Who do you trust?
I tell ya, the FDA is not smelling like a rose lately…
FDA: Is the Tomato to Blame for Salmonella Outbreak? Is It Not?…
Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration first warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes for fear they would carry an uncommon type of Salmonella, known as Saintpaul, the number of people getting infected is rising with each day passing by, making U.S. health authorities question whether tomatoes are the real or only cause for the outbreak.
Another reason to grow your own!
GMOs: Hidden Ingredient
A recent poll shows that 53 percent of Americans say they won’t purchase foods that have been genetically modified. But many Americans are unaware that they already do.
Bras, Evolution, and Why We’re Living … Shorter?
The Britannica Blog wraps up Earth Day week.
Is industrial pollution making America fat?
Despite the nagging of diet experts, fitness instructors, public health officials, doctors, nurses and moms, the tide of obesity that has practically engulfed Western civilization over the past two decades shows no sign of reaching its ebb.
In the United States, the percentage of adults who are obese — defined by the National Institutes of Health as a body-mass index exceeding 30 — has doubled since 1990, climbing from 12 percent to a whopping 24 percent in 2005, closely tracking Oregon figures, according to the Oregon Health Division.
For the most part, the blame for the obesity epidemic has fallen on diet and exercise, with particular emphasis on familiar evils such as the proliferation of junk food, the advent of the remote control, trans fat, ever-longer commutes and even the disappearance of physical education in schools.
But now some researchers have identified a new suspect: pollution.
Attributing obesity to diet and exercise is “practically scientific dogma at this point,” says Bruce Blumberg, associate professor of developmental and cell biology at UC Irvine. But, he continues, “diet and exercise are simply not adequate to explain the explosion of obesity in Western countries.”
Instead, Blumberg believes the obesity epidemic actually is due, in part, to industrial pollution — specifically to low levels of toxic compounds he calls “obesogens.”
Just as exposure to carcinogens can trigger cancer, Blumberg and other researchers say exposure to obesogens can trigger a dramatic increase in the amount of fat produced in a person’s body, leading to excess weight and obesity.
The precise mechanism by which these obesogens operate remains dimly understood. They belong to a class of compounds known as “endocrine disrupters” because they block or pervert the operation of the hormones that govern crucial biological processes such as growth, reproduction, sexual development and behavior.
Five years ago, Blumberg was studying the biological effects of various marine pollutants — in particular, tributyl tin, or TBT, a pesticide notorious for its toxic properties, such as bizarre mutations in the shells of mollusks and the sex organs of sea snails.
Blumberg and his co-workers exposed female frogs to extremely low levels of TBT; as expected, TBT did indeed cause sexual mutation among frogs. But what was really striking, he says, was that the hapless amphibians got fat — really fat.
“To be honest, I will have to say we stumbled on this,” he says.
Group warns that nurses face health risks from chemical exposure
Group warns that nurses face health risks from chemical exposure
The very chemicals used to keep hospitals squeaky clean and to treat patients could be harmful to nurses who are exposed to them in their daily duties, according to a study released Tuesday by an Oakland environmental group.
Nurses are exposed to a wide range of chemicals on the job - from heavy-duty cleaners and latex to chemotherapy drugs - that could have long-term effects on their health and the health of their children, say researchers with the Environmental Working Group and Health Care Without Harm, which coordinated an online survey of 1,500 nurses in the United States.
But few regulations limit nurses’ exposure to chemicals, and, in fact, most nurses have no idea that their work environment could be harmful, said Jane Houlihan, vice president of research for Environmental Working Group and an author of the study.
“As much as we rely on nurses to protect us when we’re sick, we’re not protecting nurses in return,” Houlihan said. “They face a diverse range of exposures in the workplace that really could pose significant health risks.”
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Huge rise in allergy sufferers but too few specialists: UK
Huge rise in allergy sufferers but too few specialists - Times Online
The number of patients suffering from serious allergic conditions has risen by more than a quarter in four years, but there is a serious shortage of specialists to treat them, The Times has learnt.Experts call upon the Government today to take immediate steps to combat the “massive epidemic” of severe allergic conditions, which can be fatal in the worst cases.
A report submitted to the Department of Health of data from GPs’ surgeries shows that by 2005 an estimated 12.2 million people in England had been diagnosed with an allergy-related illness such as asthma, eczema, allergic rhinitis, peanut allergy or anaphylaxis, the most severe form of allergic reaction.
All these allergies were more commonly recorded among patients from affluent areas compared with those from deprived areas, suggesting that the environment in which babies are brought up could have dire consequences for their future health. Reports from the Royal College of Physicians and the Department of Health have previously given warning that there are not enough specially trained doctors: there are only six specialist allergy centres in Britain.
Study: Pesticides increase Parkinson’s risk
Pesticides increase Parkinson’s risk - Health-TimesOnline
The risk of developing Parkinson’s disease is increased by exposure to pesticides, a study has found.
People exposed to low levels of pesticides had a 13 per cent higher risk of developing the disease, and those exposed to high levels a 41 per cent greater risk, researchers from Aberdeen University found.
The researchers compared the lifetime experiences of almost 1,000 Parkinson’s sufferers with almost 2,000 unaffected people in Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Malta. The method did not establish which pesticides the sufferers had been exposed to, as most of them could not provide such information…
Georgina Downs, of the UK Pesticides Campaign, said that it was not surprising that study after study linked pesticides to chronic neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. “This study has found that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease increases according to the level of exposure to pesticides,” she said. “This is highly significant in relation to the long-term exposure of rural residents living near sprayed fields.”
Great poster for your fridge
What foods are good and bad for you, and why. [PDF file] [via How to Save the World]
What Your Cell Phone’s Made Of
Ever wonder what makes your cell phone ring? We’re talking hardware, not incoming calls. That tiny device puts a periodic table’s worth of elements in your pocket. We dissected a Sony-Ericsson W300 — and tracked down where its contents likely originated.
Is Your Lipstick Safe?
That lipstick or nail polish you may be wearing — are they a danger to your health? How about your deodorant, toothpaste, body lotion, soap?
Seemingly innocuous personal-care products contain a host of largely unregulated chemicals and toxic ingredients. Some of those chemicals — phthalates, formaldehyde, petroleum, parabens, benzene and lead — have been variously linked to breast cancer, endometriosis, reproductive disorders, birth defects and developmental disabilities in children.
Women and girls should be particularly concerned, as our bodies are uniquely susceptible to certain environmental chemicals. Women have a greater percentage of fat in comparison to men, so fat-soluble chemicals such as parabens and toluene tend to be more readily absorbed and fatty breast tissue can be a long-term storage site for some of the more persistent toxic chemicals. Hormones also play a role: Synthetic chemicals such as alkylphenols (found in some detergents) and bisphenol A (found in hard plastics) can mimic natural estrogens in the body — and excess estrogen can play a role in the development of breast cancer. Childbearing women may also pass toxins to fetuses in utero or to newborns when breastfeeding.
But U.S. consumers are left in the dark about vital safety information: Cosmetic companies are not required to label many of their products’ ingredients, and the Food and Drug Administration does not mandate premarket safety testing of those ingredients.
And that’s why the California Safe Cosmetics Act is such a landmark achievement.
Signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last October and taking effect in 2007, it requires manufacturers to disclose product ingredients found on state or federal lists of chemicals that cause cancer or birth defects. The law further authorizes the state to investigate the health impacts of chemicals in cosmetics, and requires manufacturers to supply health-related information about their ingredients. Finally, the act enables the state to regulate products in order to assure the safety of salon workers.
California is the first state in the nation to pass such legislation, thus serving as a model for the other 49.