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suwhitte

Environmental Health Perspectives - 0 views

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    Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) is a monthly journal of peer-reviewed research and news published by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. EHP's mission is to serve as a forum for the discussion of the interrelationships between the environment and human health by publishing in a balanced and objective manner the best peer-reviewed research and most current and credible news of the field. With an impact factor of 6.12, EHP is the top monthly journal in public, environmental, and occupational health and the second-ranked monthly journal in environmental sciences. The environmental health sciences include many fields of study and increasingly comprise a multidisciplinary research area. EHP publishes articles from a wide range of scientific disciplines encompassing basic research; epidemiologic studies; risk assessment; relevant ethical, legal, social, environmental justice, and policy topics; longitudinal human studies; in vitro and in vivo animal research with a clear relationship to human health; and environmental medicine case reports. Because children are uniquely sensitive to their environments, EHP devotes a research section specifically to issues surrounding children's environmental health. Search current issue and archives for journal articles related to your topic.
Liz Richardson

Environmental Signaling: What Embryos and Evolution Teach Us About Endocrine Disrupting... - 0 views

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    An overview of many endocrine disrupting chemicals, useful to anyone looking into the effects of environmental chemicals on organisms. Reference made to a book titled "Hormonal Chaos", by Sheldon Krimsky, describing how industrial and agricultural chemicals contact organisms and disrupt hormone function. Specifics on effects of environmental estrogens and fetal development.
suwhitte

Environmental Agents: Endocrine Disruptors - 0 views

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    site maintained by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Vanessa Ward

Maternal levels of dichlorodiphenyl-dichloroethylene (DDE) may increase weight and body... - 0 views

  • Objectives: To investigate the effect of prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyl-dichloroethylene (DDE) on weight, height and body mass index (BMI) in adult female offspring of the Michigan fisheater cohort examined between 1973 and 1991
  • Maternal height and BMI were significant predictors of the daughters’ height, weight and BMI.
  • The weight and BMI of adult offspring were statistically significantly associated with the extrapolated prenatal DDE levels of their mothers.
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  • ncreasingly, however, prenatal exposure to toxicants is suspected of contributing to obesity.
  • Previous studies have shown that Michigan anglers and fisheaters have higher serum levels of PCBs and DDE than population controls.
  • A total of 176 (82.6%) daughters participated in at least one of two repeated investigations
  • Our results suggest that higher prenatal exposure to DDE, but not to PCBs, is statistically significantly associated with increased weight and BMI in adult female offspring.
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    Liz, this article was already in my library and you might want to look at it. I feel as though the study isn't completely controlled since it deals with people who chose to participate in the study over the course of many years but there are some concepts that can be gathered that may be beneficial to you.
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    This is another epidemiological study similar to the study present by Suphada on sport fish consumption. There were many outside variables, leading to only a small sample size that could be used.
Vanessa Ward

PLoS Biology: The Toxic Origins of Disease - 0 views

  • During embryonic development, steroid hormones like estrogen control gene-expression programs to coordinate cell differentiation, growth, organogenesis, and metabolism.
  • “The moment we published something on bisphenol A, the chemical industry went out and hired a number of corporate laboratories to replicate our research. What was stunning about what they did . . . was they hired people who had no idea how to do the work.”
  • “whole-animal toxicological studies,” which look at different endpoints than the more mechanistic studies do, Hughes says. “That doesn't let you look at changes in gene expression, changes in epigenetic control of gene expression.
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  • “I can tell you simply by the size of the animal which is DES-exposed and which isn't.”
  • “We found out that brain is a target, bone is a target . . . and now the new target is adipocytes.”
  • When he removed all the soy-derived plant estrogens from the mother's diet, he was astonished to see endogenous estradiol levels in the fetus rise, and the offspring become “horrifically obese.
  • Adding the weak plant estrogens back in the diet suppressed the far more potent endogenous estradiol, he discovered, by inhibiting an enzyme required to make it.
  • Recent evidence suggests that a class of ubiquitous environmental pollutants called organotins can also stimulate adipogenesis and interfere with energy balance
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    This was one of the first articles that I looked in depth at and pretty much read all of. It presents some of the original research done on the effects Bisphenol-A on reproductive development and mammary gland formamation and how in the process led to a noticeable pattern between exposure and weight gain. The study of obesogens is a new field that was in a way accidentally discovered. It has been hypothesized that estrogen causes embryonic cells to develop into fat cells through a process called adipogenesis by chemicals called organotins. New research to support this is addressed in this article.
Vanessa Ward

2010 March « Our Health and Environment Blog - 0 views

  • n addition to these issues, the prestigious international Endocrine Society published a seminal report last year stating that, “scientific research implies the impact of environmental substances in the generative roots of obesity.”
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    This is a letter addressing the "obesogen theory" and how the government could play a role in the prevention of obesity through the implementation of beter food regulations. I thought it was interesting to see a current letter addressing my topic and maybe it's a type source other people can look for that they may not have initially thought of.
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    A link in this article led me to another useful source. I didn't know that the White House was involved with this and that obesogens were brought to their attention until I read this letter. Bruce Blumberg signed the letter and since many of my sources are about his studies I thought it was neat how this letter tied together some of my research.
Vanessa Ward

