Study Shows that the Acidic Pesticide Atrazine is Feminizing Frogs and Animals - Could it be Feminizing Humans!

Frogs feminized, but atrazine's effects on people uncertain.

Atrazine, one of the most widely used farm pesticides in the United States, has feminized male frogs and other animals in some scientific studies. But research examining potential effects in people is relatively sparse. A few studies have found possible connections between atrazine and higher rates of some birth defects and poor semen quality in men. Yet scientists say more human research is needed to reach any conclusions. “All of the human studies I know of have some issues,” said Suzanne Fenton of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “The hard part about atrazine work is that it has a really short half-life in humans/animals. Hard to measure accurately.” Dr. Paul Winchester said his research “certainly doesn’t prove that atrazine causes birth defects…but we simply can’t rule it out as a cause.” “We’re not looking for a fight [with Syngenta],” he said. “We’re just looking for answers.”

	University of Georgia

By Brian Bienkowski and Marla Cone
Environmental Health News

Atrazine, one of the most widely used farm pesticides in the United States, has feminized male frogs and other animals in some scientific studies. But research examining potential effects in people is relatively sparse.

A few studies have found possible connections between atrazine and higher rates of some birth defects and poor semen quality in men. Yet scientists say more human research is needed to reach any conclusions. “It pales in comparison to the animal research,” said Dr. Paul Winchester, an Indiana University professor of clinical pediatrics who studies the pesticide.

For more than half a century, U.S. farmers have used large volumes of atrazine to kill weeds, particularly in cornfields. The herbicide has been found in waterways and aquifers that supply drinking water. Syngenta, its manufacturer, says that the chemical is safe for both humans and wildlife at levels found in the environment.

OMAFRA

Atrazine is used on most U.S. corn. Runoff from fields contaminates water supplies.

But about a decade ago, researchers at University of California, Berkeley, found that low concentrations – the amount expected near farms – caused male tadpoles to turn into female frogs.

Follow-up studies in the wild found that atrazine either turned male tadpoles into females or “demasculinized” them, causing eggs to grow in their testes and rendering them unable to reproduce, said Tyrone Hayes, a UC Berkeley professor of biology who led the research.

The chemical can disrupt hormones and alter male reproductive tissues when an animal is exposed during development. Other impacts include a reduction in size at birth, according to 2005 and 2008 studies of amphibians and fish by University of Texas researchers.

And it’s not just frogs that might be at risk of being feminized – recent research has found that atrazine has similar hormonal effects on salmon, caimans and lab rats.

In addition, “it’s been shown to cause erratic behavior, like weird swimming patterns,” Hayes said. “Fish and frogs start swimming improperly, which has consequences – they can’t escape predators, they can’t find food.”

“It [atrazine] has been shown to cause erratic behavior, like weird swimming patterns. Fish and frogs start swimming improperly, which has consequences – they can’t escape predators, they can’t find food.” -Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkeley  Syngenta disputes all these findings. The Swiss-based company particularly took issue with Hayes’ research, and cited follow-up studies that could not replicate his work and reported no feminizing effects on frogs. Peer-reviewed and published, the industry studies were conducted at two labs, and were funded by Syngenta after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked the company in 2003 to perform more frog tests.

Hayes in 2004 wrote a paper slamming Syngenta's studies, saying there were errors, such as high mortality of frogs and inappropriate measurements of hormone levels. He said due to those factors, their research cannot be compared with his. "All of the studies that say [atrazine] doesn’t have any effect come from industry. We're all finding reproductive effects, except those who are getting paid [by Syngenta],” he said.

Oregon State University

Tyrone Hayes has reported that frogs exposed to atrazine in his lab were feminized.

The field studies of frogs that couldn’t replicate Hayes’ findings used different, less-accurate methods, said Krista McCoy, a professor of biology at East Carolina University and co-author of a 2010 analysis of atrazine and wildlife research.

McCoy said the studies that didn’t find a link assumed that some ponds were clean and could be used as a reference site. When the researchers found similar abnormalities in frogs from the so-called “clean” site and polluted site, they reported no link to atrazine.

But “there’s no such thing as a clean control site where there’s no manmade chemicals,” McCoy said. “If you collect samples from a pond in an agricultural area and then go across the street to someone’s yard, well, the animals [in the non-agricultural pond] are probably exposed to the same chemicals due to runoff.”

McCoy’s analysis of previous research concluded that atrazine consistently affected reproductive development of male frogs in studies. But it’s unclear whether any animal populations are dropping due to possible effects from the herbicide.

Jason Rohr, a biology professor at the University of South Florida and co-author of that analysis, has some concerns about all of the atrazine research. “There are problems with some of Tyrone’s [Hayes] work, some of it is fantastic,” Rohr said. He wondered whether any variables were introduced in the Syngenta-funded studies that may skew the results.

Europe banned atrazine in 2003 because of its widespread discovery in water supplies. But the EPA concluded that water containing atrazine at 3 parts per billion is safe to drink. The agency, however, has initiated another review of data collected since 2007 on both human and wildlife health.In a 2007 review of the chemical, the EPA agreed with Syngenta and renewed the registration of atrazine, concluding that it was not harming frogs and other wildlife at levels found in the environment. “Based on the negative results of these studies, the Agency concludes that it is reasonable to reject the hypothesis…that atrazine exposure can affect amphibian gonadal development,” the EPA said in its review.

Under federal law, “a pesticide must be found not to cause unreasonable risks to people or the environment” in order for the EPA to allow continued use. But the law also allows the EPA to take into “account the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of the use of the pesticide” when assessing “unreasonable risks.” Pesticides are reviewed every 15 years.

Europe banned atrazine in 2003 because of its widespread discovery in water supplies. But the EPA concluded that water containing atrazine at 3 parts per billion is safe to drink. The agency, however, has initiated another review of data collected since 2007 on both human and wildlife health.

Ho-Wen Chen/flickr

Zebrafish embryos exposed to atrazine exhibited changes in how some genes related to reproduction functioned.

One recent study offers clues to the mechanisms through which atrazine can harm animals and possibly humans.

