books and software
A Taste of Endocrine Disruptors
Analysis of Environmental Endocrine Disruptors Edited by Lawrence H. Keith, Tammy L. Jones-Lepp, and Larry L. Needham ACS Symposium Series 747 Oxford University Press, 2000, pp 173, $75
E
ndocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been the focus of scientific and regulatory interest for more than a decade. The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 and concurrent amendments to the Clean Water Act have resulted in a mandate to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess the endocrine modulation potential of many current and new chemicals. The combination of legislative requirement and rapid development of this controversial research area has produced a logjam of testing needs that require highly sensitive and selective analytical methodologies. Developing and applying accurate and sensitive analytical methods to assess endocrine modulation effects in a variety of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including humans, are daunting tasks. This volume collects 10 papers from a 1998 special symposium of the same name at the 216th ACS national meeting. The papers span the range of EDCs of interest, the analytical approaches in use at the time, and the endpoints considered indicative of endocrine disruption. The result is a symposium volume that provides the reader with a taste of the research currently underway but not a complete understanding of this active and developing area of environmental and analytical science. Chapter 1 sets the tone by providing an overview of the process used by EPA’s
Endocrine Disruptors Screening and Testing Advisory Committee to develop a framework for evaluating proposed screening and testing methods. Several chapters discuss specific analytical approaches for quantifying the potential for endocrine disruption; for example, chapter 2 discusses improvements in performance and specificity made to a competitive receptor ligand-binding assay by adding gel filtration chromatography. Several chapters discuss the specific identification of EDCs; chapter 9 demonstrates the potential of high-resolution MS for identifying EDCs and unknown compounds that display EDC activity. Potential EDCs, such as pesticides, surfactants, pharmaceuticals, and plasticizers in water, air, vegetation, and biota are surveyed in several chapters. Human health effects are addressed in chapters 4 and 10, in which the potential for dietary exposure to EDCs through food packaging is evaluated, as are ambient human levels of selected potential EDCs, which are indicated by urinary concentrations. Chapter 6 is of particular interest because it describes the application of a series of in vivo bioassays, multiple-trace organic and inorganic analytical techniques, and bioassay-directed fractionation. By focusing on these multiple approaches, the authors describe a strategy for determining the presence of multiple-trace EDCs and their impacts, which include the presence of biomarkers of exposure, cellular
change, and reproductive function. Together they define a suite of ecologically relevant endpoints for endocrine disruption; these cross-disciplinary approaches are essential for defining the relationship between the presence of trace concentrations of EDCs and observable effects in the environment. Overall, this symposium volume provides the reader with the research directions that were and are being addressed by environmental analytical chemists and toxicologists. It is not comprehensive in its coverage of the range of the analytical techniques currently in use in EDC research, nor could it be. Instead, this collection provides insight into several specific research areas among the many that fall under the EDC rubric. Scientists active in developing analytical methodologies for EDC research will find papers of interest in this volume and identify areas of mutual interest with colleagues whose analytical interests and approaches differ from their own. This volume collects papers that describe some of the analytical approaches available for specific EDC research topics and will be useful for the student or researcher who wishes to begin developing analytical techniques for studying either EDCs or the indications of EDC effects on organisms. Reviewed by Edward T. Furlong, U.S. Geological Survey
Books Received b b
b
This book serves as a manual and reference guide for the analysis of proteins using 2-D gel electrophoresis, MS, and related sequence database inquiries. The first section is written as a textbook, whereas the second and third are written as a laboratory manual and a troubleshooting guide, respectively. Readers ranging from graduate students to research groups within academia and industry will find this book helpful.
After an overview of current LC/ NMR applications and techniques, this book covers the practical aspects of the hardware and software setups for on-line coupling experiments; real-world scenarios and solutions for problems in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and environmental studies; and the analysis of natural products and polymeric compounds.
Proteomics in Practice Reiner Westermeier and Tom Naven Wiley-VCH Verlag-GmbH, 2002, 316 pp, $69.95
On-line LC-NMR and Related Techniques Edited by Klaus Albert John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002, 290 pp, $105
A P R I L 1 , 2 0 0 3 / A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y
183 A
