- CHE Partnership Call - October 11
- Resources from September CHE Partnership Call
- Working and Regional Group Updates
- Tools, Announcements and Resources for CHE Partners
- CHE Science News Headlines
- New CHE Partners
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Dear CHE Partners and Friends:
So many things are happening in our extended CHE community -- in 48 United States and 45 countries -- that it is always hard to know what to highlight in these brief introductory words.
A major new report on EMF (electromagnetic fields), the BioInitiative Report, has been produced and published by David Carpenter and Cindy Sage. Lou Slesin, editor of the authoritative Microwave News website, greeted it this way:
[August 29... An international group of researchers has thrown down the gauntlet. The BioInitiative Working Group is challenging the EMF power structure to set much stricter exposure standards for power lines, cell phones, cell towers and other sources of electromagnetic radiation.
"'Business as usual' is unacceptable," says David Carpenter, the director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at New York's University of Albany, on releasing the working group's extensive report. Its general conclusion is that there are many biological effects at levels that are well below current standards and that the "existing safety limits are inadequate to protect public health." Carpenter and Cindy Sage, a consultant based in Santa Barbara, CA, coordinated the BioInitiative group and edited the report.
Among the group's key recommendations are:
• a 1mG limit for homes where children and/or pregnant women live;
• a "precautionary limit" of 0.1µW/cm² (0.6V/m) for RF exposures where "people live, work and go to school."
These proposed levels are on the order of 1,000 times more stringent than current limits adopted by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) and the IEEE's ICES (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety).
In addition to Carpenter and Sage, the contributors to the report are: Carl Blackman, Martin Blank, Guangdi Chen, Zoreh Davanipour, David Gee, Lennart Hardell, Olle Johansson, Michael Kundi, Henry Lai, Kjell Hansson Mild, Gene Sobel and Zhengping Xu. All 21 sections of the report are available as free downloads from the BioInitiative website.
Will those responsible for developing EMF policies on both the international and national levels now review the BioInitiative's findings and engage in a dialogue over what the appropriate exposure limits should be? Or will they simply ignore them and continue with business as usual? We think we know the answer, but we're ready to be surprised.]
We are planning a CHE Partnership Call on the BioInitiative Report. If you want to track developments in this vital field of environmental public health, join the CHE EMF Working Group.
Thanks for your involvement with CHE. If you would like to see other colleagues benefit from the CHE Network and receive environmental health science with a commitment to civility in our dialogues, please invite them to join CHE.
Michael Lerner
Founding Partner
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1. CHE Partnership Call - October 11
Join us on Thursday, October 11 at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern for a discussion about the health risks, medical applications and policy issues associated with nanotechnology. This call is co-sponsored by Health Care Without Harm.
Featured Presenters:
- Dr. John Balbus, Director of Health Programs, Environmental Defense
- Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director, International Center for Technology Assessment
- Ian Illuminato, Health and Environment Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
The moderator of this call will be
Steve Heilig, MPH, Director of Public Health & Education, San Francisco Medical Society and Collaborative on Health and the Environment. We will hear a science update from
Jennifer Sass, PhD, Senior Scientist, Health and Environment, Natural Resources Defense Council.
RSVP and receive dial-in information for this call.
For more information about CHE Partnership calls, visit:
http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/partnership_calls/.
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2. Resources from the September CHE Partnership Call
Resources and an MP3 recording from the September 11 CHE Partnership Call with Dr. Philippe Grandjean -- Developmental Exposure and Human Health: the Faroe Islands Consensus Statement -- is now available at: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/articles/partnership_calls/1903.
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3. Working and Regional Group Updates
CHE Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group (CHE Fertility) ~ coordinated by Julia Varshavsky, CHE Program Associate (Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org)
CHE Fertility Scientist Registry: The CHE Fertility Scientist Registry is a database of scientists and/or clinicians who are knowledgeable about environmental reproductive health science and have volunteered to make themselves available as resources to communities, patient groups, and others. The purpose of the registry is to provide groups who have few scientific resources with accurate and understandable information about environmental reproductive health science.
