Rachel's News #843: Expanding the Movement

February 24, 2006

rachel

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 21:34:35 -0500

..

Precaution trainings are now set for Mar. 31-Apr. 2 in New Brunswick,

N.J.; May 19-21 near Chicago; June 23-25 in Seattle. Some scholarships

are available. More info here.

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Rachel's Democracy & Health News #843

" Environment, health, jobs and justice--Who gets to decide? "

Thursday, February 23, 2006

www.rachel.org -- To make a secure donation,

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Featured stories in this issue...

Health and Environmental Health: Expanding the Movement

We " environmental health " activists could appeal to a larger

segment of the public if we based our work on all three environments

that determine human health: the natural, the built, and the social.

Diane Wilson Released from Jail

Diane Wilson, indomitable activist from Seadrift, Texas, and

author of An Unreasonable Woman was released from jail Feb. 17.

Now she can continue her quest to bring Dow Chemical to justice.

The Weinberg Proposal

Following up on last week's Rachel's #842, about corporate hired

guns faking scientific studies -- here's a long expose by the American

Chemical Society describing a hired-gun consulting firm called The

Weinberg Group.

New Thinking on Neurodevelopment

About 17% of school-age children in the United States suffer from a

disability that affects their behavior, memory, or ability to learn.

And the incidence of these disorders is rising. What's that about? Why

can't we do better by our kids?

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Rachel's Democracy & Health News #843, Feb. 23, 2006

HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH: EXPANDING THE MOVEMENT

By Peter Montague

Since 1970, we " environmental health " activists have tiptoed onto

territory occupied by public health professionals. But so far we have

not fully embraced the public health approach -- defining and

conducting our " environmental health " work as a branch of public

health -- and as a result, our work does not yet appeal to large

segments of the public.. We are seen as elitists worried about

irrelevant problems. We could easily change this.

Health and " environmental health "

The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines the mission of public

health this way: " to fulfill society's interest in assuring conditions

in which people can be healthy. "

The preamble to the constitution of the World Health Organization

(WHO, July 22, 1946), defines health as " a state of complete well-

being, physical, social, and mental, and not merely the absence of

disease or infirmity. "

The WHO constitution also defines health as a basic human right: " The

enjoyment of the highest standard of health is one of the fundamental

rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion,

political belief, economic or social condition. " This is consistent

with Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of

1948, which says,

" Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the

health and well-being of himself and his/her family, including food,

clothing, housing, and medical care. "

The World Health Organization defines " environmental health " as

" those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are

determined by physical, chemical, biological, social, and psychosocial

factors in the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice

of assessing, correcting, controlling, and preventing those factors in

the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of

present and future generations. "

The Pew Commission on Environmental Health defined environmental

health this way: " Environmental health comprises those aspects of

human health, including quality of life, that are determined by

interactions with physical, chemical, biological and social factors in

the environment. It also refers to the theory and practice of

assessing, correcting, controlling and preventing those factors in the

environment that may adversely affect the health of present and future

generations. "

In the U.S., 3000 county and municipal health officials are

represented by the National Association of County and City Health

Officials (NACCHO). In Resolution 99-13, NACCHO specifically

recognizes that " environment and health are intimately related, and

environmental health is a public health activity... " So public health

workers seem to be inviting " environmental health " activists onto

their turf. What is holding us back?

The crux of the matter is that there are three " environments " that

affect human health: the natural environment, the built environment,

and the social environment. Each is crucial to public health. We

" environmental health " activists have embraced the first two, but not

all of us have yet embraced the third. Getting to that third

" environment " is crucial for expanding our appeal to a broader

audience.

The natural environment

For eons people have recognized that human health depends on the

natural world. To thrive, we need clean water, clean air, and good

food. However, there are two other " environments " upon which our

health also depends -- the built environment and the social

environment.

The built environment

We've known about the importance of the built environment for more

than 2000 years. As humans began to crowd into small cities and

disease rates soared, Hippocrates in Greece and later Vitruvius in

Rome realized that positive steps must be taken to maintain conditions

in which people can be healthy.

In Greece and Rome, buildings were oriented to take advantage of fresh

air and sunlight. The Roman aqueducts brought in fresh water, which

was then distributed city-wide. The Roman baths made cleanliness

possible for everyone. Certain occupations, such as silver mining,

were known to cause illness and death. These early understandings

formed the basis for what in the late 19th century became known as

" public health. "

In England during the early, awful days of industrialization, which

Charles Dickens described so convincingly in the 1840s, the

government recognized that disease arose from both the built and the

social environments. Disease was caused by fetid air and improper

waste disposal, but it was also caused by poverty and human

degradation. In 1845 Friedrich Engels published the Condition of

the Working Class in England in 1844, cataloging what Charles Dickens

had portrayed in novels -- unspeakable conditions of filth, poverty,

and degradation giving rise to disease and death.

The social environment and the social determinants of health

The German physician Rudolf Virchow is known as the " father of

modern pathology " but he also pioneered our understanding of how

social conditions foster health or disease. In 1848 the German

government sent Virchow to Upper Silesia to investigate an epidemic of

typhus. In his report, he said the epidemic was attributable to

miserable living conditions, inadequate diet, and poor hygiene -- and,

he said, these conditions were, in turn, attributable to feudalism,

lack of democracy, and unfair tax policies. Thus Virchow identified

the social environment as an important factor in human disease.

>From these roots grew the modern public health perspective on human

well-being: society must create the conditions in which people can be

healthy, and disease must be prevented whenever possible, rather than

relying only on the curative powers of the physician. To this day,

prevention is the keystone idea of public health practice. The medical

model (one doctor, one patient) can only go so far, The public health

model (preventive intervention by proper authorities at the level of

the entire population) is essential for community health.

Providing clean water, offering vaccinations, establishing fire codes

and structural requirements for buildings, requiring landlords to

provide a modicum of sunlight and fresh air in rental properties --

these are population-wide public health interventions needed to

prevent disease and injury.

Public health professionals fully understand that the natural and

built environments are important for maintaining human health. The

National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has

passed resolutions urging governments and the public to pay attention

to both the natural and built environments, in order to maintain the

health of populations. (See for example, NACCHO resolution 03-02 to

support land use planning and design, and NACCHO resolution 98-06 on

brownfields. And see NACCHO's statement, " Integrating Public Health

into Land Use Decision-Making. "

Activists in the " environmental health " movement also understand the

importance of the natural and built environments to human health.

Highways, sprawl, " brownfields, " poisoned land, unsafe food additives,

pesticides, contaminated drinking water -- these are all things that

" environmental health " activists routinely tackle.

But in one respect, public health professionals are somewhat ahead of

environmental health activists -- in recognizing how the social

environment affects health. For example, NACCHO Resolution 02-04

acknowledges that " a significant body of research in the last fifteen

years documents clearly that socioeconomic inequality, poor quality of

life, and low socioeconomic status are principal causes of morbidity

[sickness] and mortality [death]. " We have put together a

bibliography highlighting some of that literature.

NACCHO Resolution 02-04 goes on to say, " We embrace social justice as

the cornerstone of our work, recognizing that equity, shared decision

making and attention to the social determinants of disease are central

to promoting healthy communities. "

In testimony before the National Institute of Medicine March 20, 2002,

Adewale Troutman, representing NACCHO, described the " root causes of

the current picture of ill health of large segments of our population:

social injustice, economic inequality, and racism. "

The World Health Organization (WHO) accepts that the " social

determinants of health " must be addressed if we are to protect and

maintain public health. In 1998, WHO said, " Policy and action for

health need to be geared towards addressing the social determinants of

health in order to attack the causes of ill health before they can

lead to problems. " Notice the preventive approach. Attack the causes

BEFORE they can lead to problems.

In a 2003 booklet, called The Social Determinants of Health: The

Solid Facts, WHO discussed 10 aspects of " the social determinants of

health. " Here are a few excerpts:

1. THE SOCIAL GRADIENT

Poor social and economic circumstances affect health throughout life.

People further down the social ladder usually run at least twice the

risk of serious illness and premature death as those near the top. Nor

are the effects confined to the poor: the social gradient in health

runs right across society, so that even among middle-class office

workers, lower ranking staff suffer much more disease and earlier

death than higher ranking staff. Both material and psychosocial causes

contribute to these differences and their effects extend to most

diseases and causes of death.

