Why is this report being hidden?

[Guest guest]

" Approximately half of all pregnancies in the United States result in

prenatal or postnatal death or an otherwise less than healthy baby. "

NAS 354 page review 2000 says ~50% failed pregnancies

http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9871.html?onpi_newsdoc060100

Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment

Committee on Developmental Toxicology, Board on Environmental

Studies and Toxicology, National Research Council

354 pages, 6 x 9, 2000, hardback, $ 47.20

Approx 1/2 of all pregnancies in U.S. result in miscarriage

or unhealthy babies.. a stunning, hidden report

This stunning press release came out of the National Research Council of the

National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine in June 2000 -- but the

public did not hear about it and Congress and the states have not

followed-up. I first heard about it from Betty Mekdeci, Executive Director

of Birth Defect Research for Children, Inc. I searched several times over

the past two years but was unable to find a web-based link to the NAS site

until today. The full 354 page report is accessible from the NAS site but

requires payment. Here is a riveting quote from the second paragraph of the

press release:

" Approximately half of all pregnancies in the United States result in

prenatal or postnatal death or an otherwise less than healthy baby. " NAS

says that manufactured chemicals should be assessed for developmental

effects before marketing. See report at:

http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309070864?OpenDocument

Here is the text:

Major Advances in Biology Should Be Used to Assess

Birth Defects From Toxic Chemicals

Date: June 1, 2000

Contacts: Bill Kearney, Media Relations Associate

O'Neill, Media Relations Assistant

(202) 334-2138; e-mail <news@...>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON -- New discoveries in developmental biology and genetics should

be used when scientists analyze chemicals for their potential to cause birth

defects, says a new report from the National Research Council of the

National Academies. Given recent advances in understanding how the process

of normal development occurs, methods can now be devised to determine how

chemicals disrupt it in humans.

Approximately half of all pregnancies in the United States result in

prenatal or postnatal death or an otherwise less than healthy baby. And

major developmental defects, such as neural tube and heart deformities,

occur in approximately 120,000 of the 4 million infants born here each year.

Exposure to toxic chemicals, both manufactured and natural, cause about 3

percent of all developmental defects, and at least 25 percent might be the

result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

" Many manufactured chemicals, as well as chemicals that occur in nature,

have not been adequately evaluated for developmental toxicity, " said Elaine

Faustman, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor of

environmental health and director of the Institute for Risk Analysis and

Risk Communication, University of Washington, Seattle.

" Our report provides a blueprint for using new findings about the dynamic

processes involved in normal development to further our understanding of how

human development may be affected by potentially toxic chemicals.

Collaboration among scientists from many disciplines will be key in this

endeavor, as will the integration of information from various databases. "

New approaches to developmental toxicology are needed that emphasize

simultaneous research on several fronts by experts from multiple scientific

disciplines, the report says. It urges scientists to take advantage of new

knowledge about the human genome when studying how genes and the environment

interact to cause developmental defects. The report also calls for an

intensified effort to expand the understanding of how even the smallest,

simplest laboratory animals can serve as toxicological models for human

biological systems, given recent advances in this area. In most animals --

including those commonly used in laboratories, such as the fruit fly,

roundworm, zebrafish, and mouse -- scientists recently have discovered how

specific cells communicate with each other, ultimately activating proteins

that turn particular genes on and off, thus regulating development. These

" signaling pathways " are used repeatedly in various combinations at

different times and locations in the embryo and fetus. Chemical disruption

of these pathways could lead to abnormal development. Strikingly similar

pathways are found in a wide range of animal species, including humans, and

have changed very little over the course of time, which means that studying

the effects of chemicals on signaling pathways in animal models could help

facilitate understanding of abnormal development in humans, the report says.

Relatively simple assessments using animal models, such as the roundworm and

fruit fly, could be used more effectively to provide clues about which

developmental pathways are most affected by specific chemicals, the

committee said. Based on findings from these tests or general concern about

a chemical's prevalence in the environment, more extensive studies could be

conducted on animals whose biological systems more closely resemble those of

humans.

In addition, major new advances in genetics will help researchers gain

insight into how chemicals affect human development, the report says.