Purdue University researchers found that zebrafish embryos exposed to atrazine at environmental levels showed changes in their genes. “The genes that were altered were associated with neuroendocrine, reproductive function in the fish,” said Jennifer Freeman, a toxicology professor at Purdue University who was the study’s senior author.

While the study didn’t examine whether these gene changes led to health problems, Freeman said it’s plausible that they could be behind some developmental and reproductive effects seen in wildlife. She said these genes work in similar ways in fish and humans.

The strongest evidence of a possible human effect is a study comparing men in a rural area of Missouri to men in three urban areas. The Missouri men with higher atrazine exposures were more likely to have poor semen quality, perhaps due to the chemical’s ability to alter sex hormones, according to the study published a decade ago. Similar effects were reported on the sperm of lab animals.

Another large study, conducted in France, showed babies exposed in the womb to atrazine are born weighing slightly less, by an average of five ounces.

The herbicide also has been linked to changes in breast tissue and birth defects in exposed lab rats, which are used to determine if the chemicals are a danger to humans.

The strongest evidence of a possible human effect is a study comparing men in a rural area of Missouri to men in three urban areas. The Missouri men with higher atrazine exposures were more likely to have poor semen quality.Toxicologist Suzanne Fenton, a leading atrazine researcher at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said when mother rats are exposed to high doses of atrazine, their pups have developmental delays in mammary glands, which may increase susceptibility to breast cancer.

Main story: Syngenta's campaign to discredit critics. To protect profits threatened by a lawsuit over its controversial herbicide atrazine, Syngenta Crop Protection launched an aggressive multi-million dollar campaign that included hiring a detective agency to investigate scientists on a federal advisory panel, looking into the personal life of a judge and commissioning a psychological profile of a leading scientist critical of atrazine. The Switzerland-based pesticide manufacturer also routinely paid “third-party allies” to appear to be independent supporters, and kept a list of 130 people and groups it could recruit as experts without disclosing ties to the company.

But the International Agency for Research on Cancer has concludedthat there is “inadequate evidence” to say that atrazine causes cancer in humans, and the EPA reported in 2006 that it is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

“All of the human studies I know of have some issues,” Fenton said. “The hard part about atrazine work is that it has a really short half-life in humans/animals. Hard to measure accurately.”

Similar to rat studies, atrazine has been linked to some birth defects in humans. A studypublished this year that reviewed birth defect records in Texas found “modest, but consistent, associations” between boys’ genital defects and mothers who live near areas with atrazine. A2007 study in Indiana found an increased rate of abdominal defects in children born in areas with higher atrazine levels in surface waters. Also, U.S. babies conceived in April through August, when farm chemicals including atrazine were at their highest amounts in water, had more birth defects, according to research by Winchester and colleagues.

However, all three of these birth defect studies had to estimate atrazine exposure, making it questionable whether the health impact was from the chemical and not from some other factor. For example, the scientists don’t know how much atrazine the mothers were actually exposed to; they just know they lived in areas where it was found in streams. Also, the study in France that did measure atrazine in mothers found no increase in birth defects in their children.

Winchester said his research linking agricultural months to birth defects “certainly doesn’t prove that atrazine causes birth defects…but we simply can’t rule it out as a cause.”

“We’re not looking for a fight [with Syngenta],” he said. “We’re just looking for answers.”

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Radioactive Isotopes from Chernobyl Lurk in the Trees!

Chernobyl reactor Nos. 5 and 6 were under construction at the time of the No. 4 explosion and remain frozen in time. But forests in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have been absorbing radioactive elements since the 1986 accident, and scientists fear a wildfire could trigger another release. Photo © Jane Braxton Little.

For 27 years, forests around Chernobyl have been absorbing radioactive elements. A fire would send them skyward again – a growing concern as summers grow longer, hotter and drier.  A very good reason for taking your Potassium iodide and iodine to protect against lingering radioactive isotopes.  www.phmiracle.com

By Jane Braxton LittleThe Daily Climate

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine – Most days Nikolay Ossienko patrols the forests surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, clearing brush and dead trees from the grid of fuel breaks that crisscross the 1,000-square-mile area. But on hot July afternoons, when black thunderheads loom on the horizon, he climbs a rusty ladder 75 feet up a rickety fire tower. When he spots smoke, he radios the six other towers to pinpoint the location, then trucks off to the blaze.

If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released.

"Our number one job is to save the forest from fire," said Ossienko, a burly, blue-eyed Ukrainian whose warm smile winks with a missing tooth.

It’s a job with international consequences. For almost three decades the forests around the shuttered nuclear power plant have been absorbing contamination left from the 1986 reactor explosion. Now climate change and lack of management present a troubling predicament: If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released, according to an analysis of the human health impacts of wildfire in Chernobyl's exclusion zone conducted by scientists in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States.

This contamination would be carried aloft in the smoke as inhalable aerosols, that 2011 study concluded. 

And instead of being emitted by a single reactor, the radioactive contamination would come from trees that cover some 660 square miles around the plant, said Sergiy Zibtsev, a Ukrainian forestry professor who has been studying these irradiated forests for 20 years.

"There's really no question," he added. "If Chernobyl forests burn, contaminants would migrate outside the immediate area. We know that."

Overcrowded pines

Combined with changes in climate, these overcrowded pines are a prescription for wildfire. In their assessment of the potential risks of a worst-case fire, Zibtsev and the team of international scientists concluded that much of the Chernobyl forest is "in high danger of burning." 

Much of the Chernobyl forest is in high danger of burning.

Zibtsev has been worrying about catastrophic wildfire in Chernobyl since witnessing runaway wildland fires in the western United States while on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005. He has watched the threat get worse each passing year. Rainfall in the region is decreasing and seasonal droughts are lasting longer, changes Zibtsev attributes to climate change. Scientists say these patterns of drier and longer summers are contributing to forest drying and increased insect attacks.

