Tag Archives: bisphenol A

21st Century on the horizon for endocrine disruptor screening?

By Rachel Shaffer | Published: January 31, 2013

Rachel Shaffer is a research assistant. Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.

BPA, DDT, PCBs, PBDEs, phthalates, PFOA … Forgive the alphabet soup, but chances are you’ve heard of at least some of these endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have been the subject of a lot of public and media attention in the last several years. Research has begun to uncover the ways in which these chemicals can interact with the body’s hormone – or endocrine – system to disrupt various natural biological processes, including metabolism, the reproductive system, and development of the brain and nervous systems.

While the endocrine-disrupting properties of the chemicals named above have been confirmed, scientists suspect there may be many more such chemicals in our environment, in the products we use, and in our bodies. How can we identify them?

Legislation enacted in 1996 required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a screening program to identify potential EDCs. More than 10 years later, EPA finally launched the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). Testing is being conducted in two phases, or “tiers.” In “Tier 1,” a screening battery of validated in vivo and in vitro assays is used to identify chemicals with potential to interfere with the endocrine system. Chemicals flagged in the first tier of testing are then subject to “Tier 2” testing intended to determine the specific effect and the lowest dose at which it occurs. (We should note this program is very controversial and the subject of ongoing debate, but that is not the subject of this post.)

EPA has identified an estimated 9,700 chemicals to be screened – a very daunting task given the time- and resource-intensive nature of the testing battery EPA has established. Might there be a way to expedite the identification and testing of the more problematic chemicals? A study published earlier this year in Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) investigates a possible approach: using in vitro high-throughput (HT) assays developed through EPA’s ToxCast and Tox21 programs to target and prioritize chemicals for further testing under the EDSP. While use of these assays poses its own challenges, might it at least help in determining an appropriate testing sequence? Read More »

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged computational toxicology, endocrine disruption, flame retardants, in vitro, in vivo, phthalates | Comments closed

States act while Congress fiddles

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: January 28, 2013

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Lest anyone thought that efforts by state legislators to protect their citizens from toxic chemical exposures would slacken despite Congress’ inability to take such action, this week’s announcement that legislators in at least 26 states are introducing such bills should dispel that notion.

Safer States, a national coalition of state-based environmental health organizations, notes that “between 2003 and 2011, 19 states adopted 93 chemical safety policies. The majority of legislation passed with healthy bipartisan support – 99% of Democratic legislators and 75% of Republican legislators voted in favor of bills, and both Republican and Democratic governors signed them into law.”

That trend shows no signs of abating in 2013, based on a list of state legislative activities underway, compiled by Safer States (more detail here): At least 26 states are each to consider multiple legislation and policy changes this year that will:

restrict or label the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in receipts, children's products and food packaging;
require removal of certain toxic flame retardants from children's products, home furniture or building materials;
change disclosure rules so that concerned consumers will have a way to identify toxic chemicals in products;
encourage manufacturers to remove identified toxic chemicals in favor of safer alternatives.
ban cadmium, a dangerous, persistent metal that is often found in inexpensive children's jewelry;
ban formaldehyde from cosmetics and children's products; and
promote green cleaning products in schools.

The chemical industry frequently argues it just can’t live with a “patchwork” of requirements that vary from state to state. But that’s just what it’s creating by dragging its feet on reform of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which has never been amended since its adoption nearly four decades ago.

State legislators, like nature, abhor a vacuum.

Posted in Health Policy, TSCA | Also tagged children's safety, consumer products, flame retardants, formaldehyde, PBDEs, U.S. states | Comments closed

Regrettable, if predictable: Bisphenol S mimics estrogen just like its better-studied cousin, bisphenol A

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: January 17, 2013

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

A rule of thumb in chemistry is that chemicals that look alike will more often than not act alike. (If it looks like a duck … .) Indeed, when chemical companies are faced with testing requirements for one of their chemicals, they routinely argue that they should be allowed to submit test data on a structurally related chemical instead.

