Environ Monit Assess. 2009 Jun;153(1-4):119-26. Epub 2008 Jun 12.
Center for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA. tony.ward@umontana.edu
Indoor and ambient concentrations of 21 volatile organic compounds (including 14 hazardous air pollutants) were measured in the homes of nearly 80 western Montana (Missoula) high school students as part of the 'Air Toxics Under the Big Sky' program during the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 school years. Target analytes were measured using low flow air sampling pumps and sorbent tubes, with analysis of the exposed samples by thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD/GC/MS). The results reported here present the findings of the first indoor/ambient air toxics monitoring program conducted in a semi-rural valley location located in the Northern Rocky Mountain/Western Montana region. Of all of the air toxics quantified in this study, toluene was found to be the most abundant compound in both the indoor and ambient environments during each of the two school years. Indoor log-transformed mean concentrations were found to be higher when compared with ambient log-transformed mean concentrations at P < 0.001 for the majority of the compounds, supporting the results of previous studies conducted in urban areas. For the air toxics consistently measured throughout this program, concentrations were approximately six times higher inside the student's homes compared to those simultaneously measured directly outside their homes. For the majority of the compounds, there were no significant correlations between indoor and ambient concentrations.
Indoor Air. 2009 Apr;19(2):174-82. Epub 2009 Jan 28.
School of Environmental Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Weijin Road 92, Tianjin City, China. syxczh@yahoo.com.cn
A cross-sectional study was carried out at Tianjin University campus, China, from February 21 to June10, 2006, to survey the association between dampness in dorms and allergy and airways infection among college students. The health and dampness condition were self-reported by 3436 students living in 1511 dorm rooms located in 13 buildings on the campus. The buildings were selected according to their positions, construction periods and occupant densities. The allergy and airways infection symptoms involved wheezing, dry cough during night, rhinitis, eczema, cold/flu, ear inflammation, pneumonia and tuberculosis. The indoor moisture signs were mould/damp spots on walls, ceilings and floors; suspected or ever happened water damage; condensation on windowpane in winter and odours perceived by subjects themselves. This study showed there was significantly positive association between condensation and dry cough. Eczema was often reported in rooms with suspected moisture problem. Dampness was a significantly risk factor for common cold. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This paper indicated that dampness problem at dorms of Chinese students was a risk factor in irritating allergic symptoms, and hence there is a need for dorm environment improvement. The ventilation and microbiology problems in dorm environment corresponding to dampness should be further studied, especially when it is associated to occupants' health.
Indoor Air. 2009 Apr;19(2):159-65. Epub 2009 Jan 22.
Indoor Environment Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. wjfisk@lbl.gov
Data from published studies were combined and analyzed to develop best-fit equations and curves quantifying the change in sick building syndrome (SBS) symptom prevalence in office workers with ventilation rate. For each study, slopes were calculated, representing the fractional change in SBS symptom prevalence per unit change in ventilation rate per person. Values of ventilation rate, associated with each value of slope, were also calculated. Linear regression equations were fitted to the resulting data points, after weighting by study size. Integration of the slope-ventilation rate equations yielded curves of relative SBS symptom prevalence vs. ventilation rate. Based on these analyses, as the ventilation rate drops from 10 to 5 l/s-person, relative SBS symptom prevalence increases approximately 23% (12% to 32%), and as ventilation rate increases from 10 to 25 l/s-person, relative prevalence decreases approximately 29% (15% to 42%). Variations in SBS symptom types, building features, and outdoor air quality may cause the relationship of SBS symptom prevalence with ventilation rate in specific situations to differ from the average relationship predicted in this paper. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: On average, providing more outdoor air ventilation will reduce prevalence rates of sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms. However, given the costs of energy use, including increased risks of climate change, it is important to balance the benefits and risks of increased ventilation. This paper provides initial estimates of how the incremental health benefits per unit of increased ventilation diminish at higher levels of ventilation.
"This compelling account of the explosive growth of Lyme disease grows to encompass all the peculiar politics, corruption and inertia of American medicine. Everyone agrees that the tick-borne disease is "the great imitator," mirroring a multitude of ailments, including fibromyalgia and Parkinson's disease."
California Gives Desalination Plants a Fresh Look Process to Make Seawater Drinkable Gains Traction, but Environmentalists Object to Heavy Energy Use, Harm to Marine Life http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124708765072714061.html
"Early next year, the Southern California town of Carlsbad will break ground on a plant that each day will turn 50 million gallons of seawater into fresh drinking water."
