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Filed under: General environmental health
…in the news- Special Report: Some vinegars -- often expensive, aged balsamics -- contain a big dose of lead.Signs in grocery stores in California warn shoppers about exposure to lead in many balsamic and red wine vinegars. Experts say regularly consuming it may pose a risk, particularly to children. Eating one tablespoon a day of some vinegars can raise a young child’s lead level by more than 30 percent.
- Is the Marcellus Shale too hot to handle?As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It's radioactive. And they have yet to say how they'll deal with it.
- State files show 270 drilling accidents in past 30 years.As the debate over the merits of Marcellus Shale development reaches a crescendo, a researcher has culled a list of 270 files documenting wastewater spills, well contamination, explosions, methane migration and ecological damage related to gas production in the state since 1979.
- Pennsylvania lawsuit says drilling polluted water.A Pennsylvania landowner is suing an energy company, saying it ruined his land with toxic chemicals used in or released there by hydraulic fracturing.
- Quagga mussels a toxic threat to Lake Mead.Mussels absorb toxins and heavy metals such as mercury, selenium, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the lake water in a process called bioaccumulation. They later expel those chemicals, which sink to the lake floor.
- Soldiers claim war zone contractors exposed them to toxins.U.S. military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan are fouling the nests of U.S. soldiers with pollution, poisoning the troops in the very bases meant to be their sanctuaries. That's the central allegation in a new set of lawsuits against three military contractors.
- As nations haggle over CO2 cuts, measurement is tough.Accurate measurements are at the heart of a tougher new global climate pact possibly just weeks away. The problem, though, is that it is not yet possible to independently monitor a country's greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels or deforestation.
- The new dust bowl.Waterwise, 20th century California was an anomaly, a relatively wet period in the midst of a historical cycle of severe drought. The changing climate will only magnify the problem: Central California could experience temperatures rivaling Death Valley's and face the loss of 90 percent of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the region's main water source.
- Balancing energy needs and material hazards.Companies that make ultrathin solar panels using a toxic compound are watching nervously as the European Union considers expanding a ban on such materials in electrical components.
- State's recycled paper trail not so green for climate.California has a worldwide reputation as a leader in global warming, more so than any other state. But an ongoing Bee investigation has found some of the state's choices - from recycled paper to ink cartridges to employee travel - raise questions about the effectiveness of its efforts.
- Environmentalists criticize Eni's African oil sands project.Criticism is mounting against Italian energy giant Eni SpA's plans to squeeze oil from the tar sands of the Republic of Congo, which campaigners claim could endanger one of the world's largest tropical rain forests.
- High-tech companies face shortages as China hoards metals.Germany is pinning its economic hopes on future-oriented industries such as solar panel manufacturing. But high-tech companies are facing shortages of essential metals as China begins stockpiling the highly sought-after resources.
- Asbestos killing more Canadians than ever—like old 'landmines.'An aggressive cancer linked to asbestos is killing more Canadians than ever before—even decades after the end of a boom that saw buildings stuffed with the toxic substance.
- Report casts doubt on MD's claims about Alberta reserve's cancer rates.He's one of Alberta's most famous whistleblowers, but a new report casts doubt on Dr. John O'Connor's crusade to expose unusually high rare cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan, a small community downstream from the province's massive oil sands.
- Study: Illegal dumping rarely leads to punishment or fines.A new study shows that environmental crime in Israel is not only widespread - it pays, as illegal dumping saves violators money. The chances that someone who dumps illegal construction waste will be caught by the Environmental Protection Ministry's Green Police are only one in a thousand, it found.
- Newmont and the cyanide spillage saga.About six communities dotted around the stream leading to the Subri River into which Newmont spilled cyanide have called on the government and other stakeholders to relocate them. Newmont and some chiefs claimed the communities did not exist.
- El Salvador floods, mudslides kill 124, 60 missing.Mud and boulders loosened by heavy rains swept down a volcano and partly buried a small town Sunday, swallowing up homes as flooding and landslides across El Salvador killed at least 124 people, authorities said.
- Numerous challenges for Harare water supply.When mayor Muchadeyi Masunda took office in July 2008, one of his most immediate tasks was to resolve the water crisis in the capital. But as the year draws to an end, many areas of Harare still do not have a reliable supply of the precious liquid.
- The pursuit of new ways to boost solar development.The solar power boom in Germany, Spain, and other places has been fueled by government subsidies. But now some U.S. states — led, perhaps surprisingly, by New Jersey — are pioneering a different approach: issuing tradable credits that can be sold on the open market.
