Potentially harmful industrial chemicals detected in US fast foods

 Chicken nuggets, burritos and other popular items consumers buy from fast food outlets in the United States contain chemicals that are linked to a long list of serious health problems, according to a first-of-its-kind study published today.

Researchers at the George Washington University and their colleagues bought fast foods from popular outlets and found 10 of 11 potentially harmful chemicals in the samples, including phthalates, a group of chemicals that are used to make plastics soft and are known to disrupt the endocrine system. The research team also found other plasticizers, chemicals that are emerging as replacements to phthalates.

“We found phthalates and other plasticizers are widespread in prepared foods available at U.S. fast food chains, a finding that means many consumers are getting a side of potentially unhealthy chemicals along with their meal,” Lariah Edwards, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral scientist at GW, said. “Stronger regulations are needed to help keep these harmful chemicals out of the food supply.”

Previously, a GW research team led by Ami Zota, a professor of environmental and occupational health, looked at fast food consumption in a national survey and found people who reported eating more fast foods had higher levels of phthalates. No one has looked at the link between fast food and non-phthalate plasticizers, which are used in place of banned or restricted phthalates in food packaging and processing equipment.

In this study, Edwards, Zota and their colleagues purchased 64 fast food items from different restaurants and asked for three pairs of unused food handling gloves. The team tested food items and the gloves for 11 kinds of phthalates and plasticizers, finding that:

• 81% of the food samples studied contained a phthalate called DnBP and 70% contained DEHP. Both these chemicals have been linked in numerous studies to fertility and reproductive problems in humans. These phthalates can also increase risk for learning, attention, and behavioral disorders in childhood.
• 86% of the foods contained the replacement plasticizer known as DEHT, a chemical that needs further study to determine its impact on human health.
• Foods containing meats, such as cheeseburgers and chicken burritos, had higher levels of the chemicals studied.
• Chicken burritos and cheeseburgers had the highest levels of DEHT. The researchers noted that food handling gloves collected from the same restaurants also contained this chemical.
• Cheese pizzas had the lowest levels of most chemicals tested.

Phthalates and replacement plasticizers are chemicals used to make plastics soft and can migrate out of plastics into the food, which is ingested. Some sources of plastics include food handling gloves, industrial tubing, food conveyor belts and the outer packaging used to wrap fast food meals available in restaurants.

Previous research by Zota’s team suggests that people who eat food cooked at home have lower levels of these chemicals in their bodies, probably because home cooks do not use food handling gloves or plastic packaging. To avoid these industrial chemicals, consumers can switch to mostly home cooked meals, which are often healthier than fast food, Edwards said.

Both Edwards and Zota say their study suggests the need for greater scrutiny and regulation of chemicals used to make food. They point out that replacement plasticizers are increasingly used to replace banned or restricted phthalates yet the studies needed to show that they are safe have yet to be done.

The study also raises the concern that certain racial/minority groups may be disproportionately affected by these chemicals.

“Disadvantaged neighborhoods often have plenty of fast food outlets, but limited access to healthier foods like fruits and vegetables,” Zota said. “Additional research needs to be done to find out whether people living in such food deserts are at higher risk of exposure to these harmful chemicals.”

The study, “Phthalate and Novel Plasticizer Concentrations in Food Items from U.S. Fast Food Chains: A Preliminary Analysis,” was published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. This research was supported by the Passport Foundation, Forsythia Foundation and Marisla Foundation.

New K-12 “standards” are woefully incomplete, inaccurate, and wrongly focus on marriage and abstinence as solutions to adolescent sexual health

Experts at the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) are calling attention to a crisis in sex education, specifically the continued creation and endorsement of abstinence-only curricula being taught across the U.S. The commentary in the Journal of Adolescent Health is a response to the Medical Institute for Sexual Health’s recently released K-12 Standards for Optimal Sexual Health, which the authors find deeply flawed for its scientific inaccuracies, omitted topics, and misdirected focus on marriage and abstinence as solutions to adolescent sexual health. 

The authors sound the alarm on the decline in sex education across the country. Despite substantial evidence that comprehensive sex education works to promote sexual health among adolescents, as well as strong support for its implementation from health professionals and parents alike, delivery of sex education in the U.S. has declined over the last 25 years.

“The trend of decreasing or stagnate sex education delivery over the past two decades in the U.S. is unsettling,” said Laura Lindberg, Principal Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. “We are missing crucial opportunities to positively influence the sexual and reproductive health outcomes for adolescents both in their adolescence and throughout their lives.”

