A new analysis of lead in lipstick conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reveals that the problem of lead in lipstick is worse and more widespread than previously reported. The new study found lead in 400 lipsticks tested by the agency, at widely varying levels of up to 7.19 parts per million (ppm) — more than twice the levels reported in a previous FDA study.

February 6th 2012, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent FDA a letter asking them to correct misleading statements on their website about the supposed safety of lead in lipstick. The agency has studied only the levels of lead in lipstick, and has conducted no health studies or safety assessments.

In January, an advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new report asserting that there is no safe level of lead for children, and stressing the importance of preventing lead exposure for children and pregnant women.

“Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels,” said Mark Mitchell, M.D., MPH, policy advisor of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and co-chair of the Environmental Health Task Force for the National Medical Association.

“Lead is a proven neurotoxin that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, because lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain where it can interfere with normal development,” said Sean Palfrey, M.D., a professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston University and the medical director of Boston’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.

The FDA study of 400 lipsticks was quietly posted on the agency’s website in December. The most contaminated brand in the study, Maybelline Color Sensation by L’Oreal USA, contained more than 275 times the amount of lead found in the least contaminated, and least expensive, brand, Wet & Wild Mega Mixers Lip Balm — demonstrating that price is not an indicator of good manufacturing practices.

“How many millions of women have applied and reapplied lead-containing lipsticks since we first raised concerns about this problem five years ago? How many kids have played with their mom’s lipstick?” said Janet Nudelman, interim director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and policy director at the Breast Cancer Fund. “It’s time for L’Oreal to get the lead out of its products, and for FDA to set a safety standard for lead in lipstick.”

The FDA said it is currently evaluating whether to recommend an upper limit for lead in lipstick. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is urging FDA to set a maximum limit for lead in lipstick based on the lowest lead levels cosmetic manufacturers can feasibly achieve. U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer, John Kerry and Dianne Feinstein have also urged FDA to take action to reduce lead in lipstick.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is also calling on L’Oreal to make a public commitment to reformulate its lipsticks to ensure the lowest possible levels of lead. L’Oreal makes five of the 10 most lead-contaminated brands in the FDA study.

Author:

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Hundreds of lipsticks contaminated with lead, reports new FDA study, February 7th, 2012

Related Articles:

• Toxic Beauty – What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You . . . In Fact, It Already Is
• Since when do Fish use Perfume?
• The Reckless Self-Interest of the Fragrance Industry
• Aromatherapy Can Produce Harmful Indoor Air Pollutants

Several experts from different European countries agree that Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity is a real, physical illness and for some of them this condition seems to be strictly related to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). This is what came out of the congress “Mobile Telephony, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max: Are there Health Risks?”, held at Palazzo Marini – Chamber of Deputees in Rome on 14 June 2011. The event, organized by the Association for Environmental and Chronic Toxic Injury (A.M.I.C.A.), was meant to give an overview on the health dangers linked to the use of wireless devices.

Prof. Dominique Belpomme, Oncologist, Professor of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Necker-Enfants Malades, Chairman of Research for Anti-Cancer Therapeutics (ARTAC), in his lecture “Diagnostic and Therapeutic Protocols for Electromagnetic Fields Intolerance”, showed the results of a clinical observation on more than 450 patients enrolled from 2008 to 2011. He and his team use a new technique to make the diagnosis to people reporting reactions to electromagnetic fields, a condition that he prefers to define as “Electromagnetic Fields Intolerance” or “EFI Syndrome” rather than “Electromagnetic Hyper-Sensitivity”.

The new technique is the “Pulsed Eco-Doppler” of the brain that combines the eco-doppler with a computer to evaluate brain perfusion. Unlike some other methods, this one is not dangerous and it does not involve any ionizing radiation. The results show that people with Electromagnetic Fields Intolerance have a reduced perfusion in the brain, particularly in the left part of the limbic area of the brain, compared to the control group. This is a very particular area, because it is the “ancient” part of the brain that controls many body functions.

“These results are very important – Belpomme said at the congress – because for the first time we are able to define the Electromagnetic Fields Intolerance as a physical illness based on objective tests”.

His team uses also other tests, such as the dosage of histamine, of protein S100B, and of heat shock proteins hsp70 and hsp27 in the blood. The 70% of the group of patients observed showed a serious reduction of vitamin D, about 1-2% of the patients showed an increase of proteins hsp27 and hsp70, while more than the 40% of the sample had increased histamine, a fact that is fully compatible with a physiological interpretation of this syndrome.

About 10% of the patients had an increased protein S100B, which is a marker for Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) permeability. In one third of the sample, a reduction of melatonin in urine was found, and this can explain symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia and depression in these patients.

These alterations are quite similar to the ones found in patients with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), particularly regarding the brain perfusion reduction, the neurogenic inflammation, the oxidative stress increase, and the reduction of the defense mechanism. The fact that EMF induces the opening of the BBB may interfere with the brain protection from toxic chemicals. It is not uncommon, in fact, that patients with EFI Syndrome have MCS symptoms, while many patients with MCS also react to EMF.

The increase of oxidative stress in electrosensitive patients was found also by Dr. Valeria Pacifico, who lectured in Rome about “Metabolic biomarkers of oxidation-reduction imbalance and susceptibility to non-ionizing radiation”. She works in the team of Dr. Chiara De Luca at the Experimental Laboratory BILARA at Istituto Dermopatico of Immaculata in Rome that published several works on the role of oxidative stress in environmental sensitivities. (1, 2)

“To make a diagnosis of this syndrome we need to listen first to patients and we need to verify if the symptoms improve or disappear when they stay away from EMF sources”, Prof. Belpomme explained. In order to demonstrate if the electromagnetic fields were the real cause of the alterations found in these patients, the patients had to repeat the tests before and after a period of avoidance of EMF for three months. The results show that after the period of avoidance the levels tend toward the normal standard.

