Paraben present in cosmetics and deodorants strongly linked to Breast Cancer!

Paraben, a chemical preservative present in many everyday toiletries and cosmetic products (such as face creams, underarm deodorants, hair care products, make-up products), processed food (such as sausages and pies) and pharmaceuticals (eg the Pill) has been strongly linked to breast cancer.

This latest finding was from a group of scientists from the University of Reading that carried out the research and published in Journal of Applied Toxicology. The study which was an attempt to identify links between Parabens and breast cancer showed that Parabens were present in breast cancer tissue taken from 40 women during a study.

However, it is interesting to note that majority of women involved in the study said they did not use deodorant or similar cosmetic products and thus researchers are of the believe the Parabens enter the body in a number of different ways.

Health experts are now calling for more research to be carried out to explore the findings further. It is on record that Parabens have long been suspected as a contributing cause of breast cancer but this is the first time a link has been found.

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Panel urges lower cut off for child lead poisoning.

As I was reading this interesting piece, what crossed my mind was Zamfara lead poisoning. It was reported that a panel of experts urges US government to lower the threshold for lead poisoning in children. This is in view of the fact that if the current threshold is maintained, developing brain of those exposed to lead could suffer which means lower IQ. This is a job well done for the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and the CDC of the US as the present lower level of 10 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood would be downgraded to 5 micrograms. This lower level currently impact on about 450,000 children in the US but several millions in developing countries (eg Nigeria).
I was wondering if Zamfara issue is still receiving the right attention from the Nigeria government.
I strongly believe that there are so many unreported cases of lead poisoning in other parts of Nigeria. I also believe that with what we saw in Zamfara, some of the unexplained causes of childhood mortality and morbidity (convulsions, renal disorders, behavioural and hearing disorders etc) in Nigeria are not unrelated to lead poisoning.
I should commend W.H.O, US CDC, MSF and other International NGOs too numerous to mention for their tireless efforts on curbing the menace in Zamfara. If not because of their untiring support and commitment to issue of Zamafara lead poisoning, Nigerian Government alone would have thrown the issue long ago into the dustbin.

BPA chemical ban in the USA takes effect 1st October 2011.

Finally a law banning the use of BPA takes effect from 1st October 2011 across the United States. This law is the first of its kind in the nation to ban products containing bisphenol A. Kudos to the advocates of BPA ban!
The law ban use of the chemical in reusable food and beverage containers, reusable spill-proof cups, containers of infant formula and baby food, plastic sports bottles, and Thermoses.
This ban is as a result of increase evidence on the harmful effects of this chemical especially its endocrine disrupting effects commonest amongst which is type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
I hope a global ban on the manufacture and use of BPA would soon be in place. This will surely help avoid the world advanced economies from further manufacturing of the chemical (for their economic gains) and subsequent dumping of it on the developing nations. I equally pray that the world industrialised nations would transfer their technological knowledge on the alternative to BPA (which I believe is in place in their countries) to enable the low and mid-income economies adopt it.

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A new study on Bisphenol A and Diabetes!

There is no doubt that the introduction of BPA in our packages have greatly transformed the food industry…..thanks to globalisation.
It is my believe that this transformation has come but with a ‘price tag’ attached to it…………..the increase in the number of type 2 diabetes across the globe within the past 10 years may not be unconnected to the increase use of BPA.
I came across this latest study (ahead of print) on BPA and diabetes (refer to my earlier blog post on BPA and Endocrine disruptors), [J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Sep 28. Relationship between Urinary Bisphenol A Levels and Diabetes Mellitus. Shankar A, Teppala S.] using NHANES.
This latest study looked at 2003-2008, and has the highest OR while the previous studies on BPA and diabetes have looked at years 2003-4 (positive association; OR 1.39) and 2005-6 (no association) and pooled 2003-6 (positive association; OR 1.24).
The Abstract reads as follows:
Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a widely used chemical in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Recent animal studies have suggested that BPA exposure may have a role in the development of weight gain, insulin resistance, pancreatic endocrine dysfunction, thyroid hormone disruption, and several other mechanisms involved in the development of diabetes. However, few human studies have examined the association between markers of BPA exposure and diabetes mellitus.
Methods: We examined the association between urinary BPA levels and diabetes mellitus in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2008. Urinary BPA levels were examined in quartiles. The main outcome of interest was diabetes mellitus defined according the latest American Diabetes Association guidelines.
Results: Overall, we observed a positive association between increasing levels of urinary BPA and diabetes mellitus, independent of confounding factors such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and serum cholesterol levels. Compared to quartile 1 (referent), the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of diabetes associated with quartile 4 was 1.50 (1.05-2.14) (p-trend = 0.03). The association was present among normal-weight as well as overweight and obese subjects.
Conclusions: Urinary BPA levels are found to be associated with diabetes mellitus independent of traditional diabetes risk factors. Future prospective studies are needed to confirm or disprove this finding.

