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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.
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It takes just a single generation in captivity to genetically change a wild fish's offspring so they are less able to reproduce in the wild, report researchers who studied three generations of the endangered steelhead fish from Oregon's Hood River.
The more successful a wild caught fish is in captivity – by producing high numbers of offspring – the worse off the offspring are at reproducing successfully in the wild. This study is the first to explain the cause: unintentional genetic adaptation to captivity. 3 February 2012. More...
Women were more likely to be obese, have high blood pressure or have gestational diabetes during pregnancy if their mother smoked while pregnant, finds a study of more than 70,000 women in Norway.
This study is the first to identify an increased risk of gestational diabetes among women whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. Results here are consistent with other studies finding links between prenatal smoking and obesity in children as well as small increases in blood pressure. 1 February 2012. More...
PCBs may interfere with immune system development in infants exposed in the womb and early in life, report researchers from the United States and Slovakia. Infants with higher PCB exposure during gestation and as newborns had smaller thymus organs at birth and at 6 months of age but not at 13 months.
These results suggest that early life exposure to PCBs might impact the development of the immune system, but the effects seem to be limited to early infancy. The long-term implications of these changes remain to be determined. 31 January 2012. More...
Children and young adults from areas with highly polluted air in Mexico had physical and genetic changes in their brains akin to those found in adults with Alzheimer's disease. The changes seen are surprising because they are not supposed to occur in younger brains.
Over half of the brains from the urban areas showed signs of amyloid-B plaques and 40 percent had pretangle material. In contrast, none of the brains from the rural areas had either condition. 30 January 2012. More...
A new study from Spain reports that infants born to mothers who cooked with gas stoves had slightly lower intelligence scores at ages 1 and 2 than those in homes without gas cookers. In homes with gas, infant scores were better if there was an exhaust fan above the stove.
Gas stoves are so common that these small decreases in infant intelligence may lead to more children with lower IQs and fewer with higher IQs in the future. 26 January 2012. More...
Lead exposure may increase lifelong pessimism, according to a new study. Researchers found that lead levels in aging men were associated with increased pessimism even after controlling for other important factors such as socioeconomic status.
Lead is known to affect the nervous system and affect intelligence, memory and behavior. Research also shows it is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. 20 January 2012. More...
A new study raises concern about children's exposure to mercury through fish eating, tying it for the first time to hormone changes that increase chronic stress and associated immune system dysfunction. The highest mercury levels detected in the study had about 20-25 percent lower cortisol in saliva samples compared with lowest mercury levels.
Mercury levels measured in the children were well below the levels considered a health risk by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 19 January 2012. More...
A new study found that higher in utero and childhood exposure to a solvent known as PCE, or tetrachloroethylene, increased the risk of cigarette, drug, and alcohol use as a teenager and young adult.
These results are consistent with previous animal and human studies reporting that PCE can affect both behavior and cognition in animals and humans. This is the first study to evaluate the behavioral consequences of early life PCE exposure in adulthood. 16 January 2012. More...
In the first study of its kind, scientists in Denmark report that women exposed near the time of conception to relatively common levels of a particular phthalate are more likely to experience early pregnancy loss compared to women with lower exposures.
The phthalate associated with the losses, MEHP, is a breakdown product of a phthalate, DEHP, widely used in plastics. Only exposures around conception - and not in the prior month - were linked to the loss. 12 January 2012. More...
Fish exposed to low levels of common flame retardants called PBDEs for most of their lives pass the chemicals – and more surprisingly, the associated toxic effects – along to their progeny. While parent's health effects were minimal, the exposures reduced hatch rates and altered the thyroid hormone system of the next generation.
The study is important because it shows that flame retardants can trigger thyroid hormone disruption in the next generation whether or not the offspring are exposed to the chemicals. 11 January 2012. More...
Bisphenol A seems impossible to avoid. It contaminates food, thermal receipts and drinks served in certain plastic bottles. A new study finds its reach goes even further. Researchers detected trace amounts of BPA in a wide variety of paper products most of us touch every day.
While levels of BPA exposure from these paper products, including toilet paper, paper towels, newspapers and business cards are much lower in comparison to what occurs through food, the results add to the long list of products that lead to human contact with BPA. 9 January 2012. More...
Worldwide mercury pollution is expected to increase dramatically by 2050, unless major policy changes are implemented. Even the best-case scenario suggests major actions will only dent mercury deposition to the United States. Once emitted, mercury can be deposited within days, but some stays aloft for months.
In the worst-case scenario, Asia will more than double its current mercury emissions by 2050. Much of these increased emissions from Asia are due to India's growing use of coal. 6 January 2012. More...
Researchers in China have found that adults over the age of 40 with higher levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in their urine tend to be obese, have more abdominal fat and be insulin resistant. These metabolic disorders can lead to further and more harmful health problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
Since BPA exposure is widespread - almost all people in the United States carry it in their bodies - the study's results highlight a potentially significant health risk from exposure to the contaminant. 4 January 2012. More...
New evidence from a laboratory study shows that selenium helps freshwater fish get rid of stored methylmercury. The results help researchers further understand the complex relationship between selenium and methylmercury observed in wild fish populations.
Ultimately this knowledge could help reduce mercury bioaccumulation in fish and thus human exposures to the toxic form of mercury. 22 December 2011. More...
A modified version of a well-known but inefficient chemical catalyst can propel faster, cleaner reactions that turn plants into biodiesel fuel better than existing methods. While the catalyst may solve a major stumbling block in the effort to produce biodiesel, the process will need more testing in industrial settings.