Given the strong correlation found by six epidemiologic studies on EMF exposure and Alzheimer Disease (AD), Prof. Belpomme believes that any electrosensitive patient with memory dysfunctions should be evaluated also for AD. He stresses the fact that AD is a loss of long term memory while EFI Syndrome often involves the loss of short term memory, but this symptom may be considered as a pre-Alzheimer condition.

Prof. Olle Johansson, Assoc. Prof., The Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute; Professor, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, talked in Rome about “The precautionary principle: from Bioinititive to the Seletun consensus”. He dedicated his lecture to people affected by EHS and MCS because “they have a very difficult life”.

He is one of the most dedicated scientists in the promotion of new biologically-based safety guidelines for EMF. He was in Benevento for the ICEMS resolution in 2006, then in London in 2007 for a new resolution, and he was also member of the group of independent scientists that published the famous Bioinitiative Report in 2007, which had strong ecological concern in the political agenda. Thanks to this report, in fact, the European Parliament signed a resolution on September 4, 2008 to state that the actual safety limits for EMF are obsolete and to warn EU governments about the increase of new environmental illnesses such as EHS, MCS and Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome.

More recently, Prof. Johansson was part of the group of scientists who prepared the Seletun Consensus, published last February in Reviews on Environmental Health (3). It states that present standards do not protect global human population from electromagnetic fields and all EMF should be reduced now instead of waiting for a definitive proof of danger. It also states that people reporting EHS symptoms should be considered as having a functional disability.

In Sweden, for example, EHS, MCS and fibromyalgia are already classified as functional disabilities. This means that people affected by these conditions are not considered patients, but it’s the environment that creates limitations for them so it’s the environment that has to be changed. This kind of classification represents the full concretization of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signed by governments on March 30, 2007. This convention should be enough to push all governments to find the right accommodation and the best welfare strategies for people with environmental sensitivities, and put an end to discrimination.

Author: Francesca Romana Orlando, journalist and Vice President of A.M.I.C.A.

Literature:

1. De Luca C. et al., Biological definition of multiple chemical sensitivity from redox state and cytokine profiling and not from polymorphisms of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, YTAAP-11818; No. of pages: 8; 4C.
2. De Luca C. et al., The Search for Reliable Biomarkers of Disease in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Other Environmental Intolerances, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8, 2770-2797; doi:10.3390/ijerph8072770
3. Fragopoulou A ed al., Scientific panel on electromagnetic field health risks: consensus points, recommendations, and rationales, Rev Environ Health. 2010 Oct-Dec; 25(4):307-17.

Related Articles:

• WHO receives delegation of representatives for the environmentally ill
• An Italian Law Proposal for Environmental Illnesses and Disability
• International Conference: Environmental and chemical pollution cause health injuries and disabilities
• Italian Parties united under the MCS cause

International Delegates Meet in Japan

Champions Gate, FL, January 20, 2010—Mercury, the main ingredient in “silver” or amalgam fillings, will be the subject of a United Nations conference to be held in Chiba, Japan on January 24-28.

Members of various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as dentists and scientists from groups such as the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), will be attending and urging a ban on products containing mercury, including dental amalgam. The deliberations serve as the second of five intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) meetings planned with the purpose of creating worldwide mercury regulations by 2013.

These meetings are the result of an agreement made by the Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 2009, when it was deemed necessary to create global standards addressing risks related to mercury, a toxic element phased out of many consumer products but still used in dental amalgam fillings.

On its website, UNEP cites reasons for recognizing the impact of mercury on human health: “Mercury can produce a range of adverse human health effects, including permanent damage to the nervous system, in particular the developing nervous system…[M]ercury can be transferred from a mother to her unborn child, [and] infants, children and women of child bearing age are considered vulnerable populations.”

Among the international delegates will be IAOMT dentist Graeme Munro-Hall of England, who represents a growing number of dentists and scientists from around the globe concerned about the toxic effects of mercury in silver amalgam fillings. Dr. Munro-Hall asserts, “International pressure to rid our world of toxic mercury will hopefully convince the FDA, CDC, NIH and ADA to acknowledge the perils of placing poison into the mouths of Americans.”

Attorney Charles Brown, President of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, based in Washington, DC, made an impact on the first INC meeting in Stockholm last year and will also speak in Chiba. In a recent message to the World Health Organization, Brown stated, “UNEP has identified amalgam as one of the five major products contributing to the global mercury problem, so action is urgently needed.”

Scientific studies substantiating the hazards of mercury fillings will be discussed by various international experts and organizations. Research that links autism to fetal exposure from maternal fillings will be provided by Mark Geier, M.D., Ph.D. Data collected by Joachim Mutter, M.D., published last week in the Journal of Occupational Medicine & Toxicology, will also be presented. Dr. Mutter’s findings relate mercury fillings to various neurological diseases, ranging from Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis.

At an FDA Dental Products advisory panel meeting in December, it was recommended that FDA consider banning and/or issuing stringent warnings for mercury filling use in children, pregnant women and an unclassified hypersensitive population. Countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark have already banned the use of mercury in dentistry.

–

Robert E. Reeves

REEVES LAW OFFICE

167 West Main St., Suite 500

Lexington, KY 40507

Contact: 859-226-0700, Fax-0711

Related articles:

• Impact of chemical BPA in dental sealants used in Children
• Environmental Medicine: International Appeal from Wuerzburg
• Alert: Spanish Professor with Chronic Mercury Intoxication goes on Hunger Strike
• A prospective study of prenatal mercury exposure from maternal dental amalgams and autism severity

Have you noticed that many pacifiers contain nanoparticles of silver these days, and is that good? The manufacturers tell us this process makes the pacifier anti-bacterial, but why not just rinse it with soap and water?

