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- UC Davis Children's Center Finds Signaling
Disruptions in Mouse Cells from Mercury-Containing Vaccine Preservative Researchers
at the University of California at Davis Children's Center have found
that low levels of thimerosal -- a vaccine preservative containing ethylmercury
-- disrupt the signaling system between mouse dendritic (immune system)
cells when observed in cell culture dishes. A paper from UC Davis in Environmental
Health Perspectivesshows uncoupling of ATP-mediated calcium signaling
between dendritic cells, which initiate the primary immune response, as
well alterations to immune system function (abnormal increases in IL-6
cytokine secretion) from thimerosal in nanomolar concentrations (20 ppb)
after only a few minutes of exposure. The release of these cytokines is
a sign of inflammation. The study found that immature dendritic cells
were especially sensitive. In the past, thimerosal was widely used in
vaccines and although its use is now more limited to trace amounts in
most children's vaccines, it is still used in multidose flu vaccines and
some other vaccines such as diptheria and tetanus used only for adults.
It is also used in some over-the-counter pharmaceutical products including
ear and nose drops and cosmetics. UC Davis researchers are now planning
to investigate effects of thimerosal on human cells sampled from children
enrolled in the CHARGE study, which is examining factors which may be
related to autism.
Paper in Environmental Health Perspectives:
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/8881/abstract.html
- UC Berkeley and University of Washington Children's Centers
Find Susceptibility to Pesticides is Highly Variable Among Latina Women
and Children (March 2, 2006).
Some children may be 26 to 50 times more susceptible to exposure to certain organophosphate (OP) pesticides than other newborns, and 65 to 130 times more sensitive than some adults, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington Children's Centers. The study, published in the journal Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, reveals far greater variability in susceptibility to pesticides than previously predicted.
Since 2001, home use of OP pesticides, specifically diazinon and chlorpyrifos, has been restricted by the EPA, mainly because of risk to children. However, the researchers said there may still be residual exposure to diazinon and chlorpyrifos from household use before they were banned, and some structural uses for the pesticides are still approved, including treatment of house foundations with chlorpyrifos, and these and other OP pesticides are still widely used in agriculture.
Approximately 143,000 pounds of diazinon and 52,000 pounds of chlorpyrifos are used annually in the region studied - California's Salinas Valley, an agricultural community. The study, conducted through UC Berkeley's Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), included 130 Latina women and their newborns living in the valley. The researchers report that approximately 28 percent of the women in the study had worked in the fields during their pregnancies, and another 14 percent had other jobs in agriculture that included nursery or greenhouse work. Overall, 82 percent of the women had agricultural workers living in their homes during their pregnancies.
The researchers used levels of the OP detoxifying enzyme paraoxonase 1 (PON1) activity measured in blood samples as a marker for pesticide susceptibility. PON1 breaks down the toxic metabolites of OP pesticides, including diazinon and chlorpyrifos, and lower enzyme levels means less protection.
Current EPA standards require an extra tenfold safety factor to protect children compared with adults if there are gaps in information about the children's susceptibility. The EPA may select a lower safety factor if it determines that enough information is available, and based on an EPA review, many other pesticides have lower or no additional safety factors.
The ability of the PON1 enzyme to protect the body from the toxicity of pesticides is determined by whether a person has the Q or R form of the PON1 gene at position 192 on the chromosome. People with the QQ genotype have two copies of the Q variant of the PON1 gene, producing a PON1 enzyme that is significantly less efficient at detoxifying OP pesticides, while people with the RR genotype have two copies of the R variant of the PON1 gene, producing a PON1 enzyme that is more resistant to OP pesticides. Inheriting one type of gene from each parent leads to a QR genotype with intermediate sensitivity to OPs. In addition to the factors affecting the type of PON1 enzyme produced, there are additional genetic variants that affect the levels of enzyme available, which also affects detoxifying ability. For all groups, infants are at particular risk because the level of PON1 enzyme in newborns averages one-third or less than that of adults. It can take six months to two years for a baby to develop mature levels of PON1. The results of this analysis predict that some newborns may be 26 times more susceptible to diazinon and diazoxon exposure than newborns with the highest PON 1 enzyme levels and up to 65 times more susceptible than adults with the highest enzyme levels. The differences are even greater when predicting susceptibility to chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos oxon. Some of the QQ newborns may be 50 times more susceptible to this pesticide than RR newborns with high PON1 levels, and 130 to 164 times more susceptible than some of the RR adults.