2. STRESS

Stressful circumstances, making people feel worried, anxious and

unable to cope, are damaging to health and may lead to premature

death.

Social and psychological circumstances can cause long-term stress.

Continuing anxiety, insecurity, low self-esteem, social isolation and

lack of control over work and home life, have powerful effects on

health. Such psychosocial risks accumulate during life and increase

the chances of poor mental health and premature death.

In schools, workplaces and other institutions, the quality of the

social environment and material security are often as important to

health as the physical environment.

3. EARLY LIFE

A good start in life means supporting mothers and young children: the

health impact of early development and education lasts a lifetime.

....[T]he foundations of adult health are laid in early childhood and

before birth. Slow growth and poor emotional support raise the

lifetime risk of poor physical health and reduce physical, cognitive

and emotional functioning in adulthood.

Slow or retarded physical growth in infancy is associated with reduced

cardiovascular, respiratory, pancreatic and kidney development and

function, which increase the risk of illness in adulthood.

4. SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Life is short where its quality is poor. By causing hardship and

resentment, poverty, social exclusion and discrimination cost lives.

Relative poverty means being much poorer than most people in society

and is often defined as living on less than 60% of the national median

income. It denies people access to decent housing, education,

transport and other factors vital to full participation in life. Being

excluded from the life of society and treated as less than equal leads

to worse health and greater risks of premature death. The stresses of

living in poverty are particularly harmful during pregnancy, to

babies, children and old people. In some countries, as much as one

quarter of the total population - and a higher proportion of children

- live in relative poverty.

Social exclusion also results from racism, discrimination,

stigmatization, hostility and unemployment. These processes prevent

people from participating in education or training, and gaining access

to services and citizenship activities. They are socially and

psychologically damaging, materially costly, and harmful to health.

5. WORK

Stress in the workplace increases the risk of disease. People who have

more control over their work have better health.

In general, having a job is better for health than having no job. But

the social organization of work, management styles and social

relationships in the workplace all matter for health. Evidence shows

that stress at work plays an important role in contributing to the

large social status differences in health, sickness absence and

premature death.

Having little control over one's work is particularly strongly related

to an increased risk of low back pain, sickness absence and

cardiovascular disease.

6. UNEMPLOYMENT

Job security increases health, well-being and job satisfaction. Higher

rates of unemployment cause more illness and premature death.

The health effects of unemployment are linked to both its

psychological consequences and the financial problems it brings -

especially debt.

Unemployment puts health at risk, and the risk is higher in regions

where unemployment is widespread. Evidence from a number of countries

shows that, even after allowing for other factors, unemployed people

and their families suffer a substantially increased risk of premature

death.

Policy should have three goals: to prevent unemployment and job

insecurity; to reduce the hardship suffered by the unemployed; and to

restore people to secure jobs.

7. SOCIAL SUPPORT

Friendship, good social relations and strong supportive networks

improve health at home, at work and in the community.

Social support and good social relations make an important

contribution to health. Social support helps give people the emotional

and practical resources they need. Belonging to a social network of

communication and mutual obligation makes people feel cared for,

loved, esteemed and valued. This has a powerful protective effect on

health.

8. ADDICTION

Individuals turn to alcohol, drugs and tobacco and suffer from their

use, but use is influenced by the wider social setting.

Drug use is both a response to social breakdown and an important

factor in worsening the resulting inequalities in health. It offers

users a mirage of escape from adversity and stress, but only makes

their problems worse.

The use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs is fostered by

aggressive marketing and promotion by major transnational companies

and by organized crime. Their activities are a major barrier to policy

initiatives to reduce use among young people....

9. FOOD

Because global market forces control the food supply, healthy food is

a political issue.

A shortage of food and lack of variety cause malnutrition and

deficiency diseases. Excess intake (also a form of malnutrition)

contributes to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, degenerative

eye diseases, obesity and dental caries. Food poverty exists side by

side with food plenty. The important public health issue is the

availability and cost of healthy, nutritious food Access to good,

affordable food makes more difference to what people eat than health

education.

10. TRANSPORT

Healthy transport means less driving and more walking and cycling,

backed up by better public transport.

Cycling, walking and the use of public transport promote health in

four ways. They provide exercise, reduce fatal accidents, increase

social contact and reduce air pollution.

Because mechanization has reduced the exercise involved in jobs and

house work and added to the growing epidemic of obesity, people need

to find new ways of building exercise into their lives. Transport

policy can play a key role in combating sedentary lifestyles by

reducing reliance on cars, increasing walking and cycling, and

expanding public transport.

Summary

So there you have it. By embracing all three environments -- natural,

built, and social -- environmental health activists could broaden

their appeal to segments of the public who now think of " environment "

as irrelevant, divorced from the problems of real life. Embracing that

third environment -- the social determinants of health -- would help

us develop an effective, lasting movement for change. Another world IS

possible.

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Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS), Feb. 21, 2006

DIANE WILSON RELEASED FROM JAIL

" Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them...or shall we

transgress them at once? " wrote Henry David Thoreau in his famed

essay, " Civil Disobedience. " On Friday, February 17 another

inspiring American activist, Diane Wilson, was released after 74

days in a cold and crowded Texas jail cell. She had been arrested in

Houston on December 5th for speaking out during a fundraiser for

recently-indicted U.S. Representative Tom Delay, then jailed under

an existing warrant for protesting at the Dow Chemical plant in her

hometown of Seadrift, Texas. Diane Wilson went to prison for making

the point that the world's worst chemical disaster could well be

repeated in her backyard.

Take action now to insist that Texas governor Rick Perry enforce

laws against toxic Texas polluters.

In 2002, Wilson climbed a chemical tower at the Dow plant in her

hometown of Seadrift, Texas, and dropped a banner declaring, " Dow-

Responsible for Bhopal. " Dow is the sole owner of the chemical company

Union Carbide, which operated a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. In

1984 the poorly maintained factory exploded, filling the streets of

the city with toxic clouds of methyl isocyanate gas. The Indian

government charged Union Carbide and its former CEO Warren Anderson

with manslaughter for killing 15,000 people--although the real figure

may well be over 20,000--and claimed damages for injuries to 100,000

more.

Wilson's imprisonment raises the question of just who our justice

system is protecting us from. Twenty one years after the explosion,

Anderson has yet to appear for his criminal trial in India. Meanwhile,

the citizens of Bhopal who survived that ghoulish night continue to

suffer and die not only from the long-term effects of continuing

contamination, but also from the poverty that comes from being too

sick to support a family. Survivors of the Bhopal gas leak are

demanding that Anderson and Dow face trial, clean up the toxic site,

pay for medical treatment and compensation for illnesses, and provide

economic rehabilitation for those whose ability to work has been

affected.

On February 20th, 150 survivors of the Union Carbide plant explosion

and victims of the resulting groundwater contamination have set off on

foot to New Delhi demanding a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Depending on the response of the central government, the marchers may

decide to go on an indefinite fast at the end of their 900 kilometer

long march. Read a daily blog on the march at

http://www.bhopal.net/march/.

Those who suffer from Dow's pollution in the United States are

recognizing that they have a tangible common bond with the Bhopal

survivors. Wilson, a mother of five, captained a shrimp boat off the

coast of Seadrift, Texas for years until she noticed that her friends

were getting cancer and the shrimp she depended on were dying. When

she found out that Dow and other chemical plants were dumping lethal

ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into her beloved bays, Wilson

launched herself on a mission to stop the pollution. She hatched a

plan to sink her shrimp boat on top of a dioxin flume, and left her

livelihood behind to fight full time against corporate power.

Recognizing her community's bond with others harmed by the chemical

industry, Wilson forged an alliance with the survivors in Bhopal,

resulting in her action at Dow's Seadrift plant.

A Texas court charged Wilson with a minor misdemeanor for trespassing,

but instead of showing up for her sentence immediately, she took off

in search of fellow fugitive Warren Anderson. " This company has

warrants after their arrest, and they can be defiant and not show up,

but let a little woman with a banner drop it... and I'm a dangerous

woman, and I have to be thrown in jail, " Wilson decried.