The predominantly pine forests themselves are part of the problem. After the explosion – the worst nuclear accident in human history – the area surrounding the power plant was evacuated, the fields and forests abandoned. To keep the contamination from moving beyond the area known as the "zone of alienation," the Ukraine government forbade all commercial activity. For forests, this meant a halt to logging, thinning and removing dead trees. While most of Ukraine boasts woodlands that are carefully manicured, the Chernobyl forests have grown into unmanaged thickets with dense brush below and lifeless canopies above.

The risk of fire in these forests has concerned scientists since 1992, a drought year when more than 65 square miles of forests burned. They know that these ecosystems are trapping radionuclides and slowly redistributing them in soil and vegetation, a process called "self-repair." In some places the contamination level is the same as it was in 1986, most of it in the top 10 centimeters of the soil. Absorbing cesium, plutonium and strontium helps contain radionuclides within the exclusion zone, but it dramatically heightens the alarm over wildfire.

Two-acre test fire

A 2002 test fire offers insight on the scope of the radioactive risk. Set to assess plume and radionuclide behavior, the two-acre ground fire near the failed power plant released up to five percent of the cesium and strontium in the biomass. A high-intensity crown fire would release much higher amounts than burning needles and leaf litter, said Vasyl Yoschenko, who set the fire and heads the radioecological monitoring laboratory at the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology. Other studies predict that the fine particles emitted from a forest fire could be transported hundreds of miles away.

"Imagine going to bed at night knowing something like this could happen," said Chad Oliver, director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale University, who has studied the region since 2005.

Oliver, Zibtsev and others began calling attention to the potential for another Chernobyl disaster at variety international and scientific conferences, but the issue drew little more than finger pointing. Until their 2011 study, no one had assessed the human health effects of a catastrophic wildfire in the exclusion zone.

A worst-case scenario

Led by Oliver and Zibtsev, scientists at several institutions in Europe and North America analyzed a worst-case scenario: A very hot fire that burns for five days, consumes everything in its path, and sends the smoke 60 miles south to Kiev. A separate worst-case study is underway looking at the risks for Sweden, Finland and other European countries heavily impacted by the 1986 explosion.

Women in their 20s living just outside the zone face the highest risk from exposure to radioactive smoke, the 2011 study found: 170 in 100,000 would have an increased chance of dying of cancer. Among men farther away in Kiev, 18 in 100,000 20-year-olds would be at increased risk of dying of cancer. These estimates pale in comparison to those from the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, which predict between 4,000 and over a million eventual deaths from radiation exposure.

Instead, the greatest danger from forest fire for most people would be consuming foods exposed to smoke. Milk, meat and other products would exceed safe levels, the 2011 study predicts. The Ukrainian government would almost certainly have to ban consumption of foodstuffs produced as far as 90 miles from the fire.

No need for evacuation

After years of anxiety, the results of the study surprised Oliver. People living outside the exclusion zone would not have to be evacuated. There would be no cause for panic in Kiev, he said. 

But the predictions for Ossienko and his fellow firefighters are not so rosy. They would be exposed to radiation beyond all acceptable levels. In addition to "normal" external radiation, they would be inhaling radionuclides in the smoke they breathe – being irradiated both outside and inside.

On top of the significant health risks, these crews are utterly unequipped to fight large fires, Zibtsev said. At Ossienko's fire station near the Belarus border, four well-maintained fire trucks gleam inside a shed, all ready to roll. But the fire lanes designed to get them to a blaze quickly are untended, often blocked by fallen trees and brush. Ossienko is proud of the Soviet tank modified for firefighting with a 20-foot blade like a gigantic pointed cow-catcher. He says it can "crush trees and brush – anything." But reporting smokes by climbing fire towers is no one's idea of an early-warning system, and the lone helicopter occasionally available lacks even a bucket for dropping water on a fire.

'They're obviously not prepared'

The firefighters themselves are dedicated and hard working, Zibtsev added, but they don't have much professional training, protective suits or breathing apparatuses – standard equipment for American firefighters dealing with hazardous materials. "They're obviously not prepared for a major wildfire situation," he said.

The United Nations recently acknowledged the potential for another Chernobyl disaster and has mounted a $20 million sustainable development project designed to address wildfire and other environmental issues. 

The UN project recognizes – "finally!" said Zibtsev – that well-managed forests will contribute to the decrease of fire hazards within the region. Zibtsev, who is responsible for the program’s fire management system, and Oliver envision a four-pronged approach that starts with cutting trees out of the roads so firefighters have access. Modern firefighting and fire detection equipment should dramatically improve fire response time. And then? "Start thinning!" Zibtsev said.

All this will take time, said Oliver: "If we can live out 30 to 40 years and not have a big one, we might be a lot safer."

Meanwhile, Ossienko is at work in the heat of the Chernobyl summer, watching for smoke and, with the rest of the world, hoping for none. 

Texts and photographs © Jane Braxton Little, 2013. All rights reserved.

Jane Braxton Little is an independent journalist and photographer based in California's northern Sierra Nevada. Her travel to Ukraine was funded by a grant from the Fund for Environmental Journalism, a project of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Photos, from top: Brush, vines and undergrowth have taken over much of the forest in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, enveloping even houses; Firefighter Nikolay Ossienko; Forestry professor Sergiy Zibtsev; Fire trucks at the ready; A Soviet-era tank modified for firefighting, at the Chernobyl fire station near Belarus.

The Daily Climate is an independent news service covering climate change, energy and the environment. Contact Douglas Fischer at dfischer [at] DailyClimate.org

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US Kids Born in Polluted Environments More Likely To Have Autistic Symptoms!

Women who live in areas with polluted air are up to twice as likely to have an autistic child than those living in communities with cleaner air, according to a new study. Building on two other smaller, regional studies, the Harvard University research is the first to link air pollution nationwide with autism. It also is the first to suggest that baby boys may be more at risk for autism disorders when their mothers breathe polluted air during pregnancy. Babies born in areas with high airborne levels of mercury, diesel exhaust, lead, manganese, nickel and methylene chloride were more likely to have autism than those in areas with lower pollution. The strongest links were for diesel exhaust and mercury.  Of course mercury can be found in vaccinations and in amalgam fillings which may also contibute to the cause of autism in children.  For more information on the cause of autism read The pH Miracle Books 1 and 2. www.phmiracle.com

	cesarharada.com/flickr

By Brian Bienkowski

Staff Writer

June 18, 2013

Women who live in areas with polluted air are up to twice as likely to have an autistic child than those living in communities with cleaner air, according to a new study published today.

