Volunteers gathering mussels to gauge health of shoreline waters. The tiny black bivalves dislodged on a frigid afternoon were too puny for any self-respecting chef to serve up on a steaming plate. No, these mussels were headed for an eventual trip to a Texas lab where scientists plan to sample their tissues for more than 100 contaminants. Everett Herald 2012-02-04T09:00-05:00
High levels of mercury found in Minnesota's North Shore babies. One in 10 babies along Minnesota's North Shore are born with unhealthy levels of mercury in their bodies, according to a new report on contamination around Lake Superior, the first to look for the pollutant in the blood of U.S. infants. Minneapolis Star Tribune 2012-02-03T09:00-05:00
Genetically speaking, captivity is fishy business. It takes just a single generation in captivity to genetically change a wild fish's offspring so they are less able to reproduce in the wild, report researchers who studied three generations of the endangered steelhead fish from Oregon's Hood River. Environmental Health News 2012-02-03T09:00-05:00
Obesogens: An environmental link to obesity. Many remain wedded to poor diet and lack of exercise as the sole causes of obesity. However, researchers are gathering convincing evidence of chemical “obesogens”—dietary, pharmaceutical, and industrial compounds that may alter metabolic processes and predispose some people to gain weight. Environmental Health Perspectives 2012-02-02T09:00-05:00
"Skin deep" in more ways than one. Very little if any media attention or research has looked at the possible connections between African American beauty salons, the personal care products utilized primarily by Black women and adverse health outcomes, specifically in the area of reproductive health. But that has begun to change. San Francisco Bay View 2012-02-01T09:00-05:00
Smoking during pregnancy has lasting effects on daughters. Women were more likely to be obese, have high blood pressure or have gestational diabetes during pregnancy if their mother smoked while pregnant, finds a study of more than 70,000 women in Norway. Environmental Health News 2012-02-01T09:00-05:00
Frederick vom Saal wants FDA to ban BPA, endocrine disruptors. For the past 20 years, much of University of Missouri biology professor Frederick vom Saal’s research, thoughts and time have converged into one point: trying to get endocrine disruptors — chemicals that interfere with the hormone system and can cause obesity, infertility and cancer — out of daily use. Columbia Missourian 2012-01-31T09:00-05:00
A new target in fighting brain disease: Metals. Research into how iron, copper, zinc and other metals work in the brain may help unlock some of the secrets of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Wall Street Journal 2012-01-31T09:00-05:00
Alzheimer's-like brain changes seen in young who breathed polluted air. Children and young adults from areas with highly polluted air in Mexico had physical and genetic changes in their brains akin to those found in adults with Alzheimer's disease. The changes seen are surprising because they are not supposed to occur in younger brains. Environmental Health News 2012-01-30T09:00-05:00
The Great Escape: Gene-altered crops grow wild. Throughout North Dakota, little yellow flowers dot thousands of miles of roadsides. These canola plants, found along most major trucking routes, look harmless. But they are fueling a controversy: They prove that large numbers of genetically modified plants have escaped from farm fields and are now growing wild. Environmental Health News 2012-01-27T09:00-05:00
Fundamental changes to EPA's research enterprise: The path forward. Environmental protection in the United States has reached a critical juncture. It has become clear that to address the complex and interrelated environmental challenges we face, we must augment our traditional approaches. Chemical & Engineering News 2012-01-26T09:00-05:00
Gas cooking emissions may stifle infant development. A new study from Spain reports that infants born to mothers who cooked with gas stoves had slightly lower intelligence scores at ages 1 and 2 than those in homes without gas cookers. In homes with gas, infant scores were better if there was an exhaust fan above the stove. Environmental Health News 2012-01-26T09:00-05:00
Children near DuPont plant exposed to more PFOA than moms. Children living near DuPont’s plant in West Virginia are exposed to much higher concentrations of an industrial chemical than their mothers, according to a newly published study. Children under 5, who are exposed from drinking water as well as their mothers’ breast milk, had 44 percent more of the chemical in their blood than their mothers. The study was undertaken by scientists who have spent seven years trying to determine whether the DuPont chemical is making people sick in the Mid-Ohio Valley. The discovery about moms and their children comes as scientists elsewhere linked the chemical, known as PFOA, and related chemicals to reduced effectiveness of childhood vaccinations. The compounds are used to manufacture Teflon cookware, food packaging and other products. Environmental Health News 2012-01-25T09:00-05:00
