Paula Begoun and Bryan Barron
See book keywords and concepts |
 This is particularly true in Africa, where tainted skin-lightening products are commonplace (Sources: British Journal of Dermatology, March 2003, pages 493-500; Critical Reviews in Toxicology, May 1999, pages 283-330; and Journal of Toxicology and environmental health, September 1998, pages 301-317).
Despite hydroquinone's impressive track record and efficacy, in September 2006 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that products containing hydroquinone be sold only with a prescription due to their opinion that it posed certain health risks. |
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
See book keywords and concepts |
 M.P.H., environmental health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University; Retha Newbold, Ph.D., National Institute of environmental health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC; and other experts who analyzed the findings, noted numerous flaws in both the design and reporting of this study,8485 including:
þ Failure to include mention of statistically significant, higher incidences of allergies and asthma in the study's abstract— the only part read by most busy health professionals and media reporters. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 What's more, a 2003 study conducted by the University of Missouri published in the journal, environmental health Perspectives, found that detectable levels of BPA leached into liquids at room temperature. This means just having your plastic water bottle sitting on your desk can be potentially harmful. The best thing to do is to avoid plastic altogether. (Side note: Baby bottles made from polycarbonate plastics have quietly disappeared from the market despite industry assurances that polycarbonate plastics are safe.)
There are two approaches to take to avoid exposure to BPA. |
Stacy Malkan
See book keywords and concepts |
 In college, Lisa delved into environmental health studies, women's studies and social justice issues, learning all she could. "I realized it's all connected. We look at these issues as though they are separate, but they're all connected," Lisa said.
That day at the March for Women's Lives, behind the ten-foot-long banner emblazoned with the words "Because We're Worth It!" Lisa was marching for everything she cared about, alongside a million other advocates for women's rights. Removing toxic chemicals from personal care products is "a battle of fertility too," she explained. |
| Our health standards are in the Jurassic period," said Pete Myers, PhD, chief scientist of the latest scientific environmental health Sciences and co-author of developments Our Stolen Future. But Myers believes the emerg- EnvironmentalHealthNews.org. ing science carries an important silver lining. _
DES Story
An intuitive mom first made the link: she asked her doctor if her use of diethyl-stilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy 20 years earlier could possibly have contributed to her daughter's vaginal cancer. The doctor didn't think so. |
| More environmental health studies are urgently needed. Only 4% of the $9 billion dedicated to nanotechnology research in 2006 went to environmental and health research. "What we're left with are early studies that raise warning flags and no follow-up," Kimbrell said. "We need a real regulatory framework that protects public health and the environment. |
| According to John Warner, even PhD chemists are not required to take courses in toxicology, biology or environmental health. Only a handful of schools in the US teach green chemistry at all. "People say there's nothing new to invent," Warner laments. "This is a whole new area for innovation, for creativity, for cutting-edge technology. It's a huge opportunity."
So what's the holdup? Human nature? Fear of change? Entrenched industries? Entrenched academia? All of the above. |
| Women have long been flames at the forefront of the fight for environmental health and justice: from Rachel Carson, who exposed the dangers of pesticides and launched the modern environmental movement with her brave book Silent Spring; to Lois Gibbs and the families of Love Canal, who put human faces and stories to the "someplace else"
143 of chemical waste dumps; to the women of Bhopal and thousands of others around the world who are fighting to clean up dangerously contaminated communities. Women have long borne the brunt of pollution and poverty. |
| Another small study had caught Charlotte's attention: Jane Hoppin at the National Institutes of environmental health Sciences reported that African-American women in the Washington DC area had twice the levels of DBP in their bodies as the general population. "Where was it coming from? We knew that there were phthalates in food wraps and food containers, vinyl shower curtains, vinyl flooring and wall coverings. But why would there be a difference in gender? Why would there be a difference in African Americans? Something else was going on."
Charlotte wasn't going to let it go. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 Environmental Health Perspectives.
This landmark article discussed how "priority pollutants," such as agrochemicals, were "only one piece of the larger puzzle" of human-made environmental risk factors. Daughton and Ternes wrote:
"One large class of chemicals receiving comparatively little attention comprises the pharmaceuticals and active ingredients in personal care products (PPCPs), which are used in large amounts throughout the world; quantities of many are on par with agrochemicals. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Graber, MD, fellow in pediatric environmental health, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City.