Harvard University

Harvard's Andrea Roberts was lead author of the new study.

Building on two smaller, regional studies, the Harvard University research is the first to link air pollution nationwide with autism. It also is the first to suggest that baby boys may be more at risk for autism disorders when their mothers breathe polluted air during pregnancy.

Babies born in areas of the United States with high airborne levels of mercury, diesel exhaust, lead, manganese, nickel and methylene chloride were more likely to have autism than those in areas with lower pollution. The strongest links were for diesel exhaust and mercury.

“The striking similarity with our results and the previous studies adds a tremendous amount to the weight of evidence that pollutants in the air might be causing autism in children,” said Andrea Roberts, a research associate at the Harvard University School of Public Health and lead author of the new study published online in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Scientists have been trying to figure out whether a variety of environmental exposures are linked to autism, a neurological disorder diagnosed in one out of every 50 U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17.

Because the new air pollution study has some weaknesses, however, its findings, while interesting, are not conclusive, several scientists said. For example, the researchers estimated the mothers’ exposure to air pollutants based on computer models.

“It’s the same weakness as other studies [on environmental pollutants and autism]. They’re using an EPA model, which estimates what’s coming out of factories and traffic and spits out a pollution estimate,” said Amy Kalkbrenner, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was not involved in this study.

Also pollution varies by season and “pregnant women don’t just sit inside a census tract,” said Kalkbrenner, who conducted a similar, smaller study in 2010.

In addition, the results may be skewed because children in urban areas have more access to doctors and clinics where they are more likely to be diagnosed, said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who studies autism.

The new study used information from 325 mothers, all nurses from around the country, who gave birth after 1987 to a child later diagnosed with autism. The researchers divided these children into five groups based on their mothers’ estimated air pollution exposure during pregnancy and compared their autism rates to 22,000 non-autistic children born from 1987 to 2002. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pollution estimates were broken down by census tract. The income and education level of the families were factored in, since they also can be linked to air pollution.

lynac/flickr

Researchers used U.S. EPA models that estimate air pollution based on traffic and industrial emissions.

For mercury and diesel, the mothers in the highest exposure group were twice as likely to have an autistic child. Lead, manganese, nickel, methylene chloride and overall metal exposure also were associated with higher incidences of autism. Twenty-six of 180 pollutants had a significant association between exposure and autism rates.

“Since so many [pollutants] were linked to higher autism rates, we can’t tell from the study which ones might be the causes,” Roberts said.

"Since so many [pollutants] were linked to higher autism rates, we can't tell from the study which ones might be the causes."-Andrea Roberts, Harvard UniversityAutism disorders are development disabilities – with a wide range in severity -- that are marked by social impairment, difficulty with communication and repetitive behaviors. Rates have been increasing, but many experts think this cannot be entirely explained by increased diagnoses by doctors.

Boys are about four times more likely than girls to be identified as having the disorder, according to the CDC. In Roberts’ study, the researchers saw associations between exposures and higher autism rates when looking at the group as a whole and at just boys. However, when they looked only at girls, there were no statistically significant links between pollution and autism.

It’s not clear why, Roberts said. Boys are more likely to have autism, so it may be easier to “push them over the threshold into autism” through mothers’ pollutant exposure, Roberts said. But both she and Kalkbrenner said the sample size of girls – 14 percent of the children with autism – is too small for the gender differences to be significant.

Lance Neilson/flickr

Autism disorders affect about 1 in 50 U.S. kids.

Previously, several industrial pollutants – methylene chloride, quinolone and styrene – were linked to higher autism rates in children born in North Carolina and West Virginia, according to a 2010 study. Pregnant mothers’ exposure to metals and chlorinated solvents was linked to increased risk of having an autistic child, according to a 2006 study of San Francisco area children.

Also, children born to mothers who lived near freeways in California were more likely to be autistic, according to a 2011 study by University of Southern California researchers.

“Diesel and these other air pollutants are something that a broad segment of the population is exposed to. It’s important to look at these things,” said Michael Maloney, executive director of the nonprofit Organization for Autism Research.

Maloney said parents “naturally want to know what causes autism.”

“Some parents have an absolute certainty that something specific caused the condition, such as vaccinations,” Maloney said, referring to ongoing controversy over whether child vaccines spur autism. “But most just want to know how to help their child.”

Certain genes are linked to the disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health. Studies suggest that defective genes, which can disrupt fetal brain development, could result in autism disorders. And researchers are increasingly looking at environmental pollutants, which could spur defective genes.

“There are a couple of things we do know – these things [pollutants] are neurotoxins and they can pass from mother to the fetus while it’s still developing,” Roberts said. “And some of these chemicals can cause genetic mutations – the type associated with autism.”

Kalkbrenner said it’s also possible that the pollutants are not allowing the nervous system to develop naturally or hampering the ability of immune cells to help neurons move efficiently.

Hertz-Picciotto, who was senior author on a 2011 study that found prenatal vitamins were associated with decreased autism risk, said the disorder is likely caused by a number of factors.

“Maybe air pollution is a problem, mother’s nutrition probably plays a role,” she said. “And then some children are more than likely just more susceptible.”

"Maybe air pollution is a problem, mother's nutrition probably plays a role. And then some children are more than likely just more susceptible."- Irva Hertz-Picciotto, University of California, DavisRoberts said a good next research step would be to take blood samples from pregnant women or from babies to measure some pollutants.

But not all pollutants end up in the blood so they are difficult to measure. And autism’s nature makes teasing out a definitive cause difficult.

“If you follow hundreds of children from birth, only a couple will have autism. You can enroll 100,000 children in a study, but it’s prohibitively expensive,” Kalkbrenner said. “Or you can follow them after they’re diagnosed – but it’s the exposures very early in life that we’re concerned about. So by the time they’re diagnosed, it’s too late.”

