Internationaal nieuws
13 april 2012
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nieuwsbrief
Acute Childhood Lead Poisoning in Nigeria
The authors conclude that the high levels of environmental contamination, high BBLs, and the incidence of convulsions among children before death (82%) suggest that most of the recent childhood deaths in the two surveyed villages were caused by acute lead poisoning from gold ore–processing activities.
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Are Nanoparticles the Next Cancer Treatment?
The word nanoparticles may make people think about objects floating around in space, but according to new research, they show very early promise as a cancer treatment.
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Arsenic and Hypertension
Because of the widespread exposure to arsenic worldwide and the high burden of disease caused by hypertension, Abhyankar et al. (p. 494) reviewed epidemiologic studies concerning the association of inorganic arsenic exposure and hypertension. After excluding studies that lacked a) original data, b) data on humans, c) a control group, d) data on arsenic level, or e) hypertension or blood pressure outcomes, they identified 11 cross-sectional studies from which they calculated pooled odds ratios using inverse-variance–weighted random-effects models.
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Autism linked to gene mutations; suicide linked to cancer
Researchers have found several gene mutations that, though rare, sharply increase the risk of autism -- providing clues that may lead to a new understanding of causes and possible treatments for the condition now affecting 1 in 88 children in the United States.
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Breaking cancer news > Dietary vitamin D fights breast cancer
If you are a frequent visitor to foodconsumer.org, you may already know that studies suggest that high doses of vitamin D may help prevent or even treat breast cancer.
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Chile Stops Use of Mercury in Vaccines
Chile has become the first developing country to stop the use of mercury in vaccines.
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Coordinating the circadian clock > Molecular pair controls time-keeping and fat metabolism
Disruption in circadian rhythms leads to increased incidence of many diseases, including cancer. Each cell of the body has its own internal timing mechanism. A clock protein, called Rev-erb alpha, was thought to have a subordinate role because the clock runs fairly normally in its absence. New work has found that a closely related protein called Rev-erb beta serves as a back-up. When both are not functioning, the cellular clock loses its time-keeping function.
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Dangers Posed By Pesticides During Pregnancy
An expectant mother's exposure to commonly used pesticides might pose risks to her developing fetus comparable to those long associated with tobacco smoking, new research suggests.
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Dioxin found in eggs from two more German farms
The highly-poisonous chemical dioxin has been discovered in above permitted levels in eggs from two more farms in the central German state of North Rhine Westphalia, the state agriculture ministry said on Thursday.
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Eating almonds could aid dieting
Eating a handful of almonds could help people lose weight by suppressing their appetite for the rest of the day, a study claims.
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Frogs May See Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide As a Predator
Syngenta's atrazine isn't the only widely used herbicide that appears to have bizarre effects on frogs. According to a study (PDF) from University of Pittsburgh ecologist Rick Relyea, Monsanto's flagship weedkiller Roundup—by far the most-used herbicide on the planet—not only has lethal effects on tadpoles at doses found in ponds near farm fields, but it also literally changes their shape in ways that mimic tadpole's reaction to predators.
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Genetic Research Probes Autism
As the number of children with autism has increased over the past couple of decades, so have efforts to find causes behind this neurodevelopmental disorder. Research published Wednesday provides new clues about genetic glitches that may contribute to the development of autism among children.
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Global Mortality from Outdoor Smoke, with Fay Johnston and Sarah Henderson
Fire has shaped the land and ecosystems of the planet for millions of years. And people have been exposed to smoke from burning trees and grass probably for as long as we’ve been on the planet. But it’s only relatively recently that we’ve begun to explore the health effects of exposure to that smoke.
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GM industry backing Morrisons
he piece by Little below in the UK food industry publication The Grocer makes clear that the GM industry's supporting Morrisons and putting pressure on the other UK retailers to sell more GM.
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Helpful tips for avoiding GMOs
Since mandatory labeling of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the food supply is still just a cause worth fighting for in the United States, avoiding these toxic poisons can be difficult and confusing for many people. But once you know which crops tend to be GM, and learn how to identify the ingredients derived from them in foods, the process becomes a lot simpler.
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Ice age study delivers blow to global-warming skeptics
A new study finds that rising levels of carbon dioxide drove rising temperatures at the end of the last ice age. The findings contrast with previous studies, which skeptics of human-triggered global warming said showed that CO2 levels weren't an important factor.
