26 October, 2015

Your new clothes may retain harmful chemicals

The clothes that we wear, even those made from organic cotton, may retain chemicals that could potentially harm our health and environment, suggests new research.

As thousands of chemicals are used in clothes manufacturing, the researchers examined if there are chemicals in the clothes we buy as well.

In the study, 60 garments from Swedish and international clothing chains were tested.

An initial analysis found thousands of chemicals in the clothes and around a hundred chemicals were preliminary identified. Several of the substances were not on the producers' lists and were suspected to be by-products, residues or chemicals added during transport.

"Exposure to these chemicals increases the risk of allergic dermatitis, but more severe health effect for humans as well as the environment could possibly be related to these chemicals. Some of them are suspected or proved carcinogens and some have aquatic toxicity," said study author Giovanna Luongo from Stockholm University in Sweden.

Depending on occurrence, quantity, toxicity and how easily they may penetrate the skin, four groups of substances were chosen for further analysis.

The highest concentrations of two of these, quinolines and aromatic amines, were found in polyester.

Cotton contained high concentrations of benzothiazoles, even clothes made from organic cotton.

When the researchers washed the clothes and then measured the levels of chemicals, some of the substances were washed off, with a risk of ending up in aquatic environments.

Others remained to a high degree in the clothes, becoming a potential source of long-term dermal exposure, said the study conducted as part of Luongo's doctoral thesis.

"It is difficult to know if the levels of these harmful substances are hazardous, and what effects chemicals in our clothes can have in the long run," a statement released by Stockholm University said on Friday.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

26.10.2015

Drug from banana substance may help fight AIDS

A substance originally found in bananas and carefully edited by scientists could lead to drugs that fight off a wide range of viruses, including those that cause AIDS, Hepatitis C and influenza, new research suggests.

The new research focused on a protein called banana lectin, or BanLec, that "reads" the sugars on the outside of both viruses and cells.

The 26 scientists on the team - from Germany, Ireland, Canada, Belgium and the US - worked together over several years to figure out exactly how BanLec worked against viruses, and then to build a better version.

"What we have done is exciting because there is potential for BanLec to develop into a broad spectrum antiviral agent, something that is not clinically available to physicians and patients right now," said co-senior author of the study David Markovitz, professor at University of Michigan Medical School in the US.

Five years ago, scientists showed that the banana protein could keep the virus that causes AIDS from getting into cells - but it also caused side effects that limited its potential use.

This new research has created a novel form of BanLec that still fights viruses in mice, but does not have a property that causes irritation and unwanted inflammation, the scientists said.

They succeeded in peeling apart these two functions by carefully studying the molecule in many ways, and pinpointing the tiny part that triggered side effects.

Then, they engineered a new version of BanLec, called H84T, by slightly changing the gene that acts as the instruction manual for building it.

This resulted in a form of BanLec that worked against the viruses that cause AIDS, hepatitis C and influenza in tests in tissue and blood samples - without causing inflammation, the study said.

The researchers also showed that H84T BanLec protected mice from getting infected by flu virus.

The study was published in the journal Cell.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

26.10.2015

Build a dream and the dream will build you

Robert Schuller