Study Says PFC's Compromise Children's Health

BOSTON – Harvard scientists have released a new study saying children exposed to fluorine-based chemicals from textiles and food packaging, may have compromised immune systems and are less likely to respond to routine vaccinations. Perfluorocarbons (PFC’s) are widely used to give stain- and water-repellent finishes to outdoor clothing and interior textiles.

The research was led by Dr Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, and is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It is thought to be the first study to link PFCs to immune problems in children and tracked a group of 656 children from the Faroe Islands, in the North Atlantic Ocean, before birth until they were seven years old. It linked their blood levels of PFCs to their response to routine diphtheria and tetanus vaccines.

Results showed that the PFCs with the highest serum concentrations were perfluorooctane sulphonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and that a doubling in mothers’ blood levels of PFOS, corresponded to a 39 per cent drop in the diphtheria antibody concentration of their children at age five. It was also found that there were uniformly negative associations with antibody levels and PFC exposure — especially at age 7 years. Here, a doubling in a child's PFC levels corresponded to a halving of antibody levels. However, the tetanus antibody level following PFOS exposure was not statistically significant.

Speaking to Reuters Health, Dr Grandjean said, “When the PFC concentration increases in the body, the immune system gets more sluggish and is less capable of maintaining a defence mechanism against microorganisms.” These findings don’t prove the chemicals themselves are harming the immune system, Grandjean said he thought that it was “very likely” to be the case. “I don't feel comfortable with the compounds for myself and my family and would rather eliminate them,” he explained.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, which is considering regulation against PFC’s, these chemicals as toxic to laboratory animals, causing reproductive, developmental and other health problems. But so far, they haven't been shown to pose a significant threat to the general human population.

Criticism

However, the study has met with some criticism by other research groups. Dr Gilbert Ross, medical director of the American Council on Science and Health, a non-profit funded by corporations took a harsh view of the study. “Absolute junk,” Ross told WebMD. He says no studies have found increased rates of tetanus or diphtheria among people with higher PFC concentrations in their bodies. “It appears to represent this group's attempt to link PFCs to some adverse health effect.” The study he said had “no clinical significance whatsoever.”

However, another researcher, Alastair Hay of the University of Leeds, said the new study was well conducted. “The implication of this work is that everyday exposure to these chemicals makes us more vulnerable to infections,” he said in a statement to News Medical, “We cannot afford to ignore the research, but equally we should not panic. What we need is a measured response to test the findings in a robust way and assess their implications for our health and particularly that of our children.”

from EcoTextile News

Cotton Replaces Rice in Japan's Salt-Soaked Fields

Among the devastating effects of the Japanese tsunami in March was the destruction of thousands of acres of rice paddies. One project aims to make use of those saltwater-soaked fields.

When a wall of water from the March 11 tsunami hit Japan's northeastern region of Tohoku, it deposited so much salt into the soil that it not only wiped out traditional rice crops, but rendered the land unfit for much future cultivation.

Fortunately for some farmers, certain crops -- such as cotton -- can be cultivated in land with higher salt content. That has spurred a group of manufacturers, including the Taisho (yarn) Spinning Co., sock manufacturer Tabio and plowing company Agri Services to found the Tohoku Cotton Project to not only help the farmers, but bolster cotton growing in the country.

The project provides cotton seeds to farmers whose rice paddies were flooded by the tsunami. The cotton will be harvested and purchased by participating companies, who will use it to create products such as towels and shawls. Japan Airlines, Lee Jeans, and department store chain Takashimaya are among the participants.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, more than 58,000 acres of farmland suffered nearly $4 billion in damages in the region.

"Our goal is to restore agriculture and help revive job creation in the area through the cultivation of cotton," said Masato Hata, a spokesman for the project. "Right now we have more than 10 farmers. There are also plans for the participating companies and other volunteers to help with the growing process."

Japan Airlines, which intends to use products from the project onboard its airplanes, sent 30 staff members to Sendai City in September to help weed fields in preparation for the harvest.

Soil salinity plays a key role in the growth of crops. Salt disrupts crops by hindering their ability to absorb water and other nutrients such as potassium -- but cotton has more than double the tolerance of rice.

In addition to flooding farmland with saltwater and debris, the tsunami damaged many irrigation and drainage systems, which will further slow the removal of salt from the soil. Tabio Corp., one of the founders of the project, estimated that in some cases it could take up to three years for the soil salinity to reach pre-tsunami levels and for crops with low salt-tolerance to begin growing again.

Japan has imported much of its cotton -- 80 percent -- in recent years, according to the Japan Cotton Traders Association. Participating companies say they hope the project also helps spur cotton growing in the country.

Thus far, about four acres of land in Sendai and nearby areas are dedicated to the project, with harvest set to take place in November. The goal is to harvest 3,500 pounds of cotton this year, and sell "Tohoku Cotton Project" brand products in stores by spring 2012, the first anniversary of the tsunami.