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Acidic Oceans of the Future Show Extinction of Marine Life!

A sea urchin off the coast of Italy. Researchers studying sea life near acidic ocean vents found that increasing ocean acidification can lead to wholesale ecosystem changes that mimic extinction. Photo by Kristy Kroeker/University of California, Davis.

A glimpse of future ocean chemistry finds that acidification transforms entire ecosystems.

Ocean acidification may create an impact similar to extinction on marine ecosystems, according to a study published Monday.  "Body acidification from an acidic lifestyle and diet has the same effect on the body cells, organs and tissues creating an impact similiar to the extinction of the human race."  Dr. Robert O. Young, pH Miracle Living Center, Valley Center, Ca.

Background, low-grade stress caused by ocean acidification can cause a whole shift in the ecosystem.

- Kristy Kroeker,
UC-Davis

The study, exploring naturally acidic waters near volcanic vents in the Mediterranean Ocean off Italy, suggests that ocean acidification as a result of human emissions can degrade entire ecosystems – not just individual species, as past studies have shown.

The result, scientists say, is a homogenized marine community dominated by fewer plants and animals.  

"The background, low-grade stress caused by ocean acidification can cause a whole shift in the ecosystem so that everything is dominated by the same plants, which tend to be turf algae," said lead author Kristy Kroeker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Bodega Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Davis.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Colorful patches

The oceans have absorbed roughly 30 percent of the carbon humans have pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, buffering the globe from the harm posed by greenhouse gases. But it comes with a price: seawater has become more acidic as it absorbed all that carbon

Today the ocean's pH is lower than anything seen in the historical record in the past 800,000 years, scientists say. As the acidity increases, organisms such as corals, oysters, snails and urchins have trouble pulling minerals from the seawater to create protective shells. The study released Monday buttresses ecologists' fears that such changes could ripple through entire ecosystems – and that ocean acidification could prove as consequential and catastrophic for the globe as any changes in air temperature associated with climate change.

Most ecosystems have numerous, colorful patches of different plants and animals – algae, sponges, anemones, among others, Kroeker said in a statement. "With ocean acidification, you lose that patchiness.... Everything looks the same."

Kroeker and colleagues studied waters surrounding Castello Aragonese, a 14th century castle off the coast of Italy where volcanic vents naturally release bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. The vents create different levels of acidity on the reef. These gradients gave the scientists a glimpse of what a future marked by increasingly acidic ocean waters could look like – and how the creatures and plants living in those environments may react to a disturbance.

The researchers selected three reef zones: low, high and extremely high acidity, representing world ocean conditions for the present day, 2100 and 2500, respectively. Then they removed animals and vegetation from the rocks there. Every few months for three years, Kroeker dived to the study plots to photograph them and watch how plots in each zone recovered.

Variety through time

Kroeker found that acidic water reduced the number and variety of species. In the non-acidic plots, many different plants and animals, including turf algae, would colonize and grow. Sea urchins, snails and other so-called "calcareous species" would then eat them, allowing for variety through time.

But in both the high and extremely high acidic plots, urchins and other grazers either never reappeared or did not graze, allowing fleshy turf algae to steadily increase and ultimately overtake the zones. 

Calcareous grazers play key roles in maintaining the balance within marine ecosystems. They are also considered among the most vulnerable species to ocean acidification, previous studies have found.

"If the role of these grazers changes with ocean acidification, you might expect to see cascading effects of the whole ecosystem," Kroeker said. "If the pattern holds for other calcareous grazers, this has implications for other ecosystems, as well."

Photos: Castello Aragonese d'Ischia in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy (top). Coral reef in ambient carbon dioxide levels (bottom left) shows a "patchy" ecosystem with a variety of species, while coral in a highly acidic environment (bottom right) shows algae as the dominant species. All photos by Kristy Kroeker/UC Davis.

Daily Climate is an independent, foundation-funded news service covering climate change, energy and the environment.

Contact Douglas Fischer at dfischer [at] DailyClimate.org

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An Onslaugth of Autism Due To Prescription Drugs and Acidic Chemicals

Onslaught of autism: A mom's crusade could help unravel scientific mystery

Jill Escher’s dogged quest to unravel why two of her children are autistic has drawn the attention of scientists, and may ultimately lead to a greater understanding of how prescription drugs – and perhaps chemicals in the environment – may secretly and subtly harm the health of generations to come.

Lance Neilson/flickr
One in every 88 kids in the United States is diagnosed with autism, a neurological disease with unknown causes.

Jane Kay

Environmental Health News

July 16, 2013

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Jill Escher, a dark-haired dynamo of smarts and stamina, was gently stopping her son, Jonny, 14, from ripping up the mail. He had just emptied spice bottles on the table to make finger paints.

Upstairs, her daughter, Sophie, 7, was sending out incomprehensible cries. It could mean that Sophie had opened a box of crayons, eaten some and rubbed the rest into the carpet, or smeared a tube of toothpaste on the mirror. And while Escher tried to calm Sophie, Jonny could be tossing his iPad over the fence, tearing all the ivories off the piano, chewing the furniture, or wandering out into traffic.

Katy Raddatz

Jill Escher meets with Brad Boardman, executive director of the Morgan Autism Center, to discuss a grant from Escher's foundation.

For Escher, the anguish of autism is doubled. Both Jonny and Sophie have been diagnosed with autism, the fast-growing category of neurological disease afflicting one in every 88 U.S. children. The Escher children's intellectual development is stalled at an early pre-school level, and they need constant care and protection.

For years, Escher and her husband, Christopher, worried about what could have gone wrong. Why would two of their three children wind up autistic, defying the odds? Was it their genes? Their environment? Their food? The couple tried to hunt down any health problems in their lineage but found none. A glass of wine while pregnant? Paint fumes? Pollution from freeways?

New studies appear with regularity, suggesting causes but offering no definitive answers.

“To be perfectly honest, I had given up trying to find out. I felt I would die never knowing what happened to my children. No one could tell me,” Escher said.

