Greenlist Bulletin 10/30/2009
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Greenlist Bulletin provides previews of recent publications and websites relevant to reducing the use of toxic chemicals by industries, businesses, communities, individuals and government. You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here.
Titles here, abstracts below:
- American Cancer Society Perspectives on Environmental Factors and Cancer
- Knocking nanoparticles off the socks
- Chemical Industry Accused of Astroturfing Toxics Reform
- Practice Prevention: endocrine-disrupting chemicals
- Toxic Face Paint Makes for Scary Halloween
- Global warming may release frozen pollutants
1. American Cancer Society Perspectives on Environmental Factors and Cancer
Source: CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, October 28, 2009
In a new report published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a scientific advisory subcommittee of the American Cancer Society (ACS) clarified the Society's role in addressing the relationship between environmental pollutants and cancer risk. The report advises the public to minimize exposure to known carcinogens and calls for new strategies to more effectively and efficiently screen chemicals.
"Exposure levels to environmental pollution to the general public are typically far lower than the levels associated with the proven cancer risks shown in occupational or other settings," said Elizabeth "Terry" T.H. Fontham, MPH, DrPH, national volunteer president of the American Cancer Society and co-chair of the committee. "Nevertheless, these low-level exposures do cause us concern because of the multiplicity of substances, the fact that many exposures are out of the public’s control, and the potential that even low-level exposures contribute to the cancer burden when large numbers of people are exposed."
The report is one of the first efforts of the subcommittee, which was established specifically to examine issues related to cancer and the environment. It provides an overview of how carcinogens are currently identified, evaluated, and classified, and goes into some of the limitations of those systems and the scientific complexity involved in environmental exposure risk assessment.
The report also details the Society's role in better understanding the impact of environmental carcinogens on public health and calls for new strategies for toxicity testing, additional research to identify and reduce carcinogenic hazards, and more funding for agencies that set and enforce environmental standards.
2. Knocking nanoparticles off the socks
Source: ScienceDaily, October 28, 2009
Scientists in Switzerland are reporting results of one of the first studies on the release of silver nanoparticles from laundering those anti-odor, anti-bacterial socks now on the market. Their findings may suggest ways that manufacturers and consumers can minimize the release of these particles to the environment, where they could harm fish and other wildlife.
In the study, Bernd Nowack and colleagues note that widespread use of silver nanoparticles in consumer products, especially textiles, likely results in the distribution of nanoparticles in lakes and streams. Manufacturers favor silver nanoparticles because of their antibacterial action, which slows the growth of odor-causing bacteria. The scientists studied release of nanoparticles in laundry water from nine different textiles, including different brands of commercially available anti-odor socks. Previous studies laundered socks, but in pure distilled water.
They found that most of the released particles were relatively large and that most came out of the fabrics during the first wash. The total released varied from 1.3 to 35 percent of the total nanosilver in the fabric. Bleach generally did not affect the amount released. "These results have important implications for the risk assessment of silver textiles and also for environmental fate studies of nanosilver, because they show that under certain conditions relevant to washing, primarily coarse silver-containing particles are released," the paper says.
3. Chemical Industry Accused of Astroturfing Toxics Reform
Source: Cold Truth via Society of Environmental Journalists, October 28, 2009
"The Coalition for Chemical Safety sounds like just the kind of group to which environmental activists would swarm.
The images on their Web site are iconic: A child holding the hand of a grownup, a worker's hard hat with an American flag decal, a family photo. ...
Sign up and they say they will inundate federal lawmakers with e-mails under your name reminding them that it's time to change the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Substances Control Act in a way that will 'protect public health, preserve American jobs and innovation.'
If you didn't look closely, this would seem like a warm and cuddly group that is fighting to keep the chemical industry from endangering children, the environment and people just like you.
The coalition offers no address or telephone number at which to contact them and calls itself 'a non-profit social welfare organization.'
But if you check the interactive map on the coalition's website, the three or four 'members' in the 13 states listed are mostly agri-business, chemical and industry trade associations." Read more
4. Practice Prevention: endocrine-disrupting chemicals
Source: Collaborative on Health and the Environment, October 28, 2009
Based on the scientific statement from the Endocrine Society published this summer, the column makes the scientific information about endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) accessible for non-scientists. Written for parents, educators, child-care providers and others who are responsible for children's well-being, this column describes how children are exposed to EDCs and how to reduce exposures.
