Pollutants in Human Health and Bioaccumulation
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/dioxin.cfm?ActType=default This is a great site with links to Pdfs with the most authoritative information on the health effects of dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD and its ilk) and dioxin-like compounds (PCDFs and PCBs that exhibit dioxin like activity) in the Dioxin Reassessment. In addition, there is a link to an inventory and database of releases of dioxin like compounds in the U.S. as well as a dioxin FAQ page. Too good a site to not include because EPA sites have been overkilled.
http://www.nrdc.org Natural Resource Defense Council website. The NRDC is an environmental advocacy group whose mission is to work to ensure a safe and healthy environmental for all living things. There are sections focused on such topics as clean air and energy, global warming and environmental legislation. The site contains full test NRDC press releases on environmental topics as well as quick facts.
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/qendoc.asp This is the National Resources Defense Council's website on endocrine disruptors. It is basically a FAQ page, asking and answering general questions like what is an endocrine disruptor and what can I do to avoid exposure.The site provides detailed information on the endocrine system and chemicals that interfere with it.
http://www.psr.org Physicians for Social Responsibility Website Physicians for Social Responsibility represents more than 20,000 physicians, nurses, health care professionals, and concerned citizens devoted to nuclear disarmament, violence prevention and environmental health. PSR began in opposition to nuclear arms and testing. It has expanded to include concern over other global health issues. The website has sections devoted PSR's position on the International Joint Commission's Persistent Organic Pollutant Initiative and the World Health Organization's efforts to contain the spread of malaria. There are also discussion on the safety of our nation's drinking water supply and a publication on environmental endocrine disrupters.
http://www.pmac.net Pest Management at the Crossroads website. The website is designed and managed by Benbrook Consulting Servies and fucuses on biointensive Integrated Pest Mangement (IPM). The site contains a long list of topics related to IPM including genetic engineering, soil quality, cutting edge IPM technology, regulatory status and pesticides. This site provides links to articles and documents dealing with endocrine disruptors.
http://www.aperc.org Alkylphenols and Ethoxylates (APE) Research Council Website The state purpose of the website is to provide information and "promote the safe use of alkylphenols and their derivatives." The site contains general information on APEs, their regulatory status, and product safety information. There is an entire section discussing APEs and endocrine disruption. The articles are informative but biased toward industry, with the selected information showing a weak link, if any, between APEs and endocrine disruption.
http://www.cerc.usgs.gov/endocrine/summary U.S. Geological Survey Website specifically discussing research on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The site has links to various research projects looking at potential endocrine disrupters. Projects included look at site specific data and also studies with individual chemicals. An example is an in vivo study of mixtures of EDCs. The information provided by the site is useful in that it shows current USGS research trends but it does not provide enough details. Contacts are provided to obtain more information but it would take time and effort.
http://www.tmc.tulane.edu/ecme Environmental Concepts Made Easy website The website is put together by the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier Universities, New Orleans, LA. The site has subtopics on environmental estrogens, lead in the environment, and biology in space. The environmental estrogen section provides recent headlines on estrogens and estrogen mimics. There is also a more in-depth discussion on the endocrine system and how environmental endocrines, both natural and anthropogenic, alter hormonal systems, where they are found, etc. This site provides a very good, clearly written overview.
http://www.watoxics.org Washington Toxics coalition is a nonprofit organization in Seattle with the goal of identifying and promoting alternatives to chemicals. The site provides information put together by members and staff on chemical toxicity and also has links to other sites. The website contains a special report on endocrine disruption with valuable links to many sites on the toxicity of EDCs.
http://www.ccotis.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/endocrine Canadian Centre for Occupations Health and Safety website. The general website, www.ccotis.ca, has very useful links to chemical databases and access to MSDS. The site is easily searchable. In addition, there is also a link to Canadian environmental regulation. One section of the website focuses on endocrine disrupters. The site briefly describes how the human endocrine system works and provides information on types of hormones. The site discusses chemicals that can potentially disrupt the system and why we should be concerned. This is a fairly general site with good background information but no in-depth, specific pieces of information.
http://www.who.int/pcs/index The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) website The IPCS was established in 1980 and is a joint program of 3 cooperating organizations; ILO, UNEP,and WHO. The emerging issues section is currently focused on endocrine disrupters. It contains general descriptions of endocrine disrupters and links to a current research inventory and status database. The site has an international focus.
