Environmental Health Perspectives articles from October 2004

Environmental Health Perspectives archives from October 2004

Embracing scrutiny.(Editorial)
October 1, 2004... Scientists are accustomed to scrutiny such as experimental protocol reviews, oversight on research conduct, and critiques provided during the peer-review publication process. We especially anticipate the post-publication period during which...

The National Children's Study: a critical national investment.(Editorial)
October 1, 2004... Patterns of disease in American children have changed dramatically in the past 200 years. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and tuberculosis notwithstanding, vaccines, antibiotics, and improved...

Association between air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Vancouver.(Perspectives / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... In the November 2003 issue of EHP, Liu et al. (2003) concluded that "relatively low concentrations of gaseous air pollutants are associated with adverse effects on birth outcomes." Although this may be true from a purely statistical sense,...

Air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes: response.(Perspectives / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... We thank Bukowski for his critical comments on our article (Liu et al. 2003), in which we reported associations between ambient air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Vancouver, Canada. In recent years, air pollution has come to be...

Bhopal: no silver linings.(Perspectives / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... I read with interest the article "Lessons Learned? Chemical Plant Safety since Bhopal," by Ernie Hood (2004). I would recommend it to all interested in safety in chemical plants or safety in other fields. As mentioned in the article (Hood...

Study on failures to disclose conflicts of interest in Environmental Health Perspectives.(Perspectives / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently investigated conflict of interest disclosures in a cross-section of leading scientific and medical journals, including EHP, to determine adherence to their own policies. EHP's...

Conflicts of interest: Blumberg's response.(Perspective / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... In his letter, Goozner suggested that I may have failed to disclose a competing financial interest in regard to an article published in EHP. In this article, "Highly Chlorinated PCBs Inhibit the Human Xenobiotic Response Mediated by the Steroid...

Childhood leukemia, military aviation facilities, and population mixing.(Perspectives / Correspondence)
October 1, 2004... In a recent article on the striking cluster of childhood leukemia in 2000-2001 near the Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada, Steinmaus et al. (2004) referred to the potential relevance of rural-urban population mixing. The population-mixing...

The opposite of obesity: undernutrition overwhelms the world's children.(Children's Health)
October 1, 2004... An alarming number of studies report that overnutrition and the resulting obesity are a growing health problem for children in industrialized nations and even some developing ones. The explosion of such studies might seem to suggest that...

Sweet candy, bitter poison.(Lead)
October 1, 2004... For years, scientists and health experts have traced child lead exposures to paint, leaded gasoline, soils, dust, lead-soldered cans and water pipes, and lead-glazed pottery. More recently, tests have shown that something as presumably...

e-hospitals for better care.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... In July 2004 DHHS secretary Tommy Thompson announced a 10-year plan to improve the delivery of health care across the nation using electronic health records. The plan--initiated by President Bush in April--calls for continuously updated and...

WHO launches children's health resources.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... The World Health Organization has unveiled several new resources on children's environmental health. An "e-library" CD-ROM contains more than 100 documents concerning children's environmental health. Children's Health and the Environment: A...

Tragic trinkets.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a record-breaking recall in July 2004 when it announced that 150 million toy bracelets, rings, and necklaces should be removed from the market or discarded by parents because they contain high...

Funds for phones.(Recycling)
October 1, 2004... Americans will retire about 100 million cell phones this year when they switch to new models or new carriers, according to INFORM, a nonprofit environmental research group. Many go into the trash, ending up in landfills, and still more are...

Farm chore checkup.(Agriculture)
October 1, 2004... Nearly 23,000 children are hurt doing farmwork in the United States each year, and approximately 100 children are killed, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. To combat this problem, the National Children's Center for...

NIEHS Environmental Health Science Education.(ehp net)
October 1, 2004... Although the NIEHS is known primarily as a research institution, the institute is also charged with making its findings openly accessible to the public. As one of its efforts in this area, the NIEHS has developed its Environmental Health...

Preservation masterpiece.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... Ozone-depleting methyl bromide was once the fumigant of choice for protecting museum artifacts against insects and mold. But with the chemical's scheduled phase-out in January 2005, an alternative is gaining ground in museums around the world....

European child health plan adopted.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... In June 2004, the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health adopted the Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe. The plan includes regional priority goals for ensuring children's access to safe drinking water and...

A vaccine for medical waste burning.(The Beat)
October 1, 2004... The NGO Health Care Without Harm has teamed with the Philippines Department of Health to prove large-scale immunizations can be conducted without the burning of medical waste. Incineration of syringes, needles, and other medical waste releases...

