Birth Defect Research for Children - Please Allow Safe and Far More Effective Alternatives
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Birth Defect Research for Children - Please Allow Safe and Far More Effective
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Date:
Thu, 25 Jul 2002 12:31:44 -0400
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Birth Defect Research for Children
Birth Defect News - July 2002
State if Massachusetts Probing Effects of Groundwater Contamination on Newborns
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has ordered a study of Cape Cod newborns to try to determine if any children have been harmed by water contamination caused by the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The EPA placed the reservation on its Superfund list in 1989 after it found extensive groundwater contamination, including significant amounts of chemical and fuel oil spills that had leaked from Otis Air Base.
The Bourne Water District shut down three of its six wells this spring after officials discovered trace amounts of perchlorate had leaked in from the military reservation. Perchlorate is a pollutant associated with rocket fuel. The EPA has reported that perchlorate can cause thyroid problems and it is suspected of causing thyroid cancer.
The study will use data from mandatory health screenings of all newborns in the state and check the results against thyroid readings from 750 babies born in Bourne between 1999 and 2001. According to an official of the Bureau of Environmental Health, if an impact is found, it will lead them to look at other health impacts in a larger study.
Excerpted from an Associated Press article in The Boston Globe, 7/1/02
Chlorination Byproducts Associated With Increased Risk of Congenital
Heart Defects
In Sweden, drinking water disinfection byproducts have been associated
with an increased risk for congenital cardiac defects. Using health
registers linked to information on municipal drinking water composition,
individual data on drinking water characteristics were obtained for nearly
60,000 women. Among the infants born, 753 had congenital cardiac
defects. Researchers found that ground water was associated with an
increased risk for cardiac defects when the chlorination process included
chlorine dioxide. The risk increased with increasing concentrations of
the disinfection byproduct trihalomethane .
Excerpted from an article in Environmental Research, 6/1/02
Why Are More Children Getting Brain Cancer?
A new series of ads developed by the Center for Children's Health and the
Environment is focusing on childhood health problems that may be linked to
environmental exposures. One of these ads that ran in the New York
Times asks why children are getting more brain cancer?
The ad copy says that scientists and physicians are seeing a disturbing rise in the reported incidence of cancer among adolescents and young children, especially testicular cancer, brain cancer, and acute lymphocytic leukemia. After injuries and violence, cancer is the leading cause of death in children.
Evidence suggests that the rise in these childhood cancers, as well as cancers like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma among adults, may be partially explained by exposure to chemicals in the environment, chemicals found in many products from paints and pesticides to dark-colored hair dyes. Recent epidemiologic studies have shown that as children's exposures to home and garden pesticides increase, so does their risk of brain cancer, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
For a summary of the supporting scientific evidence and suggestions for what parents can do to protect their children, visit the Center for Children's Health and the Environment's web site at http://www.childenvironment.org/brain-cancer.htm
Breast Cancer Clusters May Start In Childhood
A team of researchers recently concluded that where a woman lives at
birth and puberty may have an impact on her risk of developing breast cancer
later. Researchers on a project funded by the U.S. Department of
Defense and the NIH compared residential history data provided by women with
breast cancer and a control group without cancer in western New York.
They found that women who developed breast cancer were more likely to have
lived closer together at birth and at their first menstruation (a concept
called clustering) than women who did not develop breast cancer.
The findings indicate that there may be something in the environment close to these clusters that impacts a woman's breast cancer risk. Researchers speculate that the breast tissue may be more sensitive to environmental insults in childhood and that early exposures could increase the risk of breast cancer in adulthood. The next step for researchers is to see if they can identify exposures that explain the clusters.
For additional information, see the Environment News Service article written by Cat Lazaroff at http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-07.asp
Registry for Pet Cancers May Help Pinpoint Human Cancer Risks
A pilot project in New York using a Companion Animal Tumor Registry will
test the question of whether a geographic database of cancers in companion
animals might warn of possible environmental causes of cancers in humans.
Researchers at Cornell have asked veterinarians in two counties to
voluntarily report cancers diagnosed in their clients' pets, identifying them
by zip code. Researchers will also seek to collect and analyze urine,
blood, and tissue samples from these pets. Cancer researchers believe
that cancer in companion animals might provide a resource for cancer risk
assessment in humans.
