Environmental Health in the News . . .

November 20, 2009

Ten Tips for Staying Healthy and H1N1-Free This Holiday Season
ENN, From: Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
The holidays are here and with them family, friends, parties and germs. This year, in light of the H1N1 outbreak, many fear that the most wonderful time of the year will end up being the unhealthiest, too. "While crowded shopping malls and holiday parties certainly increase our risk of getting sick this time of year, there are many precautions you can take to stay healthy," said Gillian Stephens, M.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Agriculture Can Adapt to Climate Change
ENN, From: William D. Dar, Science and Development Network
Better crop management, including smarter application of pesticides, can help poor farmers cope with climate change. Sustainable land and water management combined with innovative agricultural technologies could mitigate climate change and help poor farmers adapt to its impacts. New knowledge, technology and policy for agriculture have never been more critical, and adaptation and mitigation strategies must urgently be applied to national and regional development programmes.

US Army Corps Found Negligent in Katrina Floods
ENN, From: BBC, Environmental Health News
US district judge Stanwood Duval has ruled that negligence by the US Army Corps of Engineers led to massive floods in parts of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. It was the first time a US court has found the federal government directly responsible for some of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

November 18, 2009

Wide range of Bisphenol A Found in Canned Foods
ENN, From: Consumer Reports
The chemical Bisphenol A, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because of potential health effects . The Food and Drug Administration will soon decide what it considers a safe level of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to reproductive abnormalities and a heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. Now Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods we tested contain some BPA. The canned organic foods we tested did not always have lower BPA levels than nonorganic brands of similar foods analyzed. We even found the chemical in some products in cans that were labeled "BPA-free."

USEPA Proposes One-Hour Sulfur Dioxide Standard, to Drop 24 -hr and Annual Primary Standards
ENN, From: Roger Greenway
The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new one — hour Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) standard. The SO2 standard has not been changed since 1971. There has not been a primary (health based standard) shorter than 24 hrs for SO2 since short term acute effects have not been well known. A secondary standard of 3-hrs has been in effect. This was set to address welfare considerations, not health.

November 17, 2009

Increase in GM Crops, Resistant Weeds Lead to Dramatic Rise in Pesticide Use
ENN, From: Vanessa L. Bourlier
The widespread use of genetically modified (GM) crops engineered to tolerate herbicides has led to a sharp increase in the use of agricultural chemicals in the U.S. This practice is creating herbicide-resistant "super weeds" and an increase in chemical residues in U.S. food, according to a new report released today by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety.

Tidal Power Turbines Producing More Energy Than Expected
ENN, From: Timothy Hurst, Earth and Industry, Matter Network
Peter Fraenkel, Technical Director and co-founder of Marine Current Turbines, the UK-based company that designed and developed SeaGen, the world’s only commercial scale tidal stream turbine, announced at the Lisbon International Ocean Power Conference that he is "delighted with SeaGen’s performance. It is running reliably and delivering more energy than originally expected in an extremely aggressive environment."

Nanoparticles Used in Common Household Items Shown to Cause Genetic Damage
ENN, From: ScienceDaily
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics to sunscreen to toothpaste to paint to vitamins , caused systemic genetic damage in mice, according to a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The TiO2 nanoparticles induced single- and double-strand DNA breaks and also caused chromosomal damage as well as inflammation, all of which increase the risk for cancer. The UCLA study is the first to show that the nanoparticles had such an effect, said Robert Schiestl, a professor of pathology, radiation oncology and environmental health sciences, a Jonsson Cancer Center scientist and the study's senior author.

November 16, 2009

Tiny Bubbles Used to Clean Oil-Contaminated Water and Soil
ENN, From: Vanessa L. Bourlier
Even small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. This oil sheen is difficult to remove—until now. According to a recently published article in the journal Chemosphere, an inexpensive new method has been developed at the University of Utah to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters.

November 12, 2009

Making the Case for On Farm Anaerobic Digesters
ENN, From: Chris de Morsella, The Green Economy Post
Anaerobic Digestion is one of the more promising biological technologies for sustainable waste management and has the potential to turn a large and worsening agro-headache into a growing opportunity for sustainable farming. It can extract useful biogas energy and high quality fertilizer from manure and other problematic agro waste products while also reducing the air and water pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases from a farming operation.

