effects from low levels of exposure to mercury in fish and sea mammals, whereas the Seychelles study did not find an adverse effect. Although the data on fatty acid levels are not available for both groups, the Japanese researchers speculate that the Seychelles Islanders, with their diet of some 12 fish meals a week, should be exposed to much higher levels of fatty acids than the Faroe Islanders. The results of this latest study hint
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that the fatty acids may help protect children. Grandjean agrees that people should eat fish with high essential fatty acid levels and the lowest possible mercury concentrations, but he cautions that the two characteristics probably act in different ways. “You can’t compensate for a high mercury exposure by taking fish oil supplements,” he says. —REBECCA RENNER
Cleaning up Kosovo
When the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its proposal last September to codify standard peer review guidelines for federal agencies, it was met by an outcry of criticism from the scientific community. Although the revised document now includes changes intended to address those complaints, scientists say that significant concerns still remain, particularly over how the guidelines will be implemented. The revised proposal, released April 15 by OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), would require all agencies to annually report to OIRA on those scientific and technical studies they might use to justify upcoming “significant” regulations. These studies must undergo a peer review before being released to the public; the guidelines offer peer review alternatives from which agencies can choose. Any study used to support a policy that might result in an economic impact of $500 million or more would undergo a more rigorous peer review. OIRA received 187 comments on the original proposal. At the time, U.S. EPA officials told OMB the guidance wouldn’t provide any benefit to EPA because it has recently improved its peer review process. Among other things, the critics charged that the proposal would
U.S. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
National peer review guidelines move forward
OIRA Chief John Graham’s efforts to improve peer review provoked debate in the scientific community.
put the White House in control of how science was applied in rulemakings and policy. Many still believe that the guidance is completely unnecessary because it adds another layer of bureaucracy that will slow down the release of new policies. Industry-related groups and some scientists, however, praised the guidelines and urged OMB to finalize them. OMB has relaxed the language concerning the selection of reviewers. The original proposal included few, if any, provisions that would exclude industry researchers from sitting on a peer review panel. If left as proposed in September, this guidance “would exclude some of the best people” who are experts in the field, says Mark Frankel of the
The first United Nations-led program created to clean up pollution from war handed over its Balkan operations following the Kosovo crisis to the Serbian government in May. In 1998, conflict erupted in Kosovo, a province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which comprised the republics of Serbia and Montenegro; NATO conducted air strikes in 1999. The $12.5 million cleanup program focused on four heavily polluted “hot spots”. Operations included cleaning up hazardous chemicals, such as ethylene dichloride and mercury from wastewater canals, mercury from the ground, and dioxin and PCBs from an industrial complex; protecting drinking water wells; and reducing sulfur dioxide emissions from a copper mine. From conflict to sustainable development, assessment of environmental hotspots in Serbia and Montenegro is available at http://postconflict.unep.ch.
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Companies consider climate change The number of major corporations involved in strategic and investment planning related to climate change has nearly tripled in the past year, according to a survey of corporations released by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a group of shareholders representing assets in excess of $10 trillion. In 2003, 35 corporations had plans; in 2004, the number reached 95. In their response to this second survey, officials detailed their company’s plans, which identified risks such as costs incurred by damaging weather events and increased energy demands. The companies reported business opportunities that could result from climate changes. The report and individual company responses are at www.cdproject.net.
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Environmental▼News American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an international nonprofit group. The updated proposal clarifies that government-funded scientists working at universities or in consulting firms may be involved in peer reviews as long as their research doesn’t create a conflict of interest. The guidance now exempts from the peer review guidelines science related to decisions an agency might need to make quickly to protect public health, as well as mat-
ters related to national security and trade negotiations. Also, it allows reviewers to remain anonymous. OMB staff met with most of the critics and now many of the scientific organizations are giving this third try a green light, adding that some agencies could improve their peer review process. Yet most scientists also caution that the key to success lies in the implementation of the proposal. OIRA suggests that a committee co-chaired by the White House Office of Science,
Technology, and Policy and OIRA should meet periodically to discuss changes in peer review practices and oversee agency implementation. “We want to make sure that [the review committee] is transparent,” so outside scientists can see what the agencies are using in their peer review systems, Frankel says. The April 15 Revised Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review can be found at www.whitehouse.gov/ omb/inforeg/peer_review041404.pdf. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
Chemical giant DuPont is disputing a recent study that claims exposure to the perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) used to manufacture Teflon and other fluoropolymers at one of its chemical plants in West Virginia causes an increased risk of cancer. The company was reacting to a study that found plant workers and neighbors whose drinking water contains the perfluorinated compound have cancer rates several times higher than those of the general population. Like perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which was once used to make the popular Scotchgard fabric protector, PFOA appears to be ubiquitous at low levels in humans living far from any obvious sources. The mystery of how these perfluoroalkyl acids get into people has prompted investigations by academic scientists, industry, and the U.S. EPA. PFOA is acknowledged to cause cancer in animals, but studies of industrially exposed workers have not shown a conclusive cancer link. A preliminary EPA risk assessment released last year raised the possibility that PFOA at levels close to those currently found in women’s blood might pose a developmental risk to children (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 201A–202A). EPA is due to release a more complete risk assessment this summer (www.epa.gov/opptintr/pfoa). However, in this case, the cancer concerns stem not from PFOA’s global distribution, but instead from
RACHEL PETKEWICH
DuPont disputes PFOA cancer claim
People working in and living around a DuPont plant where PFOA, or C8, is used to create Teflon pans have elevated cancer rates.
local releases. DuPont’s Washington Works plant, located on the Ohio River, has used PFOA—also called C8—for more than 50 years. For most of that time, DuPont released PFOA into the air, local landfills, and the adjacent Ohio River. Groundwater around the plant also contains the perfluoroacid. PFOA water concentrations near the Washington Works plant range from about 1 part per billion (ppb) to 8 ppb. This concentration is substantially less than the 150-ppb level of concern established by West Virginia in 2002. The West Virginia study was conducted by James Dahlgren, a toxicologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, on behalf of plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit filed against DuPont. The 2001 suit alleges that DuPont knowingly contaminated local water systems with PFOA and that the chemical causes adverse
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health effects. Dahlgren presented the data at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, in April this year. Dahlgren and colleagues compared cancer incidence from three different sources for three different groups: a survey of 599 residents living near DuPont’s Washington Works plant in West Virginia, unpublished health records of more than 5000 DuPont employees that were obtained as part of the lawsuit, and data for cancer prevalence in the United States as a whole. The class action lawsuit includes all nearby residents who have PFOA levels of at least 0.5 micrograms per liter in their drinking water. All the plaintiffs have lived in the area for at least a year. Dalgren and his colleagues found that plant neighbors and DuPont workers have similar kinds of cancer, with elevated rates for prostate cancer in young men and cervical and uterine cancer in women. They also found higher rates of uncommon cancers, such as nonHodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. The kinds of cancers and their presence in young people point to PFOA exposure, Dahlgren says. “These are unusual cancers in young people, people between 40 and 50 years old. They are endocrine-disruptor-type cancers— prostate, breast, cervical—and this pattern has been seen in prior studies of workers involved with perfluorinated chemicals,” he adds. “It’s possible that the explanation is
