New Science, Old Policies

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New Science, Old Policies

• A haiku on how we reward ignorance and punish
  innovation
• Charlotte Brody, RN

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Whats the problem? Why do we think the
problem has anything to do with chemicals?
Why has it take us so long to figure this
out? What do we do now?
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Whats the problem?
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Were living longer,but were less healthy
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• Cancer
• mortality
• is going
• down
• but cancer
• incidence
• keeps
• going up

From Environmental and Occupational Causes Of
Cancer, New Evidence 2005-2007
at www.healthandenvironment.org
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Young women may be loosing their health and their
right to choose to become mothers

• 30 more babies are being born premature
• 25 to 50 of women have fibroids
• 10 to 15 suffer from endometriosis
• Girls are developing breasts and starting their
  periods earlier
• Breast cancer went up 40 between 1973 and 1998

Shaping Our Legacy Reproductive Health and the
Environment. A report on the Summit on
Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health
and Fertility, January 2830, 2007. www.prhe.ucsf.
edu/prhe/pubs/shapingourlegacy.pdf and Hormone
Disruptors and Womens Health, Reasons for
Concern at www.healthandenvironment.org
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Young men may grow up to be half the man their
fathers were
Sperm counts down 50 over 50 years Compared
with 30 years ago 46 more men get testicular
cancer 76 more men get prostate cancer
Shaping Our Legacy Reproductive Health and the
Environment. A report on the Summit on
Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health
and Fertility, January 2830, 2007.
www.prhe.ucsf.edu/prhe/pubs/shapingourlegacy.pdf
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Are we loosing the right to reproduce?

• CDC reports 6.1 million U.S. couples with
  infertility problems in 1995
• 7.3 million couples with infertility in 2002
• Largest reported increase in women under 25

Barrett, Julia R., Fertile Grounds for Inquiry,
EHP, November 2006 and Shaping Our Legacy
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Why do we think the problem has anything to do
with chemicals?
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(No Transcript)
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Wildlife Tragedies
Florida Panther
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Human Tragedies Minamata, Japan Chemical Plant
Dumps Mercury into Bay
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Human Tragedies DBCP
Harmful to workers who made it and the workers
who used it
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Human TragediesThalidomide
http//www.jamd.com/search?assettypegassetid315
9439textSherriFinkbine
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Human Tragedies Diethylstilbestrol (DES)
Exposure to DES in the womb Deformed
uterus Impaired fertility Increased risk of
miscarriage Premature labor birth Fibroids Can
cer of the Vagina and Cervix Third Generation
Effects
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Animal Studies Predict Human Harm

• Vandenberg, LN, MV Maffini, PR Wadia, C
• Sonnenschein, BS Rubin and AM Soto. 2007.
• Exposure to environmentally relevant doses of
• the xenoestrogen bisphenol-A alters development
• of the fetal mouse mammary gland.
• Endocrinology 148(1)116-27.

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Why has it taken us so long to figure this out?
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Linear dose response curves dont capture the
chemical problem

• Outdated frameworks
• miss low dose effects,
• mixtures, synergies,
• timing, sensitivities
• and other differences
• between people and
• long delays between
• exposures and visible
• effects, including
• multigenerational effects

Neat but wrong
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Hormones Tiny doses control communication and
coordination of body tissues
300 ppt in a 143 lb. woman is equivalent to
.000000000002 of one plain M M
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Two Ways to Make Hormones
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Two Ways to Make Hormones
In a factory Atrazine Bisphenol
A DDT DES Dioxins PBB PCB Phthalates

• In a human body
• Estrogens
• Testosterone
• Adrenaline
• Insulin
• Thyroid
• Progesterone
• LH
• FSH

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Hormone disruptors send the wrong message at the
wrong time to the wrong place
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Mixtures and synergies destroy resiliency and
create disease
Stress
Genes
Racism
Access to Health Care
Gene Expression
Social Support
Radiation
Nutrition
Toxic Chemicals
Poverty
Infections
Adapted from T. Schettlers modification of
Hubbs-Tait et al. Psychological science in the
public interest
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Women exposed to relatively high levels of DDT
prior to mid-adolescence are 5 times more
likely to develop breast cancer
Long Delays
Cohn, BA, MS Wolff, PM Cirillo and RI Sholtz.
2007. DDT and breast cancer in young women New
data on the significance of age at exposure.
Environmental Health Perspectives
doi10.1289/ehp.10260
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Manufactured doubt and fear prevent new science
from becoming new policy
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What do we do now?
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Change The Framework from Linear Dose Response
Curves to a Recognition That Chemicals Work Like
Pharmaceuticals

• Chemical Facts

Neat but wrong
Mixtures and synergies
Sensitive populations
Timing
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TSCA US chemical regulationReward ignorance
and punish innovation

• 81,000 chemicals registered in US in 2003
• 99 of chemicals by volume grandfathered in
  without evidence of safety when TSCA become law
  in 1976
• EPA must have evidence of harm to require
  safety and health testing
• Under TSCA, restrictions on 5 chemicals are in
  place, we dont know
• the health effects of more than 85 of these
  chemicals
• Denison, R.A., Not That Innocent and Tickner,
  J.A., Introduction to TSCA

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How the FDA got the power to require proof of
safety before a drug was marketed
www.fda.gov/cder/about/history/ and Pomper, G.M.,
Ordinary Heroes and American Democracy
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It seems so simpleIf you cant show that its
safethen you cant sell it
A closing haiku
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For sources and more information go to
www.womenshealthandenvironment.org