Toxic Bodies

Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES

Nancy Langston examines the history of synthetic chemicals that disrupt hormones in our bodies and the ecosystem, and the struggles government agencies have faced in regulating them. She uses the powerful case study of the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) as an example of what can go wrong if precautionary measures are not followed in protecting public health. Although DES was ultima...

Detection and identification of potentially toxic cyanobacteria in Polish water bodies.

The main goal of this study was to determine the distribution of potentially toxic cyanobacteria in 39 selected Polish water bodies. From the water bodies with blooms and also from those in which blooms were not visible 87 samples were investigated. For the first time samples from ponds localized in villages with high agricultural activities were included. Lakes for which microcystin concentrat...

Healthy Bodies, Toxic Medicines: College Students and the Rhetorics of Flu Vaccination

This article examines flu vaccination beliefs and practices produced during a survey of undergraduate students in Spring 2012 (IRB#10-732). This research uses the methods of rhetorical analysis - or the study of persuasive features and arguments used in language - to examine statements respondents made regarding flu and flu vaccine. In these responses, students generated unique categories of ar...

The prion-like RNA-processing protein HNRPDL forms inherently toxic amyloid-like inclusion bodies in bacteria

BACKGROUND The formation of protein inclusions is connected to the onset of many human diseases. Human RNA binding proteins containing intrinsically disordered regions with an amino acid composition resembling those of yeast prion domains, like TDP-43 or FUS, are being found to aggregate in different neurodegenerative disorders. The structure of the intracellular inclusions formed by these prot...

ToxiC inhalaTional injury and ToxiC indusTrial ChemiCals