American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, St. Louis.
If you want to banish pesticides from your child's diet, research suggests that organic food will do the trick for two common pesticides. Researchers found that pesticide levels in children's bodies dropped to zero after just a few days of eating organic produce and grains. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 It's great for personal health, family health and environmental health. There are no boxes to throw away (it comes in a nice cotton bag) and uses minimal packaging (just a thin plastic wrapper to keep the soap nuts dry). One bag handles more than 200 loads of laundry, making this equal in cost to chemical-based laundry detergents (about 15 cents a load).
We are right now shipping a package of five bags (that's 5 gifts!) for the sale price of $129, which is a $20.75 savings over the regular price of $149.75.
The last time we announced these soap nuts, we sold out in a matter of days. |
Bottom Line Health
See book keywords and concepts |
| Samuel Arbes, DDS, PhD, epidemiologist, National Institutes of environmental health Sciences.
Breast Cancer Treatments
Benign Breast Lesions May Harbor Cancers reast lesions that are often deemed to be benign following a needle biopsy can still harbor adjacent cancers and should be removed anyway, United States researchers recommend.
"Our study shows that all papillary lesions of the breast should be surgically excised to avoid missing a cancer," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Cecilia L. Mercado, an assistant professor of radiology at New York University Medical Center. |
Paula Begoun and Bryan Barron
See book keywords and concepts |
| It is also important to point out that there is research showing fullerenes to be extremely risky (Source: environmental health Perspectives, July 2004, pages 1058-1062). With so many questions about this ingredient left unanswered, this serum is best left on the shelf. You need not be a guinea pig for anyone.
© $$$ Laser in a Bottle Laser Relief ($85 for 1.7ounces). The notion that skin-care products can mimic the effects of laser treatments on skin is nothing less than ridiculous, but when such products are created and endorsed by a dermatologist it becomes downright ludicrous. Dr. |
Michael Friedman, ND
See book keywords and concepts |
 Immunologic effects of background exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and diox-ins in Dutch preschool children. environmental health Perspecdves 2000 Dec; 108(12).
7. Toloken S. Plastics possible culprits in early puberty. Plastics News 2001 Feb 12.
8. Colon I, et al. Identification of phthalate esters in the serum of young Puerto Rican girls with premature breast development. environmental health Perspectives 2000 Sep;108(9).
9. Legler JM, et al. Brain and other central nervous system cancers: Recent trends in incidence and mortality. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 199;. |
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
See book keywords and concepts |
| Indoor air quality is one of the leading environmental health concerns in the United States.60
The amount of colon toxins derived from indoor air is really quite alarming, especially considering how much time most of us spend indoors. These toxins can be chemically based or generated by living organisms (e.g. animal dander or mold spores). Where these toxins come from is important so you know how to eliminate these nasty contaminants lurking in your household.
You may be wondering how these airborne toxins enter your colon. |
| In a study appearing in environmental health Perspectives, M. Kanarek and T. Young found that the consumption of chlorinated water significantly correlates to the onset of brain and colon cancer. Kanarek and Young also observed a higher risk for bladder and gastrointestinal cancer.82
An even more alarming study published in the American Journal of Public Health estimates a 95% risk of developing cancer from regular consumption of chlorinated tap water!83
It's simply ridiculous to continue chlorinating water for consumer use. |
| Oxygen is required to oxidize chemicals and other toxins within the body, which makes it an indispensable part of maintaining a healthy, functional colon. environmental health researcher Sara Shannon theorizes, "... we may have originally evolved in an atmosphere of 38 percent oxygen. But now, due to the loss of forests and ocean plankton, our two sources of oxygen production, measurements of oxygen as low as 12 percent and 15 percent have been made in heavily industrialized areas. |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
See book keywords and concepts |
 And in Libby, Montana, a town polluted by asbestos, recent studies conducted by the University of Montana's Center for environmental health Sciences show that local residents are 28.6 percent more likely to have antinuclear antibodies in their blood than a control group from a nearby town without asbestos pollution.
