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While all links worked when entries were posted to the database, different publishers
have different policies about retaining articles and providing access to archived material.
Thus some of the links, particularly older ones, may no longer be functional.
For links no longer working, you may be able to gain paid access to text via the publisher's site.
Exposure to arsenic causes human stem cells to transform into cancer cells, report researchers who studied the cells in a laboratory.
People in certain regions of the world are exposed to high levels of arsenic through drinking water tainted by the naturally-occurring element. The results of this new study may explain why arsenic is associated with several human cancers, including prostrate cancer in men. 5 November 2009. More...
Flourescing fish may offer a quick and easy way to test if specific chemicals – or complex mixtures found in the environment – will affect the thyroid gland and its normal hormonal functions.
With so many chemical contaminants in the environment, rapid screening tools that target specific physiological processes or tissues are increasingly valuable to regulators and researchers. 2 October 2009. More...
People who eat wild game shot by hunters have significantly higher levels of lead circulating in their blood than those who do not, report researchers from the CDC.
The results agree with a handful of other studies that have found the lead from the bullets used to kill game such as deer and elk can leach into the meat and then into the people who eat it. 28 September 2009. More...
New research in Virginia reports that levels of hormones key for growth and controlling stress were skewed in tree swallow nestlings contaminated with mercury.
The study finds some of the highest mercury levels ever measured in wild songbird nestlings. The researchers point to the birds' insect food as the source of contamination. 10 September 2009. More...
Exposure to low to moderate levels of lead before birth and as a child can permanently change the brain's structure in a way that may alter if and how it transmits messages, a new study finds.
More differences in the nerve cells and the thickness of their coverings were found in adults who had higher lead exposure during development and as children. Some areas of the brain developed less robust nerve pathways and other parts had thicker or thinner coverings. 2 September 2009. More...
A recent study links higher blood lead levels with high blood pressure in pregnant women, suggesting that lead exposure may increase the risk of developing hypertension during pregnancy.
All of the women in the study had blood levels below the level considered 'acceptable' by most health agencies, providing additional support for the need to lower the threshold. 10 August 2009. More...
A study of young children in India has found that higher blood lead levels are associated with a suite of behavioral and thinking problems that can alter attention, abstract thinking and appropriate behavior.
This study is one of the first to pinpoint specific childhood behaviors and cognitive skills affected by lead exposure, most notably anxiety, social problems and overall executive function (planning, problem solving, behavior control). The study found no "safe" level. 4 August 2009. More...
A study with rats suggests that radioactive uranium inhaled by soldiers on the battlefield and by workers in factories may bypass the brain's protective barrier by following nerves from the nose directly to the brain.
This study provides yet another example of how some substances can use the olfactory system to bypass the brain's protective blood barrier and go directly to the brain. Titanium nanoparticles and the metals manganese, nickel, and thallium use the same route. 31 July 2009. More...
A new study with mice links arsenic exposure to reduced immune response.
The results suggest those people most exposed to arsenic through their drinking water may be more susceptible to illness and possibly death when infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus. 17 July 2009. More...
In a study of men and women 55 to 67 years old, higher lead levels were associated with poorer performance on tasks used to assess memory deficits.
Although other studies have found associations between lead exposure and cognitive deficits in older adults, this is the first study to link lead exposure with specific measures of memory impairment that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease. 26 June 2009. More...
Developmental exposure to PCBs can permanently damage hearing but co-exposure with methyl mercury reduces the effects.
The mercury doses were selected to achieve a ratio of PCBs to methyl mercury similar to that found in walleye caught by fisherman in Wisconsin, but the doses were higher than those typically encountered by people. 25 June 2009. More...
Nine years after China banned lead in gasoline, lead levels in children's blood is decreasing.
A new study reports that by 2007, boys' blood lead levels had dropped to 79.3 µg/L from 96.4 µg/L in 2004. 4 June 2009. More...
Both long and short summer ice thaws in Arctic waters are associated with higher mercury levels in seals.
As global climate change progresses, and the sea ice melts for longer periods each year, the seals' mercury levels could consistently increase over time. Mercury levels are predicted to increase in fish as coal power plants continue to spew the metal. Mercury is a neurotoxin that has known effects on reproduction, behavior and immune responses. 5 May 2009. More...
Researchers sampling skin from sperm whales around the world found the animals have the highest levels of the metal chromium in their bodies of any marine mammal tested to date.
The levels in the skin of the whales are similar to those found in lung tissues of humans with chromium-induced lung cancer and may be an additional health threat to the already endangered species. 22 April 2009. More...
Autism rates among school children living within a 10- or 20-mile radius of toxic waste sites are nearly twice as likely to have autism compared to children living farther away from such sites.
These data support the widely speculated but controversial idea that exposure to chemical contaminants can increase the risk of developing autism. 13 April 2009. More...
Scientists identify changes in brain chemistry caused by perfluorinated chemicals that may be the cause of 'deranged spontaneous behavior' observed when young mice are exposed to PFCs.