November 11, 2009

Air Pollution Takes a Toll on Young Lungs
ENN, From: Emily Sohn, Discovery News
Exposure to air pollution can damage newborns' lungs and assault their immune systems, making babies more vulnerable to disease. Chronic exposure to air pollution, the study found, increases a baby's chance of developing bronchiolitis -- a lung infection that is the most common cause of hospitalizations in the first year of life.

November 5, 2009

America’s Most Toxic Cities List Released With Surprising Results
ENN, From: Jonathan Bardelline, Green Biz
Las Vegas has far from a clean reputation, but in Forbes' list of America's Most Toxic Cities, Las Vegas is named the least toxic of 40 major metropolitan areas. Forbes ranked the cities based on the number of Superfund sites in the principal city, number of facilities that release toxic chemicals, amount of toxic chemicals released in the area and air quality ranking.

November 3, 2009

Turning Algae Into Bioplastic Could Slash Petroleum Use by 50%
ENN, From: Andrew Williams , Cleantechnica
California-based company Cereplast has revealed that it is developing breakthrough technology to transform algae into bioplastics, and predicts that it could replace 50% or more of the petroleum content used in traditional plastic resins. Cereplast already makes plastic from renewable material such as corn starch, tapioca, wheat and potatoes, but is keen to trumpet the advantages of the new approach.

FDA Urged to Ban Feeding of Chicken Feces to Cattle
ENN, From: Jerry Hirsch , LA Times
A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle. Members of the coalition are threatening to file a lawsuit or to push for federal legislation establishing such a ban if the FDA doesn't act to do so in the coming months.

Coping With Climate Change: Which Societies Will Do Best?
ENN, From: Gaia Vince, Yale Environment 360
Following the disastrous tsunami of December 2004, the government of Bangladesh embraced upgraded storm-alert systems that warn communities in a coordinated way and improved social support networks, resulting in a drastic reduction in typhoon deaths. In neighboring Myanmar, by contrast, deaths from natural disasters have risen in recent years. Indeed, the deaths that occurred there last year in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis cannot be separated from the fact that Myanmar has an authoritarian regime that prevents international assistance from reaching those in need, rendering its citizens unable to cope with extreme weather disasters — events that are expected to become more frequent with climate change.

November 2, 2009

Unanticipated Long Term Consequences of Nuclear Waste From Bomb Making
ENN, From: Frank Clifford, L A Times
Radioactive debris has been found in canyons that drain into the Rio Grande, but officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory say there's no health risk. More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico.

Chemical spills after ship accidents in China
From: Reuters
Chinese workers are trying to clean up dangerous chemicals in the central reaches of the Yangtze river and an oil spill near an eastern Chinese port, after two shipping accidents this weekend.

October 30, 2009

Cash Cows: Farm Converts Cattle Manure into Electricity
ENN, From Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, Triple Pundit
A Vermont dairy farm is producing something other than milk. Earlier this month, state officials were on hand to visit Vermont’s newest methane facility. Westminster Farms Inc., along with Green Mountain Power (GMP), have been working together in an on-site plant that converts methane gas released from cow manure into electricity. Cow manure is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses and the runoff from manure pollutes water. Taking a liability and converting it into an asset just made environmental and economic sense to the farm’s Shawn Goodell.

Multiyear Arctic ice is effectively gone
ENN From: David Ljunggren, Reuters
The multiyear ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes, an Arctic expert said on Thursday. Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 80 meters (260 feet) thick, have for centuries blocked the path of ships seeking a quick short cut through the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They also ruled out the idea of sailing across the top of the world.

Water Use in the US Less in 2005 Than in 1975
ENN From: Roger Greenway
Just when you think all human activities are making the environment worse, news comes that our efforts to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impacts (0ur environmental footprint) are doing some good. According to a new U.S. Geological Survey report, the U S is using less water now than during the peak years of 1975 and 1980, despite a 30 percent population increase during the same time period.

October 16, 2009

Drinking From Plastic Bottles Raises BPA Levels by 70 Percent
ENN, From: David Gutierrez, Natural News
Drinking water from plastic bottles made with the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) increases urinary levels of the chemical by nearly 70 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BPA, an industrial chemical that makes plastics hard and transparent, is widely used in plastic drinking bottles, infant bottles and other consumer products, and also in resins that line cans of food and infant formula. The chemical has been shown to disrupt the hormonal system, potentially leading to reproductive defects as well as brain damage, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes.

