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Top 11 compounds in US drinking water

Rowan Hooper
New Scientist
Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:22 UTC
Tap water
© Victor Watts/Rex
Tap water is not as pure as it looks.
A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Little was known about people's exposure to such compounds from drinking water, so Shane Snyder and colleagues at the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas screened tap water from 19 US water utilities for 51 different compounds. The surveys were carried out between 2006 and 2007.

The 11 most frequently detected compounds - all found at extremely low concentrations - were:

- Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease

- Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union, but still used in the US, which has been implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behaviour

- Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilising drug used to treat bipolar disorder, amongst other things

- Estrone, an oestrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing gender-bending changes in fish
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Health

What Is The Connection Between Sleep Apnea, Stroke And Death?


Science Daily
Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:56 UTC
Obstructive sleep apnea decreases blood flow to the brain, elevates blood pressure within the brain and eventually harms the brain's ability to modulate these changes and prevent damage to itself, according to a new study published by The American Physiological Society. The findings may help explain why people with sleep apnea are more likely to suffer strokes and to die in their sleep.

Sleep apnea is the most commonly diagnosed condition amongst sleep-related breathing disorders and can lead to debilitating and sometimes fatal consequences for the 18 million Americans who have been diagnosed with the disorder. This study identifies a mechanism behind stroke in these patients.

The study, "Impaired cerebral autoregulation in obstructive sleep apnea" was carried out by Fred Urbano, Francoise Roux, Joseph Schindler and Vahid Mohsenin, all of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. It appears in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology.
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Sheeple

Poisoning of the Masses in Australia: Fluoridation of southeast Queensland water begins

Patrick Lion
The Courier Mail
Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:59 UTC
Fluoride will be pumped into southeast Queensland's water supplies around-the-clock from today as the State Government steps up its oral health campaign.

Premier Anna Bligh said water treatment plants would produce an ongoing supply after fluoride powder was sporadically introduced in the past few weeks. Almost 80 per cent of southeast households will have fluoride, with only Toowoomba, Caboolture, Redlands and pockets of the Sunshine Coast north of the Maroochy River to come.

Comment: See: Exposure to fluoride induces early puberty

Information on fluoride isn't really new -- A recap on the poisoning of the public

Fluoride in Drinking Water may Negatively Affect Health of Fetuses and Infants

Think tank: Toothless policy on fluoride
New Zealand: Anti-fluoride group denied referendum

Kidney Foundation Drops Fluoridation Support - Fluoride may damage bones of kidney patients

Water plant manager speaks on fluoride

Babies at risk from fluoride

First-ever government review of fluoride/thyroid toxicology shows risk
'Second Thoughts about Fluoride,' Reports Scientific American

Small Amounts Fluoride Destroy The Will To Resist

High fluoride in drinking water is associated with poor performance on intelligence tests

Fluoride Accumulates in Pineal Gland
Town votes to remove fluoride from drinking water

Doctor-legislator asks utilities to stop putting fluoride in water

No Fluoride for Infants, Say Dentists - NRC reveals fluoridation's adverse effects to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney patients

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Sheeple

Men enjoy computer games 'because of basic urge to conquer'

Matthew Moore
Telegraph
Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:55 UTC
Image
© Claire Lim
Men's passion for computer games stems from a deep-rooted urge to conquer, according to research that will confirm the suspicions of "Nintendo Wii widows" across the country.

Playing on computer consoles activates parts of the male brain which are linked to rewarding feelings and addiction, scans have shown. The more opponents they vanquish and points they score, the more stimulated this region becomes.

In contrast, these parts of women's brains are much less likely to be triggered by sessions on the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii or Xbox.

Professor Allan Reiss of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University, California, who led the research, said that women understood computer games just as well as men but did not have the same neurological drive to win.
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Magnify

Researchers Discover New Genes That Fuse In Cancer


PhysOrg
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:20 UTC
Using new technologies that make it easier to sequence the human genome, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a series of genes that become fused when their chromosomes trade places with each other. These recurrent gene fusions are thought to be the driving mechanism that causes certain cancers to develop.

The gene fusions discovered could potentially serve as a marker one day for diagnosing cancer or as a target for future drug development.

In the new study, published in Nature, the researchers identified several gene fusions in prostate cancer cells. Some of the fusions were seen in multiple cell lines studied, while other gene fusions appeared only once. The fusions were found only in cancer cells, and not in normal cells.
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Syringe

Gene Clue Explains Major Source Of Epileptic Fits


PhysOrg
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:16 UTC
Tiny variations in a key gene on Chromosome 15 may help explain a common form of epilepsy, according to a paper published online on Sunday by the journal Nature Genetics.

As many as a third of all epileptic fits are called "idiopathic generalised epilepsy," or IGE, meaning that the genetic causes for them are unknown but likely to be highly complex.

Previous research has narrowed investigations into IGEs to a region on Chromosome 15.
      Read More...
Magnify

Immune System: 'Natural Killers' Have A Memory Too


PhysOrg
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:10 UTC
US scientists have discovered that a component of the immune system that was previously deemed a blunt weapon against microbes turns out to be rather sophisticated with a memory of past invaders.

The surprise finding about so-called "natural killer" cells could unlock a new avenue in vaccine research, the authors hope.

Natural killer, or NK, cells have until now been classified as part of what is known as the innate immune system.

This is considered to be a basic response system that, in human evolutionary terms, is ancient. Its defences react to infection each time as if it were a new event.
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Radar

Exposure to fluoride induces early puberty


Fluoride Alert.Org
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:33 UTC
Editor's note: You don't have a right to choose what type of water to drink or use. The majority of drinking water in the U.S. is adulterated with fluoride. The dentists make the decision and lobby the state and local governments to add the chemical into your drinking water because they say it's good for your teeth. But just because they say fluoride is good for the teeth does not mean they have the right to force you to drink it. If fluoride is indeed good for the teeth, people can use supplements or whatever anytime. But why this chemical, which has been found to pose a health risk such as bone cancer in boys, should be added to in the public drinking water systems? Something fishy, but the answer is obvious.
      Read More...
Info

Protein that regulates hormones critical to women's health found in pituitary

Dian Land
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:07 UTC
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have solved the mystery surrounding a "rogue protein" that plays a role in the release of neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain.

The scientists found abundant amounts of the puzzling protein - whose main location and function were unknown until now - in a specific area of the pituitary gland. Like someone at a control knob, the protein may adjust the release of the two hormones that come almost exclusively from the posterior pituitary: oxytocin, which controls many reproductive functions, and vasopressin, which controls fluid balance.

"The findings raise very interesting possibilities for women's health, in which rising and falling hormone levels play a key role in many biological processes," says senior author Meyer Jackson, a professor of physiology at the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH). More studies will be needed to better understand the protein, he adds.
      Read More...
Health

US: Black Lung Disease on the Rise

Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Now
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:57 UTC
Miners
© Unknown
In September 2007, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) confirmed what doctors and occupational health specialists had been seeing when examining X-rays of coal miners' lungs during the past several years. After years of decline, the rate of deadly disease had doubled and was appearing in younger and younger miners. (Click here to read our coverage of the NIOSH report.)

Black lung disease, also called pneumoconiosis, is caused by breathing in coal dust. It slowly robs victims of their ability to breath. At the time, health care experts were puzzled by the spike in black lung cases.
      Read More...
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