5. Toxic Face Paint Makes for Scary Halloween
Source: Environment News Service, October 28, 2009
Some children's face paints contain lead, a neurotoxin that can harm the brain at low doses, according to new product tests documented in a report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a national coalition of nonprofit health and environmental groups.
In some of the paints tested, the lab identified the heavy metals nickel, cobalt and chromium, which are skin allergens, even in products labeled "non-toxic" and "hypoallergenic."
Because these metals are not listed on product labels, parents shopping for Halloween makeup have no way of knowing which products are safe. The only way to know if a cosmetic product contains lead or other heavy metals is to test the product at a laboratory, which the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics did for this report at a cost of $270.00 per sample.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics sent 10 children’s face paints to an independent lab to test for heavy metals. The products were delivered, unopened, to Analytical Sciences, a laboratory in Petaluma, California.
The lab tests found:
* All 10 of the children’s face paints tested contained lead at levels ranging from 0.05 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
* Six out of 10 children’s face paints contained the potent skin allergens nickel, cobalt and/or chromium at levels ranging from 1.6 to 120 ppm – far exceeding industry safety recommendations of one ppm.
* Snazaroo Face Paint, labeled as "non-toxic" and "hypoallergenic," contained some of the highest levels of lead, nickel and cobalt found in the study.
6. Global warming may release frozen pollutants
Source: CORDIS, October 22, 2009
Melting glaciers in the Alps may cause severe environmental damage due to the release of pollutants which have been frozen in ice for decades, according to research by Swiss scientists. With glaciers predicted to recede further due to global warming, the resulting melt may contain chemicals which have been banned or are not widely produced any more.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) analysed sediment layers from the high-Alpine Oberaarsee reservoir in Switzerland. The scientists were able to reconstruct the processes by which long-lived organic compounds have accumulated in the ice over the last 60 years, and published their findings in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
These compounds are called 'legacy pollutants', and researchers found that accelerated glacier melting may account for increased levels of such chemicals in Alpine regions. The presence of legacy pollutants in the Alps is dangerous for several reasons, including the melting of snow in the spring, use of glacier melt water by consumers and industry, and increased specific exposure of humans and wildlife to hazardous compounds.
'Considering ongoing global warming and accelerated massive glacier melting predicted for the future, our study indicates the potential for dire environmental impacts due to pollutants delivered into pristine environments,' warned the researchers.
When glaciers melt, the accumulated chemicals, deposited years earlier by air currents on to the snow layer and then frozen into the ice, are carried by the runoff water into the nearest glacial lake. There, together with other matter suspended in the melt water, they sink to the bottom of the lake and accumulate in the sediment. Researchers looked for a wide range of pollutants, including persistent organic pollutants, organochlorine pesticides and synthetic musk fragrances.
The researchers were able to read the sediment layers in the Oberaarsee reservoir's sediment samples like tree rings, layer for layer all the way back to 1953, when the dam which created the lake was first built. Reading the rings, the scientists were not only able to distinguish pollutants produced in the 1960s and 1970s, but also see the reduction in chemicals after they were banned. Alarmingly, though, increased pollutant levels were visible from the 1990s. The researchers say that this may be due, in part, to runoff from the Oberaar glacier, which shrank by 120 metres in the last 10 years alone, and could have released a relatively large amount of accumulated toxic substances.
Samples from Lake Oberaar were compared to core samples from lakes at lower levels. Sediment from these locations did not exhibit the same increase in legacy pollutants at the end of the 1990s. This finding supported the hypothesis that the increased levels of legacy pollutants in Lake Oberaar resulted from glacier melt.
The study concludes by saying: 'The coupling of glacier dynamics and pollutant cycling is a complex topic and represents a poorly studied research field. Ongoing work in this field may provide additional insight into the fate of persistent organic pollutants in the Alpine environment.'
You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of these resources. Also, please tell us what topics you are particularly interested in monitoring, and who else should see Greenlist. An online search of the TURI Library catalog can be done at http://library.turi.org for greater topic coverage.
This page updated Friday October 30 2009