But three years ago, Jill Escher had an epiphany, one that now subsumes her waking hours and nighttime dreams. After prodding her mother for clues from her past, Escher discovered some hidden history: Her mother had sought help conceiving at a fertility clinic. As she grew in her mother's womb, Escher was bombarded with synthetic hormones and other drugs.

Now Escher’s dogged quest to unravel why this happened to her children has drawn the attention of scientists, and may ultimately lead to a greater understanding of how prescription drugs – and perhaps chemicals in the environment – may secretly and subtly harm the health of generations to come.

“The autism explosion has been with us for more than two decades, and we have little to show about what's causing it,” Escher said. “We have many hundreds of thousands of functionally disabled people who didn't exist before, and we have our heads in the sand.”

From generation to generation

Scientists know that some chemicals can alter developing embryos and fetuses, which can lead to disease later in life.

But in recent years, they've learned that the damage doesn't necessarily stop there. Something a pregnant woman is exposed to may alter not just her children, but also her grandchildren – and possibly even subsequent generations.

National Institutes of Health

Autism affects normal development of communication and social skills.

This is how the "germ line" hypothesis works: Cells in what is called a “germ line” form eggs in the female fetus and precursors to sperm in the male fetus. The germ line establishes an unbroken link from generation to generation. But when a pregnant woman is exposed to chemicals, the germ line may be altered. That would mean that eggs developing in the fetus – the future third generation – could be changed, leading to abnormalities or disease. Also, the disrupted programming in how genes are turned on and off – the very genes that instruct cell growth and function – may be passed on to more descendants.

“The autism explosion has been with us for more than two decades, and we have little to show about what's causing it. We have many hundreds of thousands of functionally disabled people who didn't exist before, and we have our heads in the sand.” –Jill Escher  The power of pharmaceuticals to do just that came to light with a synthetic estrogen that harmed at least two generations of offspring of women who took it. DES, or diethylstilbestrol, was prescribed to up to 10 million pregnant women in the United States and the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1971 in an effort to prevent miscarriage and premature birth. DES daughters, exposed in the womb, are at an increased risk for a rare form of cancer of the vagina and cervix and other reproductive disorders, and the sons have increased risk for some reproductive problems. Startling scientists, DES granddaughters turned up with an increased incidence of urinary and genital malformations, irregular menstrual cycles and other abnormalities.

These findings were profound: A single exposure of a pregnant woman seemed to induce defects in her fetus's eggs, triggering health effects in the next generation.

Now health experts probing autism wonder: Could this be a clue? Could a pregnant woman’s exposure to something alter the brains of her grandchildren?

A personal quest

When Escher’s first child, Evan, was born in 1997, he met his developmental markers. Two years later came Jonathan. “He was really colicky, and always seemed to be in some pain that we couldn't soothe. He would sit in the backyard and pick up rocks and dirt,” she said.

She saw the ominous signs: no eye contact, no babbling as a baby. The Eschers took him for an assessment. As soon as the doctor walked into the waiting room, he suspected autism.

Jill Escher saw the ominous signs in her son Jonny: no eye contact, no babbling as a baby. As soon as a doctor walked into the waiting room, he suspected autism. Then when Sophie was born seven years later, she showed similar signs.“Jonny is a brick. Nothing permeates his skull. He was just impervious to what we were trying to teach him. He was an affectionate little boy and remains so today,” Escher said.

Then when Sophie was born seven years after Jonathan, she showed similar signs. She didn't play or make eye contact. Her diagnosis came soon after. Genetic testing revealed no known abnormalities in either child, and no clinician could think of any reason for two children with such severe disabilities.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, parents who have a child with autism have only a 2 to 18 percent chance of having a second autistic child.

In 2000 and 2002, one in every 150 U.S. children was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, which affect the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills. But the rate climbed to one in 88 in 2008, according to the CDC. Many experts believe the rise is due to a combination of a real increase in prevalence plus improved diagnoses.

“We don't know why the numbers are increasing, and we don't know which portions of the brain are affected when a person has autism,” said neuroscientist David Amaral, research director at the University of California, Davis, MIND Institute.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“Twenty years ago, the view in the field was that autism was totally a genetic disorder, and if you could figure out which genes were involved, then you would understand the cause of autism. Now we've gotten to the point where we're saying environmental factors have just as much influence as genetics,” he said.

With no scientific training, Escher, 47, has educated herself enough to discuss new research with Amaral and other autism experts. She has a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and five years' experience as a clerk in the U.S. District Court in San Jose. Five years ago, Escher and her husband founded a small family fund that first financed school recreational activities for autistic children, then research into its causes.

To her horror, she learned that researchers had discovered an autism clusterin West Los Angeles, where she grew up. In her search for answers, Escher came across a Tel Aviv University study linking in vitro fertilization with increased risk of autism.

“That's when it hit me that I might have been a fertility kid,” she said. She remembered a scrap of information tucked away. At 13, the cover of Time magazine featured a test tube to illustrate creating a baby with the aid of science. Someone – she thinks it was her dad – said to her, “You were just like that baby. You were a miracle child. You were wanted very badly.” She wasn’t a test tube baby, but she wondered if her mother had taken fertility drugs.

Escher called her mother, and asked. “They gave me a whole bunch of stuff. I don't know what it was,” her mother said.

At Escher's request, her mother called her former obstetrician. Four pages of records, stored on microfilm, were sent to Escher. Scrawled over the pages was a list of synthetic hormone drugs that her mother took. Over and over, she saw steroid hormones: Deluteval (a progestin with estradiol) and prednisolone. Escher learned that her mother had gone to a West Los Angeles fertility clinic run by Dr. Edward Tyler, who had prescribed Pergonol and Clomid to induce ovulation to help her conceive. And it was Tyler who had prescribed a continuing regimen of hormones and steroids, including weekly injections, as a way to prevent miscarriage during the pregnancy.

Escher asked some autism researchers about the fertility drugs, but got no encouragement, so she set the records aside.