From Buffalo to Arizona, from Boston to Oklahoma, we live in an increasingly complex sea of autogenic agents. Added to that is the chemical load that we import into our own homes through the products, foods, and home goods we buy and consume. |
| One well-known researcher who feels the too-clean theory can't possibly fully explain today's rising rates of autoimmune disease is DeLisa Fairweather, PhD, a young assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of environmental health Sciences Division of
Toxicology and a protege and co-author with Noel Rose of many scientific papers on viral-induced autoimmune disease.
In the doorway of her office, Fairweather apologizes for the state of disarray. |
| Their main mission was to help the community deal with their immediate and critical environmental health crisis. It would be a mistake to focus their efforts on trying to demonstrate that there was a cluster because proving a scientific cluster is a nearly impossible epidemiological task, and nowhere is that more true than in the field of autoimmune disease. Technically, a cluster can be defined as a greater than expected occurrence of disease cases in a geographically defined region that is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. |
| The institute occasionally provided funding to examine environmental problems relevant to the regional community; helping the residents of East Ferry with their environmental health crisis was exactly in keeping with the institute's mission statement.
Having secured Vena's involvement, the Toxic Waste/Lupus Coalition decided to call a community-wide meeting at True Bethel Baptist Church, the windows of which looked directly out upon the toxic waste site at 858 East Ferry. |
| Even though they themselves are physicians, Jan and David had no way of knowing, as they drove through those billowing smoke clouds, that in recent years environmental health researchers have documented the relationship between many such inhaled particles and the onset and exacerbation of autoimmune disease. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
 He is the author of a groundbreaking paper in environmental health Perspective on risk assessment concerning low-dose effects of bisphenol A.
"The idea that this is a strong, durable product is an illusion," von Saal said. "The chemists have known that the Bisphenol A chemical is constantly leaching and coming into contact with food or water. It's going to damage your body…this evidence will ultimately convince federal regulatory agencies that BPA should be illegal for use in food and beverage containers. It's only a matter of time. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 CONCLUSION this is a time of particularly intense political struggles over occupational and environmental health and safety in the United States. Examples of old yet new issues are emerging all the time. I began this book with the description of a case of mercury ingestion as a folk-medicine treatment and juxtaposed that case with an episode of public exposure to mercury through the inhalation of contaminated paint. As this manuscript was nearing completion, a major environmental public policy debate emerged with the proposal of the U.S. |
Mark Schapiro
See book keywords and concepts |
 In 1998, a petition was submitted to the commission by a coalition of environmental-health groups—including the National Environmental Trust, the Science and environmental health Network, and Greenpeace—demanding a ban on polyvinyl chloride, which contains phthalates, in children's toys. The CPSC went on to review industry toxicity studies of DINP, a thalate that is similar to DEHP, and then in 2003 conducted a study of children's interactions with plastic toys. |
| Europe's tougher standards for protecting environmental health.
"TIA members that sell to Europe comply with the Europeans' directive," said Joan Lawrence when I contacted her after the hearing in Sacramento.39
The big retailer Toys "R" Us announced shortly after the Europeans' first phthalate moratorium that it would no longer sell toys containing phthalates from all of its stores —they leveraged their standards up globally to meet those of the European Union. |
| One of TSCA's most significant weaknesses, according to Joseph Guth, a biochemist and lawyer who works as legal director of the Science and environmental health Network, is that by making it easier to hang onto old chemicals rather than develop new ones, it provides no incentive for developing less toxic alternatives. "TSCA rewards ignorance," Guth said. "The chemical companies give you function and they give you price. What they don't give you is safety or environmental effects. That is a complete black box. The data gaps are massive. |
| Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and epidemiologist, served as assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances from 1993 to 1998, when she left to become a professor of environmental health sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. By the mid-1990s, she told me, the flaws in TSCA had become abundantly clear. "Suddenly all of us were realizing, there were thousands of chemicals out there, and we didn't know what they were. We weren't able to get the data, weren't able to assess the risks, nothing. |
| If people in Europe don't have chemicals in their products that are dangerous, maybe we don't want those same chemicals in our products either," commented Charlotte Brody, the nurse who is executive director of Commonweal, an environmental health research institute in California. "The chemical industry is scared that the American people might not want to be second-class world citizens."32
This was a door that neither U.S. industry nor the Bush administration wanted opened. |
Email this page to a friend