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Long-term research reveals causes and consequences of environmental change
As global temperatures rise, the most threatened ecosystems are those that depend on a season of snow and ice, scientists from the nation's Long Term Ecological Research Network say."The vulnerability of cool, wet areas to climate change is striking," says Julia Jones, a lead author in a special issue of the journal BioScience released today featuring results from more than 30 years of LTER, a program of the National Science Foundation.
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Long-term studies detect effects of disappearing snow and ice
Regions of the earth where water is frozen for at least a month each year are shrinking as a result of global warming. Some of the effects on ecosystems are now being revealed through research conducted at affected sites over decades. They include dislocations of the relationships between predators and their prey, as well as changes in the movement through ecosystems of carbon and nutrients. The changes interact in complex ways that are not currently well understood, but effects on human populations are becoming apparent.
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Many Causes of Sinusitis
So many people have chronic sinus conditions. Dr. Isaac Eliaz talks about a number of causes of chronic sinus infections, from dental conditions to emotional health. Dr. Eliaz also mentions treatment options outside of antibiotics.
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Maternal Exposure to VOCs and Pregnancy Outcomes
Industrial spills of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in Endicott, New York, have led to contamination of groundwater and soil. Previous studies have reported an increase in adverse birth outcomes among women exposed to VOCs in drinking water. Forand et al. (p. 616) investigated the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes among mothers exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene [perchloroethylene (PCE)] in indoor air contaminated through soil vapor intrusion.
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Modifying Effects of Metallothionein SNPs on Mercury Biomarkers
The authors conclude that specific MT genetic polymorphisms may influence mercury biomarker concentrations at levels of exposure relevant to the general population.
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More suicides among cancer patients
Previous studies have shown that cancer patients are at higher risk of suicide and cardiovascular disease, which up until now has mainly been ascribed to the emotional strain of living with the potentially fatal disease and the often physically demanding cancer treatment," the Karolinska Institute said in a statement.
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New batch of fake Avastin reached U.S. via Britain
A new batch of counterfeit cancer drug Avastin discovered in the United States was bought in Turkey and shipped through Britain by UK-based middlemen, officials said on Wednesday, revealing a shipment pattern very similar to an earlier episode.
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Organochlorines and Human Sperm Disomy
Chromosomal abnormalities contribute substantially to adverse reproductive outcomes, but the role that environmental factors play in these effects has received little attention.
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Painkiller Sales Soar Around US, Fuel Addiction
Sales of the nation's two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic.
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Pb, PCB, and MeHg Effects on Response Inhibition in Children
Lead (Pb) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are neurotoxic contaminants that have been associated with impairment in response inhibition. The Inuit from Nunavik (Arctic Québec, Canada) are heavily exposed to PCBs and methylmercury (MeHg) because of the long-range transport of these chemicals via atmospheric and ocean currents and their bioaccumulation in fish and sea mammals that are staples of the traditional Inuit diet.
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PCBs and Infant Thymus Size
The authors conclude that potential associations of in utero PCB exposure with thymic development may be limited to the neonatal period, but thymus volume measures late in infancy may be affected by postnatal PCB expocures. Additional studies are needed to determine whether reduced thymus volume is associated with compromised immune function or increased morbidity in children.
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Perfluorinated Compounds May Lower Vaccine Protection in Children
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), commonly found in nonstick cookware, food packaging, and stain-repellant clothing and furniture, may lower the potency of childhood immunizations, according to a new study of residents in the Faroe Islands.
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Pesticides and Peripheral Nervous System Function in Applicators
The authors conclude that their findings provide evidence that long-term exposure to some OP pesticides may be associated with signs of impaired PNS function.
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Pesticide–Environment Interactions
Approximately 900 commercial pesticides are currently in use worldwide.These pesticides have widely diverse structures and act through a broad range of mechanisms to control insects, weeds, and fungi. Casida (p. 487) discusses pesticide–environment interactions and describes several ways that these interactions occur. Over the years, pesticides have become more ecofriendly (“green”), with improved pest specificity, less nontarget toxicity, lower persistence, and reduced use rates
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Plastic’s Polluted Burden
Recyclers continue to struggle with contaminants in electronic waste and in consumer plastics. European regulations in 2003 first established limits on how much heavy metal and other toxic compounds can remain in plastics that will be recycled into new products.
