ApocaDocuments (7) matching "contamination" from this week
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Sat, Aug 8, 2009
from Mother Jones:
Corn Syrup's Mercury Surprise
In 2004, Renee Dufault, an environmental health researcher at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), stumbled upon an obscure Environmental Protection Agency report on chemical plants' mercury emissions. Some chemical companies, she learned, make lye by pumping salt through large vats of mercury. Since lye is a key ingredient in making HFCS (it's used to separate corn starch from the kernel), Dufault wondered if mercury might be getting into the ubiquitous sweetener that makes up 1 out of every 10 calories Americans eat.... The corn-syrup industry claims that no HFCS manufacturers currently use mercury-grade lye, though it concedes some used to. (According to the EPA, four plants still use the technology.) It says that its own tests found no traces of mercury in HFCS samples from US manufacturers, including a number of samples from some of the same sources Dufault tested. But hundreds of foreign plants still use mercury to make lye -- which may then be used to make foods for export. Already, 11 percent of the sweeteners and candy on the US market are imported.... [A] report issued by the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy ... found low levels of mercury in 16 common food products, including certain brands of kid-favored foods, like grape jelly and chocolate milk. ...
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Coke! It's the heavy thing!
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Thu, Aug 6, 2009
from Times Online (UK):
Environment Agency cracks down on organised crime in waste industry
Investigations by the Environment Agency have found that gangs are illegally dumping, burying and burning commercial rubbish and setting up waste businesses as a legitimate front for illegal activities, including drug trafficking.... Like the Mafia did in New York and the Camorra did in Naples, British criminals regard controlling the waste industry as a way to generate income and launder money. They are setting up bogus companies and running them in a seemingly professional manner, with business cards, logos and legitimate-sounding answering machine messages. They are undercutting legitimate waste companies on price, especially in the high-cost area of disposing of hazardous materials such as asbestos and engine oil. ...
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Cheap toxic waste disposal? Now that's an offer you can't refuse.
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Wed, Aug 5, 2009
from NUVO Newsweekly:
Unsafe waters in Indianapolis
A fast and toxic algae growth spurt on Central Indiana waterways in recent weeks is responsible for hundreds of dead fish in White River in Indianapolis, as well as warnings to those using the Geist or Morse reservoirs for summer recreation... "When the algae are in very high concentrations, like they are right now in the White River, they make oxygen during the day, but rob oxygen from the water at night," according to Lenore Tedesco, director of [the IUPUI Center for Earth and Environmental Science]. "Without enough oxygen, fish will basically suffocate."
While the presence of this type of algae is natural, the excessive and fast growth as seen in recent weeks, and the resulting dead fish, are not produced by natural causes.
"Right now we are seeing algal blooms in may of our freshwater systems," Tedesco said. "This suggests excessive nutrients in the water." ...
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Sounds positively vampiric!
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Wed, Aug 5, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Rural well water linked to Parkinson's; California study implicates farm pesticides
Rural residents who drink water from private wells are much more likely to have Parkinson's disease, a finding that bolsters theories that farm pesticides may be partially to blame, according to a new study. The risk to people in California's Central Valley was 90 percent higher for those who had private wells near fields sprayed with certain insecticides. People with the incurable neurological disease "were more likely to have consumed private well water, and had consumed it on average 4.3 years longer," UCLA scientists reported. Unlike municipal water supplies, private wells are largely unregulated and are not monitored for contaminants. ...
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We could call it Pesticidinson's Disease.
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Tue, Aug 4, 2009
from South Coast Today:
Mystery fumes sicken 119 in New Bedford
Exposure to an undetermined chemical at a North End trash disposal facility Monday morning left two people in critical condition, sent 117 more people to area hospitals and left a team of roughly 70 hazardous materials experts to sort out just what made people so sick.
At 9:15 p.m. Monday, about 60 hazardous waste technicians were still on the scene at ABC Disposal's Shawmut Avenue transfer station, and public safety officials said work would continue through the night.
Although the chemical still had not been identified late Monday evening, progress had been made: Technicians had isolated a specific load of waste dumped Monday morning as the likely source of the chemical, said New Bedford Fire Chief Paul Leger during a press conference Monday night. ...
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I'm going to start wearing this .... every day!
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Tue, Aug 4, 2009
from The Daily Green:
Congress to FDA: Prove Bisphenol A Safe, or Ban It
A little-noticed portion of the landmark food safety bill could have a big impact on the composition of consumer products, leading to the elimination of Bisphenol A in plastics now widely used in a range of plastic products aimed at pregnant women and young children.
If the Senate keeps the provision in the final food safety bill, the Food and Drug Administration will have until the end of 2009 to determine whether the chemical is safe; if it cannot make a determination, then it must restrict the use of Bisphenol A in products designed for pregnant women, babies and young children, according to a provision inserted in the bill by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.). ...
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Quickest way to get an answer: Ask the plastics industry!
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Mon, Aug 3, 2009
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Storm sewers oozing human fecal bacteria to beaches, rivers, study finds
Human sewage is flowing out of municipal storm sewers and into local waterways and Lake Michigan on rainy days without sanitary sewer overflows to blame for the load, and even during periods of dry weather, a three-year study has concluded.
And the contamination cannot be pinned on raccoons or other animals living in the storm sewers. Genetic testing ruled them out.
Human fecal pollution is found at several beaches and rivers throughout the Milwaukee area, creating an unseen though serious public health risk for anyone in the water, said Sandra McLellan, associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes WATER Institute and the study's lead researcher. ...
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Me, I wear a Hazmat swimming suit...
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