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Shape Up or Ship Out
A toxic pesticide that the U.S. banned in the 1980s, heptachlor, has been found in the wastewater of three cruise ships traveling in Alaska waters. Test results obtained from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation also indicated illegal levels of lead, copper, zinc, and silver in the wastewater that ships dump at sea, called gray […]
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Urine Trouble
Chemicals used in consumer products ranging from perfumes and hair sprays to artificial leather and garden hoses may be found in surprisingly high levels in humans, according to a new study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. When the scientists tested blood and urine […]
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The Valley of the Shadow of Death
The Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe, touted as the biggest privately owned wildlife park in the world, has seen 1,600 wild animals killed since February, including antelope and at least two elephants and one lion, and police for the most part have been ignoring the poaching. The problems began when President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party […]
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Canadian Bakin'
Canada’s federal cabinet has approved a five-year, $500 million plan to address the problem of climate change, the government’s first substantive effort on the issue, though it only goes one-third of the way to meeting the country’s emission-reduction targets under the Kyoto climate change treaty. The plan, to be officially unveiled today, will call on […]
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Wheaties — Breakfast of X-Men
Wheat grown near the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident is six times more likely to show mutations than wheat grown just 19 miles away, according to a study by a team of scientists in Ukraine, Britain, and Switzerland. The research, published in the journal Nature, suggests that radiation may push crops and other […]
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Two Good to Be True?
The board of the New York League of Conservation Voters is split over whom to endorse in the race for New York’s open Senate seat — Rep. Rick Lazio (R) or Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Usually there is a clear leader on the issues on one side or the other, but this is one of those […]
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Suing for Label
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by consumer and environmental organizations and a group of scientists that want the U.S. government to require labels on genetically modified (GM) foods. The suit challenged an eight-year-old policy of the Food and Drug Administration that considers gene-altering techniques to be essentially the same as conventional plant-breeding […]
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Don't Bring Your Work Home With You
Workers in dozens of industries are not only being exposed to dangerous substances on the job, but are also transporting those toxins home on their clothes, skin, tools, and briefcases, unwittingly exposing family members to dangerous contamination, according to an investigation by USA Today. Radioactive material, pesticides, mercury, lead, asbestos, PCBs, and arsenic are some […]
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I Can't Believe We Made the Hole Thing
For the first time, the hole in the ozone layer has opened up over a populated city, New Zealand scientists say. The hole opened up for two days in early September over the Chilean city of Punta Arenas, exposing its 120,000 residents to very high levels of ultraviolet radiation and increasing their risk of skin […]
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Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away
Though acting more slowly than enviros would like, BP Amoco and some other oil companies are developing alternative energy technologies at a faster pace than at any time since the energy crisis of the 1970s. As concern about climate change mounts, the companies realize that fossil fuels aren’t the wave of the future and see […]
