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Dear fellow CHE Partners:
If you missed the February 10 CHE Partnership Call, which featured pioneering environmental health researcher and author Dr. Theo
Colborn's striking new educational tool on the developmental effects of chemicals, we encourage you to browse the resources, call blog, and MP3 recording. There is also a new spotlight article on Dr. Colborn on the CHE homepage. Those on the call described the tool with terms like "amazing", "awesome", and even "a godsend."
You'll find a recording of that call and other worthy calls below, in the "Resources from Recent Partner Calls" section. We continue to plan and offer calls, including the upcoming February 24 call, Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women's Reproductive Health.
This new year is a time of changes in many arenas, and at CHE we continue to strive to provide useful and educational resources for our very broad array of Partner interests. Some of our current offerings and opportunities are listed below. If you are spurred to be more active in CHE after hearing one of these calls, please look into some of our working groups - there is information on some of those below as well, and of course on the CHE homepage. Much more is in the works and we look forward to hearing from you.
Steve Heilig, MPH
Founding CHE Partner
San Francisco Medical Society
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CHE Partnership Calls
--CHE Partnership Call--
Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women's Reproductive Health
Tuesday, Feb 24, at 11 AM Pacific/ 2 PM Eastern
This call will highlight the scientific findings from the 2008 Women's Reproductive Health and the Environment Workshop, which have been released in a new report called Girl, Disrupted. What is the state of the science on the impact of endocrine-disrupting
chemicals (hormone disruptors) on female reproductive health disorders
such as early puberty, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, and breast
cancer? What do we need to know, and what is needed to answer these
questions? Join workshop scientists and women's health advocates on this call to discuss these important issues.
RSVP for This Call
More About the Girl, Disrupted report
Speakers:
- Louis J. Guillette, Jr., PhD, Distinguished Professor,
Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville; and
Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Workshop Co-Chair
- Linda Giudice, MD, PhD, MSC, Professor and Chair,
Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, University of
California, San Francisco; and The Robert B. Jaffe, MD, Endowed
Professor in the Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San
Francisco; and Workshop Co-Chair
- Teresa K. Woodruff, PhD, Thomas J. Watkins Professor
of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern
University; and Executive Director, Institute for Women's Health
Research
- Mary Tyler Johnson, MPA, MPH, Project Advisor and Environmental Health Consultant
- Heather Sarantis, MS, Women's Health Program Manager, Commonweal
****
--Alaska Collaborative on Health and the Environment--
Gold Mining and Mercury in Alaska: A Potential Threat to Fisheries and Public Health
Tuesday, Feb 24, at 9 AM Alaska Time / 10 AM Pacific
Gold mining operations may release mercury to air, land, and water, presenting a threat to public health, fisheries, and the Alaskan way of life. Exposure to this heavy metal has the potential to cause severe neurological effects. No federal regulations or Alaska state regulations exist to adequately control mercury air emissions from mining operations. It is appropriate and necessary that existing and new gold mines in the state be subject to regulations that protect Alaskans from the toxic effects of mercury pollution. [Excerpted from a soon-to-be-released Alaskans for Responsible Mining report, "A Case for the Development of Mercury Regulations for Alaska's Existing and Proposed Gold Mines."]
To join this free call and receive the dial-in instructions, please RSVP to Alaska Community Action on Toxics at colleen@akaction.org or (907) 222-7714.
Speakers:
Dr. Glenn Miller, a professor and researcher with the University of Nevada, where he has focused his research on the transport and transformation of organic and inorganic compounds
Dr. Kendra Zamzow, an environmental geochemist who serves as the Alaska representative for the Center for Science in Public Participation
Bonnie Gestring, who began work with EARTHWORKS in May 2001, has worked as a Community Organizer at Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC) in Helena, Montana, and was a leader in campaigns to stop gold mining on the Blackfoot River
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Resources from recent CHE calls
If you missed any of the following CHE calls, you may listen to MP3 recordings and find supporting materials at the following links:And of course, you can always explore our archived resources from past Partnership calls.