What, come to think of it, are nanoparticles?

Manmade nanoparticles are groups of atoms manufactured from atoms in other materials, mainly carbon and metals, arranged into a new product, and characterized by their fantastically small size. They are between 1 nanometer and 100 nanometers in size (in at least one dimension), that is, between one and 100 billionths of a meter. To give you an idea of how small that is, it would take eight hundred 100 nanometer-size particles side by side to match the width of a human hair. (The definition is still in flux. Particles up to 300nm in one dimension can also be called nanomaterials and can also have toxic properties.) Nanomaterials can be seen only with powerful microscopes.

The really essential point is, that they have unique chemical properties that differ from the properties of their larger scaled components.

Let’s get to the bottom line right here and now: products with nano ingredients are increasingly used in electronics, medicine, personal care products (even ones labeled as ‘organic’) and many other applications. The food and agricultural industries are using nanotechnologies to manufacture foods, food packaging, more potent pesticides, and more. A European report says these uses are “bringing in a fortune” to their manufacturers.(1) But none of the uses have been proved safe. I wouldn’t stick a silverized pacificer in my grandchild’s mouth nor clothe him in nano-impregnated clothing. At least, not now.

No one knows just what these particles can do to humans, especially to children, nor to plants or wildlife, but what we do know so far is not reassuring. As consumers and parents, we are at a disadvantage because manufacturers do not have to disclose the use of nanoparticles on product labels (see below for help with that). Furthermore, there’s no one in the world regulating the manufacture or use of nanomaterials; nor is any public agency tracking them, so it’s virtually impossible to find out how many “nano” consumer products are on the market and which merchandise could be called “nano.”

Hundreds of nano products (as far as anyone can tell) are made from silver, which has anti-bacterial properties. Nanosilver has been incorporated into socks, tee shirts, underpants and other clothing, manufactured mainly in China, South Korea and other Asian countries – then marketed as germ-killing and odor-free. It’s also been added to toothpastes, shampoos, cosmetics, deodorants and sunscreen (allowing the chemicals to penetrate the skin more easily). And coated onto computer keyboards and mousse; added to toothbrushes, food storage containers, lightswitches. No one knows how much nanosilver is now in use.

In fact, because of its antibacterial properties, nanosilver should already be a regulated product. Silver itself, more toxic to aquatic plants and animals than any metal except mercury, is classified as an environmental hazard by EPA, and, silver nanomaterials (because of their higher surface area) release their toxic silver ions more readily than the larger forms (2) A drop of nanosilver has the polluting strength of a ton of silver. Fabrics laced with silver nanoparticles release those particles when the fabric is exposed to artificial human sweat, one study showed.(3). EPA has not yet figured out what to do though the agency is proposing to grant conditional approval to a pesticide containing nanosilver.

Research has shown that nanoparticles can penetrate into places larger particles cannot go, such as through our “blood-brain barrier” which would otherwise stop toxic molecules passing from the blood into the brain. The particles also find their way into vital organs including the kidneys and liver, but precisely what they do to them has yet to be fully investigated. Researchers in the United Kingdom have found some nanoparticles in common household items can damage DNA without even penetrating the cells (the nanoparticles transmit signals through a protective barrier of human tissue and indirectly damage DNA inside cells).(4) Worms fed gold nanoparticles have up 90 percent fewer offspring.(5)

Once released from the product they were in, silver (and gold) nanoparticles, like all waste, first end up in your city’s sewage. There they inhibit the break-down of other waste products. And this throws into doubt the ability of cities, like San Francisco, to make “organic” compost out of sewage sludge. The silver nano particles are non-biodegradable, so they cannot be removed but continue to circulate and accumulate over time in organisms, including humans. When the nanoparticles reach waterways, they are highly toxic to fish and the aquatic ecosystem. Gold nanomaterials are similar killers.(6).

The nanoparticles used in sunscreen, as well as in food coloring, paint, and other consumer products, are derived from titanium dioxide, the most common nanomaterial used in consumer products today. The few studies done so far indicate that fetal exposure, through the mother, alters the way genes involved in brain development express themselves (that is, how those genes turn on or off, to do what they’re supposed to or not). (7) Manufacturers are now nanosizing lead and cadmium, two metals notoriously toxic and, when nanaosized, incredibly more dangerous. But the manufacturers will not disclose what products they aim to use these materials for.

What about the future, then? Most likely, some nano applications will be helpful, perhaps even miraculous, especially in the field of medicine. For example, the most harmful side effects of today’s treatments such as chemotherapy are a result of drug delivery methods that don’t pinpoint their intended target cells accurately. Researchers at Harvard and MIT are experimenting with using nanoparticles to deliver cancer treatments that target only the tumor without damaging normal tissue.

Perhaps the future will bring a “green nano technology.” For example, a Maryland-based company is trying to make the world’s smallest organic solar cells that could be sprayed onto glass where they’d generate electricity.(8) Kansas State University has developed a non-toxic material, which may absorb toxic air-borne particles even better, scaled down to a nanocrystalline powder (9) Companies claim these technologies will be safe but no regulation yet exists to substantiate such claims. Not to mention that nanomaterials take huge amounts of energy to produce and throw off toxins during their production. (10)

If and when the law that’s supposed to protect us from all manmade chemicals, the Toxic Substances Control Act, ever comes up for the improvement it desperately needs, new rules for nanomaterials will have to be included. The industry is of course gearing up to resist regulation as “increasingly difficult and far more costly.”(11)

For now, here’s a story with a moral: Samsung manufactures a line of silver nano-coated washing machines called “Silver Care,” capable of removing 99.9 percent of the bacteria in a load of laundry. These machines release 400 billion nano-sized silver ions in each load. When a different manufacturer looked into the usefulness of nanosilver in washing machines compared to regular washing machine technology, they found that washing clothes at 20C (68F) with detergent removed 99.79 percent of bacteria.(12) Thus, they determined, using nanosilver was not worth the environmental cost.