When taught, comprehensive curricula provide adolescents with accurate information on essential sexuality topics, opportunities to explore their identities and values, and skillsets in communication and decision-making. The National Sex Education Standards (NSES) are referenced in the paper as a prime example of standards that provide clear, age-appropriate instruction to reduce risk behaviors among adolescents and improve their overall health and wellbeing.

The authors express their dismay at M-SOSH, as it ignores the science and instead promotes an ideological agenda of abstinence until marriage. Abstinence-only-until-marriage approaches to sex education have been proven time and again to be not only ineffective but also harmful as they often withhold important health information from young people.

“It is our duty as adolescent health professionals to implement the tools we have to do better in providing comprehensive sex education to young people,” said lead author John Santelli, MD, MPH, and professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “Promoting abstinence-only curriculum goes against the evidence and is unequivocally a step in the wrong direction.”

The commentary includes a side-by-side comparison of NSES and M-SOSH’s glossaries, highlighting critical topics missing from M-SOSH such as sexual orientation and gender identity, social determinants of health; disabilities; reproductive justice; PrEP therapy for HIV infection; and adolescent rights and minor consent laws.

“Sexual orientation and gender identity are foundational to any sex education program,” said David Bell, MD MPH, president of SAHM, and professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia Mailman School and professor of Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center. “We cannot simply pay lip service by mentioning the terms. Adolescents need clear guidance to explore these topics both in the exploration of their own identities and to be able to navigate the world around them.”

“Young people have the right to the information and skills that can help them protect their health and plan their futures,” said Debra Hauser, president of Advocates for Youth, an organization that works with young people in the fight for sexual health, rights, and justice. “It is misguided and harmful to exclude information about sexual orientation and gender identity or to fail to help young people think critically about the economic, social, political and environmental factors that impact sexual health when teaching sex education. Schools have the responsibility to provide honest sex education that includes, affirms, and educates all of our students."

The authors also provide detailed examples of M-SOSH’s medical inaccuracies, including misinformation about adolescents’ cognitive development and how it affects their decision-making abilities. The risks of sex outside of marriage to an adolescents’ physical and mental health are also grossly exaggerated.

“The emphasis on marriage throughout M-SOSH is cause for concern,” said Dr. Santelli. “The vast majority of Americans have sex before they are married. The notion that marriage is the ideal setting for sexual activity is unrealistic, lacks scientific backing, and is frankly outdated.”   

The authors call upon health professionals to recognize M-SOSH as a flawed and harmful obstacle in the fight for improved adolescent sex education. The authors urge decision makers to use NSES, which provides a comprehensive blueprint for states and local school districts to build their sex education programs.

“School-based Sex Education in the U.S. at a Crossroads: Taking the Right Path” by John Santelli et al. is currently available online via this link..

The Child Tax Credit is effective, popular, and should be made permanent

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Full report

Some 91 percent of families with low incomes (less than $35,000) are using their monthly Child Tax Credit payments for the most basic household expenses — food, clothing, shelter, and utilities — or education. Families are making these investments nationwide: in every state and the District of Columbia, large majorities of low-income families are making such use of the credit, according to our new analysis of Census Bureau data covering the first three months of payments.

Many of these households are receiving the full Child Tax Credit for the first time thanks to the American Rescue Plan’s credit expansion. The Rescue Plan temporarily increased the credit amount, provided for the credit to be paid monthly rather than once a year at tax time, and halted a policy that prevented 27 million children from receiving the full credit because their parents earned too little or lacked earnings in a given year. Congress should make it a top priority to ensure that the full credit remains permanently available to children in families with the lowest incomes, a measure that in percentage terms drives 87 percent of the expansion’s anti-poverty impact.

The vast majority of low-income households with children spent some or all of their new monthly payments on necessities, according to our analysis of detailed data from Census’s Household Pulse Survey collected from late July through late September. Among households with incomes below $35,000 who received the Child Tax Credit, 88 percent spent their payments on the most basic needs: food, clothing, rent, a mortgage, or utility bills.

The Child Tax Credit payments also helped many parents and other caregivers invest in their children’s education, Pulse data suggest. Some 40 percent of families with low incomes used their Child Tax Credit payments to cover education costs such as school books and supplies, tuition, after-school programs, and transportation to and from school. (In some cases, these expenses may be for adults’ own education. About 5 percent of adults in low-income households with children are enrolled in school, other Census data show.)

