Reasons for the highly variable and often poor protection conferred by the Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine are multifaceted and poorly understood. The objective of the study was to determine whether early life PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDE (1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene) exposure reduces 6-month infant BCG vaccine response.

The study investigated exposure to individual environmental chemicals and selected mixtures in relation to the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA), a widely used biomarker of autoimmunity, in a representative sample of the U.S. population.

Original Source

The quality of diets in rodent feeding trials is crucial. We describe the contamination with environmental pollutants of 13 laboratory rodent diets from 5 continents. Measurements were performed using accredited methodologies. All diets were contaminated with pesticides (1-6 out of 262 measured), heavy metals (2-3 out of 4, mostly lead and cadmium), PCDD/Fs (1-13 out of 17) and PCBs (5-15 out of 18). Out of 22 GMOs tested for, Rounduptolerant GMOs were the most frequently detected, constituting up to 48% of the diet.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are developmental toxicants but the impact of both maternal and paternal exposures on offspring birth size is largely unexplored. The objective of the study was to examine associations between maternal and paternal serum concentrations of 63 POPs, comprising five major classes of pollutants, with birth size measures.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, and methylmercury (MeHg) are environmentally persistent with adverse effects on neurodevelopment. However, especially among populations with commonly experienced low levels of exposure, research on neurodevelopmental effects of these toxicants has produced conflicting results. The objective of the study was to assess the low-level prenatal exposure to these contaminants with memory and learning.

Prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has been associated with impaired performance on attention tasks in previous studies, but the extent to which these cognitive deficits translate into behavioral problems in the classroom and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remains unknown.