http://www.scorecard.org/pollutionwatch The website called Pollution Watch Scorecard is an environmental service provided by the Canadian Environmental Law Associating, Canadian Environmental Defence Fund, and Environmental Defense. The site is a valuable resource listing the release of chemicals in Canada. The site is searchable by zip code to find data on chemicals released in a particular area. The site lists health effects and regulations on the chemicals. For instance, there is a page listing suspected endocrine disrupters, their CAS registry number, and the reference leading to inclusion of the compound on the list This is a user friendly website.
http://www.agius.com/hew Website created by Raymond Agius, a professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Manchester. The title of the website is Health, Environment and Work (HEW). There is a general discussion on the effects the environment can have on health as well as more specific information on air quality, airborne pollutants, radon, etc. This is a very useful site providing assistance on locating peer reviewed literature and useful search engines. The index of educational resources on occupational environmental medicine and health which leads the user to articles on topics such as lung disease and exposure to lead or radon. The chemistry of the each compound is included in the discussion. One topic focuses on endocrine disrupting chemicals. Raymond Agius gives a summary of the current evidence so far. He also discusses inconsistencies and problems. There are also links to other related sites.
http://e.hormone.tulane.edu This website is based our of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research (CBR) at Tulane University. It is dedicated to helping readers remain at the cutting edge of endocrine disrupting chemicals research. The science portion of the site is not complete at this time but for now there are updates on upcoming and past conferences, lists of books on EDCs, links to a few pertinent news articles and other related sites. The most interesting part of the site at this point is the monthly commentary contributed by a new author each month. The month of March commentary focuses on the hormonal activity of chiral environmental chemicals. The discussion is in-depth and interesting.
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/waste/organochlorines/organo.htm This website is run by the Ministry for the Environment, an agency of the federal government of New Zealand. The webpage that is particularly relevant to my research is the Organochlorines Programme, which contains numerous internal and external links for information on dioxins, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and organochlorines in general. Additionally, a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) report on the effects/occurence of dioxins in the New Zealand population is available. The Ministry for the Environment also provides access to its Dioxin Action Plan and strategies for reducing dioxin discharge into the air.
http://www.ktl.fi/dioxin/atoc.html This site contains an encyclopedia of dioxins and PCBs and is operated by the Finnish National Public Health Institute (KTL), a government research body. The online encyclopedia is broken into three sections: A-C, D-O and R-Z. In addition to containing a complete list of terms relating to dioxins and PCBs, the encyclopedia also makes data and graphs available to the viewer. Examples of graphs available are PCDD/F body burden in a number of European nations, measured from human milk samples and the markedly increased body burden of PCDD/F in a human who consumed the worst-contaminated chicken from the Belgian chicken incident.
http://www.cpes.sussex.ac.uk/users/jms/bcenv/lec13/13.html This webpage is part of the School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science (CPES) of the University of Sussex, Brighton, England. Simply titled "Insecticides," the page contains lecture notes, diagrams and definitions related to insecticides. The topics discussed in this lecture include the following: carbamate insecticides, organochlorine insecticides, naturally occurring insecticides, and herbicides.
http://www.sfei.org/rmp/Scientific_Publications/Sediment_Toxicity_1997/ sedtox.html This site contains a report on the relationship between sediment toxicity and contamination in San Francisco Bay, sponsored by the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI). The report was completed in December 1997 and is preceded on the page by the table of contents. The most relevant sections for my research are the Abstract, Introduction, Patterns in Sediment Contamination, Patterns in Sediment Toxicity, and Conclusions.
http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/ The United Nations Environment Programme runs this website; the specific address listed here is dedicated to persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This webpage contains links to the Stockholm Convention on POPs (a global treaty in the making on protecting human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants), POPs related GEF (Global Environmental Facility) Projects, proceedings, reports and documents, and information on POPs, their alternatives, and alternative approaches. The internal link to information on POPs contains a fact sheet on dioxins, regulatory actions and guidelines, and case studies.
Http://www.rtk.net/ Although this site is not a chemistry site I feel that it is very important for any dedicated chemist that is concerned with the environmental effects of their line of work. This is the site for the "right to know network." Through this site you can access what kind of toxic pollution is happening in your area and who is responsible for it.
http://www.emcentre.com/unepweb/tec_case/chemical_24/house/casestudy.shtml This is a really great site for information about chemical pollution incidences. It gives case studies of places around the world where chemical pollution has occurred giving the year, place, background information, what has being done in terms of clean up, economic and environmental concerns, constraints on the project and contact information.
http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/il-in-sg/helm/health.htm This website is operated by Purdue University. The site is devoted to discussing the problems posed to human health by contaminated waterways and fisheries, particularly in southern Lake Michigan. The University is developing plans for several extensive studies and the site outlines what scientists already know and what they hope to find out through the research.
http://pops.gpa.unep.org/ This website is operated by the United Nations Environment Programme. The site is mainly concerned with Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS). The site discusses the chemistry of POPS, their origins, and some health effects on humans. It also contains a graph, charting the names of different pesticides, their industrial chemical products, and unwanted by-products.
