angrytoxicologist

Maybe, but you should certainly avoid deli meats for the listeria (If you follow through that link and read you'll know why). This isn't an abstract risk, Listeria out breaks are happening all the time (just ask a Canuck how their year went). Let's not go down that road and get back to the nitrates…

The evidence BPA (bisphenol A) is having toxic effects on humans is becoming more and more solid. Just recently a paper in JAMA found BPA may be associated heart disease and other probelms in humans. Other research has shown possible association with metabolic disorders (one thing I didn't note in…

Don't go to the ER. So yesterday I was excersizing relatively strenously and after about 40 minutes I started to have some chest pain on the left side along with tightness in my neck and shoulder. Hmmm...good time to stop. It wasn't really severe so I took a shower but the tightness and some pain…

Back in March in Toxicological Sciences there was a great LTE from Dr David Basketter regarding an in vitro sensitization assay. The part I thought most on the money was this: Overall, a prediction accuracy of about 82% was achieved, which is only a little lower than was obtained during the…

You've probably heard that a F/A-18D jet crashed in San Diego on approach to Miramar, killing 3 on the ground (the pilot ejected and is fine). A lot of the news reports noted that ~20 homes were evacuated due to 'toxic chemicals'. What sort of chemicals would you be worried about? First Responders…

The EPA held a "Public Workshop to Discuss Management of Underground Injection of Carbon Dioxide for Geologic Sequestration Under the Safe Drinking Water Act" last week. I've talked about this issue before here. This process continues to not get the attention it deserves as it may drastically…

Give us our Daylight! I was discussing with some friends last night what I think is the most important item on Obama's adgena. Getting working on the Daylight bailout. We were saving daylight hours all summer long. I presume all those hours went into some daylight bank. But now, we find ourselves…

NRC (part of the NAS) released a report saying that EPA's risk assessment is bogged down with all the details they don't know and burdened with assumptions that aren't helpful. Since they were piling on the agency, they threw in the fact that it was silly to look at chemicals in isolation as…

Well, if MacGuire was talking about getting into toxicology research on plastics, he was right on. EHP has published a study showing that the additive BPA can cause cells to suppress adiponectin. That would cause insensitivity to insulin and may be behind "metabolic syndrome". Let's pause for a…

Cutting to chase for those of you who want a quick answer: we don't know, there aren't enough people to study yet. There are hints, though. Ezetimibe is commonly used in combination with a statin as Vytorin to reduce heart disease in patients. It doesn't work all that well. I should say, it…

There's a story in the WashPost today about how spicy marinades decrease the heterocyclic amine (HCA) content in grilled meat. They think you should care because HCAs are likely carcinogens. There are many things about this that get my back up so lets make a list: 1) Nobody knows how much cancer…

Terry Box wrote an piece in the WP the other day about how despite the melting glaciers and rising gas prices, he's not giving up his muscle cars. Terry, I have to admit that I love cars. I always have and always will. The thrill of a powerful car or truck can get your adrenaline going and put a…

A reader (thanks Jen) alerted me to this article on Forbes, The FDA's Black Box. The basics of the article are that the FDA can't say anything about drug approvals or non-approvals (or anything else relating to a drug for that matter) if it deals with information that the drug company submitted,…

Read some background on PFOA and Teflon here. A couple of years ago DuPont and other perfluorochemical industries were dismissing evidence of PFOA-caused cancer in rats, saying it was due to peroxisome proliferation in rats, which some argue isn't relevant to humans. However, PFOA may have other…

And our divided country will produce the worst of both worlds. The LA city council has passed a resolution that bans fast food restaurants in poor neighborhoods (via Slate - worth moseying over for). This is so paternalistic it's disgusting. Do poor people make bad food choices? Yes. Should we thus…

Let's just put it in a hole CO2 sequestration has been going forward but only approved as research class wells. The EPA is proposing regulations on how to do it full scale and correctly. This is necessary because the CO2 may have nasty impurities, can move around, is corrosive with water, and is a…

Oops! In case you didn't know, the Boulder, CO site of the National Institute of Sandards and Technology (NIST) had an accidental spill of plutonium-239 on June 9 and the initial actions taken would have an industrial hygenist pulling her hair out (read more at C&EN). Basically, a guest…

Every party needs a pooper, that's why Scienceblogs invited me. Enemy? Really? Yes, it can be. Read on; It doesn't have to be. A commentary in Nature Nanotechnology discusses the European Environment Agency report, Late Lessons from Early Warnings. The basic idea is to make recommendations so that…

How to lose respect and relevance in three easy (dance) steps Can this really be happening? Congress in public group therapy with Richard 'cartoon of myself' Simmons? Crawl back into your protective bubble and weep my friends, becasue it really happened. Do they know they have 14% approval rating?…

A couple of readers have asked bout the NYTimes article about sunscreens so I thought I'd weigh in. 80 lbs. Okay, with the lame humor over, let's get to the particulars. The most common question has been 1) What do I think is best/do I agree with the NYTimes? 3Answer: the advice they gave stunk.…

As 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…

EHP 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…

The 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…

The 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…

ICCVAM 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…

In 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…

Do 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…

So, 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…

In 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…

What'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…