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While all links worked when entries were posted to the database, different publishers
have different policies about retaining articles and providing access to archived material.
Thus some of the links, particularly older ones, may no longer be functional.
For links no longer working, you may be able to gain paid access to text via the publisher's site.
Brief exposure to low levels of bisphenol A during pregnancy may contribute to diabetic symptoms in the mother and her sons - but not daughters - finds a study with mice.
BPA, which acts like estrogen and can interfere with normal hormone activity, caused changes in the mothers that resembled gestational diabetes. This study adds to a growing body of research evidence that, when taken together, suggests BPA causes health problems in animals and quite possibly in humans. 1 July 2010. More...
Reproductive problems leading to infertility were seen in female fish exposed to pthalates at levels generally found in the environment.
The results are some of the first to show the plasticizers can affect females as well as males, report researchers in the online journal PLoSOne. This preliminary evidence of the effects of DEHP on the female reproductive system suggests that further study on females is warranted in other species, including humans. 28 June 2010. More...
Rats exposed to bisphenol A (BPA) early in life develop symptoms resembling polycystic ovarian syndrome, a leading cause of infertility in women.
This animal study is among the first to show that early exposure to BPA can cause symptoms similar to PCOS in adulthood. The levels of BPA used in the experiments were high compared to current estimates of human exposure. 15 June 2010. More...
In a new study, people who adopted a vegetarian diet for just five days show reduced levels of antibiotics and phthalates in their bodies.
The pilot study suggests that people may be able reduce their exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals through dietary choices, such as limiting consumption of animal products like meats and dairy. 11 May 2010. More...
A new study in rats shows that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) – at levels found in farmed Atlantic salmon – cause insulin resistance and associated obesity and liver disease in the animals. The study is the first to show this experimentally.
Insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes, which is becoming a global epidemic. The association between high levels of POPs in people and increased chance of developing diabetes has been known since 2006. Until now, scientists could not positively conclude that POPs influenced the onset of diabetes. 14 January 2010. More...
Women who are having difficulty conceiving may want to cut back on their soy consumption after a mouse study reveals that dietary exposure to genistein, a compound found in soy foods, can reduce the odds of a successful pregnancy in multiple ways.
The results reveal how natural compounds like genistein may have both risks – it can act as an endocrine disurptor to affect female reproduction – and benefits - such as protecting the heart. 28 July 2009. More...
Newborn girls exposed prenatally to phthalates scored poorly on a standard behavior test – and very differently from boys. The phthalate metabolites found in the mother's urine were associated with the girls' poor performance on tests of attention and alertness.
This is the first study to link phthalates to neurological development effects in humans. Previous health studies have linked phthalates to altered genital development, obesity, diabetes risk and poor sperm quality. 8 June 2009. More...
New animal research suggests that overweight children may be at unique risk for adverse health problems due to exposure to dioxin before they are born.
Overweight mice whose mothers were exposed to dioxin during pregnancy die earlier, tend to have higher blood sugar levels and develop breasts sooner during puberty than those not exposed in the womb. Lean mice under the same circumstances had few of these effects. 21 May 2009. More...
A new study with rats shows that long-term exposure to the common agricultural pesticide atrazine causes weight gain in animals fed normal diets and obesity in those fed high fat diets.
The new results suggest a mechanism for prior studies that found an association between areas of the United States with heavy atrazine use and high obesity prevalence. 23 April 2009. More...
Men -- but not women -- exposed to low levels of cadmium have an increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease.
To date, excess deaths due to cancer -- lung, prostrate and renal -- and cardiovascular disease have been found in people with high and occupational exposures to cadmium. Based on data from the CDC, this is the first study to show similar results in the general population. 3 April 2009. More...
Results of a study that exposed pregnant rats to nicotine levels similar to those found in the blood of women who smoke has isolated how the drug alters genes that govern fat and insulin in the offspring. The permanent changes can lead to life-threatening diseases as the animals age.
This is the first study to convincingly show that mothers who smoke, or use nicotine replacement during pregnancy, could be increasing their children's chances of developing diabetes and obesity later in life. 9 February 2009. More...
A soy protein, genistein, long known to affect fertility, can change how pregnancies start and progress in female mice treated with it as newborns.
The changes make it harder for fertilized eggs to implant and grow, possibly contributing to infertility. The effects were observed at levels comparable to those experienced by human infants feeding on soy formula. 26 January 2009. More...
The type of chemicals someone is exposed to in the womb, or soon after birth, may predetermine the risk for developing respiratory infections as an infant and allergy and asthma as an adult, according to a study that focused on PCBs and DDE.
In the study, both the amount and type of PCBs a baby was exposed to in the womb, or in the first three months after birth, affected the number of respiratory infections a child had. Some types of PCBs seemed to be associated with increased respiratory infections; other types seemed be associated with fewer infections. 5 January 2009. More...
Widely-used pollutants called organotins can harm cells - and even kill them - by interfering with their ability to take apart unwanted proteins.
The chemical tie to and block the activity of a key cell molecule, called the proteasome, making it dysfunctional. Organotins are used in PVC plastics and as anti-fungal agents in textiles and agricultural pesticides. 15 December 2008. More...
Dibutyltin, an understudied chemical used widely in PVC plastics, can interfere with the natural ability of human and animals cells to control important immune responses and inflammation.
