Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Safety of Antibacterial Soap Debated

Source
Antibacterial Soap Health RisksResearchers See Potential Health Hazards; Manufacturers Say Products Are Safe

May 29, 2008 -- Millions of Americans use antibacterial soaps and household cleaners every day, believing that their germ-killing ability will keep them and their families healthier.

But could these same chemicals that fight germs also be hazardous to your health?


That's a question being studied by a group of researchers at the University of California, Davis. In three separate studies, the researchers showed that the chemicals -- triclosan and triclocarban -- have potential to affect sex hormones and interfere with the nervous system.

They also may become suspects in the search for causes of autism.

Dan Chang, PhD, a professor of environmental engineering at U.C. Davis and one of the researchers involved, says he doesn't want to cause a panic, but "the public should be aware of some of the concerns."

While Chang and the other researchers involved in the studies admit that it's too early to know whether the chemicals pose a serious health risk, it's already been shown that the cleaners might not work any better than regular soap and water -- and may contribute to the rise of resistant bacteria. So, they ask, why take the risk?

In October, the researchers will pose that question when they meet with representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the CDC, and some of the product manufacturers to talk about what they view as a potential public health problem.

The stakes are high for the manufacturers: Antibacterial products account for about $1 billion in sales annually. Triclosan is found in 76% of all liquid soap sold in stores and is also added to toothpaste, mouthwash, cosmetics, fabrics, and plastic kitchenware. Triclocarban is a common additive in antibacterial bar soap and deodorant.

"These compounds should be voluntarily removed by consumer product manufacturers," Chang tells WebMD, or at least, consumers should "be provided precautionary information regarding their use."

Industry Reaction

Brian Sansoni, spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association, an organization headquartered in Washington D.C. that represents manufacturers of all kinds of cleaning products, says studies have shown the products are safe.

"They have been reviewed and analyzed and studied by scientists and government agencies for decades," Sansoni says. "We're disappointed at some of the alarmist conclusions made by the authors."

Sansoni confirms that a representative of the association plans to meet with U.C. Davis researchers. But he says their findings aren't too worrisome.

"Consumers can continue to safely use antibacterial soap and hygiene products with confidence," he says.

The Government's Perspective

Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, triclocarban and triclosan were first used mainly as antiseptic agents in hospitals. Sales of consumer antibacterial products took off in the early 1990s, backed by multimillion-dollar ad campaigns for popular soap. By 2004, manufacturers were introducing hundreds of new antibacterial products every year.

The EPA is in the process of re-evaluating triclosan. A draft report published in the Federal Register in May 2008 concludes that it doesn't pose any serious safety concerns for consumers. The European Commission reached the same conclusions about triclosan in 2002 and triclocarban in 2005.

The data on toxic effects cited in these reports primarily come from animal studies dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, which were not designed to detect the same kinds of effects that the U.C. Davis researchers are now studying in the lab and in animals.

"The science itself I think is quite good," says Kevin Crofton, PhD, a neurotoxicologist with the EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, when asked about the U.C. Davis research. "The conclusions are where it gets hard. They're pointing out something that's new. Does it require further study? Absolutely. But the thing that I think you have to keep in mind is that what we don't really know is the relationship between human exposures and the exposures in those studies."

The effects seen in the laboratory may not necessarily occur in people. "We need to follow that up," Crofton says.

What the Reseachers Found: Triclosan

Chang, who coordinates the university's studies on triclosan and triclocarban as part of the Superfund Basic Research Program, supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health, says the U.C. Davis research doesn't contradict findings that triclosan and triclocarban are safe for most people.

But it does show that "there may be sensitive periods in development when these compounds could have a very subtle detrimental effect." Translation: If the compounds cause harm, they are most likely to do so during pregnancy, early childhood, and adolescence.

Chang argues that antibacterial soaps don't do enough good to risk this potential harm.

In 2005, an FDA advisory panel concluded that antibacterial soaps, as used by the general public, don't prevent illness any better than ordinary soap, and they may contribute to the rise of resistant bacteria.

