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Toxic/Hazardous Materials
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Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at: Oct 16, 2012 Greenwashing the Retina MacBook Pro QUOTE: Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro – the least repairable, least recyclable computer I have encountered in more than a decade of disassembling electronics – was just verified Gold, along with four other ultrabooks. This decision demonstrates that the EPEAT standard has been watered down to an alarming degree.
Wired Sep 09, 2011 Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny QUOTE: The little-known federal agency charged with monitoring the system and enforcing safety measures — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves...
New York Times Aug 19, 2011 Antibacterial Chemical Raises Safety Issues QUOTE: a battle over the active ingredient in Dial Complete and many other antibacterial soaps, a chemical known as triclosan...Several studies have shown that triclosan may alter hormone regulation in laboratory animals or cause antibiotic resistance...F.D.A. has already said that soap with triclosan is no more effective than washing with ordinary soap and water, a finding that manufacturers dispute.
New York Times Jun 29, 2011 The Fear of a Toxic Rerun QUOTE: A $230 million refinery being built here in an effort to break China’s global chokehold on rare earth metals is plagued by environmentally hazardous construction and design problems, according to internal memos and current and former engineers on the project. The plant, which would be the world’s biggest refinery for rare earths — metals crucial to the manufacture of a wide range of technologies including smartphones, smart bombs and hybrid cars — has also become the target of protesters who fear that the plant will leak radioactive and toxic materials into the water table.
New York Times Jun 15, 2011 Lead Poisoning in China: The Hidden Scourge QUOTE: thousands of workers, villagers and children in at least 9 of mainland China’s 31 province-level regions have been found to be suffering from toxic levels of lead exposure, mostly caused by pollution from battery factories and metal smelters. The cases underscore a pattern of government neglect seen in industry after industry as China strives for headlong growth with only embryonic safeguards.
New York Times Apr 23, 2011 Resistance to Gas Drilling Rises on Unlikely Soil QUOTE: “It’s our health that’s at stake…” A report for Congressional Democrats released last week detailed the quantity of chemicals that gas companies are putting into the ground.
New York Times Mar 18, 2011 In Japan’s Danger Zone, the Stranded Await the Merciful QUOTE: The plight of the thousands still stranded in areas near the stricken reactors... has underscored what residents say is a striking lack of help from the national government to assist with the evacuation of danger zones or the ferrying of supplies to those it has urged to stay inside... Many of those left behind are elderly people... They say city officials and the police are nowhere to be seen.
New York Times Feb 22, 2011 Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China QUOTE: 137 workers at a factory here had been seriously injured by a toxic chemical used in making the signature slick glass screens of the iPhone... But in interviews last weekend, nearly a dozen employees who say they were harmed by the chemical said they had never heard from anyone at Apple.
New York Times Feb 15, 2011 Where there's smoke, there's ire: Condo conflict lights up in Hessian Hills QUOTE: Residents feeling tarred and nicotined by smoking neighbors are not unusual....an anti-tobacco video from California shows how smoke can seep through apartment complexes.
Hook Feb 10, 2011 Ex-C.I.A. Agent Goes Public With Story of Mistreatment on the Job QUOTE: He contends that the events broke up his marriage and destroyed his career, and that C.I.A. officials abused the State Secrets Privilege doctrine in an effort to cover up their own negligence.
New York Times Dec 10, 2010 When Wrinkle-Free Clothing Also Means Formaldehyde Fumes QUOTE: some critics said more studies on a wider array of textiles and clothing chemicals were needed, including a closer look at the effects of cumulative exposure [to formaldehyde-Ed.]. At the very least, they said, better labeling would help.
New York Times Nov 28, 2010 The TSA is invasive, annoying - and unconstitutional QUOTE: Neither virtual strip-searches nor intrusive pat-downs should be considered "routine," and therefore courts should rule that neither can be used for primary screening.
Washington Post May 27, 2010 Safety Rules Can’t Keep Up With Biotech Industry QUOTE: the estimated 232,000 employees in the nation’s most sophisticated biotechnology labs work amid imponderable hazards. And some critics say the modern biolab often has fewer federal safety regulations than a typical blue-collar factory.
New York Times May 24, 2010 In Standoff With Environmental Officials, BP Stays With an Oil Spill Dispersant QUOTE: While the Corexit products, made by the Nalco company of Naperville, Ill., are the time-tested old faithfuls of oil spill treatment, they were developed in the 1980s and ’90s, and critics say that less toxic and more effective products are now available....Complicating the standoff between the company and regulators, there are many methods for estimating the toxicity of chemical oil dispersants and no single standard prevails.
New York Times May 20, 2010 Conflict of Interest Worries Raised in Spill Tests QUOTE: Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, since those readings [taken by local environmental officials--Ed.] will be used by the federal government and courts to establish liability claims against BP. But the laboratory that officials have chosen to process virtually all of the samples is part of an oil and gas services company in Texas that counts oil firms, including BP, among its biggest clients.
