This volume of the IARC Monographs provides an assessment of the carcinogenicity of 18 chemicals present in industrial and consumer products or food (natural constituents, contaminants, or flavorings) or occurring as water-chlorination by-products. The compounds evaluated include the widely used plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and the food contaminant 4-methylimidazole. In view of the limited agent-specific information available from epidemiological studies, the IARC Monographs Working Group relied mainly on carcinogenicity bioassays, and mechanistic and other relevant data to evaluate the carcinogenic hazards to humans exposed to these agents.
Though overall cancer incidence and mortality have continued to decline in recent years, cancer continues to devastate the lives of far too many Americans. In 2009 alone, 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease. There is a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer. The Pres. Cancer Panel dedicated its 2008¿2009 activities to examining the impact of environmental factors on cancer risk. The Panel considered industrial, occupational, and agricultural exposures as well as exposures related to medical practice, military activities, modern lifestyles, and natural sources. This report presents the Panel¿s recommend. to mitigate or eliminate these barriers. Illus.
Despite increasing knowledge of human nutrition, the dietary contribution to cancer remains a troubling question. Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens assembles the best available information on the magnitude of potential cancer riskâ€"and potential anticarcinogenic effectâ€"from naturally occurring chemicals compared with risk from synthetic chemical constituents. The committee draws important conclusions about diet and cancer, including the carcinogenic role of excess calories and fat, the anticarcinogenic benefit of fiber and other substances, and the impact of food additive regulation. The book offers recommendations for epidemiological and diet research. Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens provides a readable overview of issues and addresses critical questions: Does diet contribute to an appreciable proportion of human cancer? Are there significant interactions between carcinogens and anticarcinogens in the diet? The volume discusses the mechanisms of carcinogenic and anticarcinogenic properties and considers whether techniques used to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of synthetics can be used with naturally occurring chemicals. The committee provides criteria for prioritizing the vast number of substances that need to be tested. Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens clarifies the issues and sets the direction for further investigations into diet and cancer. This volume will be of interest to anyone involved in food and health issues: policymakers, regulators, researchers, nutrition professionals, and health advocates.
Contamination of drinking-water is a significant concern for public health throughout the world. Microbial hazards make the largest contribution to waterborne disease in developed and developing countries. Nevertheless, chemicals in water supplies can cause serious health problems--whether the chemicals are naturally occurring or derive from sources of pollution. At a global scale, fluoride and arsenic are the most significant chemicals, each affecting perhaps millions of people. However, many other chemicals can be important contaminants of drinking-water under specific local conditions. Often, identification and assessment of risks to health from drinking-water relies excessively on analysis of water samples. The limitations of this approach are well recognized, and contributed to the delay in recognizing arsenic in drinking-water as a significant health concern in Bangladesh and elsewhere. To overcome such limitations, the latest edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (WHO, 2004; WHO,2006) emphasizes effective preventive management through a 'framework for drinking-water safety' that incorporates 'water safety plans.' Effective preventive management of chemicals in drinking-water requires simple tools for distinguishing the few chemicals of potential local or national concern from the unmanageably long list of chemicals of possible significance. The aim is to identify and prioritize the chemicals of concern, to overcome the limitations of direct analysis of water quality, and ensure that limited resources are allocated towards the monitoring, assessment and control of the chemicals that pose the greatest health risks. Identifying and prioritizing chemical risks presents a challenge, especially in developing countries, because information on the presence of chemicals in water supplies is often lacking. This document provides guidance to help readers to meet that challenge. It shows how information on aspects such as geology and industrial and agricultural development, which is often readily available, can be used to identify potential chemical contaminants (and potential sources of chemicals), from catchment to consumer, and thus prioritize risks. As a supporting document to the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (WHO, 2004; WHO, 2006), this publication is aimed at policy-makers, regulators, managers and public health practitioners at national and local level. It is divided into three parts: Part A provides general guidance on using limited information in prioritizing chemicals in drinking-water for risk management. The need for such guidance is outlined in Chapter 1,which also describes the administrative and policy context. Chapter 2 describes the principles applied in prioritizing chemicals, provides information on some factors that affect chemical concentrations along pathways, and highlights several specific chemicals that are frequently considered priorities because of their widespread occurrence or significant health effects. Chapter 3 discusses the role of drinking-water standards and guidelines, and provides an overview of contemporary water quality management procedures. Part B provides practical guidance on identifying specific chemicals that are likely to be of concern in individual water supply systems. It groups chemical contaminants into five categories on the basis of their potential sources: naturally occurring, from agriculture activities, from human settlements, from industrial activities, and from water treatment and distribution processes themselves. Part C comprises the appendices. It includes guidance on the most likely sources of potential contaminants and on identifying chemicals that could be of concern in particular circumstances. The appendices address potential sources of chemicals considered in the WHO drinking-water guidelines (WHO, 2004; WHO, 2006), chemicals potentially discharged in effluents from industrial sources, and the association of pesticides with crops and crop types. This information is presented in an accessible format that will help users to determine the chemical hazards that can arise in the catchment, in treatment and in distribution, in large, medium and small water supplies. Many experts worldwide contributed to this work over a period of several years, beginning with the 1st Meeting of Experts on Monitoring Chemicals in Drinking Water, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in January 2001. This was followed by the 2nd Meeting of Experts on Monitoring Chemicals in Drinking Water, also held in Bangkok, in December 2001. Both meetings were sponsored by WHO and hosted by the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. The draft guidance document was subsequently tested in a series of field trials in 2002-2003 in Indonesia, Fiji, Nepal, Mongolia, the Philippines and Thailand. Lessons learnt through the field trials provided feedback that was valuable in revising and finalizing the document. Readers should note that while this publication has been developed as a supporting document for, and with reference to, the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality, the guidelines themselves are frequently updated and the latest information should always be sought by reference to relevant World Health Organization publications and web site. (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/guidelines/en/index.html).