Pets share human exposure to potentially carcinogenic compounds, such as chemicals applied to carpets or lawns and contaminated drinking water. According to one researcher, "Naturally occurring cancers in pets have similar pathological features and biological behaviors as tumors in humans but with two important differences that can work to our advantage in this project. Cancers in pets often progress more rapidly, thus reducing the time required to make conclusions about causal associations, and in contrast to human cancers, cancer development in companion animals is not subject to confounding risks such as smoking and alcohol consumption." Researchers believe that knowledge of where these animals lived when they developed cancer can improve understanding of the causes of cancers, in animals and humans, and help prevent their occurrence.
For additional information regarding this research at Cornell University, see the 6/27/02 issue of The Cornell Chronicle at http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/Chronicle.html
Quebec Will Ban Most Non-Farm Pesticides by 2005
The Canadian province of Quebec recently announced that it will ban the
use of most non-farm pesticides by 2005. The province is immediately
moving to ban the use of 30 highly noxious pesticides on public lands,
including schools, daycare centers, parks, and hospitals. The ban will
be extended to private and commercial lands by 2005. The sale of
fertilizer/pesticide combination products will be banned as of next year and
direct access to more noxious products used at home will be prohibited by
2004. Fines for noncompliance will range from $325 to $1,960.
Excerpted from an article by Reuters News Service , 7/5/02, at http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16716/story.htm
Children's Environmental Health Conference in Gainesville, Florida
On Saturday, September 21st, the Florida PTA will sponsor a conference
featuring Lou and Elizabeth Guillette speaking on pesticides in the
environment and their effects on children. The conference will run from 8:00
am to 5:00 pm. Registration is $25 per person, which includes lunch.
The Conference will be held at Littlewood Elementary School, 812 NW 34th
Street, Gainesville, Florida.
For more information and to register, contact: Florida PTA, 1747
Orlando Central Parkway, Orlando, FL, 32809
Telephone 407-855-7604 or 800-373-5782; FAX 407-240-9577; E-mail
info@floridapta.org
Polychlorinated Aromatic Hydrocarbons May Interfere with Sexural
Maturation
Polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (PCAHs) have been described as
endocrine disruptors in animals and in accidentally or occupationally exposed
humans. A recent study examined the effect of moderate exposure to
PCAHs on human sexual maturation. Researchers measured the serum
concentration of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dioxin-like compounds as
biomarkers of exposure in two hundred adolescents in Belgium. Subjects
resided in two polluted suburbs and a rural control area. Research
indicated that in the suburb near two waste incinerators, compared with the
other suburb and the control area, fewer boys had reached the adult stages of
genital development and fewer girls had reached the adult stage of breast
development. Researchers concluded that, through endocrine disruption,
environmental exposure to PCAHs may interfere with sexual maturation and in
the long-run may adversely affect human reproduction.
Excerpted from an abstract in Environmental Health Perspectives , 8/02, at http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p771-776den_hond/abstract.html
Did Fallout From Chernobyl Harm Babies in Britain?
Fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the
Ukraine may have led to hundreds of deformities and deaths among babies in
Britain. One of Chernobyl's reactors exploded in April 1986 and
showered an area of Europe with radioactivity. Most experts said
the fallout had a detectable impact on human health only in the Ukraine,
Russia, and Belarus; but studies in Scotland, Germany, Wales and Greece have
suggested links between the accident and increases in infant leukemia.
Recent research now shows high rates of birth defects and infant deaths in
Wales and England in the three years after the Chernobyl accident. A
researcher estimates that between 1986 and 1989 at least 200 more children
than normal died before their first birthday and there were over 600 extra
cases of babies born with spina bifida, Down Syndrome, cleft palate, and
other abnormalities. One possible explanation is that radiation from
the accident damaged the immune systems of the children or their parents,
rendering them more vulnerable to harmful viruses. The total radiation
dose received by people in Britain was at least 40 per cent of that received
by people in the affected areas of the Ukraine, partly because of high
rainfall.
Excerpted from an article in New Scientist , 6/26/02, at http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992458
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