Duncan Turnbull

Interspecies differences in peroxisomes and peroxisome proliferation.

1. Address correspondence to: Joseph V. Rodricks, Ph.D., ENVIRON Corporation, 1000 Potomac St., NW, Washington, DC 20007. 2.

Caffeine and cardiovascular health

&NA; This report evaluates the scientific literature on caffeine with respect to potential cardiovascular outcomes, specifically relative risks of total cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI), effects on arrhythmia, heart failure, sudden cardiac arrest, stroke, blood pressure, hypertension, and other biomarkers of effect, including heart rate, cerebral blood flow, cardiac output, plasma homocysteine levels, serum cholesterol levels, electrocardiogram (EKG) parameters, heart rate variability, endothelial/platelet function and plasma/urine catecholamine levels. Caffeine intake has been associated with a range of reversible and transient physiological effects broadly and cardiovascular effects specifically. This report attempts to understand where the delineations exist in caffeine intake and corresponding cardiovascular effects among various subpopulations. The available literature suggests that cardiovascular effects experienced by caffeine consumers at levels up to 600 mg/day are in most cases mild, transient, and reversible, with no lasting adverse effect. The point at which caffeine intake may cause harm to the cardiovascular system is not readily identifiable in part because data on the effects of daily intakes greater than 600 mg is limited. However, the evidence considered within this review suggests that typical moderate caffeine intake is not associated with increased risks of total cardiovascular disease; arrhythmia; heart failure; blood pressure changes among regular coffee drinkers; or hypertension in baseline populations. HighlightsA review of human data on the effect of caffeine on cardiovascular endpoints.Database included more than 300 observational and experimental studies.Small increase in blood pressure consistently seen following acute ingestion.BP effect not sustained with daily intake.

Risk Assessment for Children Playing on Lawns Treated with a Pesticide

This paper presents an assessment of the hypothetical risk of exposure to children playing on lawns treated with a pesticide. Concern has been raised about children’s exposure to lawn care products used by commercial lawn care operators; however, no standard procedures for estimating the exposure of children playing on treated turf are available. First a model was developed to estimate the average dislodgeable residues for a pesticide from residue data for a comparable product. Then reasonable assumptions concerning the magnitude and duration of exposure were made. Exposure assumptions used by USEPA in prior assessments were incorporated in the assessment. Using all of this information, lifetime average daily doses for a child playing on a treated lawn by the dermal and oral routes were calculated.