ApocaDocuments (10) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Aug 23, 2009
from Chicago Tribune:
Toxins in Lake Michigan fish linked to diabetes
...a new study of Great Lakes boat captains over 15 years found a correlation between the chemical DDE and diabetes. Those who ate more fish had more DDE in their blood and were more likely to develop diabetes, according to results published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in July.
DDE is produced in the bodies of small bottom-feeding fish from ingesting the prevalent pesticide DDT. The chemical transfers to bigger fish when they eat smaller fish and then accumulates in the fat and liver of people who eat lots of what they catch.
"Sports fishermen are at the top of the food chain," said Bruce Fowler, assistant director of science at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the study, along with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. ...
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Sounds absolutely DIAbolical!
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Sun, Aug 23, 2009
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
BPA industry fights back
...For decades, the chemical industry has been able to control the debate on whether BPA is harmful to human health. Now the Food and Drug Administration, which had relied on industry-financed studies to declare the chemical safe, is reconsidering its determination. The decision is expected by Nov. 30.... The industry has launched an unprecedented public relations blitz that uses many of the same tactics - and people - the tobacco industry used in its decades-long fight against regulation. This time, the industry's arsenal includes state-of-the-art technology. Their modern-day Trojan horses: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube.
A four-month investigation by the Journal Sentinel reveals a highly calibrated campaign by plastics makers to fight federal regulation of BPA, downplay its risks and discredit anyone who characterizes the chemical as a health threat. ...
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Boy. They're playing some hard plastic ball.
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Fri, Aug 21, 2009
from Mongabay:
Plastic Vortexes Leaching Chemicals into World's Oceans
While scientists have acknowledged the existence of billions of pounds of plastic containers, Styrofoam, and similar waste have created massive oceanic trash vortexes (floating islands of garbage), little is known of the effects of the dissolution of these materials into the water.
Recent studies have found that under certain climate conditions, ocean plastic can decompose in under a year, leaching potentially toxic chemicals into the water.... "Most people in the world believe that this plastic is indestructible for a very long time. We are now concerned that plastic pollution is caused by invisible materials. This will have a great effect on marine life." ...
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"Invisible materials" like endocrine disruptors, pthalates, methylmercury, or the other heavy metals? Or PCBs?
C'mon, what?
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Thu, Aug 20, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
French transport workers threaten to pollute river Seine
Angry lorry drivers at Serta, a struggling transportation company, are threatening to pour more than 8,000 litres of toxic fuel additive into the Seine if their demands for redundancy pay-offs are not met. Acknowledging the "dramatic" effect this could have on the river's fish population, they insist they will not be dissuaded unless their bosses give in.
"It's less dramatic than ... people being made redundant and sacrificed," Jean-Pierre Villemin from the CFDT union told French radio. "It's the only means we have of getting what we want."
Around 50 workers at the distribution site at La Vaupaliere near Rouen are demanding severance packages of 15,000 euros after Serta, which went into administration a year ago, announced job cuts. The transportation company, which has suffered badly in the financial crisis, has already cut around 80 jobs since the start of the year. ...
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We do not negotiate with environmental terrorists.
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Thu, Aug 20, 2009
from BBC (UK):
'Hundreds ill' near China smelter
Authorities in China have closed a second metal smelter after more than 1,300 children fell sick with lead poisoning, state media have reported.
The children were living near a manganese plant near Wugang, in Hunan province, Xinhua news agency said.... An official in Wenping, part of Wugang city in Hunan, said that 1,354 children living in four villages near the Wugang Manganese Smeltering Plant had excessive levels of lead in their blood, Xinhua said.
All the children are under 14 years old.... ...
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Big deal -- they've got hundreds of millions more children.
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Wed, Aug 19, 2009
from Associated Press:
New gov't study shows mercury in fish widespread
No fish can escape mercury pollution. That's the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country.
The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become.... Mercury consumed by eating fish can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing fetuses and young children. The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants. The mercury released from smokestacks here and abroad rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methylmercury — a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish. ...