A sizeable share of U.S. households with incomes above $35,000 also spent the credit on necessities, but a smaller share did so than lower-income families, who face more difficulties affording the basics

Low-income families also commonly used the credits for other needs like monthly car payments, child care (for families with children under age 5), and paying down debt.

DISCRIMINATORY ACTIONS BY TOWN OFFICIALS WILL COST CROMWELL $5 MILLON

Connecticut Fair Housing Center

In 2017, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and Gilead Community Services, represented by Washington, D.C. firm Relman Colfax, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Town of Cromwell. The case claimed that the intentional discriminatory actions of town officials in Cromwell violated the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

On Friday, October 15, 2021, a federal jury found the town of Cromwell liable for the discriminatory behavior that forced the closure of a home for adults with disabilities in 2015. The jury awarded the group home provider, Gilead Community Services, $5 million in punitive damages and $181,000 in compensatory damages, sending a clear message to town officials that their actions violated federal civil rights laws.

In 2015, Gilead Community Services purchased a single-family home on Reiman Drive in Cromwell to serve as a community-based residence for six men with mental health disabilities. In response to the purchase, city officials in Cromwell staged a battle against Gilead and their clients through a series of overtly discriminatory actions making it clear that individuals with disabilities were not welcome.

Cromwell officials began their public attack during a forum about Gilead’s planned operations for 5 Reiman Drive, which gave town residents the opportunity to spew hatred and discrimination. The next day, Cromwell issued a press release asking Gilead to relocate the home. Then Cromwell petitioned the Department of Public Health to deny Gilead the ability to operate. When these strategies were unsuccessful, Cromwell wrongly issued a cease-and-desist order and refused to grant Gilead tax-exempt status as it had in the past. The actions of the Town of Cromwell caused Gilead to close the home.

“However, the true victims, the six men who only wanted housing free from discrimination, will likely never return to Cromwell, and now live with the understanding that because of their disabilities they are not welcome in all communities.”

Erin kemple, Executive Director for the Connecticut Fair Housing Center

“By making such a large punitive damages award, the jury recognized and rejected the intentional, illegal acts of town officials. I hope this serves as a message to other municipalities that they cannot refuse to allow people with disabilities to move into their communities,” said Erin Kemple, Executive Director of the Connecticut Fair Housing Center, one of the co-plaintiffs in the case. “However, the true victims, the six men who only wanted housing free from discrimination, will likely never return to Cromwell, and now live with the understanding that because of their disabilities they are not welcome in all communities.”

Testimony in Opposition to Permit Applications by Wheelabrator Putnam, Inc.

CT Zero Waste Testimony

We are writing as a group of concerned experts, residents, and environmental advocates in opposition to the proposed permits and modification of permits to enable expansion of the Wheelabrator ash landfill in Putnam with capacity to handle 7-10 times the volume needed to serve Connecticut. 2 / CT Zero Waste Testimony, 10/15/2021 We respectfully request that you deny Application Nos. 201903454, 201500823, 201903451, and 201903452 to expand the landfill and discharge (via the water pollution control facility) into the sewer and the groundwater, and then inevitably into the Quinebaug River. Ash can blow off of the landfill into the nearby community and environment. If airborne ash and leachate is allowed to be discharged in this way it will be detrimental to human health, wildlife habitats, and the environment. Incinerator ash and its leachate are known to contain toxics that are harmful to human health and persist in the environment. Most notably, these include chemicals and metals such as dioxins and furans, mercury, lead, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS, known as forever chemicals, are highly persistent and can last in the environment for thousands of years. PFAS are also highly toxic to humans in very low doses. Epidemiological research shows that PFAS can cause high cholesterol, low birth weights, certain cancers, and immune system and thyroid disruption. CT DEEP has identified the Quinebaug River ecosystem as an area of natural diversity in its Natural Diversity Database. The DEEP website indicates the importance of natural diversity regions: The Natural Diversity Database maps represent approximate locations of endangered, threatened, and special concern species and significant natural communities in Connecticut. The locations of species and natural communities depicted on the maps are based on data collected over the years by DEEP staff, scientists, conservation groups, and landowners. From a federal perspective, these permits, and this modification also contradict the purpose and intent of the Clean Water Act. Downgrading water to facilitate its pollution undermines federal safeguards and would serve no purpose other than to signal to industry that these protections are unimportant and optional. Progress to protect human health and the environment happens only when government agencies adopt policies that show polluting industries that we will not accept outdated, unsafe, and wasteful practices. 

