The Endometriosis Association

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Original Sources of PCBs
PCBs are compounds that were used widely as electrical insulators, coolants, and lubricants. They were used formerly in refrigerators, fluorescent lighting fixtures, carbonless paper, specialty inks, and paints and as additives in plastics manufacturing. Industrial waste water from these manufacturing processes and from municipal sewage treatment plants that process these wastes have been sources of PCB contamination of water and soil.

How Can I Be Exposed to PCBs
Although humans typically get low-level PCBs exposure from eating contaminated fish, drinking contaminated water, or breathing in vapors near hazardous waste sites, even small doses are potent. Because PCBs stay in the body for decades, little exposures continue to add up in a process called bioaccumulation. Bioaccumulation is the process by which chemicals are taken up and stored in the fatty tissue of animals and humans, increasing over the life span. It is this process, as well as the fact that it is not definitely known how to rid the body of PCBs (nor how to effectively and efficiently rid our environment of them), which makes even low-level exposure worrisome.

Other Conditions Linked to Dioxin Exposure
In addition to contributing to the formation of endometriosis, PCB exposure is also linked to thyroid problems, autoimmune diseases, cancer, lowered IQ, and difficulties with physical development and behavior in young children.

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NEWS RELEASE

August 15, 2007
Contact
Mary Lou Ballweg, President/Executive Director
Phone: (414) 355-2200

Endometriosis Association Expands Research with $1 Million Pledge

(Milwaukee, WI) The Endometriosis Association, with international headquarters in Milwaukee, is pleased to announce that a one million dollar pledge has made possible a renewal of its contract with prestigious Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The Endometriosis Association has worked with Vanderbilt over the last seven years, setting the program up with the help of a $1 million gift from Milwaukee’s Quadracci family. (The new $1 million gift is from another donor.) The Vanderbilt team has made major discoveries related to the role of dioxins (a family of chemicals including PCBs) in development of endometriosis. Vanderbilt and the Association will continue their joint program for at least another five years.

With the million dollar anonymous lead gift in place, the Association will also be developing an additional research program. A number of research teams have been evaluated worldwide. The Association expects to make an announcement in the next six months on the establishment of this program, most likely in Italy, a country with excellent research in all aspects of endometriosis as well as a strong Endometriosis Association group and a committed government. Italy was the first country in the world to declare endometriosis an important disease that affects society due to its major impact on families and their quality of life.

The Association has recently expanded its work in medical education and development based on its research worldwide. It distributed 2,000 copies of its first book as well as literature in 29 languages at the world’s largest meeting in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, FIGO, in Malaysia, with the assistance of Shu Lay Lee, the Association’s Asian representative. It also distributed a wide range of materials at the 15th World Congress on Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the help of the Association’s South American/Caribbean representative, Eleuze Mendonca. The Association President and Executive Director, Mary Lou Ballweg, also recently attended and distributed materials at the first international congress sponsored by the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists and the Society of Italian Gynecologic Endoscopists as well as the huge annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Endocrinology.

The Association has also recently added new staff and is pleased to announce the following appointments:
Sarah Platka, Environmental Coordinator. Sarah previously worked on the staff of Congressman Jerry Kleczka.
Margo McGee, Operations Manager. Margo most recently worked for JP Morgan.
Robin Eagon, Executive Secretary. Robin recently worked for Pulse EFT Association.

Endometriosis is a painful and debilitating disease afflicting five and a half million women and girls in the U.S. and Canada from ages 8 to 80. A chronic disease without a real cure, it often causes ongoing pain, infertility, and immune problems. It is linked to a higher risk for six cancers and six autoimmune diseases based on work of the Endometriosis Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute.

The Endometriosis Association was the first organization in the world devoted to endometriosis. The Association is an independent international self-help organization of families affected by endometriosis, doctors, scientists, and others interested in the disease. The Association is a worldwide leader with a goal of finding a cure for the disease, as well as providing education, support, and research.

Families with endometriosis can contact the Endometriosis Association at 8585 N. 76th Place, Milwaukee, WI 53223, phone: (414) 355-2200, fax: (414) 355-6065, email: HYPERLINK "mailto:Endo@EndometriosisAssn.org" Endo@EndometriosisAssn.org, website: HYPERLINK "http://www.EndometriosisAssn.org" www.EndometriosisAssn.org

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NEWS RELEASE

August 8, 2007
Contact
Mary Lou Ballweg, Executive Director/President
Sarah Platka, Environmental Coordinator
Phone: (414) 355-2200

Many Unaware That PCBs Involved In Causing Endometriosis

(Milwaukee, WI) PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, have been in the news recently because of their discovery in recreational areas treated by contaminated fertilizer manufactured from sewage sludge. Perhaps unknown to many in the Milwaukee area, the Endometriosis Association, an international nonprofit organization headquartered here, has since 1992 pioneered research linking PCBs (part of a chemical family called dioxins) to the development of endometriosis.

"PCBs are incredibly potent in tiny doses because they act like hormones in our bodies and are toxic to the immune system," stated Mary Lou Ballweg, President and Executive Director of the Endometriosis Association. "Moreover, because PCBs stay in the body for decades, little exposures continue to add up over one's lifetime in the process called 'bioaccumulation.' Bioaccumulation is the process by which chemicals are taken up and stored in the fatty tissue of animals and humans, increasing over the life span. It is this process, as well as the fact that it is not definitely known how to rid the body of PCBs (nor how to effectively and efficiently rid our environment of them), which makes even low level exposure worrisome.

The Endometriosis Association continues leading research in this area, including at its major research program at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where scientists are currently looking at the development of endometriosis following prenatal exposure to PCBs in mice. Other researchers around the world have documented higher levels of dioxin-like chemicals in the blood of women with endometriosis. The Association's Vanderbilt research program has documented how dioxin-like chemicals make it impossible for progesterone, a female hormone, to balance the effects of the growth hormone, estrogen, in the body. Endometriosis is often called an estrogen-dependent disease. The ability of dioxin-like chemicals to create estrogen "dominance" has a major impact in developing and maintaining the disease.

Endometriosis is a painful and debilitating disease afflicting five and a half million women and girls in the U.S. and Canada from ages eight to 80. A chronic disease without a real cure, it often causes ongoing pain, infertility, and immune problems. It is linked to a higher risk for six cancers, and six autoimmune diseases, based on work of the Endometriosis Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute.

Besides contributing to the development of endometriosis and its greater risk of cancers and autoimmune diseases, PCB exposure is also linked to lowered IQ and difficulties with physical development and behavior in young children. If a mother carries PCBs in her body at the time of pregnancy, these chemicals can influence the development of the embryo. These toxins are also excreted in breast milk.

The Endometriosis Association was the first organization in the world devoted to endometriosis. The Association is an independent international self-help organization of families affected by endometriosis, doctors, and others interested in the disease. The Association is a worldwide leader with a goal of finding a cure for the disease, as well as providing education, support, and research.

In the early 1990s, the Endometriosis Association made the breakthrough discovery linking endometriosis to environmental contaminants. It found that 79% of a group of rhesus monkeys at Harlow Primate Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed endometriosis after exposure to dioxin (PCBs are in the dioxin family). The severity of endometriosis was directly related to the dose of dioxin exposure. Monkeys fed dioxin in amounts as tiny as five parts per trillion developed endometriosis. In addition, the dioxin-exposed monkeys showed immune abnormalities similar to those observed in women with endometriosis. Since then, numerous studies worldwide have shown that endometriosis is linked to hormonally-active, immune-toxic chemicals such as PCBs.

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