Mind Control and the Internet of Things

Two news articles this week fit our Brave New World posting category: artificial people on an artificial planet. Michael Lerner and Ted Schettler submitted these.

1. Mind-control device lets people alter genes in mice through power of thought: The approach fuses the latest advances in cybernetics with those in synthetic biology by connecting a wireless headset that monitors brainwaves to an implant in the mouse that can change the rodent’s genes. The experiment could lead to the development of a radical new approach to the treatment of diseases. Scientists hope it is a first step towards the development of a system that will monitor brainwaves for signs of illnesses and automatically release medicines into the body to treat them.
2. The creepy new wave of the Internet: The Internet of Things (IoT) will connect every thing with everyone in an integrated global network. People, machines, natural resources, production lines, logistics networks, consumption habits, recycling flows, and virtually every other aspect of economic and social life will be linked via sensors and software to the IoT platform, continually feeding Big Data to every node—businesses, homes, vehicles—moment to moment, in real time. One analysis believes that this IoT may be poised to “not merely redefine our relationship to machines and their relationship to one another, but to overtake and overthrow capitalism once the efficiencies of the Internet of Things undermine the market system.”

 

The First 1000 Days: A Healthy Return on Investment

Elise Miller, MEd, CHE Director, and Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, Science Director at SEHN and CHE, contributed the following article to the current edition of San Francisco Medicine, focused on human health and the environment, and especially the effects of early-life exposures. The full article can be found on the San Francisco Medical Society’s website. Join CHE on December 2nd for a call with contributors to the journal as they discuss neurotoxicants, climate change, cancer, and much more. 

Upward trends in a number of childhood diseases and disabilities are featured almost daily in the media. As many as one in six children in the US has a neurodevelopmental disability, including autism, ADHD, and speech or cognitive delays. The number of children needing special education has increased by 200 percent from a quarter century ago. The incidence of childhood leukemia and brain cancer is also on the rise, and asthma is still the number one reason for school absenteeism among school children.

Meanwhile, we have been learning a great deal more about how children’s earliest experiences, beginning in utero, can significantly influence their lifelong health.

Many studies show that “toxic stress”–intense, sustained adverse experiences–in childhood increases the risk of many health and behavioral problems in the short and long term, including intellectual delays, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. This evidence has in turn prompted a surge of programs that provide support for new mothers and improved child care, such as Zero to Three and Early Head Start.

Other environmental influences on fetal development, starting even before conception, can of course be critical for lifelong health as well. Initiatives like the Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) take this into consideration with their emphasis on healthy nutrition before, after and during pregnancy. Efforts to address other social stressors like poverty and violence are also included in some maternal health programs in different health care systems as well as at local, county, and state levels across the country.

Various biologic mechanisms mediate the influence of environmental variables on child development, including genetic and epigenetic changes, altered molecular signaling patterns, and influences on hormonal and metabolic set points, which can lead to disturbances of organ structure and function over varying timeframes.

Another Highly Influential Factor: Chemical Exposures in Early Life

In addition to excessive stress and inadequate nutrition, a large and growing body of research shows that the developmental effects of pre- and post-natal exposures to toxic chemicals–now ubiquitous in air, water, food, soil, and consumer products–must also be considered. Most chemicals circulating in maternal blood can and do pass through the placenta and can adversely impact the developing fetus. Lead, alcohol, mercury, some pesticides, and flame retardants are among the best known, but in its Proposition 65 program, California lists 652 chemicals as reproductive/developmental toxicants. Biomonitoring programs, like CDC’s NHANES, show how commonly the general population is exposed to chemicals that can interfere with normal development with lifelong health consequences.

Continue reading the article on pages 10 and 11 of the journal.

Fishy Guidelines

written by Nancy Hepp
Research and Communications Specialist

Four recent items left me scratching my head regarding fish consumption:

• Is that fish safe to eat? Sorting through new guidelines: After possibly scaring away too many people, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women and their growing kids, from eating fish due to fears of mercury, the Food and Drug Administration says that everyone should eat more fish.
• The FDA draft guidelines: Fish: What Pregnant Women and Parents Should Know
• FDA’s proposed fish advisory could increase mercury poisoning: groups warn FDA experts at meeting this week: In comments to a federal risk communication meeting, the groups point out that recommendation to simply “eat more fish” is oversimplified and unlikely to achieve the intended benefits because methylmercury and omega-3 concentrations vary widely between fish species.
• Folks who eat fish tested, show high mercury levels: Health authorities in Michigan are awaiting test results for elevated levels of chemicals and metals in people who eat lots of Great Lakes fish. Blood and urine from volunteers in Michigan and two other states were tested for PCBs, pesticides, mercury, lead and cadmium.