ApocaDocuments (14) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Aug 16, 2009
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
UW linked to ghostwriting
As fears were growing about the link between hormone therapy and breast cancer, a drug company paid the University of Wisconsin to sponsor ghostwritten medical education articles that downplayed the risks, records obtained by the Journal Sentinel show.
The five articles were funded by Wyeth, the company that made the top-selling hormone therapy products. The articles, published in 2001, appeared under the names of doctors who specialized in diseases common to menopausal women, but actually were written by professional writers paid by the company.
The articles came shortly before a long-term $1.5 million arrangement between Wyeth and UW to educate doctors and patients around the country about hormone therapy. The initiative promoted the benefits and softened the risks of drugs that produced sales of more than $1 billion a year.
The five articles alone reached up to 128,000 doctors and other clinicians who could get medical education credit by reading the reports and taking a quiz. ...
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A twist on the Cyrano de Bergerac story.
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Sat, Aug 15, 2009
from Telegraph.co.uk:
Chinese villagers dying from chemical factory's illegal pollution
Underfoot, the earth has been poisoned to a depth of 20cm (8in). The water in the wells is undrinkable.
The plight of Shuangqiao ... where three people have died and 509 are sick from poisoning by the heavy metals cadmium and indium, produced by a nearby factory, has drawn widespread attention since residents took to the internet to air their grievances.
"We wouldn't be here today if the Government had paid attention to us in 2006 when we first told them the factory in our village was spreading pollution," said one villager, who gave his name only as Li, for fear of official retribution. "Now it's the responsibility of the factory and the Government that ignored us to help us." ... Waste water and earth from the processing of the heavy metals have been dumped into a narrow valley at the back of the plant. The stream runs into a river 500m away that feeds into the main Xiang River, which provides drinking water for 20 million people.
The factory was supposed to produce the feed additive zinc sulphate. Instead, it illegally processed ore from zinc production to extract cadmium and rare indium, a key material in liquid crystal display screens and solar panels.
The price of indium soared from less than $600 (£360) a kilogram in 2003 to $1,000 by 2006. China now meets 30 per cent of world demand and at its peak the Xianghe factory produced 300kg of indium a month. ...
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LALALALALA... I need to go watch that Discovery special on solar panels, on my hi-def TV.
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Sat, Aug 15, 2009
from Discovery News:
Air Pollution Travels, Kills Thousands Annually
Unseen and odorless, microscopic particles of air pollution wafting overseas and across continents kill some 380,000 people each year, according to a new study.
Exhaust from diesel engines, sulfur from coal-fired power plants, and desert dust swirl into an insidious cocktail of of tiny particles that can spend weeks airborne.
The most harmful are the smallest, less than 2.5 microns in diameter; when inhaled they can irritate the lungs or pass directly into the bloodstream and damage arteries. ...
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Well, at least it doesn't smell bad.
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Fri, Aug 14, 2009
from Reuters:
California meat company recalls hamburger patties
California meat company Sterling Pacific Meat Co has recalled about 3,500 pounds of hamburger patties that may be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
The patties were made on May 18 and distributed to wholesale food service companies, who sold the meat to restaurants in California and Arizona, according to USDA.
The problem was discovered by the agency during a review of the meat plant's records, and USDA said it has not received any reports that the hamburger made people ill. ...
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Recalled yes, but not too fondly remembered.
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Fri, Aug 14, 2009
from University of Alaska Fairbanks via EurekAlert:
New findings show increased ocean acidification in Alaska waters
The same things that make Alaska's marine waters among the most productive in the world may also make them the most vulnerable to ocean acidification. According to new findings by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist, Alaska's oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, which could damage Alaska's king crab and salmon fisheries.... When he tested the samples' acidity in his lab, the results were higher than expected. They show that ocean acidification is likely more severe and is happening more rapidly in Alaska than in tropical waters. The results also matched his recent findings in the Chukchi and Bering Seas.... Ocean acidification makes it more difficult to build shells, and in some cases the water can become acidic enough to break down existing shells. Mathis' recent research in the Gulf of Alaska uncovered multiple sites where the concentrations of shell-building minerals were so low that shellfish and other organisms in the region would be unable to build strong shells.
