Prenatal exposure to unconventional oil and gas operation chemical mixtures altered mammary gland development in adult female mice by Sarah A Sapouckey, Christopher D Kassotis, Susan C Nagel, and Laura N Vandenberg, February 7, 2018, Endocrinology, en.2017-00866, https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2017-00866
Abstract
Unconventional oil and gas operations (UOG), which [sometimes] combine hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and directional drilling [many frac’d wells are vertical, deviated, or slant], involve the use of hundreds of chemicals including many with endocrine disrupting properties. Two previous studies examined mice exposed during early development to a 23-chemical mixture of UOG compounds (UOG-MIX) commonly used or produced in the process. Both male and female offspring exposed prenatally to one or more doses of UOG-MIX displayed alterations to endocrine organ function and serum hormone concentrations. We hypothesized that prenatal UOG-MIX exposures would similarly disrupt development of the mouse mammary gland. Female C57Bl/6 mice were exposed to approximately 3, 30, 300 or 3000 μg/kg/day UOG-MIX from gestational day 11 to birth. Although no effects were observed on the mammary glands of these females prior to puberty, in early adulthood, females exposed to 300 or 3000 μg/kg/day UOG-MIX developed more dense mammary epithelial ducts; females exposed to 3 μg/kg/day UOG-MIX had an altered ratio of apoptosis to proliferation in the mammary epithelium. Furthermore, adult females from all UOG-MIX-treated groups developed intraductal hyperplasia that resembled terminal end buds, i.e., highly proliferative structures typically seen at puberty. These results suggest that the mammary gland is sensitive to mixtures of chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas production, at exposure levels that are environmentally relevant. The impact of these findings on the long-term health of the mammary gland, including its lactational capacity and its risk of cancer, should be evaluated in future studies. [Keep on poisoning us, so as to keep the grant money for more studies rolling in? Emphasis added]
Fracking chemical mix causes disturbing changes in breast tissue: Study, Low levels of oil and gas production chemicals cause abnormal mammary glands and pre-cancerous lesions in female mice by Brian Bienkowski, February 7, 2018, Environmental Health News
Female mice exposed to a mixture of 23 chemicals used in oil and gas fracking developed mammary lesions and enlarged tissues—suggesting the chemicals may leave breast tissues more prone to cancer, according to a new study.
The study is the first to examine the potential impact of chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas extraction—such as hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling—on mammary glands and suggests that low levels of the chemical cocktail commonly found near frack sites may spur abnormal development in women’s breast tissue.
“The mammary gland is a hormone-sensitive organ that is responsive to multiple endocrine inputs during development,” the authors wrote in the study published today in the Endocrinology journal.
It’s the latest potential health impact linked to fracking chemicals, which have been associated with low birth weights, birth defects and reduced brain function in children.
The findings are important as more than 17 million people in the U.S live within a mile of an oil or gas well. …
In addition, health impacts were seen after exposure to levels of chemicals well within what is found near frack sites. The mixture was just a fraction of the more than 1,000 chemicals used during oil and gas fracking.
Scientists exposed female mice—while in their mothers’ womb—to different levels of 23 chemicals. There were no effects on the mammary glands prior to puberty, but when the exposed mice were adults they developed lesions and a condition called hyperplasia, which causes enlarged organs or tissues.
The researchers “chose varying amounts of the [chemical] mixture in order to mimic a range of human exposures to these chemicals,” said Susan Nagel, a researcher and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and study co-author.
Nagel and colleagues used four different doses — the two lowest doses were similar to what you might find in drinking water in areas near oil and gas operations, and the higher doses were comparable to wastewater puddles on work sites near fracking, said senior author Laura Vandenberg, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst School of Public Health & Health Sciences.
They saw effects on all exposed mice.
“Even at low doses we’re seeing lesions in the mammary gland,” Vandenberg said.
Vandenberg said this “suggests the mammary gland is getting misinformation about where in development it is.” The 23 chemicals in the mixture are all known endocrine disruptors and have previously been show to either mimic or interfere with certain hormones.
Scientists have for years warned that certain fracking chemicals are hormone disruptors: In 2016, a large review of 45 studies on oil and gas chemicals concluded, “there is ample evidence for disruption of the estrogen, androgen, and progesterone receptors by oil and gas chemicals.”
Nagel and colleagues had previously tested the chemicals used on the female mice on their mouse brothers—and found the mixture caused “decreased sperm counts and increased testes, body, heart, and thymus weights and increased serum testosterone in male mice, suggesting multiple organ system impacts.”
Nagel said they would next analyze how these breast tissue changes may affect function, such as lactation.
The impact on mice doesn’t necessarily mean the same is true for humans—the mouse mammary gland has some similarities and some differences. However, there are “important parallels” between mice and humans,” Vandenberg said.
“We use mice to test drugs before we give them to people … they’re similar enough that if there is a problem in mice, we’re not giving it [the drug] to people,” she said.
“If we used the same standard for environmental chemicals, I would say this is a problem.” [Emphasis added]
Fracking chemical mix causes disturbing changes in breast tissue: Study, Low levels of oil and gas production chemicals cause abnormal mammary glands and pre-cancerous lesions in female mice by Brian Bienkowski, February 7, 2018, The Daily Climate
[Refer also to:
2015 05 01: New Study says Fracking Wells Could Pollute The Air Hundreds Of Miles Away
2015 Why Fracking Is a Breast Cancer Issue
2014:
How many toxic chemicals do we breath living and or working next door?
Thank Canadian courts and “Best in the World” (for polluters), “No Duty of Care,” 100% Industry Funded, 100% Legally Immune, Charter-violating Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for the frac chemical poisoning in your body and those of your loved ones.
2012 04 04: The Fracking Frenzy’s Impact on Women
Chemicals used in fracking have been linked to breast cancer and reproductive health problems and there have been reports of rises in crimes against women in some fracking “boom” towns, which have attracted itinerant workers with few ties to the community. … Chemicals linked to cancer are present in nearly all of the steps of extraction — in the fracking fluids, the release of radioactive and other hazardous materials from the shale, and in transportation and drilling related air pollution and contaminated water disposal. Some reports indicate that more than 25 percent of the chemicals used in natural gas operations have been linked to cancer or mutations, although companies like Haliburton have lobbied hard to keep the public in the dark about the exact formula of fracking fluids.
Results: Residents living ≤ ½ mile from wells are at greater risk for health effects from NGD than are residents living > ½ mile from wells. Subchronic exposures to air pollutants during well completion activities present the greatest potential for health effects. The subchronic non-cancer hazard index (HI) of 5 for residents ≤ ½ mile from wells was driven primarily by exposure to trimethylbenzenes, xylenes, and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Chronic HIs were 1 and 0.4. for residents ≤ ½ mile from wells and > ½ mile from wells, respectively. Cumulative cancer risks were 10 in a million and 6 in a million for residents living ≤ ½ mile and > ½ mile from wells, respectively, with benzene as the major contributor to the risk.
2011 12 14: Frac Company Trican Donates $5 Million to Fight Childhood Cancer Spew your family and community with secret recipes of cancer-causing frac brews, then buy your silence and Alberta’s cancer reearchers when your children get cancer? ]