Environmental genomics: an opportunity for the NIEHS.(DIRECTOR'S PERSPECTIVE)
January 1, 2006... As I continue to consider new research opportunities for tire NIEHS, my desire to support research in environmental genomics grows. While the accomplishments and available tools in genetics and genomics certainly enhance my enthusiasm for...

Bisphenol a and risk assessment.(Perspectives Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... In a recent article, vom Saal and Hughes (2005) proposed that a new risk assessment on bisphenol A (BPA) is needed because of the availability of extensive new literature, including "recent epidemiologic evidence that BPA is related to disease...

Bisphenol a: vom Saal and Hughes respond.(Perspectives Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... Our commentary describing the extensive new literature reporting low-dose effects of bisphenol A (BPA) in experimental animals (vom Saal and Hughes 2005) was written in response to a report from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) by...

The human population: accepting species limits.(Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... In "The Population Equation: Balancing What We Need with What We Have," Dahl (2005) presented generally accepted thought and consensually validated data regarding the human population, even though he did not include an adequate scientific...

Sources of blood lead in children.(Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... In their article on seasonality and children's blood lead (BPb) levels, Laidlaw et al. (2005) stated that "lead-contaminated soil in and of itself may be the primary driving mechanism of child BPb poisoning in the urban environment." We believe...

Blood lead in children: Laidlaw et al. respond.(Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... Our article (Laidlaw et al. 2005) is about seasonality of blood lead (BPb) and developing a predictive model using climatic variables. It is a new and unique finding about lead, marked particularly by the fact that it identifies diffuse soil...

Validity of anogenital distance as a marker of in utero phthalate exposure.(Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... In their article in the August issue of EHP, Swan et al. (2005) purport to show that anogenital distance (AGD) in male infants is correlated with maternal phthalate exposure during pregnancy. The AGD has been shown to decrease in male newborn...

Anogenital distance and phthalate exposure: Swan et al. respond.(Correspondence)
January 1, 2006... In their letter, McEwen and Renner raise several points that we would like to discuss. First, because all infants in our study (Swan et al. 2005) appeared normal, McEwen and Rennet infer that there is no evidence of an adverse effect....

Errata.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2006... In the October articles "Children's Centers Study Kids and Chemicals" [Environ Health Perspect 113:A664-A668 (2005)] and "Are EDCs Blurring Issues of Gender?" [Environ Health Perspect 113:A670-A677 (2005)], photographs and their captions...

Allergen labeling takes effect.(Food Safety)
January 1, 2006... Since 1994 food manufacturers have been required to list all the ingredients on their products' labels. A new law now takes this obligation a step further, requiring manufacturers to notify consumers in "plain language" of certain allergens...

Breastfeeding: nature's MRE.(Children's Health)
January 1, 2006... Low breastfeeding rates and inadequate emergency planning left many infants dehydrated and hungry in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Health and educational organizations responded rapidly with breastfeeding information and assistance. Through...

Liver library.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical research and development division has contributed a library of expression profiles for 100 paradigm compounds, primarily hepatotoxicants, to the Chemical Effects in Biological Systems (CEBS) knowledge base...

Action for indoor air.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... At its 4 September 2005 congress, the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences called on the governments, institutions, and corporations of the world to invest more in reducing indoor air pollution. According to the academy, indoor air...

Nanodatabase unveiled.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... The International Council on Nanotechnology and Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology unveiled the world's first database of scientific findings on nanotechnology on 19 August 2005. Available at...

Meaner MRSAs.(Infectious Disease)
January 1, 2006... Most methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are contracted in hospitals and other health care facilities. Antibiotic use, patients' weakened immune systems, close contact among people, and open wounds all make hospitals...

X-rays get in synch.(Innovative Technologies)
January 1, 2006... Synchrotrons may have been designed with high-energy physics in mind, but now biologists are starting to see the light too. Jeffrey Gillow, a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been making use of the X-ray microscope at the...

CDC: environmental concerns after Hurricane Katrina NIEHS: Natural Disaster Response.(eph net)
January 1, 2006... Since Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast on 29 August 2005, Americans have sought reliable information on how to safely reenter flood-damaged environments. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has been at the...

