ApocaDocuments (10) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Dec 14, 2008
from Chicago Tribune:
Mercury-tainted fish on FDA menu
In the waning days of the Bush presidency, the Food and Drug Administration is pushing to scuttle the government's advice about mercury-contaminated seafood, a dramatic policy change that would encourage women and children to eat more fish despite growing concerns about the toxic metal.
The FDA's recommendations, sent recently to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval, prompted a sharp rebuke from scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency who, in memos circulated earlier this month, described them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate."
A joint advisory issued by the two agencies in 2004 cautions women of childbearing age, nursing mothers and young children to limit seafood consumption to 12 ounces a week. But in a draft version of the FDA's new report, the agency says its own modeling shows that children can benefit from eating more fish, not less. ...
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More mercury will make it easier for mom to take her kid's temperature!
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Sun, Dec 14, 2008
from Infection Control Today:
Antibacterial Personal Hygiene Products May Not Be Worth Potential Risks
A recent study by UC Davis researchers calls into question the widespread use of two active ingredients -- triclocarban and triclosan -- in personal hygiene products, including antibacterial bar and liquid soaps. Using human and animal cell lines, researchers found that triclocarban disrupts reproductive hormone activity and triclosan interferes with a type of cell signaling that occurs in brain, heart and other cells.... "We decided to take a look at triclocarban and triclosan because these compounds appeared to be building up in the environment," said Bruce Hammock, a Superfund Basic Research Program investigator and professor of entomology. The compounds are also increasingly being detected in human breast milk and urine, he said.... Because of feedback loops in the body, amplification of these hormones could have the effect of depressing natural estrogen and androgen production, potentially impacting fertility and other hormone-dependent processes. ...
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You mean... I shouldn't be glad I used Dial?!
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Sat, Dec 13, 2008
from National Research Council:
Federal Plan to Study Risks Posed by Nanomaterials Is Inadequate
A new report from the National Research Council finds serious weaknesses in the government's plan for research on the potential health and environmental risks posed by nanomaterials, which are increasingly being used in consumer goods and industry. An effective national plan for identifying and managing potential risks is essential to the successful development and public acceptance of nanotechnology-enabled products, emphasized the committee that wrote the report.... [T]he plan fails to identify some important areas that should to be investigated; for example, "Nanomaterials and Human Health" should include a more comprehensive evaluation of how nanomaterials are absorbed and metabolized by the body and how toxic they are at realistic exposure levels. ...
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This is a very, very, very small step in the right direction.
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Thu, Dec 11, 2008
from Guardian (UK):
The Environmental Protection Agency's 'Most Wanted' list
Importing autos that did not meet standards: 2. Pumping toxic waste secretly into Mississippi: 1. Dumping tonnes of oil-contaminated grain into ocean: 1. Dumping fuel into river: 1. Dumping hazmat and acidic chemwaste into sewer: 1. Importing 105 cylinders of ozone-killing contraband: 1. Illegal disposal of mercury-tainted soil: 1. Illegal discharge into ocean: 1. One count of illegal asbestos removal: 1. ...
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THESE are the top ten? And they start off with car importers? (Hmm: is it possible the EPA has been a bit underconceptualized lately?)
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Thu, Dec 11, 2008
from Reuters:
China "cancer village" pays ultimate price for growth
XIDITOU COUNTY, China (Reuters) - Once an isolated haven, the Chinese village of Liukuaizhuang is now a tainted hell, surrounded by scores of low-tech factories that are poisoning its water and air, and the health of many villagers.
One in fifty people there and in a neighboring hamlet have been diagnosed with cancer over the last decade, local residents say, well over ten times the national rate given in a health ministry survey earlier this year.
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Sounds like the canary city in the global coal mine.
