Environmental, Health and Safety News

Federal regulations for reporting toxic chemicals in consumer products have not changed in decades, but Vermont is poised to join other states to label – and possibly ban – products containing chemicals considered harmful to public health.
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The French government has halted a controversial scheme to ban half of the traffic from Paris streets after a single day, claiming that the experiment aimed at curbing harmful pollution had been successful and that the vast majority of Parisians had co-operated.
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The city of St. Louis, Missouri, has been working to reduce lead poisoning since the introduction of a lead program in the 1940s. But the danger of exposure still exists there, and screenings reveal more than a thousand cases of elevated blood lead levels each year.
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Below some of the world’s most expensive real estate in Northern California, pipes and pumps suck thousands of gallons of contaminated water every hour from vast underground toxic pools.
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The government’s nuclear watchdog put two reactors on a shortlist for a final round of safety checks on March 13, moving a step closer to reviving the country’s nuclear industry, three years after the Fukushima disaster that led to the shutdown of all plants.
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After a toxic disaster contaminated their water, the people of Charleston, West Virginia, are wondering if what’s coming out of the taps is harmful. They’re not getting any good answers.
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One of Coca-Cola Amatil’s bottled water product is made from water extracted from near Australia’s world heritage listed Springbrook National Park. Residents are concerned about the impact the operation is having on the surrounding environment.
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Nearly 3 billion people globally cook food and heat their home with simple, open-flame cookstoves, burning wood, coal, scraps of trash and generally anything that burns. The problem is that about 4 million die every year due to smoke exposure.
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Even as drilling for new oil in the Gulf of Mexico has made a robust return since the Deepwater Horizon rig disaster in 2010, BP has been in the unusual position of spectator. But that is likely to change next Wednesday, when the federal government auctions off the rights to new oil drilling sites.
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The Harper government’s plan for Environment Canada, the department tasked with coordinating the country’s environmental policies and programs, involves millions of dollars in cuts and hundreds of job losses over the next three years.
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The severe haze, which has blanketed Riau and other provinces in Sumatra over the past two months, has taken its toll on locals as thousands across the island suffer from various haze-related illnesses as the air quality continues to deteriorate.
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For at least one member of a controversial class of insecticides, low doses may cause as much harm to nontarget insects as high doses do, according to a new study.
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Researchers have long known that autism is found in clusters. Now research has yielded a new clue. Autism is more common where there are higher rates of male genital malformations, which suggests the possible involvement of environmental contaminants. But some researchers remain skeptical.
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More than half of all hospital patients receive an antibiotic, according to the CDC, which last week released an antibiotic prescribing checklist for hospitals in an effort to reduce antibiotic use and poor prescribing practices.
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H7N9 avian influenza has returned to China with a vengeance, sickening 226 people and killing 72 so far this year, as the government girds for what is likely to be a long battle to contain what one World Health Organization official has labelled an "epidemic".
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A Senate hearing on alleged retaliation against whistleblowers at a giant nuclear cleanup project is expected to go forward on Tuesday despite the absence of some potential key witnesses: the workers who were let go.
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Researchers have found that children living in central and northern Wisconsin communities that don’t disinfect their drinking water systems have a greater likelihood of contracting gastrointestinal illnesses than children who rely on other water systems.
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A chemical used to control insects and non-native pest birds is likely to blame for the deaths of hundreds of wild birds in New South Wales, Australia.
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In the tense days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan on March 11, 2011, staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission made a concerted effort to play down the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis to America’s aging nuclear plants.
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Elevated levels of lead have been found in the soil of homes and a preschool near a battery recycling plant in Vernon, Calif., prompting officials to issue health warnings and order more testing in adjacent neighborhoods.
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Obesity is probably a factor in some of the almost 22,000 new diagnoses of ovarian cancer that will be handed out this year to American women, a new study says – adding ovarian cancer to a growing list of diseases linked to carrying far too much weight.
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California’s record drought has parched crops, but hasn’t yet dimmed lights or choked the flow of electricity, even though the Golden State, with more than 300 dams, has long been a hydroelectricity leader among U.S. states.
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With its exploding urban population burning ever more coal and wood, Africa could contribute as much as 55 percent of the world’s particle pollutants by 2030, a study said Tuesday.
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Only seven of the more than 50,000 taxis and for-hire vehicles on the road in New York City were electric in 2013. Those seven include two expensive Teslas that now sit idle, three city taxis that have since been sidelined, and one cab that has to turn off its heat to save electricity.
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Many people who live near Coldwater Creek in Missouri think it may be the site of a cancer cluster. Residents grew up along a creek contaminated by radioactive material, the result of uranium processing during World War II.
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A radioactive metal from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan has been discovered in the Fraser Valley, causing researchers to raise the alarm about the long-term impact of radiation on British Columbia’s west coast.
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One of the most reviled invasive fish in North America has been unexpectedly found in the upper Mississippi River, raising concern about its spread, federal scientists announced Tuesday.
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Atmospheric radiation levels in Tokyo are at the same level as before the Fukushima nuclear accident three years ago and are below those in Paris and London.