"Airline customer service isn't the only thing in need of improvement these days. The air in airplane cabins needs some fixing, too, and not just because your seatmate sneezed all over you."
"Bjorkum, Wang, and Waterloo are Norwegian researchers who examined close to one thousand patients diagnosed with CFS. The results were dumbfounding! The most commonly prescribed treatments didn't work."
"Health Canada testing has detected bisphenol A in baby foods in glass jars with metal lids and in some 18.5-litre polycarbonate bottles of drinking water, but it says the levels are low and pose no health or safety concerns."
"Diane Koerner travels with an oxygen tank in the trunk of her car, all the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on recirculate. The Big Island resident, who suffers from severe Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, takes such precautions because smelling the herbicide Roundup can leave her with a debilitating migraine. And given that chemicals are used to suppress vegetation along nearly every mile of roadway in the Islands, an unpleasant chance encounter is not an unlikely risk."
"First published in July 2009. The report presents the results of the second global compilation of the Happy Planet Index, based on improved data for 143 countries around the world – representing 99 per cent of the world's population. The results shows that globally we are still far from achieving good lives within the Earth's finite resource limits. But although the evidence shows that we are heading in the wrong direction, the achievements of some countries around the world provide reasons to believe that we can achieve true sustainable well-being."
"You would never cross the street without looking both ways, walk alone down a dark alley alone at three a.m., or tell your child to accept rides from strangers. So why let hazardous, toxic, and even carcinogenic chemicals into your home everyday?"
"For many people who have had MCS for some time, they have slowly made their living space their sanctuary. For those who are newly diagnosed, things are going to be different, and need to be for you to stay as well as possible. That means looking at your home in a different light. This series of articles will walk through the kinds of elements that I look for in a healthy house and where the potential problems lie within a home. We will focus on the sneaky things that you may have missed in your own process as well."
Duk-Hee Lee, David R Jacobs, Jr., Miquel Porta doi: 10.1289/ehp.0900741 (available at http://dx.doi.org/) Online 8 July 2009 ehponline.org
Abstract
Background: Although both nutrition and chemicals are important environmental factors modulating epigenetic changes, they are commonly studied separately by researchers in different fields. However, these two environmental factors cannot be separated from each other in the real world because a number of chemical agents contaminate food chains.
Objective: We propose a unifying mechanism that can link epigenetic alterations in relation to DNA hypomethylation due to chemical agents and to nutrient deficiency or imbalance, emphasizing the importance of an integrative approach in the field of environmental epidemiology.
Discussion: Methyl groups from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) are needed for DNA methylation. Thus, diets low in sources of methyl groups can lead to global DNA hypomethylation by impairing synthesis of SAM. However, even without nutritional deficiency, enhanced need to synthesize glutathione (GSH) can impair synthesis of SAM and perturb DNA methylation, because the methylation cycle and the GSH synthesis pathways are biochemically linked. Exposure to environmental chemicals is a common situation in which the need for GSH synthesis is enhanced, because GSH is consumed to conjugate diverse chemicals. Given that GSH conjugation happens at any chemical dose, this hypothesis is relevant even at exposures below the high doses that cause toxicological responses.
Conclusion: At present, general populations are exposed to a large number of chemicals, each at a very low dose. Thus, DNA hypomethylation due to chemical exposure may be common in modern societies and can synergistically interact with nutrition-induced DNA hypomethylation.
"These brain functional abnormalities were correlated with the severity of the disease, and not with anxiety or depression, in regions of the brain known to be involved in pain processing."
"Japan passed a law offering financial compensation to tens of thousands more victims of a mercury poisoning disaster in the 1950s blamed for generations of birth defects."
Pall ML. The Tenth Paradigm Research Group and School of Molecular Biosciences (WSU), 638 NE 41st Ave., Portland, OR 97232-3312, USA.
