Brief summaries of research articles published in the concurrent issue of EHP. A text version of this feed is available at: http://ehponline.org/fbrss/ehpsciselect
thev"> The Vulnerability of the Older Child A New Approach to Identifying Ages When Children Are Most Susceptible to Lead Effects Watch a toddler, and you quickly see why small children are so vulnerable to environmental exposures: most of what they touch goes right into their mouths. It s no wonder, then, that lead levels generally peak at age 2 years, which is when health officials recommend children be tested for elevated blood lead. But new research shows that 5- to 6-year-olds may b ...
chem"> Chemicals Policy Gap Toward Stronger Regulation in the United States Chemicals policy in the United States is in need of profound change for both environmental health and economic reasons, according to a review of how the U.S. chemical industry currently is regulated [EHP 117:1202 1209; Wilson and Schwarzman]. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which provides the chief legal authority for regulating industrial chemicals in the United States, is antiquated and ineffecti ...
afra"> A Framework to Monitor Toxics Measuring the Health Impact of Chemical Bans One of the tasks mandated by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is to determine if bans on toxic substances are effective in reducing contamination in people. But assessing such trends in diverse global populations is difficult because researchers must use changes in the average levels of contaminants measured in groups of people at different points in time known as cross-sectional t ...
sout"> Southern Discomfort? PON1 Variation May Help Explain Regional CVD Risk Age-associated rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) are higher in the Southern states (except Florida) than anywhere else in the United States, and higher among Southern blacks than Southern whites. Animal studies suggest that higher levels of activity of the enzyme paraoxonase-1 (PON1) may lower the risk of CVD, specifically atherosclerosis, but evidence linking functional variations in PON1 to atheroscleros ...