The results may help understand why asthma and allergies are increasing in people. 11 December 2008. More...
Drinking sugary soda is linked to kidney disease, most likely due to the high fructose corn syrup that sweetens the drinks according an analysis of data from the CDC.
Underweight women were most at risk, while in men no association was seen. 2 December 2008. More...
In a unique study, researchers show that exposure to PCBs in rats interferes with learning by stopping the brain from forming complex nerve networks essential for memory and intellect.
This effect could underpin some of the impacts that PCBs have on children's ability to learn. 7 November 2008. More...
A large new epidemiological study in Japan finds that even at background levels of exposure, people with higher levels of dioxin and dioxin-like PCBs are a significantly greater risk to metabolic syndrome, which includes high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.
Metabolic syndrome is a very significant public health problem in the US and many other industrialized countries, including Asian nations like Japan. All of the dioxin-like chemicals measured, including dioxin itself, were linked to the disorder. Using a method to assess total exposure to this family of chemicals, they found that the people most exposed were over five times more likely to suffer from the health condition. Looking at some of the chemicals one-at-a-time, they found that some, by themselves, had an even stronger relationship, as high as 8 to 9 times more likely. 13 October 2008. More...
Americans interested in pursuing a healthy lifestyle should look closely at where they live.
This new study of New York residents finds that the nearer you live to unhealthy food stores, the more likely you are to be overweight. Lifestyle choices can lead to obesity, which is a growing epidemic in the United States. 10 October 2008. More...
Mice exposed to low levels of soy proteins before and shortly after birth were obese as adults and had reproductive changes that differed between the sexes.
The findings provide additional evidence that hormonally active compounds can act at low exposure levels and produce effects different from those caused by high exposures. 24 September 2008. More...
In the first prospective study exploring how fetal exposures may affect the risk of childhood obesity, scientists from Spain report that children born to mothers with higher levels of the pesticide hexachlorobenzene in cord blood were significantly more likely to be overweight and obese by the age of six.
These results add to growing evidence that fetal exposure to contaminants can interfere with hormonal mechanisms that control weight later in life, thereby contributing to the world-wide epidemic of metabolic disorder. 22 August 2008. More...
In human fat tissues, bisphenol A suppresses levels of a key hormone, adiponectin, that protects people from heart attacks and Type II diabetes.
These results implicate BPA as a potential cause of metabolic syndrome, one of the most serious and costly public health problems in the US. 18 August 2008. More...
A new analysis by the CDC indicates that many Americans are exposed to bisphenol A at levels above the current safety threshold set by the EPA based upon decades-old data.
These levels are significantly higher than those sufficient to cause a wide array of health effects in animals following exposure in the womb. Exposure to another industrial chemical, 4-tertiary-octylphenol, is also widespread. 8 November 2007. More...
Three years after a year-long education effort to promote a healthy diet and discourage consumption of carbonated drinks, researchers found no effect on how many children were overweight.
The number of overweight children had increased in both the control and experimental groups. British Medical Journal. 10 October 2007. More...
Thirty-eight of the world's leading scientific experts on bisphenol A have warned policymakers of potential adverse health effects of exposure to the widespread molecule used to make plastic and food can lining.
They conclude that average levels in people are above those that cause harm to animals in laboratory experiments. And they calculate that average serum levels in people can only be explained by assuming that exposures today are already above the level that EPA considers safe. 13 August 2007. More...
Exposure to bisphenol A during development changes gene behavior in mice, causing genetically identical animals to develop differently.
BPA exposure reduces DNA methylation, thereby increasing the expression of genes that would have been silenced. The results can be counteracting by supplementing the maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation with nutrients that increase methylation, such as genistein, a phytoestrogen found in soy. 30 July 2007. More...
Women who reported mixing and applying agricultural pesticides during early pregnancy have a two times higher risk of developing gestational diabetes during the pregnancy.
Consistent with other studies, the strong association between first trimester pesticide exposure and gestational diabetes mellitus suggests that pesticide exposures, including 2,4,5-T and atrazine, may affect glucose metabolism and insulin resistance. 6 July 2007. More...
Nicotine, a powerful drug found in tobacco products and anti-smoking therapies, impaired the ability of adult rats to control glucose levels after they had been exposed to the drug during fetal development and lactation.
The changes are consistent with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The exposed rats had fewer insulin-making cells in the pancreas. Exposures were comparable to those experienced by moderate smokers or people using nicotine patches. 18 June 2007. More...
The first study to examine the connection between human exposure to phthalates and changes in thyroid hormone levels reports that men with higher levels of the phthalate breakdown product MEHP in their urine had lower levels of two major thyroid hormones, T4 and T3 in their blood.
Changes in thyroid hormone levels can affect growth, development and metabolism and cause a number of human diseases. More research is needed to establish whether MEHP is causing the thyroid declines. 12 June 2007. More...
Very low doses of bisphenol A increase the expression of genes in fetal mice responsible for directing production of hormone receptors in prostate tissue.
The effect is seen at concentrations observed in human serum. The effect helps explain why this exposure increases sensitivity to hormones throughout the life of mice exposed in the womb, as well as why BPA causes enlarged prostates in adulthood. 8 June 2007. More...
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