Guest guest Posted February 21, 2006 Report Share Posted February 21, 2006 Weekly Bulletin February 21, 2006 If you would prefer to read this bulletin on our website, please visit http://www.iceh.org/bulletins/LDDIbulletin2-21-06.html. To join the the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI), please complete the form at http://www.iceh.org/LDDImembers.html. IN THIS WEEK'S SUMMARY Events How Exposure to Common Pesticides Can Damage the Developing Brain (teleconference) LDDI-Minnesota Regional Meeting and Follow-up LDA 43rd Annual International Conference ADHD Conference for Parents, Young Adults and Professionals TestSmart DNT: Creating a Humane and Efficient Approach to Developmental Neurotoxicity Testing Announcements/Articles Little Green Molecules (Scientific American, March 2006) At a Scientific Gathering, U.S. Policies Are Lamented (New York Times, 2/19/06) Industries Get Quiet Protection From Lawsuits (Los Angeles Times, 2/19/06) Are We Living in a Toxic Time Bomb? (Lismore Northern Star, 2/18/06) Bush's Coal-plant Rules under Fire (The Globe and Mail, 2/18/06) Toxins Found in Fish for Sale (Seattle Times, 2/16/06) land's Air Pollution a Killer, Study Says (Baltimore Sun, 2/15/06) State Sues E.P.A. for Files on Household Pollutants (New York Times, 2/15/06) Experts at First Abelson Seminar Ponder The Global Rise Of Chronic Disease (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 12/21/05) EVENTS 1) How Exposure to Common Pesticides Can Damage the Developing Brain (teleconference) February 22, 2006 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EST Due to the high interest expressed for this lecture, the American Association for Mental Retardation (AAMR) is pleased to announce that we will again have Dr. Slotkin give his presentation for us on February 22, 2006. Stay tuned for details as we get closer to February. Contact: Michele Gagnon, 202-387-1968 X201 mgagnon@.... 2) LDDI-Minnesota Regional Meeting and Follow-up February 23, 2006 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2104 s Ave. S " Preventing Harm to Growing Brains, " LDDI's fifth regional meeting held on January 21st in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was sold out. Among the over 230 people who attended were 127 teachers and parents, 41 physicians and nurses, seven elected officials and 34 other government employees. The outstanding organizers in Minnesota, including LDDI members Kathleen Schuler of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Kitty Christensen of the Learning Disabilities Association of Minnesota, are now eager to gather again to capture the energy in learning and working on these issues together and to begin acting to reduce children's exposures to environmental toxins that contribute to learning and developmental disabilities. The kick-off meeting to begin working together entitled " Reducing Learning and Developmental Disabilities " will be held February 23, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2104 s Ave. S, Minneapolis (light refreshments will be served). For directions, agenda and additional information, please contact Jawad Towns (jtowns@..., 612-870-3456) or Kathleen Schuler (kschuler@..., 612-870-3468). 3) LDA 43rd Annual International Conference February 26 - March 1, 2006 ville, Florida at the Hyatt Regency ville Riverfront Hotel This conference promises four days of research and findings in learning disabilities, including specific workshops on medical issues, environmental health, mental health, technology, teacher preparation, early childhood, and more. Healthy Children Project partners will have an opportunity to learn more about the links between environmental exposures and learning disabilities and share information on state projects. Website: http://www.ldanatl.org/conference/index.asp 4) ADHD Conference for Parents, Young Adults and Professionals March 4 - 5, 2006 Tukwila, Washington at High School Headlining this two-day event are two national authorities and top physicians, psychologists, therapists, coaches, professional organizers, and other ADHD specialists who will lead dozens of presentations. While the ADHD professionals attend the advanced seminars in the afternoon, everyone else has the choice to attend over 20 breakout sessions. We have something for parents, young adults (ages 15-25), teachers and professionals. Website: http://www.addresources.org/conference_parents_2006.php Contact: 253-759-5085 or signup@... 5) TestSmart DNT: Creating a Humane and Efficient Approach to Developmental Neurotoxicity Testing March 13 - 15, 2006 Reston, Virginia at the Hyatt Regency Reston Meeting Description: Developmental Neurotoxicity (DNT) is a major issue in children's health worldwide. The TestSmart DNT symposium is the first of a series that will bring together leading stakeholders from around the world to develop the DNT testing methods of the future. It is designed for international sectors of industry, regulators and scientists involved in developmental neurotoxicity, chemical testing, risk assessment, children's health, policy integration, and animal protection concerns. TestSmart DNT is a long-term program aimed at identifying a battery of methods for DNT testing that meet government requirements, enhance decision-making, and promote humane science. Current methods for DNT testing are complex and expensive in terms of scientific resources, time, and animal use. Given the increasing number of chemicals that need to be tested and the increasing amount of information needed about them, we must look for new approaches to meet the demands for identifying developmentally neurotoxic agents with speed, reliability, and respect for animal welfare. Website: http://caat.jhsph.edu/dnt/ ANNOUNCEMENTS/ARTICLES 1) Little Green Molecules Chemists have invented a new class of catalysts that can destroy some of the worst pollutants before they get into the environment by Terrence J. and Chip Walter, Scientific American March 2006 issue http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006 & articleID=000A55EC-EAE2-13F5-A75F8\ 3414B7FFE9F The fish that live in the Anacostia River, which flows through the heart of Washington, D.C., are not enjoying its waters very much. The Anacostia is contaminated with the molecular remnants of dyes, plastics, asphalt and pesticides. Recent tests have shown that up to 68 percent of the river's brown bullhead catfish suffer from liver cancer. Wildlife officials recommend that anyone who catches the river's fish toss them back uneaten, and swimming has been banned. The Anacostia is just one of dozens of severely polluted rivers in the U.S. The textile industry alone discharges 53 billion gallons of wastewater -- loaded with reactive dyes and other hazardous chemicals--into America's rivers and streams every year. New classes of pollutants are turning up in the nation's drinking water: traces of drugs, pesticides, cosmetics and even birth-control hormones. The amounts are often infinitesimal, measured in parts per billion or trillion (a part per billion is roughly equivalent to one grain of salt dissolved in a swimming pool), but scientists suspect that even tiny quantities of some pollutants can disrupt the developmental biochemistry that determines human behavior, intelligence, immunity and reproduction. Access to the full article is through http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006 & articleID=000A55EC-EAE2-13F5-A75F8\ 3414B7FFE9F 2) At a Scientific Gathering, U.S. Policies Are Lamented by Cornelia Dean, New York Times February 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19science.html ST. LOUIS -- Baltimore, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist and president of the California Institute of Technology, is used to the Bush administration misrepresenting scientific findings to support its policy aims, he told an audience of fellow researchers Saturday. Each time it happens, he said, " I shrug and say, 'What do you expect?' " But then, Dr. Baltimore went on, he began to read about the administration's embrace of the theory of the unitary executive, the idea that the executive branch has the power or even the obligation to act without restraint from Congress. And he began to see in a new light widely