Scripps scientists lead two projects to track potentially toxic chemicals in marine life, impacts on human health.

(From left) Paul Jensen, Brad Moore, Eric Allen, Lihini Aluwihare of Scripps and Eunha Hoh of San Diego State University.

Capitalizing on UC San Diego’s unique ability to address environmental threats to public health, a new center based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego will target emerging contaminants found naturally in common seafood dishes as well as man-made chemicals that accumulate in human breast milk.

With $6 million in joint funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, the new Scripps Center for Oceans and Human Health will track natural chemicals known as halogenated organic compounds, or HOCs. Human-manufactured varieties include polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, chemicals that until recently were manufactured and broadly used in commercial products as flame retardants in the textile and electronics sectors.

Less is known about the natural versions of HOCs that accumulate in marine mammals such as seals and dolphins and have been identified in top predators that humans consume such as tuna and swordfish. While PBDEs are well known for their toxicity and have been linked to a variety of human diseases, including cancer and thyroid ailments, the origin and transmission of their natural counterparts are poorly understood.

The Scripps Center for Oceans and Human Health will investigate the biology and chemistry behind these natural contaminants in the Southern California Bight, from Point Conception in Santa Barbara south to Ensenada, Mexico.

“The new Center for Oceans and Human Health is uniting leading experts in oceanography and medicine, two areas that make UC San Diego one of the best and most unique universities in the world, to address an emerging threat to public health and safety,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “UC San Diego is proud to be leading this effort in collaboration with other prominent institutions around the San Diego region.”

“The Scripps Center for Oceans and Human Health is focused on addressing to what extent nature contributes to the production and transmission of these toxins in the marine environment,” said Bradley Moore, director of the new center and a professor of oceanography and pharmaceutical sciences at Scripps and the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “Southern California waters will be the focus of our study, in part because our state has the highest reported incidence of polybrominated chemicals in human breast milk in the world.”

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Inhalation of emissions can contribute to clogged arteries.

Jesus Araujo, UCLA

Academic researchers have found that breathing motor vehicle emissions triggers a change in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, altering its cardiovascular protective qualities so that it actually contributes to clogged arteries.

In addition to changing HDL from “good” to “bad,” the inhalation of emissions activates other components of oxidation, the early cell and tissue damage that causes inflammation, leading to hardening of the arteries, according to the research team, which included scientists from UCLA and other institutions.

The findings of this early study, done in mice, are available in the online edition of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, a publication of the American Heart Association, and will appear in the journal’s June print edition.

Emission particles such as those from vehicles are major pollutants in urban settings. These particles are coated in chemicals that are sensitive to free radicals, which have been known to cause oxidation. The mechanism behind how this leads to atherosclerosis, however, has not been well understood.

In the study, the researchers found that after two weeks of exposure to vehicle emissions, mice showed oxidative damage in the blood and liver — damage that was not reversed after a subsequent week of receiving filtered air. Altered HDL cholesterol may play a key role in this damaging process, they said.

“This is the first study showing that air pollutants promote the development of dysfunctional, pro-oxidative HDL cholesterol and the activation of an internal oxidation pathway, which may be one of the mechanisms in how air pollution can exacerbate clogged arteries that lead to heart disease and stroke,” said senior author Dr. Jesus Araujo, an associate professor of medicine and director of environmental cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

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Substances used in everything from paint to sporting equipment.

Kent Pinkerton, UC Davis

A consortium of scientists from across the country, including UC Davis, has found that breathing ultrafine particles from a large family of materials that increasingly are found in a host of household and commercial products, from sunscreens to the ink in copy machines to super-strong but lightweight sporting equipment, can cause lung inflammation and damage.

The research on two of the most common types of engineered nanomaterials is published online today in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). It is the first multi-institutional study examining the health effects of engineering nanomaterials to replicate and compare findings from different labs across the country.