But when the sister of a friend who had been exposed to DES in the womb died of breast cancer, she realized that the effects of some drugs could last for generations. “DES was a real eye opener in terms of transgenerational effects of prenatal exposure to drugs,” she said.

Washington State University

Michael Skinner is a pioneer in environmental epigenetics.

“I was listening to a podcast, and a health guru explained that a pregnant woman's nutrition affects not only her fetus but also her grandchildren because of exposure of the germ cells. I heard her say, 'A girl is born with all her eggs.'”

She was stunned. “Something's happened to my eggs,” she thought.

Searching the epigenome for answers

Millions and millions of women who are now grandmothers took heavy doses of drugs during their pregnancies in the '50s and '60s. Escher wondered: Could the fertility, nausea and miscarriage drugs heavily prescribed in the past decades alter the fetus and lead to lasting, transgenerational abnormalities such as autism?

So far, no one has looked, although one ambitious study is about to be launched in Europe.

“Right now research looks at environment and it looks at genetics. But it doesn't look at the environmental effects on the germ line. These are critical questions. So far we're silent on them,” Escher said.

Science is very compartmentalized, she said.

“We already have all the pieces. We just need to put them in order. But you don't have one person stringing it all together,” she said.

Escher is trying to be the one to do that.

One of the first scientists she contacted was Michael Skinner, a professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University.

“The majority of brain disease has been shown not to be genetically based, and autism is likely environmentally induced during some period of development.” –Michael Skinner, Washington State UniversitySkinner laid out the shift in thinking that is setting off waves of disagreement among geneticists. For more than a century, scientists believed that only alterations in the DNA sequence could be passed on to subsequent generations. Now they are considering a change in that thinking: The way in which normal genes are expressed, or turned on and off, may be passed on, too. An abnormal exposure to a pregnant woman – a toxicant or smoking, for instance – might change the genetic switching that controls the development of a fetus. These alterations then may be passed on to multiple generations.

This is called epigenetic inheritance.

Scientists believe that molecules called the “epigenome” modify a person's instruction-giving genome in a way that tells it what to do, where to do it and when to do it. Environmental factors can more easily interact with the epigenome than the genome, and these changes can be passed on from cell to cell as cells divide.

Skinner explained it to Escher this way: “Think of the genome as the computer, and the epigenome as the software.” 

Epigenome NoE

A mouse's color can change in future generations by how its genes are expressed, or turned on and off, even if its DNA sequence isn't altered.

The hypothesis is that if the germ cells are affected in the fetus, disruptions in signals can be transmitted to subsequent generations, without affecting the DNA sequence. If at least three generations of offspring are affected, Skinner calls it "transgenerational."

“In essence, what your grandmother was exposed to when she was pregnant may cause disease in you and your grandchildren. Therefore, the potential hazard of environmental toxicants is dramatically increased, in particular for pregnant women in mid-gestation, six to 18 weeks,” Skinner said at a symposium on epigenetics and autism at UC Davis in March, partly supported by a grant from the Escher Fund for Autism.

In lab animals, Skinner and other scientists have linked a dozen chemicals – includingbisphenol A, which is an ingredient of polhycarbonate plastics, phthalates used as plasticizers, the insecticide DEET and a fungicide – to transgenerational epigenetic changes that have led to tumors, prostate disease, reproductive problems and other problems in at least three generations of offspring.

Environmental epigenetics may have an important role in the origins of autism, Skinner said. “The majority of brain disease has been shown not to be genetically based, and autism is likely environmentally induced during some period of development,” he said.

However, study of possible links between autism and multigenerational effects of environmental exposures is in the early stages, and the links remain a topic of debate among scientists.

"So far there are only a handful of gene mutations that are found in the human autism population. For the majority of patients we know something else is going on, and that might be epigenetic changes,” said Emilie Rissman, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Many diseases have increased faster than can be explained from normal genetic mechanisms. The epigenetic phenomenon could be a reason.

“If environmental factors influence gene expression, the risk of someone having autism could increase,” said Amaral of the University of California, Davis.

But Amaral said more basic science is needed to figure out the possible effects of environmental toxicants and pharmaceuticals. “Not enough is being done,” he said.

One large study, published earlier this year, reported that children of women who took valproate, prescribed for epilepsy and psychiatric disorders, had a significantly higher risk of autism spectrum disorders than other children. The study didn't look at epigenetic effects, however.

University of Utah

A pregnant woman's exposures may harm not just her fetus but the fetus's developing reproductive cells.

“There are many pieces of information learned from more than a decade of study that need to be connected before any conclusion can be made about autism,” said Andrea Gore, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Texas at Austin. Gore was one of the first to show in lab animals that prenatal exposure to hormone-like chemicals interfered with development of the neurological and reproductive systems, leading to abnormalities, including social and neurobehavioral disorders.

“It's too soon to make a direct connection between exposure to synthetic reproductive hormones and autism,” Gore said. “We think most behavioral disorders are a combination of genetic predisposition, natural differences in reproductive hormones and differences in environmental exposures.”

University of California, Davis, autism researcher Janine M. LaSalle said human studies over many generations would be needed to determine whether genomes and epigenomes may be increasingly susceptible to autism due to a multitude of environmental factors.

With lab animals, Gore and her colleagues will conduct transgenerational studies of hormone-mimicking chemicals to try to understand molecular changes in the brain and the connection between nerve cells and behavior.

“The caveat is that animals don't get autism spectrum disorders. All we can do is look at perturbations of normal behavior in ways that we believe may mimic some aspects of autism,” she said.

“The human is very special. We are different from other species… When it comes to these really complicated neurological biological disorders, we have to interpret the animal results in that context.”

Antidepressants under the microscope

Escher started doing some sleuthing of her own. Suspicious of links between pharmaceuticals and autism, she surveyed other autism families to ferret out exposures during pregnancy. Over months, she communicated with 70 parents, mostly mothers. Nine women told her they had taken antidepressants, including drugs known as SSRIs.

“The stories were the same again and again and again. The mother was mildly depressed. The doctor would always say it's more important for you to stay on the drug, and there is no sign of risk to the fetus,” Escher said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

About 1 in 9 people 12 years and older in the United States takes antidepressants.