reported episodes of government scientists being restricted in what they could say in public. " It's no accident that we are seeing such an extensive suppression of scientific freedom, " he said. " It's part of the theory of government now, and it's a theory we need to vociferously oppose. " Far from twisting science to suit its own goals, he said, the government should be " the guardian of intellectual freedom. " Dr. Baltimore spoke at a session here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Though it was organized too late for inclusion in the overall meeting catalogue, the session drew hundreds of scientists who crowded a large meeting room and applauded enthusiastically as speakers denounced administration policies they said threatened not just sound science but also the nation's research pre-eminence. The session was organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit organization that has been highly critical of the Bush administration. Not all of the speakers had harsh words for the administration. Rita R. Colwell, who headed the National Science Foundation, the government's leading financing organization for the physical sciences, from 1998 to 2004, said she had never experienced political pressure in that job. But, Dr. Colwell said, the free flow of scientific information is crucial for maintaining the nation's leadership in research. Threats to that, she said, are second only to terrorism as threats to the nation's security. Another speaker, F. Wood, former director of the office of women's health at the Food and Drug Administration, said administration interference with the agency's scientific and regulatory processes had left morale there at a " nadir. " Dr. Wood, who received a standing ovation from many in the audience, resigned in August to protest agency officials' unusual decision to overrule an expert panel and withhold marketing approval for Plan B, the so-called morning after pill, a form of emergency contraception. She said she feared that competent scientists would leave rather than remain at an agency where their work was ignored because " social conservatives have extreme undue influence. " Later, in response to a question, she said that she might have consulted the agency's inspector general over the Plan B decision, but that inspectors general often had to be prodded by Congress before taking action. Democrats have little power in this Congress, she said, and Republicans who care about science have been " remarkably silent. " Others in the audience said efforts to stifle researchers were attacks on more than science. " Administrative legitimacy has been violated as much as scientific legitimacy, " said Sheila Jasanoff, an expert on science policy who teaches at the F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. " You can't get the most solid possible basis for making a decision unless you have not just the most credible and legitimate form of science but also the most credible and legitimate administrative process. " Sussan, a lawyer with the Department of Health and Human Services who emphasized that she was speaking only for herself, drew applause when she said she saw the administration's science policies as " an attack on the rule of law as a basis for self-government and democracy. " 3) Industries Get Quiet Protection From Lawsuits Federal agencies are using arcane regulations and legal opinions to shield automakers and others from challenges by consumers and states. by Myron Levin and Alan C. , Los Angeles Times staff writers February 19, 2006 http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-preempt19feb19,0,244158,ful\ l.story WASHINGTON -- Near sunrise on a summer morning in 2001, of Childress, Texas, swerved to avoid a deer and rolled his pickup truck. The roof of the Ford F-250 crumpled, and didn't stand a chance. His neck broke and, at 37, he was paralyzed from the chest down. He sued, and Ford Motor Co. settled for an undisclosed amount. " You can imagine what happens when you're belted in and the roof comes down even with the door, " said. " Your options are death or quadriplegia. " 's case and hundreds like it are behind a beefed-up roof safety standard proposed in August by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But safety regulators tucked into the proposed rule something vehicle makers have long desired: protection from future roof-crush lawsuits like the one filed. The surprise move seeking legal protection for automakers is one in a series of recent steps by federal agencies to shield leading industries from state regulation and civil lawsuits on the grounds that they conflict with federal authority. Some of these efforts are already facing court challenges. However, through arcane regulatory actions and legal opinions, the Bush administration is providing industries with an unprecedented degree of protection at the expense of an individual's right to sue and a state's right to regulate. In other moves by the administration: The highway safety agency, a branch of the Department of Transportation, is backing auto industry efforts to stop California and other states from regulating tailpipe emissions they link to global warming. The agency said last summer that any such rule would be a backdoor attempt by states to encroach on federal authority to set mileage standards, and should be preempted. The Justice Department helped industry groups overturn a pollution-control rule in Southern California that would have required cleaner-running buses, garbage trucks and other fleet vehicles. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has repeatedly sided with national banks to fend off enforcement of consumer protection laws passed by California, New York and other states. The agency argued that it had sole authority to regulate national banks, preempting state restrictions. The Food and Drug Administration issued a legal opinion last month asserting that FDA-approved labels should give pharmaceutical firms broad immunity from most types of lawsuits. The agency previously had filed briefs seeking dismissal of various cases against drug companies and medical-device manufacturers. In a letter to President Bush on Thursday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said, " It appears that there may have been an administration-wide directive for agencies ... to limit corporate liability through the rule-making process and without the consent of Congress. " Administration officials said the initiatives had not been centrally coordinated. " Under the constitution, federal laws take priority over inconsistent state laws, " said Milburn, spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget. " Decisions about ... whether particular rules should preempt state laws are made agency by agency and rule by rule. " Preemption initiatives by regulatory agencies have drawn less public attention than controversial legislative moves supported by the White House. With administration support, Congress has restricted class-action suits and banned certain claims against gun makers and vaccine producers. By embedding similar protections for businesses in regulatory changes, the administration has advanced Bush's repeated pledge to rein in what he calls junk lawsuits. On Thursday, for example, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission adopted a rule to curb mattress fires, it recommended for the first time that courts bar suits against manufacturers that comply with the new standard. Schakowsky called the move " part of an unfortunate and troublesome pattern ... to undermine consumer rights. " In addition to trying to bar suits over vehicle roof failures, the highway safety agency in recent months has sought broad legal protection for manufacturers in two other rules on the grounds that lawsuits could undermine its safety goals. One rule related to rear seat belts and the other to visibility requirements for trucks. No similar exemption clauses have been attached to any other highway safety agency rule changes for 35 years. Industry executives, lobbyists and lawyers have shuttled through jobs in the highway safety agency and other departments over the years, but in the Bush administration, auto industry ties have grown more conspicuous. Before becoming