The registry works as a personal referral service through the CHE Fertility coordinator and will connect community and patient group representatives, and others, with registry scientists and clinicians who have the appropriate expertise. Requests can be anything from consulting on a specific region or issue, translating specific or general science, or giving community talks on reproductive health and environment issues. Please note that although all requests will be fully pursued, CHE Fertility cannot guarantee that the appropriate expertise will be found.
To make a request for referral, please contact Julia Varshavsky at: Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org. Please be as specific about the information you are looking for as possible. For those who would like more information about, or who are interested in being added to the registry as a resource, please also email: Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org. Volunteer scientists and health professionals may participate at any level and are contacted in a responsible and screened fashion. Participants may always decline a request.
CHE Fertility Research Exchange Listserv: The CHE Fertility Research Exchange Listserv is intended to facilitate the collaboration of scientists in the environmental reproductive health field by creating a forum for researchers to share tissue banks, surplus study samples, data sets, and other research tools used in human and animal studies.
Participants may use the listserv to post information about a range of surplus research materials they are in possession of, in addition to materials they are in need of. Not only a forum for information exchange, the listerv may also be used for discussion about the challenges and obstacles involved with research collaboration as well as opportunities for future improvement.
By hosting this forum, CHE does not assume responsibility for having knowledge of or providing information about any restrictions pertaining to HIPAA laws, IRB guidelines, and/or other regulations related to research samples. This responsibility lies solely with listserv participants. In order to join this listserv, participants will be required to indicate that they agree to these terms. Listserv participants must also be CHE Partners. To join this listserv, please email Julia Varshavsky at Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org.
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CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) Working Group ~ coordinated by Elise Miller, MEd, Executive Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health (emiller@iceh.org)
Fall Teleconference Series: This seven-part teleconference series, "Priming for Prevention," is to be launched Wednesday, September 12 at 2pm Eastern. The speaker panels for each call are based on the agenda designed for the conference, "Priming for Prevention: An Ecological Approach to Research, Education and Policy," that was to be held at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, in May 2007. For details on the agenda and how to join these calls, please see: http://www.iceh.org/LDDImeetings.html or contact Elise Miller, at: emiller@iceh.org.
LDDI Consensus Statement: LDDI plans to finalize a scientific consensus statement on environmental contributors to developmental disorders and policy implications by mid-October. LDDI member Steve Gilbert, PhD, founder and director of the Institute for Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders, is the lead writer for the statement and is working with key scientists in the field to draft this document.
LDDI Strategic Planning Meeting: LDDI will host a meeting on November 11 from 10am-1pm in San Antonio, TX in conjunction with the 24th International Neurotoxicology Conference entitled, "Environmental Etiologies of Neurological Disorders." For more details, please see: http://www.neurotoxicology.com/conf2007/conference.htm. All are welcome.
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Collaborative on Health and the Environment Washington (CHE-WA) ~ coordinated by Aimee Boulanger, Program Director, Institute for Children's Environmental Health (aboulanger@iceh.org)
CHE-WA Quarterly Meetings: The next quarterly meeting will be held Friday, September 14 at 10am at Antioch University in Seattle. We are honored to host Michael Lerner, PhD, founder and president of Commonweal and co-founder of CHE National, as our guest speaker.
CHE-WA Working Groups Updates:
- Precautionary Principle Working Group, led by Tracee Mayfield with Public Health - Seattle/King County, learned that the Letter of Inquiry this group submitted to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in regards to developing a "Primary Prevention Toolkit" which would integrate the precautionary principle into local health promotion strategies was turned down. Regardless, the group is beginning to implement some actions prioritized in the proposal and continues to look for additional funding;
- Climate Change and Health Working Group members, led by Roger Rosenblatt, MD, MPH, MFR with the University of Washington Medical School, have been following-up on Governor Gregoire's Climate Change Initiative and the Climate Impacts Group at University of Washington (funded by House Bill 1303). Members have also developed a "Climate Change and Health" fact sheet which will be posted shortly on the CHE-WA we site; and
- Environmental Justice Working Group members welcomed two new co-directors to one of Seattle's leading environmental justice organizations, the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, which also held an outstanding annual conference in August. Members continue to review the database of organizations and agencies that work on environmental justice issues across WA developed by Millie Piazza with the Department of Ecology.
