Chemical Pollution 

Human Beings carry about 250 chemical contaminants in their bodies

1 of 6 women of child-bearing age may put offspring at risk
Toxic pollution rose 5 percent in 2002, reversing trend June 24, 2004
Dead Zones Increasing in World's Coastal Waters June 16, 2004
Human Guinea Pigs Research - February, 2004
Dioxin - Possibly Second to Plutonium Among Most Dangerous Chemicals
Toxics Ban Treaty by 122 Countries & No U.S Ratification
Bush Administration Retreats From Montreal Protocol
Unacceptable Levels: Dioxin in Fish from Europe Seas
The Effects of Mercury on Human Beings, Especially Women of Child-bearing Age
Sources of Mercury Emissions

Mercury Levels in Fish
California Lawsuit Settlement Forces Restaurants to Warn Diners
High Levels of Mercury in Albacore Tuna
Mercury-Based Dental Silver Fillings
Clinton's Goal to Cut Mercury Emissions up to 90% by 2008 vs Bush's Proposed Cut by 2018
Farmed Salmon Contain High Levels of Toxins
Mercury & Autism - Chelation Therapy  May 25, 2005
EPA Accepting Pesticide Industry Studies on Humans June 28, 2005
EPA Blocked From Human Pesticide Studies June 29, 2005
In an EPA vs salmon case, court upholds pesticide ban June 30, 2005


Human Beings carry about 250 chemical contaminants in their bodies

“Humans also carry PCBs and other persistent chemicals in their body fat, and they pass this chemical legacy on to their babies. Virtually anyone willing to put up the $2000 for the tests will find at least 250 chemical contaminants in his or her body fat, regardless of whether he or she lives in Gary, Indiana or on a remote island in the South Pacific. You cannot escape them. ” From Theo Colburn’s Our Stolen Future p. 106.


1 of 6 women of child-bearing age may put offspring at risk
In a 2004 study it was found that about  630,000 of the 4,000,000 babies born in the US was put at risk become of the quantitiy of mercury contained in the body of the mother. See More from Earth Policy Institute

See Mercury Levels in Oceans Fish

Toxic pollution rose 5 percent in 2002, reversing trend June 24, 2004
Toxic chemical releases into the environment rose 5 percent in 2002, marking only the second such increase reported by the Environmental Protection Agency in nearly two decades, and the first since 1997.

Some 4.79 billion pounds were released in 2002, the latest for which figures are available, not including releases from metal mining, the EPA reports. The agency stopped including that data because of a recent court decision in an industry challenge.

The increase reversed a recent trend and was a big turnaround from last year's report by EPA that chemical releases in 2001 had declined 13 percent from a year earlier.

Kimberly Terese Nelson, the EPA's chief information officer, blamed the "extraordinarily large change" on the 1999 shutdown of BHP Copper Co.'s San Manuel plant in Tucson, Arizona, where 2,000 people worked. Dismantling a plant turns components and product into waste.

"If we were take that one facility out we would see a 3 percent decrease," Nelson said Tuesday of the releases of 650 chemicals by 24,379 facilities that EPA tracks. Last year, 25,388 facilities reported their findings. See the Rest of Story by Environmental News Network

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Dead Zones Increasing in World's Coastal Waters June 16, 2004
 See Entire Environmental News Story
From Earth Policy Institute, Janet Larsen

As summer comes to the Gulf of Mexico, it brings with it each year a giant "dead zone" devoid of fish and other aquatic life. Expanding over the past several decades, this area now can span up to 21,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the state of New Jersey. A similar situation is found on a smaller scale in the Chesapeake Bay, where since the 1970s a large lifeless zone has become a yearly phenomenon, sometimes shrouding 40 percent of the bay.

Worldwide, there are some 146 dead zones--areas of water that are too low in dissolved oxygen to sustain life. Since the 1960s, the number of dead zones has doubled each decade. Many are seasonal, but some of the low-oxygen areas persist year-round.

What is killing fish and other living systems in these coastal areas? A complex chain of events is to blame, but it often starts with farmers trying to grow more food for the world's growing population. Fertilizers provide nutrients for crops to grow, but when they are flushed into rivers and seas they fertilize microscopic plant life as well. In the presence of excessive concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, phytoplankton and algae can proliferate into massive blooms. When the phytoplankton die, they fall to the seafloor and are digested by microorganisms. This process removes oxygen from the bottom water and creates low-oxygen, or hypoxic, zones.