Wilson's stay in jail was not a comfortable experience. She spent her

first several days sleeping huddled on the floor without even a

blanket or a toothbrush, in a cell where the one tiny window was

papered over. " It feels incredible, just incredible to be out, " she

stated Friday a few hours after being released. " I've had a lot of

people, especially the girls inside who know what it's like to sit on

the floor of a crowded cell every day, tell me, 'I guess you won't do

this again. " "

Yet her spirit has only been strengthened. " I told them I don't regret

it, and I would do it again. We have to take our issues as seriously

as the corporations and administration do. We need to be as committed

to our issues as we can be; we need to draw a line and hold it. "

Shocked by the conditions she found in the Victoria County Jail,

Wilson drafted a letter to the local sheriff deploring the worst

abuses. " The women in this jail are predominantly African American or

Hispanic and very poor. Most of their offenses are minor, for things

like traffic tickets or soliciting or violating probation--all non-

violent, yet they are forced to remain in the cell without counsel for

long periods of time, " she wrote. Wilson's letter also described how

lack of health care in the jail resulted in cases of a ruptured

gallbladder, kidney failure, and even the tragic death of a newborn

baby whose inmate mother was placed in solitary confinement when her

water broke, leaving her to face a breech birth on her own.

" Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a

just man is also a prison, " Thoreau declared after spending one night

in jail in 1849 for refusing to pay taxes to a government that

supported slavery. Thoreau's teachings that individuals should follow

their own moral compass when the laws of their country are unjust

provided the philosophical base for the actions of Gandhi and Martin

Luther King, Jr. Today, Diane Wilson uses her moral compass to draw

the lines of right and wrong, to speak out that polluting her

community and taking the lives of 15,000 people and injuring 100,000

more in India is a much greater crime than unfurling a banner from a

tower, or the minor transgressions of her cell mates.

A government that allows corporations to commit crimes with impunity

becomes implicit in these crimes itself. A freedom of information act

request in 2004 revealed that the U.S. State Department denied India's

extradition order for Warren Anderson after the U.S. Department of

Commerce joined Union Carbide in pleading on Anderson's behalf.

Thoreau described the act of civil disobedience as asserting personal

freedom--freeing oneself from the fear of state retribution for non-

cooperation with injustice. " I saw that, if there was a wall of stone

between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to

climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was, "

he observed from his jail cell. We curtail our own freedom with fear

of speaking out. Yet there is a Diane Wilson in each of us, a core of

courage to honor our own moral compass, to stride past fear toward the

freedom to act on our convictions, to be as committed to our issues as

we can be.

Take action!

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is currently

revising its penalty policy, providing an opportunity to push for

greater accountability against polluters that break the law and put

public health at risk. Call Governor Perry to support stricter

enforcement and penalties against corporate polluters.

Sources:

For more information on the struggle of the Bhopal survivors, visit

the Students for Bhopal web site: http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/M

archToDelhi.htm#March

Wilson, Diane. 2006. Letter from Jail. http://www.chelseagreen.com/2

005/items/unreasonablewoman/fromjail

Pesticide Action Network. 2005. The 21st Anniversary of the Bhopal

Pesticide Plant Explosion. http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/pa

nup_20051202.dv.html

Thoreau, Henry David. 1849. " Civil Disobedience. " See http://eserve

r.org/thoreau/civil.html

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and

reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the

mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North

America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to

advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and

all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit

http://www.panna.org/donate.

Email us at: panna. Phone us at: (415) 981-1771. Also see

Contact and visit information.

(PANNA).

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Environmental Science & Technology Online News, Feb. 21, 2006

THE WEINBERG PROPOSAL

A scientific consulting firm says that it aids companies in trouble,

but critics say that it manufactures uncertainty and undermines

science.

By Paul D. Thacker

Tucked away inside the U.S. EPA's docket on PFOA, a chemical

manufactured by DuPont, is a 5-page letter written in April 2003 by

the Weinberg Group, an international scientific consulting firm

based in Washington, D.C. The letter is addressed to DuPont's vice

president of special initiatives, Jane Brooks, and lays out a

proposal for how the Weinberg Group can help the company deal with a

growing regulatory and legal crisis over PFOA (perfluorooctanoic

acid). PFOA is a common building block of the perfluorocarbon family

of chemicals, which are renowned for their water and stain resistance.

PFOA is the compound used to make Teflon and was once used in other

products such as Scotchgard, Stainmaster, and Gore-Tex.

Critics say that the tactics detailed in the Weinberg proposal are

commonly used by chemical and pharmaceutical companies trying to

combat lawsuits and regulations against their products. View the

proposal [354KB PDF] " The constant theme which permeates our

recommendations on the issues faced by DuPont is that DUPONT MUST

SHAPE THE DEBATE AT ALL LEVELS, " states the letter (emphasis in

original). For 23 years, the letter continues, the Weinberg Group " has

helped numerous companies manage issues allegedly related to

environmental exposures. Beginning with Agent Orange in 1983, we have

successfully guided clients through myriad regulatory, litigation and

public relations challenges posed by those whose agenda is to grossly

over regulate, extract settlements from, or otherwise damage the

chemical manufacturing industry. "

Although a DuPont spokesperson confirmed that they had hired the

Weinberg Group, no evidence exist that they followed through with all

the items outlined in the plan. Nevertheless, experts contend that the

document provides one of the clearest examples they have seen to

illustrate how consulting firms help industries deal with scientific

questions about the safety or health consequences of their products.

These firms develop legal defense campaigns, ostensibly based on

science, to sway juries during trials, to counteract potential

regulatory oversight, and to influence the public's view about the

health effects of products. Critics such as David Michaels, chair of

the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at George

Washington University, charge that these groups " manufacture

uncertainty " -- a term Michaels coined -- in order to prevent or delay

regulations and civil lawsuits.

========================================================

SIDEBAR

Critics say that the tactics detailed in the Weinberg proposal are

commonly used by chemical and pharmaceutical companies trying to

combat lawsuits and regulations against their products.

View the Weinberg Group's propsal [345 L PDF]

========================================================

The 2003 letter from the Weinberg Group arrived at DuPont as EPA was

finishing up a draft risk assessment on the possible health effects of

PFOA. The company was also facing a civil-action lawsuit in West

Virginia with plaintiffs alleging that they suffered deleterious

health effects from PFOA in their drinking water. In 2004 and 2005, JP

Morgan Worldwide Securities Services released reports [1MB PDF] for

DuPont investors predicting that the company faced potential EPA fines

of more than $300 million and a total liability of $150-$800 million.

DuPont also faced risks to its fluoropolymers and telomers business,

which the report pegged at about $1.23 billion (4% of total sales),

with $100 million in after-tax profits, in 2004. In fact, DuPont

settled the class-action lawsuit with residents around a manufacturing

plant in March 2005 for $107 million. And in December 2005, DuPont

agreed to spend $16.5 million to settle allegations that it withheld

from EPA the results of a 1981 study that showed PFOA can cross the

placental barrier in humans.

========================================================

SIDEBAR: Transcript

The following is a transcript of an interview with Mr. Matthew

Weinberg, who is the CEO of the Weinberg Group. ES & T has gone to the

offices of the Weinberg Group and has offered Matthew Weinberg a

chance to review and comment on a letter from the Weinberg Group that

was found in the US EPA docket on PFOA. The letter is addressed to

DuPont and is signed by Mr. Terrence Gaffney, Vice President of

product defense for the Weinberg Group.

ES & T later contacted DuPont and the company confirmed that the

Weinberg Group had " assisted us in identifying scientific third party

experts on an issue involving the company. " The DuPont spokesperson

later stated that this issue was " probably PFOA. "

A: A paper ostensibly from the Weinberg group. Okay, I can see what it

says.

Q: Terrence Gaffney is no longer working with you, is he?

A: That's correct.

Q: Okay. Um, did you guys, uh, ever end up taking this account?

A: I'm not at liberty to discuss our clients.

Q: Um, okay. If I called DuPont, would they tell me that you had

worked for them or that you had not worked for them?

A: I have no idea what DuPont would tell you.

Q: Okay.

A: You'd have to ask DuPont.

Q: Is this a typical sort of contract that, um, that you send out?

A: No. That is not a contract.