So when it was revealed that companies making products (such as thermal receipt paper) that contain the estrogen-mimicking compound bisphenol A (BPA) were switching to another chemical called bisphenol S (BPS), many scientists’ eyebrows quickly arched. Read More »

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged consumer products, exposure and hazard | Comments closed

A new power couple: The combined impact of the microbiome and chemical exposures on disease susceptibility (Part 1 of 2)

By Allison Tracy | Published: December 15, 2011

Allison Tracy is a Chemicals Policy Fellow. EDF Health Scientist Dr. Jennifer McPartland and Senior Scientist Dr. Richard Denison contributed to this post.

When you’re standing at the kitchen counter this holiday season wrestling with the nebulous world of weight gain, think about synthetic chemicals. A good number of them are in you. And studies show that some of them are pretty busy in there, interacting with various biological systems – including your metabolism.

But they’re not the only show in town. Microbes are busy in your gut doing important things like digesting food and degrading harmful compounds. But could they also influence the size of your love handles? New science suggests that these microbes—in concert with certain chemicals—may have just this effect.

It is becoming increasingly clear that it’s not just your genes and your self control that determine your risk for obesity and related complications like diabetes. Environmental factors are a big part of the equation, and those factors just might extend to synthetic chemicals to which you’re exposed, such as the flame retardants in your furniture and the plasticizers in food can linings. Read More »

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged arsenic, diabetes, endocrine disruption, flame retardants, in vitro, microbiome, obesity, PBDEs, tributyltin | Comments closed

The States we're in on chemical policy reform in 2011: 30 and counting

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: January 19, 2011

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

Today, legislators in 30 states and the District of Columbia introduced or announced plans to introduce bills aimed at reducing the impact of chemicals on public health. These actions send a strong signal that states will to continue to respond to the mounting public concern over unsafe, under-regulated and inadequately tested chemicals — in the face of continued inaction by the U.S. Congress to do so.

The bills differ in scope and content, but all of them address chemicals, products or policy needs that have fallen through the cracks in the 35 years since the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was enacted.

With strong, bipartisan majorities of Americans embracing the need for stronger chemical laws, these latest actions make clear that states will continue to act until there is a strong federal system in place that restores confidence in our government's ability to assure the safety of all chemicals we use and encounter in our daily lives. Read More »

Posted in Health Policy, TSCA | Also tagged bipartisan, flame retardants, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, U.S. states | Comments closed

Do these chemicals make me look fat?

By EDF Blogs | Published: January 19, 2011

Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.

My colleague Richard Denison at EDF ended his last blog post asking, “The new study [Environmental Chemicals in Pregnant Women in the US: NHANES 2003-2004] leaves me with one question: How many more such wake-up calls do we need before our government enacts policies to ensure the safety of chemicals to which we are exposed?”

Maybe this will help shake us awake! The obesity epidemic in the United States is increasing at alarming rates. So too is an associated disease, type 2 diabetes. Researchers have attributed 70% of the risk associated with developing type 2 diabetes with being overweight or obese, a risk that increases by 4.5% for every 2.2 pounds of weight gained over 10 years.

A healthy diet and hitting the gym should keep these diseases at bay, right? Certainly proper nutrition and exercise are good and important habits for controlling our weight and maintaining overall health. But what if, despite all such efforts, there are contributing factors outside of our control, and even outside of our genetic makeup? And what if those potential factors are found in us, on us, and all around us?

New research suggests that chemicals found in our environment and in everyday products may play a significant role in packing on the pounds. Read More »

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged endocrine disruption, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), obesity, pesticides, phthalates, prenatal, tributyltin | Comments closed

Why is OMB blocking EPA from using even its limited authority under TSCA?

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: December 20, 2010

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

On May 12 of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for its review, which is supposed to be completed within 90 days. The proposed rule is not considered a major rule, is classified as “not economically significant,” imposes no unfunded mandates and is unequivocally allowed under EPA’s statutory authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The proposed rule would establish a so-called “chemicals of concern” list and populate it with one chemical and two chemical categories. All of these chemicals are well-studied, already widely identified to be chemicals of significant concern and subject to numerous regulations by governmental bodies both in the U.S. and abroad.