Human Guinea Pigs Research - February, 2004 

The Bush Administration sought the advice of the National Research Council after reversing former President Bill Clinton's moratorium on the use of paid volunteers in pesticide research. The National Research Council is part of the National Academies, which also comprise the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The research is conducted to aid the EPA in determining safe or unsafe exposures to human beings. Volunteers are paid to consume amounts of pesticides and other chemicals. There may be a way to determine what constitutes a safe dosage of pesticides, but it shouldn't be tested solely on poor students, the homeless or the economically desperate. Rather, it would be more assuring, and perhaps more genuine, if those in chemical companies' upper management would participate alongside the volunteers. The question arises, aside from the immediate consequences, what constitutes a dosage that could eventually produce cancers in study subjects?
 

Dioxin
Our bodies contain at least 500 measurable chemicals that don't belong there.[1]  We exhale between ten and twenty organochlorine compounds with each breath. [2]  Dioxin is an organochlorine compound, and the most toxic chemical on Earth. As with DDT and PCB, dioxin accumulates in the fatty tissues of all animals, including the human animal. [3]  Studies have shown that besides deadly effects as a carcinogen, extraordinarily small amounts of dioxin can disrupt human hormones so as to severely alter our reproductive, nervous and immune systems and offspring development [4]  In one experiment cited in "Our Stolen Future" by Colburn, Dumanoski and Myers, mother rats were given a single dose of dioxin on the fifteenth day of their pregnancy, a critical time during the process of sexual differentiation that causes males to become male and not female. As these offspring matured, the male pups showed a diminished sperm count of 56% of normal.

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Unknowingly, we are jeopardizing the health of our children, grandchildren, future generations. Almost all of the dioxin in the environment is from man-made origins. Dioxin is emitted into the atmosphere during the manufacture of PVC-containing products such as: food wrap, pipe, garden hoses, credit cards, toys, appliances, plastic bottles, etc. As these products and other products (i.e hospital waste) are not recyclable, much are incinerated, releasing yet more dioxin. Also as reported in a July 1, 2003 press release by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, or DLCs, are found throughout the environment, in soil, water, and air. People are exposed to these contaminants primarily through the food supply, although at low levels, particularly by consuming the fats in meat, poultry, fatty fish, whole milk, and full-fat dairy. See National Academies Press Release of July 1, 2003

DLCs have been cited as causing skin damage, cancer, non-insulin-dependent diabetes in adults, neurological and immune system impairments in infants, and endocrine system disruption. Many of these effects were identified in individuals who had high levels of exposure. However, information is limited on how low-level DLC exposure through foods, defined as occurring in everyday life, influences the development of cancer and other diseases.

Dioxin levels in the environment have declined dramatically since the 1970s, by as much as 76 percent, according to some measurements. Dioxin levels in foods have decreased greatly as well.
 
Notwithstanding the decrease in the environment of dioxin, care must be taken to reduce the body's intake of this dangerous chemical. As the above National Academies press release states: Minimizing girls' and young women's intake of dioxins during the years before pregnancy is the only practical way to reduce dioxin exposure in fetuses and breast-feeding infants. Given the health and social benefits of breast-feeding, the committee recommended strategies to reduce accumulated body levels of dioxin, rather than to discourage breast-feeding.

To reduce dioxin exposures in all children -- especially girls -- government-sponsored food programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, should increase the availability of foods low in animal fat. For example, low-fat milk should be made more widely available in the school lunch program. Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should analyze the impact of setting limits on the amount of saturated fat that can be present in meals served in the school breakfast and lunch programs. Except for children under age 2, participants in the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children should be encouraged to choose low-fat milk and foods.

Promoting compliance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on consumption of saturated fats and fats in general would minimize people's dioxin exposure without compromising their intake of nutrients. Because of the health benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acids in fish and the difficulty of trimming fat from fish, the committee did not recommend that people reduce their consumption of fatty fish below the currently recommended two servings per week.

The committee also urged the government to give priority to reducing dioxin contamination of animal feed, and to curtailing the recycling of dioxins that occurs when contaminated grass forage and animal fat are included as ingredients in feed. Federal agencies should work with food producers to develop voluntary guidelines for animal feeding and food-production practices that would minimize animals' exposure to dioxins. [Copies of Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in the Food Supply: Strategies to Decrease Exposure will be available later in 2003 from the National Academies Press; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.]

