UPDATES.

NOT CHILD'S PLAY

Since E last reported on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in IV bags and other medical equipment (see "Bad Medicine," In Brief, July/August 1999), the National Toxicology Program brought together a team of scientists to study its effects on critically ill male infants. The panel "expressed serious concern" about DEHP, a chemical used to soften PVC products, which manufacturers admit can climb to concentrations of five parts per million in solutions--more than 830 times the level allowed in drinking water.

According to the report, premature infants who have frequent contact with DEHP through medical supplies could be at risk for reproductive and developmental problems such as reduced fertility, ovarian dysfunction and changes in sperm production. Health Care Without Harm's Cecilia DeLoach stresses that consumers should not panic. "But we encourage them to ask health care providers about PVC alternatives," she says. Some medical supply companies, like Baxter, are already pledging to phase PVC out of production. CONTACT: Health Care Without Harm, [phone], www.igc.org/psr/hcwh.html; National Toxicology Program, [phone], http:// iccvam.niehs.nih.gov.

DON'T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD

Wal-Mart's recent announcement that it will begin test marketing the sale of prepackaged irradiated beef patties has sent consumer groups reeling. Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, says such companies will "use food irradiation to extend the shelf life of meat beyond what is appropriate, and mask the unhygienic conditions in which animals are raised, slaughtered and processed." Wal-Mart's plan also includes an agreement to purchase poultry from a slaughterhouse employing company self-inspection, a rapid-fire process in which "diseased and unwholesome chickens are being released to unsuspecting consumers," says Felicia Nestor, food safety project director of the Government Accountability Project.

Tyson, IBP, Excel, Emmpak and Colorado Boxed Beef have also announced they will irradiate meat. Although a label will appear on the meat packages, restaurants are not required to inform their patrons about irradiation (see "Try Our Nukeburgers," Your Health, July/August 2000). and critics warn that tests on lab animals have had disturbing results. CONTACT: Public Citizen, www.citizen.org, [phone]; Wal-Mart, www.walmartstores.com, (800)WAL-MART.

PREDATOR PESTICIDES?

Since its 1999 North American appearance, the West Nile Virus has caused an uncomfortable stir, especially around the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where it has remained virtually contained. Officials have scrambled to protect humans from fatal encephalitis, which killed seven people last year. by applying the pesticides malathion, sumithrin and resmethrin to curb the mosquito carriers. Unfortunately, mosquitoes may not be the on!y victims of the pesticides' power. Scientists are now turning to Environmental Protection Agency approved pesticides as a possible culprit in the death of over 90 percent of the full-sized Long Island lobster population (see "Lobster Tales," In Brief, May/June 2000). New Scientist reported that an independent lab found pyrethroids, which comprise some pesticides, in lobster tails "at levels close to the potentially fatal threshold of one part-per-billion." Pam Hadad-Hurst, executive director of the New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NYCAP), cautions that the chemicals used are "highly toxic to fish and crustaceans." CONTACT: NYCAP, www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/nycap, [phone]; NY Department of Environmental Conservation, [phone], www.dec.state.ny.us/ website/dshm/pesticid.