Sauna therapy has been used to treat a number of different diseases known or thought to have a tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) deficiency. It has been interpreted to act in multiple chemical sensitivity by increasing chemical detoxification and excretion but there is no evidence that this is its main mode of action. Sauna therapy may act to increase BH4 availability via two distinct pathways. Increased blood flow in heated surface tissues leads to increased vascular shear stress, inducing increased activity of GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTPCH-I) in those vascular tissues which will lead to increasing BH4 synthesis. A second mechanism involves the heat shock protein Hsp90, which is induced by even modest heating of mammalian tissues. Sauna heating of these surface tissues may act via Hsp90, which interacts with the GTPCH-I complex and is reported to produce increased GTPCH-I activity by lowering its degradation. The increased consequent availability of BH4 may lead to lowered nitric oxide synthase uncoupling, such as has been reported for the eNOS enzyme. Increased BH4 synthesis in surface tissues of the body will produce increased circulating BH4 which will feed BH4 to other body tissues that may have been BH4 deficient. Similar mechanisms may act in vigorous exercise due to the increased blood shear stresses and possibly also heating of the exercising tissues and heart. There is a large and rapidly increasing number of diseases that are associated with BH4 depletion and these may be candidates for sauna therapy. Such diseases as hypertension, vascular endothelial dysfunction, multiple chemical sensitivity and heart failure are thought to be helped by sauna therapy and chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia may also be helped and there are others that may be good candidates for sauna therapy.
PMID: 19581054 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
"When Congress originally passed the Social Security Act in the 1930's it did not provide any disability benefits, only retirement income for people over 65. In the 1960's it was amended to also allow for recovery of the same benefit amount that would be realized on retirement, if a wage earner became unable to continue to work prior to age 65 due to physical or mental impairments."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a $1.4 million joint study with the University of Michigan on the health effects of air pollution on children living near the nation's heavily traveled thoroughfares. The study is funded through EPA's Science to Achieve Results program."
"The European Chemicals Agency, which coordinates the REACH program in the European Union (EU), recommended in June 2009 that seven chemicals, most of which are widely used in construction products, should be restricted. If adopted by the EU, these recommendations could significantly affect polystyrene insulation and flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products."
"A Toronto-area woman left in chronic pain after a hospital bed-chair collapsed under her has won damages of more than $3 million — a sum her lawyer says may be unprecedented in a type of lawsuit where there is no physical evidence of injury."
"The goal of a new CDC Website, the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, is to become a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to investigate environmental causes of illness, from asthma to well water."
Doctors Asking for More Education PDF Version: http://mcs-america.org/July2009pg8.pdf Online Version: http://mcs-america.org/mcsanewsjuly2009.htm#_Doctors_Asking_for
"Over 60% of general practitioners surveyed in Denmark have been consulted by at least one patient with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) in the past year.
More than half of these physicians recognize that these patients are in a chronic condition which requires medical intervention. Yet, they feel that they are rarely able to meet healthcare expectations for this population and the majority refer the patient to other specialists."
"A new study of expectant mothers suggests that a group of common environmental contaminants called phthalates, which are present in many industrial and consumer products including everyday personal care items, may contribute to the country's alarming rise in premature births."
ABSTRACT: Background Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disease of unknown aetiology. A patient with CFS had unexpected, marked recovery of CFS symptoms lasting for five months during and after cytotoxic chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. We reasoned that the transient CFS recovery was related to methotrexate treatment, which induces immunomodulation in part through B-cell depletion. Methods In a case series, this patient and two additional CFS patients were B-cell depleted by infusion of the monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody rituximab. Results All three had improvement of all CFS symptoms. Patients 1 and 2 had major amelioration from 6 weeks after intervention, patient 3 slight improvement from the same time, but then improved markedly from 26 weeks after intervention. The symptomatic effect lasted until weeks 16, 18 and 44, respectively. At relapse, all were retreated with a single (patient 1) or double rituximab infusion (patients 2 and 3). Again, all three had marked symptom improvement, mimicking their first response. After new symptom recurrence, patients 1 and 2 were given weekly oral methotrexate, patient 1 having effect also from this agent. Patients 1 and 2 were again treated for a third rituximab infusion after new relapse, again with a marked clinical benefit. No unexpected toxicity was seen. Conclusion These observations suggest that B-lymphocytes are involved in CFS pathogenesis for a subset of patients. Benefit for all CFS symptoms, the delayed symptom relief following B-cell depletion, the kinetics of relapses, and the effect also from methotrexate treatment, provide suggestive evidence that B-cells play a significant role in the ongoing clinical features, and that CFS may be amenable to therapeutic interventions aimed at modifying B-cell number and function. More systematic investigations of this therapeutic strategy, and of its biological basis, are now needed.