"It seems like everywhere we look in Alaska's coastal oceans, we see signs of increased ocean acidification," said Mathis. ...
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pHrankly, I find these pHindings pHenomenally pHrightening.
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Thu, Aug 13, 2009
from Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento judge tentatively rules against bid to list styrene as carcinogenic
A Sacramento judge sided with the styrene industry and against state environmental officials on Wednesday in ruling that the chemical doesn't have to be listed under Proposition 65 as a cause of cancer.
Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne W.L. Chang said the listing would have had a "devastating effect" on a $28 billion industry that uses the product widely in food packaging, as well as in thousands of plastic items ranging from bicycle helmets to synthetic marble... "The court agrees with plaintiff that the designation of a product as a carcinogen, particularly associated with food, could have a devastating effect on that product's use," Chang wrote. "Such a designation would likely have the intended 'stigmatizing' effect.'" ...
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Sounds like styrene is just too big to fail...
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Wed, Aug 12, 2009
from University of Minnesota, via EnvironmentalResearchWeb:
University of Minnesota researchers discover high levels of estrogens in some industrial wastewater
In a groundbreaking study, civil engineering researchers in the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology have discovered that certain industries may be a significant source of plant-based estrogens, called phytoestrogens, in surface water. They also revealed that some of these phytoestrogens can be removed through standard wastewater treatment, but in some cases, the compounds remain at levels that may be damaging to fish.... They found very high concentrations of these hormone-mimicking phytoestrogens -- up to 250 times higher than the level at which feminization of fish has been seen in other research -- in the wastewater discharged from eight industrial sites, including biodiesel plants, a soy milk factory, a barbecue meat processing facility and a dairy. They also detected high concentrations of phytoestrogens in the water discharged by some municipal wastewater treatment plants.
The good news is that the researchers revealed that phytoestrogens can be removed from water as it goes through standard treatment. In fact, they saw more than 90 percent removal of these compounds from the water. Unfortunately, sometimes 99 percent removal is needed to reach levels that are considered harmless to fish. ...
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Oh, poor Alex... um, Alexandra.... uh, Sasha!
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Wed, Aug 12, 2009
from New York Times:
China's Incinerators Loom as a Global Hazard
After surpassing the United States as the world's largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system.
And these pollutants, particularly long-lasting substances like dioxin and mercury, are dangerous not only in China, a growing body of atmospheric research based on satellite observations suggests. They float on air currents across the Pacific to American shores.... [However, at] the other end of Shenzhen from Longgang, no smoke is visible from the towering smokestack of the Baoan incinerator... Government tests show that it emits virtually no dioxin and other pollutants.
But the Baoan incinerator cost 10 times as much as the Longgang incinerators, per ton of trash-burning capacity.
The difference between the Baoan and Longgang incinerators lies at the center of a growing controversy in China. ...
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As if heavy metals could float on air!
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Germ-killing chemical from soaps, toothpaste building up in dolphins
Dolphins are swimming in waters tainted with germ-killing soaps, but they aren't winding up squeaky clean.
Triclosan, an antibacterial chemical found in everyday bathroom and kitchen products, is accumulating in dolphins at concentrations known to disrupt the hormones and growth and development of other animals.
Scientists have found that one-third of the bottlenose dolphins tested off South Carolina and almost one-quarter of those tested off Florida carried traces of triclosan in their blood. It is the first time the chemical has been reported in a wild marine mammal – a worrisome finding, researchers say, because it shows it is building up in the ocean’s food web.
Triclosan is the germ-killing chemical of choice in hundreds of products, including liquid hand soaps, toothpaste, deodorants and cutting boards. Now some scientists are calling for its removal from consumer products. ...
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I prefer my dolphins minty fresh!
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from Than Nien News (Vietnam):
Slaps on the wrist as old hands pollute waters
In Dong Nai, the Tan Phat Tai Private Company in Bien Hoa Town, not far from HCMC, was last year caught twice by Dong Nai police discharging harmful waste including paint and oil into the land of nearby residents. The company was fined VND15 million (US$842).