In one study, recently accepted for publication in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and made available online, Isaac Pessah, PhD, director of the U.C. Davis Children's Center for Environmental Health, looked at how triclosan may affect the brain.

Pessah's test-tube study found that the chemical attached itself to special "receptor" molecules on the surface of cells. This raises calcium levels inside the cell. Cells overloaded with calcium get overexcited. In the brain, these overexcited cells may burn out neural circuits, which could lead to an imbalance that affects mental development.

Some people may carry a mutated gene that makes it easier for triclosan to attach to their cells. That could make them more vulnerable to any effects triclosan may cause.

This is one reason why Pessah named triclosan (and related compounds with similar properties) as a prime target for research into environmental factors that might cause autism.

"These are the compounds you should be going after," he said last April at the Current Trends in Autism conference held in Boston.

While Pessah's new study does not link triclosan directly to autism, many scientists suspect that having certain genes, plus exposure to something in the environment, might trigger processes that lead to autism.

"We already have a list of candidate genes," Pessah says These are genes commonly found in people with autism that may increase vulnerability to things that impact excitable brain cells.

What the Researchers Found: Triclocarban

Other researchers at U.C. Davis found that the other chemical under study, triclocarban, has an unusual effect on hormones. Triclocarban is a common additive in antibacterial bar soap and deodorant.

For many years, some scientists have suspected that chemicals in the environment, known as "endocrine disruptors," may interfere with the human sex hormones and reproductive development.

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, endocrine disruptors may cause reduced fertility in women and men, early puberty in girls, and increases in cancers of the breast, ovaries, and prostate.

In the March 2008 issue of Endocrinology, the researchers published results of studies in animals showing that triclocarban appears to amplify the effects of hormones, telling cells to keep doing something after they normally would have stopped.

Researchers tested triclocarban on human cells grown in the lab. When exposed to estrogen and triclocarban together, the cells produced more of an enzyme than with estrogen alone.

In a separate test published in the Endocrinology study, the prostate glands of rats exposed to triclocarban and testosterone grew bigger than those given testosterone alone.

Such studies cannot be repeated in humans for ethical reasons, so researchers must infer that triclocarban could have the same effect in humans.

Lathering up for a single bath with soap containing triclocarban gives a person the same dose of triclocarban that rats got in the study.

"We do know that people, after a shower, or after an acute exposure, can have levels that could have an effect on their hormones," says Bill Lasley, PhD, a researcher in the department of population health and reproduction at U.C. Davis. "I have no doubt that it has a subtle effect, but I of course question whether it has a serious effect."

Chemical Buildup in Environment

The U.C. Davis researchers are the first to use cutting-edge molecular technology to study potential effects of triclosan and triclocarban on the human nervous system and hormones. Studies show that these chemicals are building up in the environment at an alarming rate.

Americans dump more than 1 million pounds of triclosan and triclocarban into the environment every year. Rolf Halden, PhD, a scientist at Arizona State University, found that sewage treatment captures only about 50% of the triclosan and less than 25% of the triclocarban that goes down people's drains.

Halden published a study this month in Environmental Science and Technologyshowing that the chemicals don't quickly break down in the environment. He found these chemicals in sediment dating back 40-50 years.

A recent CDC study detected triclosan in the urine of 75% of Americans aged 6 and older.

"The disappointing news is that we continue to use these chemicals against better knowledge," Halden says. "They do not have an observable benefit. But we do know they persist in the environment, and now these more recent studies show that they are not as benign as we might have thought."

Antonia Calafat, PhD, a laboratory scientist at the CDC, says the agency does not know if any health problems in the population are linked to triclosan exposure. "We need additional research to determine whether or not, at the levels we have detected, triclosan can be a cause of concern," she says.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Epilepsy Caused by Pork Tapeworms


Neurocysticercosis, infection with pork tapeworm larvae brain parasites, is an increasingly serious public health problem in the United States, potentially causing headaches, dizziness, seizures, other neurological disorders and sudden death.