Arsenic in U.S. rice.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... Researchers from Scotland's University of Aberdeen reported in the 1 August 2005 issue of Environmental Science & Technology that U.S.-grown rice contains an average of 1.4 to 5.0 times more arsenic than rice from Europe, India, or Bangladesh....

Managing chemicals together.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... Representatives of the world's governments, intergovernmental groups, and other stakeholders met in Vienna in September 2005 to finalize the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). SAICM is a framework for global...

Green plan for rebuilding NOLA.(The Beat)
January 1, 2006... In the October 2005 issue of Environmental Building News (EBN), executive editor Alex Wilson outlines a 10-point plan for rebuilding New Orleans. The plan, developed with EBN's editorial board and other sustainable planning and design experts,...

NIEHS responds to Katrina.(Environews / NIEHS News)
January 1, 2006... NIEHS director David Schwartz knows firsthand what the country's worst natural disaster looks like. Within days of Hurricane Katrina's winds and waves, he led an advance medical team of 50 physicians, nurses, and health care workers from the...

COEPs Contribute to Hurricane Relief.(Beyond the Bench)
January 1, 2006... The conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita reminded us all of our commonality in the human experience and moved many to help. Among those moved to help were the staff at the Community Outreach and...

Lead disrupts T cell function.(Headliners: NIEHS-Supported Research)
January 1, 2006... Farrer DG, Hueber SM, McCabe MJ Jr. 2005. Lead enhances CD[4.sup.+] T cell proliferation indirectly by targeting antigen presenting cells and modulating antigen-specific interactions. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 207:125-137. Although lead has...

In Katrina's wake.(Environews: Focus)
January 1, 2006... Hurricane Katrina has been called the most devastating natural environmental calamity in U.S. history. Visitors to the scene say the destruction is worse than anyone can imagine. Scientists also say that some perceived health threats have been...

Louisiana's wetlands: a lesson in nature appreciation.(Environews / Spheres of Influence)
January 1, 2006... Hurricane Katrina's disastrous flooding of the Gulf Coast confirmed three decades of warnings by scientists. Most of New Orleans is below sea level, and South Louisiana's coastal wetlands, which once helped buffer the city from giant storms,...

Raising the bar for levees.(Environews / Innovation)
January 1, 2006... Human beings have likely been battling rising waters since the dawn of organized agriculture. Farmers around the world have traditionally been drawn to the rich soils of floodplains, which are generally well worth the trouble occasionally...

Beach bug bingo: toward better prediction of swimming-related health effects.(Environews / Science Selections)
January 1, 2006... Swimming is a popular pastime in the United States. The 2000-2002 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment reported that each year an estimated 89 million Americans swim in recreational waters including lakes, oceans, streams, rivers,...

Exploring the roots of diabetes: bisphenol a may promote insulin resistance.(Environews / Science Selections)
January 1, 2006... Poor diet and lack of exercise are known contributors to the epidemic of type 2 diabetes spreading around the world. Now researchers have implicated another possible culprit in the rise of the disease [EHP 114:106-112]. A team of Spanish and...

Hypothesis Decay? Blood lead-fluoridation link not confirmed.(Environews / Science Selections)
January 1, 2006... Numerous studies of various populations have shown that adding fluoride to drinking water prevents dental decay. However, a 1999 study in Massachusetts and a 2000 study in New York reported associations between the use of silicofluoride...

Manganese in drinking water: higher doses may hamper intellectual function.(Environews / Science Selections)
January 1, 2006... Manganese is an essential nutrient for humans, but its excessive consumption can cause adverse health impacts. Past studies have linked inhalation of excessive manganese to neurotoxicity in adults. Now a group of U.S. researchers suggests that...

A case study of tire crumb use on playgrounds: risk analysis and communication when major clinical knowledge gaps exist.(Commentary)
January 1, 2006... Physicians and public health professionals working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 8 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) received several telephone calls requesting information regarding the safety of...

Recent applications of DNA microarray technology to toxicology and ecotoxicology.
January 1, 2006... Gene expression is a unique way of characterizing how cells and organisms adapt to changes in the external environment. The measurements of gene expression levels upon exposure to a chemical can be used both to provide information about the...

