Environmental Health Perspectives articles from March 2006

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from March 2006

Epigenetics: environmental instructions for the genome.(Guest Editorial)
March 1, 2006... Understanding how the environments we are exposed to influence the diseases we contract and the severity of those diseases is a major goal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Although much effort has focused on...

Considering a society of environmental health science.(NIEHS DIRECTOR'S PERSPECTIVE)
March 1, 2006... Although it may seem counterintuitive, the more we learn about science, the more complex it becomes. This is particularly true in the field of environmental health science. As the field has evolved, we've come to realize that the environment...

The hazards of genetically engineered foods.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... "Genetically Modified Foods: Breeding Uncertainty" (Schmidt 2005) overlooked many serious concerns about the environmental and health risks of this new technology. Potential problems from antibiotic-resistant genes used in gene-altered crops,...

Credibility of scientists: industry versus public interest.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... In their article "Assessing the Reliability and Credibility of Industry Science and Scientists," Barrow and Conrad (2006) demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the nuances of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (1972). They accurately...

Credibility of scientists: conflict of interest and bias.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... In their commentary, Barrow and Conrad (2006), both employed by the chemical industry, argued that industry-funded science and scientists are high quality and unbiased, and this is enforced through policies and practices such as disclosure of...

Credibility of scientists: Barrow and Conrad respond.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... We appreciate Goozner's compliment that our commentary (Barrow and Conrad 2006) demonstrates "a sophisticated understanding of the nuances of the Federal Advisory Committee Act." We wish we could take credit for "accurately point[ing] out that...

Methylmercury, amalgams, and children's health.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... In their excellent article, Bjornberg et al. (2005) stated that exposure to methylmercury in humans occurs primarily through fish consumption. We would like to make one observation about the sources of potential exposure to methylmercury in the...

Methylmercury, amalgams, and children's health: Bjornberg et al. respond.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... We acknowledge the points raised by Guzzi et al. regarding our recent publication on the transport of methylmercury and inorganic mercury to the fetus and breast-fed infant (Bjornberg et al. 2005). The issue is whether the methylation of...

Smoking in pregnancy.(Perspectives: Correspondence)
March 1, 2006... Zanardo et al. (2005) raise an interesting issue in their article, namely, the influence of smoking on immunologic parameters and especially on the composition of human breast milk. The findings deserve notice and further investigation. ...

New environment law for Afghanistan.(Policy)
March 1, 2006... In April 2005, Afghan president Harold Karzai established the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), the country's first such entity. The event was strictly ceremonial, since Afghanistan still had no legal tool for environmental...

Bowled over by dust.(Asthma)
March 1, 2006... A common substance in house dust is a major risk factor for asthma, according to work reported in the 1 December 2005 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The study charted room-by-room distribution of...

Supersized sun power.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... At the end of 2004, the United States had 397 megawatts of solar energy capacity. Now two Southern California utility companies plan to harness the state's abundant sunshine for two solar-powered plants that will produce more electricity than...

Green buses for Beijing Olympics.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... Beijing has signed a contract to replace 7,277 older city buses with new ones that meet higher environmental standards as part of its plan to host a "green" Olympic Games in 2008. The November 2005 decision is also in line with the city's...

West Africa adopts fishing plan.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... Fish currently provides nearly a quarter of the protein in the African diet, yet sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in which the per-capita availability of fish is declining. To help ensure the security of this food source, government...

The clear advantage of clean air.(Economics)
March 1, 2006... Regulations addressing environmental problems such as air pollution might be dismissed as a luxury for rich countries that can afford it, but members of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) insist that such measures actually represent the most...

Bans, bans, good for the heart!(Smoking)
March 1, 2006... Could moving to Pueblo, Colorado, be a new way to reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack? A study reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2005 Conference in Dallas last November suggests that the city's ban on...

International year of deserts.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... Arid land covers one-third of the Earth's surface. Each day, more arable land is lost to advancing deserts and more people fall victim to drought. In recognition of these problems, the UN has declared 2006 the International Year of Deserts and...