New York Times May 12, 2010 The Price and Who Pays: Updates From the Gulf QUOTE: attempts to shut off the flow of oil streaming into the Gulf of Mexico have been unsuccessful and the search continues for a cause and for ways to prevent such blowouts in the future. Questions persist about who will be liable for damage from the spill and the risks to local wildlife.
New York Times Oct 12, 2009 Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways (Toxic Waters) QUOTE: Even as a growing number of coal-burning power plants around the nation have moved to reduce their air emissions, many of them are creating another problem: water pollution.
New York Times Sep 26, 2009 Smuggling Europe’s Waste to Poorer Countries QUOTE: Because of Europe’s new environmental laws, it is four times as expensive to incinerate trash in the Netherlands as to put it — illegally — on a boat to China.
New York Times Sep 13, 2009 Welcome to Our Town. Wish We Weren’t Here. (Treece Journal) QUOTE: Officials in Kansas have been practically begging the federal government to move Treece’s impoverished people, mostly the children and grandchildren of old miners [due to mining contaminates in the soil] but to no avail.
New York Times Sep 05, 2009 In Toys and More, Are Chemicals Safe or Harmful? New law tightens use of phthalates, but industry says hazard isn't proven QUOTE: Over the past few years, researchers have uncovered multiple health hazards, either in animal or human studies, linked to phthalates [chemical that is in many consumer products].
HealthDay Sep 02, 2009 GM crops: Battlefield: Papers suggesting that biotech crops might harm the environment attract a hail of abuse from other scientists. Emily Waltz asks if the critics fight fair. QUOTE: some scientists say that this activity [attacking papers that criticize genetically modified crops] may be going beyond what is acceptable in scientific discussions, trampling important research questions and stifling debate.
Nature Aug 31, 2009 Europe’s Ban on Old-Style Bulbs Begins QUOTE: Restrictions on the sale of incandescent bulbs begin going into effect across most of Europe on Tuesday in the continent’s latest effort to get people to save energy and combat global warming. But even advocates concede the change is proving problematic.
New York Times Aug 30, 2009 In Oil-Rich Niger Delta, the Sun Never Sets: Smokestacks Still Shooting Out Gas Flares QUOTE: As many as 100 flares burn at petroleum companies' outposts across the oil-rich [Niger] delta, belching harmful greenhouse gases and, human rights activists say, sickening residents [of Nigeria].
Washington Post Aug 27, 2009 Hold the sushi: Mercury in fish QUOTE: Consumers are now trying to understand how the USGS [U.S. Geological Survey] study’s findings [on mercury in fish] should influence their eating habits.
Economist Aug 26, 2009 Meeting regulations costly for gas stations QUOTE: A combination of environmental rules, mandatory equipment replacement, the down economy, increased competition from big-box stores and rising credit-card fees is putting the squeeze on independent gas station owners...
USA TODAY Aug 26, 2009 Debate on lithium batteries reignites QUOTE: Pilots are calling for a ban on all lithium-based battery shipments on passenger and cargo jets.
USA TODAY Aug 24, 2009 Are aging ships still a toxic export? Environmental groups worry that the practice of reflagging US commercial ships that may have PCBs so they can be scrapped abroad is beginning again. QUOTE: By first selling a US vessel [unable to be scrapped as a U.S. ship due to PCB contamination] to a new foreign owner... the former US ship now a foreign ship can then be scrapped abroad quite legally.
Christian Science Monitor Aug 20, 2009 Lead Sickens 1,300 Children in China QUOTE: Lead pollution from a newly opened and unlicensed manganese smelter has poisoned more than 1,300 children in southeastern China’s Hunan Province...
New York Times Aug 18, 2009 Nanoparticle safety in doubt: Lung damage in Chinese factory workers sparks health fears. QUOTE: Claims that seven Chinese factory workers developed severe lung damage from inhaling nanoparticles are stoking the debate over the environmental-health effects of nanotechnology.
Nature Aug 17, 2009 Scientists analyze blood to test for toxic airplane air exposure QUOTE: Results of [Clement] Furlong's research could expand recognition of what a select group of researchers believes is a largely unrecognized risk of flying: the chance that poisonous fumes enter the cabin.
CNN (Cable News Network) Aug 11, 2009 China’s Incinerators Loom as a Global Hazard QUOTE: After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system.
New York Times Aug 06, 2009 New Battle on Vieques, Over Navy’s Cleanup of Munitions QUOTE: But what could have been a healing process has been marred by lingering mistrust. As the Navy moves to erase a bitter vestige of its long presence here [Vieques, Puerto Rico], residents assert that it is simply exposing them again to risk.
New York Times Aug 04, 2009 More D.C. Kids Had Elevated Lead Than Stated QUOTE: More than twice as many D.C. children as previously reported by federal and local health officials had high levels of lead in their blood amid the city's drinking water crisis, according to congressional investigators, throwing into doubt assurances by those officials that the lead in tap water did not seriously harm city children.
Washington Post Aug 04, 2009 What Happens to the Clunkers Traded In? ( If You Must Know) QUOTE: while the ["cash-for-clunkers"] initiative has proved highly popular with consumers, critics are raising concerns about the economic and environmental hazards inherent in the process of ruining so many cars beyond repair.