PMID: 19566965 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Centro de Estudos de Saúde do Trabalhador e Ecologia Humana, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. castro@ensp.fi ocruz.br
OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between daily exposure to air pollution and lung function in school children. METHODS: Panel study with a random sample of 118 students (between 6 and 15 years of age), enrolled in a public school of the city of Rio de Janeiro, state of Rio de Janeiro, and living within 2 km of the study site. Data on students' characteristics were obtained with a questionnaire, including the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood - ISAAC. Daily peak expiratory flow measurements were taken to measure lung function. Daily data on PM10, SO2, O3, NO2 and CO levels, temperature and humidity were provided by a portable monitor. Repeated measurements of lung function were associated with pollutant levels with a multilevel model adjusted for time trend, temperature, air humidity, exposure to smoking at home, presence of asthma, height, sex, weight and age of children. RESULTS: Mean peak expiratory flow was 243.5 l/m (sd=58.9). The lowest mean peak expiratory flow was 124 l/m, and the highest, 450 l/m. For the 10 microg/m(3) increase in PM10, there was a 0.34 l/min decrease in mean peak flow on the third day. For the 10 microg/m(3) increase in NO2, there was a decrease between 0.23 l/min and 0.28 l/min in mean peak flow after exposure. CO and SO2 effects on students' peak flow were not statistically significant. O3 showed a protective result: an increase in 10 microg/m(3) of O3 would be associated, after a day of exposure, with a 0.2 l/min increase in mean lung function. CONCLUSIONS: Even within acceptable levels most of the time, air pollution, especially PM10 and NO2, was associated with a decrease in lung function in children living in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Chronic Disease: Who is Killing Us and How? http://thetruthaboutmcs.blogspot.com/2009/07/chronic-disease-who-is-killing-us-and.html
MICROBIOLOGIST GARTH NICOLSON interview, (Sudbury, Ontario Aug. 30, 2008). Will YOUR doctor tell you about weaponized mycoplasma? About engineered mycoplasma pathogens in vaccines? Or will he or she treat your symptoms, hook you up for life (or death) on high-priced (and often dangerous) drugs?
What's the real story of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Gulf War Syndrome, AIDS and other degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Crohns, Parkinson's, Huntington's, Lupus, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes (type one) and MANY others? If your doctor doesn't know about (or isn't CURIOUS about) US chemical & biological warfare, Operation Paperclip, MKNAOMI, MKDELTA, Texas prison inmates being used as guinea pigs to test genetically engineered pathogens (mycoplasma fermentans incognitus), then get another doctor. You can't afford not to know what Dr. Nicolson is carefully, cautiously, telling us.
Nicolson was a speaker at the 9th Common Cause Medical Research Foundation Conference, Sudbury Canada (Aug 29-31, 2008).
GARTH NICOLSON is a whistle-blower. The kind that movies won't be made about because the conspiracy is huge, on-going, and reaches to the top. It reveals a key element (a silent weapon) in the quiet war on the 'lower orders.'
But SURELY parents (and grandparents) want to know - for starters - what's going on with vaccines their children are forced to take by the Benevolent Homeland.
This video is subtitled, 'Who's killing us, and how?' The title avoids the question,'why?' Garth Nicolson, PhD, avers it's for money, greed. Surely, that's a big part of it.
Dr. Nicolson is the President, Chief Scientific Officer and Research Professor at the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, California. Born in 1943 in Los Angeles, Dr. Nicolson received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of California at Los Angeles in 1965 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California at San Diego in 1970. He is currently Professor of Integrative Medicine at Capitol University of Integrative Medicine and a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle (Australia). He was formally the David Bruton Jr. Chair in Cancer Research and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Tumor Biology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and he was Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He was also Professor of Comparative Pathology at Texas A & M University. Among the most cited scientists in the world, Professor Nicolson has published over 550 medical and scientific papers (including 3 Current Contents Citation Classics), edited 14 books, served on the Editorial Boards of 20 medical and scientific journals and is currently serving as Editor of two (Clinical & Experimental Metastasis and the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry). Professor Nicolson has received peer-reviewed research grants from the U. S. Army, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. Dr. Garth Nicolson has won many awards, such as the Burroughs Wellcome Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine (United Kingdom), Stephen Paget Award of the Metastasis Research Society, the U. S. National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award, and the Innovative Medicine Award of Canada. He is also a Colonel (Honorary) of the U. S. Army Special Forces and a U. S. Navy SEAL (Honorary) for his work on Armed Forces and veterans illnesses.
For interview transcript, see snowshoefilms website. See also Dr. Nicolson's book, Project Day Lily and William L.C.Scott and Donald W.Scott's magnificent book, AIDS: The Crime Beyond Belief.