Mercury warnings go multilingual.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... In November 2005, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance requiring that markets and restaurants post warnings in English, Chinese, and Spanish that certain fish may contain harmful levels of mercury. The measure...

Detoxifying dust bunnies.(The Beat)
March 1, 2006... Nearly one-fourth of the housing units in the United States have significant levels of lead present in dust, soil, or paint. Now researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health report in the 15 January 2006 issue of...

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.(ehp net)
March 1, 2006... The Cambridge, United Kingdom--based Wellcome Trust Sanger institute (WTSI) was founded in 1993 to provide a center for research on the genomes of humans and other organisms. The institute has been a leading contributor to the Human Genome...

Moving on in Vietnam.(Environews: NIEHS News)
March 1, 2006... War and unrest mark the history of Vietnam. For hundreds of years, Vietnam has fought a number of foreign invaders including the French, Japanese, and Chinese. The U.S.--Vietnam War was just one of several chapters in this history, ending in...

Beyond the bench: tracking clues with environmental health sleuths.(Environews: NIEHS News)
March 1, 2006... Who doesn't love a good mystery? Add in detailed, interactive information on the latest environmental health research, and you've got the basic concept behind Unsolved Mysteries of Human Health: How Scientists Study Toxic Chemicals, a project...

Neurobehavioral deficits in children from agricultural communities.(Headliners: Pesticides: NIEHS-Supported Research)
March 1, 2006... Rohlman DS. Arcury TA, Quandt SA, Lasarev M. Rothlein J, Travers R, et al. 2005. Neurobehavioral performance in preschool children from agricultural and non-agricultural communities in Oregon and North Carolina. Neurotoxicology 26:589-598. ...

Epigenetics: the science of change.(Environews: Focus)
March 1, 2006... For nearly a century after the term "epigenetics" first surfaced on the printed page, researchers, physicians, and others poked around in the dark crevices of the gene, trying to untangle the clues at suggested gene function could be altered by...

Open house: the ethics of studying children at home.(Environews: Spheres of Influence)
March 1, 2006... Home is where the heart is, but for children, home all too often can be where the danger is--danger of exposure to lead, asthma triggers, pesticides, safety hazards, and other potential sources of harm. Those risks are disproportionately common...

Cell scenario: a new look at microarrays.(Environews: Innovations)
March 1, 2006... The field generally known as cell-based analysis started in the 1970s with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, which tracked levels of proteins in cells. Next came DNA microarrays that measured thousands of genes simultaneously. Today...

Sour finding on popular sweetener: increased cancer incidence associated with low-dose aspartame intake.(Environews: Science Selections)
March 1, 2006... More than 20 years have elapsed since aspartame was approved by regulatory agencies as an artificial sweetener. But scientists draw conclusions on carcinogenicity based on the evidence available at the time, and new research out of the European...

The cancer differential: minorities in racially segregated urban areas at higher risk than whites.(Environews: Science Selections)
March 1, 2006... Nearly 80% of the U.S. population lives in metropolitan areas. With continued growth of urban centers has come increased study of the connection between the built environment, social inequality, and the health and well-being of inhabitants of...

Sperm alert: semen quality decline linked to ozone pollution.(Environews: Science Selections)
March 1, 2006... Some recent studies examining the effect of environmental hazards on fertility claim that sperm counts are declining in certain industrialized countries. Although the validity of these findings is uncertain, most researchers agree that if there...

Keeping the home fires burning cleaner: solid fuel use, health, and the millennium development goals.(Environews: Science Selections)
March 1, 2006... Many people in industrialized nations give little thought to central heating, electric lighting, and flick-of-a-switch cooking. But more than half of the people in the world rely on solid fuels to heat and light their homes and cook their food....

The NIH Blueprint for neuroscience research.(Announcements: NIEHS Extramural Update)
March 1, 2006... Disorders of the nervous system affect one in three Americans and present an extraordinary challenge for health science research. As part of its broad mission to understand the interplay between environmental factors and genetic susceptibility...

