New Material At OurStolenFuture.org
Click
Here to Add Comment Subject:
New Material At OurStolenFutere.org
Date:
Sun, 3 Nov 2002 05:51:52 -0500
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
A great deal of new material has been published recently on www.OurStolenFuture.org
A sample below, with links. For a full list in chronological order, visit www.OurStolenFuture/new/newstuff.htm
It turns out we're not winning the war against cancer: A study published in
the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reveals that biases built into
standard analyses of cancer incidence data were obscuring the fact that rates
of breast, prostate and several other cancers continue to increase in the
United States. The old methods had falsely indicated that these and other
cancer rates were either flat or decreasing.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/human/cancer/2002/2002-1016cleggetal.htm
Dutch scientists report that boys exposed prenatally to higher levels of
PCBs and dioxin are more likely to show demasculinized play behaviors. Girls
and boys exposed to modestly elevated dioxin levels demonstrate more feminized
play behaviors. The scientists suggest that that these alterations in play
result from endocrine disruption of the development of sex-specific behaviors.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/behavior/2002/2002-09vreugdenhiletal.htm
A combined lab and field study of the leopard frog implicates atrazine in
widespread feminization of males during tadpole development and metamorphosis.
The lab studies confirmed earlier findings from a different amphibian, the
African clawed toad, that extremely low levels of atrazine causes significant
gonadal abnormalities in male frogs. The field studies demonstrate widespread
abnormalities in wild populations of the frog and link them to the geography
of atrazine use.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/wildlife/frogs/2003/2003-1023hayesetal.htm
Writing in the New Scientist, reporter Andy Coghlan describes intriguing
new research indicating that sexual differentiation of the brain begins before
the activation of a gene that determines whether an individual develops testes
or ovaries. "Till now, the orthodoxy among developmental biologists has been
that embryos develop ovaries and become female unless a gene called SRY on the
Y chromosome is switched on. If this gene is active, it makes testes develop
instead." New research by a group of California scientists has revealed sexual
differences in gene activation in the brain before the SRY gene activity is
initiated. This research may help understand the biological basis of "why some
people feel trapped in a body of the wrong sex."
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/Commentary/News/2002/2002-1019-NS-brainsex.htm
A ten-year study of the brain structure reports that children with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have brains significantly
smaller than normal. The size differences are apparent in early childhood, at
the earliest ages examined in the study. The authors conclude that ADHD is a
biologically-based disorder with clear structural differences, and that the
events initiating ADHD are likely to occur in the womb.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/behavior/2002/2002-10castellanosetal.htm
Using new analytical methods, a team of German scientists measured
bisphenol A in the blood of pregnant women, in umbilical blood at birth and in
placental tissue. All samples examined contained BPA, at levels within the
range shown to alter development in laboratory experiments with animals. Thus
widespread exposure to BPA at levels of concern is no longer a hypothetical
issue. It is occurring.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/oncompounds/bisphenola/2002/200210schonfelderetal.htm
A study by a distinguished group of experts on the effects of
diethylstilbestrol, including Arthur Herbst, whose research first revealed
DES's human toll, reports that exposure to DES in the womb elevates breast
cancer risk beginning in a woman's fifth decade of life. The sample size
remains small, because DES use was most prevalent in the '50s and '60s and
therefore exposed "DES daughters" are only now reaching the age when breast
cancer incidence rises substantially. Nevertheless, this new study clearly
indicates that DES daughters over 40-yrs old are at greater risk to breast
cancer than unexposed women of comparable age.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/human/cancer/2002/2002-10palmeretal.htm
New results from scientific studies of people exposed to dioxin during the
1976 chemical plant explosion in Seveso, Italy, reveal that immune system
suppression by dioxin continues on at least 2 decades following initial
exposure. Higher levels of dioxin correlate strongly with lower levels of a
key immune system defense component, immunoglobulin G.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/immune/2002/2002-0930baccarellietal.htm
Research at the University of Wisconsin reveals that very low doses of a
commercial mixture of lawn chemical herbicides including 2,4-D causes fetal
loss in mice. The scientists who conducted the study obtained the herbicides
by simply going to a local hardware store and buying a common brand. Tests are
usually conducted on pure components of such brands, instead of the actual
mixtures sold. Tests with the pure components had indicated exposure at levels
used in these experiments should not have caused effects. In fact, the lowest
level used in the experiments, which caused significant fetal loss, was
one-seventh the level allowed by EPA in drinking water. These results indicate
that mixtures must become a focus of regulatory testing for toxicology, and
that current standards are not adequate.
•
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/reproduction/2002/2002-0917cavieresetal.htm
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.