More research should focus on BPA and health effects in adults

In one of the first human studies of its kind, researchers have found that urinary concentrations of the controversial chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA, may be related to decreased sperm quality and sperm concentration.

However, the researchers are quick to point out that these results are preliminary and more study is needed. Several studies have documented adverse effects of BPA on semen in rodents, but none are known to have reported similar relationships in humans.

BPA is a common chemical that’s stirred much controversy in the media lately over its safety. Critics say that BPA mimics the body’s own hormones and may lead to negative health effects. BPA is most commonly used to make plastics and epoxy resins used in food and beverage cans, and people are exposed primarily through diet, although other routes are possible. More than 6 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually.

The new study suggests that more research should focus on BPA and health effects in adults, says John Meeker, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Meeker is the lead author on the study, along with Russ Hauser, the Frederick Lee Hisaw Professor of Reproductive Physiology at Harvard School of Public Health. Colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also contributed to the research.

“Much of the focus for BPA is on the exposures in utero or in early life, which is of course extremely important, but this suggests exposure may also be a concern for adults,” Meeker said. “Research should focus on impacts of exposure throughout multiple life stages.” Meeker and Hauser recruited 190 men through a fertility clinic. All gave spot urine samples and sperm samples the same day. Subsequently, 78 of the men gave one or two additional urine samples a month apart. Researchers detected BPA in 89 percent of the urine samples.

Researchers measured sperm concentration, sperm motility, sperm shape and DNA damage in the sperm cell.

“We found that if we compare somebody in the top quartile of exposure with the lowest quartile of exposure, sperm concentration was on average about 23 percent lower in men with the highest BPA,” Meeker said.

Results also suggested a 10 percent increase in sperm DNA damage.

The results are consistent with a previous study by Meeker and Hauser suggesting that certain hormones, specifically FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) and Inhibin B, are elevated or decreased in relation to BPA, respectively, a pattern consistent with low sperm production and development.

Meeker stressed that further study is necessary due to the study’s relatively small sample size and design.

“The study from which these data came is currently in progress,” Hauser said. “With a larger sample size and enhanced study design, we will be able to more definitively investigate this preliminary association in the near future.”

Reference:

University of Michigan, Sperm may be harmed by exposure to BPA, study suggests, ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 3, 2010.

Related EMM Articles about BPA:

• Lawsuit seeks to ban BPA from food packaging
• 60 Scientists and NGOs Sound Joint Warning on Plastics Chemical
• Everyday Exposure to Dangerous Levels of Toxic Chemical BPA Unavoidable
• Yale: Why BPA leached from ’safe’ plastics may damage health of female offspring
• Study shows: Plastics chemical retards growth, function of adult reproductive cells

New National Study Finds Decrease in Pediatric Injuries Associated with Household Cleaners Children younger than 6 years still at high risk of poisoning

Every year in the United States, there are more than 1.2 million poison exposures among children younger than 6 years. In recent decades, household cleaning products have consistently been one of the leading sources of pediatric poisoning. A new study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that from 1990-2006, an estimated 267,269 children younger than 6 years were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for injuries attributable to household cleaning products. During the 17-year study period, researchers noted a 46 percent decrease in the number of injuries.

Data from the study, being released online August 2 and appearing in the September issue of Pediatrics, show that most of the household cleaner-related injuries were poisonings, with children ages 1-3 years accounting for the majority (72 percent) of the injuries. Bleach was the cleaning product most commonly associated with injury (37.1 percent). While approximately one-third of the injuries occurred through contact with the cleaning product, the more frequent means was ingestion (62.7 percent), and spray bottles were the most common storage container (40.1 percent).

“Interestingly, spray bottles were the only major storage source that increased over the study period,” said study lead author Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Although rates of household cleaner-related injuries from regular bottles and original containers decreased during the study period, spray bottle injury rates remained constant. This area is worthy of further research.”

The good news is that the number of injuries decreased almost by half during the study period, but the bad news is that there were still nearly 12,000 children younger than 6 years who suffered injuries from household cleaning products in 2006.

“Young children are curious about their surroundings and tend to explore their environment by putting things in their mouths,” said Dr. McKenzie, also a faculty member of The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “This general sense of inquisitiveness, combined with increased mobility, the ubiquitous nature of household cleaning products and the ease of accessibility, place young children at high risk of injury.”

Parents and caregivers must do their part to prevent childhood poisonings. According to Heath Jolliff, DO, associate medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, parents should store poisonous substances in locked cabinets, out of sight and reach of children.

“It’s important to only purchase cleaners with child-resistant packaging, keep all products in their original containers and properly dispose of leftover or unused products,” Dr. Jolliff, also a faculty member at OSU College of Medicine, said.

Parents should also know what to do if they suspect their child has come in contact with a poison. Dr. Jolliff advises to immediately contact the Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 (this national number will direct callers to their local Poison Center), unless the child is unconscious, not breathing, or having seizures, in which case parents should call 9-1-1.