Parenting capacities and health outcomes in youths and adolescents (R21).(Announcements: Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
March 1, 2006... This program announcement solicits research aimed at increasing parenting capacities while simultaneously focusing on the reduction, elimination, or prevention of one or more high-risk health behaviors or poor health habits in youth and...

Calendar.(Calendar)
March 1, 2006... EHP researches and posts conferences, meetings, seminars, and other events related to environmental health. To inquire about listing your event on the EHP Calendar, please e-mail ehpads@brogan.com. These events were last updated on December 22,...

From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth.
March 1, 2006... From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth Edited by Dennis Pirages and Ken Cousins Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2005. 268 pp. ISBN: 0-262-16231-8, $60 In the face of declining resource availability coupled...

New books.(Announcements)
March 1, 2006... A Handbook of Globalisation and Environmental Policy Frank Wijen, Jan Pieters, eds. Northampton, MA:Edward Elgar, 2005. 768 pp. ISBN: 1-84376-913-1, $229.50 Biological and Pharmaceutical Nanomatarials Challa S.S.R. Kumar, ed. Hoboken,...

Policy implications of genetic information on regulation under the clean air act: the case of particulate matter and asthmatics.(Commentary)
March 1, 2006... The U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA) explicitly guarantees the protection of sensitive human subpopulations from adverse health effects associated with air pollution exposure. Identified subpopulations, such as asthmatics, may carry multiple genetic...

A review of nitrates in drinking water: maternal exposure and adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes.
March 1, 2006... In this review we present an update on maternal exposure to nitrates in drinking water in relation to possible adverse reproductive and developmental effects, and also discuss nitrates in drinking water in the United States. The current...

Instillation of six different ultrafine carbon particles indicates a surface area threshold dose for acute lung inflammation in mice.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Increased levels of particulate air pollution are associated with increased respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Some epidemiologic and toxicologic research suggests ultrafine particles (UFPs) (< 100 nm) to be more harmful...

The impact of diet and betel nut use on skin lesions associated with drinking-water arsenic in Pabna, Bangladesh.(Research)
March 1, 2006... An established exposure-response relationship exists between water arsenic levels and skin lesions. Results of previous studies with limited historical exposure data, and laboratory animal studies suggest that diet may modify arsenic metabolism...

Correlation of in vitro cytokine responses with the chemical composition of soil-derived particulate matter.(Research)
March 1, 2006... We treated human lung epithelial cells, type BEAS-2B, with 10-80 [micro]g/[cm.sup.2] of dust from soils and road surfaces in the western United States that contained particulate matter (PM) < 2.5 pm aerodynamic diameter. Cell viability and...

Graded associations of blood lead and urinary cadmium concentrations with oxidative-stress-related markers in the u.s. population: results from the third national health and nutrition examination survey.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Although oxidative stress has been proposed as a mechanism of lead and cadmium toxicity mostly based on in vitro experiments or animal studies, it is uncertain whether this mechanism is relevant in the pathogenesis of lead- or cadmium-related...

Prevalence of arsenic exposure from drinking water and awareness of its health risks in a Bangladeshi population: results from a large population-based study.(Research)
March 1, 2006... We conducted a population-based prevalence survey in Araihazar, Bangladesh, to describe the distribution of arsenic exposure in a rural Bangladeshi population and to assess the population's awareness to this problem as well as to possible...

Exposure to environmental ozone alters semen quality.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Idiopathic male infertility may be due to exposure to environmental toxicants that alter spermatogenesis or sperm function. We studied the relationship between air pollutant levels and semen quality over a 2-year period in Los Angeles,...

A human-health risk assessment for West Nile virus and insecticides used in mosquito management.(Research)
March 1, 2006... West Nile virus (WNV) has been a major public health concern in North America since 1999, when the first outbreak in the Western Hemisphere occurred in New York City. As a result of this ongoing disease outbreak, management of mosquitoes that...

Assessing household solid fuel use: multiple implications for the Millennium Development Goals.(Research)
March 1, 2006... OBJECTIVE: The World Health Organization is the agency responsible for reporting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicator "percentage of population using solid fuels." In this article, we present the results of a comprehensive assessment...