Toxics Ban Treaty by 122 Countries & No U.S Ratification
On December 10, 2000 under a UN agreement, 122 countries agreed to a treaty banning 12 of the most toxic chemicals on the planet. PCBs, dioxins and other chemicals were among the list of other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) banned by the treaty. These chemicals have been known as carcinogenic agents, endocrine disruptors, sources of birth defects and other genetic abnormalities.

On May 23, 2001 a ceremony took place in Stockholm, where the treaty was signed by almost 130 countries, including the United States. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged nations to ratify the treaty as quickly as possible.

The Bush administration has used stalling tactics in bringing S.2118, a bill proposed by Vermont Senator, Jim Jeffords. This legislation calls for the ratification of the treaty S.2118 and includes the “adding mechanism.” wording, which will allow new chemicals to be added as needed.

The following 12 chemicals will be banned by the treaty.

Aldrin. A pesticide used to control termites in tree nurseries and buildings, insects in grain storage, soil pests in cornfields.
Chlordane.  A pesticide used to control termites and ants in buildings, crops, nurseries and forest plantations.
Dieldrin. A pesticide with uses similar to those of Aldrin.
DDT. A pesticide used to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes, tsetse flies and (illegally) crop pests.
Endrin. A pesticide used to control pests in corn, rice and cotton crops, and to control mice.
Heptachlor. A pesticide used to control termites and ants in buildings, crops, nurseries and forest plantations.
Mirex.  A pesticide used to control termites and ants in crops, grassland, forests and buildings. Also used as a fire retardant.
Toxaphene.  A pesticide used in agriculture and mosquito control.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Industrial chemicals used in electric transformers and capacitors and as additives in paint and plastics.
Hexachlorobenzene. A pesicide and industrial chemical used as a fungicide.
Dioxins.  An industrial byproduct created by car emissions and the burning of waste.
Furans. Toxic byproducts of waste burning and industrial production. 

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Bush Administration Retreats From Montreal Protocol
Under the Montreal Protocol, the United States and 182 other countries began a phase-out of methyl bromide. This pesticide used by strawberry growers, among others, is the most powerful ozone-depleting chemical still being used. Ozone is a protective layer in the atmosphere that shields the earth from the sun's rays, especially ultraviolet-B radiation that can cause skin cancer, cataracts and harm marine life. The ozone hole located above the Antarctic has reached record proportions in 2003, according to World Meteorological Organization. The size of the hole has encompassed an area 10.8 million square miles wide,  a shade under the record set in 2000, 11 million square miles.

In September 1987 in Montreal, twenty-four nations signed a treaty that most observers at the time had thought would be impossible. The Montreal treaty required a 50 percent reduction in the use of methyl bromide until January 1, 2003, after which a 70 percent reduction took effect. The production of methyl bromide is set to end after January 1, 2005.

Business interests, saying that there are no real alternatives yet, have lobbied the Bush administration, and persuaded it to push for 54 exemptions from the phase-out called for by the Montreal pact. However, Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of the largest U.S. chemical maker, Dow Chemical, said its a soil fumigant, telone, is being used widely in tomato and strawberry farms and unlike methyl bromide does not damage the ozone layer.  "We're not here to say the U.S. government is wrong but we're here to reinforce that there are alternatives to methyl bromide," the company's global business leader Jeffrey Welker said, adding that telone is used in 30 countries, including the United States.  See Environmental News Network Story

It was President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1987, who said to the U.S Senate, urging the treaty's ratification, "the Montreal Protocol provides for internationally coordinated control of ozone-depleting substances in order to protect public health and the environment from potential adverse effects of depletion of stratospheric ozone." The United States Senate ratified the pact on April 21, 1988.

Unacceptable Levels: Dioxin and other Toxins Found in Fish of European Markets
In a report (December, 2000) to the European Union by the Scientific Committee for Food, fish from fish farms and seas are found to contain unacceptable levels of dioxin and other contaminants. [5]  This is especially true of the fish caught in the heavily polluted waters of the North Sea and the Baltic around Scandinavia. While there has been no move yet to prohibit the use of fish oil or fish meal,  EU governments officials will meet early in 2001 to consider whether or not to escalate pressure to reduce pollutants as soon as possible.