Epigenetics, Evolution, Endocrine Disruption, Health, and Disease -- Crews and McLachla... - 1 views

  • Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment have been linked to human health and disease. This is particularly evident in compounds that mimic the effects of estrogens.
  • information recently uncovered, regarding mechanisms of endocrine and environmental signaling, to explore the role of the environment in health and disease.
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    This a good article that gives a general overview of EDC's and the role they play in the compromise of physical and mental health. One particularly interesting thing is how a discussion of EDC's and evolution is presented.
suwhitte

Gordon Research Conferences - 2010 Program (Environmental Endocrine Disruptors) - 0 views

shared by suwhitte on 20 May 10 - Cached
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    At this upcoming conference and past conferences (see conference history), top scientists, studying endocrine disruption effects on humans and wildlife, meet to share the latest findings. Look over the program for topics and scientists - may be useful in identifying a topic for your project. I have attended two of these conferences and they were excellent and very current.
suwhitte

Environmental Contaminants Program Home Page, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - 2 views

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    Effects of EEDs on wildlife. Website maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Sevice. Also describes the Smart Disposal program.
Vanessa Ward

Endocrine Disruptors and the Obesity Epidemic -- Heindel 76 (2): 247 -- Toxicological S... - 1 views

  • "We are faced with the seeming paradox of increased adiposity at both ends of the birth weight spectrum—higher BMI with higher birth weight and increased central obesity with lower birth weight" (Oken and Gillman, 2003). Thus prevention of childhood and adult obesity must start in utero.
  • Indeed, many synthetic chemicals are actually used to increase weight in animals.
  • This article provides fascinating examples of chemicals that have been tested for toxicity by standard tests that resulted in weight gain in the animals at lower doses than those that caused any obvious toxicity.
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  • Chemicals having endocrine-disrupting activity rise to the top of the list as most act via receptors linked to activation of transcriptional activity.
  • In the adult, loss of circulating estrogen due to ovariectomy leads to increased body and adipose tissue weights. Estrogen receptor alpha knockout mice have a significantly increased body fat content, and estrogen decreases the activity of lipoprotein lipase
  • estrogenic endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A at concentrations as low as 2 µg/ml, in the presence of insulin, stimulated differentiation of the 3T3L1 cells into adipocytes
  • he fact that an environmental chemical has the potential to stimulate growth of "preadipocytes" has enormous implications for the area of obesity and its control.
  • Differentiation could be inhibited and more potential fat cells could be formed, as seems to be the case with NP, or differentiation could be stimulated, as appears to be the case with BPA
  • Will these results extrapolate to the in vivo situation in rodents and other animal models?
  • Only time and more research will tell, but the door has been opened by the novel work being highlighted.
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    An article discussing how the area of research of obesity as a result of endocrine disrupting chemical exposure could be a beneficial area for intervention and prevention studies of obesity. This was one of the first articles I found directly addressing how endocrine disrupting chemical exposure can lead to a predisposition to obesity
Anna McLean

Reproductive Toxins and Alligator Abnormalities at Lake Apopka, Florida - 0 views

  • it has been shown that many of the environmental chemicals found in alligator plasma or eggs bind the alligator estrogen and/or progesterone receptors in vitro
  • Guillette et al. ( 1 ) suggested that the reproductive failure at Lake Apopka could have been related to general agricultural pollution and to a spill from a nearby pesticide manufacturing facility. From 1957 to 1981, the facility (Tower Chemical Co.) manufactured and stored both chlorinated and organophosphate insecticides as well as a copper-salt-based fungicide at a site 1.5 miles from Lake Apopka. Wastewater from the manufacturing process was discharged into an unlined pond, and chemicals were burned or buried on site. During a heavy rain in 1980, the percolation pond overflowed and acidic wastewater discharged into a marsh that drains into Lake Apopka. DDT and other chemicals contaminated the lake during this extensive spill.
  • ecause of the endocrine-disruptive potential of DDT's degradation products DDE and DDD, they have been the prime suspects in the reproductive abnormalities of the alligators
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  • The route of exposure for the alligators living in this environment might have occurred through both oral and dermal exposure
  • he testicular abnormalities in alligators from Lake Apopka are similar to those in pesticide workers exposed to DBCP in that the seminiferous tubules are the affected target tissues.
    • Anna McLean
       
      Similar abnormalities act as evidence for the negative effects of DBCP. Evidence such as this help to support the cause, and disable individuals from referring to the alligators' issues as coincidence. Or that they have nothing to do with chemical spills, pesticides, and other pollutants.
  • given the levels found in the remaining pond, it is almost certain that DBCP entered Lake Apopka during the 1980 spill.
  • The findings discussed above indicate a complex exposure scenario in which the etiology of the reproductive failure cannot be reconstructed with certainty due to the historic nature of the event
    • Anna McLean
       
      Emphasizes the difficultly scientists have in proving the causes of the observed problems in many species, such as the Lake Apopka alligators.
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