Mapping the human genome will increase understanding of gene function and

expression, and help researchers identify unique alterations in genes, known

as polymorphisms. Recent research has shown that individuals with certain

polymorphisms, who are also exposed to certain chemicals in utero, have a

higher occurrence of specific developmental defects than the general

population. New information on genetic variability in humans, especially

polymorphisms, is seen as key to understanding how the relationship between

genes and the environment leads to developmental defects.

The committee emphasized that all stages of human development -- from

conception to puberty -- should be examined in toxicity studies, since all

developmental periods are potentially susceptible to toxic agents. In

addition, there is a need to look at all adverse developmental outcomes,

including growth retardation, behavioral effects, and death. The vast

amounts of data that could be generated by testing thousands of chemicals

for potential developmental toxicity will require new databases capable of

organizing this information in a way that is useful for risk assessment, the

committee said. The databases should include information from industry,

academia, and government researchers, and be linked with existing databases

of developmental biology and genomics, as well as those describing how drugs

and chemicals are metabolized by the body. A separate relational database

should be set up for chemicals that are found to interact with particular

signaling pathways. This would help researchers study whether different

chemicals that affect the same pathway are acting in a similar manner.

The lack of opportunities for collaboration among scientists from different

fields has impeded the application of new information to improve

developmental toxicology and risk assessment, the committee said. To

overcome this, educational programs and professional workshops should be

organized to facilitate interaction among researchers in developmental

toxicology, developmental biology, genomics, medical genetics, epidemiology,

and biostatistics.

The study was sponsored by the American Industrial Health Council, Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,

National Center for Toxicological Research, National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Child Health and Human

Development, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The

National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National

Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a

private, nonprofit organization that provides advice on science and

technology under a congressional charter. A committee roster follows.

Read the full text of Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and

Risk Assessment for free on the Web, as well as more than 1,800 other

publications from the National Academies. Printed copies are available for

purchase from the National Academy Press Web site or at the mailing address

in the letterhead; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may

obtain a pre-publication copy from the Office of News and Public Information

at the letterhead address (contacts listed above).

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Commission on Life Sciences

Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology

Toxicology and Risk Assessment Program

Committee on Developmental Toxicology

Elaine M. Faustman, Ph.D. (chair)

Professor, Department of Environmental Health, and

Director, Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication

University of Washington, Seattle

C. Gerhart, Ph.D. (vice chair)*

Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California, Berkeley

Nigel A. Brown, Ph.D.

Professor of Developmental Biology

Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology

St. 's Hospital Medical School, London

P. Daston, Ph.D.

Toxicologist

Miami Valley Laboratories

Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati

Mark C. Fishman, M.D.

Chief of Cardiology; Director, Cardiovascular Research Center, and

Chief, Developmental Biology Laboratory

Massachusetts General Hospital, and

Professor of Medicine

Harvard Medical School, Boston

ph F. Holson, Ph.D.

President and Director

WIL Research Laboratories Inc., Ashland, Ohio

Herman B.W.M. Koëter, Ph.D.

Principal Administrator

Environmental Health and Safety Division

Organization for Economic ation and Development, Paris

P. Mahowald, Ph.D. *

Louis Block Professor and Chair

Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology

University of Chicago, Chicago

Jeanne M. Manson, Ph.D.

Fellow, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

K. , Ph.D.

Professor and Associate Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and

Professor of Environmental Medicine

University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, N.Y.

Philip E. Mirkes, Ph.D.

Research Professor, Department of Pediatrics

University of Washington, Seattle

W. Nebert, M.D.

Professor, Department of Environmental Health

University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and

Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Division of Human Genetics

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Drew M. Noden, Ph.D.

Professor of Embryology

Department of Biomedical Sciences

College of Veterinary Medicine

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Virginia E. Papaioannou, Ph.D.

Professor of Genetics and Development

College of Physicians and Surgeons

Columbia University, New York City

C. Schoenwolf, Ph.D.

Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and

Member, Huntsman Cancer Institute

School of Medicine

University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Welsch, D.V.M.

Senior Scientist and Head, Teratology Laboratory

Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology

Research Triangle Park, N.C.

B. Wood, Ph.D. *

Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

University of Colorado, Boulder, and

Member, Cancer Institute

University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver

RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

Carol A. Maczka, Ph.D.,

Director, Toxicology and Risk

Assessment Program

Abigail E. Stack, Ph.D.

Project Director

* Member, National Academy of Sciences