Consumer Tox
angrytoxicologist | September 2, 2008Cutting 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 decreases cholesterol fine but whether that leads to less overall heart disease isn't conclusive (latest study released today says maybe a little). Of course that study found an increase in cancer in those taking the drug. However, another analysis released today found that cancer deaths were increased but…
angrytoxicologist | July 28, 2008Every 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 nanotech can grow with the idea that if you ignore risks and get dealt a nasty surprise, the public backlash will doom the whole field. They came up with a list of 12 lesssons: some are as old as the hills and probably won't followed; all would be welcome if they were followed.
Among the lessons…
angrytoxicologist | July 24, 2008A 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. They said most doctors suggested a combination of "avobenzone and oxybenzone". Good Lord, I hope not. Micronized zinc or titanium products are best. Excellent protection, no exposure (absorption), no problem, go enjoy the beach.
Question 2) is there a problem with oxybenzone?
Answer: Maybe. I think…
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 | January 16, 2008So the FDA says that cloned meat is safe and this is making big news. Well, this isn't much of a surprise, it's unlikely that a clone would be unsafe (it's a clone of a naturally healthy animal!). What sucks is the media's take on this (and the government's complicity in them getting it wrong). Almost all the outlets take the line: Gov't says no problems with cloned beef. What they actually said was cloned meat isn't any different from a safety and nutrition perspective. There's a big gap there.
For one, this is a long term mistake for the ag community. The already small gene pool for cattle…
angrytoxicologist | January 10, 2008A reader asked me for some help choosing a water bottle because of concerns about antimony, bisphenol A, and phthalates (BPA is really the only risk worth thinking about in this trifecta). She read this NYTimes article about plastic bottles and risks,...etc. She was rather confused by the article. No doubt, it's more stream of consciousness than helpfulness. So here's your simple, practical advice, Amy:
Get this bottle.
It's the HDPE or the #2 that you are looking for (the milky looking plastic). It's cheap, reusable, sturdy, dishwasher safe, and people safe.
(No, I don't get any money from…
angrytoxicologist | November 7, 2007A couple of weeks ago, as I'm sure you heard, the FDA held an advisory committee meeting that concluded that there should be no use of cough/cold products for children under 6. There is a good amount of evidence that the drugs (including antitussive, expectorant, nasal decongestant, antihistamine and combination products) were not effective and are harmful in some cases. Now what happens?
A couple of signs: Most manufacturers took all under 2 cough/cold medicines off the shelf. Many, like Wyeth who makes Dimetapp and Robitussin have recalled Children's Dimetapp and some Robitussin to replace…
angrytoxicologist | November 1, 2007Or so says USA Today on the front page, paragraph two (regarding sausage, bacon and lunchmeat). Of course they are contradicted on paragraph 8 by someone who says that "you can still occasionally have a hot dog". The no safe level of bacon sounded fishy to me so I dug through the report (all 517 pages are here).
Cutting right to the chase, here's what they found, the consumption of processed meat increased the risk mainly for colorectal cancer. We'll get to the data in a second. They also found that salt caused cancer, particularly of the stomach.
Processed Meat
First, they don't specify what…
angrytoxicologist | October 31, 2007If you haven't seen it yet, USA Today is doing a series called "toxic legacy". First was lead, then mercury, and today, plastics. Well, really it's about BPA. We've dicussed BPA here before and I'm not going to rehash it. The article is good but doesn't give a lot of new information if you have been following this issue. One of the things that most people what to know is who to believe. And when you have two committees (NIEHS & CERHR) coming up with different takes on it, you don't know who to trust. You know how I feel about it. A great look into how the different panels reached their…
angrytoxicologist | October 30, 2007(Alternate title: jerks aren't always wrong).
Over at Moms Speak Up, Cristina shares her angerat a doctor that doesn't want to go along with a "modified" vaccine schedule that she made up herself. Over at Enviroblog (which I usually like) they chime in with a "good for you". While I share the loathing of doctors with a "how dare you question my good sense" attitude, in this case, he sounded much better than most do when questioned about their practices. And secondly, Christina's wrong. Now, people are wrong all the time, but ini this case, I can't let it sit in the open on a well-read website…
angrytoxicologist | October 9, 2007National Healthy Moms Health Babies Coalition issued a statement that women who are pregnant (or breastfeeding, or trying to get pregnant, or not trying but might be anyway, or dreaming about being pregnant, or know someone who's dreaming about...) should eat at least 12 oz of fish per week (all types including the mercury heavy hitters) because of the developmentally helpful Omega-3 fatty acids. This is directly contradicted by the FDA, which says less than 12 oz because of mercury concerns. There's a fierce fight out there over fish consumption, and a lot of confusion, which is amazingly…
angrytoxicologist | October 4, 2007That hed refers both to the fact that I promised to post on this last week and didn't as well as the fact that there have been way too few studies of Thimerosal given it's controversial status. you have probably all heard about the study. If fact, go over to Respectful Insolence and read all about it. People are still e-mailing me to comment on it so I will (only where I deviate from Orac or have something extra to mention).
