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Statement Of Dr. Jeanne Becker
Environmental Protection Agency
Aging Initiative Public Listening Session
Tampa, Florida
April 3, 2003
Dr. Jeanne Becker
Associate Professor
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medical Microbiology and Immunology
University of South Florida College of Medicine
Associate Professor
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medical Microbiology and Immunology
University of South Florida College of Medicine
I am Jeanne Becker, an Associate Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Medical Microbiology & Immunology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. In 1993, my laboratory made the observation that chronic exposure (over a 4 year period) to low dose dioxin (5 ppt and 25 ppt) resulted in a dose dependent development of the reproductive disease endometriosis in rhesus monkeys. Sherry Rier, who was my graduate student at that time, was involved in these studies.
Endometriosis, for those not familiar with the disease, occurs due to the abnormal growth of uterine endometrial tissue at sites outside of the uterus, within the peritoneal cavity. It is associated with chronic pelvic pain, infertility and adhesion formation within the pelvis, and it is an estrogen dependent disease.
After this association between dioxin exposure and endometriosis was made, Sherry along with many other investigators went on to evaluate the immune changes that occurred in the toxin-exposed monkeys and in other animal models, along with some very limited human studies in women exposed to this toxin (Seveso, Italy). Collectively, this body of work suggests that there may indeed be long-term changes in immune status following exposure to dioxin and related types of toxins. I want to thank the EPA for listening to our work and beginning to re-evaluate the biologic effects of these agents at minimal exposure levels.
My comment today is regarding the implications of exposure to such environmental toxins in the aging female population, specifically. Many environmental toxins, dioxin included, have estrogenic activity, thus may be hormone modulating. We are now experiencing one of the largest populations of peri-menopausal women ever recorded in this country. These women are hyper-estrogenic, that is, in a state of estrogen dominance, as a result of waning levels of progesterone occurring as they near menopause. It seems appropriate to consider what effects environmental toxins (especially those with estrogenic activity) may have on this group in particular, and to think about - and hopefully to evaluate - potential long-term effects on immune alterations which could be occurring in these women beginning in the peri-menopause (40-50 year old age group) and continuing beyond, based upon lifelong bio-accumulation of these toxins into fat stores. Toxin-induced changes may worsen an already declining immune system in the older women. We now have a very unique opportunity to identify, characterize and perhaps even counteract long term toxin-induced immunodeficits in aging women. I would urge the EPA to pursue these efforts. Thank you very much.