Mission: educational.(Environews / NIEHS News)
October 1, 2004... The mission of the NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes by understanding the interrelationship between environmental factors, individual susceptibility, and age. The institute pursues this...

Parental chemical exposures and ras mutations in children.(Headliners: Chemical Exposures and Childhood Leukemia)
October 1, 2004... Shu xo, Perentesis JP, Wen w, Buckley JD, Boyle E, Ross JA, Robison LL; Children's Oncology Group. 2004. Parental exposure to medications and hydrocarbons and ras mutations in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a report from the...

National meeting breaks the mold.(Environews / NIEHS News)
October 1, 2004... As the 2004 hurricane season nears its end after an unprecedented run of flooding and other water damage, attention is turning once again to the health effects of toxic mold infestation. Exposure to mold in residential, public, and commercial...

Hunting down fugitive literature.(beyond the BENCH)
October 1, 2004... The first step to becoming a successful fugitive is to abandon all forms of conventional identification--driver's license, passport, checking account. People who stay out of the commercial realm are extremely hard to find. The same is true of...

Sister study launched nationwide.(Environews / NIEHS News)
October 1, 2004... Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed form of cancer among U.S. women, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in this group. For the year 2003 alone, the NCI estimated more...

Setting a new syllabus: environmental health science in the classroom.(Environews / Focus)(Cover Story)
October 1, 2004... In the last few decades, the importance of the relationship between humans and the environment has become prominent in the social consciousness. Recognition of this importance has come from new understanding of environmental health issues,...

The fat of the land: do agricultural subsidies foster poor health?(Environews: Spheres of Influence)
October 1, 2004... Ever since the Great Depression, American farmers have been the beneficiaries of a medley of subsidies and support programs meant to stabilize crop prices, keep farmers farming, and provide U.S. families with an affordable, reliable supply of...

Cellular energy crisis: particulate hitchhikers damage mitochondria.(Environews / Science Selections)
October 1, 2004... One of the body's most important processes--energy production by mitochondria in the cell--can be significantly disrupted by exposure to ultrafine particulates, according to a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles,...

Measuring by hand: arsenic picked up from the playground.(Environews / Science Selections)
October 1, 2004... Several nations today ban or severely restrict the use of wood preserved with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), but many existing structures still remain--for example, about 70% of existing U.S. single-family homes and 14% of public playgrounds...

Application of benzo(a)pyrene and coal tar tumor dose-response data to a modified benchmark dose method of guideline development.(Research / Article)
October 1, 2004... Assessment of cancer risk from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been traditionally conducted by applying the conservative linearized multistage (LMS) model to animal tumor data for benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), considered the...

Quinones and aromatic chemical compounds in particulate matter induce mitochondrial dysfunction: implications for ultrafine particle toxicity.(Research / Article)
October 1, 2004... Particulate pollutants cause adverse health effects through the generation of oxidative stress. A key question is whether these effects are mediated by the particles or their chemical compounds. In this article we show that aliphatic, aromatic,...

Acute infections and environmental exposure to organochlorines in inuit infants from Nunavik.(Environmental Medicine / Article)
October 1, 2004... The Inuit population of Nunavik (Canada) is exposed to immunotoxic organochlorines (OCs) mainly through the consumption of fish and marine mammal fat. We investigated the effect of perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and...

Does particulate air pollution contribute to infant death? A systematic review.(Children's Health / Review)
October 1, 2004... There is now substantial evidence that both short- and long-term increases in ambient air pollution are associated with increased mortality and morbidity in adults and children. Children's health is particularly vulnerable to environmental...

Drinking-water nitrate, methemoglobinemia, and global burden of disease: a discussion.(Children's Health / Review)
October 1, 2004... On behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), I have undertaken a series of literature-based investigations examining the global burden of disease related to a number of environmental risk factors associated with drinking water. In this...

Arsenic on the hands of children after playing in playgrounds.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... Increasing concerns over the use of wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) in playground structures arise from potential exposure to arsenic of children playing in these playgrounds. Limited data from previous studies analyzing...

Effect of breast milk lead on infant blood lead levels at 1 month of age.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... Nursing infants may be exposed to lead from breast milk, but relatively few data exist with which to evaluate and quantify this relationship. This route of exposure constitutes a potential infant hazard from mothers with current ongoing...

Outdoor, indoor, and personal exposure to VOCs in children.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... We measured volatile organic compound (VOC) exposures in multiple locations for a diverse population of children who attended two inner-city schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fifteen common VOCs were measured at four locations: outdoors (O),...