White House chief of staff, H. Card Jr. served as a General Motors Corp. vice president and as chief executive of the top auto industry trade group. The acting head of the highway safety agency, Glassman, was a senior attorney for DaimlerChrysler Corp. before she became the agency's chief counsel in 2002. A. Rosen, who became general counsel at the Transportation Department in 2003, was a senior partner at Kirkland & Ellis, a powerhouse law firm that has defended GM in numerous product-liability suits and represents the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Rosen denied using his position to benefit automakers. " We have issued a number of major rules in the two years that I have been here, " he said. " Some of them are supported by industry, some are opposed. " S. Greve, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has written that preemption is crucial to protect the economy from " trial lawyers, ambitious state attorneys general and parochial state legislatures. " But critics say the preemption push contradicts the conservative ideals of a limited federal government and states' rights -- principles espoused by Bush. " This is the most aggressive federal government in the history of the United States, " said California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, a Democrat. Some say the election calendar is spurring the moves. " The message has been clear in the last couple of years that if industries are going to get protection, they need to get it now, " because no one knows what will happen in the next election, said Turley, a Washington University law professor. Rollover accidents kill more than 10,000 people in the U.S. each year, and seriously injure an additional 16,000. Consumer groups say better roofs would have saved thousands of victims over time. Automakers counter with the " roof dive " theory -- that rollover victims fall head-first to the roof as it strikes the ground, injuring themselves whether the roof holds or buckles. Thus, they say, the value of stronger roofs is practically nil. O'Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, called this argument " patently nonsense. " If it were true, he said, people would be " just as well-off in a rollover in a convertible as a hardtop. " The highway safety agency always has agreed that roof failures can cause death and injury. Its roof-crush proposal estimates that 596 deaths and 807 serious injuries a year are linked to roof collapse. Its proposed rule would increase the force a roof must withstand in a rollover from its current 1.5 times a vehicle's weight to 2.5 times -- at a cost per vehicle of about $12. It would cover large trucks and SUVs of more than 6,000 pounds for the first time. The agency also is considering requiring stability control systems to reduce rollover risk. The revised roof rule would create " the strongest ever uniform set of minimum ... standards " for automakers in the U.S., Transportation Department spokesman Turmail said. However, the safety agency is projecting relatively modest benefits from the upgrade: 13 to 44 deaths and 500 to 800 injuries prevented a year. One reason: Nearly 70% of existing vehicles already meet the proposed standard. Critics call this a token improvement. The stiffest criticism, however, has been reserved for the effort to grant immunity from lawsuits. The safety agency says its push to preempt personal injury litigation is based on a concern that automakers, fearful of lawsuits, might beef up roofs to such an extent that the vehicles become top-heavy and more prone to roll over. G. Womack Jr., a former acting chief counsel at the safety agency, said that equating roof strength with weight was a " very debatable proposition. " Other options are to use high-strength steel or widen the stance of vehicles to compensate for heavier roofs, he said. Diverse groups -- including Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog, and the National Conference of State Legislatures -- have condemned the provision and questioned the highway safety agency's authority to protect automakers. Some have complained that if companies could not be held liable for damages, it would remove incentives for automakers to exceed minimum safety standards. A bipartisan group of 26 state attorneys general said in a December letter to the highway safety agency that the lawsuit ban, if accepted by the courts, would shift significant costs of caring for seriously injured victims from the industry to taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid. It would also conflict with consumer rights, they said. " Such an extreme step is unwarranted in the absence of express congressional intent, " they wrote. Roof-crush suits have resulted in costly settlements and verdicts against automakers at a time of widespread financial trouble for the U.S. industry. In 2004, Ford paid $41 million in a case in which a California appeals court compared the company's use of a fiberglass and metal roof in the 1978 Bronco to " involuntary manslaughter. " The same year, a San Diego jury awarded damages against Ford of $367 million, later reduced by the judge to $150 million. In 2003, GM was hit with a $19.6-million verdict, described as the largest product liability award in Nebraska history. The San Diego and Nebraska cases are being appealed. For victims like , the prospect of manufacturer immunity is an especially bitter pill. The paralyzed Texas man, who had worked as a technician for a local utility, said he at least gained some financial security through litigation by extracting a settlement from Ford. Otherwise, he said, he and his wife " would have been living from hand to mouth. " He criticized the preemption clause, saying it was as if the industry had " this red phone and they just pick it up and it automatically dials NHTSA. " The immunity clause was unexpected, even to some in the industry. " Whether this was some conspiracy or whether it was a pleasant surprise, I really don't know, " said Barry Felrice, director of regulatory affairs with DaimlerChrysler in Washington. Spokesmen for GM and Ford said that their companies had not lobbied for the lawsuit ban but that they supported it. Bill Walsh, a former highway safety agency senior executive who worked on the rule before retiring in 2004, said the immunity language " was dropped in from out of the blue. " " Preempting lawsuits, he said, was " different from how we normally operated ... in issuing regulations. " Rosen, the Transportation Department's general counsel, said this was not the first time the highway safety agency had tried to override state liability laws. During the 1990s, the agency joined automakers in arguing that they shouldn't be sued for not installing air bags at a time when the agency allowed either air bags or automatic seat belts. In 2000, the Supreme Court agreed that such suits were preempted but said that compliance with a standard ordinarily " does not immunize a manufacturer. " Card, the White House chief of staff, and Glassman, the agency's chief counsel, declined to discuss how the roof-crush lawsuit preemption originated. Rosen said he did not want " to get into the specifics of who said what to whom.... As a legal matter, I'm obliged to protect the deliberative process. " The Rev. Lawrence of Pittsgrove, N.J., sees the issue from the vantage point of his wheelchair. Had his claim been preempted after a devastating accident with his family in North Carolina, he might not be preaching on Sundays. , then 46, was wearing a seat belt but suffered a fractured spine in 1997 when his Ford Econoline van rolled over. Except for minimal movement in his hands, he was paralyzed from the chest down. With the damage award he won from Ford, installed a roll-in shower and wheelchair lift in his house, hired a caretaker to help him dress each morning, and modified a van so he could continue as pastor of Olivet United Methodist Church. Without the lawsuit, he said, " I would not be able to do the things I'm able to do. " If automakers are immune, said, " where is the check and balance going to be for them? " Within days of its roof-crush proposal, the highway safety agency again backed the auto industry in challenging California's efforts to cut emissions. