Environmental Health

"The tobacco industry is accused today of misleading smokers over the safety of additives in cigarettes."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will release standards to combat air-toxics emissions from power plants during an event tomorrow at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington."

"Some media reported that a new analysis of environmental links to breast cancer tells women to stop worrying about consumer products. But these stories ignore the report’s explanation that definitive evidence is not attainable and lack of human evidence of harm doesn’t mean something is safe.The real news is that for the first time, an authoritative medical group stated that scientific evidence plausibly links pollutants and industrial chemicals with biological activity that suggests breast cancer risk."

"Too much exposure to barium can cause tremors, breathing problems, diarrhea, irregular heartbeats, paralysis and death. Who could blame people for worrying if they live near huge mounds of soil laced with it?
The prospect of dust kicking up from those mounds when crews finally start building a freeway segment on top of them is causing some anxiety in neighborhoods west of downtown Modesto."

Garth Stapley reports for the Modesto Bee December 12, 2011.

A mysterious kidney disease is killing hundreds of men yearly in Central America. The men are all sugar cane workers. Dehydration and heat stress from strenuous work are key contributing causes, but researchers suspect that exposure to an unknown toxic substance may be an important triggering factor also.

Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene report for iWatch News (Center for Public Integrity) December 12, 2011.

 

"A federal agency announced Thursday that it had found no evidence that decades of live fire and bombing exercises by the Navy on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques had caused health problems documented among its residents."

In many places across the country today, manmade pollution and natural contamination of drinking water poser serious threats to people's health. Polls show Americans want such problems solved, and for four decades, the two political parties worked together to protect public health. But now Republicans (and some Democrats) in both House and Senate are trying to pass bills that would end safe drinking water and most other environmental protections.

"Air concentrations of the brominated chemicals doubled every 13 months in recent years in Cleveland and Chicago."

"An exhaustive new report meant to address public fears about possible links between breast cancer and the environment finds evidence strong enough to make only a few firm recommendations, most already well known and none with a large proven benefit."

"Exposure to atrazine, a commonly used weed killer, increases the risk of reproductive problems in a wide range of animals, says a new review study that analyzed research from around the world."