September/October 1999
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Winds of Change
Major Medical Waste Incinerators Put Out Their Fires
by Michael Garfield
Healthy Home and Garden
Easy Energy Savings in Your Home, by Mary Meuting
Huron Valley News
Ann Arbor Petition Drive Wins, by Michael Garfield
Science for the People
Vinyl Flooring, Respiratory Problems, by Mary Beth Doyle
At the Ecology Center
Ecology Center in New York Times, Clean Car Campaign Wins Major Grant, National Attention for Trash Campaign
By Mary Beth Doyle
Exposure to vinyl (PVC) flooring is associated with increased breathing problems, according to a study published in the February 1999 issue of the American Public Health Journal. The Norwegian study paired 251 children with bronchial obstruction one-to-one with a group of children without symptoms of bronchial obstruction. The researchers found that children with bronchial obstruction were more likely to have PVC flooring and textile wall materials than those without obstruction. Furthermore, they found an exposure-response relationship between the amount of the PVC and the risk of bronchial obstruction. The researchers theorize that the plasticizers used in PVC are the are the cause of the increased obstruction risk.
SOURCE: Jaakkola, Jouni J., et al. 1999. Interior Surface Materials in the Home and the Development of Bronchial Obstruction in Young Children in Oslo, Norway. American Journal of Public Health. 89 (2): 188-192.
A study by the Consumers Union found that commonly used plastic wraps can leach toxic additives into cheese. Testing cheese wrapped in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cling film, the Consumers Union found samples containing 153 parts per million of the plasticizer DEHA. DEHA has been found to cause reproductive effects, liver cancer and birth defects in laboratory, and is a suspected hormone disrupter.
If that is not reason enough to avoid vinyl plastic wrap, a life cycle analysis of food wraps performed by graduate students at the University of Michigan found that polyethelene, which does not contain plasticizer additives, outperformed other wraps on every catagory analyzed.
Our advice? Don't use vinyl wraps, such as Saran Wrap or Reynolds Wrap. If you must buy cling wrap, buy polyethylene-based wraps such as Handi-wrap or Glad wrap. And consider shaving off the outside layer of store-bought cheese, where the additives would concentrate if the cheese is wrapped in vinyl.
SOURCE: Consumers Union, May 1998. Consumer Reports. pgs. 52-55.
Research has shown that children exposed to common environmental toxins like dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) before birth and during infancy can suffer behavioral, learning and memory problems. A University of Maryland School of Medicine psychiatry professor now suggests that the underlying cause may be disruption of the normal action of the thyroid hormone. In the January 1998 issue of the journal Toxicology and Industrial Health, Dr. Peter Hauser and colleagues summarize recent studies that suggest links between prenatal and infant exposure to dioxin-like substances and developmental abnormalities in learning and attention.
Thyroid plays an essential role in prenatal brain growth and development, as well as in normal behavioral and intellectual development. Even moderate impairment of thyroid hormone function, such as is seen in as a result of the genetic defect resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH), has been associated with various problems in behavioral and intellectual development. Thyroid diseases such as RTH have been associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and language disorders.
SOURCE: Hauser, Peter, et al. 1998. Resistance to Thyroid Hormone. Toxicological and Industrial Health. 14 (1-2): 85-101.
Mary Beth Doyle, M.P.H., is the Ecology Center's Environmental Health Campaign Director.
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