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had gone to court to stop the state Air Resources Board from regulating tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, contending the rule was preempted. Because carbon dioxide emissions drop when less fuel is burned, the industry attacked the rule as a backdoor attempt to regulate fuel economy -- under federal law, the exclusive domain of the highway safety agency. The agency agreed. On Aug. 23, it issued new mileage standards for light trucks, saying that its authority over fuel economy meant that " a state law that seeks to reduce motor vehicle carbon dioxide emissions is ... preempted. " Industry lawyers filed papers the next day in U.S. District Court in Fresno informing the judge of the agency's position. California's global warming rule, which would first apply to 2009 models, is not all that's at stake in the Fresno case. Ten states have copied California's emission rule, and all those rules could be wiped out if the industry wins. Rosen's former law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represents the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in the suit to block California's global warming rule. The suit was filed in late 2004, a year after Rosen left the firm to join the Transportation Department. Transportation spokesman Turmail said Rosen did not discuss the matter with the law firm. In considering the safety agency's position on the matter, Rosen acted in the government's interest, Turmail said. Eleven U.S. senators from both parties and 29 House Democrats from California have urged Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to reverse the agency's opposition to the emissions standard. " Rather than attempting to thwart such state efforts, the federal government should encourage states to develop innovative solutions to serious public health and environmental problems, " the senators wrote to Mineta in December. Kirkland & Ellis also represented automakers in another case against California regulators. In 2002, the industry -- backed by the Justice Department -- challenged a state rule that required production of a certain number of non-polluting vehicles. Rosen said he did not participate in that case while he was with the law firm. The case was settled when the state agreed to remove language that the industry said amounted to regulating fuel economy. The Bush administration also helped two industry groups overturn a regulation requiring the purchase of cleaner-running fleet vehicles such as buses and garbage trucks in Southern California. The Engine Manufacturers Assn. and Western States Petroleum Assn. claimed the rule by the South Coast Air Quality Management District was preempted by federal law. Their challenge was rejected in federal district court and by a federal appeals court. When the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department filed a brief siding with the industry. The high court agreed that the local rules were preempted. In the past, said California's Atty. Gen. Lockyer, when industries challenged state regulations, " the federal government abstained from those lawsuits. " Now, he said, there's " a policy of rubber-stamping whatever business wants, and that's too bad. " The idea behind another California law was simple: Tell credit cardholders on monthly bills how long it would take to retire their debt if they paid the minimum amount. But major banks issuing most of the nation's credit cards didn't like it. In a 2002 court challenge, they attacked the state's credit disclosure law with help from a powerful ally. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency joined forces with the American Banking Assn., Citibank and other plaintiffs, arguing in a friend-of-the-court brief that the law interfered with federal authority to regulate national banks, and with powers granted to the banks by their federal charters. A federal judge blocked the law from going into effect, and the state lost a subsequent appeal. Intervention by the comptroller's office " definitely tipped the balance, " said Gail Hillebrand, a lawyer for Consumers Union, which had backed the state's position. In recent years, the comptroller's office on many occasions has helped national banks and their subsidiaries fend off investigations or enforcement actions by state officials on preemption grounds. In 2004, for example, the agency helped to shoot down a California law that would have required customer permission before banks shared their personal information with business affiliates. Although a U.S. District Court judge upheld the privacy law, an appeals court ruled last year that its major provisions were preempted by federal law. Last year, the agency went to court on the side of a banking association to block an investigation by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer into possible racial bias in the lending practices of several banks. A federal judge agreed that Spitzer's investigation " impermissibly infringes " on the authority of the comptroller's office. The state is appealing. Turf battles over banking regulation have occurred in the past, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has become more aggressive in pushing preemption under Bush. Agency officials say they have zero tolerance for abusive practices and bristle at complaints that they might be chasing off state watchdogs to the detriment of consumers. The banks " have an enormous body of consumer compliance laws and regulations that we apply to them at the federal level, " said L. , the agency's senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel. But Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr., a Washington University professor specializing in banking law, said, " The OCC hasn't been, shall we say, a very zealous enforcer on the consumer side.... States have been far more vigorous. " Greve, the American Enterprise Institute scholar who has been a mainstay of the conservative brain trust promoting preemption, said well-connected industry law firms were part of a policy network providing legal and political rationale for the effort. He called them " a merry band of Washington lawyers ... who know how to push the buttons " and get things done. Levin reported from Los Angeles and from Washington. Times researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles also contributed to this report. 4) Are We Living in a Toxic Time Bomb? by Kinniment, The Northern Star (Australia) February 18, 2006 http://www.northernstar.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3673113 & thesec\ tion=localnews & thesubsection= & thesecondsubsection Research points to link between deadly disease and pesticides exposure. It start with a slight twitch in your face, or a loose grip on your coffee mug. However, within two years, sometimes three, the fatal Motor Neurone Disease (MND) ravages the body to the point where the sufferer can no longer breathe or swallow. It eventually leads to paralysis. And there is no known cure. However, new research by Sydney University scientists may shed some light on the cause of the horrific disease, which has killed thousands of Australians including former Lismore mayor Bob Gates. But the findings will also sound warning bells for agricultural communities such as the Northern Rivers, which has a significantly higher rate per population of neurological disease than the rest of NSW. The studies by Sydney University neurologist Dr Pamphlett have uncovered a deadly link between exposure to pesticides and the degenerative disease MND. With pesticide exposure a daily occurrence for many on the North Coast, could the 'green and clean' region we call home be harbouring a toxic time bomb? After being diagnosed with MND in 2002, former Lismore mayor Bob Gates naturally wondered what had caused it. Tragically, seven months after his diagnosis, with his movement limited and barely able to breathe, Cr Gates died without discovering the answer. Three years later his widow, Helen Gates, is still asking why. " He was very health conscious, there was no history of illness in the family, he was never underweight, never overweight...it was just out of the blue, " said Mrs Gates, president of the NSW MND Association Northern