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院士蒲蛰龙先生: 农药漂移环境污染导致出现《寂静的春天》                                                    精选                        

已有 10551 次阅读 2013-2-28 09:05 |个人分类:Thought Leader|系统分类:海外观察|关键词:环境污染 的 color style                   

中国科学院院士蒲蛰龙先生: 农药漂移环境污染导致出现《寂静的春天》: 怪只怪在征服自然的伟大科学运动中，人类自己都无可避免地成了科学实验的“小白鼠”，而且现在仍然如此，而且仍然是不可避免的。这，想起来，免不了总有点悲哀。”
http://210.75.240.149/blog-847277-665781.html 

 

中国科学院院士蒲蛰龙先生指出: 农药漂移环境污染导致出现《寂静的春天》. 蒲蛰龙先生提出有远见的“生物防治”, 比我们早看五十年环境污染环保问题.

我后来读《寂静的春天》这本书时，深感蒲先生的敏锐,超前的智慧，理论与生产结合。蒲先生的宣导所坚持的的“生物防治”为人类环境意识的启蒙点燃了一盏明亮的灯。

 阅读《纽约时报》一篇关于《农药：现在比以往任何时候都更多环境污染》，我意识到蒲蛰龙先生比我们早看五十年。他的洞察力和生物防治领先超过50年。

 ((（照片--1963年6月4日，环境争议的经典之作“寂静的春天”出版后不到一年的时间，它的作者，瑞秋·卡逊（Rachel Carson）在参议院对农药小组委员会的作证。她是56岁死于乳腺癌。她的骨盆骨折是如此千疮百孔，几乎是不可能的走到她在国会的木桌前座位。为了掩饰她的秃头，她穿着一件深褐色的假发。卡逊所受的攻击，绝对比得上当年出版《物种起源》时公众对达尔文的攻击。她所面对的是全世界，她要唤醒的是全世界的人们。然而，时至今日，时间早已向世人证明了这一切，可是，谁又能想到卡逊在当时所历经的磨难呢。一个柔弱的女子，身体上饱受了病痛的折磨，精神上还承受着来自传统观念的质疑与侮辱，在《寂静的春天》出版两年之后，卡逊与世长辞。更令人感慨的是，卡逊所患的乳腺癌后来也被证明是与有毒的化学药物密切相关的一种病症，这也许是上天跟她所开的一个玩笑吧，而她，确实是在用自己的生命在写作。))

 

谢国强的问题，如雷贯顶！“阅后心情不竟有些沉重，文中提出的环保问题，什么是根源、起因？谁来解决、保护？将又可能把人类社会以及自然界引导到何处去？......诸如此类，都是问题，还有的是问题上的问题。太过复杂多变了，无法想象......。怪只怪在征服自然的伟大科学运动中，人类自己都无可避免地成了科学实验的“小白鼠”，而且现在仍然如此，而且仍然是不可避免的。这，想起来，免不了总有点悲哀。”

 

“人类自己都无可避免地成了科学实验的“小白鼠”--更是发人深醒！”

刘再复:

“中国进入世界经济结构和参与全球化的过程，是一件好事。我作此明确的判断，不是不知道全球化可能带来二种负面效果：社会的变质、生态的破坏和人心的黑暗。大众文化是“回到生活”的文化，是说明“生活有理”、“生活无罪”、“欲望无罪”的文化，将来一定会有大发展。不是人民的福祉。”“靠中国知识分子的认真研究，包括研究西方现代化的文化经验与成果，寻找自己的道路，”

“十八世纪西方知识分子在明确欲望不能扑灭之後，发现可以用“欲望对抗欲望”的办法制衡欲望，因此派生出政治上三权分立和多党制的思想，不同利益集团互相制衡，又派生出言论自由、新闻自由的制衡机制、二十世纪在经济上制订反垄断法及完成各种法制改革等。建立欲望的制衡形式，可能是本世纪中国文化界最根本的使命。（刘再复）”

50年前出版的“寂静的春天”在卡逊的著作中，作者用血淋淋的事实，希望唤醒无知、愚昧的人们，不要再用使用蛮力，来对付也是地球一分子的昆虫、植物。

“春天是鲜花盛开、百鸟齐鸣的季节，春天里不应是寂静无声，尤其是在春天的田野。可是并不是人人都会注意到，从某一个时候起，突然地，在春天里就不再听到燕子的呢喃、黄莺的啁啾，田野里变得寂静无声了。”

卡逊还尖锐的指出了，环境问题的深层根源在于人类对于自然的傲慢和无知，因此，她呼吁人们要重新端正对自然的态度，重新思考人类社会的发展道路问题。也呼吁我们，要尊重生命，谦卑为上，不要自以为是，尊重大自然，反省并改正自己的错误，停止错误的方式，才有可能挽救人类自己。。否则将有一天，会为人类带来无可挽救的灾难，毁灭性的灭亡。

 