- $20 million set for river cleanup.Federal and state regulators are planning to remove more than 4 million pounds of contaminated sediments from the Milwaukee River and Lincoln Creek at an estimated cost of $20.2 million. It is the latest effort in Wisconsin to clean industrial chemicals from waterways flowing into Lake Michigan.
- Special Report: Some vinegars -- often expensive, aged balsamics -- contain a big dose of lead.
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- Research – articles & reviews
- Red wine compound slows brain plaque linked to Alzheimer's disease, study finds.A compound in red wine may offer yet another health benefit – it may slow formation of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
- Arsenic makes good cells go bad.Exposure to arsenic causes human stem cells to transform into cancer cells, report researchers who studied the cells in a laboratory.
- Pollutants in students' blood unrelated to recent food/dust exposure.Persistent pollutants measured in the blood of college students may be the remnants of past exposures instead of current exposures through food and dust, researchers conclude in a recently published study.
- Common air pollutants react and make more pollution.Common air pollutants can react with one another to form highly reactive and toxic chlorine gasses, reports a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Glowing fish can finger chemical culprits.Flourescing fish may offer a quick and easy way to test if specific chemicals – or complex mixtures found in the environment – will affect the thyroid gland and its normal hormonal functions.
- Wild game source of lead for those who eat the hunted meat.People who eat wild game shot by hunters have significantly higher levels of lead circulating in their blood than those who do not, report researchers from the CDC.
- Mercury compromises stress hormones in tree swallow hatchlings.New research in Virginia reports that levels of hormones key for growth and controlling stress were skewed in tree swallow nestlings contaminated with mercury.
- Unprecedented levels of antibiotics pollute India's water.Levels of antibiotics measured in streams, lakes and well water near pharmaceutical factories in India are 100,000 to 1,000,000 times higher than levels measured in waters that receive sewage effluent in the US or China.
- Dust, not food, main source of lesser known flame retardants.Household dust is an important source of exposure to a lesser known – but ubiquitous and potentially toxic – flame retardant, reports a study from Belgium.
- Air conditioning linked to fewer heart-related hospitalizations.A new study finds that fewer older people are hospitalized due to heart problems associated with air pollution if they live in places that have more homes with central air conditioning.
- PCBs in eggs linked to lower survival of young turtles.A mother's contribution of pollutants to her offspring is more important to the survival of a young turtle than its exposure through food, according to a new wildlife study that compared the long-term effects of PCBs from both sources.
- Images suggest childhood lead exposure causes faulty brain wiring.Exposure to low to moderate levels of lead before birth and as a child can permanently change the brain's structure in a way that may alter if and how it transmits messages, a new study finds.
- A bad mix: exposure may be 'safe'only with one chemical at a time.New experiments with combinations of contaminants shows that mixtures can cause harm even when the level of each chemical in the mixture would cause no effect by itself.
- Atrazine acts in the brain to disrupt the hormones.The common and highly-used herbicide atrazine can act within the brain to disrupt the cascade of hormone signals needed to initiate ovulation, finds a new study.
- Age, cosmetics use related to levels of synthetic musk chemicals in blood.The more perfumes and body lotions that are used, the higher the levels of synthetic fragrances – called polycyclic musks – that are in the blood, reports a new study that examined college students from Austria.
- Popular herbicide more deadly to liver cells than its active chemical alone.Scientists report that a number of Roundup formulations tested at very dilute concentrations can alter hormone actions and cause human liver cells to die within 24 hours of treatment.
- Diesel exhaust reduces sperm production in mice exposed before birth.Sperm counts are lower in mice whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy to a mixture of particles found in diesel exhaust.
- Prenatal exposure to air pollutants lowers the children's IQ.A new study conducted in New York City concludes that prenatal exposure to the common air pollutants – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – can lower children’s IQ at kindergarten age.
- Iron nanoparticles can be toxic to human lung cells.Iron nanoparticles that are poised for use in large-scale pollution remediation can rapidly react with oxygen and cause lung cells to die.
- Pollutants in breast milk may fluctuate during nursing.Levels of contaminants in breast milk are more complicated than once thought; instead of a constant decline during nursing, levels may fluctuate from beginning to end, finds a new study that contradicts the long-held belief that the pollutants steadily wane.
- Red wine compound slows brain plaque linked to Alzheimer's disease, study finds.