Q: Well, I mean a typical sort of a sales pitch. Is this typical of

the type of work that Weinberg does, or...?

A: I don't know. The Weinberg group is a scientific consulting firm.

Q: Okay.

A: We assist companies in putting forth the right data about their

products, as one part of our business.

Q: So you're not certain if this document is, is...you don't know if

this is an actual document or not? Are you uncertain?

A: No. It would appear it's a document that left our office.

Q: Okay.

Q: I could find no evidence you guys had ended up working for DuPont.

Um, none that I could find, and none that, uh, when I was banging

around looking for other people...EPA could find no evidence either,

although there might be more documents, um, in the discovery process

which would come out, um, and maybe at that time I might have to come

back and talk to you again. I don't know specifically whether I will

or not.

A: I'll be happy to take your call any time you call me.

Q: Um, who are you guys representing on phthalates?

A: I'm not at liberty to discuss any of our clients.

Q: Okay.

Q: But Mr. Lamb is working for you? Is that correct?

A: Dr. Lamb is working...Dr. Lamb is an employee of the Weinberg

group.

Q: Okay. Um, in the, uh, tobacco legacy documents, when it refers to a

Mr. Weinberg, that was your father? Is that your father, Myron?

A: Well, I believe it refers to Dr. Weinberg, then that would be my

father, Myron.

Q: Your father Myron?

A: That's correct.

Q: Your father, is he still an employee?

A: Well...

Q: Is he retired?

A: Which question do you want me to answer?

Q: Well, is he...?

A: He is no longer an employee of the Weinberg group.

Q: Okay. Do you know where Mr. Gaffney is?

A: I have no idea where Mr. Gaffney is.

Q: Okay.

A: I'm not being coy. Dr. Weinberg is still working.

Q: Oh, he is? Okay.

A: And still does work for the Weinberg group.

Q: Okay.

A: I answered your questions accurately.

Q: No. That's fine. It doesn't really matter.

A: But I realize you walked away with an...with the wrong impression.

Q: Okay.

A: He's simply no longer an employee.

Q: Okay. Um, so anything else you'd like to say, after reading this?

Do you have any comment on...

A: Do you have any questions?

Q: Well, one of the things I was interested in was, um...I don't know.

I just wanted to give you a chance to read it and see if you....

A: I've perused it.

Q: Okay. Um, I was wondering what specifically...there was one

particular passage in here that I thought was kind of interesting. Um,

" reshape the debate by identifying the likely known health benefits of

PFOA exposure by analyzing existing data and/or constructing a study

to establish not only that PFOA is safe over a range of serum

concentrations levels but it offers real health benefits. " In

parentheses it says " oxygen carrying capacity and prevention of CAD. "

Which is cardiovascular...oh I'm sorry. Wait. cardiovascular disease.

Um, but cardiovascular disease....

Did you find any, has there been any, um, anything published in the

peer-reviewed literature that would lead one to believe that?

A: I have no...I am not an expert on PFOA and I couldn't tell you

what's been published or what hasn't been.

Q: Okay. Alright. I just wanted to give you a chance....Do you have

anything else to say?

A: I guess I have a question for you. I don't understand what you see

in that document that's worthy of a conversation between us.

Q: Well, it was very interesting, is when I showed this passage, that

passage, particularly to David Ozonoff. I don't know if you know who

he is.

A: I've heard the name, but I can't place him.

Q: Um, he's at BU. He was on the SAB panel for PFOA and he, uh, called

that particular passage sort of, uh, " fantasy thinking. "

A: Okay. Uh, uh, I would...would suggest strongly that the letter you

are looking at appears to have been a marketing document.

Q: Okay.

A: I do not think that it is a document that in any way, shape, or

form, makes claims, nor is it intended to represent a specific point

of view. It is a marketing document telling them things we maybe

think...are possible. But I believe it clearly states...you just read

me a part that says " study and analysis are needed. " I don't believe

the document purports to say that that's been done.

Q: Okay.

A: It may have been done. It may have been done by others. I don't

believe this document makes this claim that we had done that work at

this point or that we were ever going to do that work.

Q: Okay.

A: My only suggestion would be that you stick to what the document

says and not attempt to expand beyond what it doesn't say.

Q: Oh, I'm not expanding anything. I'm just passing it to other people

and having them look at it and giving you what their opinion is.

A: Well, then their opinion of what we wrote, would be their opinion.

Q: Right.

A: It wouldn't necessarily be fact. Because they didn't write it.

Q: Right. Exactly. That's why it's their opinion. That's understood.

A: But in science, there's fact.

Q: Right.

A: Not opinion.

Q: Right.

A: I grant you that people can interpret scientific data differently

based on various rationale. But truth in science is what I believe all

reputable scientists seek.

Q: Okay. I think that's it. Do you have anything else to say?

A: I'll give you my card.

Q: Okay.

========================================================

ES & T confirmed the letter's authenticity with Matthew Weinberg, CEO of

the Weinberg Group, and a spokesperson for DuPont told ES & T that the

Weinberg Group did work for the company several years ago: " They

assisted us in identifying scientific third-party experts on an issue

involving the company. " However, when asked to describe the work, the

spokesperson would only say, " Probably PFOA. I think the letter was

written three years ago. "

In an interview, Weinberg described the proposal as a " marketing

document " . Later, he added, " My only suggestion would be that you

stick to what the document says and not attempt to expand beyond [to]

what it doesn't say. "

The sales pitch Passages from the letter describe how the firm will

develop a defense strategy based on science. " [W]e will harness, focus

and involve the scientific and intellectual capital of our company

with one goal in mind -- creating the outcome our client desires. "

Another sentence reads, " This would include facilitating the

publication of papers and articles dispelling the alleged nexus

between PFOA and teratogenicity as well as other claimed harm. "

Michaels agrees with Weinberg that the letter is a sales pitch, but he

adds that it originates from a " product defense firm " and is not about

science. " What is doesn't say here is, 'We'll get the science right, " "

he points out. " What it says is, 'We'll make sure the science comes

out in a way you want it. " " Michaels calls the letter one of the best

examples he has seen of what he calls a common business strategy: to

create scientific doubt in order to stave off lawsuits and regulatory

action.

" They have experts and put papers in the scientific literature because

they know regulatory agencies like to see peer review, " he says. But

these studies, he adds, are published in " vanity journals -- journals

that publish studies with minimal peer review. "

Most scientists are completely in the dark when it comes to

understanding how corporations manipulate science, says David Ozonoff,

chair of the department of environmental health at Boston University.

Ozonoff, who spent years studying the asbestos industry, recalls, " I

went into [studying the asbestos issue] really thinking that industry

can have its own interpretation of the scientific findings. It was the

sociology of science and the social construction of knowledge, and

they would naturally tend to emphasize certain things while workers

would look at the same things differently. " But as he sifted through

letters and documents that came to light during court cases, Ozonoff

found evidence that corporate executives had not only known for

decades that asbestos was dangerous but they had outlined and put into

practice a defense strategy to protect their product and company

profits. " It was planned out in the documents in black and white, " he

says. " They thought nobody would ever see it. "

" I have somewhat the same reaction to this letter, " he said about the

Weinberg memo to DuPont. " These are things that we know are going on. "

For example, the Weinberg letter lists a series of proposed tasks

designed to limit liability, including the recruitment of scientific

experts on PFOA " so as to develop a premium expert panel and

concurrently conflict out experts from consulting with plaintiffs. "

Experts who worked for DuPont through the Weinberg Group would have

been unable to testify for plaintiffs.

" They're offering to get rid of inconvenient witnesses for the other

side, " says Ozonoff. He adds that he has received similar requests in

the past from lawyers asking him to consult on cases. " I wouldn't have

to testify, " he says, " but I knew right away what they were doing was

trying to conflict me out of a case. "

Ozonoff, who sat on EPA's Science Advisory Board review panel for

PFOA, points to a passage in the memo that details how to identify

the likely health benefits of the chemical " by analyzing existing

data, and/or constructing a study to establish " that PFOA is safe and

" offers real health benefits. " The next sentence mentions the oxygen-

carrying capacity of blood and the prevention of coronary artery

disease.

