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While all links worked when entries were posted to the database, different publishers
have different policies about retaining articles and providing access to archived material.
Thus some of the links, particularly older ones, may no longer be functional.
For links no longer working, you may be able to gain paid access to text via the publisher's site.
A review of health risks of bisphenol A is flawed by errors of omission, commission, misrepresentation and misinterpretation.
The review, carried out by a scientist at the California Dept. of Toxic Substance Control 'working on his own time' and thus not representing the agency's position, ignores a large body of literature on low-dose effects of BPA, uses criteria that would, if accepted, invalidate 30 years of well-established research on diethylstilbestrol (DES) and employs a statistical method that violates basic statistical principles. 6 April 2008. More...
Experiments with mice show that exposure during pregnancy to very low doses of bisphenol A scrambles the chromosomes of their daughters' fertilized embryos, ie., the pregnant female's grandchildren.
This 3rd-generation effect is possible because the eggs of a female mammal, including human, are formed while the female is still in the womb. Exposure to BPA at comparable levels appears widespread among people in the United States, because of its use in common consumer products, including polycarbonate plastic and food cans. 12 January 2007. More...
Since the late 1980's, testosterone levels have declined on average 1.2% per year in Massachusetts men, or 17% overall.
The pattern is consistent with other long-term trends in male reproductive health, including decreases in sperm count and increases in testicular cancer, hypospadias and cryptorchidism. The study controlled for the normal decline in testosterone levels that takes place as men age, as well as potential confounding variables like smoking and obesity. 7 January 2007. More...
Experiments with rats demonstrate that low level exposure to bisphenol A during fetal growth causes breast cancer in adults.
At all levels tested down to 2.5 micrograms per kg body weight, BPA induced formation of aberrant cell growth patterns associated in rodents and people with breast cancer. Levels only 5 times higher than EPA's current safe level caused carcinoma in situ. 7 December 2006. More...
Data gathered by the US CDC reveal strong associations between exposures to persistent contaminants and risk of type 2 diabetes.
In a sample of 2,016 Americans, diabetes risk rose significantly with exposure to five of 6 studied contaminants (a PCB, two dioxins and three pesticides). Using an index reflecting simultaneous exposure to the mix of contaminants, the study found that people in the highest exposure category were almost 38 times more likely to have diabetes than those in the lowest. 4 December 2006. More...
A large study of men in the Boston area finds that increases in a metabolite of the phthalate DBP are associated with impaired sperm quality, at exposure levels within the range experienced by the general population.
Both sperm concentration and sperm motility were more likely to be beneath WHO reference levels at higher exposure levels to MBP, the metabolite. Metabolites of DEHP, DMB and BbZP were not associated with lowered sperm quality. 19 November 2006. More...
Swedish researchers report that Sir Richard Doll, co-author of a famous paper minimizing the role of chemicals in causing cancer, failed to disclose his industry funding for work on vinyl chloride, dioxin and phenoxy herbicides in papers published that were relevant to industry interests.
According to the Swedish researchers, documents they have unearthed reveal that Doll had a longterm financial relationship with Monsanto from the 1970s to the 1990s, worth up to a thousand pounds a day. He also took money from Dow, ICI and the American Chemistry Council. The researchers provide examples of other scientists who failed to disclose financial interests. 12 November 2006. More...
The risk of adult-onset asthma is more than double for workers employed in offices with plastic wall-lining.
This conclusion emerged from a case-control study in southern Finland examining the work and home environment of 521 asthmatics and 932 controls. The researchers suggest that the association is a result of increased exposure to the phthalate DEHP in work environments that have used materials containing polyvinyl chloride, which can be as much as 40% by weight DEHP. 7 November 2006. More...
In a strikingly non-monotonic fashion, environmentally-relevant levels of the phthalate DEHP suppress aromatase activity in the brain of young male rats following perinatal exposure, while higher doses stimulate aromatase.
This enzyme is crucial for masculinization of the male brain. The effects differed between males and females, and also differed depending upon when after birth aromatase was measured. Impacts on females were seen at the lowest dose tested, which was calculated to be similar to the median daily intake of German citizens. 27 October 2006. More...
