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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.
New research shows that the drugs and contaminants that often contaminate sewage sludge that is used as fertilizer can be taken up by the plants grown in fertilized fields and gardens.
Also called 'biosolids,' these fertilizers are regularly applied to agricultural fields and are sometimes packaged as organic soil fertilizers sold in home improvement stores. 30 August 2010. More...
Pregnant women who live in areas close to electronic waste dismantling sites have higher exposures to persistent organic pollutants and depressed thyroid hormone levels than those who live farther away from the facilities, finds a study that compares women in two regions of China.
Even without direct interactions with the e-waste facility, recycling affected women living adjacent to the sites. This study raises concerns about e-waste practices and health effects on both the mothers and the developing fetuses. 20 July 2010. More...
Arsenic carried to rice fields by contaminated irrigation water tends to accumulate in top soil layers where the rice takes it up, contaminating the grain, lowering its nutritional value and exposing large populations who depend on it for food.
Rice is one of the largest sources of arsenic exposure for people in Bangladesh and India, representing about half the total intake 12 July 2010. More...
Lead levels in both soil and children declined dramatically after hurricanes twice flooded New Orleans in 2005. The researchers who report the results propose that the flooding altered the soil lead conditions, thereby lowering children's exposure to the neurotoxin.
In almost all of the neighborhoods tested, soil lead levels fell by almost 50 percent to well below federal safety standards. At the same time, children's blood lead levels decreased more than 30 percent. 8 July 2010. More...
Bacteria living in human intestines can change arsenic's chemistry, in some cases producing a more toxic form that is linked to cancer.
This is the first report of arsenic becoming more harmful as it passes through the human digestive track. The results parallel those found in animal studies and suggest that regulators may need to take into account the way exposures occur when determining the health risks associated with arsenic. 30 June 2010. More...
Researchers have determined that exposure to low levels of mercury can encourage clotting of red blood cells, a dangerous condition called thrombosis that contributes to cardiovascular disease.
The research shows that red blood cells, when dying after exposure to mercury, release proteins that encourage blood cells and platelets to clot and clump together inside vessels. The increased clots can worsen existing cardiovascular disease and raise its risk in others. 23 June 2010. More...
The first study to look at chronic impacts of being a child around the Libby MT asbestos mine when it was still active find respiratory health effects in adulthood.
The chronic respiratory effects include coughing, shortness of breath and bloody phlegm. 4 June 2010. More...
PBDEs -- chemicals widely used to prevent fires in household products like furniture and electronics -- may contribute to fertility problems by lengthening the time it takes for a woman to get pregnant, according to a study of low-income, mostly Mexican-American women living in California.
The study is one of the first to examine if PBDEs can affect human fertility. Animal studies show that PBDEs can alter behavior, delay the onset of puberty and impact sex hormones and thyroid hormones. These, in turn, may influence ovulation, menstrual cycle regularity and fertility. 3 June 2010. More...
In the first study to examine the relationship between dioxin and likelihood of conception, researchers report that higher dioxin levels are associated with difficulty in conceiving and higher rates of infertility.
Having high levels of TCDD doubled a woman's chances of taking more than 12 months to conceive. The results come from long-term research on the effects of dioxin exposure caused by an explosion of a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, in 1976. 9 April 2010. More...
A new study suggests that hundreds of chemicals used commercially could persist and bioaccumulate, yet next to nothing is known about their actions and levels in the environment.
Predicting exposures and if and how chemicals may pose a health threat is incredibly difficult. Now, researchers propose a unique way to screen and identify chemicals that may need further evaluation and monitoring. 2 April 2010. More...
Babies born to women with higher levels of the herbicide metolachlor in their babies' umbilical cord blood weighed less than babies born to women with lower measured levels of the pesticide.
Metolachlor is a weed killer that is applied to soil to prevent the growth of weeds. It is widely used in agriculture and along roadsides. Metolachlor is frequently found in ground water due to agricultural runoff. 10 March 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...
New research reports that the enzymes in the roots of a poplar tree can alter the chemical structure of a common type of PCB pollutant, rendering it less harmful than the original chemical.
The results are a first step in determining if plants would be a valuable tool in cleaning up contaminated sites. 29 December 2009. More...
Ice core samples from Mount Everest that represent 800 years of atmospheric history contain much higher levels of certain metals in the last three decades than in the previous seven centuries.
Data from a recent study that examined the cores from the Himalayan Mountains are the first to show that levels of arsenic, molybdenum, tin and antimony in the ice samples have sharply increased during the last 30 years. Until recently, the levels had been relatively stable for centuries. 21 December 2009. More...
Eight years after a heavily contaminated military site in northern Canada was cleaned up, PCB levels in wildlife have plummeted.
