| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Don't Gag Me With a Heavy Metal Spoon
|
|
10 Sep 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Don't Gag Me With a Heavy Metal Spoon Despite taking an oath of secrecy regarding their jobs, employees at a nuclear weapons plant in Iowa will be allowed to talk to doctors and scientists about hazardous chemicals to which they may have been exposed, the Pentagon determined in a report issued yesterday. The oaths have posed problems for thousands of current or former employees of the Iowa Arm ... |
|
| Topics: Department of Defense, health, Iowa, nuclear power, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Just Say Nano?
|
|
09 Sep 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Just Say Nano? Nanotechnology -- the rapidly evolving science of manipulating materials at the molecular level -- holds the promise of tiny computers, super-strong bridges, ultra-light airplanes, and cures for cancer. But will it be an environmental boon or bane? Some fear that nanotechnology could create contaminants whose tiny size would make them nearly impossible to cleanse from t ... |
|
| Topics: environmental non-government organizations, health, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
|
|
Sin Diesel
|
|
04 Sep 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Sin Diesel Long-term exposure to diesel exhaust probably triggers a wide range of respiratory illnesses and causes lung cancer, according to a study released yesterday by the U.S. EPA. Based on decades of research, the study found "persuasive" evidence that the diesel engines operating on highways, farms, and construction sites around the country are hazardous to human health. The same concl ... |
|
| Topics: air pollution, health, placemaking, politics, US EPA (all these topics) |
|
|
Rhode Island Lead
|
|
04 Sep 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Rhode Island Lead Rhode Island has taken eight paint manufacturers to court in a first-ever attempt by a state to hold companies accountable for decades of child lead poisoning. Rhode Island, which has one of the highest rates of such poisoning in the country, is claiming the manufacturers created a public nuisance by selling the paint. The paint companies counter that problems stem from ... |
|
| Topics: commercial and industry organizations, health, Rhode Island, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
New Economics 101
|
Suzy Becker |
03 Sep 2002 |
Ha. |
|
|
| Topics: air pollution, health, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Another Anderson Scandal
|
|
30 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Another Anderson Scandal A court in India has rejected efforts to reduce the charges against Warren Anderson, the former chair of the U.S.-based company Union Carbide, which was responsible for a 1984 gas leak in Bhopal that killed 3,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. The leak from a pesticide plant in the central Indian city was one of the worst industrial ac ... |
|
| Topics: commercial and industry organizations, health, India, pollution and waste, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
Czech It Out
|
|
27 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Czech It Out A "mini-Chernobyl" -- that's how a Czech investigating commission has described the potential threat posed by a chemical plant just north of Prague that was damaged in last week's flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. The commission warned that the highly toxic chlorine released by the Spolana plant during the floods and again late last week could threaten &qu ... |
|
| Topics: Czech Republic, European Union, health, rivers and watersheds, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
Unable Was I, Ere I Saw Elbe
|
|
21 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Unable Was I, Ere I Saw Elbe As if being battered by severe storms wasn't enough, Central and Eastern Europe now face another threat: pollution unleashed by heavy flooding. In addition to concerns about contamination and disease from animal carcasses swept along by the floods, fears are now growing that toxic chemicals could be seeping from an inundated Czech chemical plant and washing th ... |
|
| Topics: European Union, health, pollution and waste, rivers and watersheds (all these topics) |
|
|
To Summit Up
|
|
14 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| To Summit Up A global report card issued by the United Nations just two weeks before an international environmental summit has given low marks to the world's ecological condition. Among the report's more shocking findings: Three million people die annually from air pollution, while more than 1 billion people -- a sixth of the world's population -- lack access to safe drinking water. The report ... |
|
| Topics: air pollution, health, politics, United Nations, wilderness (all these topics) |
|
|
More Than Meats the Eye
|
|
13 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| More Than Meats the Eye In the last two decades, there's been a national growth spurt in super-sized animal feedlots and slaughterhouses. That spurt has outpaced the ability of regulators to keep such places operating safely and cleanly -- and that has led to polluted water bodies, food safety scares, and on-the-job injuries, according to a ... |
|
| Topics: food and agriculture, health, pollution and waste, rivers and watersheds, United States, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
|
|
How Now, Brown Cloud
|
|
12 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| How Now, Brown Cloud A dense blanket of pollution that is hovering over South Asia could cause millions of deaths in the region and pose a threat to the world at large, a group of 200 scientists announced today. Known as the "Asian Brown Cloud," the smog is an estimated two miles thick and covers the entire Indian subcontinent, from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan. The ... |
|
| Topics: Afghanistan, air pollution, Asia, energy, health, India, Sri Lanka, wilderness (all these topics) |
|
|
Scrambled Eggs
|
|
12 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Scrambled Eggs If you were looking for good news about endocrine disputers, you're out of luck. A global report by the World Health Organization has found extensive damage to wildlife from endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and could not rule out possible risks for humans as well. EDCs -- which lurk in pesticide residues on food, plastics, household products, and industrial chemicals, among other pla ... |
|
| Topics: health, toxics, wildlife, World Health Organization (all these topics) |
|
|
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Fears
|
|
07 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Fears Despite its foreign-sounding name, the West Nile virus is becoming an undeniably American concern. Eighty-eight new cases were reported in three states last week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced yesterday that the mosquito-borne virus is here to stay. About one in five people who get the virus develop flu-like symptoms; less than 1 percent face the most ... |
|
| Topics: health, Louisiana, toxics, wildlife (all these topics) |
|
|
Pick Your Poison
|
|
06 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Pick Your Poison In the First World, debate over genetically modified (GM) foods is about differing ideologies; in southern Africa, where famine is deepening its grip, it is about life and death. The U.S. has offered to provide emergency food aid in the form of corn to seven stricken African countries, but some of that corn has been genetically modified. That leaves the governments of those nati ... |
|
| Topics: Africa, business, GMOs, health, population, United States (all these topics) |
|
|
What's a Little Nerve Gas Among Wildlife?