Rivers Support Group. Before he died, Cr Gates had been an active man; a surf lifesaver with the Ballina SLSC who had watched what he ate, barely drank and knew of no previous incidence of MND in his family history. As he faced death he reflected on a lifetime growing up on the Northern Rivers and the environmental factors that may have led to his MND. " After he got MND we were trying to work out 'how?', " Mrs Gates said. " Bob said maybe it was from his work as a quarry manager. " Or, perhaps, she said, it was from his exposure as a child to pesticide residue in the Richmond River. " As a child he used to swim in the river and in those days everything went in -- pesticides, slops from the piggery, everything. You wouldn't let your kids swim in it these days, " she said. Helen Gates joins the growing number of local families who have lost loved ones to the mysterious disease. North Coast Area Health Service statistics from 2000/01 show the Northern Rivers has a significantly higher number of hospitalisations for nervous system disorders, compared with other areas of NSW. On the Northern Rivers, 1533.22 men per 100,000 of population were hospitalised with nervous system disorders, compared with 1491.85 statewide; while 1465.68 Northern Rivers women were hospitalised, compared with 1385.7 statewide. After three decades of practice, Lismore neurologist Dr Geoffrey Boyce has seen so many cases of MND in the past two years it has left him shaking his head. " I've seen more cases of Motor Neurone Disease in the Northern Rivers in the past two years than in the 10 years I worked in Cairns, " he said. Dr Boyce said the incidence of degenerative Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis was also higher than average on the Northern Rivers. But he cannot pinpoint why. The Sydney University research may provide a clue. Dr Pamphlett's study of 900 people, including 300 with MND, has suggested regular exposure to pesticides may increase a person's risk of developing the condition. In particular, the Sydney University studies found that some patients with the progressive paralysing disease have differences in a gene known as paraoxynase, involved in the breakdown of organophosphates, the active ingredient of many commonly used pesticides. " We have found that people who had regular contact with pesticides, such as once a week for six months, are at greater risk of getting Motor Neurone Disease, " Dr Pamphlett said. That there is a high incidence of Motor Neurone Disease in this region, and that scientists are now making links between MND and pesticides, comes as no real surprise to environmental scientist and National Toxics Network president Jo Immig. Ms Immig, of Possum Creek, has devoted her scientific career to raising awareness of the hidden dangers of pesticides residue in our food, water and air. She has instigated changes to NSW environmental legislation regulating agricultural pesticides, making NSW the first State where it is mandatory for farmers to undertake training in using pesticides and farmers are now required to keep records of what pesticides they use. From 2007, it will be also mandatory for the public to be notified if pesticides are to be sprayed in a public place. Ms. Immig said organophosphates, the group of pesticides targeted in the Sydney University studies on MND, were known nerve poisons. " They derived from World War II nerve gases, " she said. " They kill insects by disrupting the nervous system. What hasn't been explored is the low-level impact these toxins have over time. We're only beginning to see the wave of illnesses coming through. It takes about 30 years for these degenerative diseases to manifest. I think what we are seeing here is the tip of the iceberg. " It is the tip of an iceberg scientists have been bumping into for decades, ever since organophosphates were introduced, first as weapons of war, then as weapons against agricultural pests. Dr Pamphlett stresses that a larger scientific study is needed to prove his initial findings, but he said it was not the first time pesticides had been linked with neurological disease. He said the connection had been made between pesticides and Parkinson's Disease, and studies in the Northern Hemisphere had shown that farmers regularly exposed to pesticides were two times more at risk of contracting MND. 5) Bush's Coal-plant Rules under Fire Ontario joins northeastern states fighting eased rules for smog-belching power units by Mittelstaedt, Environment Reporter, The Globe and Mail February 18, 2006 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060218.SMOG18/TPStory/Environ\ ment TORONTO -- Ontario's Environment Minister says a Bush administration proposal to weaken pollution laws on hundreds of the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the United States is a " backward step " that will undermine the province's clean-air programs. The U.S. proposal is " bad news for the health of people living anywhere in our shared air shed, no matter if you've got a postal code or a ZIP code, " Laurel Broten said yesterday. Her comments came after Ontario joined 11 U.S. states, mainly from the northeast, in filing objections to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal that would allow aging coal-fired power plants to continue operating without up-to-date pollution controls. Most of these plants are in the Midwest or the Ohio Valley area. Ontario has the most aggressive program in North America to fight pollution from coal-fired plants, and has promised to shut its five coal-fired power plants by 2009. But the province is worried the beneficial effects of its actions on air quality will be overwhelmed by continuing high levels of pollution from the U.S. plants. Fallout from U.S. air pollution is so extensive that unless there are significant additional reductions in trans-boundary pollutants, Ontario won't be able to comply with Canadian smog standards in 2010 when its coal plants are closed. " We could reduce our province's emissions to zero, and airborne pollutants from the U.S. carried in by prevailing winds would still trigger smog days, " Ms. Broten told a news conference. In its filing, the Ministry of Environment said there are 617 coal-fired power plants in states near Ontario that are so old (several hundred have been operating for 50 years or more) they have no abatement equipment at all, or don't have modern controls. These plants dump about six million tonnes of pollutants into the air. Comparable emissions from Ontario's five coal plants are about 230,000 tonnes. By Ontario's estimates, only 11 per cent of the U.S. fleet of coal plants have a full set of equipment to take out pollutants responsible for acid rain and smog. In many parts of Southwestern Ontario, about 70 per cent to 90 per cent of air pollutants originate in the United States, according to the province's filing. Ontario says these pollutants then move through the province to affect Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Environmentalists welcomed Ontario's intervention, but expressed concern that the federal government hasn't indicated whether it will take a similar high-profile stand. There are worries that the new Conservative government may not be anxious to raise a cross-border pollution issue with the Bush administration, even though more than half the Canadian population lives downwind of harmful U.S emission sources. " I really hope this is not a case where the Prime Minister and the new Environment Minister think that by being silent they gain some favour with the U.S. government, " said Muldoon, a spokesman for the Canadian Environmental Law Association. " I think most Canadians, particularly those in Ontario and Quebec, should be appalled by the lack of federal action. " Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose could not be reached yesterday for comment. Under the U.S. Clean Air Act, old coal-fired power plants are required to install advanced pollution abatement equipment as they are refurbished. Enforcement of this law would lead to a reduction of more than 90 per cent in smog- and acid-rain-causing emissions. The Bush administration wants to replace this tough requirement with a relaxed rule that Ontario estimates would " at best " lead to a 70-per-cent drop in these pollutants, indicating that far bigger reductions would occur simply by enforcing existing rules. U.S. environmentalists have also criticized the Bush administration proposal because the reductions would take 15 years to come fully into force. Ontario said the Bush proposal is " seriously flawed " and " will not address the immediate human cost of trans-boundary air pollution in Ontario. " The filing said Ontario public health authorities estimate pollution from the United States causes about 2,700 deaths annually and about 12,000 additional hospital admissions as people seek treatment for smog-related ailments. Cross-border air pollution Ontario has joined 11 U.S. states in objecting to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal that would allow coal-fired power plants to operate without up-to-date pollution controls. [Please visit the website version of this bulletin or the original article for a table showing relative emissions from Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.] 