The report states that dioxin levels in fish meal and fish oil are up to eight times as high as similar products from nonindustrial areas, such as in waters off the coasts of Peru and Chile. The fish meal and oil also contain as much as 10 times more dioxin than is found in meat and eggs. Part of the problem also is that fish meal is used in the diets of farmed fish, as well as chickens and pigs. Europe produces 500,000 tons of fish meal annually. Soy meal may be considered as a substitute for fish meal, although the former contains less protein than the fish meal.

The Effects of Mercury on Human Beings, Especially Women of Child-Bearing Age
In January, 2004 the EPA said that 1 in 6 American women of child-bearing age already has enough mercury in her blood to endanger a fetus, causing possible brain damage from exposure to the deadly chemical in the mother's body. This means that 630,000 children being born each year are at risk for possible brain damage due to their exposure to mercury.

When humans consume fish contaminated with methylmercury, the ingested methylmercury is almost completely absorbed into the blood and distributed to all tissues (including the brain); it also readily passes through the placenta to the fetus and fetal brain.
See Mercury Levels in Fish

<>Sources of Mercury Emissions
Coal-Fired Power Plants
In the US there are over 600 coal-fired plants that emit annually into the air about 98,000 pounds of mercury, while about another 81,000 pounds are released in the form of fly ash and scrubber sludge and 20,000 pounds more from “cleaning”coal, adding up to about 200,000 pounds of the highly toxic substance. See More from Earth Policy Institute

<>Besides the burning of fossil fuels in coal-fired power plants, other sources of mercury pollution comes from the disposal of mercury-containing products in incinerators and landfills, mineral mining operations, industrial uses like chlorine production, and releases from dental offices. Coal-fired cement facilities across the US emitted at least 12,000 pounds of mercury into the air in 2003. Mercury levels in the environment have increased 3-5  fold in the past century as a result of human activities and are reaching threshold levels that threaten human health and environmental security, as well as the future of the global fishing industry. Since 1996, fish has surpassed beef and poultry as the main common source of protein for billions of people in the world. [7]

One thing to remember is that toxic quantities of mercury in humans is described in parts per million.

Mercury Levels in Fish <>
The most commonly consumed fish in the United States contain mercury ranging from trace amounts up to 1.00 parts per million (ppm), which is the highest amount allowed by regulation.
 Seafood                                     Mercury
 Species                                   Levels (ppm)

Tilefish  ..................................       1.45
Swordfish * ............................       1.00
Shark* ...................................       0.96
King Mackerel........................       0.73
Grouper (Mycteroperca)..........      0.43
Tuna   (fresh or frozen)................   0.38<>
Tuna  (canned Albacore)..............  0.35
Lobster (North American)*......      0.31
Grouper (Epinephelus)..............      0.27
Halibut* ..................................      0.23
Sablefish*................................      0.22
Pollock*...................................     0.20
Crab Dungeness*.....................      0.18
Tuna (canned)*........................      0.17
Crab Blue*....................................0.17                                                                                                                                                                    
Crab Tanner*............................     0.15
Crab King*...............................     0.09
Catfish*.....................................    0.07
Scallops*...................................     0.05
Salmon (fresh, frozen, canned)*..    ND
Oysters*.....................................   ND
Shrimp*......................................   ND

*Fish and shellfish among the most commonly consumed of the domestic seafood market.
ND - Not Detectable
Source: Food and Drug Administration National Institutes of Health

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High Levels of Mercury in Albacore Tuna
In a study released June 19, 2003 by Mercury Policy Project in Montpelier, VT, analysis showed that mercury found in 60 cans of tuna selected randomly from Safeway, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and other stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles County and Montpelier exceeded the federal recommended maximum dose for women of child-bearing age. The brands of samples tuna were canned by Starkist, Bumblebee and Chicken of the Sea.( See Mercury Policy Project Press Release  See Test Results )

The following taken verbatim from Press Release:
One of every 20 cans of "white," or albacore, tuna should be recalled as unsafe for human consumption, according to independent testing conducted for the Mercury Policy Project, a public interest group. On average, the levels of mercury in the white tuna were considerably higher than the industry and government claims from outdated FDA tests, said Michael Bender, director of the project. “Our tests confirm what FDA has known for over a decade; white tuna has higher mercury levels,” said Bender. “Yet because FDA halted testing of canned tuna for mercury in 1998 to save money and because industry keeps its results secret, parents are unknowingly exposing their children to mercury.”

