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Brominated flame retardants (BFR) are molecules added to consumer products to reduce fire hazards. They were banned in North America and Europe because of their persistence and biomagnification. However, BFR are still released in the environment due to continued use of products manufactured before restriction, and from waste and recycling processes of those products. As a result, they remain sources of chronic environmental and human exposure worldwide. BFR are well-characterized endocrine disruptors. They have been associated with a wide range of alterations in endocrine and reproductive systems both in humans and experimental models in vivo and in vitro. Paradoxically, the effects of BFR on mammary glands, whose development and carcinogenesis are mainly under hormonal dependency are poorly known. There is increasing weight of evidence that exposure to endocrine disruptors promotes breast cancer, especially if the exposure occurs during sensitivity windows. For the mammary gland, these windows include the perinatal life, puberty, and pregnancy, as important remodeling of the organ happens during those periods. The peak of exposure to BFRs happened during late 1990s and beginning of 2000s in most countries. Women who were pregnant at that time are reaching menopause while their daughters are 20–30 years old. It is thus important to better understand the effects of BFRs on mammary gland development and breast cancer to determine whether these women are more at risk. Thus, this review aims to propose a comprehensive review of data reporting the effects of exposure to BFR on female endocrine and reproductive systems, with a particular focus on mammary gland development and of a potential increased risk of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy-three percent of aerial insectivore species of birds breeding in North America have declined in the past five years. This decline is even greater in migratory insectivorous species, which face stressors in both their breeding and non-breeding ranges. The Purple Martin (Progne subis) is an aerial insectivore swallow that overwinters in South America and migrates to North America to breed. Purple Martin populations have declined by an estimated 25% since 1966. The eastern subspecies (P. subis subis) has declined the most and overwinters in the Amazon Basin, a region rich in environmental mercury (Hg) contamination. Previous studies reported elevated levels of Hg in feathers of this subspecies, which correlated negatively with body mass and fat reserves. Given the propensity of Hg to disrupt the endocrine system, and the role of thyroid hormones in regulating fat metabolism, this study quantifies concentrations of Hg and the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T 3) in the feathers of P. subis subis. To our knowledge, this is the first study to extract and quantify T 3 in feathers; thus, we developed, tested, and optimized a method for extracting T 3 from feather tissue and validated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to quantify T 3 in Purple Martin feathers. The developed method yielded acceptable results for both parallelism and accuracy. The observed T 3 concentrations were statistically modeled along with total Hg (THg) concentrations, but these variables were not significantly correlated. This suggests that the observed variation in THg concentration may be insufficient to cause a discernible change in T 3 concentration. Furthermore, the observed effect of breeding location on feather T 3 concentration might have obscured any effect of Hg. [Display omitted] • Newly developed method for extraction of triiodothyronine (T3) from feathers. • Method provided acceptable parallelism and accuracy results. • Method was employed in feathers of Hg contaminated Purple Martins. • T3 disruption by Hg was not confirmed in the sampled Purple Martin population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a July 19 hearing, the Food and Drug Administration's Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs found mifepristone to be safe and effective in inducing abortions early in pregnancy and recommended that the drug be approved for marketing in the US. With a 6-0 vote with two abstentions, the eight-member panel found that mifepristone's benefits were greater than its risks; agreed, 7-0, with one abstention, that it is safe; voted 6-2 to accept data from a French study as sufficient to recommend use in this country; and decided unanimously to reconvene if results from US clinical trials differ significantly from those from France. While the FDA is not required to follow the panel's advice, it is highly uncommon for it to do otherwise. The advisory panel scheduled the hearing in response to an application filed this spring by the Population Council, the nonprofit organization that owns the US patent rights to the drug. The meeting began with a presentation by the Population Council on the results of an American mifepristone trial that involved more than 2000 women and a discussion of the data from studies and practical use in France. The second session brought public testimony from 33 speakers, the majority of whom spoke in favor of the drug's approval. A company plans to manufacture mifepristone once it is approved but refuses to reveal its identity out of concern that it will be a target for anti-choice protests and boycotts. The drug would be marketed by Advances in Health Technology, Inc., an enterprise designated by the Population Council as the exclusive US distributor of mifepristone--the abortifacient marketed as RU486 in France and used by nearly 200,000 women in Europe and elsewhere., (full text)