First experimental demonstration of the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered in the feed to Sprague-Dawley rats.(Research)(Obituary)
March 1, 2006... The Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the European Ramazzini Foundation has conducted a long-term bioassay on aspartame (APM), a widely used artificial sweetener. APM was administered with feed to 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats...

Separate and unequal: residential segregation and estimated cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics in U.S. metropolitan areas.(Research)
March 1, 2006... This study examines links between racial residential segregation and estimated ambient air toxics exposures and their associated cancer risks using modeled concentration estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Air...

Distinct gene expression profiles in immortalized human urothelial cells exposed to inorganic arsenite and its methylated trivalent metabolites.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Inorganic arsenic is an environmental carcinogen. The generation of toxic trivalent methylated metabolites complicates the study of arsenic-mediated carcinogenesis. This study systematically evaluated the effect of chronic treatment with sodium...

Global gene expression associated with hepatocarcinogenesis in adult male mice induced by in utero arsenic exposure.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Our previous work has shown that exposure to inorganic arsenic in utero produces hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adult male mice. To explore further the molecular mechanisms of transplacental arsenic hepatocarcinogenesis, we conducted a...

Systemic microvascular dysfunction and inflammation after pulmonary particulate matter exposure.(Research)
March 1, 2006... The epidemiologic association between pulmonary exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and cardiovascular dysfunction is well known, but the systemic mechanisms that drive this effect remain unclear. We have previously shown that acute...

Meeting report: Validation of Toxicogenomics-Based Test Systems: ECVAM-ICCVAM/NICEATM considerations for regulatory use.(Research)
March 1, 2006... This is the report of the first workshop "Validation of Toxicogenomics-Based Test Systems!' held 11-12 December 2003 in Ispra, Italy. The workshop was hosted by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) and organized...

Meeting report: application of genotyping methods to assess risks from Cryptosporidium in watersheds.
March 1, 2006... A workshop titled "Application of Genotyping Methods to Assess Pathogen Risks from Cryptosporidium in Drinking Water Catchments" was held at the International Water Association biennial conference, Marrakech, Morocco, 23 September 2004. The...

Workgroup report: implementing a national occupational reproductive research agenda--decade one and beyond.(Research)
March 1, 2006... The initial goal of occupational reproductive health research is to effectively study the many toxicants, physical agents, and biomechanical and psychosocial stressors that may constitute reproductive hazards in the workplace. Although the main...

Workgroup report: indoor chemistry and health.(Research)
March 1, 2006... Chemicals present in indoor air can react with one another, either in the gas phase or on surfaces, altering the concentrations of both reactants and products. Such chemistry is often the major source of free radicals and other short-lived...

Integrated assessment of environment and health: America's children and the environment.(Research: Children's Health)
March 1, 2006... The significance of the environment for health is increasingly being recognized. There is a need for systematic approaches to assessment of environmental factors most relevant to health, health outcomes most influenced by the environment, and...

Using biologic markers in blood to assess exposure to multiple environmental chemicals for inner-city children 3-6 years of age.(Research: Children's Health)
March 1, 2006... We assessed concurrent exposure to a mixture of > 50 environmental chemicals by measuring the chemicals or their metabolites in the blond of 43 ethnically diverse children (3-6 years of age) from a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood...

Chromium on the hands of children after playing in playgrounds built from chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood.(Research: Children's Health)
March 1, 2006... Children's exposure to arsenic and chromium from playground equipment constructed with chromated copper arsenate (CCA)--treated wood is a potential concern because of children's hand-to-mouth activity. However, there exists no direct measure of...

Childhood correlates of blood lead levels in Mumbai and Delhi.(Research: Children's Health)
March 1, 2006... BACKGROUND: Lead exposure has previously been associated with intellectual impairment in children in a number of international studies. In India, it has been reported that nearly half of the children have elevated blood lead levels (BLLs)....

Altered breast development in young girls from an agricultural environment.(Research: Children's Health)
March 1, 2006... In several human populations, the age at which female breast development begins is reported to have declined over the last five decades. Much debate has occurred over whether this reported decline has actually occurred and what factors...