Prenatal use of SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac and Zoloft, have surged since their introduction in the late 1980s.

She came across a post by Dr. Adam Urato, assistant professor and clinician at Tufts University School of Medicine, saying that there was a body of science linking SSRIs to autism, birth defects and other effects.

“If you look at the DES tragedy, you see many of the same hallmarks that you see today. I'm concerned that the warning voices aren't being heard, and the evidence of harm is being drowned out,” Urato said.

Antidepressants are believed to block serotonin, which is essential for brain growth, from being taken up by neurons, the basic cells of the brain. Autism is characterized by changes in the serotonin system.

“I'm concerned that the warning voices aren't being heard, and the evidence of harm is being drowned out.” –Dr. Adam Urato, Tufts University  Studies in animals and humans suggest that fetal exposure to SSRIs may be linked to neurological and developmental disorders, including an increased risk for autism syndrome disorders, Urato said.

For example, researchers in Sweden reported a link between antidepressants and autism. Pregnant women taking SSRIs showed a more-than-triple increase in risk of offspring with autism spectrum disorder.

Other researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area examined the association between autism and antidepressants during pregnancy. In a study published last year, they found a more than two-fold increased risk of autism associated with SSRIs with the strongest effect found in the first trimester.

One research group concluded that “fetal and infant exposure to SSRIs should be examined in humans, particularly those with developmental dysfunction, such as autism.“

When asked about any ongoing studies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, spokeswoman Andrea Fischer responded: “The FDA is not aware of any studies demonstrating that antidepressant use causes autism.”

Today, prenatal use of SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac and Zoloft, have surged since their introduction in the late 1980s.There have been no studies on the epigenetic or germ line effects of SSRIs.

Skinner is intrigued, and wants to study germ line changes related to pharmaceuticals but says the research funds aren't there. “In my opinion, it's a Catch-22. If we can't find research money to do the studies, then the medical community is not going to pay attention. All it would take is a few good publications to raise the red flag. Then the industry would respond accordingly, and the FDA would respond,” he said.

Escher is impatient with the FDA, saying it is missing an opportunity to explore a hypothesis that autism researchers call viable.

“We know pregnant women are taking SSRIs. We know that SSRIs have endocrine-disrupting effects. We know that endocrine-disrupting chemicals can disrupt germ line development. It only stands to reason that SSRIs can have transgenerational effects.

“It makes sense on paper. But nobody's asking the question,” she said.

FDA petitioned, NIH involved

Two months ago, Escher petitioned the FDA. She is seeking revocation of the first anti-nausea drug approved for pregnant women, Diclegis, until it is tested for effects on the fetus's developing germ cells.

Escher also wants wording on drug labels that alerts pregnant women that the medication has not been tested for damage to the baby's vulnerable egg or sperm precursors, and bears the risk of causing disease or developmental disorders in the next generation.

“I chose Diclegis as a poster child because it had been approved as though there are no risks to the fetus,” she said. She is particularly concerned that it is prescribed during the first half of pregnancy, when germ lines develop.

Wikipedia

Her cause is supported by some scientists, including Tel Aviv University theoretical biologist Eva Jablonka, who has been studying transgenerational epigenetic effects for years.

Jablonka wrote a letter to the FDA saying the understanding of epigenetic inheritance and fetal vulnerability “should alert us and urge us to take cautionary measures until research reveals whether or not the drugs affect the relevant grand-offspring generation.”

A representative of Duchesnay Inc. said the Canadian pharmaceutical company worked closely with the FDA in evaluating Diclegis. The drug has not shown an increased risk to the fetus during pregnancy, according to an emailed statement. The drug maker didn't respond to questions about possible effects on the fetal germ line.

At the FDA, Fischer said the combination of active ingredients in Diclegis – doxylamine succinate and pyridoxine hydrochloride – has been the subject of many epidemiological studies designed to detect the potential to cause birth defects in the fetus. Based on these and other studies, “there are no concerns for an increased risk for malformations from first trimester exposure to these ingredients,” Fischer said.

But Jablonka and other scientists say the testing of drugs should not be stopping with the exposed fetus, because perhaps only the subsequent generations are harmed. Asked about that, Fischer said, “the science of epigenetics is new, and initial work in animal models suggests it may provide additional approaches to better understand environmental influences for human health. As with all emerging science, the FDA will review data and consider its potential for impact on regulatory decisions.” She said the agency is reviewing Escher’s petition.

Earlier this month, Escher, along with Alycia Halladay of the national nonprofit Autism Speaks, presented the germ line disruption hypothesis to a committee of the National Institute of Mental Health, which is congressionally mandated to deal with the autism crisis.

The National Institutes of Health has begun funding some epigenetics studies related to autism and prescription drugs.

"The science of epigenetics is new, and initial work in animal models suggests it may provide additional approaches to better understand environmental influences for human health." - Andrea Fischer, FDAA large study in Europe, led by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is looking at medications taken by mothers and the health of their offspring. University of California, Davis, researchers are examining links between exposure to air pollution and pesticides, epigenetic changes and autism. Johns Hopkins University researchers are testing for epigenetic changes in autistic children associated with prenatal exposures to environmental chemicals. The National Institute of Mental Health is financing some studies on pharmaceuticals, including an investigation of whether antidepressants are causing epigenetic changes.

Also, an ambitious, first-of-its kind study of 8,000 people in Denmark, partially paid for by Escher’s fund, will look for connections between any pharmaceuticals they were exposed to in the womb and neurological disorders in their children.

Scientists, Escher said, have access to a treasure trove: the parents and grandparents of autistic children.

“Most autism families can generate very strong clues about what could have happened with their children. But it requires probing deep into ancestral exposures. The clues are there,” she said.

As for her own inspiration, “I love my kids. But I don't want this to happen to anyone else. It's too hard. It's too damaging.

"We have unwittingly experienced this mass disruption in evolution. It has to stop. We have to be much better caretakers of our genetic legacy.”

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