EDC research center never happened - Chemical Fallout (part 3)

[Guest guest]

Findings in the investigative series typify why an autism epidemic is

occurring, why the media prefer the notion " no epidemic " , and why the

media consistently describe autism as a mystery.

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Chemical Fallout

PART 1, Nov. 25: Congress ordered the federal government in 1996 to

begin testing and regulating certain chemicals suspected of causing

cancer and a host of developmental problems. Eleven years later, not a

single compound has been put to that test.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=689731

PART 2, Dec. 2: The federal government's assurances that a common

chemical is safe are based on outdated U.S. government studies and

research heavily funded by the chemical industry.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=692145

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*UW research center never happened*

*Madison was ready for chemical studies*

By MEG KISSINGER

mkissinger@...

Posted: Jan. 1, 2008

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=702604

The best scientific minds in big business, academia and environmental

advocacy were to be plucked from across the globe to join forces in a

think tank. Their charge: to investigate endocrine disruptors -

chemicals in everyday products - to see if these compounds were making

people sick.

When talks of forming a center began in 1998, scientists were thrilled

to think that work from the institute could ultimately help people make

sure that the products they buy, the food they eat and the clothes they

wear were not giving them cancer or putting their children at risk.

The UW beat out other top universities, including Duke and s

Hopkins, to house this unique, world-class institute. The graduate

school had signed on to the idea. Office space was set aside. Staff had

been assigned.

Then, " like a house of cards, this whole thing " came crashing down, said

, a professor of pharmacology at UW-Madison who was to

lead the international center.

A growing body of research indicates that bisphenol A - a chemical used

to make the hard, clear plastic called polycarbonate, as well as the

epoxy resins used to line aluminum cans - is harmful to laboratory animals.

In a recent investigation, the Journal Sentinel reviewed 258 scientific

studies that looked at the effects of bisphenol A on live laboratory

animals with spines, and found that an overwhelming majority of those

studies indicated the chemical is toxic, even at doses below those

considered safe by U.S. regulators.

Theo Colborn, the UW-trained scientist whose 1996 book, " Our Stolen

Future, " sparked concern about the effects of hormone-mimicking

chemicals on humans and animals, recalls the disappointment at the

effort failing to launch.

" It was too hot for industry, " she said. Companies whose products

contained chemicals that could be found to be dangerous did not want to

risk the negative publicity and the possibility of having to do away

with those compounds.

University officials say Daston, a ranking scientist at Procter &

Gamble, had vowed his firm would join with Racine's S.C. & Son

Inc. and other companies to put up more than $1 million annually for the

Endocrine Disruption International ative Research center.

But years after promising to cooperate, business pulled the plug. The

companies took their money off the table in 2002 and decided to go it alone.

" The money and the institute just dwindled away, " said Melvin Weinswig,

former dean of the school of pharmacy at UW-Madison.

Daston says he never promised that the money would be there. He says he

offered only to work to get corporate contributions. " The rest of the

chemical industry had different plans, " he said.

Seven years after the initial flurry and excitement, Bob , a senior

scientist specializing in endocrine toxicology, sits in his office on

the fifth floor of UW's School of Pharmacy and thinks about things that

could have been.

" We're not dead yet, but we're not exactly alive either, " said ,

who was named program manager of the international institute when it was

formed amid such high hopes. Today, the only vestiges of that dream are

a laminated sign outside 's office with the initials EDICOR and a

drawer of program notes in a cabinet in his 8-foot by 12-foot office.

" It's very disappointing when you think about what could have come out

of all of this, " said with a sad smile.

The sign posted next to his computer seems to sum up well the

frustration and futility of many in this decades-long effort to find out

whether chemicals used every day are harmful or not. It reads,

" Notice: I'm so far behind I might run over myself. "

Cary Spivak and ne Rust of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed

to this report.

*

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