Environmental Health News from Environmental Health Sciences
Links to articles in today's press about environmental health. Many more links available today at www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org
Updated: 27 weeks 5 days ago
Cleaning up dioxin.
One thing we hear over and over from the Obama Administration is that when it comes to the environment, science should set the agenda. Right now, though, the chemical industry is accusing the administration of abandoning that idea - and it has to do with the science behind a potent toxin.
Categories: Environmental Health
EPA to announce deal on Hobet mine permit.
The Obama administration is expected to announce that the U.S. EPA has signed off on an expansion permit for Patriot Coal's huge Hobet 21 mountaintop-removal complex.
Categories: Environmental Health
Masachussetts unveils landmark ocean-management plan.
Massachusetts has released the final version of a landmark ocean-management plan, creating a vast regulatory map for the state's coastal waters and setting new limits for offshore wind farms.
Categories: Environmental Health
U.S. car ownership shifts into reverse.
Last year something rare happened in the United States: The number of automobiles on the roads actually fell. There were four million fewer vehicles, the only large decline since the U.S. Department of Transportation began modern recordkeeping in 1960.
Categories: Environmental Health
Trash to gas: Landfill energy projects increasing.
Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source: garbage.
Categories: Environmental Health
Ports celebrate Clean Truck Program anniversary.
A stream of clean trucks has taken over roadways during the past year following a ban on less environmentally friendly trucks by port authorities that has spurred talk of a revolution within the trucking industry at major ports across the country.
Categories: Environmental Health
Tests find antibiotic, other contaminants in Tampa's drinking water.
The tap water that Tampa residents consume is contaminated with low levels of antibiotics, nicotine byproducts and a chemical used to produce firefighting foams.
Categories: Environmental Health
Madagascar’s political chaos threatens conservation gains.
Since the government's collapse after a coup last March, Madagascar's rainforests have been plundered for their precious wood and unique wildlife. But now there are a few encouraging signs.
Categories: Environmental Health
New EU regulations for battery disposal.
New regulations come into force this month that require retailers selling batteries to provide collection and recycling facilities for their eventual disposal.
Categories: Environmental Health
51 children suffer lead poisoning in Eastern China.
Fifty-one children have been found to have excessive levels of lead in their blood following health checks of 110 children in east China's Jiangsu province. The local government has closed a battery factory suspected of being the source of the pollution.
Categories: Environmental Health
Shipyard project minimizing dust.
For years, critics of the plan to redevelop the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard have said the project is kicking up toxic dust and causing residents to have health problems. But a draft EPA report obtained by The Chronicle found effective safeguards were in place.
Categories: Environmental Health
Using a virus’s knack for mutating to wipe it out.
Evolution is a virus’s secret weapon for evading our immune systems and becoming resistant to antiviral drugs. But some scientists are turning this weapon against viruses. They hope to cure infections by forcing viruses to evolve their way to extinction.
Categories: Environmental Health
Obesity is now just as much of a drag on health as smoking.
In case anyone needs a reminder to stick to that New Year's resolution to slim down or kick the cigarette habit, researchers have confirmed that obesity and smoking are still the country's leading contributors to preventable deaths and illnesses.
Categories: Environmental Health
China sets up barriers to curb yellow river oil spill (update2).
China erected barricades to stop a diesel spill from further polluting the country’s second-longest river while local authorities downstream urged communities to find alternative sources of drinking water.
Categories: Environmental Health
A link only carp love.
The artificial link connecting Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River basin should be severed now to impede the movement of Asian carp toward the Great Lakes and to restore the natural balance between the two water systems.
Categories: Environmental Health
Fresh review of school food safety.
Lax testing of food quality in schools is giving new meaning to the term "mystery meat." Congress is making a welcome push for higher food-testing standards after newspapers shone a light on gaps in safety standards.
Categories: Environmental Health
Nevada growing tired of being a dumping ground.
There’s a reason that, in these parts, the legislation making Yucca the nation’s nuclear repository is often called the “Screw Nevada” bill.
Categories: Environmental Health
Climate change has no time for delay or denial.
A multilateral agreement to tackle climate change is absolutely essential, but given the slow pace of progress and the power that vested interests exercise over legislative and policy initiatives in democratic societies, something more may be essential.
Categories: Environmental Health
Frogs pass flame retardants from food to eggs.
A study examining frogs in South China shows for the first time that frogs absorb PBDE flame retardants from their food, concentrate them in their tissues and organs and deposit higher amounts of them in their eggs.
Categories: Environmental Health
California's groundwater shrinking because of agricultural use.
New data from satellites show the vast underground pools feeding faucets and irrigation hoses across California are running low, a worrisome trend federal scientists largely attribute to aggressive agricultural pumping.
Categories: Environmental Health