黄岛王台最新招工信息:小心身边的毒药

作者：帕特里夏·亨特    2011年10月11日

    苏珊的一天是这样开始的：她先慢跑到城郊，然后抄近道穿过玉米地到市中心，在星巴克买上一杯花草茶，再回家冲个澡。这是她早晨的例行做法，听起来别提多健康了，然而事实却是，苏珊正将自己暴露在大量对身体有害的化学物质当中：玉米上有杀虫剂和除草剂、茶杯里有塑化剂、洗澡用的香皂、洗发水和润肤露当中还含有各种增加香味和使用功效的成分……有人认为这些有害物质的含量微乎其微，但并不是这么回事——尤其对怀孕6周的苏珊来说更是如此。

Scientists have become increasingly worried that even extremely low levels of some environmental contaminants may have significant damaging effects on our bodies—and that fetuses are particularly vulnerable to such assaults. Some of the chemicals that are all around us have the ability to interfere with our endocrine systems, which regulate the hormones that control our weight, our biorhythms and our reproduction. Synthetic hormones are used clinically to prevent pregnancy, control insulin levels in diabetics, compensate for a deficient thyroid gland and alleviate menopausal symptoms. You wouldn’t think of taking these drugs without a prescription, but we unwittingly do something similar every day. 

    极低水平的环境污染也可能对我们的健康产生相当大的影响，而胎儿更容易受到伤害，对此，科学家们变得越来越担忧起来。我们周围的某些化学物质会影响人体的内分泌系统——其作用是通过调节激素分泌从而控制体重、生理周期以及生殖能力。人工合成的激素被临床广泛应用：避孕、控制糖尿病的胰岛素水平、补充甲减病人缺乏的甲状腺激素、以及减轻更年期症状等。如果没有医生给你开出这些药方，你肯定不会服用这些药物，然而事与愿违，其实我们每天都在不经意中摄入了类似的物质。

An increasing number of clinicians and scientists are becoming convinced that these chemical exposures con­tribute to obesity, endometriosis, diabetes, autism, allergies, cancer and other diseases. Laboratory studies—mainly in mice but sometimes in human sub­jects—­have demonstrated that low levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in­duce subtle changes in the developing fetus that have profound health effects in adulthood and even on subsequent generations. The chemicals an expecting mother takes into her body during the course of a typical day may affect her children and her grandchildren.

    越来越多的临床医师和科学家认为这些化学物质会导致肥胖症、子宫内膜异位症、糖尿病、自闭症、过敏、癌症和其它疾病。实验室通过对小白鼠进行实验（偶尔也有人体受试者参与）也证实：这些扰乱内分泌的化学物质（或：环境荷尔蒙）只要一点点，就可以诱使发育中的胚胎产生某些微妙的改变，而这种变化会对将来成年期的健康状况产生深远影响，甚至还会影响后代的健康。孕妇在孕期如果每天摄入这些化学物质，就可能对她的孩子和孙子产生影响。

This isn’t just a lab experiment: we have lived it. Many of us born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol, or DES, a synthetic estrogen prescribed to pregnant women in a mistaken attempt to prevent miscarriage. An article in the June issue of the New England Journal of Medicine called the lessons learned about the effects of fetal human exposures to DES on adult disease “powerful.”

    这并非只是实验而已：我们自己就是活生生的例子。很多50、60、70年代出生的人，在子宫内接触到了乙烯雌酚（也叫DES），这种人工合成的雌激素曾被用来防止孕妇流产，谁知此举竟是个错误的尝试。在六月刊的《新英格兰医学杂志》上有一篇文章称，人类胚胎因在宫内接触DES，导致成年后出现疾病，DES的副作用给我们的教训堪称“血淋淋”啊。

In the U.S., two federal agencies, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, are responsible for banning dangerous chemicals and making sure that chemicals in our food and drugs have been thoroughly tested. Scientists and clinicians across diverse disciplines are concerned that the efforts of the EPA and the FDA are insufficient in the face of the complex cocktail of chemicals in our environment. Updating a proposal from last year, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey introduced legislation this year to create the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011. If enacted, chemical companies would be required to demonstrate the safety of their products before marketing them. This is perfectly logical, but it calls for a suitable screening-and-testing program for endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The need for such tests has been recognized for more than a decade, but no one has yet devised a sound testing protocol.

美国的两个联邦机构，食品暨药物管理局（FDA）和环境保护局（EPA）负责禁止有害化学物质，并确保食品和药品中的化学物质全都经过了安全测试。各学科的科学家和临床医师们则担心，环境中的各种化学物质鱼龙混杂，仅靠EPA和FDA的努力还远远不够。新泽西州议员弗兰克•劳滕伯格从去年起就提出修订议案，并在今年引入立法希望推出《2011年安全化学品法案》。一旦立法，化学品公司就必须在产品上市之前验证其安全性。这在逻辑上完美无缺，不过对于环境荷尔蒙的筛选和测试还需制定一套合理的执行程序。其实早在十多年前，人们就认为安全测试势在必行，却苦于无人提出可行的测试方案。

Regulators also cannot interpret the mounting evidence from laboratory studies, many of which use techniques and methods of analysis that weren’t even dreamed of when toxicology testing protocols were developed in the 1950s. It’s like providing a horse breeder with genetic sequence data for five stallions and asking him or her to pick the best horse. Interpreting the data would require a broad range of clinical and scientific experience.

    而且，监管机构面对日益剧增的实验室研究证据也一筹莫展，很多研究用到的分析方法是20世纪50年代制定毒理检测方案时做梦都想不到的。这难度就好比拿5匹种马的基因组数据给马倌，并让他从中挑选一匹千里马。毕竟，破译那些数据没有广泛的临床和科学经验是根本行不通的。

That’s why professional societies representing more than 40,000 scientists wrote a letter to the FDA and EPA offering their expertise. The agencies should take them up on it. Academic scientists and clinicians need a place at the table with government and industry scientists. We owe it to mothers everywhere, who want to give their babies the best possible chance of growing into healthy adults.

于是，就有多个专业协会代表4万多名科学家致信FDA和EPA，向他们进言纳贤。FDA和EPA应该接纳建议。当政府与业界学者们坐下来商讨监测方案时，科学家和临床医师也应占据一席之地。妈妈们都希望给宝宝最好的，让宝宝健健康康地长大成人。我们有义务对全天下的母亲负责。