The study is critical, the researchers said, because of the large quantities of nanomaterials being used in industry, electronics and medicine. Earlier studies had found when nanomaterials are taken into the lungs they can cause inflammation and fibrosis. The unique contribution of the current study is that all members of the consortium were able to show similar findings when similiar concentrations of the materials were introduced into the respiratory system. The findings should provide guidance for creating policy for the safe development of nanotechnology.

“This research provides further confirmation that nanomaterials have the potential to cause inflammation and injury to the lungs. Although small amounts of these materials in the lungs do not appear to produce injury, we still must remain vigilant in using care in the diverse applications of these materials in consumer products and foods,” said Kent Pinkerton, a study senior author and the director of the UC Davis Center for Health and the Environment.”

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UC Berkeley researchers find troubling levels of toxic metals in cosmetics.

S. Katharine Hammond, UC Berkeley

A new analysis of the contents of lipstick and lip gloss may  cause you to pause before puckering.

Researchers at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health tested 32 different lipsticks and lip glosses commonly found in drugstores and department stores. They detected lead, cadmium, chromium, aluminum and five other metals, some of which were found at levels that could raise potential health concerns. Their findings were published online today (May 2) in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Prior studies also have found metals in cosmetics, but the UC Berkeley researchers estimated risk by analyzing the concentration of the metals detected and consumers’ potential daily intake of the metals, and then comparing this intake  with existing health guidelines.

“Just finding these metals isn’t the issue; it’s the levels that matter,” said study principal investigator S. Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences. “Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term.”

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Berkeley Lab researchers work on new building standards after discovering previously unknown indoor air pollutants.

Jennifer Logue, Berkeley Lab

For decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes unless there was secondhand smoke or radon present. Then scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) made the discovery that the aggregate health consequences of poor indoor air quality are as significant as those from all traffic accidents or infectious diseases in the United States. One major source of indoor pollutants in the home is cooking.

The Berkeley Lab scientists are now working on turning those research findings into science-based solutions, including better standards for residential buildings and easier ways to test for the hazardous pollutants. These efforts are the result of a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2012 that described a new method for estimating the chronic health impact of indoor air pollutants. That research uncovered two pollutants that previously had not been recognized as a cause for concern—fine particles and a gas called acrolein.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of pollutants in the home. If you can’t prioritize it makes it very hard to do anything,” said Jennifer Logue, the lead author of the paper. “As a result of this study, we can not only say that all our ventilation standards should focus on [fine particles] we can also say, hey this is a really big deal because it’s as damaging to the health of the U.S. population as traffic accidents.”

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UC San Diego researcher spreads word about potential short-term win vs. climate change.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, UC San Diego

A push to curb air pollution as a means of slowing the pace of climate change is gaining momentum as a UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher takes his message to new audiences.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at Scripps, published new findings April 14 that control of certain pollutants can significantly attenuate sea-level rise. Prior to that, Ramanathan framed the issue as a matter of climate justice during an event at UC San Diego on April 10 with former Irish president and human rights advocate Mary Robinson. Next week, Ramanathan will take the message to Congress, when he takes part in a hearing on the benefits of controlling emissions of methane, a key greenhouse gas.

Ramanathan’s research over the past two decades has led him to conclude that if emissions of soot, methane, and refrigerants and the formation of ozone can be controlled, the speed at which global average temperatures are rising could be cut nearly in half. In combination with efforts to control emissions of carbon dioxide, the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas produced by everyday activities, mitigation of such pollutants could help society avoid many of the dangerous consequences of climate change, according to Ramanathan.

The veteran researcher, who joined UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1990, has sought to inform a wide range of legislative and even spiritual leaders about this solution, operating outside of common science channels to engage diplomats and religious leaders. Ramanathan made pollution control the centerpiece of his remarks during the April 2012 visit of the 14^th Dalai Lama to UC San Diego. Ramanathan had previously witnessed the creation of a multilateral initiative to curb pollution launched by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants began in February 2012 with six countries and the United Nations Environment Programme as members. It has grown to 25 members in the past 14 months.