6) Toxins Found in Fish for Sale by Warren Cornwall, Seattle Times staff reporter February 16, 2006 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/fishing/2002808563_fish16m.html Some fish sold at Washington groceries contains so much mercury or PCBs that people should limit their consumption, a study by the state Department of Health has found. Even so, the first state survey of grocery fish also found that many other kinds of fish are safe to eat in moderate amounts, and state health officials highlighted that in a continued push to get people to eat fish regularly. " Fish are great food. We want everybody to be eating the recommended two meals a week. But there are contaminants, " said Jim VanDerslice, a Health Department epidemiologist. Halibut and red snapper bought from local stores had mercury -- a brain poison -- at levels high enough that children and women of childbearing age should eat no more than one meal a week of the fish, based on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. And chinook salmon topped the list for the most PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a long-banned chemical suspected of causing cancer and impairing brain development. But the results have experts divided on the dangers. Health Department officials say the PCB levels in the salmon are too low to put people at risk unless they eat unusually large amounts of the fish. But some environmentalists point out that EPA guidelines say eating chinook salmon with that much PCB more than once a month could increase the risk of cancer. First look at grocers Until now, there was little way for local shoppers to know what chemicals were in the fish they buy, or how much of it they should eat. The Department of Health has monitored wild fish in local rivers and lakes for toxic chemicals, and issues warnings if it finds a problem. But store-bought fish, which can come from all over the world, has been largely ignored. So the Health Department started the study of grocery fish last year after concluding " we really don't have a handle on what the levels are, " said Dave McBride, a Health Department toxicologist. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets rules for how much mercury or PCBs are allowed in fish sold at stores. But the agency does only limited checking. Washington state public-health officials also consider the FDA's limits too high. Shopping for fish Health Department workers went to stores all over the state and bought canned tuna and fresh fillets from eight different kinds of fish. The fish was then tested for mercury, PCBs and PBDEs, which are flame-retardants that have recently been found to accumulate in people's bodies. The most mercury was found in canned albacore tuna, so much so that EPA guidelines say that women and children should eat no more than four cans a month. Those findings confirm previous federal warnings that some tuna species tend to have higher mercury levels. There has been no similar government warning about red snapper and halibut, which the state study found have enough mercury to warrant limiting consumption. The fish with the least mercury included catfish, pollock, salmon, flounder and cod. Eat salmon? There's less agreement about the safety of salmon. The fish bought for the study, which were labeled as chinook, had more than twice as much PCBs on average than any other species. State health officials side with the EPA's advice on limits to protect brain development, rather than more strict limits meant to guard against cancer. As a result, the state says people can safely eat two servings of chinook a week -- more than a typical Washingtonian eats. The EPA's cancer limits would cut that recommendation to no more than one meal of salmon a month. But the Health Department rejects that standard, saying it is less certain because the limits are based on research on animals instead of on people exposed to PCBs, said Rob Duff, director of the Health Department's Office of Environmental Health Assessments. And Deborah Rice, a former EPA toxicologist who has studied health effects of PCBs, said the risk of eating salmon should be balanced against the chemicals that people ingest in other foods. " You have to look at what people really eat, and Americans eat like crap, " she said. " There are a lot more changes that you could make other than cutting out salmon. In fact, I would argue that you should eat salmon. " But others say the EPA guidelines on cancer risks are there for a reason. " One meal a month is about what I would recommend for wild chinook, " said Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, in New York, who published a 2004 paper in the journal Science about PCB levels in salmon. He says there is plenty of research pointing to PCBs as a carcinogen. The fishing industry prefers having the FDA police the food supply. " Whatever you eat has good things and bad things, " said Glenn , president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association in Seattle. " It seems that the vast body of evidence is that seafood is one of the healthiest proteins you can eat. " Finding a balance The dispute underscores a balance that public-health officials have been trying to strike with the risks and benefits of eating fish. The Health Department's Duff worries that warnings about toxic chemicals will scare people away from fish altogether, meaning they would miss a source of protein that is high in healthful fats thought to guard against heart disease. So, rather than urge people to avoid certain fish, the department prefers to steer people toward fish that are considered " healthier " choices, and they advise people to reduce PCB exposure by trimming off skin and grilling the fish. And in a new experiment, the agency is trying to persuade several grocery chains in Thurston County to put up posters or brochures advising people which fish are the most healthful. Among the top fish on that list: cod, flounder, pollock, light tuna, catfish -- and salmon. Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@... 