“滴滴涕-DDT（Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane）是一种合成的有机杀虫剂，作为多种昆虫的接触性毒剂，有很高的毒效，尤其适用于扑灭传播疟疾的蚊子。第二次世界大战期间，仅仅在美国军队当中，疟疾病人就多达一百万，特效药金鸡纳供不应求，极大地影响了战争的进展。后来，有赖于DDT消灭了蚊子，才使疟疾的流行逐步得到有效的控制。DDT及其毒性的发现者、瑞士化学家保罗·赫尔满·米勒因而获1948年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。”

 

我们沉浸于自己创造了前人所无法企及的知识时代的辉煌之中，可我们真的知道自己在做什么吗，我们想过我们所做的一切将带来的后果吗？我们在短短几十年的时间，创造的过去几千年才能创造的物质文明，但我们的生活质量真的提高了吗？面对这两个发人深省的问题，我们不能不承认自己在行事之前是多么欠缺思考，我们在无法预知自己行为后果的情况下轻率地采取了许多看似高明实则愚蠢的行动，我们引以为豪的创造在某种程度上讲就是作茧自缚、自掘坟墓。

 

确实，回想一下长期流行于全世界的口号——“向大自然宣战”、“征服大自然”，在这儿，大自然仅仅是人们征服与控制的对象，而非保护并与之和谐相处的对象。人类的这种意识大概起源于洪荒的原始年月，一直持续到20世纪。没有人怀疑它的正确性，因为人类文明的许多进展是基于此意识而获得的，人类当前的许多经济与社会发展计划也是基于此意识而制定的。

 

我們人類因為脫離原始的生物社會太久，尤其在發展出所謂現代高科技之後，對於最原始的生物鏈結構已經放諸腦後，卡逊女士在書中用了一個例子讓我們不得不重新檢視人類與自然環境的相依相存關係，故事大致是這樣的，在一個風景優美的湖邊，人們很愛在那邊釣魚，但卻被飽受一種像蚊子的蚋蟲所苦，蚋蟲並不吸血只是數量很多而擾人。

 

於是有人就把殺蟲劑投用到湖裡，之後就發現大批鳥類死亡，解剖後發現屍體內的殺蟲劑含量是當初施用濃度的好幾倍，同樣的情況也發生在湖裡的魚類身上發現，科學家終於解開這個謎，這些殺蟲劑被最小的浮游生物所攝入，然後再被以他們為食的掠食者大量攝食，最後在湖泊生態系中食物鏈最高階的魚體內含有最高的毒物劑量，以魚為食的鳥類再捕食這些魚，不知情的民眾釣魚當晚餐，並取用湖裡的水，女性再用帶有DDT的母乳哺育其嬰孩，代代相傳永不止息。

 

而科學家發現這些化學毒物在大自然裡竟是永不消失，積聚在生物體中，隨著「小魚吃浮游生物→大魚吃小魚→鳥吃大魚」的食物鏈不斷輪迴，毒物濃度會不斷濃縮累積，這是一個你我不得不正視且感到震驚的事實。我如果沒記錯的話，之後連在南極的企鵝身上，科學家也匪夷所思地發現DDT的存在。

 

卡逊第一次对这一人类意识的绝对正确性提出了质疑。这位瘦弱、身患癌症的女学者，她是否知道她是在向人类的基本意识和几千年的社会传统挑战？《寂静的春天》出版两年之后，她心力交瘁，与世长辞。作为一个学者与作家，卡逊所遭受的诋毁和攻击是空前的--曾遭到利益团体，化学药品制造商们的打压和抹黑。並指摘貶抑卡逊女士是一個想把地球拱手讓給昆蟲的更年期女人，然而時任美國總統的甘迺迪先生讀完本書後，要求對殺蟲劑的危害進行調查，而後美國國會立法全面禁用DDT。

 

“环境保护，这个当今世界最重要的一个问题，而这在几十年前却是仅仅是一些生物学家脑子里的想象，而真正使环保越来越受到人们的重视并直接导致后来将环保列入政策法规中的却是一本大家似曾相识又不太熟悉的书——《寂静的春天》，而这本书也是世界上第一本将环保作为主题的书。”

 

今日中国，一方面是持续的经济增长，另一方面则是环境的持续恶化。环境污染带来的问题早就不是潜在问题而是触目惊心的现实。

 

全世界十大严重污染城市(太原、米兰、北京、乌鲁木齐、墨西哥城、兰州、重庆、济南、石家庄、德黑兰)中，中国占7个。近三分之二的城市空气达不到我们自己制定的(较低的) 国家二级标准。河流湖泊全面污染，已经危及日常用水。

 

由于环境污染，癌症患者急剧增多，且有明显低龄化趋势。癌症村如雨后春笋般在中国的大地上涌现，成为与经济起飞奇迹相伴随的另一大奇迹。与如此恶劣的环境恶化相比，中国社会各阶层的环境保护意识都远远没有跟上。多数人希望通过科学和技术的发展来解决这些问题，而没有意识到这些问题恰恰根源于我们现代性的存在方式。环境问题的彻底解决，要求一个从观念、制度到生产生活方式的彻底改变，而第一步，是对问题本身有充分的意识。

