Curiously Awesome

A 16-year-old girl lost nearly all of her vision ten days after receiving the second course of her vaccine against HPV. The HPV vaccine is designed to prevent infection by the viruses responsible for cervical cancer and genital warts cases.

The girl who developed a headache on the left side of her head and began to lose vision in her right eye. Over the next 48 hours, the pain spread across her head and she started losing sight in her left eye also.

Physical examinations showed demyelination in her brain and along her optic nerves. When demyelination occurs, the protective myelin sheath around nerve cells degrades. This leads to interrupted nerve signaling.

1.5 years later, the teenager’s vision has not improved.

The US FDA has now reversed an earlier finding about BPA in plastics. In 2008, the FDA found BPA to be a safe additive in food and beverage plastics. Now recently, the FDA has reversed its position, declaring that it now has concerns about the safety of BPA.

Scientific studies confirm that BPA is a highly toxic endocrine disruptor that can interrupt proper reproductive function and result in cardiovascular disease, liver problems, and diabetes.

A 2009 Harvard University study determined that people drinking from plastic bottles containing BPA for only a week experienced a two-thirds increase of BPA in urine output.

Many manufacturers already voluntarily remove BPA from their products. This is especially true of manufacturers who produce products for babies and young children.

Does ionizing radiation a cause of breast cancer? Cornell experts say “Yes” and go on to say:

“.. female breast tissue is highly susceptible to radiation effects.”

Then in the next breath they say:

“should not be a factor in individual decisions to undergo this procedure (mammography). The same is true for most diagnostic x-ray procedures.”

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered that radiation exposure can change cells’ microenvironment. This increases the odds that future cells will become cancerous.

The reason: signals from a cell’s microenvironment (when altered by radiation exposure) can cause a cell’s phenotype to change the way a cell uses its genes. The result can be a cell that becomes pre-cancerous AND passes this pre-cancerous condition on to future cells.

Young children who swim in chlorinated pools may suffer an increased risk of lung infections, lifelong asthma and respiratory allergies.

Researchers conducted health tests on Belgian kindergarteners. They found that 36 percent of the kids who had been exposed to chlorinated pools before the age of two had a history of bronchiolitis–compared with only 24 percent of children who had not been exposed to chlorine.

Researchers believe that chlorine in swimming pools may combine with sweat, saliva and urine from swimmers to create a chemical that irritates and weakens the lungs.

Researchers also found that indoor pools increased infection risk more than outdoor pools.