So if the benefit is, for now, minimal, and the health risks are substantial, the conclusion of one of the nation’s lead environmental health scientists, Dr. Jen Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council, makes sense: “Things that are in the nanoscale that are intentionally designed to be put into consumer products should be instantly required to be tested, and until proper risk assessments are done, they shouldn’t be allowed to be sold.”(13 /personal conversation with the author)

Author: Alice Shabecoff for CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, January 2011

German Translation of the Article: Nano – Winzige Gefahrstoffe

Resources for Parents

To identify products with nanomaterials:

www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/consumer

While not comprehensive, this inventory gives the public the best available look at the 1,000+ manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products currently on the market. You can browse products by name, category, company, or country. (This is a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Woodrow Wilson Intl Center for Scholars.)

If you have questions about a product not on that inventory, try to phone the manufacturer.

For a guide to sunscreens without nano ingredients:

Safe Sunscreens

To follow citizen-based research and actions:

Nanotechnology Citizen Engagement Organization

Friends of the Earth Australia

For information on the effect of nanoparticles on women’s reproductive health:

ask for a copy of the study from the University of California at San Francisco: harlessj@obgyn.ucsf.edu

Alice Shabecoff is the co-author of Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins Are Making Our Children Chronically Ill. The book includes guidance for parents on how to reduce risks for the children and how to change the system that allows these toxins in our children’s daily lives.

References:

1. http://www.bund.net/nc/bundnet/presse/pressemitteilungen/detail/zurueck/pressemitteilungen/artikel/bund-veroeffentlicht-datenbank-mit-ueber-200-nano-produkten/
2. http://www.nanoceo.net/nanorisks/silver-particles#Toxicity
3. http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/fabrics-release-silver-nanoparticles-into-artificial-sweat
4. http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n12/abs/nnano.2009.313.html
5. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es101885w
6. http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/silver-is-potent-neurotoxicant/
7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726979/
8. http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/07/spray-on-solar-glass-a-coming-reality/
9. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=17426.php
10. http://www.foe.org/nanotechnologys-true-climate-cost-exposed
11. http://www.nanoregnews.com/about.php
12. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10652949
13. Communication with author

More Articles from Alice Shabecoff:

• Our planet, our children – How are your children doing?
• My Mother made me fat
• New Pediatrics to Heal sick Children and keep well Children healthy

“The toxicological research has shown that many of the metallic particles in the smoke from fireworks are bio-reactive and can affect human health”, Teresa Moreno, a researcher from the IDAEA (CSIC) and lead author of a study that has been published this week in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, tells SINC.

The different colours and effects produced in these displays are achieved by adding metals to the gunpowder. When a pyrotechnic display takes place it releases a lot of smoke, liberating minute metallic particles (of a few microns in size, or even less), which are small enough to be inhaled deeply into the lungs.

“This poses a risk to health, and the effects are probably more acute in people with a background of asthma or cardiovascular problems”, Moreno explains. “The effects in healthy people are still unknown, but common sense tells us it cannot be good to inhale the high levels of metallic particles in this smoke, even if this only happens a few times a year”.

The study focused on the San Juan fiestas (the night of 23 June through to 24 June, 2008) in the Spanish city of Girona. The researchers analysed the levels of more than 30 chemical elements and compounds in May and June in order to confirm that the levels of lead, copper, strontium, potassium and magnesium skyrocketed after the fireworks were launched.

The team found the results were similar in other towns too. During the Mascletà (18 March), for example, in the Las Fallas fiestas in Valencia, levels of these elements rose once again, as well as others such as aluminium, titanium, barium and antimony, and also concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2).

Other studies have confirmed that the smoke from fireworks increases the presence of metallic particles in the skies over L’Alcora and Borriana (Castellón), Barcelona and even London (United Kingdom) during the Guy Fawkes’ Night celebrations.

“People who live in cities already inhale significant amounts of contaminant particles stemming from traffic emissions, chimneys and cigarettes, and the dense smoke caused by fireworks only worsens this situation”, points out Moreno.

Possible solutions

The researcher compares the problem with that of tobacco. “The less you expose yourself to the smoke, the fewer negative effects it will have on your health, and so the best solution is to avoid inhaling it”.

According to the scientists, in the absence of a ban on fireworks, spectators should stay well back in a place not affected by the smoke and pay attention to the wind direction. They also recommend that fireworks displays should be sited in a place that ensures the plume of smoke will blow away from densely populated areas.

An added problem is the chemical mixtures in the different kinds of fireworks, since some contain extremely toxic metals such as lead. “There should be strict controls on fireworks imports so that those with the potentially most dangerous chemical composition can be avoided”, concludes Moreno.

Reference:

Teresa Moreno, Xavier Querol, Andrés Alastuey, Fulvio Amato, Jorge Pey, Marco Pandolfi, Nino Kuenzli, Laura Bouso, Marcela Rivera y Wes Gibbons. “Effect of fireworks events on urban background trace metal aerosol concentrations: Is the cocktail worth the show?” Journal of Hazardous Materials 183 (1-3): 945-949, november, 15, 2010. Doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.07.082.

