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The Ugly Side of Beauty, Some Cosmetics Can Be Toxic

Marylynn Uricchio
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:53 UTC
Image
© unknown
It didn't get much attention nationally, just a few paragraphs in papers such as the Kennebec Journal and a segment on the local news.

But the quiet protest by a group of high school and college students in Waterville, Maine, in February was one of a growing number across the country. They gathered at the post office to mail 12 beauty products to an environmental lab, where they would be tested for toxins and other dangerous ingredients that many commonly used products contain.

"As young people, we're coming together to put our cosmetics on trial," said Anne Sheldon, a member of the Maine Women's Lobby, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping women through public policy.

"The European Union has banned more than 1,000 ingredients from cosmetics, while the United States has banned only 10."

Comment: For more information about dangerous ingredients and toxins in many commonly used cosmetic products read the following articles:

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X

Can Ecstasy help ease post-traumatic stress?


CNN
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:08 UTC
veterans
© Getty
The drug MDMA - better known by its street name, Ecstasy - may be illegal, but a new study suggests that it's also a promising treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study, which appears in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, included 20 people with PTSD stemming from traumas such as sexual assault and combat stress. On two separate occasions, 12 of the people took a dose of MDMA and then spoke for several hours with a pair of trained therapists. The others took a placebo but received the same therapy. (All of the participants received additional therapy sessions that did not involve the drug.)

Comment: The article states that Ecstasy, with all its negative effects, has been chosen because
"MDMA is believed to raise levels of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin and the so-called "bonding hormone," oxytocin.
There are certainly healthier and less risky methods of raising the levels of serotonin and oxytocin, including diet changes, supplementation and proper breathing techniques.

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Attention

Common Chemicals Linked To ADHD


NewsInferno
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:15 UTC
A new Boston University School of Public Health study has found a potential link between polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - a neurodevelopmental disorder - in children, wrote Science Daily. PFCs are ubiquitous industrial compounds found in a wide range of consumer products.

The research, first published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, indicated that the team found "increased odds of ADHD in children with higher serum PFC levels," quoted Science Daily.

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), researchers compared PFC levels in serum samples from 571 children, ages 12 to 15, said Science Daily. Parents of 48 of the children reported their children received an ADHD diagnosis. NHANES, said Science Daily, is an ongoing national survey of a sampling of the U.S. population from which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obtains dietary and health data, explained Science Daily.
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Health

IVF Babies May be More Prone to Childhood Cancers


NewsInferno
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:11 UTC
IVF babies, those children who were conceived via in vitro fertilization, seem to experience an increased risk for childhood cancer versus babies conceived naturally, wrote WebMD, citing Swedish research. The new study is believed to be the first of its kind to indicate a scientifically strong link, said the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, reported WebMD.

According to the study's lead author, childhood cancer is considered rare and the increase seen is small to moderate, potentially linked to the infertility, said WebMD. "There is an increased risk for cancer in children born via IVF, but it's rather small," researcher Bengt Kallen, MD, PhD, a retired professor of embryology and head of the Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Lund, Germany, told WebMD. "The estimate that we give is that the risk increases 40 percent, but the estimate has, of course, a degree of uncertainty," Dr. Kallen added. The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
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Health

Poverty-stricken U.S. cities have HIV epidemics

Kate Kelland
Reuters
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:55 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Eric Thayer


AIDS activists demonstrate carrying mock coffins near the site of the upcoming G20 Pittsburgh Summit as they protest against the policies of the world's wealthiest nations regarding AIDS research and treatment funding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September 22, 2009.
Many low-income urban areas across the United States have epidemics of HIV, with 2.1 percent of heterosexuals in poverty-stricken urban areas infected with the incurable AIDS virus, U.S. scientists said on Monday.

In a study of rates of HIV across the United States, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that poverty is the single most important factor linked to HIV infection among inner-city heterosexuals.

"In this country, HIV clearly strikes the economically disadvantaged in a devastating way," said CDC HIV/AIDS expert Kevin Fenton, whose findings were presented at an international conference on AIDS in Vienna.

He said the research showed there was "a widespread HIV epidemic in America's inner cities."

More than 1.1 million people in the United States are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, according to the CDC, and there are around 56,000 new infections there every year.
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Syringe

Combat injuries may cause epilepsy years later

Frederik Joelving
Reuters
Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:31 UTC
Wounded Iraq war veteran
© Reuters/Molly Riley
Wounded Iraq war veteran sits among injured war veterans during a news conference held by the Wounded Warrior Project in Washington September 12, 2007.
Soldiers may develop epilepsy from a head injury as many as 30 years down the road, hints a new study of Vietnam veterans.

