News Articles of Interest
IQ Effects of Childhood Lead Exposure Perist With Age
New evidence suggests childhood lead exposure may have a persistent and irreversible effect on IQ during the adult years. A 30 year follow-up study in Boston found that even low level exposure to lead during childhood – that is, at or below the U.S. level of concern of 10 µg/dL – may impair adult cognitive function enough to lower IQ scores. Click here to read the article.
Widely Used But Just Tested Pesticides May Contribute to Infertility
Several newly tested pesticides can block male hormone receptors in ways that could affect fertility in men, report researchers who tested the chemicals' hormonal actions in human cells. They report that 23 widely used pesticides – including nine previously untested chemicals – can block the androgen hormone receptor in the cells. The chemicals vary in use, including as fungicides on crops and food, as wood preservatives and in industrial applications. Click here to read more.
PBDEs: Small Differences, Big Toxic Changes
Small changes in the chemical structures of flame retardants – specifically, the number and location of attached groups – determined how they interacted with key cell receptors, report researchers in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The chemicals with fewer groups in specific locations changed receptor activity in ways that altered human kidney cells and affected the survival of rat brain cells. These are the same types of flame retardents that accumulate the most in human and animal tissues. This study is important because it furthers our understanding of the toxic effects of widely-used flame retardants by identifying which types are potentially most dangerous. Click here to read the article.
Agricultural Pesticides Shown to Block Male Hormones
Fungicides commonly used on fruits and vegetables in the US are shown to be endocrine disruptors. Of 37 pesticides tested by the University of London, 30 were shown to alter male hormones, including 16 that were previously thought to have no hormonal activity. Click here to read the full report.
On The Money - BPA in Dollar Bills and Receipts
A new study was released giving new meaning to the phrase "toxic assets." "On The Money: BPA on Dollar Bills and Receipts" set out to investigate the extent to which thermal receipt paper containing bisphenol A (BPA) has permeated the market, and whether this hormone-disrupting chemical is escaping onto the money that lies close to these receipts in people's wallets. Click here to read the full report.
Atrazine causes prostate inflammation in male rats and delays puberty
A new study shows that male rats prenatally exposed to low doses of atrazine, a widely used herbicide, are more likely to develop prostate inflammation and to go through puberty later than non-exposed animals. The research adds to a growing body of literature on atrazine, an herbicide predominantly used to control weeds and grasses in crops such as corn and sugar cane. Atrazine and its byproducts are known to be relatively persistent in the environment, potentially finding their way into water supplies.
Nitrates in water and food may increase womens' thyroid cancer risks
Long-term exposure to nitrates through food and water may increase a woman's risk of thyroid disease, finds a study of older women in Iowa. Public water supplies contaminated with nitrates increased the risk of thyroid cancer in the women. Eating nitrates from certain vegetables was linked to increases in thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism, one type of thyroid disease.
Click here to read the full article.
Potentially harmful chemicals used in Pa. drilling
More than two years after the start of a natural gas drilling boom, Pennsylvania is making public a list of the chemicals used to extract the gas from deep underground amid rising public fears of potential water contamination and increased scrutiny of the fast-growing industry.
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Kellogg's Cereal Recall Highlights a New Concern:
Chemicals Leaching from Food Packaging
Kellogg is recalling millions of boxes of children's cereal, but other packaging can leach potentially harmful chemicals too.
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Antibiotics in Animals Need Limits, F.D.A. Says
Federal food regulators took a tentative step Monday toward banning a common use of penicillin and tetracycline in the water and feed given cattle, chickens and pigs in hopes of slowing the growing scourge of killer bacteria.
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Shampoo, Cosmetics May Form Cancer-Causing Substance in Water Supplies
Products such as shampoo and cosmetics are now linked to a new, vaguely studied cancer. The studied revealed that at US wastewater plants, consumer products are interacting with disinfectants, causing a substance called nitrosamines, which ends up in drinking water.
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