The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program (NTP) has announced a January 11-13, 2011, workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina, to address how environmental chemicals may be contributing to the “epidemics of diabetes and obesity.” Workshop participants will (i) “evaluate strengths/weaknesses, consistency, and biological plausibility of findings reported in humans and experimental animals for certain environmental chemicals including arsenic, cadmium, chlorinated organohalogens, other organohalogens, bisphenol A, phthalates, and organotins”; (ii) “identify the most useful and relevant endpoints in experimental animals and in vitro models”; (iii) “identify relevant pathways and biological targets for assays for the Toxicology Testing in the 21st Century (‘Tox21’) high throughput screening initiative”; and (iv) “identify data gaps and areas for future evaluation/research.” See Federal Register, December 10, 2010.
Tag Archives arsenic
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory Board has scheduled a public teleconference on November 22, 2010, to conduct a quality review of a draft board report that analyzes EPA’s February 2010 toxicological review of inorganic arsenic. The board forwarded its review comments to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on October 25. Among other matters, the draft comments note that EPA has only partially responded to its 2007 suggestions about factoring background dietary intake of inorganic arsenic into its “assessment of lung and bladder cancer risk associated with exposures to arsenic in drinking water.” In this regard, the board recommends that EPA make “more transparent the scientific basis of the exposure assumptions used” and enhance “the rigor and transparency of the sensitivity analysis.” EPA’s review, which apparently proposes a 17-fold increase in cancer potency from oral exposure to inorganic arsenic, has been developed under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), and the…
U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to respond to reports that the April 20, 2010, oil spill has contaminated the marine food chain in the Gulf of Mexico with toxins such as arsenic. In a July 13 letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Markey expressed concern “that the mixture of oil, dispersants, arsenic and other toxic compounds are having effects on seafood that may not be detectable for months.” Markey, chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said researchers have uncovered droplets of oil found inside crab larvae harvested from gulf waters near Pensacola, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Grand Isle, Louisiana. “In some areas, 100 percent of the larvae recovered contain droplets of oil hydrocarbons, a major concern given that crab is a favorite food for both humans and multiple fish species that live in the marshes,”…
Consumers Union (CU) has issued the results of its investigation into protein drinks, concluding that many products are at best superfluous and at worst unsafe. Published in the July 2010 edition of Consumer Reports, the findings allegedly support the watchdog’s position that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act “is inadequate to ensure that protein drinks and other dietary supplements are consistently low in heavy metals and other contaminants.” CU apparently conducted outside laboratory tests on 15 protein powders and drinks purchased in the New York-metro area, in addition to reviewing government documents and interviewing health experts and consumers. According to CU, “All drinks in our tests had at least one sample containing one or more of the following contaminants: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.” In three cases, consumers who drank more than three servings per day purportedly risked exceeding the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s…
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has delivered testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging that highlights examples of deceptive or questionable marketing practices involving certain dietary supplements. GAO also reported that some herbal dietary supplements contained contaminants, including trace amounts of lead. According to GAO Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations Gregory Kutz, investigators posing as elderly customers asked sales staff at 22 retail establishments a series of questions regarding herbal dietary supplements in addition to reviewing 30 retail websites’ “written marketing language” about the supplements. In several cases that both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission deemed “improper and likely in violation of statutes and regulations,” “written sales materials for products sold through online retailers claimed that herbal dietary supplements could treat, prevent or cure conditions such as diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular disease.” Improper medical advice was also dispensed by…
According to researchers from Denmark and Greece, some juice drinks obtained from markets in the European Union (EU) contain levels of antimony, a suspected carcinogen related to arsenic, above EU drinking water limits. Claus Hansen, et al., “Elevated antimony concentrations in commercial juices,” Journal of Environmental Monitoring, February 17, 2010. According to the article, “Antimony concentrations up to a factor of 2.7 above the EU limit for drinking water were found in commercial juices and may either be leached from the packaging material or introduced during manufacturing, pointing out the need for further research.” The researchers reportedly tested antimony levels in 42 different beverages, primarily red fruit juices, produced in the United Kingdom and sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles or Tetra Pak® cartons. They apparently found antimony above established safe levels in eight of them. Lead researcher Claus Hansen noted that while the levels exceeded drinking water limits, because “no antimony…
