Guest guest Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 -----Original Message----- Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Reader Supported Vol. 12 No. 11p In This Issue: • PUBLIC HEALTHAir Pollution Could Shrivel Sperm's DNA • PEOPLENo Verdict in McCarron Trial • Cops Need Help To Find Missing Autistic Man • NOT-MAKING-THISUP DEPARTMENTStorm Chasing Group Offers New Autism Tour • TREATMENTFDA Warns of Lead- Poisoning Drug Mix-Up • Curbing Aversive Therapy • MEDIAA Look into Vaccines - Part One • COMMENTARY"Spins" of OmissionSend your LETTER The Autism Calendar or here: tinyurl.com/283dpa DO SOMETHINGDO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW SUBSCRIBE. . . ! . . . Read, then Forward the Schafer Autism Report.$35 for 1 year - 200 issues, or No Cost Review Sub. 100% Reader Supported through subscription donationswww.sarnet.org Political Discussion Forum Heats Up As Vaccine Link To Autism Question SpreadsAn email discussion list has been created in response to the growing interest in the environmental causes of autism -- now more than 2,000 subscribers. Here is where to join: SAR Back Issues AUTISM IS TREATABLE Check here Today's SAR is provided through the support of paid subscription readers. - THANK YOU - DEADLINE For February Autism Events CalendarFriday - January 25 !Submit listing here free! JANUARY CALENDAR of EVENTS!PUBLIC HEALTHAir Pollution Could Shrivel Sperm's DNA By Keim, Wired Magazine. tinyurl.com/ytjhpo As if the damage of foul air to our lungs wasn't bad enough, scientists have found another way for smog to harm people: by wreaking genetic havoc in men's sperm. In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of Canadian geneticists put open-air cages of male mice downwind of steel mills and beside a highway. A second group of mice were placed beside them in cages outfitted with air purifiers. After a couple months, the researchers compared the mice. Sperm from the industrial group, they found, had half again as many genetic mutations as sperm from HEPA-breathing counterparts. The polluted sperm was also hypermethylated, meaning that genes were being turned on and turned up more than they should have been. Though mice aren't people, the findings do point to a plausible mechanism by which air pollution could affect humans. Mutations in so-called germline DNA "may cause population-level changes in genetic composition and disease," the researchers wrote. "Changes in methylation can have widespread repercussions for chromatin structure, gene expression and genome stability. Potential health effects warrant extensive further investigation." The paper comes out at an opportune time: while President Bush's 2003 Clear Skies Act died in committee, individual provisions were later enacted. These slowed -- even reversed -- a federal crackdown on power plant pollution, and the Bush Administration was criticized for ignoring studies it commissioned on the dangers of failing to reduce mercury pollution. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency has been involved in a running battle over its sometimes-weak clean air enforcement. Clean air takes on even more significance if it becomes an issue of genetic health. One possible line of questioning: could rising pollution levels cause the sort of sperm mutations recently identified in parents of some children with autism? I sent the question to the researchers from this study, and will let you know what they say. For rest of today's SAR click here:www.sarnet.org/frm/forsar2.htm Today's SAR is provided through the support of paid subscription readers. - THANK YOU - $35 for 1 year - or free!www.sarnet.org Copyright Notice: The above items are copyright protected. They are for our readers' personal education or research purposes only and provided at their request. Articles may not be further reprinted or used commercially without consent from the copyright holders. To find the copyright holders, follow the referenced website link provided at the beginning of each item. Lenny Schafer editor@... The Schafer Autism Report is a non-profit corporation Unsubscribe here: www.sarnet.org/frm/unsub2.htm _______________________________________________ SARnets mailing list SARnets@... http://lists.igc.org/mailman/listinfo/sarnets You can unsubscribe send email: http://www.sarnet.org/frm/unsub2.htm -- You are subscribed as: denisekarp@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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