Parents often think their children grow up too quickly, but few are prepared for the problem that Dr. Michael Dedekian and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical School reported recently…
…It turns out that there have been clusters of cases in which children have prematurely developed signs of puberty, outbreaks similar to epidemics of influenza or environmental poisonings. In 1979, the medical journal The Lancet described an outbreak of breast enlargement among hundreds of Italian schoolchildren, probably caused by estrogen contamination of beef and poultry. Similar epidemics in Puerto Rico and Haiti were tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1980’s.
Increasingly — though the science is still far from definitive and the precise number of such cases is highly speculative — some physicians worry that children are at higher risk of early puberty as a result of the increasing prevalence of certain drugs, cosmetics and environmental contaminants, called “endocrine disruptors,” that can cause breast growth, pubic hair development and other symptoms of puberty.
So, the EPA and FDA are there to protect us, right?
In 1996, Congress directed the E.P.A. to develop a comprehensive screening program for possible endocrine disruptors within three years. Dr. Cooper says no such program has begun operation, a failure he attributed largely to stonewalling by chemical industry representatives who serve on an advisory committee for the program. Now the proposed rollout is December 2007, but Dr. Cooper said, “They may be dreaming.” Critics cite the program’s high potential costs and lack of reliable laboratory tests.
Protecting children from endocrine disrupters in cosmetics and prescription drugs may also be difficult in the near future.
In 1989, the Food and Drug Administration proposed allowing up to 10,000 units of estrogen per ounce of cosmetic, the approximate oral daily dose of hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women. Dr. Tiwary said that in the early 1990’s he filed an adverse drug report with the agency about hormone-containing shampoos but that to his knowledge, it never came to anything.
Hormone containing shampoos? Why on earth do we need hormones in our shampoos? Or estrogen in the beef? This, though very upsetting, isn’t surprising. Last week one of my posts was about how the US allows all kinds of chemical laden products that are banned everywhere else. We’ve become the international dumping ground for these products. Thank you Mr. Bush for protecting Americans.
Holy crap-in-the-water! I just googled what you suggested and I almost fell off my chair. I’m glad I have a well, but I also know that wells can become contaminated from contaminated aquafers hundreds of miles away. ugh.
Speaking as someone in the environmental field, this issue has been the “next big thing” coming down the pipeline after Superfund for over a decade. The EU is probably 5-10 years ahead of us in addressing the issue.
It’s not just a matter of passing the laws and regulations, there also need to be tests developed to monitor for these compounds reliably and affordably in water and wastewater on an ongoing basis, implemented at every utility in the country. Just deciding which compounds we’re going to monitor will likely take years, by the time the proposals are put in the Federal Register and commented on by all interested parties.
Hmmm… Do I sense a career change opportunity, LOL?
I remember seeing a CBC documentary in the early 90s (it might have been Nature of Things) that showed a disgustingly polluted region of northern Mexico and the girls were hitting puberty as young as 10. Apparently there was a shampoo factory upstream and they were dumping pollutants directly into the local water system. I imagine the health consequences of that must be pretty terrible.
Grace Mosier lives with her mom and dad, goes to birthday parties, takes ballet classes and is just like a lot of other 6-year-old girls. Except that she happens to be obsessed with Dick Cheney.
“I really, really like him,” says Grace, who can tell you what state the vice president was born in (Nebraska), where he went to grade school (College View, in Lincoln) and the names of his dogs (Dave and Jackson). She gets her fix of Cheney fun-facts by visiting the White House Web site for children. It says there that his favorite teacher was Miss Duffield and that he used to run a company called Halliburton.
So when Mr. Cheney came to town Thursday, Grace was at Forbes Field, holding a little American flag and a sign that said, “Welcome, Mr. Vice President, pet Dave and Jackson for me.” She watched him get off Air Force Two, step into a car and speed off to a fund-raiser.
“Like a rock star coming to town,” says Dene Mosier, Grace’s mother…
Dick Cheney, rock star? Hero of little girls everywhere?
Suddenly, playing with Barbies seems like a healthy fixation.
Gaah – this is one of those things on the internet it’s best not to believe. At least they didn’t claim she has his picture all over her room. Who wrote that story?
Back to the buxom little girls – I always blamed the bovine growth hormones. Milk, it does a body good!
Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set.
The Iraqi government faces a December deadline, imposed by the world’s wealthiest countries, to complete its final oil law. Industry analysts expect that the result will be a radical departure from the laws governing the country’s oil-rich neighbors, giving foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than with other major oil producers and locking in their control over what George Bush called Iraq’s “patrimony” for decades, regardless of what kind of policies future elected governments might want to pursue.