" That blew me away, " says Ozonoff, adding that data on PFOA seem to

show an effect on lipid metabolism; this raises concerns that the

chemical may actually increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

" This [proposal] is a 'manufacturing doubt' strategy. If you say,

'Gee, this might cause heart disease, " then they'll come back with

another story that says it's good for your heart. " Constructing this

sort of narrative, he says, sets a research agenda that any

independent scientist wandering into the field must address.

However, Weinberg maintains that science is open to interpretation. " I

grant you that people can interpret scientific data differently based

on various rationales. But truth in science is what I believe all

reputable scientists seek. "

Actions from the Weinberg Group

Weinberg says that he is not at liberty to discuss his clients, but

ES & T discovered that his company did product defense work for NVE

Pharmaceuticals in 2004, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) was seeking to ban the diet drug ephedra. " In our perspective,

the government's decision relied on unreliable data relating to misuse

of the product, and that when used as directed, not only is ephedra

safe, but it has an exemplary safety profile, over an extended period

of time, " said Terrence Gaffney, a vice president with the Weinberg

Group. " We believe we win on the science hands down, " he added.

The following month, FDA banned ephedra, citing numerous studies

that found that the herbal supplement raised blood pressure and

stressed the circulatory system. A review sponsored by the National

Institutes of Health concluded that ephedra use is associated with,

among other things, increased risk of heart palpitations and

psychiatric and upper gastrointestinal effects.

The Weinberg Group also wrote the American Chemistry Council's (ACC)

2005 position paper on endocrine disrupters [448KB PDF]. ACC is the

lobbying group for chemical manufacturers. One of the two coauthors of

the report is James Lamb, who is an employee of the Weinberg Group

and has also worked for industry on other chemicals such as

perchlorate. In January, when the state of California held hearings to

debate the health risks and possible use restrictions for six

phthalates and bisphenol-A -- suspected endocrine disrupters -- in

baby toys, Lamb testified that the chemicals were safe.

" This is something that's been looked at for years... with the

conclusion that the phthalates are safe, " he told a Sacramento,

Calif., news station at the time. In 2005, Europeans permanently

banned six phthalates from baby toys, and the California legislation

was an attempt to replicate this ban.

" Wherever I am, [Lamb] is always there, " says Frederick vom Saal, a

professor of biology at the University of Missouri and an expert on

endocrine disrupters. " He's probably heard so many of my lectures that

it must make him sick. "

Vom Saal has been under attack for his work that finds that bisphenol-

A poses endocrine-disrupting health risks to humans. In January 2005,

the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published a letter

criticizing vom Saal's recent research on bisphenol-A (Environ.

Health Perspect. 2006, 114 [1], A16-A17). The letter was signed by

Joseph Politch, a research associate in the department of obstetrics

and gynecology at Boston University. Because of the journal's

conflict-of- interest policy, Politch's letter noted that he was a

consultant for the Weinberg Group.

Politch told ES & T that he neither conducts research on bisphenol-A nor

plans any future studies on the chemical, but he did admit that he has

done consulting for the Weinberg Group. Politch refused to answer more

questions about the exact nature of his consulting work, other than

confirming that he had written the letter. " You should contact the

Weinberg Group, " he told ES & T and then ended the conversation.

Vom Saal says that hiring scientists to send letters to scientific

journals is just one tactic that industry uses to create the illusion

of a scientific controversy. Many of these strategies were pioneered

by the tobacco companies. " There's not one strategy that is new or

creative, " he says.

Smoking gun?

Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of

California, San Francisco, and a documenter of the scientific battles

over tobacco smoking, backs up vom Saal's assertion that this is an

old approach. Glantz is a coauthor of the book The Cigarette Papers

and has written numerous peer-reviewed studies on the tobacco

industry, which are based on documents contained in the Legacy

Tobacco Documents Library. This library is an online database of

internal company papers obtained as part of the final U.S. court

settlement with Big Tobacco in the 1990s.

" Basically, the tobacco companies set up this huge sub rosa network of

scientists and experts around the world who were paid through the

tobacco lawyers to give lectures contesting the evidence on secondhand

smoke -- to show up at hearings; to, in some cases, lobby; to publish

articles, " he says. Although the effort was meant to undermine the

science labeling passive smoke a health risk, he says the tactics were

very similar to what is contained in the Weinberg proposal.

" It was very effective for [tobacco companies] for years, and [the]

Weinberg [Group] did a lot of the recruiting for them. They were the

recruiting agency that helped to get the whole thing up and running, "

he says. Glantz's latest paper on this recruitment cites a Philip

Morris action plan detailing what the company expected during

1989-1992 from scientists hired as consultants. " They should be

appropriately encouraged to prepare papers, participate in scientific

societies with relevant areas of interest, and take active roles in

scientific conferences, " reads the document. " Where possible, without

compromising a scientist's effectiveness, they should be encouraged to

provide statements or testimony for use before government commissions

and information to the media " (Eur. J. Public Health 2006, 16, 69-77).

" People in the scientific community don't want to hear about this, "

says vom Saal. " When you point out corruption, it makes scientists

uncomfortable. "

But Glantz has studied Big Tobacco's impact on his profession for more

than a decade, and he sees a much bigger problem looming for science.

As the federal government cuts back on funding for research,

scientists are now forced to rely more and more on financial

assistance from corporations; this raises troubling questions about

whether the results from these studies will be impartial and objective

or favorable to the companies that paid for them.

" The whole scientific enterprise is being distorted by these corporate

interests, " Glantz says. " That's why it is so important that we have a

healthy academic community, to be a voice that isn't being controlled.

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Environmental Health Perspectives, Feb. 1, 2006

NEW THINKING ON NEURODEVELOPMENT

By Michael Szpir

The notion that some substances in the environment can damage the

nervous system has an ancient history. The neurotoxicity of lead was

recognized more than 2,000 years ago by the Greek physician

Dioscerides, who wrote, " Lead makes the mind give way. " In the

intervening millennia many other substances have been added to the

list of known or suspected neurotoxicants. Despite this accumulation

of knowledge, there is still much that isn't understood about how

neurotoxicants affect the developing brain, especially the effects of

low-dose exposures. Today researchers are taking a hard look at low-

dose exposures in utero and during childhood to unravel some of the

mysteries of impaired neurodevelopment.

About 17% of school-age children in the United States suffer from a

disability that affects their behavior, memory, or ability to learn,

according to a study published in the March 1994 issue of Pediatrics

by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The list of maladies includes attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

(ADHD), autistic spectrum disorders, epilepsy, Tourette syndrome, and

less specific conditions such as mental retardation and cerebral

palsy. All are believed to be the outcome of some abnormal process

that unfolded as the brain was developing in utero or in the young

child.

These disorders have an enormous impact on families and society.

According to the 1996 book Learning Disabilities: Lifelong Issues,

children with these disorders have higher rates of mental illness and

suicide, and are more likely to engage in substance abuse and to

commit crimes as adults. The overall economic cost of

neurodevelopmental disorders in the United States is estimated to be

$81.5-167 billion per year, according to a report published in the

December 2001 issue of EHP Supplements.

Potentially even more disturbing is that a number of epidemiologic

studies suggest that the incidence of certain disorders is on the

rise. In the United States, the diagnosis of autistic spectrum

disorders increased from 4-5 per 10,000 children in the 1980s to 30-60

per 10,000 children in the 1990s, according to a report in the August

2003 Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Similarly, notes a

report in the February 2002 issue of CNS Drugs, the diagnosis of ADHD

grew 250% between 1990 and 1998. The number of children in special

education programs classified with learning disabilities increased

191% between 1977 and 1994, according to an article in Advances in

Learning and Behavioral Disabilities, Volume 12, published in 1998.

So what is going on? The short answer is that no one really knows.

There's not even consensus on what the soaring rates actually mean.

Heightened public awareness could account for the surge in the

numbers, or it may be that physicians are getting better at diagnosing

the conditions. Some autism researchers believe the rise in that

condition's prevalence simply reflects changes in diagnostic criteria

over the last 25 years. On the other hand, some scientists believe

that the rates of neurodevelopmental disease are truly increasing, and

that the growing burden of chemicals in the environment may play a

role.