“I’ve been encouraged at the reception this concept has received,” said Ramanathan. “I think policymakers are impressed when they understand that they can achieve relatively fast results using technologies that are already available. This kind of action needn’t be delayed by the need to achieve global political consensus that has prevented action on climate before. Countries can do this now and reap the benefits themselves.”

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Heavily trafficked roadways have large impact on downwind populations.

Suzanne Paulson, UCLA

Although air quality has improved dramatically in Los Angeles in recent decades, a joint study by UCLA and the California Air Resources Board suggests that roughly a quarter of Angelenos are exposed to noxious plumes of freeway fumes almost every morning — far more people than previously believed.

Researchers found that overnight atmospheric conditions concentrate freeway pollutants in a plume stretching 1.5 kilometers (approximately 0.93 miles) downwind, seeping inside homes and buildings, and lingering as late as 10 a.m. The same effect would be expected downwind of any highway nationwide, the researchers said.

Half of the residents of the greater Los Angeles area live within these impact zones around freeways, meaning that about a quarter are on the downwind side of a freeway on any given day.

The 1.5 kilometer measurement is in striking contrast to earlier studies in the United States and Australia showing that daytime pollutant concentrations extended no more than about 300 meters (about 0.19 miles) downwind of major roadways, and confirms an earlier UCLA study that showed the same result at a single coastal location.

Professor Suzanne Paulson of UCLA’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability headed the study, working with professor emeritus Arthur Winer of UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and led by Wonsik Choi, a postgraduate researcher in Paulson’s lab. The findings were published in December in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

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UC Davis study is first to link exposure in the womb to high blood pressure in adulthood.

Infant girls exposed to high levels of the pesticide DDT while still inside the womb are three times more likely to develop hypertension when they become adults, according to a new study led by the University of California, Davis.

Previous studies have shown that adults exposed to DDT (dichlorodiplhenyltrichloroethane) are at an increased risk of high blood pressure. But this study, published online today (March 12) in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to link prenatal DDT exposure to hypertension in adults.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a high risk factor for heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide.

“The prenatal period is exquisitely sensitive to environmental disturbance because that’s when the tissues are developing,” said study lead author Michele La Merrill, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology.

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Emissions from vehicles, wood burning, home cooking show most toxic effects at study site.

Anthony Wexler, UC Davis

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have, for the first time, developed a system that can determine which types of air particles that pollute the atmosphere are the most prevalent and most toxic.

Previous research has shown that air pollution containing fine and ultrafine particles is associated with asthma, heart disease and premature death. This new study, released today (Feb. 19) by the California Air Resources Board and the Electric Power Research Institute, marks the first time that researchers have conducted source-oriented sampling of these particles in the atmosphere.

For example, the researchers found that particulate emissions from vehicles, wood burning and residential cooking exhibited the most toxic effects at the study site in Fresno, which has among the nation’s highest rates of adult and childhood asthma.

“Right now, air quality standards are based on the mass of particulate matter and don’t distinguish between natural sources, like sea spray, and known toxic sources, like diesel exhaust,” said Anthony Wexler, the principal investigator and director of the Air Quality Research Center at UC Davis. “This study will help regulators control only the sources that are toxic, which saves money.”

The scientists will present their research today at a public seminar hosted by the state air board, at the Cal/EPA Building in Sacramento.

In Fresno, ambient particle samples were collected in both summer and winter to account for seasonal differences in the atmosphere.

The researchers used a single particle mass spectrometer, co-developed by Wexler, and 10 particle samplers to collect, analyze and separate ambient particles.

Laboratory mice then inhaled particle samples from the separate sources. Kent Pinkerton, a professor of pediatrics at the UC Davis School of Medicine, monitored their responses for signs of toxicity.

“This demonstrates that particles of different sources have different degrees and kinds of toxicity,” said Pinkerton. “We need to use this information to better understand the health effects of particulate matter. If we don’t, we’ll never really come up with a solution.”

