Category Archives: Environment

Reproductive Damage to Polar Bears. Cause for concern?

Recent research has implicated a broad range of pollutants such as DDT, PBDE, chlordanes and others as causing reproductive organ shrinkage in polar bears (both male and female). This frightening piece or information comes from the esteemed journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Because polar bears have a high body fat content and many of these toxins reside in fat tissue, they are particularly susceptible to accumulating high levels of these ubiquitous chemicals. Wait a minute, look down a few articles and note how more humans are obese today than ever and you should see the implications to our species. While talking to an associate of mine, he thought my estimate of the life expectancy of the entire species of polar bears in the wild of 30 years was somewhat optimistic. If this is the case, what is the future of humankind?

Scary thought isn’t it?

PCB’s Impair Immune Response

According to a study published in PLoS Medicine (August 2006), PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyls) are being shown to cause immune response failures which correspond to a blocking response to vaccinations.

What researchers found was that 25% of the children in the Faroe Islands who were inoculated for tetanus had no protection from the vaccinations. This concurs with animal model studies which have shown general immune deficiencies being generated by the exposure to other organic pollutants like dioxin as well as PCB’s

We already know that these pollutants can cause cognitive damage to children but add this immunologic effect and you can see how our continued disregard for our environment spells nothing but disaster for human kind.

Phthalates and Skin Allergies – Heightened Response Found

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) a ubiquitous plasticizer has been found to enhance the allergic response to a common allergen, dust-mites. Since this chemical is found everywhere in our environment, those people who exhibit skin allergies should be made aware of this and access their levels of phthalates through the use of the US Biotek Environmental Pollutants Biomarker Test.

What was interesting in this report from the August issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, is how hormone mimicking chemicals, in this case phthalates, may be more toxic at lower doses than at higher ones. So the comment by industrial pollution apologists than low dose exposure is safe, may be as hollow as a tunnel.

The Pollution Within

Run don’t walk to your local newsstand and pickup the October 2006 copy of the esteemed magazine National Geographic especially if you’re interested in reading about a growing problem which I have lectured about around the world, environmental toxicity and health. Author David Ewing Duncan wrote a brilliant article about the staggering number of chemicals found in his own blood stream that will make your blood boil with anger and scare you to your core. While I don’t think that banning all chemicals and returning to cave life is the answer, we can’t continue to deny that these chemicals can harm to our health, especially infants and unborn fetuses.

What we need to do is to force companies to do safety studies on all of their chemicals to prove that their benefits outweigh the risks associated with low level exposure. Until then, we need to monitor our ability to excrete these chemicals using laboratory testing from such labs as US Biotek for solvents and other chemical pollutants or Doctor’s Data for heavy metals.

More bad news about perchlorates

Despite Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano saying that the Colorado River was safe and that the levels of perchlorates were ok, more data is out showing that even small quantities of this component of rocket fuel are harming the environment.

In the August 2006 issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, researchers found that the chemical masculinizes fish and causes lowered reproduction rates. While the doses used were far higher than EPA allowable amounts, they were still environmentally relevant as they were similar to contaminated sites around the U.S.

When are our government officials going to start protecting us and not protecting big business interests? Maybe when it’s too late.

Transgender Fish?

Trenbolone acetate, a synthetic anabolic steroid used in the cattle industry to “beef-up” livestock is being found in numerous streams.  The chemical when broken down is a testosterone like substance that is making female fish develop masculine-like traits.

What disturbs me is how these fish might be getting on to the dinner table of our children and into the blood stream of unborn fetuses. Folks, if you eat beef, eat organic and force the meat producers to give us real food not adulterated with fake hormones.

Garbage – What you don’t know about it

The latest issue of Discover magazine has a great one page article entitled “20 Things You Didn’t Know About Garbage”.  Here are the highlights:

 

1. The oldest trash site discovered was in South Africa and it was 140,000 years old.

3. Americans generate 472 billion pounds of trash a year.

4. That only represents 2% of the total trash stream, industrial refuse takes up the rest.

11. Landfills are the #1 man-made source of methane belching 7 million tons into the atmosphere each year.

17. American receive around 100 billion pieces of junk mail a year.

19. Marine researcher Charles Moore found 10 pounds of floating plastic in the North Pacific for every pound of living plankton.

The old term waste not want not kind of takes on a whole new meaning.

Pollution claims another victim

The Chinese river dolphin, also known as the baiji, may be just the latest victim of that countries growing pollution problem. Once numbering in the thousands in the Yangtze River, there were thought to be only 100 surviving until a recent 9-day search couldn’t find a single one.  The baiji is now a symbol for the pollution of the waterways of China just as the giant panda is a symbol of the destruction of the forests of that great country.

How many more species dying will it take for us to understand.

A Guide to Making Intelligent Choices Regarding Our Environment

So which is worse, using synthetic “peanuts” to ship or shredded newspaper?  In the book “The Consumers Guide to Effective Environmental Choices” from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Drs. Brower and Leon give you easy to apply tips on how to lower your impact on the environment. Instead of suggesting that we go back to living in caves, the authors focus on which things make the most impact on the environment and how the decisions we make on the major things are vastly more important than small ones.

The answer to the question?  Actually, there really isn’t much of a difference. While the synthetic peanuts are slightly more toxic than the newspaper, their weight difference means lower fuel costs in transportation of products so its a wash.

 

The Consumer\'s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists