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Light on Their Fleet
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10 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Light on Their Fleet The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case about whether the Los Angeles area can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose strict anti-pollution rules on buses, taxis, garbage trucks, airport shuttles, and other vehicle fleets. Oil companies and engine manufacturers challenged a rule issued in 2000 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that requires owne ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, placemaking, toxics (all these topics) |
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Yakama Yack: Do Talk Back
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06 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Yakama Yack: Do Talk Back The Yakama Nation has filed notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Department of Energy over its alleged failure to protect the Columbia River from contamination by the Hanford nuclear reservation. Thanks to four decades of plutonium production, Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the country; ... |
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| Topics: Columbia River, Department of Energy, litigation, news, toxics, Washington, water bodies and marine life, water pollution (all these topics) |
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A Fine Kettle of Fish
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06 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| A Fine Kettle of Fish The federal Clean Water Act might be a great thing in theory, but how's it doing in practice? Not so well, it turns out, due to the failure of the U.S. EPA to adequately enforce it. At any given moment, roughly 25 percent of all large industrial plants and water-treatment facilities are in violation of federal pollution standards -- but the EPA generally fails to ... |
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| Topics: health, marine life, toxics, United States, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Oh, the Humanity
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04 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Oh, the Humanity Before they can be put on the market, pesticides are usually tested for safety on animals. Government regulators then establish an exposure level for humans that is 10 times more conservative than the safety level for animals. In an effort to abolish the tenfold safety net, pesticide companies frequently sponsor clinical tests on volunteers to try to prove that their products are as ... |
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| Topics: animal welfare, health, toxics, United States, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Jagged Little Pill
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04 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Jagged Little Pill Birth control pills aren't just having an effect on human reproduction: They're dramatically reducing the fertility of male rainbow trout as well, according to a study by scientists in Washington state. In the study, adult captive trout were exposed to synthetic estrogen for two months, then spawned with a healthy female. Synthetic es ... |
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| Topics: solid waste treatment and disposal, toxics, Washington, water bodies and marine life, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Our Gorge Is Rising
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02 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Our Gorge Is Rising China yesterday blocked the flow of the Yangtze River by closing gates at the massive Three Gorges Dam and began to fill up what will be the world's largest reservoir. It's a joyous occasion for government engineers and Communist Party faithful who have long touted the coming benefits of hydroelectric power and flood control, an ... |
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| Topics: China, dams, energy, pollution and waste, rivers and watersheds, toxics, water pollution, Yangtze River (all these topics) |
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Another Roadside Detraction
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30 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Another Roadside Detraction The Washington State Department of Transportation has come under attack by citizens who say its practice of spraying the sides of roads to control weeds puts people and the environment at risk. Last year, a decade after promising to reduce its herbicide use, the department instead hit an eight-year high, applying more than 120,000 pounds of weed-killer alongside state roads. C ... |
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| Topics: health, news, toxics, Washington, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Green Washing?
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19 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Green Washing? With eco-friendly marketing all the rage, companies are increasingly exploiting the term "organic" to sell their products -- regardless of how good those products are for consumers or for the environment. That's especially true when it comes to soaps, shampoos, conditioners, scrubs, lotions and the like, whose labeling practices (unlike those of food products) aren't regulated by any government or independent a ... |
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| Topics: green living, toxics (all these topics) |
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Puff the Toxic Dragon
On green reasons to quit smoking |
Umbra Fisk |
15 May 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, I want to quit smoking. As if the risks to my health weren't enough, could you help out by twisting that knife of guilt into my tree-hugging heart and give me some environmental reasons to stop supporting the tobacco industry? Cough, wheeze, Elaine Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada Dearest Elaine, I don't care whether you smoke or not. In fact, I think anti-smoking hype is often thinly disguised clas ... |
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| Topics: advice, agriculture, Ask Umbra, food and agriculture, green living, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary
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12 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary Two businessmen want to build a massive cow town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, providing a home for 90,000 cattle and 600 dairy farmers and their families. Sounds like a recipe for environmental disaster, right? Maybe not: In this case, the plan is to make the development a model of eco-friendly large-scale farming. Meth ... |
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| Topics: California, health, ranching, solid waste treatment and disposal, toxics, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Radio-inactivity
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09 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Radio-inactivity The Pentagon dramatically underestimated the amount of radioactivity to which U.S. Armed Forces members were exposed during Cold War-era atomic testing and explosions, a National Academy of Sciences panel announced yesterday. However, the panel found that the "ionizing radiation" to which the majority of the veterans was exposed -- either during testing or in the vicinity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- is not ... |
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| Topics: health, Japan, toxics (all these topics) |
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Let's Get Chemical
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07 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Let's Get Chemical In a trailblazing effort to mitigate the dangerous effects of toxic substances on human and environmental health, the European Commission has proposed strict new standards for chemical production. Currently, those chemicals that were in use before the E.U. was established in 1981 are not subject to the same registration and testing standards as new substances. Under the new proposal, any company manufactur ... |
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| Topics: European Union, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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The Secondhand Ticks Us Off
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07 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Secondhand Ticks Us Off The dangers of secondhand smoke are well documented -- but what about secondhand pesticide? A new report by the same name contends that pesticides and herbicides drifting off of agricultural lands endanger the health of hundreds of thousands of Californians. The report, issued today by Pesticide Action Network North America, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and Pesticide Education Center, criticiz ... |
