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Author |
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Section |
Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Us
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27 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Us Which is the lesser of two evils -- malaria or DDT? The former kills a million people per year in Africa, many of them infants and children; the latter is the most effective weapon against the virulent disease, but is lethal to fish and wildlife, and thought to be hazardous to humans as well. Two years ago, South Africa opted to fight malaria with DDT -- a decision one government official c ... |
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| Topics: health, marine life, toxics, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Speaking Ingest
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27 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Speaking Ingest The Bush administration has promised the pesticide industry that it will overturn a Clinton-era policy that prohibited using information obtained from industry studies on human subjects to determine pesticide limits. Under the new policy, which hasn't yet been officially announced, the U.S. EPA would be able to set limits based on data from tests in which paid volunteers ingest small amounts of pesticides, ... |
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| Topics: health, politics, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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The Throng Song
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13 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| The Throng Song Throngs of environmental activists are protesting a shipment of nuclear waste making its way by train from France to Germany, and at least 100 have been detained by the police. The six containers of radioactive waste originated at a reprocessing plant in La Hague, in northern France, and will be stored in Gorleben, Germany, 375 miles away. At least 5,000 protesters are staging actions al ... |
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| Topics: France, Germany, Greenpeace, health, nuclear power (all these topics) |
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Your Days Are Lumbered
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08 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Your Days Are Lumbered The health risks posed by arsenic-treated lumber are much greater than previously thought, according to a study by the Environmental Working Group and other public interest organizations. Health and environmental advocates have long questioned the use of arsenic, a known carcinogen, to render lumber resistant to insects and rot. Nevertheless, arsenic-treated wood is commonly used in a wide range of products, including ... |
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| Topics: health, toxics (all these topics) |
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Borderline Inane
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08 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Borderline Inane Almost every major community on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border suffers from poor air quality, according to a report due to be released shortly by U.S. and Mexican environmental agencies. The poor air is a byproduct of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which led to the construction of 84 assembly plants on the border in Mexico that are not answerable to s ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, globalization, health, Mexico, United States (all these topics) |
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Fat City
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02 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Fat City Environmental problems ranging from toxic waste to air pollution have long been recognized as having human health effects -- but what about urban sprawl? A study released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says sprawl creates or exacerbates many common health problems, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. The report also blames sprawl for other negative health consequences, including de ... |
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| Topics: health, placemaking (all these topics) |
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'Failure to Act' -- Can We Blame Hollywood?
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02 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| "Failure to Act" -- Can We Blame Hollywood? A coalition of California environmental, health, and community organizations sued the U.S. EPA yesterday for neglecting to enforce clean air standards in the state's infamously smoggy Central Valley. An EPA official acknowledged that the agency had "failed to act" on a 1997 plan to improve air quality and said the lawsuit would force the agency to im ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, US EPA (all these topics) |
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The Persistence of Mercury
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01 Nov 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| The Persistence of Mercury Anyone who's ever broken an old-style thermometer knows it's tough to clean up mercury, but the state of Washington is undeterred. The state's Ecology Department has created the nation's only program to battle persistent bioaccumulative toxins, or PBTs, and mercury will be the first target. Found in substances ranging from eye makeup to industrial waste to contaminated seafood, mercury can cause neurol ... |
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| Topics: health, toxics, Washington (all these topics) |
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Crystal Mess
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31 Oct 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Crystal Mess Here's a troubling source of toxins that hasn't made it onto the average environmentalist's radar screen: methamphetamine labs. For every pound of the illegal stimulant produced, six pounds of toxic waste are left behind. Not surprisingly, there's no environmental oversight for meth labs, so the toxic waste is often dumped into rivers or directly onto the ground. The waste ... |
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| Topics: health, Montana, pollution and waste, rivers and watersheds, toxics (all these topics) |
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L.A. Confidential
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18 Oct 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| L.A. Confidential Environmental injustice appears to be alive and well in Los Angeles County, according to a study released today by the University of California at Los Angeles, which found that neighborhoods near major pollution sources are disproportionately low-income and Latino. Latinos make up 44 percent of the county population but 60 perce ... |
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| Topics: California, commercial and industry organizations, energy, environmental justice, health, politics, toxics (all these topics) |
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Benzene Wring
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03 Oct 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Benzene Wring A five-year study by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission found that two chemical companies, Marathon Ashland Petroleum and BP Chemical, have been releasing unacceptable amounts of benzene into the air around Texas City, 60 miles southeast of Houston. The levels of benzene, which is a known carcinogen, were three to six times higher than those permit ... |
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| Topics: commercial and industry organizations, health, state politics, Texas, toxics (all these topics) |
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First Contami-Nations
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25 Sep 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| First Contami-Nations Navajo activists plan to rally today and tomorrow against an energy bill before the U.S. Senate that would give $30 million to fund uranium mining on Navajo Nation lands in New Mexico. They say the mining would contaminate the drinking water of more than 15,000 people. Lori Goodman, spokesperson for Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, described the plan a ... |
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| Topics: health, mining and drilling, New Mexico, politics, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Chemicals May Be Contributing to Early Puberty
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14 Sep 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Read more about: health Chemicals May Be Contributing to Early Puberty Boys in the U.S. are entering puberty at an earlier age, and exposure to chemicals in the environment may be one of the reasons why, according to a study published in September's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The study analyzed federal data from 1988 to 1994 and found that the average age for developing pubic hair was up half a year from earlier studies. Twenty-one percent of African-American boys had deve ... |
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| Topics: health (all these topics) |
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EPA Says Air in NYC Poses Only Small Risk
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14 Sep 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| EPA Says Air in NYC Poses Only Small Risk The smoke and grit in the air in New York City that came from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers pose only a small health risk, U.S. EPA officials and some doctors said yesterday. They equated the danger to a smoggy day in the city, when people with already-weakened immune systems should be especially cautious. Other independent health experts were gloom ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, health, New York, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Dust, Asbestos From Trade Center Put Some at Risk
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13 Sep 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Dust, Asbestos From Trade Center Put Some at Risk The enormous cloud of smoke and grit that spread from the collapsing World Trade Center towers on Tuesday could lead to attacks of asthma, emphysema, and other lung diseases, even a day or two after people were exposed, doctors said yesterday. Aside from the smoke, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said the biggest environmental concern right now was asbe ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, health, New York, toxics (all these topics) |
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Give a Honk, Don't Pollute
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17 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Give a Honk, Don't Pollute On top of warming up the earth, pollution from burning fossil fuels is killing thousands of people a year, according to a study published in the journal Science. For starters, Devra Lee Davis of Carnegie Mellon University and four coauthors found that if Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, and Santiago employed technologies that now exist to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 64,000 premature deaths an ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, health (all these topics) |
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Landfill, Ho!
