BACKGROUND Exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) during fetal development can increase the risk of adverse health effects during childhood. Maternal characteristics and physiological changes during gestation, such as gestational weight gain (GWG), may have an influence in the overall burden of POPs in neonates. However, the associations between GWG and POP concentrations are still no...

Fall spawning pacific salmon provision large amounts of yolk to their eggs to allow survival of larvae during under the ice winter conditions. This yolk provisioning leads to maternal offloading of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to eggs and larvae. Previous research has shown that Chinook salmon larvae exhibit limited capacity to eliminate POPs during the cold water period resulting in bi...

OBJECTIVES Chronic inflammation is now thought to play a key pathogenetic role in the associations of obesity with insulin resistance and diabetes. Based on our recent findings on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including the lack of an association between obesity and either insulin resistance or diabetes prevalence among subjects with very low concentrations of POPs, we hypothesized that ...

At Cape Vera, Devon Island (Nunavut, Canada), a colony of northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) concentrates and releases contaminants through their guano to the environment. We determined whether persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from seabirds were transferred to coastal food webs. Snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) were the most contaminated species, with ∑PCB and ∑DDT (mean: 168, 106 n...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and their degradation and metabolic byproducts have been found in high levels in blood and tissues of several Arctic seabirdand mammal species (Glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), Ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea), Great skua (Stercorarius skua), Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) and Polar bear (Ursus maritimus). The POPs include both old (PCBs, DDTs and CHLs) and new...

International measures to address environmental problems increasingly rely on scientific information, and a growing number of international agreements require periodic scientific re-assessments. However, the arena of scientific assessment, governed by a combination of scientific criteria and political interests, is not well-understood, and few case studies have mapped the influence of scientifi...

Recent evidence suggests that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may cause perturbations in endogenous hormonal regulation that predispose to weight gain. Using data from NHANES (1999-2002), we investigated the association between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) via multiple linear regressions. Consistent interaction was found...

Chronic exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in wildlife might alter the response to environmental changes through interference with the regulation of stress hormones. Here, we examined the relationship between blood concentrations of several POPs and baseline plasma corticosterone levels in the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) during three distinct periods in the breeding ...

The concept of maximum reservoir capacity (MRC), the ratio of the capacities of the surface soil and of the atmospheric mixed layer (AML) to hold chemical under equilibrium conditions, is applied to selected persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the surface 'skin' (1 mm) of soils. MRC is calculated as a function of soil organic matter (SOM) content and temperature-dependent K(OA) and mapped g...