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Researcher Shows Chemicals Alter Male Reproductive System

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

(Beyond Pesticides, February 19, 2008) Common household chemicals and widespread pollutants are changing male reproductive health and impacting sexual function, development and cancer rates of today’s generations and possibly their offspring, according to more than 15 years of research by a Colorado State University expert. For example, one study looking at sperm counts globally from 1940, when chemicals first began to be widely produced, to the 1990s, indicates a 1.15 percent per year decline in sperm counts. These declines may be linked to chemical exposure.Rao Veeramachaneni, BVSc, MScVet, PhD, a biomedical sciences professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has found that chemicals including pesticides, common pollutants in ground water, and chemicals in plastics, make-up and nail polish are on a growing list of culprits causing developmental abnormalities such as impaired sperm quality and impotence. Reproductive health can be compromised if males are exposed at various times in life spanning from in utero up to adulthood.Dr. Veeramachaneni’s findings span the globe and are across species lines, from humans to horses, wildlife to frogs. His research, coupled with the collective findings of other experts in the field, indicates a strong link related to pollutants, and incidence of such […]

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Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: National Pesticide Forum Update

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, December 11, 2007) Arturo Rodriguez (UFW President), Devra Davis, Ph.D. (author and University of Pittsburgh professor of epidemiology) and Tyrone Hayes, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology) will be speaking at the 2008 National Pesticide Forum. The conference, Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political change to protect the next generation, will be held March 14-16, 2008 at the University of California, Berkeley. A native of Texas, Arturo S. Rodriguez has worked tirelessly to continue the legacy of Cesar Chavez since taking over the helm of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) upon the death of its legendary founder in 1993. Beyond winning fair contracts for its workers, the UFW continues to work to protect farmworkers from pesticides and other workplace hazards. Recent union victories are agreements with Gallo Vineyards Inc. and Coastal Berry Co., the largest winery and the largest strawberry employer in the U.S., as well as pacts protecting winery workers in Washington and mushroom workers in Florida. Devra Davis, Ph.D., a renowned environmental health expert, is professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Davis was designated a National Book Award Finalist for her book, When Smoke Ran Like […]

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New Research Indicates CDC Underestimates Atrazine Exposure

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, November 28, 2007) Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have determined that previous studies that assessed population-based exposure to atrazine were significantly and systematically underestimated. The CDC relies on the detection and analysis of only one of the twelve identified metabolites of atrazine measured in human urine samples to estimate exposure. However, after looking at multiple metabolites, researchers found that previous assessments missed most of the exposure. Atrazine mercapturate (AM), a metabolite of atrazine, was used as definitive evidence of direct atrazine exposure. General population data indicated that less than 5% of the population was exposed to atrazine-related chemicals. However, researchers at the CDC found that this research, which relied on AM detection, gives a low and misleading estimate of exposure to atrazine and atrazine- related metabolites. Published in Environmental Health and Perspectives and entitled “Assessing Exposure to Atrazine and Its Metabolites Using Biomonitoring”, the small-scale study involving 24 individuals measured nine atrazine-related metabolites in urine. The sample was organized with respect to how likely the individuals were to be exposed to atrazine: (1) high exposure (turf pesticide applicators), (2) low exposure (non-occupationally exposed people in whom atrazine mercapturate was found during a prior study) and […]

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Bt Corn Could Hurt Aquatic Ecosystems

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, October 16, 2007) Corn, genetically engineered (GE) to tolerate the pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), has been found to harm non-target aquatic insects and disrupt the connected food web. A new study by researchers at Indiana University, funded by the National Science Foundation and published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, suggests that the crop, which has been licensed for use since 1996, poses an unforseen risk to aquatic ecosystems. According to the study, roughly 35 percent of American corn acreage is Bt corn. Pollen and other parts of the plants are travelling much farther than the fields in which they are planted, carrying Bt toxins through watersheds and being consumed by close relatives of the corn’s targeted pests. Caddisflies experience high mortality and stunted growth as a result of exposure. As researcher Todd V. Royer observed, they “are a food resource for higher organisms like amphibians and fish. And, if our goal is to have healthy, functioning ecosystems, we need to protect all the parts. Water resources are something we depend on greatly.” This effect went unnoticed for ten years because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in its registration trials, tested Bt on a crustacean, rather […]

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Atrazine Contaminating Midwest Drinking Water