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CHE Working Group Updates
CHE Fertility~ coordinated by Julia Varshavsky, CHE Program Associate julia@healthandenvironment.org~
CHE Fertility has released a new report -- Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women's Reproductive Health -- that was written for non-scientists to explain what's known, what's suspected and what should be the focus of additional research regarding contaminants linked to conditions including early puberty, infertility, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, breast cancer and others. Based on cutting-edge research and reviewed by top scientists in the field, Girl, Disrupted explains what hormone disruptors are and how these chemicals affect women's reproductive systems - particularly at critical stages of development.Girl, Disrupted is based on "Female reproductive disorders: The roles of endocrine disrupting compounds and developmental timing" that was published online in the peer-reviewed journal Fertility and Sterility in October 2008. This emerged from the January 2008 Women's Reproductive Health and the Environment Workshop, in which leading researchers gathered to determine what is known about how hormone disruptors affect women's reproductive health and to identify research gaps. Please also note the availability of Hormone Disruptors and Women's Health: Reasons for Concern, a six-page summary brochure that highlights the key scientific takeaways covered in Girl, Disrupted. If you would like hard copies of these publications, please email your request to julia@healthandenvironment.org. Please note that the next CHE Partnership call (scheduled for Tues, Feb. 24, 11 AM Pacific / 2 PM Eastern) will highlight the findings from this report and interview the scientists and advocates working on women's reproductive health.~ We welcome CHE Partners who are interested in fertility and
reproductive health issues to join the CHE Fertility / Reproductive
Health Working Group. If you are interested, please contact CHE
Fertility's coordinator at Julia@HealthandEnvironment.org.~ The MP3 recording of the January 13 CHE Fertility Call -- Shaping Our Legacy: How Far Have We Come Since the 2007 UCSF-CHE Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility? -- is now available at http://healthandenvironment.org/articles/doc/5188. You can also view and link to website resources mentioned on the teleconference. Featured presentations included representatives from research, clinical care, and policy, who discussed some of the major post-Summit developments they have been involved with, in addition to what to expect in 2009. We heard about cutting-edge research that crosses disciplinary lines; Planned Parenthood's efforts to educate its clinicians and patients about environmental contaminants; and about recent legislative successes (such as the federal phthalates bill) and future opportunities for chemicals policy reform in the new year. ****
CHE Cancer~ coordinated by Jeanne Rizzo, RN, Executive Director of the Breast Cancer Fund, Diana
Zuckerman, PhD, President of the National Center for Policy Research
(CPR) for Women & Families, and Michael Lerner, PhD, President of
Commonweal For more information about this group, contact Shelby Gonzalez, CHE Administrative Coordinator, at shelby@healthandenvironment.org ~ In the past few months, about 250 individuals and organizations -- including many eminent scientists -- voiced their support for a stronger, science-based cancer prevention agenda by signing the CHE Consensus Statement on Cancer and the Environment.
The statement outlines the
scientific rationale for stronger cancer prevention and enumerates
specific research and policy initiatives to prevent environmental
exposures that contribute to cancer. The Consensus Statement was presented to the President's Cancer Panel, which recently held a series of meetings focused on environmental contributors to cancer.
~ The final meeting of the President's Cancer Panel took place in Phoenix, AZ on Jan 27 and focused on nuclear fallout, electromagnetic fields and radiation exposure and cancer.
You'll find the exclusive Radiation and Cancer fact sheet and other information on the President's Cancer Panel meeting series on CHE's PCP resource page: http://www.healthandenvironment.org/cancerpanel
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Announcements and Resources
Critical Windows of Development Science Tool Unveiled
On Feb 10, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX) launched its new science tool, Critical Windows of Development, a unique interactive
web page that pairs human
development in the womb with laboratory research showing where and when
low-dose exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, and dioxin has
effects. Critical Windows of Development uses a visual format backed by a
massive Excel database to give users a sort of Google Maps view of
chemical exposure and prenatal development; users can look at the big
picture and also zoom in to the level of individual studies.
"Hopefully," Dr. Colborn said, "this is a very simple picture of
thousands of points of technical concern that point out the need for
entirely new legislation about public health and how chemicals are
determined to be safe."
Access Critical Windows of Development
"A new window into hormone-disrupting chemicals"
By Marla Cone, Editor-in-chief, Environmental Health News
Article on Critical Windows of Development
MP3 Recording and Other Resources from the Feb 10 CHE Partnership Call
This call highlighted Critical Windows of Development and featured Dr. Colborn and many distinguished commentators
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Breast Cancer Fund Publishes Scientific Review Article in IJOEH
A scientific review article presented by the Breast Cancer Fund was recently published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. The article shows that a host of chemicals that mimic or alter the activities of natural hormones can potentially increase breast cancer risk. A companion article outlines research and policy priorities needed to better understand and regulate these endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
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New Report: Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women's Reproductive Health
CHE Fertility has released a new report -- Girl, Disrupted: Hormone Disruptors and Women's Reproductive Health
-- that was written for non-scientists to explain what's known, what's
suspected and what should be the focus of additional research regarding
contaminants linked to conditions including early puberty, infertility,
endometriosis, uterine fibroids, breast cancer and others.
