EPA Reporting Rules Reduce Toxic Information
Mike Salinero of The Tampa Tribune explains the new EPA rule on filing information to the toxic release inventory 12/27/06. EPA said it will lessen paperwork for small businesses; environmentalists say it deprives communities of information about toxic chemical releases in their neighborhoods.
"Award Underlines Danger of Climate Change"
"The Nobel Peace Prize committee made a powerful statement today that the consequences of increasing carbon emissions could be as dangerous as the ravages of war. The award to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reflects a growing conviction on the part of scientists, politicians and economists that emissions and the global warming they produce will lead not only to more pollution but could also create economic mayhem, social upheaval and conflicts between nations or groups trying to survive in an increasingly hostile natural environment." Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in the New York Times 10/13/07.
Household Cleaning Sprays Can Trigger Asthma
"Housework might be bad for your health, according to a study suggesting that tidying up as little as once a week with common cleaning sprays and air fresheners could raise the risk of asthma in adults. Other studies have linked these types of products with increased asthma rates among cleaning professionals but the research published on Friday indicates others are potentially at risk as well. Exposure to such cleaning materials even just once a week could account for as many as one in seven adult asthma cases, the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine." Reuters ran the story Oct. 12, 2007.
FDA Says It Will Examine Claims of Lead in Lipstick
"The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it would look into claims from an advocacy group that certain lipsticks contain potentially dangerous levels of lead. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said that a third of the 33 red lipsticks examined by an independent lab contained a level of lead exceeding 0.1 parts per million -- which is the FDA's limit for lead in candy. The FDA does not set a limit for lead in lipstick." The Associated Press story ran in the Wichita Falls Times Record News Oct. 12,2007.
New Landowners Reshape Western Map
"WHITEFISH, Mont. -- William P. Foley II pointed to the mountain. Owns it, mostly. A timber company began logging in view of his front yard a few years back. He thought they were cutting too much, so he bought the land. Mr. Foley belongs to a new wave of investors and landowners across the West who are snapping up open spaces as private playgrounds on the borders of national parks and national forests. In style and temperament, this new money differs greatly from the Western land barons of old -- the timber magnates, copper kings and cattlemen who created the extraction-based economy that dominated the region for a century." Kirk Johnson reports in the New York Times Oct. 13, 2007.
Despite Gore's Nobel, Changing Climate Laws May Be Difficult
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore and the United Nations climate-change panel will draw new attention to global warming in the coming months. But passing tough new federal laws to do something about it will remain difficult, experts said Friday. Paul Rogers reports in the San Jose Mercury News.
"Promises and Poverty": Workers Underpaid, Rainforest Razed for Starbucks Coffee from Ethiopia
Tom Knudson, in an investigation jointly published by The Sacramento Bee and the Alicia Patterson Foundation, reveals a Starbucks coffee plantation carved from a threatened mountain rainforest, despite the giant Seattle-based beverage company's claims of selling an eco-friendly product. He also finds workers "who make less than a dollar a day and a dispute between plantation officials and neighboring tribal people, who accuse the plantation of using their ancestral land and jeopardizing their way of life." The story was published Sept. 23, 2007.
"Dupont Distorted C8 Study, Scientists Say"
"On Jan. 11, 2005, DuPont publicists invited reporters to the company's Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg for a major announcement. Scientists had completed a study of the potential health effects of the chemical C8, or PFOA. They had some good news. 'To date, no human health effects known to be caused by PFOA,' announced the headline on DuPont's news release. ... DuPont officials touted the study as having the seal of approval from the company's Epidemiology Review Board, a team of independent experts from various universities, including Johns Hopkins and Yale. It turns out those independent experts weren't really on board, at least not with the way DuPont chose to present the study results to company employees, the press and the public. One of the experts, Noah Seixas of the University of Washington, was 'a bit shocked' by DuPont's press statements. Another, David Wegman of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, was 'quite uncomfortable' with the way the company described the findings. Four members of the expert team agreed that Bossert's letter to employees 'was somewhere between misleading and disingenuous.' 'We were unanimous in believing that the results do show a health effect,' Wegman wrote in a Feb. 4, 2005, e-mail to other members of DuPont's Epidemiology Review Board, or ERB." Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette 10/14/07.