I bet we’ll start withdrawing immediately once the oil is in the bag for American companies.
Well, it’s not really news, but it is so way cool I have to share it, in the spirit of KP’s science news roundups…
For those of you who are wondering why the hell string theory supposes that there are eleven dimensions in reality, here is the reason, in as close to plain english as you’ll ever get it.
This animated explanation of the eleven dimensions also sheds light on why the string theorists are catching hell trying to narrow the googolplexes of possible solutions down to “the equation” that describes our universe completely, the solution that evaded even the great Einstein himself, who spent the last decades of his life trying to figure it out.
Well since I have dial up I shall remain ignorant. I almost can grasp string theory while watching a well done documentary, but don’t ask me to explain it. Oh hell, if astrophysics has the audacity to search for the ‘theory of everything’, I suppose that I can let it download while I go clean for a while.
Sorry for being late to the party – work interfered!
The first direct evidence linking human activity to the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves is published this week in the Journal of Climate. Scientists reveal that stronger westerly winds in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, driven principally by human-induced climate change, are responsible for the marked regional summer warming that led to the retreat and collapse of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf.
Mass vaccination would not be necessary in the event of a large-scale smallpox bioterrorist attack in the United States, according to a study that appears online in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Instead, the current U.S. government policy of post-release surveillance, prompt containment of victims and vaccination of hospital workers and close contacts would be sufficient to thwart an epidemic, according to lead author Ira M. Longini Jr., Ph.D., a world leader in using mathematical and statistical methods to study the natural course of infectious diseases.
Russian and American scientists have announced the discovery of element 118, called ununoctium [Catchy, no? No!]. It has 118 protons in its nucleus, an arrangement never before seen in nature or in the laboratory. Three of the atoms were detected when calcium was smashed into a target made from californium; they then rapidly decayed into lighter elements. Element 118 is expected to be a noble gas that lies right below radon on the periodic table of elements. The researchers saw the 3 atoms of element 118 last only 0.9 milliseconds. They decayed to element 116 and then to element 114.
Organic milk requires different cow feeds, among other things, that sharply raise the price. Cutting out growth hormones is a cheap step toward organic, but it’s not organic.
Why is Pentagon restarting anthrax shots for troops? Was to be voluntary, but not anymore.
[“t]oo few people were voluntarily receiving the vaccination.
A lawyer for a group of soldiers that successfully challenged the Pentagon’s anthrax vaccination program three years ago said he’ll take the issue up again in court.”
AMY GOODMAN interviewed SCOTT RITTER who is just back from Iran.
We are at War with Iran
AMY GOODMAN: Scott Ritter, both the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner have said covert actions have already begun in Iran, U.S. military. Do you think that is true?
One head that was not nodding in the back of the room was Ray Aguirre’s.
Sought out for comment as the meeting neared its end, Aguirre identified himself as part of the third generation of five generations of a family of Mexican descent that came to the United States and to Lincoln legally a century ago.
He said he doesn’t support illegal immigration but objects to the racial profiling that has become woven into the public outcry.
“You can’t go after a race of people based on how they look and not know anything about them,” he said.
He cited the many members of his family that he said had served in the U.S. military.
The rights of free speech and freedom of assembly demonstrated Monday night, Aguirre said, “have been bought and paid for by my family.” – linkage
coming from a shampoo bottle near you? NYT
So, the EPA and FDA are there to protect us, right?
Wrong.
hormone-containing shampoos
Hormone containing shampoos? Why on earth do we need hormones in our shampoos? Or estrogen in the beef? This, though very upsetting, isn’t surprising. Last week one of my posts was about how the US allows all kinds of chemical laden products that are banned everywhere else. We’ve become the international dumping ground for these products. Thank you Mr. Bush for protecting Americans.
Just Google ‘public water supply’ and ‘hormones’…
Holy crap-in-the-water! I just googled what you suggested and I almost fell off my chair. I’m glad I have a well, but I also know that wells can become contaminated from contaminated aquafers hundreds of miles away. ugh.
I have a well too.
Speaking as someone in the environmental field, this issue has been the “next big thing” coming down the pipeline after Superfund for over a decade. The EU is probably 5-10 years ahead of us in addressing the issue.
It’s not just a matter of passing the laws and regulations, there also need to be tests developed to monitor for these compounds reliably and affordably in water and wastewater on an ongoing basis, implemented at every utility in the country. Just deciding which compounds we’re going to monitor will likely take years, by the time the proposals are put in the Federal Register and commented on by all interested parties.
Hmmm… Do I sense a career change opportunity, LOL?
