A new set of reports shows that federal policy on chemicals testing neglects breast health.

By Daily Mail Reporter

Scientists have shed new light on a link between Parkinson’s disease and two pesticides, which they hope will improve both prevention and treatment for the neurodegenerative disease.

At present fewer than five per cent of Parkinson’s cases are attributed to genetics while 95 per cent have unknown causes.

Now a team from the University of Missouri School of Medicine thinks toxins such as pesticides could play a part.
Spraying stops pests from eating crops, however it may also contribute to a host of diseases. Most recently it has been linked to Parkinson’s disease

Spraying stops pests from eating crops, however it may also contribute to a host of diseases. Most recently it has been linked to Parkinson’s disease

The scientists studied the molecular dysfunction that happens when proteins are exposed to enivironmental toxins such as rotenone and paraquat.

‘This study provides the evidence that oxidative stress, possibly due to sustained exposure to environmental toxins, may serve as a primary cause of Parkinson’s,’ said assistant professor Zezong Gu.
What is Parkinson’s?

Parkinson’s Disease is a chronic neurological disorder.

People with the condition don’t have enough of a chemical called dopamine because some nerve cells in their brain have died.

This affects the way the brain co-ordinates the movements of the muscles in different parts of the body.
Actor Michael J. Fox announced he had Parkinson’s disease in 2000 at the age of 39. The disease mainly affects the over-50s Actor Michael J. Fox announced he had Parkinson’s disease in 2000 at the age of 39. Scientists are still struggling to find out what causes it

The disease mainly develops in the over 50s. About 5 in 1,000 people in their 60s, and about 40 in 1,000 people in their 80s have the condition.

The main symptoms are slowness of movement, stiffness of muscles and shaking. These tend to slowly worsen with time although the rate varies from patient to patient.

The condition is diagnosed from the symptoms shown by the patient.

It also increases your risk of dementia. About half of people with PD develop dementia at some stage. Depression is also common among sufferers.

There is currently no cure. Drugs and physiotherapy can treat symptoms. There have also been recent promising trials using deep brain stimulation.

For more information on Parkinson’s visit www.parkinsons.org.uk

‘This helps us to unveil why many people, such as farmers exposed to pesticides, have an increased incidence of the disease.’

Scientists already knew that the disease was associated with oxidative stress, which is when electronically unstable atoms or molecules damage cells.

However, the latest study reveals how oxidative stress causes parkin, a protein responsible for regulating other proteins, to malfunction.

Assistant professor Gu and his team invented a new antibody that allowed them to detect how oxidative stress affected proteins when exposed to a variety of pesticides, including rotenone and paraquat.

They then demonstrated how oxidative stress caused parkin proteins to cluster together and malfunction, rather than performing normally by cleaning up damaged proteins.

‘This whole process progresses into Parkinson’s disease,’ Gu said.

‘We illustrated the molecular events that lead to the more common form of the disorder in the vast majority of cases with unknown causes.

‘Knowing this, we can find ways to correct, prevent and reduce the incidence of this disease.’

Roteone is used in the UK and the U.S however paraquat was banned in Europe in 2007.

The team hope to extend their investigation into preventive treatments and therapies through work at MU’s Center for Botanical Interaction Studies.

After Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder.

The condition affects around one million people in the U.S and 120,000 in the UK.

The latest study was published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration.

Daily Mail

By Bill McEwen
The Fresno Bee

The big obstacles removed, Aletha Ware’s dream is coming into view.

The Arkansas native has lived in unincorporated Kettleman City for 43 years. She has spent a goodly chunk of this time trying to bring clean and safe drinking water to the Kings County community.

“It’s yellow, and it smells like eggs,” says Ware, 78, of water from the town’s two wells.

The water contains high levels of arsenic, benzene and lead, according to state health officials, who, nonetheless, didn’t link the water to a cluster of birth defects that made tiny Kettleman City a national story.

Now, after winning a fight against the state bureaucracy, residents could turn on their taps — instead of buying bottled water — as early as the end of next year if plans stay on track.

“We can at least see light at the end of the tunnel. I want this water taken care of before I go,” says Ware, who suffered a heart attack three years ago.

Though they haven’t been in the scrum nearly as long as Ware has, Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle and state Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Bakersfield, are aiding the quest.

The officials — both of whom represent Kettleman City — say that a safe and reliable water system is crucial to the town’s public health and economic development.

About that David vs. Goliath battle: in December, the state Department of Health told Kettleman City leaders that a $3 million grant was contingent on drilling a new well.

This made no sense to residents seeking a surface-water treatment plant and storage tanks, with water coming from the California Aqueduct.

“Why waste the money on another well?” Ware says. “Everybody knows we’re going to find the same thing.”

After state officials heard the protests and studied the costs, they reversed course: build, don’t drill.

(It probably didn’t hurt the Kettleman City cause that one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s first acts was to put Hanford native Diana Dooley in charge of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency.)