A case for revisiting the safety of pesticides: a closer look at neurodevelopment.
January 1, 2006... The quality and quantity of the data about the risk posed to humans by individual pesticides vary considerably. Unlike obvious birth defects, most developmental effects cannot be seen at birth or even later in life. Instead, brain and nervous...

Mortality among workers exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in an electrical capacitor manufacturing plant in Indiana: an update.(Research)
January 1, 2006... An Indiana capacitor-manufacturing cohort (n = 3,569) was exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 1957 to 1977. The original study of mortality through 1984 found excess melanoma and brain cancer; other studies of PCB-exposed...

Rapidly measured indicators of recreational water quality are predictive of swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Standard methods to measure recreational water quality require at least 24 hr to obtain results, making it impossible to assess the quality of water within a single day. Methods to measure recreational water quality in [less than or equal to] 2...

Fine particulate air pollution and mortality in nine California counties: results from CALFINE.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Many epidemiologic studies provide evidence of an association between daily counts of mortality and ambient particulate matter 65 years of age), males, females, non-high school grad

Perinatal environmental tobacco smoke exposure in rhesus monkeys: critical periods and regional selectivity for effects on brain cell development and lipid peroxidation.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Perinatal environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in humans elicits neurobehavioral deficits. We exposed rhesus monkeys to ETS during gestation and through 13 months posmatally, or post-natally only (6-13 months). At the conclusion of...

Reproductive disruption in wild longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) exposed to kraft mill effluent.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Worldwide, wild fish living in rivers receiving municipal and industrial discharges may experience endocrine disruption as a result of exposure to anthropogenic pollutants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hormonal status of wild...

Exposure, postexposure, and density-mediated effects of atrazine on amphibians: breaking down net effects into their parts.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Most toxicology studies focus on effects of contaminants during exposure. This is disconcerting because subsequent survival may be affected. For instance, contaminant-induced mortality can be later ameliorated by reduced competition among the...

Inhalation of ultrafine particles alters blood leukocyte expression of adhesion molecules in humans.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Ultrafine particles (UFPs; aerodynamic diameter < 100 nm) may contribute to the respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with particulate air pollution. We tested the hypothesis that inhalation of carbon UFPs has...

Comparison of indoor mercury vapor in common areas of residential buildings with outdoor levels in a community where mercury is used for cultural purposes.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Elemental mercury has been imbued with magical properties for millennia, and various cultures use elemental mercury in a variety of superstitious and cultural practices, raising health concerns for users and residents in buildings where it is...

Use of the land snail helix aspersa as sentinel organism for monitoring ecotoxicologic effects of urban pollution: an integrated approach.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Atmospheric pollution from vehicular traffic is a matter of growing interest, often leading to temporary restrictions in urban areas. Although guidelines indicate limits for several parameters, the real toxicologic impacts remain largely...

Effects of organochlorine contaminants on loggerhead sea turtle immunity: comparison of a correlative field study and in vitro exposure experiments.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Several laboratory and field studies indicate that organochlorine contaminants (OCs), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides, modulate immune responses in rodents, wildlife, and humans. In the present study we examined the...

Evidence of spatially extensive resistance to PCBs in an anadromous fish of the Hudson River.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Populations of organisms that are chronically exposed to high levels of chemical contaminants may not suffer the same sublethal or lethal effects as naive populations, a phenomenon called resistance. Atlantic tomcod (Microgadus tomcod) from the...

In vitro immune toxicity of depleted uranium: effects on murine macrophages, CD[4.sup.+] T cells, and gene expression profiles.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Depleted uranium (DU) is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process and shares chemical properties with natural and enriched uranium. To investigate the toxic effects of environmental DU exposure on the immune system, we examined the...

Gene expression analysis of the hepatotoxicant methapyrilene in primary rat hepatocytes: an interlaboratory study.(Research)
January 1, 2006... Genomics technologies are used in several disciplines, including toxicology. However, these technologies are relatively new, and their applications require further investigations. When investigators apply these technologies to in vitro...

