CHE Fertility/CHE EMF call: EMF and Reproductive Health Risks
May 21, 2012 at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern
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Electromagnetic frequency (EMF) waves from cell phones, computers and other wireless electronic devices are ubiquitous in our environment. The research base linking EMF exposure to negative reproductive health effects continues to grow. This teleconference, co-hosted by CHE Fertility and CHE EMF working groups, will examine recent research on EMF exposure, infertility, and negative pregnancy outcomes.

Dr. Ashok Agarwal will discuss multiple studies linking EMF exposure with decreased fertility in males. Dr. De-Kun Li, of the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California will review studies linking EMF with early pregnancy loss, and discuss on-going studies he is conducting on pregnancy loss. Carlo V. Bellieni, Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Siena University Hospital, Italy, will discuss findings from his recent study quantifying EMF emissions from laptop computers and implications for the developing fetus. Dr. Bellieni will also review his findings on neonatal exposure to EMF in hospital incubators, and present a novel approach for lowering exposure to EMF for newborns and their caregivers.

Featured speakers:

Ashok Agarwal, Ph.D., HCLD, is the Director of the Andrology Laboratory and of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He was appointed as the Chairman of Board of the American College of Embryology in 2009. Dr. Agarwal is also a Professor at the Lerner College of Medicine, and the 2011 Star Award from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Agarwal is currently an editor of 10 medical text books/ manuals related to male infertility, ART, fertility preservation, DNA damage and antioxidants.

De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, MPH, is a senior research scientist at the Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Dr. Li’s research areas include pharmacoepidemiolgical effect of medication use during pregnancy, genetic determinants of adverse pregnancy outcomes, the effect of electromagnetic fields on adverse pregnancy outcomes and low sperm quality, and the effect of endocrine disruptors, specifically Bisphenol A (BPA), on male and female reproductive systems. Dr. Li is also a lecturer at Stanford University in the Department of Health Research and Policy. He is currently the associate editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Carlo V. Bellieni, MD, is a neonatologist and a bioethicist. Dr. Bellieni is the Director of the neonatal intensive therapy unit at the Siena University Hospital. He serves as Secretary of the Bioethics Committee of the Italian Pediatrics Society, and is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and of the Directive Board of the Scienza e Vita Association. Dr. Bellieni is the author of many clinical research papers in international scientific journals, including studies on electromagnetic emission from neonatal incubators and on pain in children, and has written several books in Italian, Spanish, French, and English on neonatal pain and bioethics.

This call will be moderated by Karin Russ, MS, RN, National Coordinator of the CHE Fertility and Reproductive Health working group, and Antoinette (Toni) Stein, PhD, Co-Coordinator of CHE-EMF working group coordinator. The teleconference will be recorded for archival purposes.      

CHE Fertility call: Environmental Contributors to Preterm Birth   
March 19, 2012
MP3 recording available

Preterm birth is an intractable public health problem, affecting more than 500,000 infants per year in the United States. Long term sequelae of preterm birth include intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, vision and hearing loss, and respiratory and digestive problems. The annual societal economic burden associated with preterm birth in the US was estimated at $26.2 billion in 2005. A mounting body of research links environmental contaminants to preterm birth. This call featured Dr. Howard Chang from Emory University, Dr. Rita Loch-Caruso from the University of Michigan, and Dr. Kaylon Bruner-Tran from Vanderbilt University. Slides, resources and an MP3 recording of this teleconference are available on the  call page.

Featured speakers:

Dr. Howard Chang is an assistant professor at the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics within the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Dr. Chang’s primary research interest is in environmental epidemiology, particularly the health effects of ambient air pollution. Dr. Chang  presented birth record data linking fine particle air pollution and preterm birth.

Dr. Rita Loch-Caruso is a toxicologist with a research focus in female reproductive toxicology and, in particular, mechanisms related to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as premature birth. She is the Leader of the Toxicology Program, Director of the NIEHS/NIH funded training grant for Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Program, and Leader of the Oxidative Stress Research Team in the NIEHS/NIH Center for Lifestage Exposures and Adult Disease. Dr. Loch-Caruso has served on numerous local, state and national committees including the Institute of Medicine Committee on Understanding Premature Birth and Assuring Healthy Outcomes.

 Kaylon Bruner-Tran is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University’s Women’s Reproductive Health Research Center. Dr. Bruner-Tran is also the chair of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s (ASRM) Special Interest Group on Nutrition (NutriSIG). Dr. Kaylon Bruner-Tran discussed research findings on the adult reproductive consequences of a prior fetal exposure to dioxin, as well as the amelioration of these effects by fish oil supplementation, using a mouse model.

 

NIEHS: Women's Health Takes the Spotlight
NIEHS welcomed leading scientists to a meeting Jan. 20 to lay the foundation for a consortium focused on advancing research in women's reproductive health. NIEHS Environmental Factor. The all-day event was co-hosted by Jerry Heindel, Ph.D., a program administrator in the Division of Extramural Research and Training (DERT) and Karin Russ, national coordinator of The Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) working group for Fertility and Reproductive Health, and the meeting’s facilitator.

EMF and RF Effects on Fertility and Reproduction
12/1/11: The CHE-EMF working group has posted a reference list with studies that report on electromagnetic field (EMF) and radiofrequency radiation (RF) effects on fertility and reproduction. About 35 studies are listed. One document has the references only. The second document has the references with the abstract included. We hope you find this useful. This cross-over of the published scientific studies can perhaps stimulate more collaboration among other CHE groups, and we hope to offer more 'click-to' reference lists in the future.

Partner News: ACOG Letter to EPA on Chlorpyrifos
In a letter dated October 3, 2011, the president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, James N. Martin, Jr., MD, FACOG, responded to the Environmental Protection Agency's invitation for comments regarding its upcoming decision to re-register the pesticide chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate (OP) insecticide, acardicide, and miticide used to control a variety of insects.  The ACOG letter supports action taken by the EPA in 2000 to largely eliminate use of chlorpyrifos in home and school settings.  Dr. Martin cites the 2007 Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility, co-sponsored by the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and the June 30, 2011 EPA Preliminary Human Health Risk memo on chlorpyrifos, describing evidence of negative neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring exposed prenatally to chlorpyrifos.

Newly Updated CHE-Fertility Online Abstracts Library
We are pleased to announce the availability of the newly updated CHE-Fertility Online Abstracts Library, a representative collection of the peer-reviewed scientific literature related to fertility, reproductive health, and the environment. The library includes nontechnical summaries of scientific studies that link environmental exposures to infertility/reduced fertility in addition to other reproductive health problems such as preterm birth, hypospadias, endometriosis, low sperm count, premature ovarian failure, prostate cancer, and others.