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| Topics: California, toxics (all these topics) |
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The Farmer and the Smell
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06 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Farmer and the Smell The U.S. EPA could offer large industrial livestock farms amnesty from the federal Clean Air Act and Superfund laws, according to people involved in agency-industry talks. Rather than enforce the laws, the EPA would monitor pollution levels at roughly 30 large hog and chicken operations, a plan environmentalists and former enforcement officials say is far too lenient -- so lenie ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, food and agriculture, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Beverly Hills Flop
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29 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Beverly Hills Flop Erin Brockovich, the tenacious eco-crusader made famous by Hollywood, is back in the news: She says that many former Beverly Hills High School students have been stricken with cancer because of exposure to toxic fumes from an active oil field on school property. Brockovich and her boss, attorney Ed Masry, yesterday filed 25 personal injury claims for damages against the city of Beverly Hills an ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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Lettuce Study This More
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28 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Lettuce Study This More A toxic chemical used in rocket fuel was found in four of 22 winter lettuce samples purchased at Northern California grocery stores, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group. The lettuce contaminated with perchlorate, a hormone disrupter, was traced to farms in Southern California and Arizona tha ... |
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| Topics: Arizona, Barbara Boxer, California, Colorado River, Environmental Working Group, Harry Reid, toxics, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Europe Paean
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21 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Europe Paean Major American corporations may be getting off easy on environmental regulations in the U.S. these days, but they're being forced to toe the line in Europe. Rules adopted this year will require all electronics manufacturers doing business in European Union countries to eliminate use of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals from their products, ... |
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| Topics: European Union, globalization, green living, politics, recycling, toxics, United States, waste (all these topics) |
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Lead Story
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17 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Lead Story Lead levels that are currently assumed to be safe for children can significantly impair intellectual development, according to a groundbreaking report published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The current U.S. and international allowable blood lead level is 10 micrograms per deciliter, but researchers found that lead levels lower than that caused a drop in IQ of up to 7.4 points. That ... |
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| Topics: health, pollution and waste, toxics (all these topics) |
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Orange Alert
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17 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Orange Alert The U.S. military sprayed twice as much herbicide on Vietnam during the war there than previously estimated, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Relying on previously unexamined military documents and new assessments of dioxin concentrations, the study found that an additional 1.8 million gallons of toxic herbicides, mostly Agent Orange, were used by the Armed Forces. From 1961 to 19 ... |
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| Topics: health, politics, toxics, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Tupperscare Parties
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02 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Tupperscare Parties A chemical commonly used in food packaging and other plastics may cause miscarriages and Down's syndrome, according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology. Geneticists at Ohio's Case Western Reserve University found that exposure to even small quantities of bisphenol A (BPA), a substance that mimics the hormone estrogen, can disrupt chromosomal alignment in mouse embryos, killi ... |
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| Topics: health, pollution and waste, toxics (all these topics) |
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Not in to It
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02 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Not in to It Far-flung Greenland doesn't seem like it would be a danger zone for hazardous chemicals, but researchers from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program have documented "unacceptable levels" of environmental toxics in the nation's Inuit population. The toxics include persistent organic pollutants, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other hazardous chemicals that are carried by wind and ocean curren ... |
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| Topics: food and agriculture, Greenland, toxics (all these topics) |
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They Brought Bad Things to Life
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02 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| They Brought Bad Things to Life Meanwhile, in another legal victory on the other side of the country, a federal court yesterday rejected General Electric's constitutional challenge to the U.S. EPA's power to force the company to clean up the Hudson River. From the 1940s to the 1970s, GE dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the upper Hudson, where 500,000 to 700,00 ... |
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| Topics: business, Hudson River, New York, pollution and waste, toxics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Paint Misbehavin'
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31 Mar 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Paint Misbehavin' Vexed by barnacles, algae, and other wee hitchhikers that attach themselves to the hulls of ships, the maritime industry has been fighting back with a paint that keeps hulls clean for one to five years by slowly releasing biocides that kill off unwanted organisms. Problem is, the critter-killing paint additives don't stay put -- they leach out into seawater where they can damage coral reefs and kill mollu ... |
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| Topics: marine life, placemaking, toxics (all these topics) |
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I Could Have Had a C8
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31 Mar 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| I Could Have Had a C8 Nothing sticks to Teflon, they say -- but a key ingredient in Teflon could be sticking to you. A chemical manufactured by Dupont and used to make Teflon and other products may pose health risks for women of childbearing age and young girls, according to an internal U.S. EPA document. The chemical, ammonium perfluorooctanoate, known more commonly as PFOA or C8, accumulates in human blood. A chemical related to C ... |
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| Topics: health, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Polluters Still Pay (at Least, for Senators)
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26 Mar 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Read more about: toxics Polluters Still Pay (at Least, for Senators) The U.S. Senate yesterday voted down an amendment that would have helped fund the cleanup of Superfund sites by restoring a tax on polluting industries. The Democratic move to reinstate the tax was foiled by Republican senators with a 56-43 vote, with Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee being the only GOP lawmaker to defect from the party line. Since the tax expired in 1995, the Superfund has dwindled from $3.6 billion to an expec ... |
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| Topics: toxics (all these topics) |
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