Environmental Health Perspectives articles from July 2004

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from July 2004

Fertilizers, water quality, and human health.(Guest Editorial)
July 1, 2004... Fertilizer use has increased 10-fold since World War II. Current application rates are staggering and greatly exceed the amounts absorbed by plants. For example, the average amount of nitrogen applied to corn in the Midwest is approximately 160...

Endosulfan's effects: omissions and flawed data.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
July 1, 2004... The main objective of the Endosulfan Manufacturers and Formulators Welfare Association in India is disseminating scientific facts concerning the use of endosulfan. Because endosulfan is used in several countries, the association watches for...

Endosulfan's effects: inaccurate data.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
July 1, 2004... We would like to address problems with the article "Effect of Endosulfan on Male Reproductive Development" by Saiyed et al. (2003). Our comments are based on extensive discussions with several experts and decision-making bodies on the subject....

Endosulfan's effects: Saiyed's response.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
July 1, 2004... I would like to respond to the comments of both Abraham and Indulkar about the origin and results of our study (Saiyed et al. 2003). On the basis of media reports of unusual illnesses in Padre village, we were asked by the National Human...

Defining wetlands.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
July 1, 2004... I read with interest David J. Tenenbaum's article about constructed wetlands in the January 2004 issue of EHP (Tenenbaum 2004). While I noted his caveat that "their design remains a bit of an uncertain art," I think he should have gone further...

Phthalate exposure and early thelarche.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
July 1, 2004... Several years ago Colon et al. (2000) reported higher levels of phthalates, particularly di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in serum from 41 girls experiencing premature breast development (thelarche) as compared to 35 age-matched controls....

Correction.(Perspectives: Correspondence)(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2004... Karmaus et al. detected errors in their article "Backward Estimation of Exposure to Organochlorines using Repeated measurements" [Environ Health Perspect 112:710-716 (2004)]. In Table 1, values in the equations for the proposed regression model...

Perchlorate debate grows.(Hazardous Waste)
July 1, 2004... The presence of a rocket-fuel component called perchlorate in drinking water sources around the nation has drawn the attention of scientists and public health advocates who say that even small doses of the chemical threaten people's health. But...

Breastfeeding and babies' lives.(Children's Health)
July 1, 2004... Although infant mortality is low in the United States, recently published research suggests it could be still lower if more mothers breastfed their babies. The study, conducted by NIEHS epidemiologists Aimin Chen and Walter Rogan and published...

World wide wet.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... Two major entities have launched efforts to improve water safety in regions around the world. On 22 March 2004, World Water Day, the European Union announced it would set up a 500 million [euro] Water Facility to promote access to clean water...

Hydrogen boost.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced on 27 April 2004 the first grants under a $1.2 million White House plan to fund translational research and development of hydrogen fuel technology. This first $350 million in grants will go toward...

Asian dust storm surge.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... Statistics in UNEP's Global Environment Outlook Yearbook 2003, released in March 2004, attest that thanks to desertification, dust and sand storms are affecting Northeast Asia nearly five times as often as they did in the 1950s, and the storms...

Shedding light on vitamin D deficiency in women.(Aging)
July 1, 2004... Falls are the largest cause of injury mortality among the elderly. More than a third of U.S. people 65 or over will fall each year, with many fracturing a hip, spine, or forearm. These fractures seriously weaken 20-30% of those who experience...

Pesticides and Parkinson disease.(Neurology)
July 1, 2004... In support of the theory that the most common form of Parkinson disease (PD) may result to some degree from exposure to environmental toxicants, researchers at Emory University have identified a mechanism of toxicity linking the pesticide...

Special programme for food security.(ehp net)
July 1, 2004... At the same time that developed countries--where an abundant stream of cheap and easily accessible food is ever ready for consumption--struggle to cope with increasing rates of obesity among their populations, the picture is strikingly...

Asthma rising among Chinese children.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... The Chinese Ministry of Health announced in May 2004 that the rate of asthma among Beijing children has risen by 1.6 times since 1990. China's rapid urbanization and commercialization, combined with a heavy reliance on coal-burning power plants...

Climate of cooperation.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... The 47 countries and more than 24 scientific and environmental groups at the April 2004 Earth Observation Summit agreed on a 10-year plan for an international global climate watch system to help scientists assess changes in the Earth's climate,...

