I am an environmental toxicologist studying how man-made chemicals affect our health. I was always interested in understanding how our current health is shaped by chemical exposures during the embryonic and early postnatal period – life stages that are particularly sensitive to environmental stressors. More:

• Kids exposed to flame retardant PBDE are at risk for lifelong liver – The Conversation
• Technical Fact Sheet – Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) – US EPA

Flame retardants in people and in the environment

• Total Consumer Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in North America and Europe (Research article)
• After the PBDE Phase-Out: A Broad Suite of Flame Retardants in Repeat House Dust Samples from California (Research article)
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in the Environment and in People: A Meta-Analysis of Concentrations (Research article)

Health Effects

• PBDE-47 and PBDE mixture (DE-71) toxicities and liver transcriptomic changes at PND 22 after in utero/postnatal exposure in the rat (Research article)
• In utero and lactational exposure to BDE-47 promotes obesity development in mouse offspring fed a high-fat diet: impaired lipid metabolism and intestinal dysbiosis (Research article)
• Developmental Exposure to 2,2′,4,4′–Tetrabromodiphenyl Ether Induces Long-Lasting Changes in Liver Metabolism in Male Mice (Research article)
• Developmental Exposure to 2,2′,4,4′-Tetrabromodiphenyl Ether Permanently Alters Blood-Liver Balance of Lipids in Male Mice (Research article)

It all began with a question. Julia Common, the chief beekeeper at Hives for Humanity, a Vancouver-based, non-profit organization of urban beekeepers, was asked repeatedly, “How clean is the honey from downtown Vancouver?”. More:

• How clean is your city? Just ask the bees – The Conversation
• Honey as a biomonitor for a changing world (Research abstract)
• Identifying Sources of Environmental Contamination in European Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) Using Trace Elements and Lead Isotopic Compositions - Environmental Science & Technology (Research article)
• Physicochemical Properties, Minerals, Trace Elements, and Heavy Metals in Honey of Different Origins: A Comprehensive Review (Research article)

The hefty price tag reflects the state’s serious PFAS problem. New Jersey is thought to be one of the states most contaminated with these chemicals. Seventy percent of drinking water samples taken from 20 of New Jersey’s 21 counties contained at least one compound from the class of chemicals, according to research done in 2009 and 2010. And, last year, another state study showed that all surface water samples taken from 11 waterways and ecosystems around New Jersey contained PFAS. All the fish found there contained the chemicals as well. The state is also home to military bases that have been contaminated by firefighting foam, as well as several industrially polluted sites. More:

• New Jersey is making companies pay for toxic contamination — shining a new light on a little-known offender – The Intercept
• Bad Chemistry – The Intercept
• Developmental toxicity of perfluorononanoic acid in mice (Research abstract)

At the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in North Carolina, engineers are finalizing designs for a new system aimed at removing a mix of persistent industrial chemicals from their drinking water. These molecules are troublemakers—wily foes that have evaded capture by traditional water treatment methods. They’re known collectively as PFAS, the family of nonpolymer per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances nicknamed “forever chemicals.” More:

• Forever chemicals no more? These technologies aim to destroy PFAS in water – C&EN
• Perfluorinated chemicals taint drinking water – C&EN
• Fluorochemicals Go Short – C&EN
• Polymer network captures drinking water contaminant – C&EN

Every year US farmers use about a billion pounds of chemicals on crops, including the fruits, nuts, and vegetables many parents beg their kids to eat. The Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration are charged with ensuring that these chemicals don’t endanger consumers, and both agencies test the food supply for pesticide residues each year. They focus on foods eaten by babies and children, whose developing bodies are particularly sensitive to toxic chemicals, and typically report that pesticide residues in these products rarely exceed safety standards. More:

• More Than 90 Percent of Americans Have Pesticides or Their Byproducts in Their Bodies – The Nation
• Pesticides and Children – US National Pesticide Information Center
• FOOD SAFETY- FDA and USDA Should Strengthen Pesticide Residue Monitoring Programs and Further Disclose Monitoring Limitations – US Government Accountability Office
• Pesticides Industry Sales and Usage – US EPA

Exposure & Interaction

• Exposure and Interaction: The Potential Health Impacts of Using Multiple Pesticides – UCLA
• Monitoring chemicals in our environment with wristbands – Green Science Policy Institute
• Low-level toxicity of chemicals: No acceptable levels? (Research article)
• What Can Epidemiological Studies Tell Us about the Impact of Chemical Mixtures on Human Health? (Research article)
• Determinants of pesticide concentrations in silicone wristbands worn by Latina adolescent girls in a California farmworker community: The COSECHA youth participatory action study (Research article)
• Review of take-home pesticide exposure pathway in children living in agricultural areas (Research article)
• Comparison of questionnaire-based estimation of pesticide residue intake from fruits and vegetables with urinary concentrations of pesticide biomarkers (Research article)

Human Health Effects

• Pesticide Toxicity and the Developing Brain (Research article)
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticides: The CHARGE Study (Research article)
• Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticide Use and IQ in 7-Year-Old Children (Research article)
• Association of pyrethroid pesticide exposure with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a nationally representative sample of U.S. children (Research article)
• Agricultural pesticide use and adverse birth outcomes in the San Joaquin Valley of California (Research article)