Chemical may make vaccines less effective, study says. Researchers have found that children exposed to the toxic chemical C8, also known as PFOA, may experience reduced effectiveness of childhood vaccinations, according to a new study being published Wednesday in JAMA. Charleston Gazette 2012-01-25T09:00-05:00
America's health threat: poor urban design. Researchers can have revelatory moments in remarkable places—the African savannah, an ancient library, or the ruins of a lost civilization. But Richard J. Jackson's epiphany occurred in 1999 in a banal American landscape: a dismal stretch of the car-choked Buford Highway, near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Chronicle of Higher Education 2012-01-25T09:00-05:00
The rise of antibiotic resistance: Consequences of FDA's inaction. With the occasional exception, FDA has failed for decades to take meaningful action on the misuse of antibiotics in food animal production -- misuse that directly contributes to the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and compromises our ability to treat bacterial infections. The Atlantic 2012-01-23T09:00-05:00
Kids' leukemia risk rose near French nuclear plants. While the U.S. government is investigating whether people who live in San Clemente are more prone to cancer – and whether their proximity to San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has anything to do with anything — French scientists have come to their own disturbing conclusions. Orange County Register 2012-01-21T09:00-05:00
Dry-cleaning chemical can increase risk of bipolar disorder: Study. A new study has found early exposure to a chemical commonly used in dry-cleaning, tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethylene or PCE), can increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress syndrome. Toronto Star 2012-01-20T09:00-05:00
Pessimistically, lead may taint your outlook. Lead exposure may increase lifelong pessimism, according to a new study. Researchers found that lead levels in aging men were associated with increased pessimism even after controlling for other important factors such as socioeconomic status. Environmental Health News 2012-01-20T09:00-05:00
Eating mercury-tainted fish affects essential stress hormones in children. A new study raises concern about children's exposure to mercury through fish eating, tying it for the first time to hormone changes that increase chronic stress and associated immune system dysfunction. The highest mercury levels detected in the study had about 20-25 percent lower cortisol in saliva samples compared with lowest mercury levels. Environmental Health News 2012-01-19T09:00-05:00
Programmed to be fat? Controversial new science is raising suspicion that chemicals in the environment may be programming us to be fat. And it starts before we’re even born. Scientists suspect that, starting in the womb, man-made chemicals may be triggering changes to our metabolism that result in life-long weight gain. The Nature of Things 2012-01-16T09:00-05:00
Early-life exposures to solvent linked to drug abuse. A new study found that higher in utero and childhood exposure to a solvent known as PCE, or tetrachloroethylene, increased the risk of cigarette, drug, and alcohol use as a teenager and young adult. Environmental Health News 2012-01-16T09:00-05:00
Nurses' miscarriages linked to chemicals at work. A new study reports that nurses who worked with chemotherapy drugs or sterilizing chemicals were twice as likely to have a miscarriage as their colleagues who didn't handle these materials. Reuters 2012-01-14T09:00-05:00
No safe lead level for children. Because many of the effects of lead on young children are irreversible, they have troubling implications for the potential children will reach as adults. While current lead guidelines are based on the premise of a safe threshold, a committee of the Centers for Disease Control says new data has challenged the premise. The Atlantic 2012-01-12T09:00-05:00
Plasticizer increases miscarriage risk. In the first study of its kind, scientists in Denmark report that women exposed near the time of conception to relatively common levels of a particular phthalate are more likely to experience early pregnancy loss compared to women with lower exposures. Environmental Health News 2012-01-12T09:00-05:00
Are we programmed to be fat? A baby in the womb is exposed to man-made chemicals that may set the child up for obesity later in life. That's the message in "Programmed to Be Fat?" a documentary airing on CBC's The Nature of Things Thursday that looks at the controversial new science linking environmental chemicals to the obesity epidemic. Toronto Star 2012-01-11T09:00-05:00