With that in mind, investigators are considering the effects of gene-

environment interactions. A child with a mild genetic tendency toward

a neurodevelopmental disorder might develop without clinically

measurable abnormalities in the absence of environmental " hits. "

However, children in industrialized nations develop and grow up in a

veritable sea of xenobiotic chemicals, says Isaac Pessah, director of

the University of California, Davis, Center for Children's

Environmental Health and Disease Prevention. " Fortunately, " he says,

" most of us have a host of defense mechanisms that protect us from

adverse outcomes. However, genetic polymorphisms, complex epistasis,

and cytogenetic abnormalities could weaken these defenses and amplify

chemical damage, initiating a freefall into a clinical syndrome. "

Pessah cites the example of autism. He says susceptibility for autism

is likely conferred by several defective genes, no one of which can

account for all the core symptoms of social disinterest, repetitive

and overly focused behaviors, and problems in communication. Could

multiple genetic liabilities and exposure to a chemically complex

environment act in concert to increase the incidence and severity of

the condition?

Despite the uncertainties, many scientists believe it would be wise to

err on the side of caution when it comes to a research agenda. As

Martha Herbert, a pediatric neurologist at Harvard Medical School,

puts it, " Even though we may have neither consensus nor certainty

about an autism epidemic, there are enough studies coming in with

higher numbers that we should take it seriously. Environmental

hypotheses ought to be central to research now. The physiological

systems that have been harmed by environmental factors may also point

to treatment targets, and this might be a great way to help the

children. "

The Parade of Neurotoxicants

Among the most intensely studied neurotoxicants are metals (lead,

mercury, and manganese), pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),

and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). A number of these

compounds were identified as neurotoxicants when individuals were

exposed to high doses during occupational accidents or childhood

poisonings. Scientists are now exploring the potential consequences of

low-dose exposures, especially to children and fetuses. Epidemiologic

studies play a central role, and these are often complemented by

experimental work on animals and cell cultures. These days,

researchers are looking not only at associations between toxicants and

disease, but also at the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms.

Lead. Studies dating to the 1970s show that children exposed to lead

have deficits in IQ, attention, and language. In response, the CDC

revised its limits for acceptable blood levels of the metal in several

steps, from 60 micrograms per deciliter (micrograms/deciliter) in the

1960s to the current level of 10 micrograms/deciliter, set in 1991.

But many scientists think that limit is still too high. A study

reported in the September 2005 issue of EHP found that there were

significant effects on a child's IQ even when blood lead

concentrations were below 10 micrograms/deciliter. Upon the July 2005

release of the Third National Report on Human Exposure to

Environmental Chemicals by the CDC, Jim Pirkle, deputy director for

science at the CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory, stated, " There

is no safe blood [lead] level in children. "

Several groups have also found evidence that lead exposure may shape a

child's social behavior. An article in the May 2000 issue of

Environmental Research reports a strong correlation, dating back to

1900, between violent crime and the use of lead-based paint and leaded

gasoline. The research complements studies by Herbert Needleman, a

professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh

School of Medicine, who found that bone lead levels in young males

were correlated with aggression and criminality. " Lead is

significantly associated with a risk for delinquency, " says Needleman.

His research appeared in the November-December 2002 issue of

Neurotoxicology and Teratology and the 7 February 1996 issue of JAMA.

Another new area of research links early lead exposure to changes in

the aging brain. Nasser Zawia, an associate professor of pharmacology

and toxicology at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, and his

colleagues found increased _expression of amyloid precursor protein

(APP) and its product, ?-amyloid (which is a hallmark of Alzheimer

disease), in aging rats that were exposed to lead shortly after birth.

In contrast, old rats that were exposed to lead did not show an

increased _expression of APP and ?-amyloid. The work, published in the

26 January 2005 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that

early exposure to lead can " reprogram " gene _expression and regulation

later in life. According to Zawia, preliminary research also shows

that " monkeys exposed to lead as infants exhibit similar molecular

changes as well as exaggerated Alzheimer's pathology. "

Mercury. The current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reference

dose for methylmercury (an organic, toxic form of mercury) is 0.1

micrograms per kilogram per day (micrograms/kg/day). Humans are

exposed to methylmercury primarily through consumption of contaminated

fish; a good 70% of this contamination comes from anthropogenic

sources such as emissions from coal-fired power plants. High-level

exposure to methylmercury in the womb is linked to a number of

impairments, including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, seizures,

deafness, blindness, and speech difficulties. An article in the May

2005 issue of EHP puts the economic cost to the United States of

methylmercury- induced toxicity (in terms of lost productivity) at

$8.7 billion annually.

The effects of low-dose exposures are not so apparent. Two large

epidemiologic studies of fishing populations in the Faroe Islands and

the Seychelles have produced conflicting results regarding low-dose

effects. Both studies sought to examine the association between

methylmercury exposure and neurodevelopment in children whose mothers

ate contaminated seafood during pregnancy.

The leader of the Faroe Islands study, Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct

professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public

Health, and his colleagues reported in the November 1997 issue of

Neurotoxicology and Teratology that 7-year-old Faroese children had

significant cognitive deficits and neurological changes after prenatal

exposure to methylmercury. Grandjean's team followed up on the

children at age 14. According to a report in the February 2004 issue

of The Journal of Pediatrics, the children continued to have problems,

including neurological changes and decreased nervous control of the

heart.

In contrast, the authors of the Seychelles study found little evidence

of lasting harm on a cohort of 66-month-old children, according to

their report in the 26 August 1998 issue of JAMA. A follow-up study,

published in the 17 May 2003 issue of The Lancet, similarly found no

lasting effects on language, memory, motor skills, or behavioral

function when the children were 9 years old.

The different outcomes of the two studies are puzzling because the

children of both populations appeared to be exposed to similar amounts

of methylmercury. Several explanations have been proposed, including

the possibility that genetic differences between the populations may

alter their relative predispositions to harm from mercury exposure.

The source of methylmercury is also different in the two populations.

The Faroese are exposed primarily through the consumption of pilot

whale meat, whereas the Seychelles population relies heavily on ocean

fish. According to Gary Myers, a professor of neurology and pediatrics

at the University of Rochester Medical Center and one of the principal

investigators of the Seychelles study, whale meat contains many other

contaminants (including PCBs) besides methylmercury. " There is also

evidence, " he says, " that the effects of concomitant PCB and mercury

exposure are synergistic. "

Researchers continue to look at whether there is a danger from

methylmercury at the levels of exposure achieved by fish consumption.

Another layer of uncertainty was added with findings published in the

October 2005 issue of EHP showing that fish consumption during

pregnancy appeared to boost infant cognition--but only as long as

mercury intake, as measured in maternal hair, wasn't too high.

The question of whether low levels of mercury are harmful has also

manifested itself in a controversy over the use of vaccines containing

thimerosal, a preservative. Although thimerosal was removed from many

of these vaccines in 2001, children that were immunized before that

date could have received a cumulative dose of more than 200

micrograms/kg of mercury with the routine complement of childhood

vaccinations, according to a study in the May 2001 issue of

Pediatrics. Thimerosal is nearly half ethylmercury by weight. Because

ethylmercury is an organic form of mercury, there is some suspicion

that it acts like methylmercury in the brain, although research

published in the August 2005 issue of EHP suggests that the two

forms differ greatly in how they are distributed through and

eliminated from the brain. Developing countries continue to use

pediatric vaccines that contain thimerosal. In the United States,

thimerosal is still present in influenza vaccines, which the CDC

recommends be given to pregnant women and children aged 6-23 months.

Advocacy groups, such as SafeMinds, have suggested that the decades-

long rise in the diagnosis of autism is related to the presence of

thimerosal in vaccines. In May 2004, however, the Institute of

Medicine (IOM) issued a report, Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines

and Autism, stating that several epidemiological studies published

since 2001 " consistently provided evidence of no association " between

thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. However, the IOM's report

has been severely criticized by a number of advocacy groups, including

the National Autism Association, for relying too heavily on a specific

set of epidemiologic data while dismissing clinical evidence and other

epidemiologic studies that showed evidence of a link.

