[Pharmwaste] Assessing cancer risks from chemicals
James Bukowski
jbukowsk at jhmi.edu
Mon Jul 23 13:10:01 EDT 2007
Lois Swirsky Gold
Director and Senior Scientist, Carcinogenic Potency Project
Dr. Lois Swirsky Gold is Director of the Carcinogenic Potency Project, NIEHS), University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Scientist at the E.O Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has published more than 100 papers and 2 books on the methodology of risk assessment, analyses of animal cancer tests, and the implications for cancer prevention and regulatory policy. Her Carcinogenic Potency Database (CPDB), published as a CRC Handbook, analyzes the results of 5600 chronic, long-term cancer tests on 1400 chemicals. Her most recent book is Misconceptions about the Causes of Cancer. Dr. Gold's work has addressed many issues in the field of risk assessment: methodological issues such as validity problems associated with the use of limited data from animal cancer tests to estimate low-dose human cancer risks; reproducibility of results in near-replicate animal cancer tests; misconceptions about the causes of cancer, that underlie current regulatory policy; extrapolation of carcinogenicity, target organ and potency between species; target organs of mutagenic and non-mutagenic carcinogens; ranking possible carcinogenic hazards of naturally-occurring and synthetic chemicals; and statistical issues in risk estimation. Recent work includes implications of new EPA Risk Assessment Guidelines and possible cancer hazards from herbal supplments. Dr. Gold has served on the Panel of Expert Reviewers for the National Toxicology Program, and the Board of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. She has been a member of the Harvard Risk Management Group and the Board of Directors of the Annapolis Center. She is currently serving on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Bruce Ames (born December 16, 1928), is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). He is the inventor of the Ames test, a system for easily and cheaply testing the mutagenicity of compounds.
His research focuses on cancer and aging and he has authored over 500 scientific publications. He is among the few hundred most-cited scientists in all fields.
Ames' current research includes identifying agents that delay the mitochondrial decay of aging, understanding the role of mitochondrial decay in aging, particularly in the brain, optimizing micronutrient intakes in the population to prevent disease, malnutrition, and obesity. He is also interested in mutagens as they relate to cancer prevention and aging.
He is a recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1985, National Medal of Science in 1998 and the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal in 2004.
He is a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science. He is a professor at University of California , Berkeley. He was a visiting professor at Harvard University.
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I'd say those are two people with pretty impressive credentials, especially Dr. Ames, so they know of what they speak, your attempted smear notwithstanding.
On the other hand, let's looks at the background of the authors of Our Stolen Future, which seems to get an inordinate amount of discussion on some of the listservs I frequent, despite the dubious quality of its "research." Two, Theo Colburn and John Peterson Myers are Zoologists. The third, Dianne Dumanoski, is a journalist.
Here's a bio I found on Dr. Myers.
>> With a doctorate in the biological sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, Pete Myers is founder and CEO of Environmental Health Sciences, an organization engaged in advancing public understanding of environmental links to health. He is also senior advisor to Commonweal and to the Jenifer Altman Foundation on environmental threats to children's health.
>From 1990 through the end of 2001, Myers served as Director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia, guiding the foundation's philanthropic support of work to reduce the risks of nuclear war and to protect the global environment. Prior posts include Senior Vice President for Science at the National Audubon Society in New York and research scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Along with co-authors Dr. Theo Colborn and Dianne Dumanoski, he wrote "Our Stolen Future," a book (1996) that explores the scientific basis of concern for how contamination threatens fetal development. Myers now writes, edits and publishes a companion website for their book, www.OurStolenFuture.org, which tracks changes in science and policy that have followed the book's publication.
Dr. Myers has served on the boards of the Consultative Group for Biological Diversity (Chairman 1995-1997), a consortium of 40-plus foundations working to enhance the maintenance of biological systems and their contributions to human prosperity, and the National Audubon Society (1991-1995). In 1992 he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia to a 4-year term on the Virginia Pesticide Control Board. Currently he is on the boards of the National Environmental Trust and the Public Education Center. <<
I don't see much evidence of his having done much, if any, research.
Dr. Colburn's the only one of the three with any science bona fides, but they pale beside those of Drs. Ames and Gold.
Choose wisely indeed.
Regards,
James
>>> Bill Lewry <Bill_Lewry at kcmo.org> 7/23/2007 12:34 PM >>>
Interesting Resource Indeed, consider the authors and whom they have worked
for.
Some examples below. Additional research may yield differing results :-)
Evaluate Well.
Choose wisely.
Lois Swirsky Gold - Director.
http://www.marshall.org/experts.php?id=73&print=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_C._Marshall_Institute
Research the other authors at leisure if time permits you to. :-)
"James Bukowski"
<jbukowsk at jhmi.ed
u> To
Sent by: <pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
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s at lists.dep.state
.fl.us Subject
[Pharmwaste] Assessing cancer risks
from chemicals
07/23/2007 09:41
AM
Interesting resource.
The Carcinogenic Potency Database (CPDB) is a unique and widely used
international resource of results from 6153 chronic, long-term animal
cancer tests on 1485 chemicals. CPDB provides a standardized and easily
accessible database with qualitative and quantitative analyses of both
positive and negative experiments that have been published in the
general literature through 1997 and by the National Cancer
Institute/National Toxicology Program through 1998.
*Overall, our HERP ranking shows that synthetic pesticide residues
rank low in possible carcinogenic hazard compared to many common
exposures. HERP values for some historically high exposures in the
workplace and some pharmaceuticals rank high, and there is an enormous
background of naturally-occurring rodent carcinogens in average
consumption of common foods. Results on this background of natural
chemicals cast doubt on the relative importance of low-dose exposures to
residues of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides.*
http://potency.berkeley.edu/cpdb.html
Rankings here.
http://potency.berkeley.edu/pdfs/herp.pdf
Those in blue are naturally occurring. Beer ranked much higher than
DDT (based on pre-1972 DDT exposures) for cancer risk. Bummer.
Regards,
James Bukowski, CIH HEM
Environmental Health Officer
Virginia Tech (1980)
(See attached file: James Bukowski.vcf)
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