Again on June 12 this year, the footwear company was caught releasing waste into a residential plot in Long Thanh District. It was fined VND10 million on July 3 only to be caught dumping around three cubic meters of wastewater from a tanker in Vinh Cuu District just four days later.
Since the company's license for transporting, treating and destroying waste was granted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, authorities in Dong Nai said they can only impose cash penalties upon the polluter.... "The wastewater is black and smells like weed killer," a local resident had said in July, adding that she could hardly breathe when standing near the dumping site.
Test results later showed that the effluent contained cyanide, phenol, lead and other heavy metals.
Le Quang Thang, who drove the tanker that dumped the waste, said he had been doing so for two months, getting paid VND2 million for each trip. Thang said he was told where to throw the waste, and that he made three such trips a day. ...
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Fines of about twice what the truck driver was paid that day. Ouch! That's gotta hurt!
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from Globe and Mail:
Crown of Thorns starfish destroying Asian reefs
The predator starfish feeds on corals by spreading its stomach over them and using digestive enzymes to liquefy tissue.
The researchers found large numbers of them in Halmahera, Indonesia, which lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle. During a research trip in December, they saw a stretch of reef measuring 10 kilometres in circumference completely wiped out.
"It's quite a stark sight. The crown of thorns choose to eat some species, like staghorn corals, the branching corals disappear and you are left with just a rubble pit," Andrew Baird [said].... Dr. Baird said the outbreak was caused by poor water quality and could be an early warning of widespread reef decline.
"Humans are exacerbating the problem because we put too many nutrients in the water," he said, referring to water pollution caused by sewerage and agriculture fertilizers.
"There are lots of micro-algae and the larvae of the crown of thorns feed on the algae," said Dr. Baird, who was involved in the study. ...
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The larvae know not what they do.
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Tue, Aug 11, 2009
from CBC:
Acid rain falling on Saskatchewan from Alberta oilsands, says lobby
The Saskatchewan Environmental Society issued a news release Monday to say that data, obtained by the society from the Saskatchewan environment ministry, reveals that rain falling in the La Loche area of the province's far north has a pH level that falls under the definition for acid rain.
The generally accepted threshold for normal rain is a pH of 5.6. Environment Canada has determined any value less than five may be termed acid rain.
Ann Coxworth, a spokeswoman for the environmental society, said data from the Saskatchewan government shows the average pH level for rain and snow in the La Loche area is 4.96.
"We have now a combination of that region being the most sensitive forest soil in Canada, most sensitive to damage by acid precipitation and an increase in the acidity of the precipitation," Coxworth told CBC News on Monday. "So it seems to us that is a situation that really needs to be attended to." ...
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In Canada, such politeness might get results!
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Mon, Aug 10, 2009
from Appleton Post-Crescent:
Relentless Japanese beetle invades Fox Cities
The Japanese beetle, an invasive bug that has caused gardeners grief for years in parts of Wisconsin and elsewhere in the country, is emerging in pockets of the Valley and spreading across Green Bay.
About two years ago, the beetle was discovered near Riverview Country Club in Appleton, said David Bayer, a horticulture agent with the Outagamie County University of Wisconsin-Extension office. It's also been spotted in other areas of the Fox Valley.
The invasive beetles attack more than 300 species of plants, killing grass, eating roses and turning tree leaves to lace. Vijai Pandian, a horticulture educator with the Brown County UW-Extension office, said the beetles are especially common on the city's west side. He said 25 traps placed last year netted 76,000 beetles. ...
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76,000! Methinks we could use them as a bio-fuel.
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Mon, Aug 10, 2009
from Living on Earth:
Rock Snot
Algae blooms are usually problems for warm waters laden with excess nutrients. But they're now popping up in waters considered icons of environmental health — cold, clear, trout and salmon streams.
The alga didymo is spreading quickly, -- it's better known by its nickname -- rock snot.... If the name rock snot is not bad enough, consider its appearance. It's often described as looking like a sewage spill with wet toilet paper streaming in the water... Amy Smagula, a biologist with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, walks to the river to pick up samples of the invader. ...
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Excuse me, but doesn't "Smagula" sorta sound like a Latin term for "rock snot"?
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