Time Magazine Aug 03, 2009 Did China's Nuclear Tests Kill Thousands and Doom Future Generations? QUOTE: Three decades on, [Enver] Tohti, now a medical doctor, is launching an investigation into the toll still being taken—and one that the Chinese government steadfastly refuses to acknowledge. A few hundred thousand people may have died as a result of radiation from at least 40 nuclear explosions carried out between 1964 and 1996 at the Lop Nur site in Xinjiang...
Scientific American Jul 29, 2009 Chinese Workers Say Illness Is Real, Not Hysteria QUOTE: As soon as the Jilin Connell Chemical Plant started production this spring, local hospitals began receiving stricken workers from the acrylic yarn factory 100 yards downwind from Connell’s exhaust stacks. A clear case of chemical contamination? Not so, say Chinese health officials who contend that the episode is a communal outbreak of psychogenic illness, also called mass hysteria.
New York Times Jul 27, 2009 Infectious Diseases Study Site Questioned: Tornado Alley May Not Be Safe, GAO Says QUOTE: The Department of Homeland Security relied on a rushed, flawed study to justify its decision to locate a $700 million research facility for highly infectious pathogens in a tornado-prone section of Kansas, according to a government report.
Washington Post Jul 27, 2009 Wanted: Home for 17,000 tons of mercury (60- Second Science) QUOTE: The U.S. is sitting on a slippery stockpile of toxic material that has nothing to do with the nuclear power industry: thousands of tons of mercury. The question remains now of where to store it.
Scientific American Jul 26, 2009 Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country QUOTE: homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.
New York Times Jul 16, 2009 Scavenging Hazardous 'E-Waste' for a Few Redeemables QUOTE: Agbogbloshie is one hotspot in a growing mountain of hazardous electronic waste, according to environmentalists...
Washington Post Jul 13, 2009 Marking the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. nuclear meltdown QUOTE: A reactor in Chatsworth began leaking radioactive gas on July 14, 1959. Some area residents blame the facility for their health issues and say the site remains contaminated.
Los Angeles Times Jul 04, 2009 Landfill Worries Cloud Hope for New Orleans Gardens QUOTE: The Chef Menteur landfill, two miles from the farm [a planned urban garden] site, was hastily opened in April 2006 for debris from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As a construction and demolition (C&D) landfill, it was not required to have a liner, leachate collection or groundwater monitoring wells as would be required for landfills accepting household and industrial waste.
Washington Post Jun 27, 2009 A Sickening Situation QUOTE: Since hearing [Josh] Eller's story, lawyer Elizabeth Burke has signed on 190 additional clients with complaints about burn pits at 18 military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. Burke was shocked to learn what her clients saw incinerated [at the garbage pits] : Humvees, batteries, unexploded ordnance, gas cans, mattresses, rocket pods, and plastic and medical waste...
Newsweek Jun 24, 2009 In the Andes, a Toxic Site Also Provides a Livelihood QUOTE: But Mr. [Ira] Rennert’s privately held industrial empire includes the smelter with a towering smokestack that overlooks Ms. [Claudia] Albino’s home, so the health and economic fate of her and thousands of others here rest on the corporate maneuvers he is carrying out.
New York Times Jun 22, 2009 There may be danger in rubber play surfaces QUOTE: There's a growing debate about the safety of the recycled rubber chips used to cushion falls on many children's playgrounds.
USA TODAY Jun 09, 2009 Illinois sues Crestwood over contaminated well QUOTE: Crestwood [Illinois] Mayor Robert Stranczek and his father were sued in [Illinois] state court today and accused of repeatedly lying about their secret use of a community well contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals.
Chicago Tribune May 31, 2009 Green Inc. Few Rules for Recycling Electronics QUOTE: the Basel Action Network, or BAN, an advocacy group based in Seattle that seeks to curb the exporting of electronic waste from the United States, argued that EarthECycle falsely represent themselves as recyclers....Proper processing of discarded electronic equipment could not be achieved within a business model that not only hauls away discarded electronics free but also pays organizations for the privilege.
New York Times May 29, 2009 Chevron fights massive lawsuit in Ecuador QUOTE: The landmark lawsuit, which began in 1993 in New York and is now in an Ecuadorean court in this jungle region, alleges that Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, knowingly unleashed toxins across an estimated 1,700 square miles – roughly the size of Rhode Island.
Christian Science Monitor Apr 23, 2009 On the Gowanus Canal, Fear of Superfund Stigma QUOTE: City [of New York] officials and many residents fear that the Superfund label, reserved for the worst contamination in the country and evoking health emergencies like the Love Canal debacle of the 1970s, could deter new development in Gowanus, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook.
New York Times Jan 24, 2009 EPA a failure on chemicals, audit finds: Assessment of toxic risks inadequate, says new chief (Chemical Fallout: Update) QUOTE: The Environmental Protection Agency's ability to assess toxic chemicals is as broken as the nation's financial markets and needs a total overhaul, a congressional audit has found.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/JS Online
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