 

50年前出版的这本书对美国人而言或许有些过时，对中国人来说却显得是一篇委婉的时事报告文学。环境是属于全体人民的，但归根结底是属于青年人的。愿青年读者，通过阅读本书优美的英文，不仅提高了英文水平，而且感受到作者苦心孤诣的生命讴歌和未来忧思，从而反省现代人的存在方式，肩负起拯救人类未来的伟大责任。

 

作品评论

 

一封信，一本书，一场运动

 

与一次战争、一场疾风暴雨般的政治运动甚至一次骚乱相比，书籍一般都难以产生那么大的作用。但是有时候，一本书的确能掀起一场运动，引起社会的改革，甚至重大的改革。

 

就在美国的历史上，出生在英国的美国政论家托马斯·潘恩的一本只有五十页的小册子《常识》，于1776年1月出版后，几个月里即销售五十万册，在独立战争初期极大地刺激了人们的情绪，为半年之后通过的《独立宣言》铺平了道路。

 

美国女作家哈里亚特·伊丽莎白·比彻，即通常称她斯托夫人的小说《汤姆叔叔的小屋》，或《下层人的生活》，先是于1851年在哥伦比亚特区一家反奴隶制的报纸《民族时代》上连载发表，第二年出版后，第一天销售量即创前所未有的三千册的纪录，第一年售出三十万册，至1860年就至少被译成二十三种文字，被公认为是美国“南北战争”的起因之一。据说，在1862年“南北战争”高潮之时，美国第十六任总统亚伯拉罕·林肯会见她时，曾这么对她说：“那么您就是写了那本书引发这场伟大战争的那个小女人了！”（“So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War！”）

 

别以为这类传奇式的故事都离今天太远了，事实是半个世纪之前，一位作家，也起到类似的作用。

 

美国的瑞秋·卡逊有这种特殊的敏感性。在《寂静的春天》一书中以女性作家特有的生动笔触，详尽细致地讲述了以DDT为代表的杀虫剂的广泛使用，给我们的环境所造成的巨大的、难以逆转的危害。正是这个最终指向人类自身的潜在而又深远的威胁，让公众突然意识到环境问题十分严重，从而开启了群众性的现代环境保护运动。不仅如此，生于宾夕法尼亚斯普林代尔的瑞秋·卡逊从小就对大自然、对野生动物有浓厚的兴趣。她的大部分时间都是一个人在树林和小溪边度过的，观赏飞鸟、昆虫和花朵。她总是想将来做一个作家，并在十一岁那年就发表了一篇短故事。她声称，是她母亲将她引进了自然界，才使她对它们富有激情。

 

卡逊最早是按做一位作家的初衷进了当地宾夕发尼亚妇女学院的，但不久便改变主意，把主要学习的内容——英语改为学习生物学。接着，在1932年获得约翰斯·霍普金斯大学的文科硕士学位，并一边教书、一边在马萨诸塞州的伍兹霍尔海洋生物实验室读研究生，最后于1936年进了“美国渔业局”，担任“水下罗曼斯”这个专题广播的撰稿作家；“渔业局”自1940起改名为“美国鱼类和野生生物署”后，她仍留在这里直至1952年。

 

描绘和表现大自然的强度、活力和能动性、适应性是卡逊的最大乐趣。上世纪四十年代开始，她根据自己对当时还不为多数人所了解的海底生活的观察开始写作，并取得相当的成绩。以她1937年发表在《大西洋月刊》上的一篇随笔为基础而写的《在海风的吹拂下》，于1941年出版后，因其一贯的科学准确性和深刻性与优美的抒情散文风格的奇妙结合而颇获好评，登上《纽约时报》的畅销书排行榜。1943、1944年又出版了《来自海里的食物：新英格兰的鱼类和水生有壳动物》和《来自海里的食物：南大西洋的鱼类和水生有壳动物》。1951年的《围绕我们的海洋》为她带来了很大的荣誉：不但连续数十周登《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜，还获得了“国家图书奖”，被翻译成三十种文字。

 

卡逊1952年离开“美国鱼类和野生生物署”是为了能够集中精力、把时间全都用到她所喜爱的写作上去。当然她获得的回报也是十分优厚的，她不仅写出了《海角》和她去世之后于1965年出版的《奇妙的感觉》，更主要的是她那为后来被称为“生态运动”发出起跑信号的《寂静的春天》。

 

1958年1月，卡逊接到她的一位朋友，原《波士顿邮报》的作家奥尔加·欧文斯·哈金斯寄自马萨诸塞州的一封信。奥尔加在信中写到，1957年夏，州政府租用的一架飞机为消灭蚊子喷洒了DDT归来，飞过她和她丈夫在达克斯伯里的两英亩私人禽鸟保护区上空。第二天，她的许多鸟儿都死了。她说，她为此感到十分震惊。于是，哈金斯女士给《波士顿先驱报》写了一封长信，又给卡逊写了这个便条，附上这信的复印件，请这位已经成名的作家朋友在首都华盛顿找找什么人能帮她的忙，不要再发生像这类喷洒的事了。