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Exposure of pregnant women to Phthalates affects child development.

A new study finds a significant link between pregnant women’s exposure to phthalates, used in all kinds of consumer products including flooring, cars and cosmetics, and negative impacts on their children’s development. Three phthalates were significantly associated with behavioural disorders, or behavioral problems: anxious, depressed behaviors, emotionally reactive behaviors, withdrawn behaviour.

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Aviation gas poses lead risk!

Interesting…….I thought the issue of lead poisoning in high income economies of the world is now a thing of the past. I read this morning that due to the presence of lead in aviation fuel, new research has shown that thousands who resides within 1 kilometre of an airport have increase risk of lead poisoning. Does it mean that international policy banning use of lead in fuel (for economic gains) doesn’t cover the aviation industries? Read more here………

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Infection surge raises doubts over Gates’ plan to beat malaria.

Malaria, a disease transmitted by the female anopheles mosquito, claims almost one million lives every year. It is disheartening to say that despite a century of research and campaigns on getting the best way to curb the menace of malaria across the globe, the sudden resurgence of malaria in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa now raises alarm about the global strategy to get rid of the disease.
Falling immunity among the population which is attributed to a decline in transmission in some parts of the world, there is now growing resistance to insecticides by the transmitting agent (mosquitoes) thus contributing to a rebound in the disease.
In addition to Global Fund for fight against infectious diseases and Roll Back Malaria programme, Bill Gates foundation is at the forefront fighting to bring an end to malaria and malaria related diseases. This resurgence in cases of malaria is now raising doubts about the worldwide strategy, led by Bill Gates, to wipe out the disease. It is on record that the Bill Gates foundation has distributed insecticide-treated bed nets and effective drugs to the 2.5 billion people who live in high-risk areas around the globe.
Following the intervention of Bill Gates foundation, funding for malaria control to date has soared to more than $10 billion (£6.5 billion), a figure that is hundredfold rise in a decade.
It is important to mention that Africa’s leaders in 2000 signed a declaration in Abuja, Nigeria to “halve the malaria mortality for Africa’s people by 2010″. The progress initially progress was slow but in 2007 reasonable progress has been made due to the increase availability of bed nets and artemesinin based drugs.
There is growing concern among experts as to what happens in a situation where malaria is controlled in a community leaving a generation of children grow up with no immunity to the disease and a sudden outbreak sets in. This is a puzzle yet unsolved though some experts are of the opinion that it is good to maintain some low level of immunity to malaria in the population to avoid such from happening. Read more here…………

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Lead Poisoning in China: the hidden scourge