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17 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Landfill, Ho! Babies born to mothers living near landfills are more likely to suffer minor birth defects, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. The 11-year study shows that pregnant women living near landfills in the U.K. had a 1 percent higher chance of having a baby with a congenital defect. That risk jumped to 7 percent if the landfill contained hazardous waste. Pat Tro ... |
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| Topics: health, solid waste treatment and disposal, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Residon'ts
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16 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Residon'ts Nearly half the fruit and vegetables sold in U.K. supermarkets since 1998 contained pesticide residues, according to an analysis of government pesticide data by Friends of the Earth. The group said most of the residues were within legal limits, but it raised concerns that the individual chemicals could be dangerous in combination, especially for u ... |
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| Topics: environmental non-government organizations, food and agriculture, health, toxics, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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On De Loose
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16 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| On De Loose Greenpeace U.K. is in a tizzy because of mysterious DNA found in Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans, the world's most widely grown genetically engineered crop. The unexpected string of DNA, which was found by Belgian government and university scientists, is located next to the corn's inserted gene, provoking the enviro group to accuse Monsanto of not knowing as much about its product as it should. Green ... |
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| Topics: GMOs, Greenpeace, health, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Bug Bang Boom
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15 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Bug Bang Boom A California appeals court ruled yesterday that pesticide companies can be sued over concerns that home bug sprays are making people sick. The court in Los Angeles rejected arguments by Dow Chemical and other chemical manufacturers that they were protected from suits covering chemicals approved by the U.S. EPA for residential use. It said the EPA-approved warning labels could not be challenged, but a jury ... |
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| Topics: California, health, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Coughing Up the Dough
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06 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Coughing Up the Dough In the latest victory for residents suffering from pollution-related health problems in a Japanese city, 10 companies agreed today to pay $12.2 million to 260 locals who went to court to protest emissions from the companies' factories. The out-of-court settlement ends a 12-year dispute in which the Nagoya residents contended that the factory emissions and pollution from cars on a nearby governm ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, health, Japan (all these topics) |
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A Rash Attack
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02 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| A Rash Attack A flight attendant for United Airlines has sued the airline for exposing flight crews to pesticides on planes serving Australia and New Zealand. The attendant, Susan Matthews, says she developed a full-body rash after contact with the pesticides. The spraying -- which has been banned in the U.S. -- occurs about once every eight weeks to keep nonnative insects from hitching rides and potentially wreakin ... |
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| Topics: Australia, health, New Zealand, toxics (all these topics) |
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Just Spray No
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01 Aug 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Just Spray No Despite a judge's order to temporarily cease fumigating coca and poppy plants with the herbicide glyphosate because of environmental and health concerns, Colombia said yesterday it would not stop the antidrug operation. The judge on Friday asked the Colombian government to explain what it knows about the effects of glyphosate on people and the environment. His final ruling on a petition by indigenous groups to h ... |
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| Topics: health, South America, toxics (all these topics) |
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Be All That You Can Be
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30 Jul 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| Be All That You Can Be Thousands of workers in the U.S. may develop a fatal lung disease because companies have exposed them to the highly toxic metal beryllium without safeguards or warnings, according to a Chicago Tribune investigation. Beryllium disease, once only a problem with the defense industry, appears to be on the rise in the electronics, recycling, and dental industries. It turns out that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Ad ... |
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| Topics: health, toxics (all these topics) |
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The Great Brain Robbery
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19 Jul 2001 |
Daily Grist |
| The Great Brain Robbery Eating fish tainted with PCBs may cause memory loss and brain damage in adults, according to a study of Michigan residents. The study by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the first to suggest that PCBs in fish may have health implications for all adults; state fish advisories until now have focused on protecting pregnant women, fetuses, and young children. Michigan ships ... |
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| Topics: health, marine life, Michigan, toxics (all these topics) |
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