|
|
06 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| What's a Little Nerve Gas Among Wildlife? It seems like a wilderness paradise, replete with mule deer, bald eagles, and foxes -- but Colorado's Rocky Mountain Arsenal is also a Cold War relic contaminated by years of chemical weapons production. The 27-square-mile patch of land just 10 miles outside of Denver bears the paradoxical dual designation of National Wildlife Refuge and Superfund site. C ... |
|
| Topics: Colorado, health, pollution and waste, toxics, wilderness (all these topics) |
|
|
Cut the Crop
|
|
02 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Cut the Crop Concerned that experimental genetically modified (GM) crops could contaminate their unaltered counterparts and creep into the nation's food supply, the White House has drafted new rules to protect consumers and avoid costly and disruptive food recalls. The rules, which were written by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, propose preliminary crop-safety assessments before beginning large field tri ... |
|
| Topics: GMOs, health, politics, United States (all these topics) |
|
|
Coal Shoulder
|
|
01 Aug 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Coal Shoulder Interior Secretary Gale Norton was snubbed today by seven West Virginia environmental groups, which declined an invitation to meet with her to discuss statewide mining issues. Norton initially offered to set aside a half-hour with the groups, coinciding with her visit to the state on the 25th anniversary of the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Prior to her appointment as Inter ... |
|
| Topics: energy, health, mining and drilling, Virginia (all these topics) |
|
|
A New Day Lawning On lawn and garden pesticides |
Umbra Fisk |
30 Jul 2002 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dearest Umbra, Goddess of Green Knowledge, A few years ago, a farmer friend of mine argued that more pesticides and chemical fertilizers are applied to suburban lawns and gardens than are used in commercial agriculture. I can see how this might be the case, given the massive size of the lawn and garden chemical industry, but I haven't been able to verify this information. Can you help? Ed Hunt Dearest Ed, Supplicant, The l ... |
|
| Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, gardening, green living, health, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
Charms to Soothe the Savage Breast
|
|
30 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Charms to Soothe the Savage Breast Ten years ago, a group of women headed to Washington, D.C., from their homes in Long Island, N.Y., to demand answers from the government about why so many women from their area were afflicted with breast cancer. Ultimately, the energy, dedication, and political savvy of those women rocketed the Long Island breast cancer story into the national spotlight and mobilized a movement to look for enviro ... |
|
| Topics: health, New York, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
Caterpillar Metamorphoses Into Beautiful Lobbyist
|
|
24 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Caterpillar Metamorphoses Into Beautiful Lobbyist House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and a coalition of Republican colleagues, manufacturers, and trucking industry reps are pressuring the Bush administration to postpone a strict new anti-pollution standard for diesel trucks. Why? Because Illinois-based Caterpillar ... |
|
| Topics: air pollution, commercial and industry organizations, Department of Justice, health, Illinois, politics, pollution and waste, US EPA (all these topics) |
|
|
Condom-nation
|
|
23 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Condom-nation The Bush administration said yesterday that it would withdraw $34 million in international family planning funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), arguing that the organization supports programs in China that force women to have abortions, in direct violation of U.S. law. U.N. officials denied promoting abortions in China (or anywhere else, for that matter), saying ... |
|
| Topics: health, politics, population, United Nations, United States (all these topics) |
|
|
Where the Sun Don't Shine
|
|
19 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Where the Sun Don't Shine Confirming fears of those opposed to genetic engineering, researchers in Great Britain reported this week that DNA from transgenic crops can find its way into the bacteria that dwell in the human intestines. In a study by scientists at the University of Newcastle, seven volunteers (all of whom had earlier had their lower bowels removed in unrelated surgeries) were given a single meal consisting of a b ... |
|
| Topics: GMOs, health, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
|
|
Bangladeath
|
|
15 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| Bangladeath Arsenic has a long and glorious history in the annals of crime fiction, but for the people of Bangladesh, poisoning by arsenic is all too real. With 35 million people drinking arsenic-tainted water, the country is in the midst of what the World Health Organization is calling the "largest mass poisoning of a population in history." Ironically, the problem has its ... |
|
| Topics: Bangladesh, health, toxics, water pollution, World Health Organization (all these topics) |
|
|
The Boys, a Bummer, Are Gone
|
|
12 Jul 2002 |
Daily Grist |
| The Boys, a Bummer, Are Gone Boys exposed to certain pollutants during adolescence are far less likely to have sons in adulthood, according to a study published in today's edition of the British scientific journal the Lancet. The study looked at thousands of people in the Taiwanese city of Yucheng who used cooking oil containing high concentrations of PCBs. It found that young men exposed to PCBs before the age of 20 were 35 percent ... |
|
| Topics: health, Taiwan, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
In the Line of Fire Life in the Stupid Zone |
Michelle Nijhuis |
11 Jul 2002 |
Soapbox |
| Writer Ed Quillen says that town and county planners should adopt a new category called the Stupid Zone. You know some Stupid Zone residents, I'm sure: those nearsighted folks who choose to live at the bottom of avalanche chutes, on top of earthquake faults, or in the middle of a 10-year floodplain. Like me, you might have sighed at their various predicaments, thinking, Too bad, but didn't they know what was coming? Stup ... |
|
| Topics: health, West (all these topics) |
|
|