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Largest study of kind shows link between outdoor particulate pollution, impaired fetal growth.

Tracey Woodruff, UC San Francisco

Mothers who are exposed to particulate air pollution of the type emitted by vehicles, urban heating and coal power plants are significantly more likely to bear children of low birth weight, according to an international study led by researchers from UC San Francisco and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The study, the largest of its kind ever performed, analyzed data collected from more than 3 million births in nine nations at 14 sites in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Co-principal investigator Tracey J. Woodruff, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF, along with Jennifer Parker, Ph.D., of the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, found that at sites worldwide, the higher the pollution rate, the greater the rate of low birth weight.

Low birth weight (a weight below 2,500 grams or 5.5 pounds) is associated with serious health consequences, including increased risk of postnatal morbidity and mortality and chronic health problems in later life, noted lead author Payam Dadvand, M.D., Ph.D., of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, Spain.

In the study, published today (Feb. 6) in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the team assessed data collected from research centers in the International Collaboration on Air Pollution and Pregnancy Outcomes, an international research collaborative established in 2007 to study the effects of pollution on pregnancy outcomes. Most of the data assessed was collected during the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, and in some cases, earlier.

“What’s significant is that these are air pollution levels to which practically everyone in the world is commonly exposed,” said Woodruff. “These microscopic particles, which are smaller than the width of a human hair, are in the air that we all breathe.”

Co-authors of the paper included Bill M. Jesdale and Rachel Morello-Frosch of UC Berkeley.

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Finding may have implications for autism.

Cecilia Giulivi, UC Davis

A common ingredient in flame retardants, BDE-49 accumulates in human blood, fat and breast milk. Despite these concentrations, little research has been done on the chemical’s potential health risks. However, a study by scientists at the UC Davis MIND Institute is shedding new light on BDE-49’s potential danger to brain health. The study showed that even tiny amounts of the compound damage neural mitochondria, the energy plants that power our cells. The chemical, quite literally, reduces brain power.

In addition, the researchers found that the loss of PTEN protein, a condition associated with autism-like behavior in mice, combined with BDE-49 exposure, makes neurons even more susceptible to mitochondrial damage. These findings bolster the argument that genetics and environment can combine to increase the risk of autism and other neurological disorders. The study was published online this month in the journal Toxicological Sciences.

One of a family of chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), BDE-49 can be absorbed through the skin or metabolized from other PBDEs. These chemicals have a similar structure to their more famous cousins PCBs and persist for long periods in the environment and the human body. They have been linked to a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism.

PBDE accumulation, and its consequential health dangers, is especially problematic for California, which mandates that flame retardants be applied to a variety of products. In fact, it would be difficult to escape these chemicals.

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UC Irvine study identifies transgenerational effects of TBT compound.

Bruce Blumberg, UC Irvine

Exposing pregnant mice to low doses of the chemical tributyltin – which is used in marine hull paint and PVC plastic – can lead to obesity for multiple generations without subsequent exposure, a UC Irvine study has found.

After exposing pregnant mice to TBT in concentrations similar to those found in the environment, researchers saw increased body fat, liver fat and fat-specific gene expression in their “children,” “grandchildren” and “great-grandchildren” – none of which had been exposed to the chemical.

These findings suggest that early-life exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds such as TBT can have permanent effects of fat accumulation without further exposure, said study leader Bruce Blumberg, UC Irvine professor of pharmaceutical sciences and developmental & cell biology. These effects appear to be inherited without DNA mutations occurring.

The study appears online today in Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.

Human exposure to TBT can occur through PVC plastic particles in dust and via leaching of the chemical and other related organotin compounds from PVC pipes and containers.

Significant levels of TBT have been reported in house dust – which is particularly relevant for young children who may spend significant time on floors and carpets. Some people are exposed by ingesting seafood contaminated with TBT, which has been used in marine hull paint and is pervasive in the environment.

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