The phthalate DEHP increases allergic reaction to a mite allergen in mice at levels within the range deemed safe by current EPA standards.
The dose-response relationship followed an inverted-U pattern, with an intermediate dose causing larger effects than the highest dose use. This is the first report of non-monotonic response for a phthalate. The results implicate DEHP as a possible causal agent in increasing prevalence of allergic reactions in developed countries. 18 October 2006. More...
Prenatal exposure to bisphenol A causes long-lasting changes in female rat breast tissue that increase the risk of cancer and also make the animals more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals as adults.
The study strengthens support for a link between increasing rates of breast cancer in recent decades and increasing exposure to estrogenic chemicals like BPA. It also indicates that human epidemiological studies that fail to incorporate developmental exposures can't be trusted to identify cancer-causing agents. 25 September 2006. More...
An endocrine-disrupting fungicide, vinclozolin, causes chronic diseases of ageing in rats following exposure in the womb, and these disease states are inherited epigenetically across multiple generations without changes in DNA sequence.
Adverse effects included increased incidence of tumors, diseases of the kidney and prostate, testis abnormalities and impaired immune function. Observations also indicated very early onset of ageing, although it was not possible to distinguish this with certainty from other diseases. 18 September 2006. More...
Early life exposure to bisphenol A at environmentally-relevant levels causes neoplastic (cancerous) lesions in the prostates of adult rats, linking BPA to prostate cancer.
Animals exposed perinatally to BPA and estradiol develop prostate lesions in adulthood called high-grade PIN that are generally accepted as an early stage of prostate cancer in people. For BPA, the effect requires changes in adult hormone levels that mirror estrogen changes in ageing men. The effects are associated with failures in a key gene to undergo hypermethylation, following perinatal exposure. 4 June 2006. More...
Experiments with eel embryos indicate the collapse of Atlantic eel populations is likely to be the result of the acute sensitivity of eel embryos to PCB and dioxin contamination.
Most eels from European locations carry contaminant levels well within the range that, based on these experiments, would severly impair eel embryo survival. Damage seen in the embryos is typical for dioxin-induced impacts in a number of fish species. 12 March 2006. More...
An analysis of public records and court documents reveals an industry campaign to undermine steps taken by the US occupational health agency to develop safety standards for exposure to hexavalent chromium.
By splitting a study into two parts and publishing them separately, industry scientists made a significant elevation in risk of lung cancer go away. This study was never submitted by industry in its entirety to OSHA, but only became available when it was discovered in bankruptcy legal filings. 24 February 2006. More...
EPA's current 'reference doses' for exposure to several phthalates may be far too high, perhaps by as much as a factor of 100-fold or more.
The reference dose is the level thought low enough to cause no adverse effects. This conclusion is based upon calculations, using pharmokinetic models, of the maternal exposures that would have been required to cause urinary phthalate metabolite levels associated with altered genital tract development in boys. 14 February 2006. More...
An environmentally-relevant mixture of pesticides, each at 0.1 ppb, unexpectedly weakens tadpole immune function, resulting in fatal infections.
35% of animals exposed to the mixture died compared to 4% of those treated with pesticides one at a time. Of those that survived, 70% of the animals exposed to the mixture developed bacterial infections whereas none of the controls or animals exposed to one pesticide at a time showed similar symptoms. 24 January 2006. More...
A detailed analysis of the studies industry uses to defend bisphenol A reveals deep flaws and strong biases against finding adverse effects.
Not only is industry's own research flawed, but they have repeatedly chosen to ignore all but a handful of the studies on low level effects of bisphenol A that have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Most Americans are exposed to this contaminant at levels that cause effects in animals. 10 January 2006. More...
Exposure to extremely low levels of DES in the womb causes mice to become grotesquely obese in adulthood.
Higher levels cause weight loss. The soy phytoestrogen genistein has a similar effect. 4 November 2005. More...
A new assessment concludes that a larger portion of human infertility may be caused by environmental exposures than thought possible even a decade ago.
