angrytoxicologist | July 23, 2008As the Buch administration winds down, let's all brace ourselves for a rush of really bad ideas.
For now we have:
Let's make it even harder to set worker safety standards. Let's see...they've done instigated none in 8 years, it must me too easy; we must stop this over regulation!
-and-
Oh yeah, let's lie some more.
You know, the last one is really silly in a way. Why does the administration try to make its underhanded anti-scientific meddling secret? Everyone knows they do it at this point. It's hardly even news anymore!
I shall retreat to my corner and cry for a bit. Come get me in Jan 2009.
angrytoxicologist | July 22, 2008EHP has a small report on EPA's troubled ozone standard that's worth a look, especially if you don't know much about the issue. What strikes me is how there is such resistance from regulators to setting a decent standard because it would put too many counties into non-compliance. It's almost as if there's this idea that, 'well, we can't say that they whole nation has unhealthy air. It's like saying the country is bad'. Of course, that's the breathing state we're in. In reality it's much more admirable to own up to the problem then go about fixing it. Not only admirable but, in this case, the…
angrytoxicologist | July 21, 2008The Woodrow Wilson Center released a report on engineered nanomaterials used for food applications. The aren't common (we think), but there are a few technologies that are making their way to the market. One for instance would have a nanofilm that has anti-microbial properties. Of course, it may also leach into your food. Yum! (Okay, it probably wouldn't taste any different but untested films don't sit that well with me.)
One of the things I love about these type of reports on emerging threats/risks is how they put a bunch of options on the table for industry and regulators as if they are all…
angrytoxicologist | July 3, 2008The Good
Analysts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the FEMA trailers had too much formaldehyde (well, yeah) but also that it was due to cheap materials, sloppy design, and drumroll please, lax or non-existing government standards. It's rare for a gov't report to directly say the standards need to be tighter.
The Bad
This is a terrible news story. Why? Just last week, the EPA said they wouldn't lower the formaldehyde standard to the CA level, but they did say that they would do some new exposure and risk assessments; a good sign of progress. This fact isn't mentioned…
angrytoxicologist | July 2, 2008ICCVAM authorized two different methods, the bovine corneal opacity and permeability (BCOP) assay and the isolated chicken eye (ICE) assay. These don't use live animals. I'm not exactly sure you could say that this wasn't tested in an animal, but close enough. Or at least that's what the director says. It really don't count as a reduction, but it certainly counts as refinement. As I'm always going on about, this is really a boon for drug and pesticide development and does nothing for risk assessment. Even in the press release (link above), it notes (thankfully):
If a positive response is…
angrytoxicologist | July 1, 2008In The Corporation the film shows how if you considered the attributes of corporations, it could be diagnosed as a psycopath. I see the same thing in the ACC (American Chemistry Council), but frankly, a toddler seems more on the money. They have that same ability to look sweet while ernestly telling you something you know isn't true. They've gotten so bad that Reps. Dingell and Stupak is investigating ACC for shady dealings with the EPA (via EWG). (I also see mention of the fixers, the Weinberg group. If your industry is in deep, tobacco style, this is who you call. But they're not toddlers,…
angrytoxicologist | June 30, 2008Do you ever wonder how some people can simply dismiss the risks of toxic products that they keep around them? This is a constant source of wonderment in the public health community. The reflexive answer is usually that people in question are just uninformed. Therefore we put lots of effort into education. This doesn't jibe with my experience. What usually happens is that when someone is informed about some risk, they treat the risk like it is either for other people or that the risk is overblown/not real. Think this isn't true? You should stop into a toxicology lab someday. On second thought…
angrytoxicologist | June 27, 2008So, I haven't posted in a while. I could explain to you why, but that's just boring. I'll be posting more starting next week.
And you'll like it!
The FDA gave out bigger bonuses this year than last reports the WP, largely to the upper level management, despite criticism over a lot of public problems over imports and food (sometimes together). There are a couple of aspects to this that I'd like to point out:
1) the public looks at public servants as stuck in their jobs not as part of a larger national workforce that has options. Orgs and the media are always harping on the revolving door with…
angrytoxicologist | April 24, 2008In today's New England Journal of Medicine there are two articles worth reading, especially for us critics of the FDA. Playing 'Kick the FDA' -- Risk Free to Players but Hazardous to Public Health is a good reminder of where the blame needs to go (See also Trying Times at the FDA -- The Challenge of Ensuring the Safety of Imported Pharmaceuticals) . My take on these is that while articles are correct about a lot of the blame going to Congress (and the Administration), the FDA needs to be more forthright about the problems they have. When you continue to say: "fine, fine, everything's" while…
angrytoxicologist | April 22, 2008What's wrong with Earth Day?