Methylmercury—the organic form mercury assumes in fish—is a potent neurotoxin that poses the greatest risk to the developing fetus, infants, and young children. Data from the CDC indicates that one in 12 women of childbearing age have unsafe mercury levels, translating to over 300,000 babies born at risk each year. "Our sample size was admittedly small," said Bender. “We chose 60 cans of tuna randomly off grocery shelves, had them tested by the New Age/Landmark Laboratory, Inc. and then had a portion retested by The National Food Laboratory, Inc.—a lab used by the tuna industry—so there is no reason to be believe that these results are not reflective of what millions of Americans consume."

Canned tuna is consumed in 90 percent of American households and accounts for around 20 percent of US seafood consumption. Children eat more than twice as much tuna as any other fish, and canned tuna is the most frequently consumed fish among women of child bearing age. Albacore accounts for about one-third of all canned tuna sold in the U.S. and our independent testing found that mercury levels in white canned tuna averaged over 0.5 ppm.

“FDA’ s own food safety committee recommended last year that the Agency warn pregnant women about canned tuna, but the Agency has failed to act because of undue influence by industry,” said Bender. “FDA should stop protecting the fishing industry’ s profits and start protecting children from mercury.”

How much fish a person can eat before exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’ s (EPA’s) “virtual safe limit,” called a reference dose (RfD), depends on body weight and mercury content of the fish. For example:
· A 22 pound toddler eating only 2 ounces of tuna per week with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration would have an intake over 4 times the EPA’ s RfD.
· If a woman with a typical weight of 132 lbs eats 12 ounces of canned tuna per week (the limit advised by FDA) with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration, she will exceed by 4 times the EPA's RfD.
· An 88 pound child consuming one 6 ounce can of tuna with a 0.5 ppm mercury concentration weekly would be exposed to 3 times the EPA's RfD standard.

These concerns, however, pale in comparison to the risks of prenatal mercury exposure; in utero fetuses are at risk of neurological impairment from methylmercury passing through the placental barrier. Nevertheless, at their food safety committee meeting last year, FDA scientists admitted that as many as 50 percent of women in the U.S. have little or no knowledge of mercury exposure risks identified with eating fish.

Dr. Alan H. Stern, a toxicologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences committee, who reviewed the EPA's safe dose limit, said that Mercury Policy Project's calculations were accurate. Stern said that he had known that albacore tuna typically tested higher. "I didn't know that it was four times higher," he said. (San Francisco Chronicle, article by Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer, June 19, 2003, page A10 )

Mercury-Based Dental Silver Fillings
Following excerpt taken from ENN's Earthtalk:
Despite their name, "silver" fillings are actually composed of about 50 percent mercury and 30 percent silver, with the remaining components divided among copper, tin, zinc, and sometimes cadmium. Dozens of Americans have complained that the fillings have damaged their health through mercury poisoning, from causing shortness of breath, loss of energy, memory damage, and even partial paralysis.

Silver fillings, which are also called amalgam, are cheap and easy to install, and the American Dental Association (ADA) reports that 76 percent of dentists use them. Although the ADA concedes that "a very small number of people" are allergic to the fillings, the group staunchly maintains, "Studies have failed to find any link between amalgam restorations and any medical disorder." The ADA has long claimed that mercury remains chemically locked within the "extremely stable" fillings.

But according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, "Very small amounts are slowly released from the surface of the filling due to corrosion or chewing or grinding motions." Although the agency agrees with the ADA that there is not yet scientific agreement on whether this exposure actually causes health problems, it suggests that fillings may be risky for pregnant women, children, and those with impaired kidney or immune function.

The citizen group, Consumers for Dental Choice, argues that mercury fillings do pose a significant threat to public health, and they are campaigning to end the practice. And despite strong industry opposition, Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-Calif.) introduced still-pending legislation in April 2002 that would ban all  mercury-based dental amalgam within five years.