Global Warming Threatens to Upset Arctic Carbon Trapping
ENN, From: R. Greenway, The US Geological Survey
The US Geological Survey, in partnership with the Ecological Society of America, University of Alaska Fairbanks published the results of a study on the changing climate and the important role that the Arctic plays in sequestering carbon. The study shows that the arctic could potentially alter the Earth’s climate by becoming a possible source of global atmospheric carbon dioxide. The arctic now traps or absorbs up to 25 percent of this gas but climate change could alter that amount, according to a study published in the November issue of Ecological Monographs.

October 15, 2009

EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, Dept. of Energy Agree to Complete Cleanup of Middlesex, NJ Superfund Site
From: R. Greenway, ENN
Soil remediation is finished while groundwater remediation remains to be done, at the Middlesex Sampling Plant site in Middlesex, NJ. This site had first been added to the National Priorities List (Superfund) in 1999, ten years ago. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Department of Energy (DOE) covering federal facilities, which details responsibilities for completing the cleanup of the site. The property was used by the Atomic Energy Commission as part of the nation’s early atomic energy program to handle various radioactive ores.

October 14, 2009

China’s Largest Lead Smelter Admits to Poisoning Children
ENN, From: Lucy Hornby, Reuters
BEIJING - China's largest lead smelting firm has acknowledged partial responsibility after nearly 1,000 children living near some of China's biggest lead plants showed excessive levels of lead in their blood, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. Some plants and production lines in Jiyuan, Henan Province, have been suspended since the poisoning of children living near smelters in other provinces became public in late August, triggering protests by parents in several regions. The area is home to China's biggest cluster of lead smelters.

Ocotber 13, 2009

London Testing a New Way to Refill Your Water Bottle
ENN, From: Mary Catherine O'Connor, Triple Pundit
Finding a way to refill your reusable water bottle is as hard as finding a public restroom in most cities. London is testing a new-tech "fountain" to do just that in an effort to reduce the number of water bottles in trash.

October 8, 2009

Apples, Pumpkins and Squash — Time to Switch our Local Food Radar to Autumn
ENN, From: Christopher Peake Green Right Now ABC7, Organic Consumers Association
Eating locally can be a healthier, wiser way to go - fresher food is more nutrient rich. But shopping for local produce means we must learn to take control of our menu, work with what's in season and let go of what's heading out. Now that it's fall, we have to say goodbye to berries, hello to pumpkins, and dig through our cookbooks for that squash soup recipe.

October 2, 2009

Emissions Targets, Costs Stall Climate Talks
ENN, From: David Fogarty, Reuters
Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. Delegates from about 180 nations are meeting in Bangkok to try to narrow differences on ways to broaden and deepen the fight against climate change.

October 1, 2009

Urban Mobility - It's Not Getting Better
From: ENN, GLOBE-Net via, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
In 2007, congestion caused urban Americans to travel 4.2 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.8 billion gallons of fuel for a congestion cost of $87.2 billion - an increase of more than 50% over the previous decade. This was a decrease of 40 million hours and a decrease of 40 million gallons, but an increase of over $100 million from 2006 due to an increase in the cost of fuel and truck delay.

September 30, 2009

E.P.A. Moves to Curtail Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Unwilling to wait for Congress to act, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward on new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities.

At 60 M.P.H., Office Work Is High Risk
By Chang W. Lee, The New York Times
JOPLIN, Mo. — Looking back, Paul Dekok wonders what he was thinking that May morning when the urgent call came in. Mr. Dekok, a manager at the Potash Corporation, learned that a 25-ton truckload of the company’s additive for livestock feed had been rejected by a customer as contaminated. Scrambling to protect his company’s credibility with a big customer, he grabbed his cellphone to arrange a new shipment, cradling it between his left ear and shoulder, and with his right hand e-mailed instructions to his staff from his laptop computer — all while driving his rental car in a construction zone on a two-lane highway in North Carolina.

Air Pollutants From Abroad A Growing Concern, Says New Report
From Science Daily cited in ENN
Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.

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