On Habitat Threshold by Craig Santos Perez – The Georgia Review (2021) (original) (raw)
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Environmental Science & Technology, 2006
Environmental t News study found that exposure to BPA is associated with recurrent miscarriage (Hum. Reprod. 2005, 20, 2325-2329). For almost two decades, Fred vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri, has been investigating chemicals that alter the hormone system. "The findings reported in this study show permanent changes to the brain at doses that are 2000-20,000× lower than what is estimated to be safe," he says. In January, vom Saal published an article that examined 120 papers on BPA (Environ. Res. 2006, 100, 50-76). Of these studies, 109 found effects on experimental animals from low doses-40 of them at concentrations below the U.S. EPA's recommended safe level of 50 μg/kg/d. However, he reported that 11 studies funded by industry found no effect from BPA.
Plastic as Shadow: The Toxicity of Objects in the Anthropocene
Framing the Ocean: 1700 to the Present . Envisaging the Ocean as Social Space, 2014
The cave is enormous, an upward sloping bowl-shaped amphitheatre. Once passing the rocky water entrance, one enters a boulder field that stretches back one hundred and fifty feet or more. The first large object one sees is a completely rusted fifty-gallon drum forty feet from the water's edge. But it's the fringe of visible objects at the far back of the cave that are of concern, more secretive in the further reaches of the far cave wall. These objects huddle together, hiding in plain view: the thousands of pieces of plastic, comprised of Styrofoam chunks and balls shaped by the sea, water bottles, shoes, five gallon multicoloured chemical containers, a second fifty-gallon drum and other oddities. Just a handful of steps in from the waves crashing on the rocks, you notice that the strewn boulders and rocks are covered with a thick layer of ochre dust, in some places up to six inches deep. This dust is dry to the bone and extremely fine; its presence is mysterious when you consider that the furious storms of winter had waves large and powerful enough to send fifty-gallon drums hundreds of feet uphill to the back of the cave. As you scramble over the rocks, you notice that not all things are rocks at all, the masking effect of the uniform dust layer hides myriad other plastic objects and Styrofoam shapes strewn across the entire floor of the cave. As soon as you dislodge a hidden object, the dust falls away to reveal gleaming white Styrofoam or the garish party colours of plastic detritus.
Human Reproduction, 1998
The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that ultrasound covers and sonographic gels, used during vaginal ultrasound, are toxic for mouse embryonic development in vitro. A prospective randomized design was used on pronucleate ova of F1 hybrid CBAϫC57Bl female mice. The mice were superovulated with pregnant mare's serum gonadotrophin and human chorionic gonadotrophin and mated with CBAϫC57Bl males. The pronucleate ova were randomly divided between culture media with the addition of commercially available ultrasound covers and sonographic gels in different concentrations. As controls and potential alternatives, plastic polyethylene bags and paraffin oil were tested simultaneously. Embryo-toxicity was assessed by documenting cleavage capacity, blastocyst formation and embryo degeneration in vitro. Exposure of culture medium to the ultrasound covers and sonographic gels tested resulted in a severely reduced cleavage capacity, a high incidence of embryo degeneration and absent or impaired blastocyst formation. This toxic effect could be reduced by high dilutions in vitro. In contrast, plastic polyethylene bags and paraffin oil had no influence on in-vitro development of mouse ova. We conclude that commercially available ultrasound latex covers and sonographic gels are toxic for mouse embryos and can potentially influence embryonic development during infertility treatment. It is safer to perform vaginal ultrasonic measurements using non-toxic paraffin oil (as contact fluid) and plastic polyethylene bags (as ultrasonic cover).
Disarticulated Membranes: Pregnancy, Excess, and Radical Resistance
Frontiers-a Journal of Women Studies, 2020
My color photography is a theater of psychological and physical transformations that reveal a luminescent excess This excess combines both the civilized and the animalistic For my photography series the Gestation Project I choreographed groups of ten to thirty naked pregnant women in San Francisco public spaces such as the zoo, hair salons, bookstores, nightclubs, boxing rings, and empty auditoriums The women's pregnant bodies in community render the private explicitly public While exploring the erasure of public spaces and our potential for reimagining our collective future, my article conjures the fertility of environmental justice within the commons Juxtaposing bodies / body fragments with organic and synthetic materials and environments, I play with the illusory distinctions between "them" and "us" By recognizing how vulnerability can engender a humane global culture, ecofeminist strategies for living our principles without self-censorship, we can hold ou...
International journal of hygiene and environmental health, 2017
Systemic absorption of phthalates and parabens has been demonstrated after dermal application of body lotion, and medical devices such as intravenous bags and tubing have been identified as a source of exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). However, use of products during medical procedures such as aqueous gel applied during obstetrical ultrasound in pregnancy has not been investigated as a potential source of endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) exposure. Human studies have associated EDCs with various adverse pregnancy outcomes. There is a need to identify sources of inadvertent exposure to EDCs especially during vulnerable developmental periods such as pregnancy. We conducted a pilot study to determine whether use of gel during routine obstetrical ultrasound increased urinary concentrations of phthalate and phenol biomarkers. We recruited 13 women from the Massachusetts General Hospital who provided spot urine samples at the time of their second trimester anatomic survey. ...
Prenatal exposure to ultrasound waves: is there a risk?
Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2007
In the 6 th August 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ang et al., from Pasko Rakic's well-known laboratory at Yale University, published results of their research on neuronal migration in the mouse embryo brain and the influence of prenatal exposure to ultrasound 1. In this set of experiments, the authors exposed immobilized, unanesthetized, pregnant mice to ultrasound at days 16.5-19.5 of gestation, which is the time of neuronal migration from the proliferative zone towards the brain surface. Exposure time varied from 5 to a total of 420 min (in 12 episodes each of 35 min). Their conclusion, based on the analysis of over 335 animals, was that ultrasound exposures of 30 min or more caused a derangement in the migration of neurons from the deep to the more superficial layers of the brain. In the introduction to their article, by referring to several abnormalities such as low birth weight, delayed speech and behavioral disturbances, they appear to suggest that ultrasound in general and the phenomenon of disturbed neuronal migration in particular may be to blame. This immediately set in motion some elements of the media to 'inform' the public of the dire dangers of ultrasound. More recently, even the political apparatus intervened: as posted on 14 th November 2006, Assemblyman Joe Pennacchio, R-Montville, New Jersey, introduced legislation requesting the New Jersey Department of Health to initiate action to explore the possible relationship of sonographic examinations of pregnant patients to the increased incidence of childhood autism. According to the local paper: 'The Assemblyman cited various scientific, published studies that show a displacement of brain cells associated with autistic children and the ability of sonograms to displace those cells.' 2. It is doubtful that all of this is out of concern for the health of mouse embryos, but, naturally, because of the worry to millions of human fetuses exposed to ultrasound with or without medical indication. While the study by Ang et al. 1 is important, several differences, some major, between the experimental setup and the clinical use of ultrasound in human pregnancy need to be pointed out. I present here a short discussion on whether concern is justified when performing diagnostic ultrasound.