The findings are the first to show that Arctic wildlife can recover from intense pollution if the contaminated sites in these very cold-weather regions are remediated. 11 December 2009. More...
Exposure to arsenic causes human stem cells to transform into cancer cells, report researchers who studied the cells in a laboratory.
People in certain regions of the world are exposed to high levels of arsenic through drinking water tainted by the naturally-occurring element. The results of this new study may explain why arsenic is associated with several human cancers, including prostrate cancer in men. 5 November 2009. More...
New research in Virginia reports that levels of hormones key for growth and controlling stress were skewed in tree swallow nestlings contaminated with mercury.
The study finds some of the highest mercury levels ever measured in wild songbird nestlings. The researchers point to the birds' insect food as the source of contamination. 10 September 2009. More...
Levels of antibiotics measured in streams, lakes and well water near pharmaceutical factories in India are 100,000 to 1,000,000 times higher than levels measured in waters that receive sewage effluent in the US or China.
Much of the world's supply of supply of generic antibiotics are produced in the study area. 9 September 2009. More...
A study of young children in India has found that higher blood lead levels are associated with a suite of behavioral and thinking problems that can alter attention, abstract thinking and appropriate behavior.
This study is one of the first to pinpoint specific childhood behaviors and cognitive skills affected by lead exposure, most notably anxiety, social problems and overall executive function (planning, problem solving, behavior control). The study found no "safe" level. 4 August 2009. More...
The herbicide atrazine lowers the production of androgen hormones in male rats by altering the genes responsible for making them.
This is the first study to show that atrazine directly affects the genes responsible for hormone production in testicular cells. 27 July 2009. More...
In a study of men and women 55 to 67 years old, higher lead levels were associated with poorer performance on tasks used to assess memory deficits.
Although other studies have found associations between lead exposure and cognitive deficits in older adults, this is the first study to link lead exposure with specific measures of memory impairment that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease. 26 June 2009. More...
Developmental exposure to PCBs can permanently damage hearing but co-exposure with methyl mercury reduces the effects.
The mercury doses were selected to achieve a ratio of PCBs to methyl mercury similar to that found in walleye caught by fisherman in Wisconsin, but the doses were higher than those typically encountered by people. 25 June 2009. More...
A new study adds to the growing literature suggesting that chemical exposure may affect male fertility.
Men exposed to higher levels of contaminants produced by burning a range of substances, including coal, oil, gas and wood had an increased risk of infertility, according to results from a study conducted in China. 29 May 2009. More...
Exposure to commonly used agricultural pesticides may increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, particularly among people who have certain gene types.
The degenerative nerve disease can develop when dopamine levels in the brain are lower than normal. Without pesticide exposures, susceptible gene variants alone were not sufficient to increase risk. The increased risk to Parkinson's required both susceptible genes and pesticide exposure. 14 May 2009. More...
Both long and short summer ice thaws in Arctic waters are associated with higher mercury levels in seals.
As global climate change progresses, and the sea ice melts for longer periods each year, the seals' mercury levels could consistently increase over time. Mercury levels are predicted to increase in fish as coal power plants continue to spew the metal. Mercury is a neurotoxin that has known effects on reproduction, behavior and immune responses. 5 May 2009. More...
Lead released from a woman's bones during pregnancy can affect her developing baby's DNA in ways that can alter gene expression and possibly increase the child's lifelong susceptibility to disease.
This is the first study to show that lead can influence genetic programming in human cells, and hence, gene expression, throughout life. 21 April 2009. More...
Dogs are more likely to develop cancer if they live near Naples, Italy in places where illegal waste disposal commonly occurs and people have a high rate of cancer deaths.
Other studies from the Naples region document high rates of people dying from cancer, especially in an area northeast of Naples called the “triangle of death." 20 April 2009. More...
Atlantic salmon exposed to short springtime bursts of acidic runoff water are less able to migrate to the ocean because of important changes in their ability to balance salt.
This is the first study to show that health effects occur in streams with only brief periods of acidification. The decline in water quality occurs when the salmon are at a critical period in their development and may contribute to the continued decline of this endangered species. 6 April 2009. More...
For the first time, scientists find that extremely low levels of some types of environmental estrogens disrupt specialized brain cells and their ability to regulate brain chemistry. All of the EEs tested changed the way cells released and reabsorbed dopamine, an important chemical messenger that governs movement and pleasure.
These changes may explain how EEs contribute to nervous system diseases, such as Parkinsons and schizophrenia, that are caused by abnormal dopamine responses. 3 March 2009. More...
A PCB mix altered reproductive hormones and organ growth in two generations of female rats that were never directly exposed to the chemicals themselves.
The abnormalities worsened in the granddaughters when compared to the daughters. The worst effects were seen at the mid -- not the highest or lowest -- level tested. Levels were within the range of human exposure. 27 February 2009. More...
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