How Are Microwave Popcorn, Your Child's Immune System Connected?

[Guest guest]

" There are so many questions here, and the immune system is very

complicated to study "

they have gone ahead and done things to the immune system, that they know

nothing about, with results that can happen, that they have no clue

about

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/01/can-microwave-popcorn-impact-your-kids-immune-system.html

HEALTH -- January 24, 2012 at 4:00 PM EDT

How Are Microwave Popcorn, Your Child's Immune System Connected?

By: Clune

After a dreary winter day, you come home, slip out of your cozy

waterproof coat and boots, and get the kids started on their homework.

For a snack, you pop some popcorn in the microwave and order a pizza for

dinner. A pretty normal mid-January day, by most accounts. The last thing

you're thinking of, as you rush out the door to get the pizza, is your

kids' vaccination schedule.

But, a new study out today may change that.

It found that the perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in these products are

associated with lowered immune response to vaccinations in children. It

is the first study to document how PFCs can adversely affect vaccine

response. These pollutants can be transferred to children prenatally (via

the mother) and postnatally from exposure in the environment.

PFCs have thousands of industrial and manufacturing uses, and most

Americans have the chemical compounds in their bodies. Prior studies have

shown that PFC concentrations in mice similar to those found in people

suppressed immune response, but the adverse effects on people had been

poorly documented.

For this study, researchers looked at children recruited at birth at

National Hospital in

Torshavn,

Faroe Islands, located between Iceland and Norway, from 1999 to 2001. A

total of 587 participated in follow-up examinations. Children were tested

for immune response to tetanus and diphtheria vaccinations at ages 5 and

7 years. PFCs were measured in maternal pregnancy serum and in the serum

of children at age 5 to determine prenatal and postnatal

exposure.

The study

appears in the Wednesday issue of the Journal of the

American Medical Association

(JAMA).

We spoke to lead author

Philippe Grandjean on the phone last week. He's an adjunct professor

of environmental health at Harvard

School of Public Health and the Chair of

Environmental Medicine at the University of

Southern Denmark.

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Tell us a little more about your study, and what it

found.

Philippe Grandjean: What we found was that PFCs in the human body are

associated with a deficient immune response to childhood immunizations.

Children are less capable of maintaining an antibody concentration in the

blood, which helps prevent getting the disease. The two vaccines we

traced were tetanus and diphtheria.

How does this " pollution " happen? Where do children come in

contact with these chemicals?

Grandjean: PFCs have been around for about 50 years. They're in the

environment, and we're all exposed to them daily. They have been used for

a long time for non-stick pans, and during this production, there's some

environmental pollution. And because these compounds are so stable, they

stay in the environment for a long period of time. Once they come into

your body, it also takes several years before you eventually excrete

them.

We also come in contact with these chemicals in our food. Takeout pizza

boxes and microwave popcorn bags are coated with these chemicals because

of their non-stick properties. They're also in our clothing -- in

waterproof jackets and sneakers, and also in the compounds in protectant

sprays for upholstered furniture. Some of this ends up in indoor

dust.

Are the non-stick pans we use to cook on in this category?

Grandjean: No. By the time you get the pan as a consumer, that whole

surface has actually stabilized. If there's any release of the PFC, it's

minimal. It's during the production of that surface that is potentially

harmful.

What causes the dip in the antibodies after exposure to PFCs?

Grandjean: It's something that's hard to examine in children. You

can't take out their lymph glands and examine them. But we do know from

studies in mice that there are different mechanisms that appear to play a

role, but it is unclear what exactly is going on. All we can say is that

what we are observing in these kids is quite parallel to what has been

observed in the mice. And the mouse is a very good model for the immune

system.

How does this all relate to public health?

Grandjean: Well, you might say tetanus and diphtheria are not such

big threats, but we think that because the responses were quite similar

for the two vaccinations, they could very well represent the capability

of the immune system to deal with vaccinations in general.

And if that is true, it means that the whole childhood immunization

program that we rely on to protect the population from epidemics and

infectious diseases might not be as efficient as we think. If some kids

simply do not respond, if the vaccination doesn't take, it means that

some of the kids that we think are protected are not.

This study focuses on a relatively remote island sort of halfway

between Iceland and Norway. Are the findings relevant to the

U.S.?

Grandjean: The levels of PFCs in the children on these islands are

actually slightly lower or just comparable to the U.S. levels. But the

reason children have PFCs in their bloodstream in these islands is

because of diet -- they eat a lot of fish, and PFCs travel up the food

chain that way. But in the U.S., it is more likely the pollution is from

food packaging.

It's important to note that this is just an observational study, and we

cannot prove that there is a causal relationship. We need more

studies.

But I also have a reaction as an individual, thinking about the next

generation. We should take this very seriously because we are essentially

looking at the tip of an iceberg. We have just looked at these kids at

age 7, we don't know yet how these immune deficits will eventually work

out and how quick they will be at fending off, lets say, cancer. The

immune system plays a very important role whether they will get chronic

infections of various kinds.

We just don't know. There are so many questions here, and the immune

system is very complicated to study, but we have found this very clear

and really strong signal that something is really going astray here.

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

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