I was going through some subscribed articles on my Blackberry handset then came across this interesting piece captioned: “Lead Poisoning in China: The Hidden Scourge”. The fist thing that came to my mind was the Zamfara State Lead poisoning saga in Nigeria which I analysed earlier in one of my postings on this blog.
This incidence occurred in MENGXI village in China which harboured a battery factory (Zhejiang Haijiu Battery Factory). The factory manufactures lead acid battery for use by motorcycles and electric bikes.
Interestingly, the factory in its 6th year of operation in the area (providing jobs and other source of livelihood to the populace), flagrantly violated environmental regulations and polluted the environment without the knowledge of the locals. This became overt last March, when a Medical doctor told the father of a 3 year-old (an employee of the factory who lived just across the road from the plant) that his daughter had absorbed enough lead that could harm her nervous system and irreversibly diminish her intellectual capacity.
The news had spread further that workers from that factory and other villagers alike had been poisoned by lead emissions from the factory, a development that pushed the locals to take laws into their hands.
It is important to mention that in China and especially in recent months, there were similar instances where the local governments authorities tried to cover up the messes of similar lead industries. This is often as a result of pursuit of dividends of economic development by the local officials thus overlooking environmental contamination, worker safety and dangers to public health.
It is as a result of this recent development that the Human Rights Watch released a report last Wednesday which stated that some local officials have reacted to mass poisonings by arbitrarily limiting lead testing, withholding and possibly manipulating test results, denying proper treatment to children and adults and trying to silence parents and activists.
In comparison to more developed nations where lead pollution has been tightly regulated for decades, this and similar incidences of lead poisonings in China, would for sure be deemed a public-health emergency.
Read more…………….

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Persistent organic pollutants: do they have any role in the aetiology of Diabetes mellitus?

Although there is an increase in risk factors for Diabetes such as diet, inactivity, overweight and obesity, recent study suggested the involvement of persistent organic pollutants, including dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as a possible, but controversial, cause of Diabetes mellitus.
This study, which attempts to untangle cause of the alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes globally, investigated the association between blood PCB congener levels and the prevalence of diabetes among middle-aged, overweight and obese Japanese participants in the Saku Control Obesity Program. One hundred seventeen participants had their congener-specific PCB levels measured in addition to undergoing routine blood analyses at the time of a medical check-up. Prevalent diabetes was defined according to two methods: definite diabetes was defined as people with an HbA1c level ≥ 6.9% or who were taking medication for diabetes, and all diabetes was defined as people with an HbA1c level ≥ 6.5%, a fasting plasma glucose level ≥ 126 mg/dL, or a history of doctor-diagnosed diabetes. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the association between the PCB levels and the prevalence of diabetes, with adjustments for sex, age, body mass index and total lipids. As a result, PCB 146 and 180 were positively associated and PCB 163/164 and 170 were negatively associated with the prevalence of definite diabetes. The significance of the association of PCB 180 and 163/164 with the prevalence of diabetes persisted regardless of the definition of diabetes or adjustments for total lipids, suggesting the possibility that these parameters may modify the risk of diabetes. Read more here………..

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Environmental Illness in U.S. Kids Cost $76.6 Billion in One Year

“It costs a “staggering” $76.6 billion to cover the health expenses of American children who were sick because of exposure to toxic chemicals and air pollutants in 2008″; this is as contained in a recent study conducted by researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. The study which did not cover costs of all escalating childhood diseases that may have environmental contributors (eg diabetes and obesity), was published in the May issue of the Journal “Health Affairs”. This is an updated version of the study conducted by Mt. Sinai in 1997. The three new studies revealed the economic impact of toxic chemicals and air pollutants in the environment, and proposed new legislation to require testing of new chemicals as well as those already on the market.
It was observed by the researchers that this amount was 3.5% of the nation’s total health-care costs that year, compared with 2.8% in 1997. They examined the cost of childhood cancer and chronic conditions such as asthma, autism, attention deficit disorder, and intellectual disability linked at least in part to toxins and contaminants in the water, air, soil and food, as well as in homes and neighbourhoods.
In one of the studies, Leonardo Trasande, MD, associate professor of preventive medicine and paediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and his team calculated the annual cost for direct medical care and the indirect costs, such as parents’ lost work days, and lost economic productivity caring for their children, of these diseases in children.
Among the main findings:
Childhood cancer cost $95 million.
Lead poisoning cost $50.9 billion.
Autism cost $7.9 billion.
Intellectual disability cost $5.4 billion.
Exposure to mercury (methyl mercury) cost $5.1 billion.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder cost $5 billion.
Asthma cost $2.2 billion.

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