 

但是应用DDT这类杀虫剂，就像是与魔鬼做交易：它杀灭了蚊子和其他的害虫，也许还会使作物提高了收益，但同时也杀灭了益虫。更可怕的是，在接受过DDT喷撒后，许多种昆虫能迅速繁殖抗DDT的种群；还有，由于DDT会积累于昆虫的体内，这些昆虫成为其他动物的食物后，那些动物，尤其是鱼类、鸟类，则会中毒而被危害。所以喷洒DDT就只是获得近期的利益，却牺牲了长远的利益。

 

在“鱼类和野生生物署”工作时，卡逊就了解有关DDT对环境产生长期危害的研究情况。她的两位同事于四十年代中就曾经写过有关DDT的危害的文章。她自己在1945年也给《读者文摘》寄过一篇关于DDT的危险性的文章，在文章中，她提出是否可以在该刊上谈谈这方面的故事，但是遭到了拒绝。现在，哈金斯提到大幅度喷洒杀虫剂的事使她的心灵受到极大的震撼，只是奥尔加的要求，她觉得她无力办到，于是，她决定自己来做，也就是她自己后来说的，哈金斯的信“迫使我把注意力转到我多年所一直关注的这个问题上来”，决定要把这个问题写出来，让很多人都知道。

 

今天，瑞秋的旧卧室窗口的Springdale，你可以看到的烟囱的切斯威克煤炭的燃煤电力厂不到一英里远：老红 - 和 - 白色，糖果，条纹栈和一个更新的，称为洗涤器在2010年。

 

References: Various articles were excerpted from Newspapers and internet sources from different times 

“The present moment is the substance with which the future is made. Therefore, the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. What else can you do?” 
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Art of Mindful Living: How to Bring Love, Compassion, and Inner Peace Into Your Daily Life
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Syncronistic meetings are like mirrors that reflect something of ourselves. If we want to grow spiritually, all we have to do is take a good look. Synchronicity holds the promise that if we want to change inside, the patterns of our external life will change as well. 
― Jean Shinoda Bolen

syn·chro·nism  (s  ng  kr  -n  z    m, s  n  -) n.

1. Coincidence in time; simultaneousness.

2. A chronological listing of historical personages or events so as to indicate parallel existence or occurrence.

3. Representation in the same artwork of events that occurred at different times.

syn  chro·nis  tic, syn  chro·nis  ti·cal (-t  -k  l) adj.

syn  chro·nis  ti·cal·ly adv.

a·nach·ro·nism  (  -n  k  r  -n  z    m)

n.

1. The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.

2. One that is out of its proper or chronological order, especially a person or practice that belongs to an earlier time: 

a·nach  ro·nis  tic, a·nach  ro·nous (-n  s) adj.

a·nach  ro·nis  ti·cal·ly, a·nach  ro·nous·ly adv.

------------------

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
Cultivate beauty in your sourrounds” 
― Wayne W. Dyer, The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way.

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  [19]???  2015-3-12 03:14         

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  [18]???  2015-3-11 12:52         

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  [17]???  2015-3-5 02:52         

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??????????http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-475-871596.html  ???????????????/dd>        

    

  [16]???  2015-3-5 02:51         

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  [15]???  2014-9-27 02:16         

??????????: ??????????????????????????levant information: ??????????http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-847277-829243.html

    

  [14]???  2014-9-20 01:15         

White House Releases Plan to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

September 19, 2014, 11:55 am ET by David Hoffman and Emma Schwartz



Email thisE-Mail This   

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The world is at ??dire risk?? of losing the remarkable power of antibiotic drugs that have saved millions of lives say prominent scientists who delivered a new report to President Obama on Thursday on the growing threat and how to fight it.

The report, which makes for sober reading, is the culmination of an 11-month study by the President??s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology.

??The evolution of antibiotic resistance is now occurring at an alarming rate,?? the scientists reported. ??This situation threatens patient care, economic growth, public health, agriculture, economic security and national security.??

Watch Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria online now, and sign up for our newsletter for a reminder about The Trouble with Antibiotics, airing Oct. 14 (check local listings).

Last year, FRONTLINE??s Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria showed how drug-resistant bacteria were spreading across the United States and around the globe. We documented the outbreak of a deadly bacteria at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health and told the stories of two young people who fought desperate battles to survive infection. We also explored the reasons why there??s a dearth of new antibiotics coming to market, and we pointed out the government??s lack of focus on the problem.

Although known for decades, the danger of antibiotic resistance has never been a high priority in Washington. But the crisis has taken on new dimensions as fewer new antibiotics came to market. A report last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 23,000 people die annually in the U.S. and more than 2 million are sickened by resistant infections.