Clinton's Goal to Cut Mercury Emissions up to 90% by 2008 vs Bush Proposed Cut by 2018
In EPA documents secured by the environmental organization, National Environmental Trust, the Clinton EPA hoped, using the best technology available, to cut mercury emissions from power plants by as much as 90% (to 5.5 tons) by 2008. The Bush administration is proposing, as of December 16, 2003, to give power plants up to 15 years to install technology to reduce mercury pollution  See Environmental News Network Story

As of 2005, the Bush Administration requires a 21% reduction in mercury emissions from  power plants vs the Clinton Administration's 90% cut, a reduction that the EPA says is achievable technologically and economicly.

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Farmed Salmon Contain High Levels of Toxins
In a January, 2004 report that appeared in journal Science, researchers from Indiana University, University at Albany, Cornell University and elsewhere found that farmed salmon contained much higher levels of toxins (PCBs, dioxins, toxaphene, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, lindane, heptachlor epoxide et al) than wild salmon. Led by professor Ronald Hites of Albany, they found that the source of the toxins were mainly the salmon chow or fish meal that was fed the salmon. Professor Hites said, "We think it's important for people who eat salmon to know that farmed salmon have higher levels of toxins than wild salmon from the open ocean." See more on toxic farmed salmon

Farmed salmon taken from markets in Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Paris, London, Oslo, Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto had the highest levels, and the researchers said consumers should eat no more than one-half to one meal of salmon per month. Farmed salmon from markets in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, New York and Vancouver registered a lower level of toxins, and the report recommended that people should not eat more than two salmon meals a month. As for wild salmon, it would be safe to eat up to eight meals a month of these fish.

A meal was eight ounces (one-quarter of a kg) of uncooked meat. See the Planet Ark Story for more on the above.

Autistic Child & Chelation Therapy - Stripping Heavy Metals From the Body

Mercury & autism - Chelation Therapy May 25, 2005

Couple eager to share their conviction that mercury poisoning was the culprit

- Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

Article Web Site

 

LAFAYETTE 

A Lafayette couple, certain that chelation therapy has helped their autistic son, stepped squarely into the controversy surrounding the causes of autism and its treatment Tuesday as they joined 150 other parents in launching an international support group that will aggressively promote the treatment.

 

Jamie Handley was a happy, healthy baby who reached all his developmental milestones until he turned 18 months, his parents said. Then, he started spinning in circles and standing on his toes and no longer responded to his name. They were eventually told he was autistic -- one of an increasing number of children over the last decade to be diagnosed with the disorder, which severely impairs a child's ability to interact with others.

 

The Handleys are now among a small minority of parents -- who, believing that the autism was caused by the mercury in thimerosal, a preservative that was routinely used in vaccines until recently -- are treating their children with chelation therapy, a lotion or pill that strips the body of heavy metals. It has been used for decades to detoxify people contaminated in industrial accidents, but no studies have proved whether it is an effective treatment for autism.

 

For Jamie's parents, the proof they need is in front of them: Jamie, now 3 years old and several months into treatment, is plump and playing baseball. His smile has returned.

 

"Every day brings small, steady gains," said Lisa Handley of Lafayette. "Our life is filled with hope and the conviction that Jamie won't just improve, but will completely recover."

 

The Handleys said the new support group, Generation Rescue, and its Web site, www.generationrescue.com, will offer information on chelation therapy and connect parents with those who can help. The chelation therapy includes not only the medicine, but dietary restrictions and vitamins and mineral supplements.

 

The medical community differs on the cause of autism, a developmental disorder marked by communication problems and restricted or repetitive behavior. Some say it's genetic, possibly exacerbated by other medical or environmental conditions. Others have noticed that the symptoms have often surfaced after a child got routine vaccinations containing thimerosal -- and believe that the skyrocketing numbers of autism in the last decade are the result of an increasing use of the vaccinations over the same period.

 

"Mercury is the second most neurotoxic substance on earth, after plutonium, and they were injecting it into newborns until 2003," said Lynn Mielke, Jamie's doctor. "An entire generation of children was basically poisoned."

 

In California, 1,605 children were diagnosed with autism in 1992-93, compared with nearly 20,000 a decade later, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

 

The national Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academies, has concluded that there is no link between thimerosal and autism and says that a number of other factors could explain the rise in autism diagnoses.

 

But the Handleys and other parents say they noticed symptoms in their children after they got booster shots.

 

"Our son Andy regressed immediately after his 15-month vaccinations," said Karen Schwing of Beach Haven, N.J., another member of Generation Rescue. "I was told nothing can be done. Our son is living proof that autism is treatable."