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/2bioma95.html This website contains information from the textbooks Biology and Conservation Biology, written by Sylvia S. Mader. The site deals mainly with bioaccumulation and biomagnification. It covers subjects such as the half-life of DDT and its bioaccumulation and biomagnification. It also lists other substances such as PCBs, PAHs, cyanide and selenium. In this list it illustrates the uses and problems with using these metals and chemicals.
http://www.great-lakes.net/humanhealth/drink/index.html This website is operated by the US EPA. It deals mainly with the Great Lakes region and human health with regards to drinking water, recreational water, fish consumption, as well as other issues. The site lists the chemical issues on a lake-by-lake basis. It also covers which substances are of concern, their sources, and effects.
http://www.des.state.nh.us/factsheets/ard/ard-1.htm This website is operated by the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services. The site is concerned mainly with information about the effects on human health and the environment from toxic air pollutants. The site also discusses how to protect human and environmental health from these pollutants.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/toxics/progareas/ed/ This is the World Wildlife Foundation's website on endocrine disruptors. It provides a basic background of endocrine disruptors and their effects on humans and the environment.
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/ Our Stolen Future is a book that explores the emerging science of endocrine disruption: how some synthetic chemicals interfere with the ways that hormones work in humans and wildlife. The websites provides updated information on endocrine disruptors and cutting edge scientific evidence. They also have links to their critics' websites.
http://www.psr.org/endofs.htm This is the Physicians for Social Responsibility's FAQ website on endocrine disruptors. They also provide information on activism and links to various EPA sites pertaining to endocrine disruption.
http://www.chlorophiles-usa.org/ This site is pretty entertaining. CHLOROPHILES-USA is a grass-roots, not-for-profit group dedicated to spread the "truth" about chlorine and polyvinyl chlorine in benefiting people. Their agenda? "We are scientists, engineers, technicians and citizens who believe that lies, half- truths and other forms of disinformation put forth by zealot environmentalists with questionable agenda must be countered by facts and truths directly addressing the " mind bombs " put forth in an uninformed effort to " sunset " chlorine and all products incorporating this vital element." Nice.
http://www.som.tulane.edu/cbr/ecme/eehome/default.html This site is run by the Center for Environmental Research of Tulane and Xavier Universities. The site offers information on Environmental Estrogens and other hormone. They also provide numerous links, updates, recent articles, and lots of pertinent information.
http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/ This page provides an introduction to the effects of hormone disrupting chemicals on man and the environment, and the response of Governments and industry to this problem. It discusses suspect chemicals, the role of the endocrine system, and ways of taking action.
http://www.ccaej.org/projects/endocrine.htm This is the endocrine disruptor site of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. This page has a lot of valuable information on the three types of endocrine disruptors: mimics, blocker, and triggers. There is also an extensive list of endocrine disrupting chemicals: herbicides and fungicides, insecticides, nematocides, and industrial chemicals.
http://www.chej.org/ This is the homepage for the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice. CHEJ is the only national environmental organization founded and led by grassroots leaders. They are involved in community-based activism. Cureently, they are working on stopping dioxin exposure.
http://www.cleanupge.org/ The slogan of this site is "GE has taken good thing from our lives." This site is full of information about GE's hazardous environmental record. It discusses the 1.3 million pounds of PCB's dropped into the Hudson River by GE and the negative after-effects of this horrific incident.
http://www.iatp.org/edrc/ This site is run by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Their goal is to keep industrial pollution out of the food system. It provides information on the hazards of lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and dioxins, and how they get into fertilizer. They also discuss hormone disruptors and sewage sludge.
http://www.who.int/pcs/index.htm This is the site of the International Programme on Chemical Safety. It provides a whole lot of information on almost anything you could have questions about.