Now, after years of relatively little attention to the issue, the White House is ramping up an effort to do something about antibiotic resistance. The president signed an executive order Thursday that calls for setting up a five-year national ??action plan?? by next February. The White House also issued a ??national strategy?? and Obama established a cabinet-level task force to help move things along. The administration also announced a $20 million prize for the development of rapid diagnostic tests to help spot highly resistant infections.

While the president has promised to take action, there??s no telling whether Congress or the administration will be able to muster new spending, legislation or regulatory changes. That heavy lifting will come later??in decisions about how to provide new resources and methods for the fight against drug resistant superbugs.

Here??s some of what the presidential advisers suggested needs to be done:
•Improve the ability to track antibiotic resistant bacteria. Knowing where resistant bugs exist and where they are spreading has been a major challenge. The science advisers suggest creating a high-tech nationwide network that would use the latest whole-genome sequencing technology. This would give clinicians and public health officials a much better map about the bacteria and where they are showing up. But it will require $190 million a year.
•Boost fundamental research to find out why and how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Although some mechanisms are known??the bacteria can pump out or destroy the antibiotic drugs??the science advisers say that we could learn more, especially about the behavior of the so-called Gram-negative bacteria, a kind of bacteria that are showing the most resistance modern antibiotics.
•Make it easier to test new antibiotics in clinical trials. For a long time, pharmaceutical companies have said a lengthy, difficult regulatory process discourages the development of new drugs. The science advisers suggest setting up a faster, more efficient way to conduct clinical trials??a key step in testing new drugs for safety and efficacy??just for new antibiotics.
•Encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop new antibiotics. While not endorsing anything specific, the science advisers floated some very ambitious ideas, such as big government rewards or incentives that would attract private investment. But they pointed out that such incentives won??t come cheap. The price tag might be $800 million to get one new antibiotic a year.
•Incentivize the health care industry to use antibiotics more carefully. Hospitals have become reservoirs of resistant bacteria and the science advisers suggest that the government could make a big difference by using federal reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid to force better stewardship of antibiotics. This means making sure that doctors curb overuse of antibiotics, a leading cause of resistance.
•Antibiotics are also widely used in American agriculture and more needs to be done to curb their use in raising farm animals. The science advisers suggest that the government seek ??substantial changes?? in the use of antibiotics on the farm. However, they don??t suggest changes beyond the measures already announced by the Food and Drug Administration, which has asked pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily phase out the use of the antibiotics for promoting growth in farm animals over three years and put antibiotics under the supervision of a veterinarian. The drugs would still be permitted to be added routinely to feed for cattle, swine and poultry for the purpose of disease prevention, which critics have said is still at low doses that would likely drive resistance.

Next month, we will be looking closely at the widespread use of antibiotics in food animals and whether it is fueling the growing crisis of antibiotic-resistance in The Trouble With Antibiotics, scheduled to air Oct. 14 [check local listings].

David Hoffman is the correspondent and Emma Schwartz is the associate producer and reporter on The Trouble With Antibiotics and Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria.

    

  [13]???  2013-11-6 01:19         

Pesticide exposure linked to increased endometriosis risk

Tuesday 5 November 2013 - 8am PST

Women's Health / GynecologyFertilityWater - Air Quality / AgricultureemailFeatured ArticleAcademic Journal
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Pesticide exposure linked to increased endometriosis risk
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Endometriosis is a common condition that affects around 10% of women in their reproductive years. New research has found that two organochlorine pesticides - once widely used in the US for pest control and agriculture but now banned - are linked to an increased risk of the chronic condition.

Researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, published the results of their study in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

They note that though endometriosis is noncancerous, it is characterized by tissue - which normally lines the inside of the uterus or womb - growing outside and attaching to other areas or organs, affecting the ovaries, fallopian tubes and lining of the pelvic cavity.

Common symptoms typically include painful menstrual periods, pelvic pain and infertility.

Kristen Upson, PhD, a study author who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Epidemiology Branch of the NIEHS, says:

"For many women, the symptoms of endometriosis can be chronic and debilitating, negatively affecting health-related quality of life, personal relationships and work productivity."

Because endometriosis is a condition led by estrogen, Upson notes that they "were interested in investigating the role of environmental chemicals that have estrogenic properties, such as organochlorine pesticides, on the risk of the disease."

Pesticides raise endometriosis risk to 30-70%Farmer spraying his crops with pesticides
In the US, certain pesticides that are no longer in use are still in blood samples of women today, and this recent study links the chemicals to an increased risk of endometriosis.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), organochlorine pesticides are man-made chemicals that were used in the recent past for agricultural and household pest problems.

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is one of the most well-known organochlorines, and it was "heavily applied in agricultural regions," says the USGS. Although these types of pesticides are no longer used in the US, the organization notes that they are still present in the environment.

To conduct their study, the researchers used data from the Women's Risk of Endometriosis study, which is a population-based case-control study of endometriosis in women aged 18- to 49-years-old.

There were 248 women who had recently been diagnosed with endometriosis and 538 women without the condition who served as controls.