Life cycle of T. solium with resulting cysticercosis

Causal Agent:
The cestode (tapeworm) Taenia solium (pork tapeworm) is the main cause of human cysticercosis. In addition, the larval stage of other Taenia species (e.g., multiceps, serialis, brauni,taeniaeformis, crassiceps) can infect humans in various sites of localization including the brain, subcutaneous tissue, eye, or liver.

Cysticercosis is an infection of both humans and pigs with the larval stages of the parasitic cestode, Taenia solium. This infection is caused by ingestion of eggs shed in the feces of a human tapeworm carrier  . Pigs and humans become infected by ingesting eggs or gravid proglottids  ,  . Humans are infected either by ingestion of food contaminated with feces, or by autoinfection. In the latter case, a human infected with adult T. solium can ingest eggs produced by that tapeworm, either through fecal contamination or, possibly, from proglottids carried into the stomach by reverse peristalsis. Once eggs are ingested, oncospheres hatch in the intestine  ,  invade the intestinal wall, and migrate to striated muscles, as well as the brain, liver, and other tissues, where they develop into cysticerci  . In humans, cysts can cause serious sequellae if they localize in the brain, resulting in neurocysticercosis. The parasite life cycle is completed, resulting in human tapeworm infection, when humans ingest undercooked pork containing cysticerci  . Cysts evaginate and attach to the small intestine by their scolex  . Adult tapeworms develop, (up to 2 to 7 m in length and produce less than 1000 proglottids, each with approximately 50,000 eggs) and reside in the small intestine for years  .

Geographic Distribution:
Taenia solium is found worldwide. Because pigs are intermediate hosts of the parasite, completion of the life cycle occurs in regions where humans live in close contact with pigs and eat undercooked pork. Taeniasis and cysticercosis are very rare in Muslim countries. It is important to note that human cysticercosis is acquired by ingesting T. solium eggs shed in the feces of a human T. solium tapeworm carrier, and thus can occur in populations that neither eat pork nor share environments with pigs.

In 1990 and 1991, four unrelated members of an Orthodox Jewish community in New York City developed recurrent seizures and brain lesions which were found to have been caused by cysticercosis from T. solium. In keeping with their religion, none of the patients ate pork; additionally, none had any history of recent foreign travel. Several immediate family members of these four patients with seizures were found to have cysticercus antibodies. The families of the four patients had all employed housekeepers from Latin American countries, and one of the housekeepers tested positive for cysticercus antibodies, leading to the conclusion that the housekeepers were the most likely source of the infections


Clinical Features:

The symptoms of cysticercosis are caused by the development of cysticerci in various sites. Of greatest concern is cerebral cysticercosis (or neurocysticercosis), which can cause diverse manifestations including seizures, mental disturbances, focal neurologic deficits, and signs of space-occupying intracerebral lesions. Death can occur suddenly. Extracerebral cysticercosis can cause ocular, cardiac, or spinal lesions with associated symptoms. Asymptomatic subcutaneous nodules and calcified intramuscular nodules can be encountered.

Laboratory Diagnosis:
The definitive diagnosis consists of demonstrating the cysticercus in the tissue involved. Demonstration of Taenia solium eggs and proglottids in the feces diagnoses taeniasis and not cysticercosis. While suggestive, it does not necessarily prove that cysticercosis is present. Persons who are found to have eggs or proglottids in their feces should be evaluated serologically since autoinfection, resulting in cysticercosis, can occur.

Diagnostic findings

Treatment:
Infections are generally treated with antiparasitic drugs in combination with antiinflammatory drugs. Surgery is sometimes necessary to treat infection in the eyes, cases that are not responsive to drug treatment, or to reduce brain edema. Not all cases of cysticercosis are treated and the use of albendazole and praziquantel is controversial. For additional information, see the recommendations in The Medical Letter (Drugs for Parasitic Infections).


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Men Who Wanted To Be Left Alone

The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of “Men who wanted to be left Alone”.

They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love.

They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it.

They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over.

The moment the “Men who wanted to be left Alone” are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide.

They are literally killing off who they used to be.

Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these “Men who wanted to be left Alone”, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives.

They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror.

TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the “Men who just wanted to be left alone.”

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