Girl, Disrupted is based on "Female reproductive disorders: The roles of endocrine disrupting compounds and developmental timing" that was published online in the peer-reviewed journal Fertility and Sterility
in October 2008. This emerged from the January 2008 Women's
Reproductive Health and the Environment Workshop, in which leading
researchers gathered to determine what is known about how hormone
disruptors affect women's reproductive health and to identify research
gaps.
Please also note the availability of Hormone Disruptors and Women's Health: Reasons for Concern, a six-page summary brochure that highlights the key scientific takeaways covered in Girl, Disrupted. If you would like hard copies of these publications, please email your request to julia@healthandenvironment.org.
****
Call for Abstracts: Reproductive Health 2009
Abstract submissions are now being accepted for Reproductive Health 2009. Abstracts demonstrating high-quality research practices will be selected for oral or poster presentation and published in the August 2009 issue of Contraception, An International Reproductive Health Journal.
More on abstract submission instructions and guidelines available here.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, February 27, 2009 at 11:59 pm ET
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U.S. EPA CARE Cooperative Agreement RFP
The 2009 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency CARE Cooperative Agreement Request for Proposals (RFP) is now available online at: http://www.epa.gov/air/grants_funding.html#0902
About the CARE RFP
Around $3 million will be available in 2009 to support community-based partnerships to reduce pollution at the local level through the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program. This year the application timeline is almost three months.
Deadline: March 16, 2009
The CARE website has additional information related to the CARE RFP, including our upcoming Q&A Webcasts, so also visit: http://www.epa.gov/CARE
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NIEHS/NIOSH RFA: Community Exposures Information Collection and Environmental Public Health Action
The
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have
released a new Request for Applications (RFA) to solicit applications
designed to collect information on community exposures to environmental
or occupational agents or exposure-related diseases and use this new
information to support environmental public health action.
Access the RFA (RFA-ES-09-001):
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-09-001.html
RFA Details
This
RFA solicits research applications designed to bring together community
members and environmental and occupational health researchers to
investigate the potential health risks of environmental and
occupational exposures that are of concern to the community. Research
will focus on environmental or occupational agents known or strongly
suspected to be a significant environmental public health issue by
community members but lacking basic information on exposure levels,
sources of exposure, or potential health effects. An education,
outreach, prevention or intervention program(s) also must be developed
to translate and disseminate research findings to relevant audiences
(e.g., scientists, community members, healthcare professionals, and
policymakers) to inform them about the potential health burden(s)
associated with environmental or occupational agents in their
community, with the ultimate goal of supporting actions that will lead
to the prevention or reduction of harmful environmental/occupational
exposures and improve human health. Evaluation will be a central
component of all projects.
Applicants may request a project period of up to four years and a budget for direct costs of up to $225,000 per year.
The
NIEHS intends to commit $2 million in FY2009 to fund five to seven new
grants in response to this FOA. The NIOSH intends to commit $500,000 in
FY2009 to fund one to two new grants in response to this FOA.
Applications are due April 1, 2009. Prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent (LOI) due March 1, 2009.
Peer Review Date(s): June 2009
Council Review Date(s): August 2009
Earliest Anticipated Start Date(s): September 30, 2009
Questions?
Caroline H. Dilworth, PhD -- Email: dilworthch@niehs.nih.gov (NIEHS)
Bernadine Kuchinski, Ph.D. -- Email: bkuchinski@cdc.gov (NIOSH)
****
--CHE Spotlight--
Dr. Theo Colborn: Mapping Critical Windows of Development
When CHE Partner Dr. Theo Colborn, President of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX),
first went to Washington, DC, she started collecting citations relating
to the health impacts of low-dose chemical exposures during prenatal
development - a time when humans are particularly vulnerable.
Over the years, she amassed thousands of citations.
"It
bothered me," Dr. Colborn recalled in a recent phone interview. "There
is so much information out there about [the health effects of]
chemicals that should have been regulated years ago. I kept thinking,
'There's got to be a way to squeeze all this data into a computer and
turn it into a simple picture.'"
Read More
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Thank you for taking the time to read the latest about CHE. As always, we welcome your questions and suggestions. Please direct comments to Elise Miller, Director of CHE, at elise@healthandenvironment.org.
Best wishes,
Elise Miller, MEd, Director
Shelby Gonzalez, Administrative Coordinator
Julia Varshavsky, Program Associate
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