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...and keep on winding its way up to us!
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Wed, Aug 19, 2009
from American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert:
Homes pollute: Linked to 50 percent more water pollution than previously believed
In the study, Lorence Oki, Darren Haver and colleagues explain that runoff results from rainfall and watering of lawns and gardens, which winds up in municipal storm drains. The runoff washes fertilizers, pesticides and other contaminants into storm drains, and they eventually appear in rivers, lakes and other bodies of water.... Preliminary results of the study suggest that current models may underestimate the amount of pollution contributed by homes by up to 50 percent. That's because past estimates focused on rain-based runoff during the wet season. "Use of pesticides, however, increases noticeably during the dry season due to gardening, and our data contains greater resolution than previous studies," Oki says. ...
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If it's that way in California, imagine 123 Maple Street, Anytown, USA.
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Wed, Aug 19, 2009
from Press-Enterprise (CA):
10 million to 15 million fish die in Lake Elsinore
An estimated 10 million to 15 million tiny baitfish went belly up at Lake Elsinore last weekend, the worst fish die-off since 2002, officials said.
Piles of dead threadfin shad still clogged the lake's shoreline Tuesday. In some spots, the stench was overpowering for drivers who had the misfortune of rolling down their windows down near the lake.
Mass fish die-offs have been a historic problem at Lake Elsinore, more so than at other Inland lakes. A shallow, naturally occurring lake about 20 miles northwest of Temecula, Lake Elsinore is replenished by runoff and recycled water, unlike other area lakes that are actually man-made reservoirs and have water imported through aqueducts.... [T]he deaths appeared to come from a combination of the seasonal shrinking of the lake due to evaporation, an increase in water temperature to about 80 degrees and possibly an algae bloom. ...
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Not apocalyptic... unless you're a shad in Lake Elsinore.
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Tue, Aug 18, 2009
from New York Times:
Lead Poisoning of Children in China Leads to Disturbance
The police clashed with residents of two villages near a smelting plant in northern China that is blamed for the lead poisoning of nearly all the children in the villages, reports said Monday. It was another sign of growing anger over China's rampant industrial pollution.
Several hundred villagers tore down fences and blocked traffic outside the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Company in Shaanxi Province after news of the poisoning emerged last week, state news media and villagers said. Fighting between angry parents and scores of police officers broke out Sunday, and trucks delivering coal to the plant were stoned.... At least 615 out of 731 children in the two villages have tested positive for lead poisoning, which can damage the nervous and reproductive systems and cause high blood pressure, anemia and memory loss. Lead levels in the children were more than 10 times the level China considers safe.
Air quality tests near the smelting plant found unusually high lead levels, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, although officials say groundwater, surface water, soil and company waste discharge all meet national standards.... Local officials plan to relocate all 581 households living within 1,600 feet of the factory in the next two years, according to Xinhua. It was unclear whether the plant had been closed. ...
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Even if we won't stand up for ourselves, we'll fight for our children.
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Tue, Aug 18, 2009
from Mongabay, via Treehugger via BoingBoing:
Pesticide use linked to dying frogs in California
Don Sparling of Southern Illinois University Carbondale found that minute quantities of endosulfan -- the active ingredient in many pesticides -- was enough kill frogs.
"At 0.8 parts per billion, we lose all of them," Sparling said. 8 parts per billion is the equivalent of a dozen salt grains dissolved in 500 gallons of water.
"We always thought there was an association between pesticides and declining amphibian populations, and we're building up a body of evidence to show this is the case."
Sparling and colleagues found that endosulfan are making their way, likely via wind currents, into critical frog habitat, triggering die-offs among Pacific tree frogs and foothill yellow-legged frogs, which are native to meadows in California's Sierra Mountains.... "These pesticides are applied by airplanes and we found that the wind would blow some of it up into the mountains, for instance. In other cases, these chemicals would volatize after being applied, turning into a gaseous state, which could also be picked up and spread into the mountains by wind." ...
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That is the ugliest canary I've ever seen.
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