Though there are bureaucratic hoops ahead, deadlines to meet and more funding to nail down, Rubio all but guarantees that good water is coming.

“What can go wrong often does, so we have to stay on top of it,” Rubio says. “At a minimum, before the end of my first term , we’re going to have this project completed.”

As envisioned, the project would be constructed in two stages. The estimated total cost is $13 million, including reserves to cover operations and inflation. Plans call for the Kettleman City Community Services District to buy 900 acre-feet of water a year from Kings County’s allocation from the State Water Project.

Rubio says that bringing Kettleman City Elementary School into the system will increase funding opportunities and solve a problem.

“The school has serious water issues,” he says. “Between now and construction, we’ll have to bring immediate, temporary relief of some kind before classes start in the fall. The water is not drinkable and not safe.”

Valle has been instrumental in marshaling support from the Kings County Board of Supervisors and rallying Kettleman City residents.

“No one person can take credit for this,” he says. “This is a team effort to move forward — even if it’s just six inches at a time.”

online article

Frank Mullen
Reno Gazette-Journal

Twelve years after a childhood cancer cluster in Fallon that sickened 17 children and killed three hit the headlines, researchers are still looking for an environmental smoking gun that would explain the outbreak.

Two newly published studies continue research into possible causes of the cluster: one investigates whether prenatal exposure to heavy metals followed by exposure to a virus weakened childrens immune systems making them more prone to developing leukemia. The other study puts forth the theory that mosquitoes may have helped spread the disease.

A research paper presented in the scientific journal Chemico-Biological Interactions this month continues to follow the trail of the metal tungsten.

The potential involvement of tungsten in the development of cancers and other deleterious health problems needs to be fully elucidated by additional research, cautioned Dr. Mark Witten, president of the Tucson-based Odyssey Research Institute.

But he said the recent study by his group confirms previous findings that exposing pregnant mice to the metal and then infecting them to a common virus can damage the immune response of their offspring and result in blood disease in some of the mouse pups. That’s significant to Fallon, which studies showed has relatively high concentrations of tungsten in its environment and had a virus outbreak prior to the start of the cancer cluster.

In the studies, exposure to tungsten appeared to weaken the animals immune response to the virus, researchers reported. About half the mice had enlarged spleens, and 25 percent developed tumors in their jaws and necks. Some mice had symptoms consistent with leukemia, researchers have said.

Tungsten is a natural part of the Nevada environment, but since the 1960s, the Fallon area also has been home to a tungsten refinery and a tungsten plant in the center of town. That firm, Kennametal, has consistently denied its operations can have anything to do with the cancer outbreak.

Joy Chandler, Kennametal spokesperson in Pennsylvania, last week said her firm hasnt yet thoroughly reviewed Wittens latest study. But she said based on a summary of the most recent research the mice in both studies were exposed to concentrations of tungsten that were more than a million times higher than the actual (airborne) levels in Fallon.

Reno Gazette Journal

By Rob Stein, Washington Post

A drug that farmers have given to chickens for decades is being pulled off the market after federal scientists found a potentially carcinogenic form of arsenic in the livers of animals treated with the substance, officials announced Wednesday.

Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer, is voluntarily suspending sales of the drug 3-Nitro, which has been given to chickens since the 1940s to protect them from a parasitic disease and help them gain weight, the Food and Drug Administration announced.

The action comes after an FDA study of 100 broiler chickens found a form of arsenic known as inorganic arsenic, which is a known carcinogen, at increased levels in the livers of birds treated with the drug compared to those that were not, the agency said.

During a briefing for reporters, David Goldman of the Agriculture Department and Bernadette Dunham of the FDA stressed that the levels of arsenic detected in the chickens were very low and do not pose a health risk to consumers.

As a result, there is no need to recall any chickens treated with 3-Nitro from the market or for consumers to avoid eating chicken while the drug is removed, the officials said. The decision to remove the drug was made to eliminate a source of exposure to the substance.

“Consumers can continue to eat chicken as 3-Nitro is recalled from the market,” Dunham said.

Alpharma will continue to sell the drug for 30 days to give farmers time to switch to other drugs, the FDA said.

The FDA approved 3-Nitro, also known as Roxarsone, in 1944 as the first new animal drug containing a form of arsenic known as “organic arsenic,” which is harmless and was thought to be excreted by the animals. While it is used in turkeys, chickens and pigs, farmers give it primarily to chickens to help control the parasitic disease coccidiosis, to promote weight gain and for “improved pigmentation,” the FDA said.

The agency conducted its study after research in recent years indicated that organic arsenic could be converted to the carcinogenic inorganic form.

Although organic arsenic is found in other animal drugs, there is no indication they pose a danger, the officials said.

In a statement, the National Chicken Council, an industry group, said that chicken remains safe to eat. “Chicken companies will continue to safeguard chicken flocks because healthy flocks are needed to produce healthful food for people. Consumers can continue to buy and eat chicken as they always have,” it said.