Abstract:
http://www.jpharmacogenetics.com/pt/re/pharmgen/abstract.01213011-200603000-00004.htm
Press Release:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/03/02_pesticides.shtml
Related Paper:
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8540/8540.pdf
-
University of Washington Researcher Profiled in Seattle Times Magazine
Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times
Gloria Coronado, an epidemiologist and researcher with the University of Washington Children's Center, is the subject of a recent profile in the Seattle Times Sunday magazine, Pacific Northwest. The article describes Coronado's career development and her work to document and understand the effects of pesticides on farmworkers and their families. She is also developing outreach programs to help prevent pesticide-related illness among this population. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw01082006/coverstory.html
- Columbia Children’s Environmental Health Research Center
Featured in Discover Magazine.
The March 2006 issue of Discover magazine features research from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, based at the Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City. The article entitled “Toxic Inheritance: Is There Cancer in this Photo?” describes the “Mothers and Newborns Study” that enrolled over 700 women from North Manhattan and the South Bronx. Scientists monitored the exposure of these women to airborne chemicals during their pregnancies and tested and tracked their children after they were born. Results from the study highlighted in the article show a link between exposures to urban air pollution containing combustion byproducts including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and lower birth weights and smaller head circumferences in some infants. In a smaller group of pregnant women, the study also shows a link between exposure to air pollution containing PAHs and chromosomal aberrations in their infants, potentially indicating a higher risk of cancer. Another result indicates that prenatal exposure to ETS is a risk factor for lower birth weight and, in over 30% of the children, reduced scores on a cognitive development test at two years of age. The article also profiles the career of Principal Investigator Frederica Perera, how she became interested in exploring possible links between exposure to air pollution, biomarkers of genetic susceptibility and cancer, and how she became one of the pioneering researchers in the field of molecular epidemiology. This research is supported by EPA, NIEHS, the Pew Charitable Trust and other charitable funding sources.
For more information or to view the article:
http://www.ccceh.org/news-events/Cancer_Photo.pdf
http://www.ccceh.org
http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-06/features/toxic-inheritance
- NIEHS/EPA Children's Centers featured on the cover of Environmental
Health Perspectives.
The NIEHS/EPA Children's Environmental Health Centers have put together a series of papers for the National Children's Study (NCS), one of the most ambitious research endeavors ever attempted, with plans to follow 100,000 children from birth to adulthood. The mini-monograph in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (beginning on p. 1414) details the experiences of the Children's Centers in areas including general methodological issues for conducting longitudinal birth cohort studies and community-based participatory research and measuring air pollution exposures, as well as pesticide exposures, asthma, and neurobehavioral toxicity. This collection of papers focuses on lessons learned by the Children's Centers that will provide guidance to the NCS on what has and has not worked when studying diverse multiracial and multiethnic groups of children with unique urban and rural exposures.
(image credit: Joseph Tart/EHP)
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/7669/abstract.html
- Children's Centers Study Kids and Chemicals
Many studies in recent years have documented that whether they're used to spray in the kitchen or spray in the field, pesticides have a way of getting into almost all human environments. Pesticide exposure isn't a great idea for adults, but it poses a particular concern in regards to children. These smallest humans, who spend a lot of time close to the floor and with their hands in their mouths, can encounter much higher doses relative to their body weights. And because they are still growing and developing, children are often more vulnerable to adverse effects of these and other environmental exposures. Likewise, the developing fetus may be especially vulnerable to the effects of pesticide exposure in utero.
