New questions about chemical
Study finds link between BPA and sexual problems
Chinese factory workers exposed to huge amounts of bisphenol A had a substantially higher risk of sexual dysfunction, according to a study released late Tuesday that is expected to add more urgency to the question of the chemical’s safety.
The new study, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, is the first to be designed specifically to test the effects of BPA on humans.
BPA, used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, is commonly found in baby bottles, plastic containers, the lining of cans used for food and beverages, and dental sealants. It has been detected in the urine of 93 percent of Americans tested.
The five-year study examined 634 workers in factories in China, comparing those working in BPA-manufacturing facilities with a control group working in plants where no BPA was made. The study found workers in the BPA facilities had four times the risk of erectile dysfunction and seven times more risk of ejaculation difficulty.
De-Kun Li, the reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist who co-authored the study, said it confirms that effects found in animal tests also are being seen in humans.
“I would avoid BPA exposure,” Li said. “In fact, the less, the better.”
The workers were exposed to BPA at levels 50 times higher than the average American consumer faces, the authors of the study noted. Li pointed out that BPA was first developed as an estrogen substitute.
The study comes at a time when there is a push to ban the chemical in food contact items and as the federal Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering its earlier finding that BPA is safe for all uses. A new recommendation is expected to be released by the agency Dec. 1.
President honors ‘those who made victory possible’
WASHINGTON– President Barack Obama comforts a visitor Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery. During his speech to commemorate Veterans Day, Obama said: “We don’t mark this day … as a celebration of victory. We mark this day as a celebration of those who made victory possible.” In Paris, for the first time since the end of World War I in 1918, a German leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, joined French officials to mark the moment the guns fell silent on the Western Front.
WORLD
Power outage isn’t cause for alarm, Brazil says
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazil’s president denied Wednesday that underinvestment was to blame for the worst power outage in a decade, which left a huge swath of the country in the dark for more than five hours and raised doubts about the reliability of its energy infrastructure.
The blackout Tuesday night left tens of millions of people without electricity across most of the country’s wealthy southeastern region.
Energy officials said it was likely caused when a storm downed three transmission lines carrying power from a hydroelectric dam on Brazil’s border with Paraguay.
“We didn’t have a failure in the generation of energy, we had a problem in the transmission line,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in Brasilia.
An Energy Ministry official said the outage was triggered because the system was not equipped to cope with so many downed lines at once.
10 Pakistani troops killed
PESHAWAR, Pakistan JOHANNESBURG– A land mine and separate ambush killed 10 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border Wednesday, in a sign that violence is spreading from the front lines of an anti-Taliban offensive.
Pakistan has pressed about 30,000 troops, backed by warplanes and attack helicopters, into battle in a U.S.-endorsed mission to wipe out militant strongholds in the district of South Waziristan.
Unknown dinosaur found
JOHANNESBURG– A huge dinosaur discovered in South Africa is a previously unknown species that sheds light on the evolution of the prehistoric giants, a scientist said Wednesday.
Adam Yates, a paleontologist at Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand University, said the nearly 23-foot-long Aardonyx celestae occupied a “very significant position in the family tree of dinosaurs.”
Yates said the almost-complete fossil of the vegetarian giant from the Jurassic period 195 million years ago was discovered five years ago. However, it has just been classified as a separate species. “Aardonyx probably walked on its hind legs but could drop to all fours as well,” he said.
NATION
Man guilty in murder of Arkansas TV anchor
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.– After deliberating slightly more than two hours, a jury Wednesday found a man guilty of capital murder and other charges in the October 2008 death of Arkansas television anchor Anne Pressly, according to CNN.
Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, was convicted of capital murder, burglary, rape and theft of property, the station reported. A sentencing phase will determine whether he receives life in prison or the death penalty.
Pressly, 26, the morning news anchor for CNN affiliate KATV in Little Rock, was found badly beaten and unconscious in her home. She died five days later.
“Today was justice for Anne,” David Bazzel, a friend of Pressly’s, told CNN affiliate KARK-TV. “And it’s taken a year to get to it, and I know nobody’s more grateful than the parents and all of us as friends.”
Cleveland search expands
CLEVELAND– FBI agents are expected use thermal imaging equipment to search for bodies at the house next door to the home of Anthony Sowell, who is suspected in a series of murders, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported.
City workers were at Sowell’s home Wednesday clearing debris in preparation for the search, and detectives took several evidence bags from the home.
Their work seemed to stir up foul odors that flooded the Cleveland neighborhood, though no new bodies were found.
The coroner’s office is working to identify the 11th victim found in or around Sowell’s home. Sowell is in jail under a $5million bond, having been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.
THE NUMBER
6 seconds
According to Jacques Diouf, the director-general of a U.N. food agency, that’s how often a child dies of hunger. That’s equal to 600 children an hour, or 14,400 each day. Next week, the Food and Agriculture Organization will host a summit in Rome to address the “enormous tragedy” of world hunger, which Diouf described Wednesday as “not only a moral outrage and an economic absurdity, but also it presents a serious threat to our collective peace and security.”
Recalling the food riots of 2007 and 2008 in 22 countries, Diouf said: “Remember, hungry people are also rightly angry people.”