Friday, September 14th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, September 14, 2007) Data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) between 2003 and 2006 has found atrazine to exist in Midwest drinking water supplies at high levels. The federal monitoring data, obtained by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), shows increased atrazine levels in 94 of 136 water systems tested in Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Atrazine, which has been linked to cancer in numerous studies, is a common agricultural herbicide that could see increased use as demand for corn rises due to ethanol production. In 2003, EPA called it “the most heavily used herbicide in the United States.” According to NRDC’s report, EPA’s study found that nearly all 40 monitored watersheds showed levels of atrazine at levels that harm aquatic animals and habitat. Atrazine’s effect on amphibians has been well documented, and similarly serious health effects have been found in larger mammals. Chronically contaminated drinking water puts humans at the risk of exposure to similar long-term health effects. In agricultural areas of the midwest, the risk is especially high. “Kentucky’s waterways are particularly vulnerable to contamination,” said a Western Kentucky University report. “Networks of sinkholes and underground streams allow water and contaminants to flow […]

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USGS Finds Common Breakdown Products Are Lethal to Amphibians

Friday, June 1st, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, June 4, 2007) The breakdown products (oxons) of the three most commonly used organophosphate pesticides in California’s agricultural Central Valley — chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon – are 10 – 100 times more toxic to amphibians than their parent compounds, which are already highly toxic to amphibians, according to a study released last Wednesday by scientists of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Western Ecological Research Center. The results of the laboratory experiments on the toxicity of the three breakdown products were published in the journal Environmental Pollution. The title of the article is “Comparative toxicity of chlorpyrifos, diazinon, malathion and their oxon derivatives to larval Rana boylii.” “Since some of the parent pesticide compounds are already at concentrations sufficient to cause significant amphibian mortality in the Sierra Nevada, the higher toxicity of the breakdown products poses a serious problem,” said Gary Fellers, Ph.D., coauthor of the study. Donald Sparling, Ph.D., a research biologist and contaminants specialist at Southern Illinois University, and Dr. Fellers, a research biologist and amphibian specialist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center in California, conducted laboratory tests to determine the acute toxicity – the lethal dosage causing death in 96 […]

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EPA Sued Over Pesticides Harmful to 11 Bay Area Endangered Species

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, May 30, 2007) The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA). EPA has registered and allowed the use of 60 toxic pesticides in habitats for nearly a dozen San Francisco Bay Area endangered species without determining whether the chemicals jeopardize their existence. “Ending the use of known poisons in habitat for our most endangered wildlife is an appropriate 100th birthday tribute to Rachel Carson, who alerted us to the hazards of exposure to toxic chemicals almost half a century ago,” said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center. “Unfortunately the EPA has not learned from her legacy and still has no plan to adequately assess impacts while registering and approving pesticide uses that pose a clear and present danger both to imperiled species and human health.” At least 61 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients were applied in Bay Area counties from 1999 through 2005 ”” over 8.5 million pounds annually. Actual pesticide use may have been several times this amount since most home and commercial pesticide use is not reported to the state. Under the Bush administration, EPA has consistently failed to […]

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More Evidence Links Endocrine Disruptors to Frog Sex Changes

Friday, March 9th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, March 9, 2007) New research shows that frogs are more sensitive to hormone-disturbing environmental pollutants than was previously thought. Male tadpoles that swim in water with environmentally relevant levels of such substances become females, according to the study that will be published in the scientific journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (ET&C) in May (See University Press Release). The results may shed light on at least one reason that up to a third of frog species around the world are threatened with extinction, suggests the study. In a laboratory experiment by researchers in Sweden, two species of frogs, the European common frog (Rana temporaria) and the African clawed frog (Xenopus tropicalis), were exposed to levels of oestrogen (estrogen or chemicals mimicking the effect of estrogen) similar to those detected in natural bodies of water in Europe, the United States and Canada.The results were startling: whereas the percentage of females in two control groups was under 50 percent – not unusual among frogs – the sex ratio in the groups of tadpoles who matured in water dosed with different levels of oestrogen were significantly skewed. Even tadpoles exposed to the weakest concentration of the hormone were, in one of the […]

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Research Shows Pesticide Accumulation at High Altitudes

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

(Beyond Pesticides, January 18, 2007) A new study conducted in Costa Rica’s mountain forests indicates that surprisingly high concentrations of pesticides are accumulating far above the low altitudes at which they are used. Previously thought to be safe from pesticides applied to distant agricultural areas, some remote mountain forests of Costa Rica were found to have pesticide levels almost ten times greater than those in low-lying areas closer to farms and plantations. The study, led by University of Toronto, Scarborough professor Frank Wania, Ph.D., measured air and soil pesticide levels at 23 sites across Costa Rica in order to produce a model to predict potential accumulation of chemicals at high altitudes. The insecticide endosulfan and the fungicide chlorothalonil were found in the largest concentrations, with up to 1 part per billion (ppb) of chlorothalonil and 3 ppb endosulfan in soil. The high concentrations can be explained by a process in which polluted air above the farms and plantations is pushed up into the mountains, where it then cools and becomes polluted rainwater or fog. The hydrophilic nature of modern pesticides makes the occurrence of this phenomenon much more likely; as Crispin Halsall, Ph.D., of Lancaster University (U.K.) explains, “Most currently […]

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