In 1998, the NIEHS joined with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create eight centers across the country where scientists study environmental influences on children's health. Today there are 11 centers. Several of these centers, including those at Columbia University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, have focused their efforts on pesticide exposures--how they occur, and the effects they cause in utero and during early childhood. These centers have also studied exposures to other environmental toxicants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and environmental tobacco smoke.
These studies are showing that children in certain communities have elevated exposures to toxicants early in their development and that some of these exposures can lead to slightly stunted fetal growth, shorter gestation, and suboptimal neurodevelopment, as well as to predisposition to diseases such as asthma. Additional studies are showing that the potential for damage from these chemical exposures may be affected by genetic susceptibility of both the child and the mother. Thus, interactions between genes, the environment, and the timing of exposure can all contribute to a later susceptibility to develop diseases and disorders.
From Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 113, Number 10, October 2005, pp. A664-A668
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/113-10/niehsnews.html
- Columbia Children's Center wins Award from EPA Office of Children's
Health Protection for Integrated Pest Management and Healthy Home projects
(April 14, 2005) -- The Columbia Children's Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH)
has
been honored with a Excellence
Award from the EPA Office of Children's Health Protection for its
IPM (Integrated Pest Management) interventions and its "Healthy
Home, Healthy Child" community education and outreach project. The
first program trains and educates tenants to use IPM practices, which
includes reducing the levels of toxic pesticide use inside their homes
and sealing cracks and crevices, as well as reducing asthma-triggering
pet allergens. The second program focuses on community education and
outreach educates parents and caretakers of children about reducing environmental
health hazards in the home, focusing on the seven environmental health
topics that were found to be of greatest concern to residents in the
local communities: air pollution, cigarette smoke, drugs & alcohol,
garbage management, lead poisoning, pesticides and nutrition. The awareness
campaign includes a series of bi-annual newsletters, community health
fairs, and environmental health workshops for local leaders. The campaign
also brings training programs to local hospitals where medical students
learn about helping their patients reduce the risk of harmful exposures.
The Columbia Children's Center was founded in 1998 to prevent environmentally-related
diseases in children. The Center conducts scientific research and then
applies the findings directly to disease prevention efforts in Washington
Heights, Harlem, and South Bronx, New York.
Also honored with an Excellence Award in 2005 was one of the Columbia Children's Center community partners, West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT) . West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT) has united researchers, health care professionals, parents, advocates, and community- and faith-based leaders for the last seven years in an effort to educate residents of Northern Manhattan on children's environmental health issues. In addition to the educational and community outreach programs initiated by the group, WE ACT has worked to pass legislation to prevent lead poisoning and has trained over 500 community residents and parents of health-affected children through bilingual asthma and lead workshops. After conducting a research project on mothers and infants in Northern Manhattan with the Columbia University Children's Environmental Health Center, results showed that exposure of expectant mothers to organophosphate and carbamate pesticides can lead to reduced birth weight. WE ACT continues to mobilize the community toward the education and protection of children's health.
While the Environmental Protection Agency retains a major role in safeguarding children from environmental risks, industry, communities, and organizations can take action where they live, learn and play. The Children's Environmental Health Excellence Awards are designed to recognize ongoing and sustainable dedication to, and notable leadership in, protecting children from environmental health risks at the local, regional, national, and international level.
- Mothers' Exposure to Air Pollutants Linked to Chromosome Damage in Babies (February 15, 2005) -- A new study of 60 newborns in New York City conducted by the Children's Environmental Health Research Center at Columbia University reveals that exposure of expectant mothers to combustion-related urban air pollution may alter the structure of babies' chromosomes while in the womb. While previous experiments have linked such genetic alterations to an increased risk of leukemia and other cancers, much larger studies would be required to determine the precise increase in risk as these children reach adulthood. Full article
- Environmental Tobacco Smoke Linked
to Reading, Math, Logic and Reasoning Declines in Children (January
5, 2005) -- A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Medical Center study shows that exposure to environmental tobacco
smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with decreases
in certain cognitive skills, including reading, math, and logic and
reasoning, in children and adolescents. Full
article
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