Health effects of persistent organic pollutants: the challenge for the Pacific Basin and for the world
-
David O. Carpenter
Abstract
Persistent organic pollutants include some organo-metals, such as methylmercury; lipophilic halogenated organics, such as dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorinated pesticides, and polybrominated flame retardants; and perfluorinated compounds used as repellants. These compounds are resistant to degradation both in the environment and in the human body and tend to bioaccumulate within the food chain. Persistent organic pollutants cause a variety of adverse health effects, including cancer, immune system suppression, decrements in cognitive and neurobehavioral function, disruption of sex steroid and thyroid function, and at least some of them increase the risk of chronic diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Some compounds are byproducts of industry and combustion. Although the manufacture and use of most man-made chemicals has been reduced in recent years, the levels currently present in the population are still associated with an elevated risk of human disease. Others are still manufactured and used. These are dangerous chemicals that have contaminated even areas remote from the industrialized world, such as the polar regions.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorials
- Letter from the Editor: Introducing our new publisher
- Environmental exposures in the era of climate change
- Reviews
- Health impacts of climate change and biosecurity in the Asian Pacific region
- Exposures to lead
- The status of water and sanitation among Pacific Rim nations
- Hazardous waste in the Asian Pacific region
- Emerging issues in the Pacific Basin
- Baseline determination in social, health, and genetic areas in communities affected by glyphosate aerial spraying on the northeastern Ecuadorian border
- Air pollution: a tale of two countries
- Health effects of persistent organic pollutants: the challenge for the Pacific Basin and for the world
- Arsenic geochemistry and human health in South East Asia
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorials
- Letter from the Editor: Introducing our new publisher
- Environmental exposures in the era of climate change
- Reviews
- Health impacts of climate change and biosecurity in the Asian Pacific region
- Exposures to lead
- The status of water and sanitation among Pacific Rim nations
- Hazardous waste in the Asian Pacific region
- Emerging issues in the Pacific Basin
- Baseline determination in social, health, and genetic areas in communities affected by glyphosate aerial spraying on the northeastern Ecuadorian border
- Air pollution: a tale of two countries
- Health effects of persistent organic pollutants: the challenge for the Pacific Basin and for the world
- Arsenic geochemistry and human health in South East Asia