Adding SNAP benefits for older adults in Medicare, Medicaid can reduce hospital visits, healthcare costs

A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine shows that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by older adults dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid is associated with fewer hospital visits and lower healthcare costs.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH CARE

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IMAGE: SETH BERKOWITZ, MD, MPH view more 

CREDIT: UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Food insecurity among older adults takes a toll on the nutrition and health of those affected. According to datafrom 2019, 5.2 million people age 60 and above in the U.S. were food insecure – equaling 7.1% of that population – and that number has likely grown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Older adults facing food insecurity are more likely to have chronic health conditions like depression, asthma, diabetes, congestive heart failure and heart attack. Only 48% of older adults who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides benefits to supplement budgets to purchase healthy and nutritious foods, are enrolled in the program.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows the importance of older adults taking advantage of this nutrition benefit, as it is associated with fewer hospital visits and lower healthcare costs.

“Providing income support for older adults is incredibly important for health,” said study lead author Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, assistant professor of general medicine and epidemiology at the UNC School of Medicine. “Along with affecting the foods they have access to, food insecurity can force people to choose between food and medications or other basic needs, and worsen mental health. All of this takes a toll on what is already a group at high risk for poor health outcomes.”

The study used a unique circumstance to better evaluate the association between SNAP participation and healthcare use and cost. In 2017, Benefits Data Trust – a national nonprofit dedicated to helping people access essential public benefits and services – was contracted by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to help people age 65 and over who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid enroll in SNAP. BDT provided outreach to these individuals by mail, a telephone-based screening, and – if the person chose to enroll in SNAP – the nonprofit would aid in filing an application. This circumstance allowed for previously unavailable linkages among data sets related to SNAP outreach, SNAP participation, and health care use and cost.

Researchers used data from BDT’s outreach to more than 115,000 people age 65 and older in North Carolina between 2016 and 2020 who were dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, and were eligible for SNAP but not enrolled. Almost 5,100 of those who received outreach about SNAP benefits enrolled in the program. SNAP enrollment was associated with a decrease in inpatient hospitalizations, emergency department visits, long-term care admissions, as well as fewer dollars in Medicaid payments per person per year.

“Billions of dollars in food and healthcare assistance go untapped every year, often because people aren’t aware they are eligible or they are not sure how to access them,” said Pauline Abernathy, chief strategy officer at BDT. “These research findings show that data-driven outreach and application assistance significantly increase SNAP participation, which in turn markedly improves health and lowers Medicaid costs. With millions of people 65 and older eligible but not participating in SNAP, this research underscores the urgent need to increase outreach and streamline enrollment.”

Study co-authors include Deepak Palakshappa, MD, MSHP, and Joseph Rigdon, PhD, of Wake Forest School of Medicine; Hilary K. Seligman, MD, MAS, of University of California San Francisco; and Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, of the Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School.

This study was primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health.

From Dick Blumenthal

 I have serious news from the Senate Judiciary Committee: We just released our interim report about former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Our report reveals how Trump nearly destroyed the Constitution in his attempt to abuse the Department of Justice to overturn the election. The details are truly horrifying.

In a Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting between Trump, former Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and other Department of Justice and White House officials, the former president repeatedly pressured his attorney general to resign so he could install a Trump loyalist who would pursue Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.

There’s no other way to call it: On Jan. 3, Donald Trump tried to weaponize the Department of Justice to overturn a free and fair election. Three days later, he held a “Stop the Steal” rally that incited a violent and deadly insurrection on the Capitol.

Jonathan, these truths are appalling, but they are only the tip of the iceberg – and as a former U.S. attorney and state attorney general, I can tell you that there is very real potential for consideration of criminal charges against Donald Trump. We must continue gathering all the facts about everyone involved, from Donald Trump to his family, to officials in his administration.

By contrast, nearly the entire Republican Party is consolidated around protecting themselves and covering up any wrongdoing and illegal actions by Donald Trump. In spite of evidence to the contrary, my Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee have chosen to conclude that Trump did not use the justice system to overturn the election.That is why I’m counting on grassroots Democrats like you to speak out by the thousands.

In light of these new revelations, even if you’ve spoken up before, I am urgently asking you to keep holding Donald Trump accountable.