TOPIC OF CONCERN - Safe & Healthy Foods
Our Involvement | Research | Other Resources
About Safe & Healthy Foods
Benefits & Risks of Seafood Consumption
Fish and seafood provide a low-fat, protein-rich diet, and in the Pacific Northwest, fish is an important part of many cultures. Yet some fish can be high in contaminants such as methylmercury and some shellfish by domoic acid.
Risk management is a tool to find the balance between healthy and unhealthy fish consumption. The department’s Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication and its new Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies are studying these issues.
Fruits & Vegetables
Fresh fruits and vegetables are cornerstones of the food pyramid, yet parents worry about their children's exposure to pesticides. Their high metabolic rates, and developing nervous systems make children particularly vulnerable.
Departmental researchers have found that organic fruits, vegetables, and juice can reduce children's exposure levels to below US EPA guidelines, where risks are negligible. Do small amounts of pesticides affect health? This complex question is being addressed by a broad scientific community, including researchers at the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center and the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit .
Aflatoxin
In southern China, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Africa, corn and peanuts are dietary staples, but are commonly contaminated by a mold that produces a highly toxic carcinogenic chemical known as "aflatoxin B1" (AFB), which has been linked to liver cancer. Studies from Professor David Eaton’s laboratory and others around the world have shown that diets high in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage can "turn on" a latent AFB detoxifying gene in rat livers, offering remarkable protection against AFB. Eaton’s laboratory is working to identify which specific natural chemicals in these vegetables are responsible for turning on the "switch" and whether the switch is present in the human liver.
Our Involvement
Faculty
- David Eaton, PhD
- Elaine Faustman, PhD
- Richard Fenske, PhD
- Catherine Karr, MD, PhD
- John Scott Meschke, PhD
Centers and Institutes
- Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center
- Pacific Northwest Center for Human Health and Ocean Studies
- Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit
News Coverage
Toxicology in Action (Seafood Safety) Environmental Health News, Spring-summer 2006
Mysteries of the human-ocean relationship: New center studies interactions. DEOHS Biennial Report 2003-2005
Environmental Health News, Autumn 2004 -- Sustainable Agriculture Issues
Chemicals in our bodies, Environmental Health News, Spring-summer 2001
Food Safety Risk Analysis website, a class project for ENVH 511 (archival site, not maintained)
Research
Graduate Students
- Cynthia Curl, MS (2000)
- Organophosphorous pesticide exposure in children of agricultural families in the lower Yakima Valley (Richard Fenske)
- Clarita Lefthand, MS (2007)
- Identification of the source of fecal contamination in Tulalip Bay with Bacteroides 16S rRNA gene and F+ specific coliphage markers (John Scott Meschke)
- Nancy Judd, MS (2000)
- Estimates of human exposure to PCBs and associated health risks from dietary seafood consumption (David Kalman)
- Alison C. Scherer MS (2007)
- Comparative analysis of fish consumption advisories to pregnant women and women of childbearing age (Elaine Faustman)
- John Shultz, MS (2006)
- Pathogen Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistance in Ready-to-Eat Food Products (John Scott Meschke)
- Kathryn Ann Toepel, MS (2004)
- Determination of the dietary contribution to pesticide exposure in suburban children (Richard Fenske)
- Ami Tsuchiya, MS (2006)
- Fish consumption and mercury exposure among Japanese women in the Puget Sound area (Tom Burbacher)
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Daston G, Faustman E, Ginsberg G, Fenner-Crisp P, Olin S, Sonawane B, Bruckner J, Breslin W, McLaughlin TJ. A framework for assessing risks to children from exposure to environmental agents. Environ Health Pers 2004; 112(2):238–256.
Guo Y, Breeden LL, Fan W, Zhao LP, Eaton DL, Zarbl H. Analysis of cellular responses to aflatoxin B(1) in yeast expressing human cytochrome P450 1A2 using cDNA microarrays. Mutat Res. 2006; 593(1-2):121-142.
Guo Y, Breeden LL, Zarbl H, Preston BD, Eaton DL. Expression of a human cytochrome p450 in yeast permits analysis of pathways for response to and repair of aflatoxin-induced DNA damage. Mol Cell Biol. 2005; 25(14):5823-5833.
Judd NL, Drew CH, Acharya C, Mitchell TA, Donatuto JL, Burns GW, Burbacher TM, Faustman EM. Marine Resources for Future Generations. Framing scientific analyses for risk management of environmental hazards by communities: case studies with seafood safety issues. Environ Health Perspect. 2005 Nov;113(11):1502-1508.