Despite the assurances of the IOM, some scientists continue to explore

the mechanisms underlying the potential neurotoxic effects of

thimerosal. In the January 2005 issue of NeuroToxicology, S. Jill

James, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for

Medical Sciences, and her colleagues report that the neuronal and

glial cell toxicity of methylmercury and ethylmercury (as dosed via

thimerosal) are both mediated by the depletion of the antioxidant

peptide glutathione. Of the two cell types, neurons were found to be

particularly susceptible to ethylmercury-induced glutathione depletion

and cell death, according to James, and pretreatment of the cells with

glutathione reduced these effects. Other studies by James and her

colleagues, reported in the December 2004 issue of the American

Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that autistic children had lower

levels of glutathione compared to normal controls, and may therefore

have had a significant reduction in the ability to detoxify reactive

oxygen species.

James says the abnormal profile " suggests that these children may have

an increased vulnerability to pro-oxidant environmental exposures and

a lower threshold for oxidative neurotoxicity and immunotoxicity. "

Speaking at the XXII International Neurotoxicology Conference in

September 2005, she presented evidence that multiple genetic

polymorphisms affecting glutathione pathways may interact to produce a

chronic metabolic imbalance that could contribute to the development

and clinical symptoms of autism. Her paper in the American Journal of

Clinical Nutrition reported that low glutathione levels in many

autistic children were reversible with targeted nutritional

intervention, but the ramifications of this finding are still unclear.

Manganese. As an essential nutrient, manganese is required for normal

development; the reference dose for manganese is 0.14 mg/kg/day.

Chronic occupational exposure to high levels of this metal is

associated with manganism, a condition reminiscent of Parkinson

disease that is characterized by tremors, rigidity, and psychosis. The

illness is seem primarily among miners.

Animal studies published in the August 2005 issue of Neurotoxicology

by David Dorman, director of the division of biological sciences at

the CIIT Centers for Health Research in Research Triangle Park, North

Carolina, suggest that the fetus is protected to a certain extent from

maternally inhaled manganese. According to Dorman, children are

exposed to manganese primarily by ingesting it, but he knows of no

link between childhood exposure to manganese and later Parkinson

disease.

Nevertheless, because manganese affects the adult brain, people

suspect that the developing brain may be even more susceptible to harm

from this metal, and recent research has unveiled a new cause for

concern: In the January 2006 issue of EHP, child psychiatry

professor Gail Wasserman and colleagues from Columbia University

reported that Bangladeshi children who drank well water with high

concentrations of naturally occurring manganese had diminished

intellectual function. The researchers noted that the bioavailability

of manganese in water is higher than that of manganese in food. They

also pointed out that about 6% of U.S. wells have a high enough

manganese content to potentially put some children at risk for

diminished intellectual function.

The cellular and molecular mechanisms of manganese neurotoxicity are

not well understood. The dopaminergic system in the basal ganglia,

which is affected in Parkinson disease, may be involved, but this

hypothesis is controversial. Tomas Guilarte, a professor of molecular

neurotoxicology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public

Health, described research on these systems in nonhuman primates at

the XXII International Neurotoxicology Conference. According to

Guilarte, unpublished positron-emission tomography studies of the

basal ganglia show that " manganese does appear to have an effect on

dopaminergic neurons. " Guilarte found that the more manganese the

animals received, the less dopamine was released through the actions

of amphetamine (which is used to induce the release of the

neurotransmitter). " This does not mean that manganese causes

Parkinson's disease, merely that it has an effect on those neurons, "

he says. This is the first report of an in vivo effect on dopamine

release by manganese.

PCBs, PBDEs, and pesticides. Many chemicals raise concerns because of

their persistence in the environment and their tendency to

bioaccumulate in animal tissues. They are typically synthetic

molecules that were designed for use in everyday products, such as

electrical equipment, computers, furniture, and pesticides.

PCBs appear to be present in all parts of the food chain, and humans

are exposed to these molecules primarily through the ingestion of

animal fat. The toxicity of these chemicals was first recognized after

mass poisonings in Japan in 1968 and Taiwan in 1979. Children born to

women who had ingested contaminated cooking oil in Taiwan had a number

of developmental abnormalities, including psychomotor delay and lower

scores on cognitive tests, according to a report in the 15 July 1988

issue of Science.

Since those earlier observations, several studies have described a

connection between prenatal exposure to PCBs and delayed cognitive

development and lower IQ. For example, a study in the 10 November 2001

Lancet reports those infants and young children exposed to PCBs

through breast milk scored lower on tests of psychomotor and mental

development. The mothers were exposed to normal background levels of

PCBs in Europe. In response to such studies, the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration set tolerance levels for PCBs in a number of consumer

products, such as milk and manufactured dairy products (1.5 parts per

million), poultry (3.0 parts per million), and baby food (0.2 part per

million).

PBDEs are widely used as flame retardants in consumer products. The

effects of PBDEs on humans is not clear, but animal toxicity studies

described in volume 183 (2004) of Reviews of Environmental

Contaminants and Toxicology show that PBDEs can cause permanent

learning and memory impairments, hearing deficits, and behavioral

changes. There is a growing concern about PBDEs because they appear to

be accumulating in human tissues. Andreas Sjodin, a toxicologist at

the CDC, and colleagues found a trend toward increasing concentrations

of PBDEs in human serum taken from sample populations in the

southeastern United States from 1985 through 2002, and in Seattle,

Washington, from 1999 through 2002. This report appears in the May

2004 EHP. Several studies have also discovered PBDEs in human breast

milk. The current EPA reference dose for PBDEs is 2 mg/kg/day.

As for pesticides, it's been suggested by zoologist Theo Colborn of

the University of Florida that every child conceived today in the

Northern Hemisphere is exposed to these chemicals from conception

through gestation and beyond. Some pesticides appear to be more

harmful than others, and so the reference dose varies somewhat from

one compound to another.

The effects of pesticides on the developing brain have been

investigated in human epidemiologic studies and in laboratory

experiments with animals. Vincent Garry, a professor of environmental

medicine at the University of Minnesota, and his colleagues found that

children born to applicators of the fumigant phosphine were more

likely to display adverse neurological and neurobehavioral

developmental effects. The herbicide glyphosate was also linked to

neurobehavioral effects, according to the same report, which appeared

in the June 2002 issue of EHP Supplements. Another epidemiologic

study, reported in the March 2005 issue of NeuroToxicology, showed

that women who were exposed to organophosphate pesticides in an

agricultural community in California had children who displayed

adverse neurodevelopmental effects, and that higher levels of

pesticide metabolites in maternal urine were associated with abnormal

reflexes in the women's newborn children.

Many PCBs, PBDEs, and pesticides are the subject of the 2001 Stockholm

Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which became

international law in May 2004. The goal of the treaty is to " rid the

world of PCBs, dioxins and furans, and nine highly dangerous

pesticides, " according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Implementation of the treaty has significant practical challenges,

however, including the difficulty of eliminating one persistent

pollutant without creating another (for example, when burning PCBs

yields by-products such as dioxins and furans). Not Immune to Harm

Exposure to a neurotoxicant may not be the only way to disrupt the

natural growth of the brain. Scientists are now looking at the subtle

physiological effects of immunotoxicants and infectious agents on

biological events during development.

It turns out that mothers who experience an infection during pregnancy

are at a greater risk of having a child with a neurodevelopmental

disorder such as autism or schizophrenia. For example, prenatal

exposure to the rubella virus is associated with neuromotor and

behavioral abnormalities in childhood and an increased risk of

schizophrenia spectrum disorders in adulthood, according to an article

in the March 2001 issue of Biological Psychiatry. Rubella has also

been linked to autism: some 8-13% of children born during the 1964

rubella pandemic developed the disorder, according to a report in the

March 1967 Journal of Pediatrics. The same study also noted a

connection between the rubella virus and mental retardation.

Some epidemiologic studies have found an increased risk of

schizophrenia among the children of women who were exposed to the

influenza virus during the second trimester of pregnancy, according to

a report in the February 2002 Current Opinion in Neurobiology. In the

August 2004 Archives of General Psychiatry, Ezra Susser, head of

epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health,

and his colleagues reported that the risk of the mental disorder was

increased sevenfold if the schizophrenic patient's mother had

influenza during her first trimester of pregnancy. A prospective birth

cohort study in the April 2001 Schizophrenia Bulletin found that

second trimester exposure to the diphtheria bacterium also

significantly increased the risk of schizophrenia.

