Environmental Health Perspectives articles from November 2001

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from November 2001

Health consequences of the 11 September 2001 attacks. (Editorial).
November 1, 2001... The central question confronting the environmental health research community in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is to determine whether these horrific events on 11 September 2001 will have...

Comments on "bioaerosol lung damage in a worker with repeated exposure to fungi in a water-damaged building". (Correspondence).
November 1, 2001... In their case report of a worker with lung damage associated with microbial exposure, Trout et al. (1) emphasized the need for further research on markers of exposure to bioaerosols, particularly fungi that produce mycotoxins. The authors...

Bioaerosol lung damage: trout's response. (Correspondence).
November 1, 2001... In his letter referring to our recent paper in EHP(1), Sudakin points out that hypersensitivity lung diseases have been shown to be associated with exposure to thermophilic actinomycetes such as Thermoactinomyces vulgaris. Exposures to these...

Correction: exposure measurement error in time-series air pollution studies. (Correspondence).
November 1, 2001... David Mage pointed out an error in the first complete paragraph in the second column of page 423 in our paper "Exposure Measurement Error in Time-Series Studies of Air Pollution: Concepts and Consequences" (1). This section contains a brief...

Confirmation of uterotrophic activity for 4-MBC in the immature rat. (Correspondence).
November 1, 2001... Schlumpf et al. (1,2) reported that the ultraviolet (UV) sunscreen component 3-(4-methylbenzylidine)camphor (4-MBC) is uterotrophic when administered either in diet to immature Long-Evans rats or by whole body immersion of immature hairless...

Constructing rules for dismantling ships. (Hazardous Waste).
November 1, 2001... Labor groups, environmental activists, and shipping experts have begun finalizing international guidelines that would reduce threats from toxic substances released during the ship scrapping process and would protect the health and safety of...

EU sewers still not up to standard. (Urban Issues).
November 1, 2001... It was not the best news for Europe's major urban areas. At a March 2001 seminar on the European Commission's (EC) Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, environment commissioner Margot Wallstrom chided several European towns and cities,...

Brits breathing easier. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... In his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, University of Aarhus statistician Bjorn Lomborg contends that the air quality in London is better now than at any time since 1585. London's air quality saw its lowest point during the Great London...

Chemical companies commit to kids. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... Thirty-six chemical manufacturers have committed to providing essential data including hazard, exposure, and risk assessments for children on 20 commonly used commercial chemicals. The Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program was...

A hit with sand fly spit. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have developed a breakthrough vaccine with the potential to alleviate suffering for the estimated 12 million people worldwide affected with one of the leishmaniases, a...

New risk for newborns. (Children's Health).
November 1, 2001... In the September 2001 report Safety Assessment of Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) Released from PVC Medical Devices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that certain populations, particularly newborn males, may be at risk for...

Molding better plastics with clay. (Innovative Technologies).
November 1, 2001... The future may once have been mere plastics, but today the future is superplastics. Plastics are being treated with nanoparticles to create stronger, cleaner, more flame-resistant plastics. The concept dates back to experiments in the 1950s...

Preventing biological warfare. (Forum).
November 1, 2001... The Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, was created in response to initiatives taken by members of the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers) to form a British peace studies center...

Dialing information. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... Reacting to pressure from consumer groups, three of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers have announced that they will begin providing radiation information with their products. The information, to be included in user manuals for...

Saying good-bye to sulfur. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... Zero-sulfur gasoline and diesel fuels, which may contain no more than 10 ppm sulfur, should be available in all European Union countries beginning in January 2005 and will be mandatory in those countries by 2011, thanks to a European Commission...

Parks without puffers. (The Beat).
November 1, 2001... Children and others who use Los Angeles city and county parks will now be able to enjoy at least portions of them free of tobacco smoke. Officials announced in August that smoke-free zones would be established and enforced in all of the area's...

NIEHS responds to World Trade Center attacks. (NIEHS News).
November 1, 2001... The buildings have fallen. The worst of the fires are out. But environmental health hazards still exist in and around the ruins of the World Trade Center following the attacks of 11 September 2001. Workers at Ground Zero toil in a dangerous...

