Glyphosate Toxicology

This chapter explores the glaring scientific differences in the human health assessment of the popular herbicide glyphosate between European and American institutions. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans. Both IARC's and the EPA's carcinogenic risk assessment processes are discussed. This work reveals uncertainties in the sciences of toxicology and epidemiology, as well as assumptions made in their applications for evaluating glyphosate. These uncertainties, along with the political context of chemical risk assessment, are at the root of the divergent findings on the carcinogenic risks of glyphosate.

Lifelong Consumption of Plant-Based GM Foods

Genetically modified (GM) crops are cultivated in over 30 countries with their products and by-products imported by over 60 countries. This chapter seeks to highlight general concerns and potential lifelong effects of consuming GM plant-based food. The consumption of GM plant-based food is as risky as consuming conventional plant-based food. However, the alien genes in these products may be unstable leading to antinutritional and unintended short-term consequences. Due to the paucity of research, no long-term effects have been attributed to the lifelong consumption of these products. Nonetheless, possible lifelong health and socioeconomic effects may result from outcrossing of genes, increasing antibiotic resistance, development of new diseases, as well as potential effects on the environment and biodiversity. Biotechnology companies need to invest more in interdisciplinary research addressing the potential lifelong effects of these products. Although GM foods are safe for consumption, clarification of current risks and lifelong effects are required.

Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fear Response, and Environmental Exposures

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental condition characterized by impaired social interactions and communication, as well as by stereotypic movements, that affects 1 in 59 children. ASD is expected to reach 1 in about 40 children by 2020, yet it remains without distinct pathogenesis and effective treatment. Children with ASD respond with high anxiety to almost any unknown stimulus and appear to misread danger/threat signals, and may not experience anxiety in situations where normotypic children do. The authors propose that environmental stimuli stimulate the unique immune cells, known as mast cells (MC), which then trigger microglia, leading to dysfunctional neuronal connectivity in the amygdala. This process lowers or disrupts the “fear response” and leads to an exaggerated “fight-or-flight” reaction. corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) could have a synergistic effect with environmental stimuli, especially mycotoxins. Recognizing this association and preventing stimulation of mast cells/microglia could lead to effective treatment of ASD.

The Waste-Energy-Health Nexus

The main issues that pertain to the health burden from waste management and energy resource use are laid out highlighting the aspects that determine actual exposure and the socio-economic conditions that underlie them. Case studies covering biomass burning, acute and chronic exposure to urban and industrial waste are described. They refer to different areas in Europe and socio-economic strata focusing on susceptible population groups, which may be affected by enhanced exposure to environmental toxicants stemming from municipal and industrial waste management and domestic heating or cooking using biomass. These features make socio-economic status and the consequent social (in)justice a key determinant of overall exposure early in life. The latter results in a high probability of onset or exacerbation of adverse health outcomes both in the medium term and later in life. Additional factors that affect the health impacts of environmental exposures comprise choice of diet, education level of parents, access to green or blue space and housing condition.

A Panel Asymmetric Causality Between Health and Climate Change

As climate change threatens human life and health by causing severe storms, floods, temperature fluctuations and droughts, it is predicted that in the coming decades, most of the global population will be impacted and the lives of millions will be at risk. In this context, the article investigates the existence of a symmetric and asymmetric causality between climate change and health between 1990 and 2015 for European countries, including EU, EFTA member and EU candidate states. In the first stage of the analysis, health scores are estimated by cluster and discriminant analyses; in the second stage, the relationships among these scores and climate variables are examined. The country-specific findings are obtained for the health effects of climate change variables according to factors such as geographical structure and seasonal characteristics. According to the results, while the health effects of changes in temperature and greenhouse emissions differ from country to country, the reduction in precipitation for nearly half of the countries is found to have a negative effect on health.

Arsenic and Cancer

In the entire world, about 200 million people are exposed to arsenic poisoning in groundwater. In Bihar, India, about 50 million people are drinking arsenic contaminated water. Humans are exposed to elevated levels of inorganic arsenic mainly through the consumption of arsenic contaminated groundwater as drinking water and food crops are irrigated with high-arsenic water resources. This has caused various health-related problems in the population like skin diseases, anemia, bronchitis, gastrointestinal problems, hormonal imbalance and cancer. According to recent study, cancer risk is associated with daily consumption of 2 litres of water with inorganic arsenic 50 μg/L has been estimated to be 1/100 denotes that elevated blood arsenic levels in population can lead to cause various diseases including cancer. Skin and several types of internal cancers, including, bladder, kidney, liver, gall bladder, lung, uterus, and prostate, have been found associated with arsenic ingestion. This hospital-based study also correlates the cause of cancer due to arsenic contamination.

The Exposome Paradigm in Environmental Health

Connectivity introduces a new exposome based paradigm in environmental health. This denotes an approach that builds on the exploration of the interconnections between the co-existence of multiple exogenous and endogenous stressors and the different scales of biological organization. Coupling the two results in the final adverse health effect. This differs from the conventional paradigm, which seeks to shed light on the identification of singular cause-effect relationships between stressors and health outcomes. It creates a new way of combining health-relevant information coming from different disciplines, treating all factors affecting internal and external exposome are as covariates. Their functional integration into results in understanding the complex interaction between genome and exposome. The applicability of the exposome (and more specifically the connectivity) approach towards a better understanding of the exposure, sociodemographic and biological factors interplay in the association between environment and disease, is demonstrated in two different case studies.

Cotton Textiles and Human Health Challenges

Cotton is the most used natural fiber in the world for the production of textiles and apparel. Nowadays, there are three different possibilities for cotton growth in the world: production of conventional, organic, or genetically modified cotton. Their influence on human health, due to the application of pesticides, is discussed. The influence of the pesticides on the environment, which, in turns, affects the human health through the water, soil, and food chain, is also discussed. The preferable cotton sector is presented, giving а chance to the customers of cotton textiles and apparel, and to assess the positive influence of the existing initiatives in the cotton field on the human health and the environment.

A Review on Chemsensors

Chemsensors have been playing a crucial role in various aspects of biomedical science, analytical and environmental chemistry. The toxic metal ions like Zn, Cd, Cu, Pb and Hg have increased gradually but now have reached an alarming situation, crossing the threshold value. Due to high toxicity of these heavy metals there is an obvious need for a sensor system to detect their presence. Chemsensors including surface acoustic wave sensors, enzymes, carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, and chromophore-based sensors have attracted increasing attention over the last few years. Chemsensors prove very promising as the system is rapid, selective, sensible, low-cost, easy-to-use, and has the ability to provide real-time signals. However, recently, considerable effort has been devoted to the synthesis of sterically encumbered selenium containing species reported to display strong affinities with Hg2+ or Ag2+. This chapter reviews the basic principles involved in the design of chemsensors, their variety and applications in various established and emerging fields.

Pharmaceuticals in Environment

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) constitute an integral part of modern healthcare systems which enter the environment through various routes. Because of their inherent biological activity, their presence in soil and the aquatic environment poses several eco-toxicological problems. Antibiotic contamination of soil and water bodies is leading to the development of microbial resistance to antibiotics and this has been recognized by several global bodies like WHO and EPA. Effective steps need to be taken in this regard including increased awareness, reduced pharmaceutical discharges in environment, green and sustainable pharmaceutical practice by pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals and improved remediation/bioremediation methods. This chapter outlines the various anticipated routes of exposure of pharmaceuticals to the environment along with their detrimental effects, fate and degradation in aquatic and terrestrial environments. The chapter also dwells upon the role of various regulatory bodies and plausible measures that may be adopted to alleviate the problem.