Laboratory data demonstrate conclusively that some contaminants can impair fertility in animals at levels to which people are commonly exposed. While it is well established that high levels of some contaminants can cause infertility, very few human data are available on the impacts of contaminants known to cause impacts at low-levels in animals. 31 October 2005. More...
Experiments with mice show that exposure to bisphenol A within the range that people commonly experience causes insulin resistance.
The results indicate that exposure to low levels of BPA may be involved in 'metabolic syndrome,' including type II diabetes. Human exposure to BPA has become almost universal in the last 2 decades, because of its use in polycarbonate plastic, epoxy linings for food cans, and cavity prevention tools for children. 11 October 2005. More...
The sex ratio in a First Nation community near Sarnia, Ontario has dropped to fewer than 35% boys, significantly below normal.
Prior to 1993, the sex ratio appeared to be normal and stable. Since that time, it has declined significantly, with the strongest decline in the last 5 years. The community lives in close proximity to a large petrochemical complex. Researchers propose that chemical exposures may be contributing to the decline. This would be consistent with some but not all related studies. 21 August 2005. More...
Thousands of studies conducted by thousands of scientists from around the world have been published in the last decade about endocrine disruption.
They confirm that some contaminants used in commmon products can disrupt hormone signaling and alter gene expression, thereby altering development. Some of the most important studies are summarized here. 24 July 2005. More...
Scientists from government, academic and independent laboratories challenge proposals that 'hormesis' be used to justify weakening public health standards.
This dose-response pattern involves low- dose stimulation in contrast to high-dose inhibition. A peer-reviewed commentary in the scientific journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences concludes that it is irresponsible for proponents of hormesis to portray chemicals with numerous adverse effects as having "benefits" from low-dose stimulation while ignoring their hazards. 25 June 2005. More...
Over 100 scientists with active research programs studying endocrine disruption from 15 countries have issued a joint, signed statement concluding that scientific uncertainty should not delay precautionary action on reducing the exposures to and the risks from endocrine disrupters.
According to their assessment, current safety standards are ill-equipped to deal with risks caused by endocrine disrupters and that current testing procedures may lead to serious underestimations of risk. Effects in wildlife are well established; People in some countries are experiencing high prevalence of disorders consistent with endocrine disruption effects. Because there are inherent difficulties in establishing causality in humans, precautionary action be taken before epidemiological data provide certainty. 23 June 2005. More...
In a small prospective study, researchers in Japan report that bisphenol A levels are higher in women with a history of repeated spontaneous miscarriages.
This research was based on proof that BPA causes meiotic aneuploidy in mice. Meiotic aneuploidy is the commonest known cause of miscarriage in people. The researchers also followed the pregnancies of the women to completion, and found evidence of aneuploidy in several of the miscarried fetuses. Bisphenol A is widely used in consumer product, including polycarbonate water bottles, epoxy linings for food cans and coatings for papers. Almost all Americans carry measureable levels of BPA, at levels within the range known to cause changes in cellular responses. 10 June 2005. More...
Infants in a hospital that has continued use of phthalate containing plastics in equipment used in neonatal intensive care units have higher phthalate metabolites in their urine than one that switched to other materials.
Infants most exposed to DEHP had five times the level of a metabolite as those least exposed. 8 June 2005. More...
Your infertility may be the result of an environmental exposure that your great-grandmother experienced while she was in her mother's womb.
Scientists working with rats have discovered a new mechanism by which fertility impairments can be passed down multiple generations through exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds, even though exposure only took place in the first generation. 3 June 2005. More...
For the first time, researchers have identified an association between pregnant women’s exposure to phthalates and adverse effects on genital development in baby boys.
The adverse effects are seen at phthalate levels below those found in one-quarter of women in the US, based on CDC data. Boys in the highest exposure group were 90 times more likely to have altered genital development than those in the lowest. 27 May 2005. More...
In mice, exposure to bisphenol A in the womb at extremely low levels alters mammary gland development around puberty.
The changes, which involved increased numbers of terminal buds and an increased sensitivity to estrogen, are consistent with an increased risk to breast cancer. The levels of exposure are within the range that many people experience 26 May 2005. More...
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