Estrogen-like properties of fluorotelomer alcohols as revealed by MCF-7 breast cancer cell proliferation.(Research)
January 1, 2006... We investigated estrogen-like properties of five perfluorinated compounds using a combination of three in vitro assays. By means of an E-screen assay, we detected the proliferation-promoting capacity of the fluorotelomer alcohols...

The estrogenic effect of bisphenol a disrupts pancreatic [beta]-cell function in vivo and induces insulin resistance.(Research)
January 1, 2006... The function of the pancreatic [beta]-cell is the storage and release of insulin, the main hormone involved in blood glucose homeostasis. The results in this article show that the widespread environmental contaminant bisphenol-A (BPA) imitates...

Serum cadmium levels in pancreatic cancer patients from the East Nile Delta region of Egypt.(Research Environmental Medicine)
January 1, 2006... The northeast Nile Delta region exhibits a high incidence of early-onset pancreatic cancer. It is well documented that this region has one of the highest levels of pollution in Egypt. Epidemiologic studies have suggested that cadmium, a...

Increased risk of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation episodes associated with acute increases in ambient air pollution.(Research Environmental Medicine)
January 1, 2006... Objectives: We reported previously that 24-hr moving average ambient air pollution concentrations were positively associated with ventricular arrhythmias detected by implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). ICDs also detect paroxysmal...

Water manganese exposure and children's intellectual function in Araihazar, Bangladesh.(Research / Children's Health)
January 1, 2006... Exposure to manganese via inhalation has long been known to elicit neurotoxicity in adults, but little is known about possible consequences of exposure via drinking water. In this study, we report results of a cross-sectional investigation of...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2006... Some of the values were incorrect in the section "Dose-Response Relationships between Well WMn and Intellectual Function" and in Table 1 in the original manuscript published online; they have been corrected here.

Blood lead concentrations in children and method of water fluoridation in the United States, 1988-1994.(Research / Children's Health)
January 1, 2006... Mark D. Macek, (1,2) Thomas D. Matte, (3) Thomas Sinks, (3,4) and Dolores M. Malvitz (2) (1) Department of Health Promotion and Policy, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dental School, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA;...

Home endotoxin exposure and wheeze in infants: correction for bias due to exposure measurement error.(Research / Children's Health)
January 1, 2006... Exposure to elevated levels of endotoxin in family-room dust was previously observed to be significandy associated with increased wheeze in the first year of life among a cohort of 404 children in the Boston, Massachusetts, metropolitan area....

Prevalence and implementation of IAQ programs in U.S. schools.(Research / Children's Health)
January 1, 2006... In this study, we determined the extent to which U.S. schools are implementing indoor air quality (IAQ) programs. We administered a questionnaire on IAQ programs and practices to a representative sample of schools. Participants were asked to...

Tiffany G. Bredfeldt, University of Arizona: recipient of the 2005 Karen Wetterhahn memorial award.(Announcements / NIEHS Extramural Update)
January 1, 2006... The Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP) is pleased to announce that Ms. Tiffany G. Bredfeldt of the University of Arizona is the recipient of the eighth annual Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award. The award will presented to Ms. Bredfeldt on 13...

Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Grants.(Announcements / Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
January 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 fields of...

Calendar.(Calendar)
January 1, 2006... 2006 January 18-19 January, Wed-Thu. Promoting Mental Health in Children and Adults with Developmental Disabilities. Salt Lake City, Utah. Information: Brenda Reuss, Conference Assistant, The NADD, 132 Fair Street, Kingston, NY 12401...

Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods, and Practice.
January 1, 2006... Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods, and Practice Edited by Sandro Galea and David Vlahov New York:Springer, 2005. 599 pp. ISBN- 0387-23994-4, $89.95 The world is undergoing major urbanization. Within 25 years, more than...

New books.
January 1, 2006... Agricultural Biodiversity and Biotechnology in Economic Development Joseph Cooper, Leslie Marie Lipper, David Zilberman New York: Springer, 2005.480 pp. ISBN: 0-387-25407-2, $99 Air Quality in Airplane Cabins and Similar Enclosed Spaces,...