The name, for one. Earth day. Protecting mother earth. Saving the environment. What's wrong with these? They're all about the earth. No humans mentioned. For a day that's supposed to highlight the damage we are doing and to energize some action, it's woefully off the mark. The degredation of the environment is harmful for people, this is what matters. Doubtless, there are those who care about the environment for the environment's sake. You are entitled to your value but let me tell you that the majority of humanity does not share your outlook. They majority may,…
angrytoxicologist | April 21, 2008A paper just published in Tox Sci shows that PFOS (the chemical that used to be the prime ingredient in Scotchgard) suppresses the immune system at levels, that didn't cause noticeable toxicity that are same as what are found in the general population. Great. So, basically, many people in the US who show no other signs may have compromised immune systems because of PFOS. And what's worse is that other compounds like PFOA, related to Teflon treatments (read more here), also have the same effects in other mouse studies.
You know this is really a toxicologist's nightmare. I'd like to think that…
angrytoxicologist | April 18, 2008I'm waiting around for a meeting (about animal testing!) and thought I'd share a few things that I've been thinking about.
1) While we're not going to stop using animals for testing in a long time it is a good idea to reduce them where we can and where industry and the public (at-large; I know industry is the public, too) can agree one should strike when the iron is hot - even when the reasons are really different.
2) Will the use of this alternative method increase the number of animals later? If refined models don't provide adequate information or aren't accurate enough, you'll end up…
angrytoxicologist | April 14, 2008The Post really screwed this one up, not so much because they took a side on an issue in news piece (this is close to an opinion piece), but because it gets so much wrong and doesn't even address the rest of the story.
Issue 1: Science will save them!
I've been over this before, here and here, but we'll do it again. The Post makes it seem as if we have all this technological advances that can make tests more applicable to humans. Okay, here's how you would make an in vitro system similar to a human: take cell that you want to look at, surround it with other cell types it interacts with from…
angrytoxicologist | March 18, 2008There is a animal testing karmic pass up in the exhibition hall! I'll post again when I return from my ego trip.
PS Since it's tangentally related, I'm going to use the opportunity to express some outrage at what the Chinese are saying about the Dalai Lama and doing to Tibetans. @#$@% $#%&^# $%#!
angrytoxicologist | March 18, 2008The poster sessions were largely a bust yesterday but I did come across a couple of interesting ones:
1) Definitive evidence that it was the melamine + cyuranic acid that caused toxicity in animals (by creating crystals inside the kidney). As I've noted before, neither is very toxic on it's own. Not a surprise but good to get some confirmation.
2) Ms Vitalone is a woman after my own heart. Her presentation: Natural is not always safe: A lesson from the literature on the use of herbal products. Now, doesn't that sound familiar? It was basically a compilation of what we know about adverse…
angrytoxicologist | March 17, 2008In one of the sessions today there was a fantastic talk by Dr Dolinoy. Here are my notes with some explainations where needed:
Epigenetics (this is where you affect gene expression by means other than damaging DNA, messing with transcription or translation of DNA/RNA, for instance).
If you give murine dams (mice mothers) genestein (a phytoestrogen that is part of soy) that would be equivalent to the higher end of what asians get, it effects the color of the coat after birth (a black female is crossed with a blond male). Basically this means that the genestein is affecting how the genes…
angrytoxicologist | March 17, 2008Gee, I bet you're pumped, right? I'll be doing little updates now and then if I hear anything interesting.
The opening lecture was by Dr Lee Hartwell (2001 Nobel Laureate) on science - particularly toxicology, of course - in the 21 century. There were a couple of interesting points that he made, particularly on how what we really need is better biomarkers and diagnostic tools that are subsequently validated in the clinic; not more therapeutics and devices. RIGHT ON! The drive for therapeutics and devices without better diagnosing tools is partially behind the rise in the cost of health care,…
angrytoxicologist | February 14, 2008From the non-news that's news' department, Reuters reproted on a study that showed that ~15% of patients who took Sutent, a kidney and cancer drug, developed heart failure. Dr Melinda Telli presented information on 48 patients who took Sutent at an American Society of Clinical Oncology. You'd think this was new information the way it's being reported (WaPost, CNNMoney, ETC). Of course, if anyone had been reading the label of the drug, they'd find this under 'Precautions':
In the two MRCC studies, twenty-five patients (15%) had decreases in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to below…
angrytoxicologist | February 8, 2008For those of you in any field that deals with health, you may know this feeling.
Fortunately this is rare but in the past two weeks I've been completely exasperated at 3 different meetings and discussions I've been to. Without going into specifics, I'd like to say that as a group, us scientists are a short sighted bunch. We pay attention to the facts at hand, and the justifcation of any action, not the impact of decisions made. So many discussions about environmental health, drugs, war, poverty, consumer safety,...etc seem to exist in a bubble. For one of these meetings (not one where I work…
angrytoxicologist | February 6, 2008Is this about a better environment, animal welfare or about better drug development? Take a guess.
Yesterday NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) had a little symposium on animal testing to celebrate the 10th year of ICCVAM (Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods) - gotta love the gov't and their acronyms. They unveiled (although I don't believe there was a veil or curtain used) their 5-year plan. Like the NAS report that has previously come out, it's full of a lot of hope and hooey. Please read my previous post as a primer where I…