Biodiesel production is gaining in importance as petroleum supplies become more limited and concern about climate change grows. Biodiesel can be used in unmodified diesel engines. 19 December 2011. More...
Girls with limited access to food enter into their first menstrual cycle at slower rates and up to a year later than those who have not consistently gone hungry, according to a long-term study of Ethiopian girls.
The girls not affected by poor nutrition were more than twice as likely to reach puberty at age 14 than the girls facing food insecurity, according to a new study. 16 December 2011. More...
Chemists have demonstrated a new approach using simpler methods that require less energy and solvent than conventional approaches to synthesize a key ingredient of a widely used over-the-counter medicine. It's all about shaking, 'mechanochemistry.'
To make the drug this new way, they mix the two main dry ingredients then add the rest and vigorously shake the paste in a special shaker. The new method also creates no harmful by-products. 15 December 2011. More...
A single dose of bisphenol A (BPA) given to mice during infancy had lasting effects on their behavior as adults, report Swedish scientists in the journal Toxicology.
Recent studies in humans and rodents suggest that in utero BPA exposure may impact offspring behavior. Future studies will need to determine if single or chronic exposures have lasting impacts on child behavior in humans. 14 December 2011. More...
A new study of two now-banned persistent chemicals, PCBs and DDE, finds compelling evidence linking PCBs to reduced birth weight of newborn babies. In contrast, the research did not find a link with DDE, a metabolite of the insecticide DDT.
The results from this analysis of multiple studies indicate that current exposures to PCBs - while generally lower than before the substances were banned four decades ago - are still harmful to the growing fetus. 9 December 2011. More...
Levels of DDT – a mostly banned pesticide still allowed for malaria control in some tropical regions – increased three-fold in breastfeeding mothers after one indoor spraying, finds a study in Mozambique.
Currently, about a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa still spray DDT in homes to kill or repel mosquitoes, because it is relatively cheap and effective in malaria prevention. 8 December 2011. More...
New research reveals a process that can expand the scope of using plant oil derivatives to make industrially-important molecules, such as those needed as starting materials for producing polyamides. Polyamides are a family of polymers with many useful applications, ranging from fibres – such as nylon – to highly resistant metal coatings.
The bulk of plastics are made from fossil fuels. As oil supplies dwindle, it will become necessary to find novel, renewable sources of raw materials that can be used to make everyday products, such as plastics, detergents and drugs. 2 December 2011. More...
Chemists developing compounds used to create fragrances can weed out chemicals that don't meet certain toxicity and environmental standards early in the design process, finds a study that predicted the toxicity and persistence of a variety of musk chemicals using a sophisticated computer program.
The program - developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - uses molecular structure and other chemical attributes to predict if a compound will easily break down in the environment. The results are published in the journal Green Chemistry. 1 December 2011. More...
Children born via cesarean section have an increased risk of asthma at age 3, according to the largest study yet on the topic. The risk was higher in children whose mothers did not have asthma when compared to those whose mothers have asthma.
Asthma's steady rise in the last decades means it now affects in some way about one in four urban children in the world. Experts recognize that environmental factors play a large part in its risk. 30 November 2011. More...
A single hormone treatment given to newborn female rats significantly changed the chemical activity in the brain region that guides ovary development and function, report researchers in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
The changes seen in the rats are similar to those in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The study expands on growing concerns that early-life exposures to hormonally active chemicals may impact and alter female reproductive development and fertility. 22 November 2011. More...
For decades, means of producing hydrogen fuel efficiently and without using traditional fossil fuels have eluded chemists and engineers. Yet some organisms sequester the element to fuel their life processes. Their secret lies in iron-based enzymes.
Now researchers from Germany and Switzerland have successfully proven that iron can be a very efficient agent to generate hydrogen from formic acid. 21 November 2011. More...
Children exposed to persistent organic pollutants – POPs – in the womb have a higher risk of being overweight. The researchers found that PCBs, DDT and DDE exposure led to an increased risk of weight gain in children as assessed by BMI scores, although effects differed in boys vs. girls.
In some cases, children with higher POPs exposures were almost twice as likely to be overweight compared to children with lower exposures, depending on the pollutant and gender. 18 November 2011. More...
Adult male rats exposed to a single dose of the contaminant bisphenol A (BPA) had trouble remembering an object's look or location after only a couple of hours, according to a study published in Behavioral Neuroscience.
This is one of the first studies to measure the effects of a one-time, low dose BPA exposure on memory processes and brain cell formation in adult males. 17 November 2011. More...
Keeping the status quo and delaying management decisions as ocean fish populations flux with climate can lead to unsustainable fisheries as well as lost opportunities to harvest the fish that are flourishing, according to the authors of a study published in the journal Ecological Applications.
They found that a faster turnaround – in less than five years – to implement scientific recommendations to restrict or increase catch sizes would ease population collapses and be a step towards maintaining fisheries into the future. 14 November 2011. More...
A prospective study of organochlorine pesticides in people finds that elevated levels of DDT, cis-nonachlor and oxychlordane increase the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma later in life.
The frequency of non-Hogkin's lymphoma has increased in Western countries since the 1970s but has stabilized since the 1990s. While genetics and previous cancers play a role in the disease, environmental exposures also may contribute. 11 November 2011. More...
Food packaging appears to increase the levels of two phthalates in lunches fed Italian children. This was discovered by Italian scientists when they compared the level of phthalates in elementary school children's food before and after it was packaged and delivered.
Estimates of the children's exposure to the chemicals from this one mid-day meal approaches the maximum daily intake levels thought to be safe by the European Union's food safety authority. 10 November 2011. More...
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