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Tue, Dec 9, 2008
from UC Davis, via EurekAlert:
Baby fish in polluted San Francisco estuary waters are stunted and deformed
Striped bass in the San Francisco Estuary are contaminated before birth with a toxic mix of pesticides, industrial chemicals and flame retardants that their mothers acquire from estuary waters and food sources and pass on to their eggs, say UC Davis researchers.
Using new analytical techniques, the researchers found that offspring of estuary fish had underdeveloped brains, inadequate energy supplies and dysfunctional livers. They grew slower and were smaller than offspring of hatchery fish raised in clean water.
"This is one of the first studies examining the effects of real-world contaminant mixtures on growth and development in wildlife," said study lead author David Ostrach, a research scientist at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. He said the findings have implications far beyond fish, because the estuary is the water source for two-thirds of the people and most of the farms in California.
"If the fish living in this water are not healthy and are passing on contaminants to their young, what is happening to the people who use the water, are exposed to the same chemicals or eat the fish?" Ostrach said. ...
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Hmm: what is happening to the people? I, for one, feel stunted, and I'm not even in California!
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Tue, Dec 9, 2008
from San Francisco Chronicle:
Diesel truckers at cancer risk from exhaust
Trucking company workers who have been regularly exposed to diesel exhaust from vehicles on highways, city streets and loading docks have a higher risk of lung cancer than other workers, according to a new national study. The study, based on 31,135 worker records, found that drivers who do short-haul pickups and deliveries, including loading and unloading containers at ports and working at freight-delivery companies, had the highest rate of deaths and disease.
Dockworkers were also at a higher risk, according to the report by researchers at UC Berkeley and Harvard.
California's Air Resources Board will consider the study's findings when it meets Friday to vote on a landmark regulation to reduce risk to the general public from 1 million diesel trucks in the state. ...
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But what about diesel's effects on my hemorrhoids?
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Tue, Dec 9, 2008
from Canwest News Service:
Toxic chemicals found in three-quarters of soft plastic toys in Canada
Despite a decade-old voluntary ban in North America, Health Canada tests found three-quarters of soft plastic toys and items for young children for sale in Canada contained toxic chemical additives known to cause reproductive harm in children.
Phthalates, used to soften plastic toys, were present at elevated levels in the department's sampling of 54 of 72 products for children ages three and under made of the widely used plastic known as polyvinyl chloride. They included toys that are likely to be mouthed, like bath toys, and items designed for infants to help in feeding and sleeping. ...
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Thufferin thuccotash -- those durn thPhthalates!
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Mon, Dec 8, 2008
from Yale University, via EurekAlert:
Nanotechnology 'culture war' possible, says Yale study
Rather than infer that nanotechnology is safe, members of the public who learn about this novel science tend to become sharply polarized along cultural lines, according to a study conducted by the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School in collaboration with the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. The report is published online in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.... When shown balanced information about the risks and benefits of nanotechnology, study participants became highly divided on its safety compared to a group not shown such information.
The determining factor in how people responded was their cultural values, according to Dan Kahan, the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor at Yale Law School and lead author of the study. "People who had more individualistic, pro-commerce values, tended to infer that nanotechnology is safe," said Kahan, "while people who are more worried about economic inequality read the same information as implying that nanotechnology is likely to be dangerous." ...
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So pro-commerce folks tend to trust commerce, while others question commerce's motives. Wonder which side is "right"?
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Mon, Dec 8, 2008
from USA Today:
Health risks stack up for students near industrial plants
ADDYSTON, Ohio — The growl of air-monitoring equipment has replaced the chatter of children at Meredith Hitchens Elementary School in this Cincinnati suburb along the Ohio River.
School district officials pulled all students from Hitchens three years ago, after air samples outside the building showed high levels of chemicals coming from the plastics plant across the street. The levels were so dangerous that the Ohio EPA concluded the risk of getting cancer there was 50 times higher than what the state considers acceptable. The air outside 435 other schools — from Maine to California — appears to be even worse, and the threats to the health of students at those locations may be even greater. ...
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Might as well bring these kids up right!
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