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For Debra Berliner, the debate over using plastics in her home is manifested by a BPA-free plastic sippy cup her husband purchased for her 22-month-old son that remains opened but unused in a kitchen cabinet.
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Scientists have found four new ozone-destroying gases in the atmosphere, most likely put there by humans in the last 50 years, despite a ban on these dangerous compounds.
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More than 700 cities across the United States have combined sewer systems, in which all wastewater runoff flows into one pipe. To combat this, cities from St. Louis to Cleveland to Washington, D.C., have undertaken costly, massive tunneling operations.
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There’s a secret world of microbes hidden on the plastic littering the oceans, and scientists are untangling how these mysterious microbial communities, dubbed the "plastisphere," are impacting the ocean ecosystem.
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Authors of the new book offer provocative evidence that economic pressures and government policies are behind the increase in diagnoses of the psychiatric disorder marked by hyperactivity, disorganization, impulsiveness, inattention and poor academic performance.
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Worsening smog on the mainland is blocking natural light and could spell disaster for agriculture, scientists have warned.
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Dr. Frank R. Greening’s letter to a federal panel reviewing the site says that OPG has understated the extent of radiation in material destined for the proposed site, “sometimes by factors of more than 100.”
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The highly competitive race to wring every last dollar out of a dying forest provides the backstory of the two mills that exploded in 2012 just months apart.
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Brazil has started expelling illegal loggers and ranchers from one of the last pockets of pristine rainforest in the eastern Amazon, home to what is considered the world’s most threatened tribe, the Awá.
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Compensation totalling more than £35 million has been paid to workers poisoned by asbestos at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, the Ministry of Defence has revealed. The city has one of the highest rates of asbestos-related illness.
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The federal government ignored scientific advice when the dumping of millions of tonnes of dredging waste from a mining project into the Great Barrier Reef was approved.
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The NSW Department of Planning has recommended approval of a fourth coal export terminal in Newcastle. A leaked internal report shows the department approves the project subject to conditions being applied to prevent or minimise any adverse environmental impacts and on the coal terminal being monitored in the future.
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Queensland’s Gasfield Commissioner has told an unconventional gas conference he’s worked to resolve community concern over coal seam gas.
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The authority protecting the Great Barrier Reef believed last year that a proposal to dump 3 million cubic metres of dredge spoils in the marine park area should be refused, new documents show.
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People and companies found guilty of polluting Shanghai’s air will face stiff new penalties under revised legislation set to come into force this year, lawmakers said.
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Chinese scientists are planning to build an atmospheric simulation facility to create artificial smog for anti-pollution research at Huairou district in Beijing, with an estimated investment of 500 million yuan ($81.4 million).
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Local residents and environmental groups have reacted angrily to the announcement that prosecutors have decided to drop the charges for responsibility for the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
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Air pollution in Sharjah on some days reaches the same toxic levels as notoriously smog-ridden cities such as Beijing, Tokyo and Mexico City.
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Despite the praise for the role played by resident lock keepers, government cuts to the Environment Agency’s (EA) budget mean their jobs are on the line. The agency must lose 1,500 staff by October and will have 25% fewer people compared to 2009.
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Almost £3m of public money is being used to help tackle food poverty, BBC Panorama has discovered. A third of all councils in England and Wales said they had subsidised food banks.
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Coastal waters off Yorkshire could get extra protection soon, conservationists hope. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust said it welcomed the announcement that three recommended marine conservation zones for Yorkshire will be put forward for consultation next year.
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A new study based on genetic testing of 150,000 people has found a rare mutation that protects even fat people from getting Type 2 diabetes. The mutation destroys a gene used by pancreas cells where insulin is made, even though it has the opposite effect in mice.
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The state of Alaska wants the federal government to remove endangered species protections for humpback whales that migrate seasonally between Alaska and Hawaii, a step that would remove a hurdle for companies that want to explore the Arctic Coast for oil.
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Beijing is shrouded in smog again, three days after the city lifted it’s orange alert for air pollution. The problem is a common one in Asia and across the world. So what exactly is smog, and how dangerous can it be?
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China strengthens regulation on waste and pollution generated by large-scale livestock and poultry production.
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The restoration of the Kissimmee River has hit an unexpected snag. The restoration is considered to be the largest, most ambitious river restoration project ever attempted in the world. Advocates for restarting the stalled project maintain the stakes are high.
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This winter is a real killer. The deep freeze, with arctic blasts from the polar vortex, has put invasive insects on ice in dozens of states. That includes the emerald ash borer, a pretty bug that does ugly things to ecosystems it invades.
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Getting energy from the sun, wind and forests fits with Vermont’s sense of itself as clean, green and independent. But when it comes time to build and live with the projects that make it possible, things can get complicated.
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Asia’s impoverished urban children are among the groups most vulnerable to disasters, yet few disaster risk reduction programmes in the region focus on them, according to a new report by the International Institute for Environment and Development and children’s charity Plan International.
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The Marshall Islands are marking 60 years since the devastating U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll, with exiled islanders saying they are too fearful to ever go back because of nuclear contamination.
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This is the last frontier: the ocean floor, 4,000 meters beneath the waters of the central Pacific, where mining companies are now exploring for the rich deposits of ores needed to keep industry humming and smartphones switched on.
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