Results of the research showed that women who had higher exposures to two organochlorine pesticides - beta-hexachlorocyclohexane and mirex - had a 30-70% increased risk of endometriosis.

The study authors say they found it interesting that these types of chemicals were found in the blood samples of women from the study, despite the fact that organochlorine pesticides have been banned in the US for several decades.

"The take-home message from our study," says Upson, "is that the persistent environmental chemicals, even those used in the past, may affect the health of the current generation of reproductive-age women with regard to a hormonally driven disease."

'Another piece of the puzzle'
This research is important, say the authors, because the medical community still does not entirely understand why some women develop endometriosis while others do not.

Study co-author Prof. Victoria Holt adds that their study "provides another piece of the puzzle."

They point to other lab studies of human tissue that have shown organochlorine pesticides display "estrogenic properties" and "adverse reproductive effects," which can alter the uterus, ovaries and hormone production.

"Given these actions," says Upson, "it's plausible that organochlorine pesticides could increase the risk of an estrogen-driven disease such as endometriosis."

Medical News Today recently reported that pesticides have been linked to type 2 diabetes.

Written by Marie Ellis

Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without the permission of Medical News Today.

References
Additional Information
Citations
Organochlorine Pesticides and Risk of Endometriosis: Findings from a Population-Based Case?CControl Study, Kristen Upson, Victoria L. Holt, et al., Environmental Health Perspectives, published 5 November 2013, Abstract.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Release via Eurekalert, accessed 5 November 2013.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/268399.php

    

  [12]???  2013-11-3 01:55         

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  [11]???  2013-10-27 09:02         

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  [10]???  2013-10-27 09:01         

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  [9]???  2013-10-18 07:14         

Humans don't know what impacts they may have with these engineer-design species out there. if evolution, whatever exists achieve certain balance in harmony; whatever we introduce, tackle the balance, impacting the environment. Hello! Do you know what you're doing? Humans!?
-------------------------------------
Ecology: Gene tweaking for conservation
Michael A. Thomas, Gary W. Roemer, C. Josh Donlan, Brett G. Dickson, Marjorie Matocq& Jason Malaney
25 September 2013
It is time to weigh up the pros and cons of using genetic engineering to rescue species from extinction, say Michael A. Thomas and colleagues.

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Subject terms:
Conservation Environmental sciences Genetics

An endangered Florida panther population was bolstered through hybridization with a related subspecies ?? a technique that could be refined using genomic tools.
THOMAS KITCHIN/VICTORIA HURST/GETTY
Even the most conservative estimates predict1 that 15?C40% of living species will be effectively extinct by 2050 as a result of climate change, habitat loss and other consequences of human activities. In the face of such drastic losses, scientists are debating the pros and cons of various, and often controversial, interventions. These include moving populations to help track hospitable habitats, and reinstating keystone species ?? those that have a large effect on ecosystem structure and function, such as top-level predators ?? into areas where they have long been absent2, 3. Even the revival of species that have recently gone extinct is being explored.

So far, an increasingly viable (and potentially less risky) option, which we call facilitated adaptation, has been little discussed. It would involve rescuing a target population or species by endowing it with adaptive alleles, or gene variants, using genetic engineering.

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Over the past 30 years, genetic engineering in agriculture has received substantial attention. Today, 12% of arable land worldwide is planted with genetically modified (GM) crops; the GM seed market alone is valued at US$15 billion. As techniques become ever more sophisticated, more possibilities will open up.

We believe that these combined factors mean that conservationists will almost certainly be tempted to apply genetic engineering to safeguard biodiversity. Facilitated adaptation might be less logistically challenging than moving entire populations, and less fraught with ecological and socio-economic complications ?? relocation could introduce harmful invasive species, for example, or unleash outbreaks of disease. But facilitated adaptation is likely to be beset with other challenges and pitfalls. Now is the time to consider what those might be.

Three options
There are at least three ways to avert extinction using facilitated adaptation. First, animals or plants from a threatened population could be crossed or hybridized with individuals of the same species from better-adapted populations to introduce beneficial alleles into the threatened population. Second, specific alleles drawn from a well-adapted population could be directly transferred into the genomes of threatened populations of the same species. And third, genes taken from a well-adapted species could be incorporated into the genomes of endangered individuals of a different species. Each approach carries its own set of challenges, complications and risks.

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Conservationists have already tried hybridizing individuals to aid the recovery of vulnerable populations. For instance, in an isolated population of the viper Vipera berus in Sweden, the number of inviable offspring produced as a result of inbreeding plummeted when male vipers from a healthy population were introduced4. Similarly, the size of a remnant Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) population effectively increased by 100% after conservationists introduced eight cats of a related subspecies, Puma concolor stanleyana, from Texas. Heterozygosity, a measure of genetic variation, also rose in the Florida population, from around 18% to more than 25% in 12 years5.

This practice of injecting lost genetic diversity into a threatened population could be refined using genomic tools. For instance, conservationists could screen potential donor populations for individuals with alleles that would, say, yield physiological tolerance of warmer temperatures, or resistance to a catastrophic disease.