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Pollution Playing A Major Role In Sea Temperatures
The Atlantic Ocean, especially the North Atlantic, is peculiar: Every few decades, the average temperature of surface water there changes dramatically.
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Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds in Texas Children
The authors conclude that PFC exposure in these children continued years after changes in production of some PFCs in the United States. Additional research in a large representative sample is necessary to determine current PFC concentrations in the general population of U.S. children, evaluate relevant pathways of exposure, and examine whether PFC exposures in children are associated with adverse health outcomes.
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Public Health Impacts of Environmental Chemicals on Neurodevelopment
The impact of environmental chemicals on neurodevelopment in children is sometimes dismissed as unimportant because the magnitude of the estimated effects is considered to be clinically insignificant. Bellinger (p. 501) notes that this perspective ignores the public health context of exposures to environmental chemicals.
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Regulation of Adipose Tissue Inflammation by Pollutants
Epidemiologic studies have reported a possible role of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Kim et al. (p. 508) studied the major gene expression pathways modified by TCDD, PCB-126, and PCB-153, as well as the toxic effects of these compounds, in human multipotent adipose-derived stem (hMADS) cells. They also assessed the effect of TCDD on gene expression and adipose tissue histology in vivo in wild-type and AhR-knockout mice.
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Researchers discover unique suspension technique for large-scale stem cell production
Post-doctoral researcher David Fluri and Professor Peter Zandstra at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) have developed a unique new technique for growing stem cells that may make possible cost-effective, large-scale stem cell manufacturing and research.
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Researchers recreate bee collapse with pesticide-laced corn syrup
Scientists with the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have re-created the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder in several honeybee hives simply by giving them small doses of a popular pesticide, imidacloprid.
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Researchers use game to change how scientists study disease outbreaks
An international team of scientists--including researchers who teach an annual clinic at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Muizenberg, South Africa -- is helping epidemiologists improve the mathematical models they use to study outbreaks of diseases like cholera, AIDS and malaria.
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Salk scientists redraw the blueprint of the body's biological clock
The discovery of a major gear in the biological clock that tells the body when to sleep and metabolize food may lead to new drugs to treat sleep problems and metabolic disorders, including diabetes.
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Scientists Link Gene Mutation to Autism Risk
Teams of scientists working independently have for the first time identified several gene mutations that they agree sharply increase the chances that a child will develop autism. They have found further evidence that the risk increases with the age of the parents, particularly in fathers over age 35.
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Shifting Mountains of Electronic Waste
Local users are now the main source of electronic waste in Africa, but illegal imports of old computers, televisions, and other electronics devices from Europe, Asia, and North America still make their way there. That’s the finding of Where Are WEEE in Africa?, a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report about waste electronic and electrical equipment—also known as WEEE, or e-waste—in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria.
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Stinky urine may signal bladder infection in kids
Your child's stinky urine may be more than just unpleasant: A new study suggests kids with terrible smelling urine should be checked for a urinary tract infection.
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Study reveals impact of socioeconomic factors on the racial gap in life expectancy
A Princeton University report reveals that disparities in socioeconomic characteristics can account for 80 percent of the life-expectancy divide between black and white men, and for 70 percent of the imbalance between black and white women. The study is one of the first to put a number on how much of the divide can be attributed to racial differences in factors such as income, education and marital status.
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Uranium, Grazing Cattle and Risks Unknown
As I reported last weekend in The Times, a cattle rancher stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the summer of 2010 on his grazing land, about 60 miles east of the Grand Canyon on the Navajo reservation, and notified federal officials. They came in with Geiger counters and found levels of radioactivity that were alarmingly high.
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Warming climate reveals links to infectious disease
Researchers are gaining new insight into how pathogens will react to a warmer future: 'It's not just a summer disease. It's becoming a spring and fall disease now.'
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Women cannot rewind the 'biological clock'
Many women do not fully appreciate the consequences of delaying motherhood, and expect that assisted reproductive technologies can reverse their aged ovarian function, Yale researchers reported in a study published in a recent issue of Fertility and Sterility.
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