Public meeting held by American health officials

By CRYSTAL GARCIA,
Special to The Observer

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, MICH. — Emotions ran high Thursday at a public forum to address a cancer cluster involving children.

About 200 people attending the meeting looking for answers about the ongoing investigation into a Wilms tumor cancer cluster in St. Clair County.

A panel of speakers included Dr. Annette Mercatante, medical director of the St. Clair County Health Department, Dr. Hadi Sawaf, pediatric oncologist at St. John Providence Hospital and Greg Brown, director of environmental health at the health department.

There have been eight cases of Wilms tumor found. The rare childhood kidney cancer typically is genetic, doctors say. The cases in the investigation, all diagnosed since 2007, are in the Marine City/China Township area, the Port Huron area and on the border of St. Clair and Macomb counties in Richmond.

Water and air monitoring were issues brought up a few times by the audience.

“We are not only pushing this forward for our families, but for your families also,” said Kristina Tranchemontagne of Cottrellville Township, whose 6-year-old daughter, Ashleigh, was diagnosed with Wilms tumor when she was three years old.

“… We need to make sure that this investigation is followed through. If this is a result of the environment we live in, hopefully in the end, someone will clean up their act. In the meantime, we need the water monitors working at full capacity. We would also like air monitors in place.”

Mercatante said no sampling had been done because other factors must come into place first such as evidence of a contamination, evidence the people affected came in contact with that contamination and a link from the contamination to Wilms tumor.

Mercatante’s presentation went over the Michigan Department of Community Health’s analysis, which recognized the increase of Wilms tumor in St. Clair County, but determined that “these increases were not high enough to rule out it being a chance finding due to the relatively small number of cases,” she said.

According to the state department, “this analysis was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a Wilms tumor cluster in St. Clair County,” Mercatante said.

This analysis and conclusion is under review by the Centers for Disease Control, she said. A representative from the CDC was not at the meeting.

The CDC will determine a standardized incidence ratio, which is required statistical analysis that gives a confidence level of the cancer not being by chance, Mercatante said. She said sometimes the CDC does investigate things without a “statistically significant number.”

An ongoing collaboration with the CDC will continue, she said.

“… Even if these cases do not convey statistical significance or reliability, for us and St. Clair County and certainly for you and our community, we do not require this criteria to remain concerned and to remain involved with the study of this,” she said.

Submitted questions asked if St. Clair County was the only county with a Wilms tumor cluster and what water sources the affected families had.

Mercatante said St. Clair County was the only county with this type of cluster to her knowledge and the water sources varied from wells to some from three different municipalities.

There were also queries whether any cases of the tumor have been noted on the Canadian side of the St. Clair River. There were also concerns raised about chemical spill notification systems from industry.

Mercatante said there has not been an increase in Wilms tumor in the Sarnia-Lambton area. From 1986 to 2007, there were less than six cases of Wilms tumor in Lambton County, according to Crystal Palleschi, epidemiologist at the Lambton County Community Health Services Department. Brown said Canada is supposed to report spills to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

“We know there are spills coming down that river, no doubt,” he said. Next, the county health department must wait for the review from the CDC.

Once it receives the review, a final report summarizing the findings will be completed, forwarded to the state department of health and CDC for review and released to the public.

Sen. Phil Pavlov, R-St. Clair Township, attended the meeting and said he plans to take everything back to Lansing.

“Statistics tell a story, but families tell another story,” he said.

“That’s what you have to listen to.”

Port Huron Times Herald

Charles W. Schmidt
Environ Health Perspectives

After his first child was born, black and blue marks started showing up on Stanley Finger’s body. Jolted awake most nights by his crying infant, Finger would stumble half asleep toward her room, bumping into walls and furniture in the dark. “My wife and I would joke about it,” says Finger, a chemical engineer from Bluffton, South Carolina. But during a routine checkup, Finger learned his easy bruising was caused by a precipitous drop in blood platelets. The body relies on these cell fragments for clotting, and Finger’s platelet count had dropped to nearly a third its normal value. After ruling out cancer and other illnesses, Finger’s doctor eventually arrived at a diagnosis: immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP).

ITP is an autoimmune disease, a condition that occurs when the immune system attacks the body’s own cells and tissues. When Finger was diagnosed in 1974, autoimmune illnesses weren’t yet perceived as the public health menaces they’re often seen as today. But according to Fred Miller, director of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, autoimmune diseases are now recognized as among the leading causes of death among young and middle-aged women in the United States.

What’s more, prevalence rates for some of these illnesses are rising for what Miller says must largely be environmental reasons. “Our gene sequences aren’t changing fast enough to account for the increases,” Miller

says. “Yet our environment is—we’ve got 80,000 chemicals approved for use in commerce, but we know very little about their immune effects. Our lifestyles are also different than they were a few decades ago, and we’re eating more processed food.” Should prevalence rates for heart disease and cancer continue their decline, Miller says, autoimmune diseases could become some of the costliest and most burdensome illnesses in the United States.

Read full article at:
Environmental Health Perspectives