Smoking during pregnancy, methylmercury’s affect on cardiovascular health, dust generated from mountaintop coal mining operations, and pediatric brain function are in the spotlight this week.
SOT Member Research
Smoking during pregnancy may cause newborn babies to have lower levels of stress hormones, lowered stress response, and alterations in DNA for a gene that regulates the passage of stress hormones from mother to fetus, says new research in Psychoneuroendocrinology. The study by Carmen Marsit and colleagues examined 100 mother-newborn pairs.
Pierre Ayotte and colleagues have found that paraoxonase 1 (PON1), a high-density lipoprotein-bound enzyme that hydrolyzes toxic oxidized lipids and protects against cardiovascular diseases, is affected by methylmercury. In a study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, the researchers found the Cree adults who consumed methylmercury through the fish in their diet had blood mercury levels inversely associated with serum PON1 activities.
SOT Members in the News
The West Virginia Gazette featured new research by Yon Rojanasakul and Travis Knuckles on the health effects of the dust generated from mountaintop coal mining operations. They found that the dust levels experienced by residents of mountaintop mining communities are a risk factor for lung cancer.
Researchers at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) are trying to discover how ADHD medications affect kids’ brains. To do so, Merle Paule tells the US FDA’s “Consumer Updates” of the importance of developing a non-verbal psychological test to offset undeveloped language skills in the subjects. Memory, attention, motivation, and time perception are all important brain functions that the NCTR test measures to assess how medications may affect them. This work has been going on for more than two decades, during which 3,000 children have been tested.
Science and Public Health News
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