The potential risks of this approach, as with relocating entire populations, include the introduction of wildlife diseases, the dilution of locally adaptive alleles and the disruption of co-adapted gene complexes that impart advantages crucial in the threatened population's local habitat.

Success with the second approach ?? directly transferring specific alleles drawn from a well-adapted population into individuals from a threatened population ?? would similarly depend on introducing enough 'better-adapted' individuals with a sufficient selective advantage to increase the mean fitness of the threatened population. This would require conservationists first to work out which genes are controlling relevant adaptive traits. Earlier this year, aquaculture researchers identified6 alleles associated with heat tolerance in a commercial rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. These gene variants could potentially be inserted into the genomes of fish eggs or embryos in populations threatened by rising water temperatures because of climate change.

This strategy has promise if one or a few genes have a drastic impact on the trait of interest. For instance, some amphibians are resistant to the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, which has been linked to massive population declines and several extinctions. If one or a few genes are found to increase resistance, they might make excellent targets for transfer.

This form of genetic engineering is probably the least risky of the approaches described here, because it involves the movement of alleles within the same species, without the attendant risks of moving diseases or parasites. But again, the challenge is that numerous genes tend to be associated with complex traits. Interactions between genes and the environment, and between introduced alleles and existing genetic diversity, will also be difficult to predict. And, as with the hybridization approach, well-adapted combinations of alleles could be disrupted.

??Well-adapted combinations of alleles could be disrupted.??
The third transgenic approach ?? transferring genes between different species ?? has been used for more than a decade to improve resistance to crop stressors, including drought and extreme temperatures7. Certain genes from rice and the cress plant Arabidopsis, for instance, make tomato plants more tolerant of cold temperatures. A few years ago, developmental biologists produced mice with exceptionally long digits by replacing a limb-specific transcriptional enhancer of the mouse Prx1 gene locus with the homologous bat sequence8. Conservationists could use similar approaches to explore the use of other genes, to augment, for example, resistance to white-nose syndrome, a rapidly spreading and deadly fungal disease in North American bats.

The effects of moving genetic variants between species, however, are likely to be even harder to predict than those of transferring variants within species, and a major concern is that such an approach could bring unintended and unmanageable consequences.

Preservation programmes
To begin the process of identifying adaptive genes and alleles, and predicting how they will behave in the target genomic and environmental contexts, conservationists can tap several resources. Natural history museum and herbarium collections worldwide, for example, can provide basic data on biogeography and genetics for many animal and plant species.

Large-scale preservation projects could provide the actual tissues needed to explore adaptations among organisms in different ecological contexts. One such project is the Global Genome Biodiversity Network ?? an effort to preserve and provide open access to genomic information and DNA samples from various collections, including those of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC (see www.mnh.si.edu/ggi).

Ultimately, successful facilitated adaptation will require unprecedented collaboration between organismal, ecological and molecular biologists and climate scientists9. Biorepositories ?? such as seed banks, natural history museums and zoological parks, including the Frozen Zoo at San Diego Zoo in California, which houses around 9,000 frozen cell samples from endangered species ?? will need to be integrated with advances in biotechnology and efforts to explore the genomic mechanisms underlying adaptive traits associated with climate change10, catastrophic diseases and so on.

Facilitated adaptation will also require a change in people's views about biodiversity conservation and its ethics, practices and impact on society. Even moving members of the panther subspecies from Texas into the Florida panther's ecosystem incited misgivings over the appropriateness of meddling directly with organisms rather than with their habitat.

A serious concern is that even the possibility of using genetic-engineering tools to rescue biodiversity will encourage inaction with regard to climate change. Before genetic engineering can be seriously entertained as a tool for preserving biodiversity, conservationists need to agree on the types of scenario for which facilitated adaptation, managed relocation and other adaptation strategies might be appropriate, and where such strategies are likely to fail or introduce more serious problems.

For some species, facilitated adaptation could turn out to be the only viable remedy.

Nature 501, 485?C486 (26 September 2013) doi:10.1038/501485a
References

Thomas, C. D. & Williamson, M. Nature 482, E4?CE5 (2012).
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Donlan, J. et al. Nature 436, 913?C914 (2005).
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Hoegh-Guldberg, O. et al. Science 321, 345?C346 (2008).
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Madsen, T., Stille, B. & Shine, R. Biol. Conserv. 75, 113?C118 (1996).
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Johnson, W. E. et al. Science 329, 1641?C1645 (2010).
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Rebl, A. et al. Mar. Biotechnol. 15, 445?C460 (2013).
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Zhang, J. et al. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. Plant 36, 108?C114 (2000).
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Related stories and links

From nature.com
Agriculture: Feeding the future
03 July 2013
Re-wilding North America
17 August 2005
From elsewhere
The New Yorker: Recall of the wild
Author information