7) land's Air Pollution a Killer, Study Says About 700 deaths, 30,000 asthma attacks can be linked to coal-fired power plants, says report by Harvard researcher by Tom Pelton, Sun Reporter February 15, 2006 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-power0215,0,7643401.story?coll=bal-lo\ cal-headlines Air pollution from land's six largest coal-fired power plants is estimated to cause about 700 premature deaths and 30,000 asthma attacks a year, according to a study by a Harvard School of Public Health scientist. The research by Levy, assistant professor of environmental health, was funded and released Wednesday by the land Nurses Association as part of a campaign with environmental groups to pass stronger air pollution laws in land. During a telephone news conference, Levy said that air pollution in land had been improving from 1999 to 2003, but got worse in 2004 and 2005. " Power plant pollution is a major public health problem in land, and this public health study documents the problem, " said Afzal, community health specialist for the land Nurses Association. " This makes a telling case for public action. Death and illness strike the most vulnerable among us, the youngest and elderly. " Gould, a spokesman for Constellation Energy, the largest owner of power plants in land, said the study's findings seem similar to conclusions reached by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency several years ago that spurred the creation of strict new federal air quality standards for air pollution. " Constellation Energy is very supportive of these new [federal] rules, " Gould said. " And we have already announced our intention to spend an additional $500 million to $600 million to install additional air pollution controls on top of the $250 million we have already spent. " Levy said his estimate was based on previous studies -- some by the EPA -- that compared levels of fine soot in the air to rates of asthma attacks and heart attacks in different areas. He then examined data on the amount of pollutants coming out of land's largest six coal-fired power plants, and extrapolated what the health impact of those pollutants would be in the region. In land, Levy said, about 100 people a year die because of this power plant pollution, many from heart attacks, with the other 600 deaths annually in downwind states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. land residents suffer about 4,000 asthma attacks because of this pollution, and state citizens miss about 100,000 work or school days, his report estimates. The land Nurses Association is working with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Environmental Integrity Project, the land Public Interest Research Group and others to try to achieve passage of the Healthy Air Act, which is designed to reduce pollutants from state power plants by up to 90 percent by forcing them to install pollution control equipment. The power industry and business groups oppose the land bill, warning that it could cost billions of dollars and potentially raise electricity rates or force older coal-fired power plants to shut down or operate less. The Ehrlich administration, after opposing similar legislation the last two years, released proposed regulations last fall aimed at curbing pollution. The rules would cover fewer power plants and pollutants than the Healthy Air Act. Steve Peregoy, chief executive of the American Lung Association of land, said either the Healthy Air Act or the governor's regulations would be a step in the right direction. " land ranks as one of the highest polluted areas, and unfortunately power plants have been a major contributor to the problem, " Peregoy said. 8) State Sues E.P.A. for Files on Household Pollutants By Danny Hakin, New York Times February 15, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/nyregion/15emissions.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin ALBANY, Feb. 14 -- As New York and other states grapple with the gradually tightening requirements of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to turn over records detailing the levels of smog-causing compounds found in common household and industrial products like paints and varnishes. The Cost of Pollution Such volatile organic compounds are not only significant contributors to smog, but they have also been linked to a variety of health problems, including the rising asthma rates in cities like New York and Los Angeles. After trying for two years to obtain the records, New York State sued the E.P.A. on Tuesday, saying that the agency has violated the Freedom of Information Act by denying the state's repeated requests for the records. State officials say they need the records to draw up a plan to comply with strict new rules on smog-forming pollution being phased in under the Clean Air Act. The records are submitted to the E.P.A. by manufacturers of paint products. New York and California, as well as some other states on the East Coast, have stricter regulations on volatile organic compounds because they have worse summertime smog problems than other states. In refusing to turn over the records, the E.P.A. appears to be siding with paint manufacturers, which have been battling in court to prevent state attempts to regulate their products. And the paint companies have been aided in the past by at least one influential friend, Senator V. Voinovich, an Ohio Republican who personally appealed to the E.P.A. on behalf of Sherwin-, based in Cleveland. A letter he wrote in October 2004 asked the agency to heed the industry's objections to allowing some states to tighten their regulations of volatile organic compounds. Now states are having trouble determining even what the levels of such pollutants are. Companies like Sherwin- are stating that the information about the pollutants in their products, which they submitted to the E.P.A., is proprietary and represents trade secrets, an assertion that the agency has supported, according to New York's court filing. New York officials say the information should be made public, arguing that the agency, despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act, has not made a sincere effort to determine, as required by law, whether companies were making valid claims that the data was a trade secret. One of the few documents that New York has received from the E.P.A. indicates that paint producers are often using a loophole in the regulatory system to pay their way out of reducing the pollutant levels of their products. Sherwin- paid more than $5 million in 2002 to avoid fully reducing its levels of volatile organic compounds to required limits, according to the document. The amount was more than 15 times the noncompliance fee paid by any competitor. In a statement on Tuesday, New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said that " the state is entitled by law to this critical information so it can effectively implement its clean air programs to preserve public health. " He added, " The E.P.A. has no grounds on which to deny such a request. " Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, is suing on behalf of the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, a branch of Gov. E. Pataki's administration. An E.P.A. spokesman, R. Millett, said in a statement on Tuesday that the agency's intent " is to provide New York with all the information it is entitled to. The agency is looking into the matter in order to provide the state a final response to its request. " Conway G. Ivy, a senior vice president at Sherwin-, said a great majority of his company's products complied with the regulations on volatile organic compounds, though not the specialty products like paints used on roads or for industrial maintenance. " Our customer base indicates they would prefer the performance of these noncomplying products, " he said. The stalemate is the latest in a series pitting states, including those like New York and California, which have Republican governors, against the environmental policies of the Bush administration. In one battle, automakers, with the support of the E.P.A., are suing both New York and California over state plans to aggressively regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from cars and trucks. The Bush administration has rejected such state moves. Last year, Mr. Pataki and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California wrote a letter to President Bush asking him to preserve their ability to set stricter environmental rules. The new lawsuit comes as the Bush administration has come under criticism for restricting the flow of information on issues related to smog-forming pollutants and global warming emissions. Last month, a top NASA scientist said that Bush administration officials were trying to censor his views on climate change. Last year, the administration delayed the release of a report on the gas mileage of cars and trucks until after the voting on the energy bill. S. Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators, an association of state and local air quality regulators, said the disclosure that 75 companies like Sherwin- were paying fees in lieu of at least some of their required pollutant reductions was troubling. " What E.P.A. is doing is allowing the industry to buy their way out of federal regulations, " he said. He added that states would be forced to regulate similar pollutants from the small businesses that cannot afford such fees, like bakeries and auto body repair shops. 