Judd NL, Drew CH, Acharya C, Mitchell TA, Donatuto JL, Burns GW, Burbacher TM, Faustman EM. Framing scientific analyses for risk management of environmental hazards by communities: Case studies with seafood safety issues. Environ Health Perspect 2005; 113(11):1502–1508.
Judd NL, Griffith WC, Faustman EM. Consideration of cultural and lifestyle factors in defining susceptible populations for environmental disease. Toxicology 2005; 198(1-3):121–133.
Kissel JC, Curl CL, Kedan G, Lu C, Griffith W, Barr DB, Needham LL, Fenske RA. Comparison of organophosphorus pesticide metabolite levels in single and multiple daily urine samples collected from preschool children in Washington State. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2005; 15(2):164–171.
Lu C, Kedan G, Fisker-Andersen J, Kissel JC, Fenske RA. Multipathway organophosphorus pesticide exposures of preschool children living in agricultural and nonagricultural communities. Environ Res 2004; 96(3):283–289.
Lu C, Toepel K, Irish R, Fenske RA, Barr DB, Bravo R. Organic diets significantly lower children's dietary exposure to organophosphorus pesticides. Environ Health Perspect 2006 Feb;114(2):260-263.
Peterson S, Lampe JW, Bammler TK, Gross-Steinmeyer K, Eaton DL. Apiaceous vegetable constituents inhibit human cytochrome P-450 1A2 (hCYP1A2) activity and hCYP1A2-mediated mutagenicity of aflatoxin B1. Food Chem Toxicol. 2006 Sep;44(9):1474-1484.
Sechena R, Liao S, Lorenzana R, Nakano C, Polissar N, Fenske R. Asian American and Pacific Islander seafood consumption—a community-based study in King County, Washington. J Exposure Anal Environ Epidemiol 2003; 13:256–266.
Stan SD, Woods JS, Daeschel MA. Investigation of the presence of OH radicals in electrolyzed NaCl solution by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. J Agric Food Chem 2005; 53(12):4901–4905.
Conference Presentations
Gribble EJ, Yu X, Hong S, Faustman EM. A role for p53 in mouse midbrain neural precursor cell (NPC) cell cycle arrest and premature neuronal differentiation following methylmercury exposure, Society of Toxicology, March 5–9, 2006, San Diego
Gross-Steinmeyer K, Stapelton P, Liu F, Tracy J, Bammler T , Strom S, Eaton D. Altered transcriptional regulation of genes involved in aflatoxin genotoxicity by sulforaphane (SFN) and diindolylmethane (DIM), Society of Toxicology, March 6-10, 2005, New Orleans
Meschke, Kissel JC, Beck NK, Shirai JH, Smith JA. Assessment of norovirus exposure from consumption of Puget Sound shellfish impacted by large vessel wastewater discharges, Society of Risk Analysis, Baltimore, December 3-6, 2006
Robinson JF, Yu X, Hong S, Kim E, Griffith WC, Faustman EM. Examination of metal induced toxicogenomic response during neurulation in resistant mouse strains, Society of Toxicology, Charlotte, NC, March 25-29, 2007
Robinson J, Yu X, Sidhu J, Hong S, Kim E, Faustman E. Examination of metal-induced cell cycle alterations and apoptosis in C57BL/6 and SWV mouse embryonic fibroblasts, Society of Toxicology, March 6-10, 2005, New Orleans
Vitalone A, Catalani A, Chiodi V, Cinque C, Fattori V, Giacomi A, Matteucci P, Zuena A, Costa LG. Behavioral effects of perinatal exposure to PCB126 and methyl mercury, alone and in association, Society of Toxicology, March 5–9, 2006, San Diego
Vitalone A, Giordano G, Fattori V, Costa LG. Neurotoxicity of methyl mercury and PCBs: an in vitro approach, Society of Toxicology, Charlotte, NC, March 25-29, 2007
Other Resources
- NIOSH Agricultural Centers
- National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety
- Goodfruit Grower Magazine
- US Department of Agriculture
- Committee on the Ocean’s Role in Human Health (1999)Monsoons to Microbes. National Research Council
- Northwest Fisheries Science Center Domoic Acid Poisoning
- Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council
- Washington State Department of Health press releases regarding domoic acid closures:
