Upcoming Calls
May 21, 2012
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CHE Fertility and Reproductive Health and CHE EMF working groups call: EMF and Reproductive Health Risks
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Special note: We have been experiencing ongoing technical difficulties with the RSVP system for this call. We are working to resolve the issue. In the meantime, if you experience a problem with the online system, please email info@healthandenvironment.org asking to join the call and the dial-in number and access code will be emailed directly to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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Fertility/Repro Health News
18 May Watchdog group wants EPA to replace Louisiana as industry monitor.  The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental watchdog group that focuses on industrial emissions, says the state Department of Environmental Quality has done such a poor job of enforcing federal air quality laws in the state that the federal government should take over the job. New Orleans Times-Picayune, Louisiana.
18 May A house paint reduces bug-borne diseases. To control the mosquitoes that cause malaria and dengue, one chemist has invented a way to embed pesticides in microcapsules stirred into house paints. "The paint acts like a vaccine for houses and buildings," she said. Business Week.
17 May Group tracks airborne fungicide. Don and Norma Smith couldn't understand why their sheep stopped producing lambs in the mid-1990s. It was only later that they figured the problem might be connected to chemicals used on the potato fields that had grown up around their small farm here on the sandy soil in west-central Minnesota. Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota.
17 May Thinner sea ice may lead to more mercury contamination. The replacement of thicker sea ice that formed over multiple years in the Arctic with a thinner layer of ice that formed during the last winter is changing the air chemistry above the ice and likely increasing the amount of mercury contamination in the region, according to a new study. Boulder Daily Camera, Colorado.
17 May Chemicals in environment 'damaging male fertility.' New evidence has emerged that suggests chemicals routinely found in the environment could be damaging fertility in some men. BBC. 17 May Study: Fetal window of vulnerability to PAH on proportional intrauterine growth restriction.  Airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure appears to exert the greatest adverse effect on fetal growth during the first trimester. The present data support the need for the protection of pregnant women and the embryo/fetus, particularly during the earliest stage of pregnancy. PLoS One. 16 May Study: Mercury, cadmium and lead levels in human placenta: a systematic review.
The use of the placenta to assess heavy metals exposure is underdeveloped. International standardized protocols are needed to enhance comparability and increase the usefulness of this promising tissue in biomonitoring studies. Environmental Health Perspectives. 16 May Study: Urinary BPA concentrations and implantation failure among women undergoing in vitro fertilization. Exposure to bisphenol A at levels commonly found in the general population may cut a woman's chance of getting pregnant if she is undergoing fertility treatment, a study from Harvard University finds. Those with higher levels were less likely to get pregnant than women with lower levels. While animal studies show similar results, this is the first link reported in people. BPA is widely used in some plastics, most food can linings and certain receipt paper. Environmental Health Perspectives.
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Fertility/Reproductive Health
Working Group
CHE's Fertility/Reproductive Health Working Group sets the table for over 400 diverse members to come together around environmental impacts to fertility and reproductive health. The goal of this dynamic conversation is to discern what the science is telling us, where the research gaps are, and how we can effectively support and promote science-based education and action. Read more...
If you would like to join and are already a CHE Partner, send us an email request. Or become a CHE Partner and indicate your interest in your application.
For more information, please contact Karin Russ at karin@healthandenvironment.org.
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Carlo V. Bellieni, MD, is a neonatologist and a bioethicist. Dr. Bellieni is the Director of the neonatal intensive therapy unit at the Siena University Hospital. He serves as Secretary of the Bioethics Committee of the Italian Pediatrics Society, and is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and of the Directive Board of the Scienza e Vita Association. Dr. Bellieni is the author of many clinical research papers in international scientific journals, including studies on electromagnetic emission from neonatal incubators and on pain in children, and has written several books in Italian, Spanish, French, and English on neonatal pain and bioethics.
Kaylon Bruner-Tran is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University’s Women’s Reproductive Health Research Center. Dr. Bruner-Tran is also the chair of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s (ASRM) Special Interest Group on Nutrition (NutriSIG). Dr. Kaylon Bruner-Tran discussed research findings on the adult reproductive consequences of a prior fetal exposure to dioxin, as well as the amelioration of these effects by fish oil supplementation, using a mouse model.