9) Experts at First Abelson Seminar Ponder The Global Rise Of Chronic Disease Recer, American Association for the Advancement of Science December 21, 2006 http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/1221abelson.shtml A growing global epidemic of chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, will cause at least 35 million deaths this year, costing the world economy billions of dollars, even though medical science has identified the principal causes and knows ways to prevent it, experts said at a AAAS seminar in Washington, D.C. Speakers at the first Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar said that twice as many premature deaths are caused worldwide by chronic diseases as by all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies combined. And while the toll from infectious diseases is declining globally, deaths from chronic disease are expected to increase by 17 percent in the next 10 years. The 8 December seminar included speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO), from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and from university research labs. It was the inaugural event in a series named for Abelson, a researcher in physics, biology and other sciences, and the editor for 22 years of Science, which is published by AAAS. Abelson died last year at the age of 91. Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, said the seminar series would address major societal challenges and focus on the frontiers of science and technology. Beaglehole, WHO's director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, said in the keynote address that the toll of premature death from chronic disease is increasing worldwide principally because of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco and the aging of populations in almost all countries. Diet and the lack of physical activity is contributing to a growing pattern of obesity, a key risk factor for diabetes and early heart disease. And it's not just happening in the rich countries, such as the United States and South Africa, where recent reports show that 75 percent of women aged 30 and over are overweight. A " very frightening statistic, " said Beaglehole, is that in countries both rich and poor, about 22 million children worldwide under the age of five are already obese. " We've done a lot to observe the emergence of this problem, " he said. " We have done practically nothing to solve it. " Beaglehole said that common misunderstandings about chronic disease have affected policy decisions and slowed the worldwide response to the emerging epidemic. For instance, he said it's widely believed that premature heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases are mostly a plague among the elderly and among the rich in high-income countries. Actually, said Beaglehole, 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases are in low- and middle-income countries. A WHO report found that poor people, in all but the least developed countries, are more likely than the rich to develop chronic diseases and are more likely to die early. And it is not just the elderly who are victims. The WHO report found that almost half of the deaths from chronic diseases occur in people under 70 years old. " A very dangerous misunderstanding is that chronic disease is the result of unhealthy lifestyles under the control of individuals, " Beaglehole said. " The reality is that poor people and children have very limited choices, and it is unfair to blame them for the environmental conditions in which they suffer. " There's also the belief by many that chronic diseases and premature deaths cannot be prevented. " The reality is that approximately 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is preventable, as are 40 percent of all cancers -- many of which result from tobacco consumption, " said Beaglehole. " A few known risk factors explain the vast majority of premature chronic disease deaths. " A global effort to attack the causes of chronic disease could reduce death rates by 2 percent a year and save 36 million lives within a decade, he said. Ninety percent of the lives saved, said Beaglehole, would be in low- and middle-income countries. Slowing the epidemic of premature death from chronic diseases will have to involve policy issues beyond the health field, he said. For instance, farm subsidies often affect the type of food available in some countries. An example: The consumption of full fat milk is encouraged in schools in some European countries because of subsidies, said Beaglehole. Excessive fat, sugar and salt in the diet lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Other specialists at the Abelson seminar reported recent findings that offer new hope for treatment and management of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer. J. Topol, provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said studies of families with heart attack have demonstrated specific genes that are causative or induce susceptibility. This will allow strategies of lifestyle and individualized therapy early in life to prevent heart attacks decades later. The battle against the growing epidemic of obesity will require fundamental changes in attitudes toward food and exercise, said Holly Wyatt, the program director at the Centers for Obesity Research and Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In American society, she said, " we've had a lot of pressures to not expend more energy than we have to and we had a lot of pressure to eat more than we need. " To change the behaviors that lead to obesity will require encouragement from virtually every element in society -- employers, schools, churches, community centers and retail stores, she said. Such programs have worked in the past to discourage tobacco use and encourage using seat belts in cars. Without such an effort, Wyatt said that by 2008 about 75 percent of Americans will be at a body weight that negatively affects health. Basic research on how the kidneys regulate salt in the body has given medical science a new understanding of the causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Rick Lifton, Sterling Professor and chairman of Genetics atYale University School of Medicine. He said there are biological pathways and gene mutations that cause the kidneys to sequester sodium, leading to increases in blood pressure. Drugs to counter these effects could lead to dramatically improved treatments for hypertension, a disorder that affects a billion people world wide and is linked to about 5 million deaths annually. Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, an investigator of the Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale University, said that new, non-invasive studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have demonstrated that the development of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is directly related to the build-up of fat inside muscle and liver cells where it disrupts normal insulin signaling and action in these organs. Studies in transgenic and knockout mice as well as in humans have shown that removing this excess intracellular fat can restore insulin sensitivity and cure type 2 diabetes. The results from these studies provide new targets for novel therapies that might be developed to reduce intracellular fat levels and reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Shulman. The Institute for Children's Environmental Health is a nonprofit educational organization working to ensure a healthy, just and sustainable future for all children. ICEH's primary mission is to foster collaborative initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate environmental exposures that can undermine the health of current and future generations. 1646 Dow Road Freeland, WA 98249 Ph: 360-331-7904; Fax: 360-331-7908 For more information, please e-mail iceh@... or visit www.iceh.org. You may also directly contact Elise , MEd, Executive Director of the Institute for Children's Environmental Health and national coordinator for LDDI at emiller@.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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