School Utility Report Card.(The Beat)
July 1, 2004... School systems can spend millions each year on energy bills--Florida's Orange County school system, for example, currently spends $55 million. Because districts often receive one bill for multiple schools, it's hard to know where costs are...

Expanding the vision of environmental health at UNC-CH.(Environews: NIEHS News)
July 1, 2004... In a town that devotees call the "Southern Part of Heaven," the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) is known nationally for its schools of public health, medicine, and pharmacy. These schools are physically just across the...

Drug used to arrest preterm labor sensitizes the brain to neurotoxicants.(Developmental Neurotoxicity)
July 1, 2004... Rhodes MC, Seidler FJ, Qiao D, Tate CA, Cousins MM, Slotkin TA. 2004. Does pharmacotherapy for preterm labor sensitize the developing brain to environmental neurotoxicants? Cellular and synaptic effects of sequential exposure to terbutaline and...

And the Oscar goes to ...(beyond the BENCH)
July 1, 2004... Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage." At the NIEHS Center in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, they're taking that concept a step further: two new programs within the center's...

Global nitrogen: cycling out of control.(Focus: Global Nitrogen)
July 1, 2004... Like the Earth's water, nitrogen compounds cycle through the air, aquatic systems, and soil. But unlike water, these compounds are being injected into the environment in ever increasing quantities. In doing so, we are altering the global...

Chicken electronics: a technology plucked from waste.(Environews: Innovations)
July 1, 2004... The 8 billion--plus broilers produced each year by the U.S. poultry industry leave behind some 3 billion pounds of waste feathers. Traditional disposal strategies are less than perfect. Feathers can be processed into a low-grade animal feed,...

Fullerenes and fish brains: nanomaterials cause oxidative stress.(Environews: Science Selections)
July 1, 2004... As interest increases in the production and use of nanomaterials in consumer products such as sunscreens and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and industrial applications, so do concerns about human and environmental health effects as the tiny...

Copper in drinking water: using symptoms of exposure to define safety.(Environews: Science Selections)
July 1, 2004... For the past five years, a team at the University of Chile's Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology in Santiago, led by Magdalena Araya, has been assessing the response of healthy adults to varying concentrations of copper in drinking...

Lead in Mexican children: pottery use slows reductions in blood.(Environews: Science Selections)
July 1, 2004... Getting the lead out of Mexico City gasoline has contributed to a significant drop in the blood lead of local children, as it has elsewhere in the world, according to what is likely the first long-term study of such effects in a single group of...

Effect measures in prevalence studies.(Research: Commentary)
July 1, 2004... There is still considerable confusion and debate about the appropriate methods for analyzing prevalence studies, and a number of recent papers have argued that prevalence ratios are the preferred method and that prevalence odds ratios should...

An unrecognized source of PCB contamination in schools and other buildings.(Research: Commentary)
July 1, 2004... An investigation of 24 buildings in the Greater Boston Area revealed that one-third (8 of 24) contained caulking materials with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) content exceeding 50 ppm by weight, which is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...

Survivorship patterns of larval amphibians exposed to low concentrations of atrazine.(Research)
July 1, 2004... Amphibians can be exposed to contaminants in nature by many routes, but perhaps the most likely route is agricultural runoff in amphibian breeding sites. This runoff results in high-level pulses of pesticides. For example, atrazine, the most...

Manufactured nanomaterials (Fullerenes, [C.sub.60]) induce oxidative stress in the brain of juvenile largemouth bass.(Research)
July 1, 2004... Although nanotechnology has vast potential in uses such as fuel cells, microreactors, drug delivery devices, and personal care products, it is prudent to determine possible toxicity of nanotechnology-derived products before widespread use. It...

Personal exposure to submicrometer particles and heart rate variability in human subjects.(Research)
July 1, 2004... We conducted a study on two panels of human subjects--9 young adults and 10 elderly patients with lung function impairments--to evaluate whether submicrometer particulate air pollution was associated with heart rate variability (HRV). We...

Community-based randomized double-blind study of gastrointestinal effects and copper exposure in drinking water.(Research)
July 1, 2004... We assessed gastrointestinal effects in 1,365 adults exposed to either < 0.01 (controls), 2, 4, or 6 mg copper/L of drinking water for 2 months in a randomized, double-blind community-based study. The risk of symptoms increased with increasing...