Affiliations
Michael A. Thomas is professor of biology at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.
Gary W. Roemer is associate professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico.
C. Josh Donlan is executive director of Advanced Conservation Strategies, Midway, Utah, and a visiting fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Brett G. Dickson is president and chief scientist at the Conservation Science Partners, Truckee, California, and assistant research professor at the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Marjorie Matocq is associate professor of biology in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.
Jason Malaney is a research associate in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada.
Corresponding author
Correspondence to: Michael A. Thomas
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Comments
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Avatar for Kristof NordinKristof Nordin•2013-09-28 06:14 AM
Using GM to address issues of ??conservation?? is one of the most contradictory ideas I have heard in a long time. If we look at the reasons that we are currently genetically engineering crops and animals we find that we are simply trying to adapt organisms to the problems that we, as humans, have been creating. Many of these problems have arisen directly as a result of the loss of natural biodiversity. For instance, as we have pushed our agriculture in the direction of monocropping, natural habitat and natural predators have been displaced giving rise to the use of pesticides (and now Bt-modified crops that produce their own pesticides). As pioneer species try to reclaim the land that we have been clearing, we have declared these pioneer species to be ??weeds?? and manufacture herbicides to kill them (and now genetically engineer ??RoundUp-Ready?? crops to withstand ever-larger doses of these herbicides). As dietary choices have been displaced by a limited handful of crops, nutrition has become compromised, leading to nutritional deficiencies and the push for the genetic engineering of grain crops (such as Golden Rice) to contain nutrients such as Vitamin A (only one of many nutrients that have become compromised). If humanity is truly concerned about ??conservation?? we should recognize the fact that our agricultural systems need to move in the direction of integrated, diverse, perennial, and seasonal systems of production which work in harmony with the other elements of nature (including animals, insects, plants, microorganisms, etc). We don??t need to change the genetics of any of these incredible natural resources, we simply need to appreciate their inherent value and learn how to fully integrate them into resilient, functional, and abundant systems of design.
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Avatar for Jason GreyJason Grey•2013-09-26 10:45 PM
I've been pumping putting everything??s genome on disk since 1992. Its now partially feasible with whole genome chip sequencing. Additionally, its even more feasible with single pour whole genome 1 day sequencing which is possible but held back for 10 years as it competes with current sales. My main dilemma is, we as a species seem to think money is more important than life. An example, the state of Oregon in the US cut down every single tree in a temperate rainforest in a 30 year period, making over 4000 animals and plants extinct, which are not even recorded properly. A further example, they found the last of a jaguar like cat that was dead, as it's environment was cut down to sell to Europe for wood products...thus I am sick of "what we should do or talk about" versus actual action, as in the next 30 years we most likely as a stupid monkey species kill ourselves along with 95% of the other life on our tiny planet barely above the size necessary to hold liquid water based on planetary mass...Sincerely, Steve
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Avatar for Matt ChewMatt Chew•2013-09-26 02:05 PM
As the practical potential for genetic manipulation of failing populations increases, so does the potential for controversy over the goals and objectives of conservation biology. When does an organism become an artifact, and how does that affect its value, or the value of its offspring? How much human agency is too much, and how (if at all) do we rank various interventions along a continuum? These questions have legal as well as biological significance. The nearly 180-year history of attempts to categorize introduced species suggests that clarity in such matters is elusive, and time is not on our side. There, a hodgepodge of criteria are combined and recombined in the literature, idiosyncratically and ad hoc, while the importance of nativeness is presented to the public as simple and essential. The targets are moving. The number of taxa involved are increasing. The number of possible philosophical positions increases with the number of techniques and technologies in the conservation tool kit. Expect this to get harder, not easier.

    

  [8]???  2013-9-21 07:25         

Human beings are in the middle: Try to coexist with animals and plants, a wise choice.
Science 20 September 2013:
Vol. 341 no. 6152 pp. 1332-1335
DOI: 10.1126/science.341.6152.1332
NEWS FOCUS
Predators in the 'Hood
Virginia Morell
Once hunted nearly to extinction in the lower 48, America's biggest predators are making a remarkable comeback. Their return has sparked a range of emotions, from surprise and joy to demands that the animals be harshly controlled, if not shot outright. So scientists, conservationists, and wildlife managers are all scrambling to figure out how to best manage animals that literally live next door and are capable of killing humans.

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NEWS FOCUS
Man in the Middle
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Science 20 September 2013: 1334-1335.
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Science 20 September 2013: 1409.
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  [7]???  2013-8-9 01:23         

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  [6]???  2013-4-10 03:06         

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  [5]???  2013-2-28 16:24         

?Щ???????????????????????????????????

        

??????(2013-3-19 00:47)??Thanks so much for your positive attitude. The world is a global village, however; so sooner or later, it drifts (????) everywhere.   

    

  [4]?С?  2013-2-28 15:01         

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  [3]??  2013-2-28 12:16         

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??????(2013-3-19 00:48)??Ha, ???????????? Who is your teacher? Thanks for showing up. What do you know about ????   

    

  [2]???  2013-2-28 11:39         

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  [1]????  2013-2-28 10:32         

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