Dr. Zahida Chaudhary and James Ellermeyer talk about toxins in our environment, including what they do to our body. They also take a look specifically at DDT and the process of it getting into the public long before we could determine it’s negative effects. Want an audio version? Subscribe to our Podcast on iTunes! Follow the Educational Grand Rounds Playlist on Youtube! Want to join us for the live discussion? Check out our Social Media in the noon hour every Monday as we sit down on Google Hangout OnAir! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ to get updated with the link when we start!

1. Living in
Our Toxic WorldOur Toxic World
By Zahida Chaudhary, MDBy Zahida Chaudhary, MD

2. What are toxins?
• Metals, therapeutic drugs, industrial chemicals,
pollutants, pesticides, fuels, herbicides and abused
drugs (exogenous)
• Bacterial toxins, parasitic products, bile, hormones
(endogenous)
• Substances that accumulate in the body producing
toxicity.
• Toxins cause several disorders and are also
predisposing factors or component causes of most
of the diseases.

3. Synthetic chemicals
 Of the 100,000 synthetic
chemicals on the market
today, very few have been
thoroughly tested for harmful
effects.
 2002 USGS study: 80% of
U.S. streams contain up to 82
wastewater contaminants,
which include antibiotics,
perfumes, detergents, drugs,
steroids, disinfectants, etc

4. • Carcinogens: cause cancer
• Mutagens: cause mutations in DNA
• Teratogens: cause birth defects
• Allergens: cause unnecessary
immune response
• Neurotoxins: damage nervous
system
• Endocrine disruptors: interfere
with hormones
Types of toxicants
•The drug thalidomide, used
to relieve nausea during
pregnancy, turned out to be a
potent teratogen, and caused
thousands of birth defects
before being banned in the
1960s.
Thalidomide baby” Butch
Lumpkin learned to
overcome his deformed
arms and fingers to
become a professional
tennis instructor.

5. • Acute toxicity short but severe
course, usually due to large exposure
and reversible effect
• Chronic toxicity is persisting or
progressing over a long period of time,
mostly irreversible
• Local toxicity: seen in the restricted
area of the body
• Systemic toxicity: Affecting the entire
body system
• Synergistic effect: The working
together of two toxic elements that
produce an effect greater than the sum
Toxicity

6. Total load exceeds the body’s ability
to adapt the Damages:
Immune toxicity
Asthma, Allergies, Cancers &
Chronic Disease
Neurotoxicity
Cognition, Memory, Sensory &
Motor Dysfunction
Endocrine toxicity
Reproduction, Libido & Metabolism
Toxic Overload

7. Environmental Links to Health Concerns
• Air
• Drinking Water
• Food
• Land/Soil
• Built Environment Emergencies

8. Air pollution
Burning: Smoke from power plant,
waste incinerators, furnaces, motor
vehicles, marine vessels, aircraft,
volcanic activity, , and rocketry
Fumes from paint, varnish, aerosol
sprays and other solvents, chemicals
used in agriculture and forest
management, methane from landfills,
emitted by ruminants, germs from
hospital wastes
Dust from desert land, radioactivity due
to nuclear weapons, Radon gas from
radioactive decay within the Earth's
crust

9. Food
Pesticides (through foods and sprays)
-Carcinogenic (Produce cancer):
-According to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA):
60 per cent of herbicides,
90 per cent of fungicides
and 30 per cent of insecticides
are known to be Carcinogenic,
Mutagenic (produce mutants, effects on
genetic material that can be inherited), and
Teratogenic (Produce birth defects)
•Neurotoxic, Immunotoxic: causes
immunosuppression

10. Land/Soil
Risks & Benefits
RISKSBENEFITS
•No bugs!
•Better looking fruit
that is more visually
appealing
•Bigger crops so
farmers can make
more profit
•People ingest
pesticides with the
fruit and get sick
•Pesticides get into
dirt and water
•Animals ingest
pesticides and get sick
Most of us have heard that we can reduce the risk of
getting sick without giving up the health benefits that fruit
offers, by washing or peeling the fruit before we eat it
but……

11. Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors
Hormones and neurotransmitters keep
harmony with each other, body systems
and nature’s circadian rhythms. Loss of
the harmony causes several disorders.
Abnormal neuroendocrine-response leads to:
 Infectious diseases
 Diseases associated with endocrine anomaly like
obesity and diabetes
 Cancers
 Psychiatric diseases
 Degenerative diseases etc

12. • Some chemicals, once inside
the bloodstream, can “mimic”
hormones.
• If molecules of the chemical
bind to the sites intended for
hormone binding, they cause
an inappropriate response.
• Thus these chemicals disrupt
the endocrine (hormone)
system.
Endocrine disruption

13. Central Case: Alligators and Endocrine
Disruptors at Lake Apopka, Florida
• Biologist Louis Guillette found alligators with reproductive
abnormalities in a Florida lake.
• The lake had been contaminated with pesticides.
• Research revealed that chemicals in the lake were disrupting
the animals’ reproductive hormones.

14. DDT changed world history by:
 preventing and combat
malaria, typhus, and the
other insect-borne human
diseases among the
Allied soldiers invading
Italy during WWII
-DT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro
ethane) was developed as the first of
the modern synthetic insecticides in
the 1940s.
-It was initially used with great effect to
combat malaria, typhus, and the other
insect-borne human diseases among
both military and civilian populations
and also for insect control in crop and
livestock production, institutions,
homes, and gardens.

15. Preventing millions from dying

16. Dr. Paul Muller discover
that DDT was effective in
killing insects, and shortly
after, he won the Nobel
prize in medicine for this
work.

17. What Went Wrong?

19. DDT usage today
Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring in 1962 stimulated widespread public
concern over the dangers of improper pesticide use and the need for better
pesticide controls.
In 1972, EPA issued a cancellation order for DDT based on adverse
environmental effects of its use, such as those to wildlife, as well as DDT’s
potential human health risks.
Since then, studies have continued, and a causal relationship between DDT
exposure and reproductive effects is suspected.
Today, DDT is classified as a probable human carcinogen by U.S. and
international authorities. This classification is based on animal studies in which
some animals developed liver tumors.
DDT is known to be very persistent in the environment, will accumulate in fatty
tissues, and can travel long distances in the upper atmosphere. Since the use
of DDT was discontinued in the United States, its concentration in the
environment and animals has decreased, but because of its persistence,
residues of concern from historical use still remain.

20. Problems with Pesticides
Because most pesticides are broad-spectrum,
they kill good bugs , not just pests.

21. Detoxification: Elimination of accumulated “toxins” from
tissues
Many organs involved: liver, kidneys, digestive system,
lymphatic system, skin, and lungs
Why detoxify?
The body is only made to detoxify the natural toxins such as
byproducts from metabolic processes, bacteria, and small
amounts of stress
When we exceed this natural ability by living in an unnatural
environment, these toxins interfere with regular metabolic
processes and increase the acidity of the body.
increased acidity of the body leads to mineral deficiencies,
welcomes bacteria, parasites, and viruses, and leads to
genetic mutations (cancer)

22. Let Us Together Build a World In Which
Every Person Has
And Lives in
Sanitation
Hygienic Environment
Safe Adequate water