Yet, as of today – more than seven months after receiving the draft of the proposed rule from EPA – OMB has not allowed EPA to release it for public notice and comment.

In 1976, when passing TSCA, Congress gave EPA the express authority to establish and populate a “chemicals of concern” list. There’s simply no excuse for OMB’s delay. Read More »

Posted in Health Policy, TSCA | Also tagged Canada, CDC, FDA, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), PBDEs, phthalates, prioritization, test rule | Comments closed

Hitting 'em where it hurts: BPA reduces sperm quantity and quality in male workers

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: October 28, 2010

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

As reported by Rob Stein in the Washington Post this morning, a NIOSH-funded study of male Chinese workers conducted by researchers at Kaiser-Permanente in Oakland, California has found that exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) significantly increases the incidence of low sperm counts and concentrations, as well as lowered sperm motility and higher mortality.

The 5-year study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Fertility and Sterility (that's a title only slightly more cheery than the CDC's publication Morbidity and Mortality!), shows that the same kinds of adverse effects of BPA on sperm already observed in animal studies also occur in humans with detectable levels of BPA in their urine.

And while the most pronounced effects were observed in highly exposed workers, the authors of the study note:

Similar dose-response associations were observed among participants with only environmental BPA exposure at levels comparable to men in the general United States population.

Despite a markedly reduced sample size in this group of men exposed only to low environmental BPA sources, the inverse correlation between increased urine BPA level and decreased sperm concentration and total sperm count remain statistically significant.

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged aggregate exposure, American Chemistry Council (ACC), China, endocrine disruption, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), worker safety | Comments closed

The Katrina chronicles: Formaldehyde-laced trailers set to claim another set of victims

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: March 14, 2010

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

The Washington Post ran a front-page article Saturday, written by Spencer Hsu, which reported the auction sale by FEMA of most of the 120,000 notorious formaldehyde-tainted trailers it had purchased five years ago to house the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The article cites FEMA as saying that “wholesale buyers from the auction must sign contracts attesting that trailers will not be used, sold or advertised as housing, and that trailers will carry a sticker saying, ‘Not to be used for housing’.”

Think that’s likely to be enough? Read More »

Posted in Health Science | Also tagged carcinogen, China, exposure and hazard, formaldehyde | Comments closed

Immaculate deception, part 2: Chemical industry front group calls for ban on bisphenol A

By Richard Denison | Bio | Published: December 15, 2009

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

I’ll bet that got your attention. Surely I jest, you’re thinking. Well, on December 2, Montana Public Radio’s Evening Edition included a segment in which a spokesperson for the new chemical industry front group, the Coalition for Chemical Safety about which I blogged a few weeks ago, publicly calls for an all-out ban on the controversial endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA). Here’s the clip (5 MB mp3 file). Read More »

Posted in Health Policy, TSCA | Also tagged American Chemistry Council (ACC), endocrine disruption, front group, industry tactics, U.S. states | Comments closed

Chemicals & Nanomaterials

Tag Archives: bisphenol A

21st Century on the horizon for endocrine disruptor screening?

States act while Congress fiddles

Regrettable, if predictable: Bisphenol S mimics estrogen just like its better-studied cousin, bisphenol A

A new power couple: The combined impact of the microbiome and chemical exposures on disease susceptibility (Part 1 of 2)

The States we're in on chemical policy reform in 2011: 30 and counting

Do these chemicals make me look fat?

Why is OMB blocking EPA from using even its limited authority under TSCA?

Hitting 'em where it hurts: BPA reduces sperm quantity and quality in male workers

The Katrina chronicles: Formaldehyde-laced trailers set to claim another set of victims

Immaculate deception, part 2: Chemical industry front group calls for ban on bisphenol A

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