How might infectious agents cause these disorders? According to John

Gilmore, a professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill, maternal infections during pregnancy can alter the

development of fetal neurons in the cerebral cortex of rats. The

mechanism is far from clear, but signaling molecules in the mother's

immune system, called cytokines, have been implicated. Speaking at the

XXII International Neurotoxicology Conference, Gilmore described in

vitro experiments showing that elevated levels of certain cytokines--

interleukin-1?, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-

alpha)--reduce the survival of cortical neurons and decrease the

complexity of neuronal dendrites in the cerebral cortex. " I believe

that the weight of the data to date indicates [that the maternal

immune response] can have harmful effects, " says Gilmore.

Inflammatory responses in the mother may not be the only route to

modifying the fetal brain. The University of California, Davis, Center

for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention is

conducting a large study of autistic children in California called

CHARGE (Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment),

which suggests that the child's immune system may also be involved.

According to Pessah, the study principal investigator, children with

autism appear to have a unique immune system. " Autistic children have

a significant reduction in plasma immunoglobulins and a skewed profile

of plasma cytokines compared to other children, " he says. " We think

that an immune system dysfunction may be one of the etiological cores

of autism. "

He continues, " We know that many of the things that kids are exposed

to these days are immunotoxicants.... We have evidence that

ethylmercury and thimerosal alter the signaling properties of antigen-

presenting cells, known as dendritic cells, at nanomolar levels. "

Since each dendritic cell can activate 250 T cells, any dysregulation

will be magnified, he says. " Add to that a genetic abnormality in

processing immune information, and there could be a problem. "

Such problems might extend to the central nervous system. The brains

of individuals who have a neurodevelopmental disorder also show

evidence of inflammation. In the January 2005 issue of the Annals of

Neurology, Carlos Pardo, an assistant professor of neurology and

pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his

colleagues report finding high levels of inflammatory cytokines

(interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and interferon-gamma) in the

cerebrospinal fluid of autistic patients. Glial cells, which serve as

the brain's innate immune system, are the primary sources of cytokines

in the central nervous system. So it may not be surprising that

Pardo's team also discovered that glia are activated--showing both

morphological and physiological changes--in postmortem brains of

autistic patients.

The recognition that the immune system is involved in

neurodevelopmental disorders is changing people's perceptions of these

conditions. " Historically, scientists have focused on the role of

neurons in all kinds of neurological diseases, " Pardo says, " but they

have generally been ignoring the [glia]. " He adds, " In autism, it

could be that the [glia] are responding to some external insult, such

as an infection, an intrauterine injury, or a neurotoxicant. "

According to Pardo, it's still not clear whether the neuroimmune

responses associated with autism contribute to the dysfunction of the

brain or whether they are secondary reactions to some neural

abnormality. " John Gilmore's work [showing that cytokines can be

harmful to brain cells] is quite interesting and important, " he says.

" However, in vitro studies may produce results that don't reflect what

occurs under in vivo conditions. Cytokines like TNF-alpha may be

beneficial for some neurobiological functions at low concentrations,

but may be extremely neurotoxic at high concentrations. " Lending Brain

Power to Exposure Assessment

The medical and scientific communities recognize the colossal

challenges involved in identifying the ultimate causes of

neurodevelopmental disorders. This is complicated by the sheer numbers

of potential exposures involved. More than 67% of the nearly 3,000

chemical compounds produced or imported in amounts exceeding 1 million

pounds per year have not been examined with even basic tests for

neurotoxicity, according to Toxic Ignorance, a 1997 analysis by

Environmental Defense.

In the past few years, several large projects have been proposed, and

funding by the NIH has been increased. For example, the NIH boosted

its support for autism research from $22 million in 1997 to $100

million in 2004. In 2001, the NIEHS and the EPA jointly announced the

creation of four new children's environmental health research centers

(including the one at the University of California, Davis), which

focus primarily on neurodevelopmental disorders. More recently, the

proposed multibillion-dollar National Children's Study, which is

cosponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services and the

EPA, has been designed to follow nearly 100,000 children over the

course of 21 years. The investigators plan to study the effects of

environmental factors on children's growth and development, including

impacts on learning, behavior, and mental health. Study investigators

hope to enroll the first participants in early 2007.

Scientists also see the need for designing better studies. In

neurodevelopmental studies, as in any other field, the quality of a

study is only as good as all of its parts. Jean Harry, head of the

NIEHS Neurotoxicology Group, says, " You can have a valid assessment of

behavior, but in the absence of good exposure data, a causative

association with environmental factors will be compromised. "

In a bid to address the difficulties faced by epidemiologic studies

that look for neurodevelopmental effects from in utero chemical

exposure, a working group of 20 experts gathered in September 2005

under the auspices of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center,

coincident with the XXII International Neurotoxicology Conference. The

goal of their day-long session was to develop a scheme of best

practices for the design, conduct, and interpretation of future

investigations, as well as the practical inclusion of new

technologies, such as imaging.

At one point in the dialogue, the group recognized that perhaps the

greatest challenge in these studies was determining how to evaluate in

utero exposures to environmental chemicals. " Quite often the very

nature of epidemiological studies limits the ability to perform

accurate exposure assessments, " says Harry, who was part of the expert

group. " Such exposures may have occurred in the distant past, they may

have been unknown, or they may have been in conjunction with many

other compounds. "

The group therefore recommended that actual measurements, even if

indirect, are better than methods based on subject recall. It also

recommended that a well-defined hypothesis should form the foundation

of in utero studies for assessing neurodevelopmental outcomes. " [These

and other] conclusions will move the science forward by describing

methods that should improve interstudy comparisons, and they offer

ways in which research results should be reported to the scientific

and medical communities, " says Judy LaKind, an adjunct associate

professor of pediatrics at the Hershey Medical Center and a member of

the workshop steering committee. The complete workshop report will be

published in an upcoming issue of NeuroToxicology. Imagining the Big

Picture

The challenges of addressing neurodevelopmental disorders are more

than scientific. The difficulties come together at a crossroads where

the communication of knowledge, the treatment of patients, and the

regulation of potentially toxic chemicals meet. Says Herbert,

" Evidence-based medicine has not yet developed standards for

assessing, or practices for treating, the impacts of chronic, multiple

low-dose exposures. " Rather than waiting, she says, patients and

parents of patients are turning to alternative medicine to address

their concerns.

That's not always a good thing, especially when patients and parents

may be misinformed. Kathy Lawson, director of the Healthy Children

Project at the Learning Disabilities Association of America, says

there is a disconnect between scientific knowledge and the public's

awareness of ways to reduce the incidence of some disorders. " In my

visits to various organizations, I've discovered that people are

completely unaware that there is a connection between environmental

toxicants and their health, " she says. " Even pediatricians often don't

know about these things, " she adds.

Educating the public is only part of the solution. Elise Miller,

executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Children's

Environmental Health, thinks that federal regulatory agencies do not

adequately protect children's health. " The Toxic Substances Control

Act, which was passed thirty years ago, needs a major overhaul to

ensure neurotoxicants and other chemicals are prioritized, screened,

and tested properly, " she says. " Currently, there are too many

chemicals on the market and in the products we use every day for which

there is no toxicity data. "

Some politicians agree with these sentiments. In July 2005, Senator

Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced the Child, Worker, and Consumer

Safe Chemicals Act, which initially calls for chemical manufacturers

to provide health and safety information on the chemicals used in

certain consumer products, among them baby bottles, water bottles, and

food packaging. If passed into law, the bill, coauthored by Senator

James Jeffords (I-VT), would require all commercially distributed

chemicals to meet the new safety measures by 2020.

The human brain is often touted as the most complex structure in the

known universe. The developmental process that produces this

remarkable entity may also be among the most delicate in nature. As

one scientist put it, " The brain doesn't like to be jerked around. "

That kind of fragility makes it difficult for scientists to untangle

genetic influences from what often may be subtle environmental

assaults. Even so, the catalogue of harmful environmental agents will

undoubtedly continue to grow as scientists learn more about the

interactions between the developing brain and its environment. The

hope is that enough good minds will use that catalogue to create a

future with healthier brains and more peace of mind for parents and

society alike.

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therefore ruled by the few.

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Rachel's News #843: Expanding the Movement

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