Environmental aftermath: "the World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace.... [T]he World Trade Center should ... become a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.". (Focus).
November 1, 2001... On 11 September 2001, over a million tons of steel, dust, and debris fell to earth on the island of Manhattan. Where once the two giant towers of the World Trade Center had stood, now ruins lay in clouds of smoke. The buildings, symbols of...

In memoriam: Kristin White. (Focus).
November 1, 2001... In the tragic events of 11 September 2001, we at EHP lost one of our own. Kristin White, a freelance science writer from New York City, was killed in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Pittsburgh. Kristin began writing for EHP in our...

Lt. Bill McGinn Memorial Lecture Fund. (Focus).
November 1, 2001... The Mount Sinai Department of Community and Preventive Medicine in New York City has established the Lt. Bill McGinn Memorial Lecture Fund. McGinn was a leader of Rescue Squad 18 of the New York City Fire Department. He had collaborated with...

The power of prevention: strengthening the BTWC. (Spheres of Influence).
November 1, 2001... In 1972, nearly half a century after the 1925 Geneva Protocol banned the use of biological weapons, international delegates began signing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), all international treaty that further bans their...

The Tokyo attacks in retrospect: sarin leads to memory loss. (Science Selections).
November 1, 2001... In the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., the threat posed by chemical and biological weapons has instantaneously evolved from hypothetical nightmare to clear and present danger. Under this...

Bad news for boys: linking hypospadias and endocrine disruptors. (Science Selections).
November 1, 2001... Hypospadias, or the arrested development of several parts of the penis, including the urethra, foreskin, and ventral surface, is usually not a topic for public discussion. But a review of research on the condition points to a link between...

How risky is rover?: petting transfers pesticides. (Science Selections).
November 1, 2001... Although children can be exposed to pesticides through many means, including carpets, house dust, and chemically treated lawns and gardens, one important potential source is pets treated with parasite control products. According to the American...

Increasing the sensitivity of the rodent uterotrophic assay to estrogens, with particular reference to Bisphenol A. (Commentary).
November 1, 2001... The gravimetric uterotrophic assay is currently the most well-established, short-term rodent estrogenicity assay. Increasing attention is being paid to the extent to which use of morphometric or molecular changes in the uterus could act as...

Bioavailability of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane ([D.sub.4]) after exposure to silicones by inhalation and implantation. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... We developed a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model to predict the target organ doses of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane ([D.sub.4]) after intravenous (IV), inhalation, or implantation exposures. The model used [sup.14]C-[D.sub.4] IV...

Development of immunoassays for biomonitoring of hexamethylene diisocyanate exposure. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) is used widely to manufacture polyurethanes for paints and coatings. It is an irritant and a chemical asthmagen. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration time-weighted average permissible exposure...

Transferable residues from dog fur and plasma cholinesterase inhibition in dogs treated with a flea control dip containing Chlorpyrifos. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... We studied chlorpyrifos, an insecticide present in a commercial dip for treating ectoparasites in dogs, to estimate the amount of transferable residues that children could obtain from their treated pets. Although the chlorpyrifos dip is no...

Validation of x-ray fluorescence-measured swine femur lead against atomic absorption spectrometry. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... The aim of this study was to apply the technique of [sup.109]Cd-based K-shell X-ray fluorescence (XRF) bone lead measurements to swine femurs and to validate the concentrations obtained therefrom against an independent chemical measurement of...

Increased incidence of cancer and asthma in houses built on a former dump area. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Twelve blockhouses were built in Helsinki in the 1970s on a former dump area containing industrial and household waste. We investigated whether the exposure to landfill caused cancer or other chronic diseases in the inhabitants of these houses....

Spontaneous abortion, sex ratio, and paternal occupational exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... There is conflicting research regarding an association between fetal death and paternal exposure to Agent Orange, a phenoxy herbicide widely used in Vietnam that was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Men who worked...