Photo: Jorge Alejo

Further articles of interest about asthma:

• EPA Conference calls for Considerations of Asthmatics
• Breathe easy: A natural fruit compound may help Asthma
• Mitochondrial Dysfunction increases Allergic Airway Inflammation
• Genetic rat model of cholinerc Hypersensitivity: Implications for Chemical Intolerances, Chronic Fatigue and Asthma

Daily chemical exposures at low doses can affect our health

ROME – On September 24, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the congress “New Environmental Diseases” was held at the Chamber of Deputees Congress Hall in Rome. The event was organized by A.M.I.C.A. (Association for Environmental and Chronic Toxic Injury), the Italian organization that works for the rights of people with MCS and EHS, and it was supported by Mep Domenico Scilipoti, an oncologist, holistic doctor, and rapporteur of a draft to become law on environmental diseases and disabilities and also for the phasing out of dental amalgam.

“More and more scientific evidence shows how daily chemical exposures at low doses can affect our health. With this event we would like to create a bridge between science and politics in order to have a new legislation, particularly for the protection of those affected by Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. These diseases seem to be correlated one to another,” Francesca Romana Orlando, Vice President of A.M.I.C.A., commented. She has just published the book Il Cerchio Perfetto (The Perfect Circle) about the link between industry, politics, academics, and media and its role in the hiding of toxic dangers to the public.

“Just a few weeks ago, at the Senate Commission for Health, the debate about the draft to become law for the recognition of MCS as an epidemic disease started. The prevalence of this illness is about 10% of the population and in Italy the patients still don’t have any hospital to receive any medical treatment in a proper environment,” Silvia Bigeschi, Vice President of A.M.I.C.A., adds.

There are ten projects to become law for the recognition of MCS as an epidemic disease at the Italian Parliament and, just the day before of the congress, A.M.I.C.A. presented a petition with more than 10,000 signature asking for the approval of a law for MCS and also a petition to the Ministry of Health for the total phase out of dental mercury (amalgam), since many cases of MCS, CFS and EHS seem to be triggered by amalgam fillings.

The congress was divided in four sessions. The first one was about “Diagnostic approaches” for MCS, CFS and FM. Prof. Giuseppe Genovesi of the University of Rome La Sapienza and Dr. Chiara De Luca, Head of the Laboratory BILARA at the Dermatological Institute Immacolata of Rome, presented the results of a study on oxidative stress and genetics in MCS patients, that was recently published on Toxicology Applied Pharmacology (Apr. 26, 2010).

While Dr. De Luca focused on the clear evidence of oxidative stress in these patients, such as the lack of enzyme catalysis and GST, Prof. Genovesi stressed the fact that the results don’t show the prevalence of one specific genetic polymorphism, but most of the patients had one or more genetic factors inducing a lower detoxification. He also announced that they are going to test the genetic predisposition of the enzyme catalysis, since this is so typically low in MCS patients.

Dr. Alberto Migliore, the chief of Rheumatology Department at the S. Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome, published a study about the comorbidity of MCS and Sjogren Syndrome. Dr. Lorenzo Bettoni presented a lecture about the environmental causes of CFS and FM, with an hypothesis about the role of chemicals, EMF pollution, and physical/mental stress on the triggering of these illnesses.

Dr. Giacomo Rao, who works for the Italian National Insurance of Workers (INAIL, the public institute that gives compensation and pension to the workers injured at workplace), talked about the legal aspects of the recognition of these illnesses as a disability. He showed that there are several impact life factors to consider and that in Italy there are now many MCS disability certificates, even if it is always very difficult to convince the commissions about the severity of this illness. He added that the final judgment depends only on the good will of the commissioners to study a new issue.

In the second session entitled “New Paradigms of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine,” Martin L. Pall, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences, Washington State University, presented his theory about the biochemical vicious cycle ON/ONOO – induced by the combination of high NOS activity and Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) depletion – and how it is able to explain not only MCS, CFS or FM, but also other emerging neuro-degenerative illnesses such AD, Parkinson or ALS. He commented that the De Luca – Genovesi study about oxidative stress represents a full confirmation of his theory.

Dr. Peter Ohnsorge, President of the European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM), has already applied Pall’s theory to his clinical approach in order to reduce NMDA in the cerebral metabolism. He proceeds in treating inflammation first, by supplementing enzymes, antioxidants, minerals and Vitamins. Then, he offers a chelation therapy, when possible, and also hemapheresis (Membrane Differential Filtration), gut therapy and detoxification. He also uses sauna therapy since the heat helps to increase BH4 and to oppose the vicious NO/ONOO cycle.

Recently, Dr. Ohnsorge was commissioned by the German Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, to do a controlled randomized study about the efficacy of therapies for MCS patients with the double aim of detoxification of lipophilic toxins and improving the complaints. He found out that using a complex therapeutic regime usually allows the patients to recover slowly, but surely.

The MCS people in the audience asked him several questions, for example about the bad secondary effects of supplementation of glutathione (GSH) and about the tests of compatibility of drugs and dental materials. He explained that supplementation has to be given always with very low doses at the beginning in order to avoid violent breaks in the detoxification mechanisms. Moreover, he suggested using the Lymphocyte Transformation Test (LTT) to find out reactions to drugs, metals, plastics and environmental toxins, while the basophil degranulation test is suggested when inflammation is suspected induced by metals, like in the case of titanium implants.

In the same second session, Dr. Ernesto Burgio, Coordinator of the Scientific Committee of ISDE Italia (Doctors for the Environment), gave a lecture about the epigenetic damages caused by environmental toxins and EMFs. The epigenome represents the interface between the information from the environment and the genome, and even in the absence of chromosomal or gene mutations, there still can be a change in the expression of the gene (DNA Methylation) because of an epigenetic injury. “With a few exceptions, cellular differentiation almost never involves a change in the DNA sequence itself,” commented Dr. Burgio.