The association between asthma and allergic symptoms in children and phthalates in house dust: a nested case-control study.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... Global phthalate ester production has increased from very low levels at the end of World War II to approximately 3.5 million metric tons/year. The aim of the present study was to investigate potential associations between persistent allergic...

Estimated risk for altered fetal growth resulting from exposure to fine particles during pregnancy: an epidemiologic prospective cohort study in Poland.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... The purpose of this study was to estimate exposure of pregnant women in Poland to fine particulate matter [[less than or equal to] 2.5 [micro]m in diameter (P[M.sub.2.5])] and to assess its effect on the birth outcomes. The cohort consisted of...

Paternal occupational exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and birth outcomes of offspring: birth weight, preterm delivery, and birth defects.(Children's Health / Article)
October 1, 2004... Agent Orange is a phenoxy herbicide that was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). We studied pregnancy outcomes among wives of male chemical workers who were highly exposed to chemicals contaminated with TCDD and among...

National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program: bridging the information gap.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... In January 2001 the Pew Environmental Health Commission called for the creation of a coordinated public health system to prevent disease in the United States by tracking and combating environmental health threats. In response, the Centers for...

Identifying priority health conditions, environmental data, and infrastructure needs: a synopsis of the pew environmental health tracking project.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... In this article we describe the methodologic approaches of the Pew Environmental Health Commission at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health used to identify priority environmental health conditions and develop recommendations to...

Developing a comprehensive pesticide health effects tracking system for an urban setting: New York City's approach.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... In recent years, there have been substantial investments and improvements in federal and state surveillance systems to track the health effects from pesticide exposure. These surveillance systems help to identify risk factors for occupational...

Tracking pediatric asthma: the Massachusetts experience using school health records.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, initiated a 3-year statewide project for the routine surveillance of asthma...

Using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for exposure tracking: experiences from Washington State.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... One of the goals of the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network is to link environmental data with chronic disease data as a means of improving our understanding of the environmental determinants of disease. Such efforts will rely...

Wisconsin's environmental public health tracking network: information systems design for childhood cancer surveillance.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... In this article we describe the development of an information system for environmental childhood cancer surveillance. The Wisconsin Cancer Registry annually receives more than 25,000 incident case reports. Approximately 269 cases per year...

Statistical methods for linking health, exposure, and hazards.(Public Health Tracking / Mini-Monograph)
October 1, 2004... The Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (EPHTN) proposes to link environmental hazards and exposures to health outcomes. Statistical methods used in case-control and cohort studies to link health outcomes to individual exposure...

MERIT award winners.(Announcements / NIEHS Extramural Update)
October 1, 2004... The NIEHS is pleased to announce that Raymond F. Burk, a professor of pathology and director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Gerd P. Pfeifer, a professor and chair of the Division of Biology...

Novel approaches to enhance animal stem cell research.(Announcements / Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
October 1, 2004... The purpose of this program announcement (PA) is to encourage research to enhance animal stem cells as model biological systems. Innovative approaches to isolate, characterize, and identify totipotent and multipotent stem cells from nonhuman...

Supplements to promote reentry into biomedical and behavioral research careers.(Announcements / Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
October 1, 2004... The participating institutes and centers of the NIH, along with the Office of Research on Women's Health, announce a continuing program for administrative supplements to research grants to support individuals with high potential to reenter an...

Understanding and promoting health literacy.(Announcements / Fellowships, Grants, & Awards)
October 1, 2004... The participating institutes, centers, and offices of the NIH and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) invite investigators to submit research grant applications on health literacy. The goal of this program announcement (PA) is...

Calendar.(Announcements)(Calendar)
October 1, 2004... 2004 October 25-26 October, Mon-Tue. Toxicogenomic Fundamentals: An Educational Series sponsored by Gene Logic. Gaithersburg, Maryland. Information: Education and Customer Support, Gene Logic Inc., 610 Professional Drive,...

Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health.
October 1, 2004... National Research Council and Institute of Medicine Washington, DC:National Academies Press, 2004. 210 pp. ISBN: 0-309-09249-3, $44.95 cloth. Children's Health, The Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health examines the...

New books.(Announcements)
October 1, 2004... America's Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? Harvey Blatt Cambridge, MA:MIT Press, 2004. 272 pp. ISBN 0-262-02572-8, $27.95 Climate Change--Environment and Civilization in the Middle East Arie S. Issar, Mattanyah Zohar...