Tag Archives | Chemicals

Exposure to BPA Before Birth Linked to Behavioral, Emotional Difficulties in Girls

By on October 25, 2011 in News 1

RecyclablesVia ScienceDaily:

Exposure in the womb to bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical used to make plastic containers and other consumer goods — is associated with behavior and emotional problems in young girls, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.

BPA is found in many consumer products, including canned food linings, polycarbonate plastics, dental sealants, and some receipts made from thermal paper. Most people living in industrialized nations are exposed to BPA. BPA has been shown to interfere with normal development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in people. In a 2009 study, HSPH researchers showed that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA.

In this study, published Oct. 24, 2011, in an advance online edition of Pediatrics, lead author Joe Braun, research fellow in environmental health at HSPH, and his colleagues found that gestational BPA exposure was associated with more behavioral problems at age 3, especially in girls.

… Read the rest

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Pollutants Linked to 450% Increase in Risk of Birth Defects in Rural China

By on October 20, 2011 in News 8

China PollutionForget climate change deniers, there are more urgent reasons to eliminate pollution. Via ScienceDaily:

Pesticides and pollutants are related to a 450 percent increase in the risk of spina bifida and anencephaly in rural China, according to scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and Peking University.Two of the pesticides found in high concentrations in the placentas of affected newborns and stillborn fetuses were endosulfan and lindane. Endosulfan is only now being phased out in the United States for treatment of cotton, potatoes, tomatoes and apples. Lindane was only recently banned in the United States for treatment of barley, corn, oats, rye, sorghum and wheat seeds.

Strong associations were also found between spina bifida and anencephaly and high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are byproducts of burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Spina bifida is a defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth.

… Read the rest

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Monsanto Corn Falls to Illinois Bugs

By on September 22, 2011 in News 11

Tom Philpott writes in Mother Jones:

As the summer growing season draws to a close, 2011 is emerging as the year of the super-insect — the year pests officially developed resistance to Monsanto’s genetically engineered (ostensibly) bug-killing corn.

While the revelation has given rise to alarming headlines, neither Monsanto nor the EPA, which regulates pesticides and pesticide-infused crops, can credibly claim surprise. Scientists have been warning that the EPA’s rules for planting the crop were too lax to prevent resistance since before the agency approved the crop in 2003. And in 2008, research funded by Monsanto itself showed that resistance was an obvious danger.

And now those unheeded warnings are proving prescient. In late July, as I reported recently, scientists in Iowa documented the existence of corn rootworms (a ravenous pest that attacks the roots of corn plants) that can happily devour corn plants that were genetically tweaked specifically to kill them.

… Read the rest

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Styrene Plates, Cups Found To Cause Cancer

By on June 11, 2011 in News 7
Styrene 3D Balls

Styrene 3D Balls

The only surprise here is that after years of delaying tactics by the plastics and chemical industries, the U.S. Government finally decided to tell its citizens that two very common compounds – styrene and formaldehyde – are carginogens. Rob Stein reports for the Washington Post:

Styrene, which is used to make those ubiquitous white foam coffee cups, food containers and many other products, is probably a human carcinogen, the federal government declared Friday.

The declaration came in the government’s latest update of its official list of known or possible carcinogens. It categorized for­mal­dehyde, a chemical widely used to make many products, and a family of substances found in some herbal remedies as known carcinogens.

Officials stressed that the listings do not mean that any exposure to the substances will cause cancer. Instead, it means that the latest scientific evidence indicates that the agents can cause cancer in some people exposed to enough of the compounds under the right circumstances.

… Read the rest

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China Farmers Facing ‘Exploding’ Watermelon Problem (Video)

By on May 18, 2011 in News 8

GallagherGallagher is not responsible. At least it’s not exploding people. Reports the AP via Yahoo News:

BEIJING — The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster is causing a rash of exploding watermelons in eastern China.

An investigative report by China Central Television airing Tuesday found farms in Jiangsu province were losing acres of fruit to the problem.

It said farmers sprayed too much growth promoter, hoping they could get fruit to market ahead of season and make more money. China is battling rampant misuse of pesticides, fertilizers and food additives, like dyes and sweeteners, meant to make food more attractive and boost sales.

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How The BP Cleanup Effort Poisoned People In The Gulf Coast

By on March 29, 2011 in News 24

201138162753870876_20

“We’re all lab rats and we didn’t even know it.” Almost a year after the BP oil spill, Al Jazeera reports on the awful array of health problems being faced by Gulf Coast residents exposed to deadly chemicals (largely because of the cleanup effort). Perhaps most frighteningly, a generation of small children will be developing with ultra-high levels of toxic chemicals in their blood and their bodies, the effects of which remain to be seen:

BP’s oil disaster last summer gushed at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest accidental marine oil spill in history – and the largest environmental disaster in US history. Compounding the problem, BP has admitted to using at least 1.9 million gallons toxic dispersants, including one chemical that has been banned in the UK.

Al Jazeera has talked with scores of sick people across the Gulf Coast who attribute their illnesses to chemicals from BP’s oil disaster.

… Read the rest

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Over 12,000 NEW Chemicals Are Registered Every Day

By on March 25, 2011 in News 6
Photo: Mehran Moghtadai (CC)

Photo: Mehran Moghtadai (CC)

Dr. Mercola writes at mercola.com:

There are forty-five million different chemicals which are currently commercially available around the world, and many of them have never been tested. In the interview with Professor Patricia Hunt linked below, she reveals that there are 12,000 new substances registered every day.

Of greatest concern may be the ones that act like hormones in your body, especially high-volume chemicals that you likely encounter on a daily basis. The standard set of guidelines toxicologists use for testing doesn’t work very well for chemicals that mimic the actions of hormones.

According to Hunt, as reported by Living on Earth:

“There are hundreds of studies looking at the effects of bisphenol A — most of them using experimental animals. And when the regulatory panels sit down and look at them, quite frankly, they don’t know what to do with a lot of the research … And the problem with these chemicals is, there are so many of them and some of them are present in our daily lives at pretty significant levels.

… Read the rest

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Many More Plastics Found To Leach Chemicals

By on March 6, 2011 in News 4

PlasticBottlesThe truth of the matter is, plastics are poisonous. Just giving up bottles of water and their BPAs is not nearly enough to avoid the health risks from plastic products, according to new research. Jon Hamilton has part of the story for NPR (and I say part, because estrogenic chemicals are only part of the problem):

Most plastic products, from sippy cups to food wraps, can release chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The study found these chemicals even in products that didn’t contain BPA, a compound in certain plastics that’s been widely criticized because it mimics estrogen.

But it’s still unclear whether people are being harmed by BPA or any other so-called estrogenic chemicals in plastics. Most studies of health effects have been done in mice and rats.

The new study doesn’t look at health risks. It simply asks whether common plastic products release estrogen-like chemicals other than BPA.

… Read the rest

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Blue M&M’s Turn Rats Blue and Help Heal Spinal Injuries: WTF?

By on January 13, 2011 in News 19

Blue RatHere’s a really crazy “health” story in 2009 from CNN I recently found. If you want some technical info on this dye check out its Wikipedia page. Reports CNN Health:

The same blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade could be used to reduce damage caused by spine injuries, offering a better chance of recovery, according to new research.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that when they injected the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) into rats suffering spinal cord injuries, the rodents were able to walk again, albeit with a limp.

The only side effect was that the treated mice temporarily turned blue. The results of the study, published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” build on research conducted by the same center five years ago.

In August 2004, scientists revealed how Adenosine triphosphate, which is known as ATP and described as the “energy currency of life,” surges to the spinal cord soon after injury occurs.

… Read the rest

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