Science versus theology: the bisphenol A debate continues
by Sarah Vogel If you thought the scientific debate about bisphenol A was over or even quieting down, you haven’t been reading the latest issues of Toxicological Sciences. (What are you doing with your spare time?) Last month in an editorial piece published in the journal, Richard Sharpe queried: “Is It Time to End Concerns […]
Bisphenol A (BPA) back in the news
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure We’ve discussed the component of plastics bisphenol A (BPA) here before (here, here) but yesterday the Journal of the American Medical Association published a significant paper with an accompanying editorial that deserves mention. A panel of the FDA was scheduled to meet the same day to review FDA’s draft […]
Bisphenol A Saga Continues
Today the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other news sources report that the National Toxicology Program has issued a draft brief stating concerns about the effects of low levels of bispehnol A on fetusus and children. Exposure to bisphenol A can interfere with the development of children’s brains and reproductive organs, including alterations to […]
Lights in dark corners: what the new science of epigenetics is revealing about cancer prevention
By Paul Whaley and Dr John Newby, PhD; cross-posted from Health & Environment To understand the importance of the new science of epigenetics for health, we have to visit cell development and the cellular processes which, if they go wrong, lead to cancer. Understanding these processes could help us better anticipate and prevent possible health […]
The Katrina chronicles: Formaldehyde-laced trailers set to claim another set of victims
by Richard Denison, PhD, cross-posted from EDF Blog 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 […]
Systematising the evidence base: a key strategy for bringing more environmental health science into clinical practice and public health policy
By Paul Whaley As a society we could do much better at incorporating environmental health science into clinical advice and policy recommendations. Take formaldehyde: In the early 1980s multiple studies in rats were showing that exposure to formaldehyde increased their chances of developing nasal cancers. However, it took another 20 years of human observational research […]
A call to action: A letter from Alice and Philip Shabecoff
This is the first piece of a new series featured on The Pump Handle. New Solutions, A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, is taking their work from the world of print to an online medium, posting once-monthly blogs about environmental and occupational research, activism, advocacy, and campaigns. To read more about New Solutions: […]
BPA’s Safety Question an Opportunity for Reform
by Sarah Vogel Last Friday, January 15, 2010, senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) held a press conference to detail the FDA’s next steps on the controversial chemical, bisphenol A (BPA). In a shift from its past policy, the FDA […]
FDA Decides: Health Concerns about BPA
Shortly after we published Sarah Vogel’s post urging the FDA to finally make a decision about the safety of bisphenol A, the agency did just that. In a conference call with reporters yesterday, FDA deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein stated that the agency has concerns about health risks associated with the widely used chemical and is […]
Hey FDA, Is it Safe?
by Sarah Vogel Sometimes there is a study that changes everything. On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, PLoS ONE, an open access scientific journal, published a large epidemiological study that could become the straw that breaks the political logjam over the safety of bisphenol A (BPA). Researchers at the University of Exeter in the U.K. reported […]
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