Breast-feeding among women exposed to polybrominated biphenyls in Michigan. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... In the early 1970s, the largest industrial accident in the United States resulted in widespread contamination of the food supply in Michigan with polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs). The chemical similarity of PBBs to compounds implicated as...

Individual variability in human tibia lead concentration. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Our aims in this study were to determine proximal-distal variability in adult human tibia lead concentration via electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) and to determine whether there were any differences between core...

The fate of trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate after application as growth promoters in cattle: environmental studies. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... The steroids trenbolone acetate (TbA) and melengestrol acetate (MGA) are licensed as growth promoters for farm animals in several meat-exporting countries. Although many studies have explored their safety for both animals and consumers, little...

Differential effects of two lots of Aroclor 1254: congener-specific analysis and neurochemical end points. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Aroclor 1254 is a widely studied commercial polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixture which, by definition, contains 54% chlorine by weight. Recent reports indicate substantial differences in the congener composition among Aroclor lots and hence...

Differential effects of two lots of Aroclor 1254 on enzyme induction, thyroid hormones, and oxidative stress. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Aroclor 1254 is a commercial mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which is defined as being 54% chlorine by weight. However, the congener composition varies from lot to lot. Two lots which have been used in toxicity studies, 124-191 and...

Effects of sarin on the nervous system in rescue team staff members and police officers 3 years after the Tokyo subway sarin attack. (Articles).
November 1, 2001... Although the clinical manifestations of acute sarin poisoning have been reported in detail, no comprehensive study of the chronic physical and psychiatric effects of acute sarin poisoning has been carried out. To clarify the chronic effects of...

Hypospadias and endocrine disruption: is there a connection? (Children's Health Review).
November 1, 2001... Hypospadias is one of the most common congenital anomalies in the United States, occurring in approximately 1 in 250 newborns or roughly 1 in 125 live male births. It is the result of arrested development of the urethra, foreskin, and ventral...

Distribution of 2,4-D in air and on surfaces inside residences after lawn applications: comparing exposure estimates from various media for young children.
November 1, 2001... We collected indoor air, surface wipes (floors, table tops, and window sills), and floor dust samples at multiple locations within 11 occupied and two unoccupied homes both before and after lawn application of the herbicide 2,4-D. We measured...

Postdoctoral fellowships for research training in cancer. (Fellowships, Grants & Awards).
November 1, 2001... The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) invites applications from junior scientists for training fellowships in those aspects of cancer research related to the agency's own program: epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental and...

Child Health Research Career Development Awards. (Fellowships, Grants & Awards).
November 1, 2001... The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supports a program of Child Health Research Career Development Awards (CHRCDAs) intended to develop resources to speed the transfer of knowledge gained through studies in...

Novel biomarkers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). (Fellowships, Grants & Awards).
November 1, 2001... The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) invites applications for research grants to identify novel biomarkers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a complex group of conditions associated with progressive...

Development of novel technologies for in vivo imaging. (Fellowships, Grants & Awards).
November 1, 2001... The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the NIEHS invite applications for the development of novel image acquisition or enhancement methods, which may incorporate limited pilot or clinical feasibility evaluations using either preclinical models...

Technologies for closing DNA sequence gaps and improving methods for obtaining the sequence of difficult-to-sequence regions. (Fellowships, Grants, & Awards).
November 1, 2001... The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) invites applications to develop strategies and technologies for obtaining DNA sequence in the gaps that, due to limitations in available cloning and sequencing technology, will remain in...

Calendar.
November 1, 2001... 2001 December 1-2 December, Sat-Sun. International Conference on Health Sciences & 9th International Congress on Alternative Medicines. Calcutta, India. Information: International Institute of Health Sciences & Indian Board of...

New books.
November 1, 2001... Agriculture, Hydrology and Water Quality P. Haygarth, S. Jarvis, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 416 pp. ISBN: 0-85199-545-4, $120 The Air We Breathe: Air Pollution in Hung Kong A. T. Chan, A. J. Hedley, P. R. Hills, J....