In one of the largest studies looking at the potential effects of pesticide exposure on still-developing fetuses and newborns, scientists found that exposure to the most commonly used pesticides was linked to higher risk of autism spectrum disorder. More:

• A Mother's Exposure to Pesticides During Pregnancy May Raise Children's Autism Risk – Time
• This May Be Why Autism Diagnoses Are On the Rise, According to the CDC – Time
• Study Finds Possible Association Between Autism and Air Pollution – Time
• Prenatal and infant exposure to ambient pesticides and autism spectrum disorder in children: population based case-control study (Research article)

Thousands of seals died along the coasts of the heavily polluted Baltic Sea in the late 1980s. Scientists traced the deaths to a virus similar to the one that causes distemper in dogs. Last year, the same virus struck hundreds of seals in Maine. In both instances, researchers believe that persistent organic pollutants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and furans, played an indirect role in the seals’ demise. More:

• Linking pollution and infectious disease – C&EN
• What is the price of fire safety – C&EN
• ToxFAQs Perfluoroalkyls – ATSDR
• Toward Understanding the Interplay of Environmental Stressors, Infectious Disease, and Human Health  –  Workshop Proceedings, US NASEM
• Perfluoroalkyl substances and immunosuppressive effects–Berit Granum (Video)
• Risk to human health related to the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid in food (Scientific opinion)
• Cord blood gene expression supports that prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances causes depressed immune functionality in early childhood (Research article)
• Reduced Antibody Responses to Vaccinations in Children Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Research article)
• Pre-natal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances may be associated with altered vaccine antibody levels and immune-related health outcomes in early childhood (Research article)
• Maternal levels of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) during pregnancy and childhood allergy and asthma related outcomes and infections in the Norwegian Mother and Child (MoBa) cohort (Research article)
• Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Children Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds (Research article)
• Prenatal exposure to perfluoralkyl substances (PFASs) associated with respiratory tract infections but not allergy- and asthma-related health outcomes in childhood (Research article)
• Effect of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) on Influenza Virus Host Resistance in Mice (Research article)

These potentially dangerous chemicals are in most Americans’ blood, but they aren’t being regulated in our drinking water. Here’s what that means for our health. More:

• What are PFAS and why are people freaking out about them? – Grist.org

En Vietnam, el ejército de EE UU mantuvo dos guerras: una contra el Viet Cong y otra contra la naturaleza. En esta, los militares estadounidenses usaron millones de litros de herbicidas contra la selva donde se escondían los comunistas y los cultivos de arroz que les alimentaban. El herbicida más usado fue el agente naranja. Una revisión de diversos estudios muestra que, 50 años después de que dejaran de rociarlo, aún hay restos altamente tóxicos de este defoliante en suelos y sedimentos, desde los que entran en la cadena alimenticia. Más:

• El agente naranja sigue pudriendo los suelos de Vietnam 50 años después – El País
• El dolor del mal naranja – El País
• A GIS study of dioxin contamination in a Vietnamese region sprayed with herbicide (Research article)
• The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam (Research article)
• Post-Vietnam military herbicide exposures in UC-123 Agent Orange spray aircraft (Research article)
• Long-Term Fate of Agent Orange and Dioxin TCDD Contaminated Soils and Sediments in Vietnam Hotspots (Research article)

Sales of synthetic chemicals will double over the next 12 years with alarming implications for health and the environment, according to a global study that highlights government failures to rein in the industry behind plastics, pesticides and cosmetics. More:

• Surge in chemical use ‘a threat to health and environment' – The Guardian
• The second edition of the Global Chemicals Outlook – UN Environment

Now, as environmental concerns about these fluorinated chemicals mount, Dutch and US environmental regulators are taking a close look at Chemours’s practice of shipping reclaimed HFPO-DA from its plant in the city of Dordrecht, the Netherlands, to one in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In addition, Dutch authorities are raising concerns about the environmental release of HFPO-containing material as it is hauled for reprocessing or disposal. More:

• Imports of used PFAS into US scrutinized – C&EN
• What’s GenX still doing in the water downstream of a Chemours plant? – C&EN
• World Chemical Outlook 2019 Environmental Forecast – C&EN
• Risk Management Option Analysis Conclusion Document – ECHA

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are the largest identified complex group of environmental pollutants reported in the scientific literature. These chemicals have many uses in the marketplace. However, their strong carbon–fluorine bonds keep them from degrading, and they bind to blood proteins, hindering their elimination from the body. More:

That was 2016. Since then, the Defense Department has admitted that it allowed a firefighting foam to slip into at least 55 drinking water systems at military bases around the globe, sometimes for generations. This exposed tens of thousands of Americans, possibly many more, to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of man-made chemicals known as PFAS that have been linked to cancers, immune suppression and other serious health problems. More:

• Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reeling – The New York Times
• Court sets precedent, rules Navy can be sued for PFAS claims – The Intelligencer
• DoD: At least 126 bases report water contaminants linked to cancer, birth defects – Military Times
• The U.S. military is spending millions to replace toxic firefighting foam with toxic firefighting foam – The Intercept
• These toxic chemicals are everywhere — even in your body. And they won’t ever go away. – The Washington Post
• TOXIC LEGACY: Air Force studies dating back decades show danger of foam that contaminated local water – The Gazette
• EPA and 3M announce phase out of PFOS – US EPA
• CDC/ATSDR to Assess PFAS Exposure in Communities Near U.S. Military Bases – US CDC
• The C8 Science Panel – Website
• An Overview of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Interim Guidance for Clinicians Responding to Patient Exposure Concerns – US ATSDR
• PFAS: What are the health effects? – US ATSDR
• Southeast El Paso County: Perfluorinated Chemicals Preliminary Assessment of Cancer and Birth Outcomes – US Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment

Children who live in homes with certain types of flooring and furniture may be exposed to higher concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals, known as semi-volatile organic compounds, or SVOCs, according to research. More:

• Toxins from vinyl flooring and flame-retardant sofas found in children – Newsweek
• Vinyl flooring, flame-retardant foam expose children to harmful SVOCS – Duke University

Insects are important wildlife often overlooked in urban habitats. What we do notice are the cockroaches, ants and mosquitoes in and around our homes. All too often we reach for the insect spray. More:

• The battle against bugs: it’s time to end chemical warfare – The Conversation
• Integrated pest management – US EPA
• Conserving herbivorous and predatory insects in urban green spaces (Research article)
• Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers (Research article)
• Conservation biological control in urban landscapes: Manipulating parasitoids of bagworm (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) with flowering forbs (Research article)
• Engaging urban stakeholders in the sustainable management of arthropod pests (Research article)

This peer-reviewed study helps answer a question many of us ask when deciding whether to reach for the conventional or organic option at the store: does organic really make a difference? The results say yes, a big difference. Choosing organic can protect you from exposure to toxic pesticides. More:

• What the pesticides in our urine tell us about organic food – The guardian
• Organic diet intervention significantly reduces urinary pesticide levels in U.S. children and adults (Research article)

The state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency knew that Chemours was shipping wastewater containing GenX from the Netherlands to North Carolina at least a year before the shipments were publicly disclosed by the media. More:

• Environmentalists bemoan regulators’ lack of transparency on imported shipments of GenX wastewater – North Carolina Health News
• Another Unwelcome Contaminant in the Cape Fear River – North Carolina Health News
• Questions Prevail After EPA GenX Meeting – North Carolina Health News

A new study confirms the presence of a gnarly group of substances in tap water in 24 states. More:

• EPA Scientists: The Toxic Chemicals Our Agency Won’t Regulate Are Definitely in Our Drinking Water – Mother Jones
• The Horrible Chemicals That Make Your Winter Gear Waterproof – Mother Jones
• The Nasty Ingredient in Fast-Food Wrappers – Mother Jones
• PFASs in Popcorn Bags and Pizza Boxes – Toxic Free Future
• Worrisome nonstick chemicals are common in U.S. drinking water, federal study suggests – Science
• EPA Acting Administrator Announces First-Ever Comprehensive Nationwide PFAS Action Plan – US EPA
• PFAS Laws and Regulations – US EPA
• Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Factsheet – US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• An Overview of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substancesand Interim Guidance for Clinicians Responding to PatientExposure Concerns – US ASTDR
• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in source and treated drinking waters of the United States (Research article)

A decades-long study in California is shining a light on the impact of pesticides on childhood brain development, while getting young people directly involved in the research. While the research remains the primary aim of CHAMACOS a large part of their outreach has been disseminating the study’s key findings to the public. More:

• How a team of researchers and high school students in California are working together to reduce pesticide exposure in children – Ensia
• CHAMACOS Study – UC Berkeley
• Silicone Wristbands Used As Personal Sampling Devices – Oregon State University
• Effects of Pesticides on Children’s Neurodevelopment – UC Berkeley
• Prenatal pesticide exposure linked to attention problems in preschool-aged children – UC Berkeley
• DPR 16-004 Pesticide Use Near Schoolsites – California Department of Pesticide Regulation
• Prenatal Exposure to Common Insecticide Linked to Decreases in Cognitive Functioning At Age Seven – U Columbia
• Prenatal Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure and Traits Related to Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Population Living in Proximity to Agriculture (Research article)
• Association between in utero organophosphate pesticide exposure and abnormal reflexes in neonates (Research abstract)

Researchers are struggling to assess the dangers of nondegradable compounds used in clothes, foams and food wrappings. The water looks unremarkable, but it is contaminated with synthetic compounds called fluorochemicals, which have been generating increasing concern around the world. More:

• Tainted water: the scientists tracing thousands of fluorinated chemicals in our environment – Nature
• Toward a new comprehensive global database of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs): Summary report on updating the OECD 2007 list of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) – OECD Series on Risk Management No. 39
• Toxic Substances Portal - Perfluoroalkyls ‐ US ATSDR
• C8 Science Panel ‐ www.c8sciencepanel.org