OT: Asthma and BPA exposure

[Guest guest]

As researchers start looking at chemicals in our environment that may

be the catalyst for the ASD epidemic here is a study showing maternal

exposure to BPA(plastics in bottles) may be a catalyst for the rise

in Asthma. In the recent past the rise in Asthma was being blamed on

over DX and the overly cleanliness of Americans just as ASD has been.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636452.html

SUNDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Mouse pups whose mothers were

exposed to a common but controversial chemical developed allergic

asthma, new research has found.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical commonly found in polycarbonate

plastic bottles and the aluminum lining of food and beverage cans.

Production of the chemical started about 40 years ago, a timing that

scientists note coincides with increasing asthma rates.

Various U.S. health agencies recently pledged $30 million toward

short- and long-term research aimed at clarifying the health effects

of BPA. It has caused problems in lab animals and in people who have

had occupational exposure. On Thursday, land became the third

state to tackle the issue, when the state legislature passed a ban on

BPA in cups and bottles used by children younger than age 4. Minnesota

and Connecticut passed similar laws last year.

Although the newest study looked only at mice, several experts

believed that the findings could be worrisome for humans.

" They're using what are probably going to be reasonable estimates of

human neonatal exposure, and that seems to have an effect on the

developing immune system or sensitivity to asthma, " said Dr. Steve

Georas, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine and director of

the Parkes Center for Asthma, Allergy and Pulmonary Care at the

University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. " If you take it

together with some epidemiologic studies, I would consider it cause

for concern. "

Dr. k Forno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the

University of Miami School of Medicine added that " the mice

they used are very well-accepted models for asthma and allergies so it

should be a very good model of what we would expect to happen in

humans, although that is not always the case. "

The findings were to be presented Sunday in New Orleans at the

American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting.

Previous studies by the same group had also suggested that pups born

to mothers who had been exposed to BPA had an increased susceptibility

to allergic asthma. The new study focused on which doses might tip the

scale.

The researchers put 0.1, 1 or 10 micrograms per milliliter of BPA in

the drinking water of female mice before, during and after pregnancy.

Once born, their pups were injected with ovalbumin to make them

susceptible to asthma.

Mice born to mothers who had been exposed to 10 micrograms of BPA

developed airway problems, though that did not occur among mice born

to mothers with lower or no exposure.

" It's an exciting finding, an initial finding, " Forno said. " I think

the next thing is going to have to be not only the level of exposure

but also how much or how prolonged does the exposure have to be and if

there are any other factors involved. "

The study's senior author, Dr. Terumi Midoro-Horiuti, an associate

professor of pediatrics and biochemistry and molecular biology in the

Child Health Research Center at Children's Hospital, University of

Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said her group is now collecting

cord blood in humans, grouping that according to BPA exposure and

following offspring to see if they develop asthma.

A second study being presented at the meeting found that children

whose mothers had high levels of folate, a B vitamin, during pregnancy

were more likely to develop asthma by the age of 3.

Too little folate, or folic acid, can contribute to neural tube

defects in babies.

" This goes along the lines of thinking if some is good, more is

better, and we have seen certainly with vitamin supplements,

especially with antioxidants, that more is not necessarily better and

may be worse, " Horovitz said. " Here we're seeing it again. "

Data came from 507 mothers of children with asthma and 1,455 mothers

of children without asthma, all part of the Norwegian Mother and Child

Cohort Study.

" In both cases, these studies illustrate how much prenatal

environmental influence there is, " Horovitz said.

More information

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology has more on

childhood asthma.

SOURCES: Terumi Midoro-Horiuti, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor,

pediatrics and biochemistry and molecular biology, Child Health

Research Center, Children's Hospital, University of Texas Medical

Branch, Galveston; Len Horovitz, M.D., pulmonary specialist, Lenox

Hill Hospital, New York City; k Forno, M.D., M.P.H., assistant

professor, pediatrics, University of Miami School of Medicine,

Miami; Steve Georas, M.D., chief, division of pulmonary and critical

care medicine, and director, Parkes Center for Asthma, Allergy

and Pulmonary Care, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester,

N.Y.; Feb. 28, 2010, presentation, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma

& Immunology annual meeting, New Orleans