Since the environment changed too quickly in the latest decades, the capacity of adaptation of the (epi) genome is not enough to compensate it. Thus, a toxic exposure from the parents, in the womb, or during the early childhood can induce a chronic disabling illness later in life.

New studies are being explored on how a lead exposure in infants can be associated to Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-like symptoms years later or how the mother’s exposure to high levels of folic acid, vitamin B12 or to cigarette smoke can induce epigenetic changes that can repress gene transcription and, then, induce phenotypes of asthma (i.e. allergic airway inflammation) in the offspring. These findings could lead to the conclusion that our society is on the edge of a “disevolution.”

In the third section on “Heavy Metals Toxicity,” Dr. Raimondo Pische, President of the International Academy of Bio-Dentistry (AIOB) talked about the risks associated with the exposure to the metals of dental amalgam. In particular, he presented a video of an amalgam fillings showing how mercury vapors are easily released by the amalgam. He underlined the fact that the dentists are the first ones at risk when they pose and remove amalgam fillings and that dental mercury represents the main source of exposure to mercury vapors in not occupational environments. This is no longer acceptable since mercury is the most toxic element in nature after the radioactive elements.

Dr. Antonello Maria Pasciuto, Italian member of the European Academy for Environmental Medicine (EUROPAEM), talked about the LTT-MELISA, the Lymphocyte Transformation Test for the proof of late allergy to metals (type IV). This kind of allergy was observed in patients with MCS, CFS, MS, FM, ALS and autoimmune diseases and it usually improves, as well as the symptoms, after the safe removal of dental metals.

Dr. Gianpaolo Guzzi of the Italian Organization for the Research on Metals and Biocompatibility (A.I.R.M.E.B.) talked about the side effects of chelation therapies. His group studied hundreds of patients with amalgam toxic load and they reviewed the effects of EDTA, DMPS, DMSA and Glutathione. EDTA seems to redistribute metals without really getting rid of them, while DMPS seems more effective on treating elemental mercury, but with severe side effects in some cases. DMSA works to detoxify from methyl mercury and it can also get rid of elemental mercury stocked in the kidneys. Recently Dr. Guzzi’s research group is testing the efficacy of Glutathione in metal detoxification since there aren’t studies about it.

In the last session about “EMF and Health”, Dr. Fiorenzo Marinelli, researcher of the Institute of Molecular Genetics (IGM) in Bologna talked about wireless technologies such as mobile phones, Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. He pointed out the fact that thermal effects are only a part of the biological effects of EMFs, but still these are the only ones considered by international safety standard limits. There are also other effects induced by the signal information in itself. This explains why, even though UMTS has usually a lower intensity of the signal compared to GSM, it uses a wider band of frequencies, then involving a greater risk of damage in the DNA, as the recent European Reflex study showed. His research group has recently studied the effects of radars and Wi-Fi and the preliminary findings show that both these kind of EMFs promote cell proliferation (2010).

Since scientific literature clearly demonstrates that EMF in our everyday life can induce DNA breakage, genetic deregulation as well as chromosomal breakage, increase of free radicals, alteration of neurotransmitters, memory loss, hypersensitivity-allergy, aging and possibly cancer, Dr. Marinelli supports the reduction of the safety limit of exposure to 0,6 V/m, as requested by the International Commission for the Electromagnetic Safety (ICEMS) since 2002.

Finally, Prof. Olle Johansson, associate professor at The Experimental Dermatology Unit – Department of Neuroscience of the Karolinska Institute, and Professor at The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, also member of the famous Bioinitiative Working group, presented a lecture about Electro-Hyper-Sensitivity, which is fully recognized as a functional impairment in Sweden. He explained not only the bioeffects of EMF on EHS people, but also the social problem of disability in our modern societies. “Disability is everywhere and it can happen to anyone: I myself have a disability when I am in Italy because I can not speak Italian,” Prof. Johansson commented. He reminded that all modern democracies signed international equal rights UN treaties, but still they leave these principles un-realized when it comes to environmental disability.

Reference:

A.M.I.C.A. congress shows how environmental and chemical pollution cause health injuries and disabilities, Rome, September 25th, 2010

Photo: AMICA

Contact:

Francesca Romana Orlando
Vice President of AMICA
Associazione Malattie da Intossicazione Cronica e/o Ambientale
(Association for Environmental and Chronic Toxic Injury)
P.O. Box 3131, 00121 Rome – Italy
www.infoamica.it amica(at)infoamica.it

Related articles:

• Predictions of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Mechanism confirmed by Roman Study
• Martin Pall about genetic evidence and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
• Italian Parties united under the MCS cause
• An Italian law proposal for Environmental Illness and Disability

Professor Servando Pérez, President of Mercuriados (Spain) and Vice President of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, has put an end to his hunger strike for health reasons. He was carrying out his strike in the Hospital Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in order to demand treatment for chronic mercury intoxication. Spain, which is one of the countries in the world which has produced the most mercury, but does not have, in its public health services, doctors nor the facilities to do chelation (the treatment to take toxic metals out of the body) for chronic mercury intoxication. It does however, have chelation for acute mercury intoxication, but that is an easier treatment to do. The lack of proper health services for damage done by toxic metals in Spain is experienced by thousands of people in the country. This was the reason why Servando, had the bravery to strike and show the entire world of this lack of treatment for those compromised by heavy metals.

After Professor Pérez refused to leave the hospital for a month and was on a hunger strike for a week demanding to be treated (as was ordered by a judge when he was diagnosed), the hospital finally came to an agreement to refer him to a toxicologist in Valencia. Yet, this toxicologist has already stated that in Spain there are not any hospitals which can treat chronic mercury intoxication, so the solution to Servando’s situation and for thousands of other people in his situation in Spain is still up in the air. We are now entering into a second phase of this fight which involves meeting with the Spanish Ministry of Health.