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/2002/pesticide2002.htm This site contains numerous articles from 2002 on pesticides, toxins, and endocrine disruptors. A very useful site for current information. There are also links to prior articles dealing with these subjects.
http://www.iupac.org/dhtml_home.html This is the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. It includes a large base of information on anything related to chemistry. A very useful site.
http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/beautysecrets/pr.html This site informs us of all the nasty toxins, especially DBP, contained in cosmetic make-ups. DBP is dibutyl phthalate, a chemical coming under growing scientific scrutiny because of high levels found in reproductive age women and possible risks of birth defects.
http://www.ecologic-ipm.com/menu.html This site deals with the Food Quality and Protection Act of 1996. It contains various viewpoints, congressional committee reports, and assorted other documents pertaining to pesticide levels in food.
http://www.wwf.ca/satellite/hormone-disruptors/ This is WWF Canada's web guide to endocrine disrupting chemicals. There is scientific information, issue and actions, and a variety of other resources.
http://www.chem-tox.com/infertility Major articles on infertility causes, including household chemicals. Also includes graphs on infertility rates and percentages and causes of incrased fertility by indoor or household toxins.
http://www.Junkscience.com/news/euroendo.html An environmental study finds that insufficient evidence exists to link exposure to certain industrial chemicals to effects in the human endocrine system. Their findings would seem to bolster EPA's belief that more data is needed before action can be taken on regulating these chemicals. The EPA released a policy, which calls for an increased amount of research into the effects of industrial chemicals on the human endocrine system. The problem with this site is that it's from 1997 and I don't know what the EPA has done since then because there is no follow up page that I can find.
http://www.ecologic-ipm.com/endocrin.html In sum, the problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals seems to be more than apparent, but it appears that even the wealthiest nations in the world haven't the capacity to do the necessary scientific research. This is a serious problem because the danger of irreversible damage is real. So in light of the fact that we don't know all the harmful chemicals we must watch our exposure to things that we might consider to be harmful to our health.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/10/10282000/endodisrupt_39491.asp This website talks about how British scientists discovered in the Thames river several fish that had the genetic code to be a male but in fact grew up to be females. Then they go on to say this was caused by environmental contaminants now known as endocrine disruptors. Then they go on to talk about what endocrine disruptors are and how they affect plants, animals and humans. They kind of sum it up by saying that there needs to be facilities in every country where these chemicals can be tested.
http://www.unc.edu/~pbermel/ed/ This site talks more in depth about endocrine disruptors and what they are and what they do as well as a couple of studies done including the study of the lake Apopka alligators. It has a slide show on biological effects and implications and is a pretty informative site dealing with the broader sense of endocrine disruption.
http://www.fb.org/issues/analysis/Triazine_Update.html Talks about the use of Triazine and atrazine as a pesticide and how the EPA is trying to ban its use. The EPA is saying there are much safer chemicals than either of the two. But a lot of testing has been done on these chemicals and the results show us that they are safe and not bad for our health. In all atrazine is now the most widely and thoroughly tested product ever used in crop protection, and will continue to be used by farmers across the U.S.
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/external/faq/endisrp.htm This site deals with estrogen endocrine disruptors in the environment and how they affect your health and the threats that they pose. It simply asks the question "What is all the talk I'm hearing about endocrine disruptors in the environment?" And then it goes on to answer in detail.
http://www.pesticidesafety.uiuc.edu/newsletter/ipr8-96/endocrine.html This site is about endocrine disrupting pesticides and some reasons for worry. It talks about being at risk for extinction as well as alarmingly dropping rates of sperm count in males. It says we should take steps to ban these chemicals without waiting for research to be complete because it's crucial that we don't come in contact with certain substances.
http://www.pyr.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/migratory/endocrine_e.htm Deals with endocrine disrupting chemicals, what are they and what do they do. Talks about effects found on the wildlife in Canada like deformities and impaired reproduction and development. There was a really striking one that caught my eye that said they found abnormal reproduction in snails exposed to substances applied to exteriors of ships.
http://www.e-hormone-kit.com/Pdf%20Files/Data/Ehormone2000.pdf A rather lengthy site dealing with endocrine disruption and practically everything having to do with it. It talks about wildlife studies and chemical analysis along with an abstract and plenty of graphs and charts dealing with chemicals and such.
http://www.sdk.co.jp/shodex/english/dc090402.htm This site is about Bisphenol A and how to clean it up. It gives two graphs and is somewhat useful in understanding this chemical and its effects.
http://www.env.go.jp/en/pol/speed98/sp98.html This site is by SPEED, Strategic Programs on Environmental Endocrine Disruptors. Talks about Exogenous endocrine disruptors and what they are and do. Also has tables and figures and links that you can go to find more info. What's nice about this site is that you can write with questions or concerns to the environmental health and safety division which is something I did not come across in all my research.