Wednesday, 08 Aug 2007

BPA: Here to Stay?

Controversial panel will decide whether bisphenol A poses a health risk

Last week, several dozen scientists issued a consensus statement that ubiquitous chemical compound bisphenol A likely poses health and reproductive risks to humans. This week, an expert panel will finalize a report for the U.S. National Toxicology Program on whether humans should indeed try to stay away from BPA; if they say yea, it could be the first step toward federal regulation of the chemical. But some scientists say the report is biased toward the chemical industry and downplays risks. An early draft was written by an outside consultant with ties to Big Chemical; reviewers found nearly 300 factual errors in the draft report; and critics contend that the report cites 71 percent of all industry-financed studies on BPA, but only 30 percent of independent studies, which tend to be more critical of the chemical. Asks a group from Tufts University School of Medicine in a statement, "Is the panel purposefully misrepresenting data or grossly misunderstanding it?" We don't even know which to hope for.


Step It Up, the nation-spanning climate protest organized in April by renowned author Bill McKibben, was, by all accounts, a success. And if at first you succeed, why not do it again: in a new Dispatch, McKibben announces Step It Up 2. On Saturday, Nov. 3, at historical sites around the country, people will come together to clamor for climate action -- particularly from the political sphere. Draw inspiration from marches in New Hampshire and Iowa that McKibben reported on last week; then mark your calendar, polish up your marching shoes, and get ready to walk the talk.

Someone Alert Ben and Jerry

Indo-Pacific coral reefs disappearing twice as fast as rainforest, study says

Forget the rainforest: the coral reefs of the Indian and Pacific oceans are vanishing twice as quickly, researchers say. The Indo-Pacific region, home to 75 percent of the world's coral reefs, has lost nearly 600 square miles of reef each year since the late 1960s. In addition, coral cover -- a measure of ocean-floor coverage that reflects reef health -- has shrunk from a historic average of 50 percent to an average of about 20 percent in 2003. A team from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who published their work in the online journal PLoS ONE, sifted through 6,000 surveys of over 2,600 reefs from the last few decades, finding surprisingly similar trends across the vast region -- no matter what local management policies looked like. Could it be ... some sort of global phenomenon? "We have already lost half of the world's reef-building corals," says team lead John Bruno. "We can do a far better job of developing technologies and implementing smart policies that will offset climate change."


So you want to buy organic food, but you can't afford to convert to an all-organic diet? Advice maven Umbra Fisk helps a stay-at-home mom who's shopping on one income determine which munchies should make the short list when it comes to shelling out for pesticide-free groceries -- and which ones can wait.

Well Oil Be Damned

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pursues energy treaties in South America

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is on a four-nation swing through South America this week, using his country's oil riches to win friends and influence people. Yesterday, Chavez signed an "energy security treaty" with Nestor Kirchner, the president of Argentina; he will continue on to Uruguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia, where observers expect similar energy agreements to be cemented. The treaty with Argentina will see Venezuela buy $1 billion of that country's bonds, provide as much as $400 million for a new natural-gas plant, and cooperate on initiatives including oil refining projects, power distribution, and alternative fuels. Kirchner, whose nation is suffering through a winter fuel shortage, welcomed the assistance; others disparaged his reliance on, as one political opponent put it, "his usurious Uncle Hugo." As for Uncle Hugo, analysts say, he's using this "frenetic petro-diplomacy" to push for Latin American unity against the U.S. -- whose energy-sucking ways he compared to Count Dracula.