Rep. Edward Markey and 72 members of Congress pressed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to finish the dioxin reassessment, delayed more than 20 years and past her own end-of-2010 deadline. The newsletter also congratulates Hilton Kelley on his Goldman Prize.
Section archive
Page 19 of 31
Environment
Farming, agriculture and the environmental side of the food system.
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Environment
Don't Be Duped by the Sewage Sludge Industry's "Compost" (PR)
An advocacy alert charging that the Environmental Media Association's celebrity-backed 'organic' school gardens used Kellogg Garden Products soil derived from Los Angeles sewage sludge, and urging readers to press Hollywood to cut ties with the sludge industry.
Environment
Occupational Highway Transportation Deaths
CDC analysis of federal data found 8,173 workers died in highway transportation incidents from 2003 to 2008, 24% of all fatal occupational injuries. The annual rate of 0.9 per 100,000 workers fell 2.8% a year, and trucking had both the most deaths and the highest rate.
Environment
Drinking Water: Celebrate the Essential
The CDC marks Drinking Water Week, May 1-7, 2011, noting that treatment and disinfection have made U.S. tap water among the world's safest, that typhoid fever fell sharply once disinfection spread, and that Jersey City was the first American city to disinfect a municipal supply, in 1908.
Environment
Car seat safety an issue when kids can unbuckle themselves
Yale researchers surveyed 500 parents at Connecticut pediatric offices and found children under three, some as young as one, can unbuckle their car seat restraints. More than 40% of those who could did so while the car was moving, and boys attempted it more often than girls.
Agriculture
Monsanto Chemical Shown to Cause Infertility and Super Weeds
Regulators in the US and Canada are formally reviewing the safety of Monsanto's glyphosate while lawsuits proceed and some groups call for a global ban, with critics warning of infertility, cancer, super weeds and changes to plants and soil. Monsanto also awaits FDA approval for omega-3 soybeans.
Environment
Do Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer?
In 1993 David Reynard argued on Larry King's show that cell phone radiation caused his wife's brain tumor, and a Florida court rejected the case as premature. The New York Times revisits what is known nineteen years on, noting cancer may take 50 to 70 years to develop.
Environment
25 States and DC are Smoke-Free
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia ban smoking in worksites, restaurants and bars, but seven states have no statewide restrictions and no southern state covers all three venues. CDC ties about 46,000 heart disease deaths a year among nonsmoking adults to secondhand smoke.
Environment
Does the US protect kids from chemicals?
The American Academy of Pediatrics says U.S. policy fails to protect children from toxic chemicals and, in a May 2011 Pediatrics statement, calls for substantially revising the Toxic Substances Control Act, which has been used to regulate only five chemicals or classes since 1976.
Environment
Important Information on the Biological Effects of Cell Phones and Wireless Technologies
Mercola links to an interview with Dr. Karl Maret, an engineer and physician, on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields from cell phones and wireless technology, and cites a study finding lower bone mineral density on the hip where men carried their phones.
Environment
State Smoke-Free Laws for Worksites, Restaurants, and Bars
CDC reviewed state smoking restrictions in effect on December 31, 2010. The number of states plus DC banning smoking in worksites, restaurants and bars rose from zero in 2000 to 26 in 2010, but no southern state had adopted a law covering all three venues.
Environment
Prenatal pesticide exposure tied to lower IQ in children (PR)
UC Berkeley researchers found each tenfold rise in organophosphate measures during pregnancy matched a 5.5-point drop in IQ at age 7, with the most exposed children scoring seven points below the least exposed. Two other studies report similar associations.
Environment
Prenatal exposure to common insecticide linked to decreases in cognitive functioning at age 7 (PR)
Columbia researchers followed 265 New York City children born before the 2001 indoor ban on chlorpyrifos. More insecticide in umbilical cord blood went with lower scores at age 7: each standard deviation of exposure cut full-scale IQ by 1.4% and working memory by 2.8%.
Environment
Fluoride Action Network Newsletter: Action Update
Andrew Young and Dr. Gerald Durley asked Georgia legislators to repeal the state's 40-year-old mandatory water fluoridation law, citing fairness, safety and disclosure. They note 61 percent of low-income Georgia third-graders have decay despite 96 percent fluoridation coverage.
Environment
Hospital-based bacteria may be non-stoppable (PR)
In a randomized trial across 18 US intensive care units, expanded screening for MRSA and VRE plus gloves and gowns did not reduce transmission. Incomplete compliance with hand hygiene and barrier precautions, and lags in confirming results, may explain it. New England Journal of Medicine.
Environment
Low doses of flame retardants alter gene expression (PR)
A primer on polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants, now persistent pollutants measured in human blood, fat, breast milk and cord blood. Health concerns rest largely on animals dosed far above human exposure, so low-dose studies are needed.
Agriculture
Factory Farm Egg Production, without Mandated Outdoor Access, Challenged (PR)
The Cornucopia Institute filed a USDA complaint alleging that Herbruck's Poultry Ranch and a supplier to Organic Valley confine organic laying hens indoors, arguing small porches fail the rule requiring year-round outdoor access for all animals.
Agriculture
New video: Where your food comes from
EWG's Losing Ground report, built on Iowa State University research, says soil across Iowa and other Corn Belt states is washing away many times faster than official estimates, carrying fertilizer, pesticides and manure into creeks and drinking water. EWG filmed the erosion for a short video.
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