New Searchable Calendar on Environmental Health Trainings and Events: To better meet the needs of CHE-WA members, the Institute for Children's Environmental Health's Special Projects Coordinator, Nancy Snow, MSc, has developed a searchable calendar of environmental health events in the Pacific Northwest on the CHE-WA website. We also plan to add a clearinghouse of existing presentations, curricula and other training materials available for use by CHE-WA members and to improve environmental health training services in Washington State.
CHE-WA Steering Committee Meeting: The CHE-WA Steering Committee decided that the next quarterly CHE-WA meeting (after September 14) will be in early December at Antioch University in Seattle and will focus on opportunities in the 2008 Washington State legislature to forward environmental health protection. The Steering Committee also reviewed how CHE-WA can continue to engage more health affected groups and ways to reach a wider geography across the state, particularly in more rural communities with fewer resources on environmental health.
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4. Tools, Announcements and Resources for CHE Partners
Health & Environment Alliance Conference on Climate Change and Health - October 2
The Health & Environment Alliance is holding a conference entitled "Climate Change and the Challenges for Public Health - Priorities for EU Action" on October 2 in Brussels. The event, co-organized with the European Public Health Alliance, will address important issues for health and medical communities in the EU, as well as provide more substantial expert and civil society input into the European Commission consultations on climate change and health. For more information on the conference and EU developments, please contact the HEAL Secretariat at: info@env-health.org.
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Health & Environment Alliance Listserv on Climate Change and Health
The Health & Environment Alliance has launched a new specialized listserv on "Climate Change and Health." For more information please visit: http://www.env-health.org/a/2599. If you would like to join this listserv, please contact the HEAL Secretariat at: info@env-health.org and include your name, organization and email address.
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5th Annual Conference on Children's Health and the Environment - October 6
The conference is organized by the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PESHU) of Region 3; the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment (MACCHE). MACCHE is a joint effort between the George Washington University Medical Center and the Children's National Medical Center. The conference is targeted to health care providers, public health professionals and the interested public. For more information and registration, visit: http://www.gwu.edu/~macche/restonconference07/.
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Pangea 2007 - A conference for the Future of Pediatric Wellness
Sponsored by the Integrative Pediatrics Council and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the UCSF Department of Pediatrics and the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, the Pangea 2007 conference provides a forum for presentation and intentional dialog about leading topics in pediatric integrative medicine. The two-day program will be held this year in San Francisco, CA on October 25 and 26. Topics include environmental health, neurodevelopmental disorders, atopic conditions, and vaccines. For more information and to register, go to: http://www.pangeaconference.com/.
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Declaration on the Principles for Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials Oversight
An international coalition of consumer, public health, environmental, and labour organizations concerned with various aspects of nanotechnology has submitted a Declaration on the Principles for Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials Oversight. In recent years hundreds of products manufactured using nanomaterials have become available, such as cosmetics, sunscreens, sporting goods, clothing, electronics, baby and infant products, and food and food packaging, despite a lack of information of the environment and health risks posed by this new technology. To address this lack of knowledge, the coalition's Declaration, to which the Health & Environment Alliance is a signatory, outlines eight fundamental principles necessary for the effective oversight of the new technology and its products. Read more at: http://www.env-health.org/a/2618.
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5. CHE Science News Headlines
Most of these articles have been gleaned from Above the Fold.
Environmental Exposures and Gene Regulation in Disease Etiology
Environmental Health Perspectives, TM Edwards and JP Myers, September 2007
Health or disease is shaped for all individuals by interactions between their genes and environment. Exactly how the environment changes gene expression and how this can lead to disease are being explored in a fruitful new approach to environmental health research, representative studies of which are reviewed here. Continue reading...
The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know
New report from the Breast Cancer Fund, written by Sandra Steingraber
Girls get their first periods today, on average, a few months earlier than did girls 40 years ago, but they get their breasts one to two years earlier. Over the course of a few decades, the childhoods of U.S. girls have been significantly shortened. Continue reading...
Packing on the Compounds
San Diego Union-Tribune, Richard Lovett, 7 September 2007
Obesity is generally thought of as an individual problem - an offshoot of the couch-potato syndrome, in which people eat too much while exercising too little. But now scientists are asking about the ways that exposure to low levels of contaminants may predispose people to obesity. Continue reading...
