Genocide announced

"All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts." This was the religious opinion issued one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious institute attended by students and soldiers in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank.

Early puberty linked to shampoos

03 April 2002
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. S
Sylvia Pagán Westphal, Boston

Unbeknown to many parents, a few hair products - especially some marketed to black people - contain small amounts of hormones that could cause premature sexual development in girls.

The evidence that hair products containing oestrogens cause premature puberty is largely circumstantial, and the case is still unproven. But Ella Toombs, acting director for the Office of Cosmetics and Colors at the US Food and Drug Administration, told New Scientist: "No amount [of oestrogen] is considered safe and can be included in an over-the-counter product."

Under FDA regulations, over-the-counter products containing hormones are drugs, and thus require specific approval. However, there appears to be a grey area regarding products marketed before 1994. The FDA failed to respond to a request to clarify the position. At least five companies are still making hormone-containing hair products, a source within the industry - who preferred not to be named - told New Scientist.

Throughout the West, girls are tending to reach puberty earlier. This has been blamed on everything from improved diet to environmental contaminants. But African-American girls are developing even earlier than their white counterparts. About half of black girls in the US begin developing breasts or pubic hair by age eight, compared with just 15 per cent of white girls, one study has found. In Africa, girls enter puberty much later, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

"Placenta, hormones or estrogen"
That big discrepancy may be explained, at least in part, by the more frequent use of hormone-containing hair products among African Americans, says Chandra Tiwary, former chief of paediatric endocrinology at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. "I believe that the frequency of sexual precocity can be reduced simply if children do not use those hair products," he says.

The products are sold as shampoos or treatments to deep-condition dry, brittle hair. The labels usually state that they contain placenta, hormones or "estrogen", although not all products that make such claims contain active hormones. While New Scientist's inquiries suggest such products are no longer sold in Europe, many are still available worldwide over the Internet.

And they remain popular among African Americans. A small study published earlier this year by Su-Ting Li of the Child Health Institute in Seattle suggests that nearly half of African-American parents use such products, and that most also use them on their children.

For other ethnic groups the figure is under 10 per cent. Tiwary told New Scientist that he has carried out a bigger, as yet unpublished, survey of 2000 households that confirms these findings.

In 1998 Tiwary, now retired, published a study of four girls - including a 14-month-old - who developed breasts or pubic hair months after beginning to use such products. The symptoms started to disappear when they stopped using them. The year before, he published a study showing that some of the products used by his patients contained up to four milligrams of oestradiol per 100 grams. Others contained up to two grams of oestriol per 100 grams.

Readily absorbed
B&B Super Gro, for example, which was marketed before 1994 and is still on sale in the US and claims to be "rich in hormones", was found to contain 1.6 grams of oestriol per 100 grams. While the levels of oestriol in the products were much higher, oestradiol is a far more potent form of oestrogen.

There is no doubt that oestrogens are readily absorbed through the skin--hormone therapy is often delivered via patches. Long-term exposure to these doses could cause premature puberty, Tiwary believes.

And his studies are not the only ones hinting at a possible effect. Anecdotal reports in scientific papers going back to 1982 describe early puberty in children after use of hair treatments, as well as certain ointments. Tiwary notified the FDA of his concerns in 1994, but says he never received a reply.

The evidence that oestrogen-containing hair products cause early puberty remains limited. There are too many other suspect substances to pin the blame on them without further studies.

"A person isn't exposed to just one chemical, but rather a mix of many," says Julia Brody, director of the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts, a non-profit organisation that looks at the environment and women's health. "There is an increasing awareness that hormonally active compounds are present in cosmetic products."

Cosmetic chemicals found in breast tumours

12:24 12 January 2004
NewScientist.com news service
Gaia Vince

Preservative chemicals found in samples of breast tumours probably came from underarm deodorants, UK scientists have claimed.

Their analysis of 20 breast tumours found high concentrations of para-hydroxybenzoic acids (parabens) in 18 samples. Parabens can mimic the hormone estrogen, which is known to play a role in the development of breast cancers. The preservatives are used in many cosmetics and some foods to increase their shelf-life.

"From this research it is not possible to say whether parabens actually caused these tumours, but they may certainly be associated with the overall rise in breast cancer cases," says Philip Harvey, an editor of the Journal of Applied Toxicology, which published the research.

"Given that breast cancer is the largest killer of women and a very high percentage of young women use underarm deodorants, I think we should be carrying out properly funded, further investigations into parabens and where they are found in the body," Harvey told New Scientist.

Chemical cousins
The new research was led by molecular biologist Philippa Darbre, at the University of Reading. She says that the ester-bearing form of parabens found in the tumours indicates it came from something applied to the skin, such as an underarm deodorant, cream or body spray. When parabens are eaten, they are metabolised and lose the ester group, making them less strongly estrogen-mimicking.

"One would expect tumours to occur evenly, with 20 per cent arising in each of the five areas of the breast," Darbre told New Scientist. "But these results help explain why up to 60 per cent of all breast tumours are found in just one-fifth of the breast - the upper-outer quadrant, nearest the underarm."

However, Chris Flower, director general of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, challenged the study's findings. "There are almost no deodorants and body sprays that contain parabens," he says. "Although they are in most other creams and cosmetics, the safety margin is huge and they would not have any effect on enhancing growth of new tumours."

Darbre replies that deodorants and antiperspirants have only stopped containing parabens in the last few months and that the tumours she studied occurred prior to this.

A small survey by New Scientist of three British high street shops and one supermarket found deodorants in each that contained parabens, although most of these products did not. However, many other products used under the arm commonly contained parabens, such as body sprays, hair removal creams and shaving gels. Body lotions, face creams, cleansers and shampoos also frequently contained parabens.

Skin deep
Previously published studies have shown that parabens are able to be absorbed through the skin and to bind to the body's estrogen-receptors, where they can encourage breast cancer cell growth.

But Flower maintains that the amount of parabens absorbed by the skin is very low and the parabens are "metabolised by the skin cells to produce products that have no estrogenic activity".

Darbre's research did not look at the concentrations of parabens in other areas of the breast or body tissues and Harvey cautions that the significance of the chemicals in tumour tissue should not be over-interpreted.

Darbre says she has not used cosmetic products, including underarm deodorants, for eight years. She recommends that other women do the same "until their safety can be established".

"New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based Organic Foods,"

State of Science Review, March 2008
March 2008
Author(s): Charles Benbrook
Xin Zhao
Jaime Yanez
Neal Davies
Preston Andrews

Foreward By: Andrew Weil MD

This is the first major, indepth review of the published scientific literature on the nutritional benefits of organic food completed since 2003.

Over 40 new studies have come out since the last review was carried out -- studies that dramatically improve our ability to answer a basic question -- are organic foods generally more nutritious than conventional foods?

The two-year project leading to this report required the creation of a large Access database including the results of nearly 100 studies, and development of methods to identify those studies that were both well-designed and carefully conducted.

With the benefit of this research tool, which the Center will continuously update and apply in future studies, we can now offer clearcut answers to important, common questions about the nutritional superiority of organic food.

The full report, executive summary, and supplemental information are available from this site free of charge, and may be reproduced and used for educational purposes, with appropriate attribution.