This volume describes the methods used in the surveillance of drinking water quality in the light of the special problems of small-community supplies, particularly in developing countries, and outlines the strategies necessary to ensure that surveillance is effective.
'Integrative Environmental Medicine' looks at the history and changing landscape of environmental issues in the United States, including water supply, air quality, extensive plastic pollution, harmful chemicals in cleaning and personal care products, radiofrequency radiation, food additives, pesticides, and medications
Expanding water reuse-the use of treated wastewater for beneficial purposes including irrigation, industrial uses, and drinking water augmentation-could significantly increase the nation's total available water resources. Water Reuse presents a portfolio of treatment options available to mitigate water quality issues in reclaimed water along with new analysis suggesting that the risk of exposure to certain microbial and chemical contaminants from drinking reclaimed water does not appear to be any higher than the risk experienced in at least some current drinking water treatment systems, and may be orders of magnitude lower. This report recommends adjustments to the federal regulatory framework that could enhance public health protection for both planned and unplanned (or de facto) reuse and increase public confidence in water reuse.
Most people associate fluoride with the practice of intentionally adding fluoride to public drinking water supplies for the prevention of tooth decay. However, fluoride can also enter public water systems from natural sources, including runoff from the weathering of fluoride-containing rocks and soils and leaching from soil into groundwater. Fluoride pollution from various industrial emissions can also contaminate water supplies. In a few areas of the United States fluoride concentrations in water are much higher than normal, mostly from natural sources. Fluoride is one of the drinking water contaminants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because it can occur at these toxic levels. In 1986, the EPA established a maximum allowable concentration for fluoride in drinking water of 4 milligrams per liter, a guideline designed to prevent the public from being exposed to harmful levels of fluoride. Fluoride in Drinking Water reviews research on various health effects from exposure to fluoride, including studies conducted in the last 10 years.
In the last decade and a half, great progress has been made in the development of concepts and models for mixture toxicity, both in human and environmental toxicology. However, due to their different protection goals, developments have often progressed in parallel but with little integration. Arguably the first book to clearly link ecotoxicology an
Acrylamide in Food: Analysis, Content and Potential Health Effects provides the recent analytical methodologies for acrylamide detection, up-to-date information about its occurrence in various foods (such as bakery products, fried potato products, coffee, battered products, water, table olives etc.), and its interaction mechanisms and health effects. The book is designed for food scientists, technologists, toxicologists, and food industry workers, providing an invaluable industrial reference book that is also ideal for academic libraries that cover the domains of food production or food science. As the World Health Organization has declared that acrylamide represents a potential health risk, there has been, in recent years, an increase in material on the formation and presence of acrylamide in different foods. This book compiles and synthesizes that information in a single source, thus enabling those in one discipline to become familiar with the concepts and applications in other disciplines of food science. - Provides latest information on acrylamide in various foods (bakery products, fried potato products, coffee, battered products, water, table olives, etc.) - Explores acrylamide in the food chain in the context of harm, such as acrylamide and cancer, neuropathology of acrylamide, maternal acrylamide and effects on offspring and its toxic effects in tissues - Touches on a variety of subjects, including acrylamide, high heated foods, dietary acrylamide, acrylamide formation, N-acetyl-S-(2-carbamoylethyl)-cysteine (AAMA), acrylamide removal, L-asparaginase, and acrylamide determination - Presents recent analytical methodologies for acrylamide determination, including liquid chromatographic tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