"I think it's a great idea," said Aiko Hayashi, an English teacher in the Tokyo area. "It seems like a lot of big companies have joined the project, and I think a lot of people will want to buy the products to aid in the reconstruction."

If the project is successful and more participants get involved, the harvesting area could expand to 25 acres next year, according to their press release.

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Cotton Prices Begin To Decline

After a long run-up in cotton prices over the past year, costs have begun to stabilize. In fact, cotton futures have decreased by about 35% since reaching an all-time high in March. While still high historically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said last week that it expects prices to be lower in the 2011/2012 trading season. The price decline is attributed to tempered growth in global cotton consumption, according to the USDA.

"The first U.S. Department of Agriculture cotton forecast for 2011/12 projects growth in both world cotton production and consumption, with production exceeding consumption for the first time in seven years," the USDA wrote in a report released on Thursday. "After a significant jump in 2010/11, cotton prices are expected to fall in 2011/12, but are still expected to be about 70% higher than the prices of two years earlier."

After reaching a high of nearly $2.30 per pound in March, cotton has steadily declined over the past two months to settle at $1.44 per pound at the close of trading on Friday.

Pesticide exposure in womb may hurt your child's IQ

(Health.com) -- Children whose mothers are exposed to high amounts of certain pesticides while pregnant appear to have lower IQs than their peers when they reach school age, according to three government-funded studies released today.

The pesticides, known as organophosphates, are commonly sprayed on food crops and can be found in trace amounts on berries, green beans, and other fruits and vegetables sold in stores. The pesticides have also been used in homes and gardens, although their indoor use has been widely restricted due to safety concerns.

Organophosphates, which kill pests by attacking the nervous system, have previously been linked to developmental delays and attention problems in young children who were exposed in the womb. Now, researchers in two different locations have found that a child's IQ tends to decrease in proportion to the mother's exposure while pregnant.

One of the studies followed hundreds of mostly Latino mothers and children in California's Salinas Valley, a center of commercial agriculture. Many of the women were farmworkers, or had family members who worked on farms.

When the women were pregnant, the researchers tested their urine for several chemical by-products of organophosphates -- a standard means of gauging exposure. The mothers with the highest levels of by-products, known as metabolites, had children whose IQs at age 7 were seven points lower, on average, than the children whose mothers had the lowest levels of exposure. (The average score is 100.)

"That's not unlike the decreases we see in children with high lead exposure," says the senior study author, Brenda Eskenazi, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's equivalent to performing six months behind the average."

The children's own metabolite levels were not linked to their IQs, however, which suggests that prenatal -- rather than childhood -- exposure is largely responsible for the trend, Eskenazi says. Organophosphates, which pass from the mother to fetus through the placenta and umbilical cord, may be more damaging to developing fetuses than to children, the study notes.

Similar trends are likely to be found outside farming communities, the researchers suggest. While the average metabolite levels of the pregnant women in the study were substantially higher than the national average, as many as 25% of pregnant women in the general population have levels above the study average.

Moreover, the findings are echoed by a second study released today, which was conducted in New York City and followed 265 black and Dominican mothers and children from low-income families.

In that study, researchers measured levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in the women's umbilical cord blood. Chlorpyrifos, which has since been banned for indoor use, was still commonly used as a residential pesticide when the women were pregnant.

Using the same IQ test as the California study, the researchers found that when the children were 7, the IQs of those with the highest exposure in the womb was roughly three points lower, on average, than those with the lowest prenatal exposure.

The joint findings are strengthened by the differences in the locations, study participants, and methods used to measure pesticide exposure, says Bruce Lanphear, M.D., a professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Because the results are so consistent, we're more confident that the results are not spurious," says Lanphear, who was not involved in the research.

In both studies, the researchers sought to cancel out other factors that can affect a child's IQ. They controlled for the mother's education and income, and observed the stimulation provided by the child's home environment. The California study also factored in the mother's exposure to lead and toxic flame retardants.

Experts aren't sure how organophosphates might interfere with fetal brain development, although they do know that in insects the pesticides slow the breakdown of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter.

"There have been a lot of studies that indicate that there are probably other mechanisms," says the senior author of the New York City study, Robin Whyatt, DrPH, a professor of clinical environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

Genes may play a role, in fact. In the third study, which also looked at children in New York City, researchers found that the association between organophosphate exposure and developmental delays was more pronounced in children whose mothers had a certain genetic variant that influences an enzyme that breaks down organophosphates.

The three studies appear in the April 21 issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. All three were funded by grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, among other sources.

The average exposure to organophosphates is lower today than it was when these studies began a decade ago. Now that the indoor use of organophosphates has been all but eliminated, the main sources are direct exposure to commercial agriculture and the traces found on supermarket produce.

Eskenazi stresses, however, that pregnant women should not stop eating fruits and vegetables. "It's absolutely important that they have an adequate diet in terms of the health of their child," she says.

Still, she adds, "It's important that people wash their fruits and vegetables really, really well -- and that means even fruit with a peel on it. It should be washed before you peel it."