1) It's interesting (and good) that they took into account mercury in the diet or from dental fillings to control for other exposures.
2) By my back of the envelope (I…
angrytoxicologist | October 2, 2007Sounds like the hed from The Onion, right? Sadly, it's not. Go watch the NYTimes video (A consumer alerts the world). He started the whole toothpaste concerns a while back. What inside track did that guy use? He read the ingredients. Now I know that I'm thinking way into the future but go with me here: What if some shady producers try something sneaker than listing banned ingredients on the product? Crazy, I know, but maybe we should be prepared for some such eventuality.
One thing that seems like a good start is to be darn sure you know where everything is coming from and getting rid of…
angrytoxicologist | September 25, 2007It's nice to a see a good study every once in a while and after about 30 years of debating whether preservatives cause hyperactivity/attention deficit. I can't go into all the studies that have been done because there are too many. Suffice it to say that the methodologies were always lacking, and the results uneven (whether positive or negative).
Now a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial has been conducted and published in The Lancet (you can get it here for free!). They took 153 3-year olds and 144 8-9 year olds and gave them a sweet drink with either sodium benzoate, a common…
angrytoxicologist | September 13, 2007A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine ($ required) was published this week that found that from 1998 to 2005, adverse drug reactions increased 2.6 times (89,842 in 2005) while the number of scripts written only went up 0.65 times (65%). Fatal events increased 2.7 times.
The real interesting things about the study were the fact that very few of the drugs that caused problems in 2005 were related to a subsequent safety withdrawl from the market. As I got into this paper I started to think that this is another piece of evidence for a broken approval system. However, I found this…
angrytoxicologist | September 10, 2007It must have been a slow news day over at MSN because they headlined a story that was pegged to a study published in 2005 (as far as I can tell). Anyway, the point of the article was that air fresheners aren't good for you. Hopefully this isn't a revelation for anyone (You mean that pumping out volatile chemicals into my closed room isn't good for me? Shocking!). Let's list a couple of the chemicals released from air fresheners (gel, liquid, spray, scented candles, incense)
VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). Health Effects From the EPA:
Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of…
angrytoxicologist | September 6, 2007A man who eats a lot of popcorn (2 bags a day) has been diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans (via NYTimes). The fact that diacetyl is still used is rediculous so I re-posted the popcorn/obliterated lung piece. What is interesting about this is that we've all known for a long time that this is harmful for workers, but only just now are the companies getting out of using diacetyl. Apparently this is due to some EPA study that the public doesn't have (read more about this at The Pump Handle). The possible negative outcomes from lawsuits must have outweighed the cost of moving to an…
angrytoxicologist | September 5, 2007Well, we've gone over why tea supplements aren't a good idea, but the question of chemoprevention by drinking tea is still up in the air. I thought it would be interesting to lay out what's been done. Let's start with the basics:
How would tea inhibit carcinogensis?
No idea. There are dozens of ways in which tea or tea components can inhibit cancer based on speculation from tests done in cell cultures but no one knows whether any of them are relevant in a human body. Interestingly, in many studies, caffeine does as well as tea alone.
What have animal studies shown?
Tea works on all cancers.…
angrytoxicologist | August 28, 2007Yesterday FDA proposed a new sunscreen rule that did two things.
1) It set out rules for measuring UVA protection (currently SPF only measures UVB protection. UVB causes burns but UVA is a greater risk for skin cancer). Finally! The new system will give you SPF for UVB (now up to 50+, as far as is technically feasible), and a 4 star sytem for UVA protection. It's sad it took this long to get here but thankfully, now consumers can figure out what the real protection is.
2) It asks for comments regarding nanosized materials in sunscreen. You already know what I think about this!
You can comment…
angrytoxicologist | August 23, 2007Question from LindaW: What's up with bioidentical hormones? Is it okay to take them?
Bioidentical progesterone is a joke. Don't even think about buying it. Then, consult your doctor with your health concerns.
Bioidentical progesterone is sold on numerous web pages after having been popularized by John Lee and now Joseph Mercola (and by findings that hormone replacement therapy isn't safe for everyone). It's unscientific and dangerous.
Reason 1
As stated on some web site: 'Bioidentical hormone therapy has all of the good effects of HRT with none of the severe side-effects that have caused so…