We, the Spanish associations of patients with environmental illnesses (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Intoxication by Toxic Metals), continue to fight for appropriate treatments by the public health care system. We want to thank Servando Pérez for his bravery, his coherence, and for being an example for all of us. We know that during his stay in the hospital he was pressured and harassed by doctors and administration, including very aggressive behavior on the part of the psychiatrists who wanted to diagnose him as having a psychiatric disorder.

We also want to thank all the scientists, doctors, associations and individuals who, all over the world, have, during Servando’s lock-in and hunger strike, have contacted the Spanish and the Galician authorities to protest for Servando’s situation and who have shown support for our fight. We hope to continue to count on your support.

We are all Servando!

Viva Servando!

Clara Valverde, President Liga SFC, Spain, August 1, 2010

(on behalf of Servando who is too ill to write)

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Related articles:

• ALERT: SPANISH PROFESSOR WITH CHRONIC MERCURY INTOXICATION GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE
• Meeting between Ministry of Health and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity associations in Spain
• Cry for help young woman in danger
• MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivity recognized as physical disease at ICD-10 in Japan

As of yesterday, July 26, 2010, Professor Servando Perez, President of Mercuriados Spain (people affected by chronic mercury intoxication), has began a hunger strike. Prof Perez was diagnosed two years ago as having Chronic Mercury Intoxication and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS). His case went to the highest court in Spain and a judge ruled that Prof. Perez had chronic mercury intoxicaton due to dental fillings and that the Spanish public health care system (Social Security) should treat his condition with chelation or refer him to a private clinic to do so and pay the costs. This was an incredible legal precendent.

Needless to say, Professor Perez has not been treated yet and the Social Security has been doing everything possible to make sure that he, as with other MCS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephylitis and Fibromyalgia patients in Spain, do not receive proper medical services from the public health care system.

Because of this, Mercuriados Spain and many other associations, have been carrying out campaigns, popular initiatives, lobbying, legal suits, and many other strategies to change this situation, but with no positive results.

Professor Perez’s health has deteriorated and a month ago he went to emergency at the Santiago de Compostela University Hospital. They refused to attend him and he said he would not leave the hospital until the judge’s order for a chelation was carried out.

In the past month, at the hospital, Prof Perez has endured all kinds of harassment and pressures to leave. He has even been “diagnosed” as having a psychiatric illness despite the fact that his illness is organic.

We, the Spanish MCS, CFS/ME and FMS associations have mounted a campaign to support Prof Perez with emails, phone calls to the hospital, press, etc.

And now, the latest harassing strategy by the hospital is to refuse to give him food without additives. Faced with all of this, Servando Perez has started a hunger strike. Yes, he could try to get a bank loan and pay for a private chelation, but this would not help the rest of us ill people in Spain waiting to get treatment in the public health care system. The hospital says that they refuse to refer him to a private clinic (and pick up the tab) because it would set a precedent, and soon all the people with chronic heavy metal intoxication in Spain would have to be treated. And they don’t want to do that with tax money.

Servando Perez has opted for the brave and hard road to try to change the desperate situation we live with in Spain, those of us with these illnesses, and we are proud of Servando’s action.

We write you to inform you and to ask you for your support.

Please write or phone the Vice director of the Hospital Santiago de Compostela, Dr Jose-Ramón Gómez at jose.ramon.gomez.fernandez@sergas.es

or phone him at (34) 98.1950970.

We all are Servando Perez!

Thank you,

Clara Valverde

President

Liga SFC (CFS/ME League, Spain)

www.ligasfc.org

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• Article on Spanish
• Article on German
• Article on Japanese

Gardasil – Is there any risk?

As soon as a teenage girl walks into her pediatrician’s office, he will suggest another vaccination, to be delivered through a series of shots spaced out over six months. This time the vaccine is Gardasil, intended to protect her from being infected by the human papilloma virus, HPV, which might cause cervical cancer later in life.

On balance, is this series of vaccinations a good idea? Is it safe; is it worth the possible side effects?

Gardasil is manufactured by Merck Vaccines. It was fast-tracked for approval in June 2006 by the Food & Drug Administration after only two years and limited studies of only 1,200 girls for only two years. Like all pharmaceutical products, as well as the chemicals used in all manufactured products, from skin cream to formaldehyde, the manufacturer is in charge of the studies.

When, after the two-year study, the CDC recommended that Gardasil routinely be given to all 11- to 12-year-old girls, the head of the CDC was Julie Gerberding. With the change of administrations, she left for a job as president of Merck Vaccines. (Just one more typical example of the revolving door between industry and the folks who are supposed to protect our health.)

Merck is the company that had known for nearly a decade before it became public knowledge that infants getting the federally-mandated multiple vaccinations were thus getting an elevated dose of mercury from the preservative in those vaccines (a dose up to 87 times higher than guidelines for the maximum daily consumption of mercury from fish), but did not disclose this information. Gardasil is preserved with aluminum, like mercury, a toxin.

It is not clear that Gardasil is truly effective nor worth the risk.

Now that tens of thousands of girls have gotten this series of vaccinations, records kept by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) show a high level of adverse reactions. The reactions generally double after the second injection and quadruple after the third. They range from headache, hair loss, dizziness and nausea, to an anaphylactic shock, seizures and even death. Read their stories at www.truthaboutgardasil.org, a website founded by Marion Greene whose own daughter was injured. In fact, there are twice as many adverse side effects from Gardasil as from flu shots (which contain mercury). Merck, of course, reports virtually no risk.