The chemicals are used in clothing, carpeting, upholstery, floor and car waxes, firefighting foams, and even in the lining of food containers, including pizza boxes and microwave popcorn bags. 3 April 2009. More...
Men -- but not women -- exposed to low levels of cadmium have an increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease.
To date, excess deaths due to cancer -- lung, prostrate and renal -- and cardiovascular disease have been found in people with high and occupational exposures to cadmium. Based on data from the CDC, this is the first study to show similar results in the general population. 3 April 2009. More...
Lead poisoning may be the reason a globally threatened species of vulture is frequently found dead in the wild.
Researchers examined 20 dead birds found in the the demilitarized zone in Korea and found very high levels of lead. The authors suggest that the birds may pick up the poisonous lead during their migration by feeding on animals that are contaminated with the heavy metal. 4 March 2009. More...
Memory and concentration ability were lower in adults living near an abandoned Taiwanese factory where mercury was used many years ago.
This is one of the first studies to document methylmercury's effects on human brain function in Taiwan. Other studies find similar outcomes in people from Japan, the US, New Zealand and Canada. 24 February 2009. More...
Elevated levels of several toxic metals were found in red deer and wild boar that live in a region of Spain littered with abandoned mines, but now a hotbed for hunters.
None of the measured metals were at toxic levels, but the deer from the mining area had subtle changes in tissue biochemistry when compared to their neighbors from a non-mining area. 10 February 2009. More...
As babies grow into toddlers, their ability to alter arsenic into less harmful forms changes, leaving them less able to get rid of the cancer-causing metal and perhaps, more susceptible to its effects.
According to this new research from Bangladesh, children exposed to arsenic face a double whammy: they are less able to detoxify the poison at a time when their exposure through food and water is most likely increasing. 6 February 2009. More...
A reanalysis of decades-old data finds that neurologic problems caused by eating mercury-contaminated fish plagued Japanese residents 10 years after the poisoning and at lower doses than originally measured.
Fish are an important part of a healthy diet, and many people around the world rely on fish as their major source of protein. But fish can be contaminated, by mercury and other toxicants. How you weight the trade-off depends upon what you understand about the benefits and the costs. This new result indicates the costs of mercury exposure are higher than assumed. 7 January 2009. More...
Eating mercury contaminated seafood increases the risk of heart disease in men, reports a unique study that examined whalers on the Faroe Islands.
The researchers found a clearly significant correlation of increased blood pressure and arterial thickness with higher mercury levels found in their bodies. 5 January 2009. More...
A study of new, oil-based paints sold in Chinese retail stores finds that more than half have lead levels above the government's standards.
55% of paints tested in this study exceeded the Chinese standard of 90 parts per million (ppm) of soluble lead. Fifty percent of paints also exceeded the US standard of 600 ppm of total lead, with 24% of samples containing more than 5,000 ppm of total lead. 17 December 2008. More...
A modern day 'canary in a coal mine' unfolds as thousands of birds “dropping from the sky” alert authorities to lead-tainted drinking water and people.
Residents of a seaside community in Australia had unusually high concentrations of a unique and toxic form of lead that was discovered after thousands of local birds died. 1 December 2008. More...
New research from China indicates that a part of the brain that controls short-term memory and learning is smaller in workers who were exposed to lead while at work and had high levels in their blood.
The study suggests that people who work with the heavy metal may develop subtle brain changes that could increase their risk of neurological disorders. 20 November 2008. More...
Women's blood mercury levels are decreasing overall in the US, but differences still persist regionally, ethnically and economically.
Higher levels of blood mercury were more common in women living in coastal areas of the USA, with higher exposures in the Northeast region. 10 November 2008. More...
Prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may lower a child's intelligence at age nine by several points, a study from Oswego, New York, finds.
The pre-teen children whose mothers were highly exposed to PCBs during pregnancy scored lower in general and verbal IQ tests than those born to mothers who were mildly exposed. The findings support other human studies that suggest exposure to these persistent chemicals disrupts early childhood mental development. 27 October 2008. More...
Exposure to arsenic is thought to cause cancer but how... is still unknown. New research from China suggest that it may be due to arsenic's effect on genes that keep DNA stable.
In the study, arsenic exposure was analyzed chemically in the water and from toenail samples. Participants' blood was analyzed for changes in telomerase activity. The research team found that people with more exposure to arsenic had higher levels of telomerase. This new finding that telomerase activity is increased complements this prior work and implicates arsenic as a tumor promotor. 14 October 2008. More...
A new study from Sweden finds that several nanomaterials--now widely used in sunscreens and other consumer products--can damage the DNA of human lung cells.
The researchers exposed human cells from the surface of lungs to eight different types of nanomaterials and measured DNA damage and indicators of stress. The findings highlight the urgent need for proper testing of these small particles to understand the health risks associated with each type of material. 7 October 2008. More...
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