Post-traumatic epilepsy, as the seizure disorder is known, is common after brain injuries sustained in battle.

"Soldiers have more severe injuries than what commonly occurs in the civilian populations," Dr. L. James Willmore, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

"With severe injury, almost half develop epilepsy. It's difficult to treat and a persisting problem," added Willmore, an epilepsy expert at Saint Louis University in Missouri and a former medical officer in the U.S. Navy.

The new study, published Monday in the journal Neurology, is part of the National Naval Medical Center's long-term efforts to follow Vietnam vets with head injuries. It's the third evaluation of this group, performed 35 years after the original damage.

Most of the injuries involved penetration of the skull, for instance by shrapnel. Through interviews with the vets, a neurologist determined that 87 out of 199 (44 percent) suffered from post-traumatic epilepsy.
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Attention

Louisiana State University Survey Chronicles Health Impacts of BP Oil Spill in Louisiana


NewsInferno
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:37 UTC
Two Louisiana State University (LSU) sociology professors have released a survey detailing some of the health impacts the BP oil spill is having on people living in Louisiana's coastal communities. According to the two professors who conducted the study, those impacts are "real and substantial."

"Louisiana's coastal communities are the most geographically proximate human settlements to the actual disaster site," Professor Matthew Lee, said in a statement announcing the survey results. "It is imperative that we begin work now to better understand the human impacts of this situation because the results are expected to be long-lasting and diverse."
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Nuke

Uranium's Effect On DNA Established

Kate Melville
scienceagogo.com
Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:27 UTC
Image
© unknown
The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.

Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.
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Question

Nanotech in Our Food: Should We Be Afraid?

Marion Nestle
Alternet
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:48 UTC
Image
© Friends of the Earth
The effects of nanotechnology on the environment are regulated by the EPA - but when it comes to nano in food, shouldn't the FDA be involved?

Nanotechnology involves the ability to control matter at the scale of a nanometer - one billionth of a meter. The world market for products that contain nanomaterials is expected to reach $2.6 trillion by 2015.

So says a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO): Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials Are Widely Used in Commerce, but EPA Faces Challenges in Regulating Risk. (GAO-10-549, May 25, 2010)
GAO identified a variety of products that currently incorporate nanomaterials already available in commerce ... [in] food and agriculture ...The extent to which nanomaterials present a risk to human health and the environment depends on a combination of the toxicity of specific nanomaterials and the route and level of exposure to these materials. Although the body of research related to nanomaterials is growing, the current understanding of the risks posed by these materials is limited.

Comment: Read the following articles carried on SOTT about the "specific uncertainties" of nano materials, especially in food:

Food Industry 'Too Secretive' Over Nanotechnology

Alert over the march of the 'grey goo' in nanotechnology Frankenfoods

Nanotechnology - the new threat to food - from the article:
The food and agriculture industries have been investing billions of dollars into nanotechnology research, with an unknown number of unlabeled nano food products already on the market. In the absence of mandatory product labeling anywhere in the world, it is impossible to tell how many commercial food products now contain nano ingredients. The Helmut Kaiser Consultancy Group, a pro-nanotechnology analyst, suggests that there are now over 300 nano food products available on the market worldwide. It estimates that the global nano food market was worth US$5.3 billion in 2005 and will rise to US$20.4 billion by 2010. It predicts that nanotechnology will be used in 40% of the food industries by 2015...

Concerns about the use of nanotechnology in agriculture and food production relate to the further automation and alienation of food production, serious new toxicity risks for humans and the environment, and the further loss of privacy as nano surveillance tracks each step in the food chain. The failure of governments to introduce laws to protect the public and the environment from nanotechnology's risks is a most serious concern.
On the subject of 'further loss of privacy as nano surveillance tracks each step in the food chain' read the following:

Big Pharma Nanotechnology Encodes Pills with Tracking Data That You Swallow

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Household Cleaners May Double Risk of Breast Cancer

Richard Alleyne
Telegraph.co.uk
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:10 UTC
Household cleaners and air fresheners could be bad for women's health, new research suggests.

Women who regularly use household cleaners and air fresheners are at double the risk of developing breast cancer than those who never use the products.

The study of more than 1,500 women found that solid slow-release air fresheners and anti-mould products had the biggest effect.

Insect repellents, oven and surface cleaners also produced a slight increase.

"Women who reported the highest combined cleaning product use had a doubled risk of breast cancer compared to those with the lowest reported use," said Dr Julia Brody, from the Silent Spring Institute in the United States,

"Use of air fresheners and products for mold and mildew control were associated with increased risk."
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