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Re: [Fwd: Reproductive Health Scientific Studies]
As the Sundance Kid said to Butch Cassidy, "Who ARE those guys???"
At 11:41 AM 11/13/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Chemicals and Plastics Do Not Impair Reproductive Health Scientific
Studies Find
>
>LA Times
>11-NOV-97
>McLEAN, Va.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 11, 1997-- Misuses of Science in Public
>Health Scares Explored at American College of Toxicology -- Drive On to
>Improve Quality of Science in Legal and Media Communities The Weinberg Group
>Cites Poor Science Used in Endocrine Disruptor Debate Low-level chemical
>exposures to plastics in food, water and man-made consumer products have
>been found not to cause reproductive harm in humans, according to new
>scientific research by the Weinberg Group, a Washington, D.C. and Brussels
>based international scientific consulting firm. The disclosure was made in a
>symposium on "Toxicity, Risk Assessment, and the Law," at the Eighteenth
>Annual Meeting of the American College of Toxicology (ACT), November 9-12 in
>McLean, Virginia. To avoid unnecessary public health scares and
>expenditures, the Weinberg Group underscored the increasing challenge of
>using quality science in the endocrine disruptor and other health debates.
>
>Dr. Paul Chrostowski, scientific head and worldwide director for Risk
>Management at the Weinberg Group responded to the recent high level of
>activity surrounding a particular category of xenobiotic chemicals endocrine
>disruptors -- which are alleged to harm human endocrine systems and
>reproductive health at very low levels of exposure. Dr. Chrostowski
>highlighted the challenge to the legal community and the media in using
>good, rigorous scientific analysis, rather than junk science to address this
>important issue. Dr. Chrostowski said, "Many issues that exist at the
>interface between science and the law have become so complex that they can
>only be addressed by use of highly technical scientific evidence. As the
>burden on science to supply legal answers has increased, the potential for
>the misuse of science has also increased."
>
>The annual meetings included thirteen separate symposiums on scientific risk
>issues affecting human and animal health, and the environment, assembling
>international scientists, lawyers and media representatives from government,
>academic and industry from the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe.
>
>Scientific Response
>
>Many alarmists have alleged that declining sperm counts, increased
>testicular, prostate, and breast cancer and reproductive health risks to
>adults as well as children, are the result of plastics and similar chemicals
>in the environment. New data that absolves certain plastics of being the
>cause of these illnesses has been presented to the National Institutes of
>Health and International Life Sciences Institute by scientists at the
>Weinberg Group. The firm's scientific evaluation team reported that the
>class of chemicals in question were 30,000 times less potent than natural
>estrogens and are non-toxic to reproductive systems at environmentally
>relevant levels of exposure.
>
>The Weinberg Group's research report indicated that "experimental doses
>necessary to cause reproductive toxicity in animals are generally a thousand
>to more than one hundred thousand times higher than the typical daily
>exposure level in humans." The Weinberg Group concluded that, "available
>data do not support the notion that certain chemical components of plastics,
>specifically phthalates, pose a significant reproductive or developmental
>risk from ambient or other low-level exposures, such as is likely with
>dietary or consumer product use." The report announced that "additional
>study and regulation do not appear warranted, given the low magnitude of
>threat posed by these compounds."
>
>The Weinberg Group has undertaken a series of research efforts aimed at
>addressing the threat posed by endocrine modulating chemicals. The Group
>investigated the potential threat posed by phthalate esters and related
>compounds, which are used extensively in the manufacture of plastics and are
>present at low levels in many consumer products and medical devices.
>
>It was in the review of the information gathered in this investigation,
>along with a detailed review of other published literature and a classical
>health risk assessment, that The Weinberg Group uncovered the non-threat
>posed by these compounds.
>
>Alarmists Push Endocrine Disruptors Issue
>
>Chemical modulation of the endocrine system has been a topic of scientific
>investigation for decades, but the publication of Our Stolen Future in the
>Spring of 1996 elevated this issue from the ranks of academic speculation to
>one of nationwide concern. Since that time, the popular and scientific press
>has been peppered with scare stories about the illnesses caused by certain
>chemicals and plastics.
>
>This level of concern and the accumulated scientific evidence led Congress
>to pass legislation in the Summer of 1996 requiring the U.S. Environmental
>Protection Agency to develop and implement a testing program to identify
>endocrine modulating chemicals that are present in any product to which a
>"substantial segment of the population" could be exposed.
>
>In the meantime, individual states, including New York, Massachusetts, and
>Illinois, have begun to develop regulatory agendas to address this issue.
>The European Union also is contemplating similar activities. Plasticizers,
>resins, and surfactants used in detergents and other consumer products have
>been widely targeted as chemicals requiring research and possible
regulation.
>
>The Weinberg Group is the leading international scientific consultancy in
>the world, resolving issues that combine science, management, law, and
>regulation. Founded in 1983, the Weinberg Group provides scientifically
>based management consulting services from its U.S. and European headquarters
>in Washington and Brussels.
>
>
>Copyright © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. A Time Warner Company
>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
>
>
>Janet R. Michel
>jrmichel@icx.net
>423/966-5918 (voice)
>423/966-6047 (fax: call first)
>2106 Holderwood Lane
>Knoxville, TN 37922
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Do no harm.
>If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed
>with a mosquito!
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------
Jackie Hunt Christensen
Food Safety Project Director
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 1st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-870-3424 (direct line)
612-870-4846 (fax)
e-mail: <jchristensen@igc.apc.org>
IATP's Endocrine Disrupter Resource Center: http://www.sustain.org/edrc