Health Impacts of Estrogens in the Environment, Considering Complex Mixture Effects
Environmental Health News, Synopsis by Dr. Ed Orlando and Wendy Hessler, 5 September 2007
New experiments reveal that the synthetic estrogen used by women for birth control causes wide ranging health effects in minnows, but that the effects differed when the drug was tested alone compared with when it was mixed with wastewater effluent. The estrogen caused feminization of male fish, and altered DNA integrity, immune cell number, and ability to breakdown pollutants. The study highlights the need for more research on the potential health effects of exposure to complex mixtures. Continue reading...
Small-Town Battle in Fort Worth Court
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Max B. Baker, 2 September 2007
Some people in Somerville, Texas, are convinced that the chemicals used by a plant in town to treat railroad ties made them sick. They are suing the railroad for not doing enough to protect them from the health risks. Continue reading...
Toxic Cocktail
New Scientist, Bijal Trivedi, 1 September 2007
Today, and every day, you can expect to be exposed to some 75,000 artificial chemicals. All day long you will be breathing them in, absorbing them through your skin and swallowing them in your food. Throughout the night they will seep out of carpets, pillows and curtains, and drift into your lungs. Living in this chemical soup is an inescapable side effect of 21st-century living. The question is: is it doing us any harm? There are good reasons to think that it might be. Not because of the action of any one chemical but because of the way the effects of different components combine once they are inside the body. As evidence stacks up that this "cocktail effect" is real, regulators around the world are rethinking the way we measure the effects of synthetic mixtures on health. Continue reading (subscription required)...
BioInitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)
31 August 2007
An international working group of scientists, researchers and public health policy professionals (The BioInitiative Working Group) has released its report on electromagnetic fields (EMF) and health. They document serious scientific concerns about current limits regulating how much EMF is allowable from power lines, cell phones, and many other sources of EMF exposure in daily life. The report concludes the existing standards for public safety are inadequate to protect public health. Continue reading...
World Facing 'Arsenic Timebomb'
BBC, United Kingdom, Richard Black, 30 August 2007
About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers believe. Continue reading...
EPA, Industry Score Low on Toxics Test
Environmental Science & Technology, Janet Pelley, 29 August 2007
The chemical industry deserves a "D" for not providing the U.S. EPA with data it promised years ago, a new report card from an advocacy group finds. It is adding fuel to calls to overhaul U.S. chemicals management laws. Continue reading...
DDT's Resurrection
Environmental Science & Technology, Naomi Lubick, 29 August 2007
One year after WHO recommended the use of DDT in developing countries to prevent the spread of malaria, the debate over its safety continues. Continue reading...
California Study Draws Possible Link Between Pesticides, Autism
North County Times, Associated Press, 18 August 2007
Two older-generation pesticides used on cotton and some other crops may be linked to autism, according to a preliminary state study. The rate of autism among the children of 29 women who lived near fields sprayed with organochlorine pesticides was so high that researchers concluded it may have been caused by exposure in the womb. Continue reading...
The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products
AlterNet, Vanja Petrovic, 15 August 2007
Investigative journalist Mark Schapiro discusses why companies that manufacture hazard-free products for the European Union often produce toxin-filled versions of the same items for America and developing countries. Continue reading...
Hospitals Move To Phase Out Chemical
USA Today, Liz Szabo, 14 August 2007
A growing number of hospitals are trying to protect newborns from a newly recognized threat - chemicals in the medical equipment that provides them with lifesaving blood, medicine or nutrition. Continue reading...
Under Suspicion
The Boston Globe, Carey Goldberg, 13 August 2007
Researchers now believe that autism can be caused by genes in combination with environmental triggers. The question is, what are those triggers? Continue reading...
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6. New CHE Partners
We welcome the many new CHE Partners who have joined since the last newsletter. To see the New CHE Partners and the growing list of all CHE Partners, please visit: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/base/partners-recent.
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Thank you for taking the time to read the latest about CHE. As always, we welcome your feedback, suggestions or questions. Please direct them to Eleni Sotos, CHE Program Director, at: Eleni@HealthandEnvironment.org.
Best wishes,
Eleni Sotos, MA, Program Director
and
Frieda Nixdorf, MA, Administrative Specialist
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