 

Treatment of autism is as hotly debated as the causes of the disease. Mielke, who has an autistic son, is a member of a group called Defeat Autism Now and attends an international research conference on autism twice a year. She insists that almost every child improves with the chelation therapy. Others say that it can be treated through changes in diet and with nutritional supplements. Nothing yet has been proved to cure autism, however.

 

If thimerosal is part of the problem, the numbers of cases should begin to drop. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service said vaccine manufacturers should phase out thimerosal. While it may still be found in vaccines on the shelves of doctors' offices, said Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Research Institute of San Diego, new pediatric vaccines now contain trace amounts of the preservative or none at all.

 

Three states -- Iowa, Missouri and California -- have banned the preservative, although the California law doesn't take effect until July 2006. Other states are considering following suit, but a U.S. Senate bill would prevent states from banning mercury in vaccines.

 

Government funding is needed to prove or disprove the mercury connection, said Dr. Boyd Haley, a mercury researcher and expert on toxicology at the University of Kentucky. "We need the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to put their money and expertise to determine the best possible treatment."

 

E-mail Leslie Fulbright at lfulbright@sfchronicle.com .


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EPA Accepting Pesticide Industry Studies on Humans June 28, 2005
Juliet Eilperin in a Washington Post article (which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle) writes how the Bush Administration's EPA is accepting pesticide industry studies related to experiments on human.. The full article follows:


Washington -- The Environmental Protection Agency is using data from two dozen tests that deliberately exposed humans to toxic chemicals to help determine whether to approve new pesticides, according to a study released Thursday by congressional Democrats. <>

The lawmakers -- California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles -- said the report underscored why EPA officials should no longer accept pesticide industry studies that involve human subjects. Volunteers were exposed to several poisons, including an insecticide used for chemical warfare in World War I and a pesticide closely related to the chemical that killed thousands in Bhopal, India.

Boxer, who plans to offer an amendment that would prohibit the EPA from using data culled from human pesticide tests, said in an interview it is "very disturbing" that officials "are in essence acquiescing to these kinds of experiments." She added, "The EPA has no standards in place, and they are in violation of international standards."

The EPA plans to issue new rules on human pesticide tests next year; in the interim, senior officials decide on a case-by-case basis whether the experiments violate ethical standards.

Policy-makers have struggled for more than a decade over the propriety of using information from tests of pesticide effects on humans. The Clinton administration banned the use of such data in regulatory decisions, but Bush appointees revived the practice, relying on a 2004 National Academy of Sciences study that outlined human test guidelines. Some critics, however, say the EPA is not adhering to those guidelines.

Democratic staffers surveyed 24 tests conducted between 1967 and 2004, most of them in the past decade, that the EPA is reviewing as it evaluates applications to market new pesticides. They concluded that nearly one-third of the tests "were specifically designed to cause harm to human test subjects or put them at risk of harm," and in many cases "the informed consent forms used in the experiments do not appear to meet ethical standards."

The scientists conducting the tests frequently ignored the fact that they were putting their subjects -- who were often students or minorities -- at risk, the report said. In one case, three dozen subjects took an insecticide pill with orange juice at breakfast.

EPA spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said the agency is drafting new testing rules. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has said human pesticide testing is not needed to protect public health, and earlier this year, under pressure from Democrats, he canceled an EPA study of how infants and small children are exposed to pesticides in their homes.

(See also above: Human Guinea Pigs Research - February, 2004 )

EPA Blocked From Human Pesticide Studies June 29, 2005
AP writer, Andrew Taylor, wrote in an article (appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle) that U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's amendment (approved 60-37) to a bill funding the EPA, blocked the EPA from allowing the testing of pesticides on humans. However the Republican floor manager Senator Conrad Burns, Montana is likely to kill the amendment in talks with House members. The article follows:
The Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from using studies that intentionally expose people to pesticides when considering permits for pest killers.

 

By a 60-37 vote, the Senate approved a provision from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that would block the EPA from relying on such testing — including 24 human pesticide experiments currently under review — as it approves or denies pesticide applications.

The Bush administration lifted a partial moratorium imposed in 1998 by the Clinton administration on using human testing for pesticide approvals. Under the change, political appointees are refereeing on a case-by-case basis any ethical disputes over human testing.

 

The tests include a 2002-04 study by the University of California-San Diego in which chloropicrin, a fungicide that was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I, was administered to 127 young adults in doses that Boxer said exceeded average federal safety limits.