Gardasil is approved to protect girls and women, ages 9 through 26, from the two types of HPV that are responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases (and against two other types that cause 90 percent of all cases of genital warts). There are more than 120 types of HPV, as many as 40 of them spread through sexual contact; of these 40, 15 types have the potential to cause cancers in females and males. The vaccine’s effectiveness is very limited against these other types of HPV. Furthermore, about 90 percent of genital HPV cases clear up on their own within two years.

Even worse, news has leaked out that Gardasil increases the risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6 percent among people (most likely those who are sexually active) who have already been exposed to two types of the HPV virus. This time, Merck actually told FDA about this risk, yet the agency approved the vaccine and did not even demand a warning insert in the package.

Nor is anyone sure about how long the protection will last. As you read, above, the Merck study followed vaccinated girls and women for only two years, and in some cases even gave them booster shots. Other clinical trials followed women ages 16 to 23 for up to four-and-a-half years after their three doses of the vaccine. But compare that to the fact that cervical cancer takes decades to develop. Then there’s the fact that HPV exposure occurs in 10 percent of children in the first 10 years of life, before any vaccination.

The risk of adverse effects from the vaccine seems higher than the risk of getting cervical cancer in the U.S. That’s because women and teenage girls in our country, when they become sexually active, are likely to get regular pap smears which detect cell abnormalities before they turn into cancer, and so treatment can start long before the cancer develops. Cervical cancer rates have dropped 74% since regular pap smear testing began. It’s among the women who have not had a pap test for five years or more that most cervical cancer is found these days. And pap smears are still required even for a girl who has been vaccinated.

Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine ever recommended for school-age children. Merck charges $120 for each dose, and the cost for the three-shot regimen adds up to $400 to $1,000 per patient. Merck is now pushing to extend its market, to boys and men, to prevent genital warts, and to women up to the age of 45. It advertises widely, and is also pushing a campaign at least 20 states to convince legislators to require the HPV vaccinations as a prerequisite for girls to attend school. My state of Massachusetts actually considered such a mandate, but so far that has not succeeded.

Another HPV vaccine, Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved in May of this year. It protects against only two strains of HPV virus, contains almost twice the aluminum content as well as a second adjuvant (a chemical agent added to boost the effectiveness of the active ingredient). Higher rates of anaphylactic shock reactions have been reported after Cervarix than Gardasil in Europe, where both have been used.

Author: Alice Shabecoff for CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, June 16, 2010

German Translation: Impfen lassen gegen Papillomvirus? Oder besser nicht?

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For more information:

• Truth about Gardasil
• National Vaccine Information Center
• Generation Rescue
• Urgent Warning about Gardasil (YouTube Video)

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Alice Shabecoff is the co-author with her husband Philip of the book Poisoned for Profits: How Toxins Are Making Our Children Chronically Ill, just released in paperback.

More CSN-Articles written by Alice Sabecoff:

• Oil Spill: Kids in the Gulf
• Anti Bacterials = Anti Health
• A new pediatrics to heal sick children and keep well children healthy
• My mother made me fat
• Our planet, our children – How are our children doing?

Study shows need for action to promote ecological recycling

More than 155,000 tonnes of what is sometimes hazardous electronic waste are exported annually from Germany to non-European destinations, a volume which includes some 50,000 tonnes of PC and television monitors alone. The latter often contain metals as well as flame-retardant bromide compounds such as hazardous polybrominated diphenyl ether (PentaBDE). Even defective appliances are often re-classified as “functional”, then usually shipped to Asia and Africa where they are only rarely recycled ecologically. These are the findings of a new study commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which was presented at CEBIT in Hannover.

Federal Minister for Environment Dr. Norbert Röttgen said, “The study illustrates the scale of illegal export of WEEE while also pointing out that further measures to solve the problem are necessary. The Federal government is calling for a decisive regulation at the European level by which exporters must provide proof that exported devices are in working order and not in fact waste, and for exporters to bear the costs of periodic checks”. The appropriate authorities in Germany must step up monitoring of collection points and exports so as to curb the detrimental impact on environment and health of criminal trade.

“Not only do many hazardous materials leave the country in used electronic equipment, but valuable raw materials such as gold, copper, platinum or indium are also exiting the raw materials cycle here at home”, said UBA President Jochen Flasbarth. “As long as ecological recycling is technically and satisfactorily possible in Europe or similar regions only, equipment and its components should be reused here. It makes economic sense to recycle valuable raw materials appropriately, especially many metals, considering the rise in global market prices”, continued Flasbarth.

UBA’s President also made an appeal to continue improvement of recycling standards in Asia and Africa through technology transfer. Producers of new equipment are also called upon to design products more ecologically.

In their one-and-a-half-year-long study experts from the Hamburg Institute for Environmental Strategies (Ökopol) compiled the most solid information as yet on the origin and volume of exported devices. The equipment came from flea markets, second hand shops or were retrieved from junk yards. From there it is often transported via collection points for export, usually by sea. Besides harmless metallic raw materials, WEEE also houses a host of hazardous materials which must be recycled properly to avoid harming human health and the environment. An old computer contains more than 100 different materials, and conventional monitors contain lamps which must also be disposed of professionally.

The study findings are to be forwarded to affected stakeholders, in particular the concerned federal ministries, municipal umbrella organisations, environmental and economic associations, and the European Commission.

The “Optimierung der Steuerung und Kontrolle grenzüberschreitender Stoffströme bei Elektroaltgeräten/Elektroschrott” study (in German with English-language summary) is available as a free download at www.umweltbundesamt.de. A background paper is available at www.bmu.de (in German).

Literature: Umweltbundesamt, BMU – German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Export of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): plenty of gold, and poison, too, Press release No. 029/10, Berlin, 04.03.2010