Associations between organochlorine contaminant concentrations and clinical health parameters in loggerhead sea turtles from North Carolina, USA.(Research)
July 1, 2004... Widespread and persistent organochlorine (OC) contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides, are known to have broad-ranging toxicities in wildlife. In this study we investigated, for the first time, their possible...

Associations between plasma DDE levels and immunologic measures in African-American farmers in North Carolina.(Research)
July 1, 2004... Experimental studies in rodents demonstrate evidence of immunosuppressive effects of dietary exposure to DDT [2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-trichloroethane], but human data pertaining to immunomodulating effects of DDT exposure are limited. In...

Different levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and chlorinated compounds in breast milk from two U.K. Regions.(Research)
July 1, 2004... Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners are constituents of flame retardants, and there is growing concern regarding their persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. We collected breast milk samples between late 2001 and early 2003 from...

Correction.(Research)(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2004... Values in the tables and in the corresponding text in the original manuscript published online were incorrect and have been corrected here.

Unhealthy landscapes: policy recommendations on land use change and infectious disease emergence.(Research: Meeting Report)
July 1, 2004... Anthropogenic land use changes drive a range of infectious disease outbreaks and emergence events and modify the transmission of endemic infections. These drivers include agricultural encroachment, deforestation, road construction, dam...

Adverse health effects of chronic exposure to low-level cadmium in foodstuffs and cigarette smoke.(Environmental Medicine: Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Cadmium is a cumulative nephrotoxicant that is absorbed into the body from dietary sources and cigarette smoking. The levels of Cd in organs such as liver and kidney cortex increase with age because of the lack of an active biochemical process...

Nutritional factors and susceptibility to arsenic-caused skin lesions in West Bengal, India.(Environmental Medicine)
July 1, 2004... There has been widespread speculation about whether nutritional deficiencies increase the susceptibility to arsenic health effects. This is the first study to investigate whether dietary micronutrient and macronutrient intake modulates the...

Blood lead secular trend in a cohort of children in Mexico City (1987-2002).(Children's Health)
July 1, 2004... We determined the secular trend in blood lead levels in a cohort of 321 children born in Mexico City between 1987 and 1992. Blood lead level was measured every 6 months during a 10-year period. We modeled the effect of yearly air lead...

Association of in utero organophosphate pesticide exposure and fetal growth and length of gestation in an agricultural population.(Children's Health)
July 1, 2004... Although pesticide use is widespread, little is known about potential adverse health effects of in utero exposure. We investigated the effects of organophosphate pesticide exposure during pregnancy on fetal growth and gestational duration in a...

Prenatal insecticide exposures and birth weight and length among an urban minority cohort.(Children's Health)
July 1, 2004... We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight...

Biomarkers in maternal and newborn blood indicate heightened fetal susceptibility to procarcinogenic DNA damage.(Children's Health)
July 1, 2004... Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are widespread air contaminants released by transportation vehicles, power generation, and other combustion sources. Experimental evidence indicates that the developing fetus...

Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences.(Announcements: NIEHS Extramural Update)
July 1, 2004... The Center for Risk and Integrated Sciences (CRIS) is charged with guiding NIEHS extramural research in three main areas: hazardous substance research, "omics" research, and the development and application of emerging technologies in the...

Particulate Matter Research Centers.(Announcements: Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
July 1, 2004... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces an extramural funding competition for Particulate Matter (PM) Research Centers to address priority research needs related to airborne PM, including susceptibility, mechanisms of health...

Calendar.(Announcements)(Calendar)
July 1, 2004... 2004 August 1-4 August, Sun-Wed. Sixteenth Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. New York, New York. Information: George D. Thurston, Sc.D., e-mail: thurston@env.med.nyu.edu, Internet:...

The Role of Environmental Hazards in Premature Birth.
July 1, 2004... The Role of Environmental Hazards in Premature Birth Edited by Donald R. Mattison, Samuel Wilson, Christine Coussens, and Dalia Gilbert Washington, DC:National Academies Press, 2003. 127 pp. ISBN: 0-309-09065-2, $35 paper Preterm birth...

New books.(Announcements)
July 1, 2004... A Small Dose of Toxicology Steven G Gilbert London: Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2004. 224 pp. ISBN: 0-415-31168-3, $95 Air Monitoring for Toxic Exposures: An Integrated-Approach, 2nd Edition Henry J. McDermott Hoboken, NJ:John Wiley &...