 

New EPA rules under development envision permitting the agency to accept data from human tests on children, pregnant women, newborns, infants and fetuses. Even newborns of "uncertain viability" could be tested under the draft EPA rule.

 

Boxer's proposal would block the EPA from using data taken from human testing for the budget year starting Oct. 1. It would also bar the agency from conducting such testing.

"Let's use this time to throw out this rule that they're drafting which is immoral on its face because it would allow EPA itself to test pregnant women and fetuses," Boxer told reporters. "And let's go back to the basic rules of science and morality."

The pesticide industry said Boxer was deliberately inflaming the issue and manufacturers do not intentionally perform tests on children. It said Boxer's amendment is so broad as to block testing to determine safe exposure levels for agricultural pesticides, insect repellents and pool sanitizers.

"It would effectively cripple the regulatory process at EPA," said Dr. Pat Donnelly, an executive vice president at CropLife America, a pesticide industry association.

The vote came as the Senate passed, 94-0, a bill funding the EPA and Interior Department budgets. The House approved identical language when considering its version of the bill last month.

The underlying $26.3 billion measure provides about $542 million more than President Bush's request but $751 million less than current spending levels. During the debate, the Senate also voted 96-0 to add $1.5 billion to make up for a recently revealed shortfall in Veterans Affairs health care accounts.

Ordinarily, approval by both the House and Senate would ensure the language is retained in the final version of the bill. But GOP floor manager Conrad Burns, R-Mont., opposed Boxer's amendment, and as the lead Senate negotiator on the bill he is well-positioned to kill it in future talks with the House.

Burns countered with an amendment, adopted 57-40, allowing human testing to continue but instructing the EPA to study if it's being conducted ethically and whether the benefits outweigh the risks to volunteers.

 

The EPA is developing rules, slated to be issued by 2006, on the use of human subjects for testing pesticides in the wake of a 2003 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that sided with pesticide manufacturers. The court ruled that the EPA cannot refuse to consider data from manufacturer-sponsored human exposure tests until it develops regulations on it.

 

Boxer and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., had held up the confirmation of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson until he promised to cancel a pesticide study in Florida. Over the study's two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla., in what critics of the study noted was a low-income, minority neighborhood.


In an EPA vs salmon case, court upholds pesticide ban June 30, 2005
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

A federal appeals court upheld on Wednesday a ban on spraying 54 pesticides near salmon waterways in California, Oregon and Washington and said the Environmental Protection Agency must consult federal biologists about protecting endangered salmon and steelhead from harmful chemicals.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected challenges by the EPA, pesticide companies and farm organizations to a federal judge's order in January 2004 prohibiting ground applications of the 54 pesticides within 20 yards of salmon-bearing rivers and streams. The order also required a buffer zone of at least 100 yards for aerial sprays.

In addition, it also required urban home and garden stores in the three states to warn their customers if a product contains pesticides that can harm salmon or steelhead. All those requirements, the judge said, would stay in place until the EPA completes the consultation process.

"Competent scientific evidence from EPA's own files shows these 54 pesticides harming salmon, disorienting them, affecting their sense of smell that is vital to finding food and also harming their habitat and killing plant and insect life that salmon rely on for food,'' said Amy Williams-Derry, a lawyer with Earthjustice in Seattle who represented fishing and conservation groups.

She said Wednesday's ruling required the EPA to consult National Marine Fisheries Service biologists who are experts on salmon and the effects of pesticides. The biologists are likely to suggest protective measures, which could include buffer zones and seasonal restrictions on spraying, Williams- Derry said. She said the EPA could reject the suggestions but would be risking another lawsuit.

EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the agency is reviewing the ruling and declined further comment. Lawyers for the businesses that sided with the EPA in the case were unavailable for comment.

The suit was filed in 2001 after the EPA approved the pesticides for use without consulting biologists from the fisheries service about their possible effect on 25 endangered or threatened species of salmon and steelhead in Pacific Northwest and California waters.

The EPA argued that consultation with biologists was not required for pesticides, which are regulated under another federal law that contains environmental safeguards. The three-judge appeals court panel disagreed, noting that the pesticide law weighed economic costs against environmental benefits, while the Endangered Species Act gave imperiled creatures the highest priority.

E-mail at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/30/BAG22DGRV81.DTL


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