This is the first published study using nationally representative data to examine poisonings from household cleaning products among children younger than 6 years for an extended time period. Data for this study were collected from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which is operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NEISS dataset provides information on consumer product-related and sports and recreation-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments across the country.

Reference:

Nationwide Children’s Hospital, New National Study Finds Decrease in Pediatric Injuries Associated with Household Cleaners Children younger than 6 years still at high risk of poisoning, Columbus, OH – 8/2/2010.

-

Further Articles about Children’s Health:

• Oil Spill: Kids in the Gulf
• Pesticides in kids linked to ADHD- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, study finds
• Our Planet – Our Children – How are your Children doing?
• EPA releases Guide to help Scientists understand Children Exposure to Pollutants
• Common Plastics Chemicals linked to ADHD Symptoms

Splashing around in a swimming pool on a hot summer day may not be as safe as you think

A recent University of Illinois study links the application of disinfectants in recreational pools to previously published adverse health outcomes such as asthma and bladder cancer.

Each year, 339 million visits take place at pools and water parks across the United States. Not only is swimming fun, but it’s also the second most popular form of exercise in the country. Because of this, disinfection of recreational pools is critical to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease.

However, Michael Plewa, U of I professor of genetics, said negative outcomes can occur when disinfection byproducts form reactions with organic matter in pool water.

Pool water represents extreme cases of disinfection that differ from the disinfection of drinking water as pools are continuously exposed to disinfectants.

“All sources of water possess organic matter that comes from decaying leaves, microbes and other dead life forms,” Plewa said. “In addition to organic matter and disinfectants, pool waters contain sweat, hair, skin, urine, and consumer products such as cosmetics and sunscreens from swimmers.”

These consumer products are often nitrogen-rich, causing concern that they may contribute to the generation of nitrogenous disinfection byproducts, Plewa added. When mixed with disinfectants, these products may become chemically modified and converted into more toxic agents. These disinfection byproducts can mutate genes, induce birth defects, accelerate the aging process, cause respiratory ailments, and even induce cancer after long-term exposures. In this study, collections from public pools and a control sample of tap water were evaluated to identify recreational water conditions that could be harmful to your health.

A systematic mammalian cell genotoxicity analysis was used to compare the water samples. Plewa said this sensitive DNA technology examined genomic damage in mammalian cells, allowing researchers to investigate damage at the level of each nucleus within each cell.

The study compared different disinfection methods and environmental conditions. Results proved that all disinfected pool samples exhibited more genomic DNA damage than the source tap water, Plewa said.

“Care should be taken in selecting disinfectants to treat recreational pool water,” Plewa advised. “The data suggest that brominating agents should be avoided as disinfectants of recreational pool water. The best method to treat pool waters is a combination of UV treatment with chlorine as compared to chlorination alone.”

Plewa recommends that organic carbon be removed prior to disinfection when the pool water is being recycled.

Also, swimmers can help reduce the genotoxicity of pool water by showering before entering the water. Pool owners should also remind patrons about the potential harm caused by urinating in a pool. These simple steps can greatly reduce the precursors of toxic disinfection byproducts, Plewa said.

Literature: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Research links recreational pool disinfectants to health problems, July 21, 2010

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?

-

For more information:

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

-

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?

Following the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse on September 11, 2001, more than 40,000 people were exposed to a complex mixture of inhalable nanoparticles and toxic chemicals. While many developed chronic respiratory symptoms, to what degree olfaction was compromised is unclear. A previous WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program study found that olfactory and nasal trigeminal thresholds were altered by the toxic exposure, but not scores on a 20-odor smell identification test.

To employ a well-validated 40-item smell identification test to definitively establish whether the ability to identify odors is compromised in a cohort of WTC-exposed individuals and, if so, whether the degree of compromise is associated with self-reported severity of rhinitic symptoms.

The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) was administered to 99 WTC-exposed persons and 99 matched normal controls. The Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test (SNOT-20) was administered to the 99 WTC-exposed persons and compared to the UPSIT scores.

The mean (SD) UPSIT scores were lower in the WTC-exposed group than in age-, sex-, and smoking history-matched controls [respective scores: 30.05 (5.08) vs 35.94 (3.76); p = 0.003], an effect present in a subgroup of 19 subjects additionally matched on occupation (p < 0.001). Fifteen percent of the exposed subjects had severe microsmia, but only 3% anosmia. SNOT-20 scores were unrelated to UPSIT scores (r = 0.20; p = 0.11).

Exposure to WTC air pollution was associated with a decrement in the ability to identify odors, implying that such exposure had a greater influence on smell function than previously realized.

Literature:

Altman KW, Desai SC, Moline J, de la Hoz RE, Herbert R, Gannon PJ, Doty RL.,Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Odor identification ability and self-reported upper respiratory symptoms in workers at the post-9/11 World Trade Center site, Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2010 Jun 30.