I remember seeing a CBC documentary in the early 90s (it might have been Nature of Things) that showed a disgustingly polluted region of northern Mexico and the girls were hitting puberty as young as 10. Apparently there was a shampoo factory upstream and they were dumping pollutants directly into the local water system. I imagine the health consequences of that must be pretty terrible.
NYT
Dick Cheney, rock star? Hero of little girls everywhere?
Suddenly, playing with Barbies seems like a healthy fixation.
That IS creepy beyond imagination. What kind of twit is Mom, letting her child fixate on such a monster?
Gaah – this is one of those things on the internet it’s best not to believe. At least they didn’t claim she has his picture all over her room. Who wrote that story?
Back to the buxom little girls – I always blamed the bovine growth hormones. Milk, it does a body good!
Eeeeewwwww! This should have run on Halloween!
Link
Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set.
The Iraqi government faces a December deadline, imposed by the world’s wealthiest countries, to complete its final oil law. Industry analysts expect that the result will be a radical departure from the laws governing the country’s oil-rich neighbors, giving foreign multinationals a much higher rate of return than with other major oil producers and locking in their control over what George Bush called Iraq’s “patrimony” for decades, regardless of what kind of policies future elected governments might want to pursue.
I bet we’ll start withdrawing immediately once the oil is in the bag for American companies.
Cool, we pay taxes to fund wars to secure oil rights for the oil companies so they can continue to rip us off at the gas pump.
We’re at 2.19 a gallon now…an eighty cent drop over the election season.
I predict an overnight jump to $3 a gallon if Dems win control of anything.
I second that prediction and raise you at least a buck for home heating oil and natural gas.
Great quote, CG.
Well, it’s not really news, but it is so way cool I have to share it, in the spirit of KP’s science news roundups…
For those of you who are wondering why the hell string theory supposes that there are eleven dimensions in reality, here is the reason, in as close to plain english as you’ll ever get it.
“…you will see a set of animations, with narration and sound effects, which take you from the first to the tenth dimension…”
This animated explanation of the eleven dimensions also sheds light on why the string theorists are catching hell trying to narrow the googolplexes of possible solutions down to “the equation” that describes our universe completely, the solution that evaded even the great Einstein himself, who spent the last decades of his life trying to figure it out.
Well since I have dial up I shall remain ignorant. I almost can grasp string theory while watching a well done documentary, but don’t ask me to explain it. Oh hell, if astrophysics has the audacity to search for the ‘theory of everything’, I suppose that I can let it download while I go clean for a while.
Firewall won’t let me see it at work, but I’ll be checking this out for sure tonight!! Thanks!!
Sorry for being late to the party – work interfered!
The first direct evidence linking human activity to the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves is published this week in the Journal of Climate. Scientists reveal that stronger westerly winds in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, driven principally by human-induced climate change, are responsible for the marked regional summer warming that led to the retreat and collapse of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf.
U.S. researchers said on Monday they had identified a genetic mutation that raises the risk of autism and could also explain some of the other symptoms seen in children with autism.
Mass vaccination would not be necessary in the event of a large-scale smallpox bioterrorist attack in the United States, according to a study that appears online in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Instead, the current U.S. government policy of post-release surveillance, prompt containment of victims and vaccination of hospital workers and close contacts would be sufficient to thwart an epidemic, according to lead author Ira M. Longini Jr., Ph.D., a world leader in using mathematical and statistical methods to study the natural course of infectious diseases.
Russian and American scientists have announced the discovery of element 118, called ununoctium [Catchy, no? No!]. It has 118 protons in its nucleus, an arrangement never before seen in nature or in the laboratory. Three of the atoms were detected when calcium was smashed into a target made from californium; they then rapidly decayed into lighter elements. Element 118 is expected to be a noble gas that lies right below radon on the periodic table of elements. The researchers saw the 3 atoms of element 118 last only 0.9 milliseconds. They decayed to element 116 and then to element 114.
Am also late. Been on call since 6.. and no cuppa.
Her editor shares our concerns. My heart sinks. Not just us around here concerned about Riverbend’s Summer of Goodbyes* (H/T: cursor.org).
Why is Pentagon restarting anthrax shots for troops? Was to be voluntary, but not anymore.
[“t]oo few people were voluntarily receiving the vaccination.
A lawyer for a group of soldiers that successfully challenged the Pentagon’s anthrax vaccination program three years ago said he’ll take the issue up again in court.”
That milk article certainly seemed to have a bias towards growth hormone, didn’t it?
CG It get’s better. In today’s Wapo FDA all ready to approve Clonal milk and meat
What’s on the menu?
Sounds like the US is about to move to germ warfare–in a theatre where US troops are (or are about to be) deployed.
My guess–Iran.
from Nebraska…