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Fri, Dec 27, 2013
from Environmental Health News:
High PCBs linked to lower testosterone in Mohawk boys.
A new study has linked PCBs exposure to lower testosterone in Native American boys on a reservation along the St. Lawrence River.
Because they eat a lot of locally caught fish, the Akwesasne Mohawk, who live on territory between upstate New York, Ontario and Quebec, are highly exposed to banned industrial compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
The higher the exposure, the lower the testosterone levels, according to the new study of 127 Mohawk boys between 10 and 17 years old. A 10 percent increase in exposure to PCBs was associated with a 5.6 percent reduction in testosterone... disruption of hormones during adolescence is considered worrisome because it may have long-term repercussions in adulthood, particularly for fertility and reproductive diseases. ...
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Boys will not necessarily be boys.
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Tue, Apr 9, 2013
from Great Lakes Echo:
Toxic chemicals turn up in Great Lakes plastic pollution
Toxic chemicals clinging to plastics could cause health problems for fish and other organisms in the Great Lakes.
They were discovered in samples from the first-ever Great Lakes plastic survey in Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Superior last summer, Lorena Rios Mendoza, an assistant chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin -- Superior, announced Monday.
And instead of just sitting in sediments as some scientists previously thought, those pollutants might be traveling with plastics to other parts of the Great Lakes. ...
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Buncha hitchhikers.
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Tue, Nov 27, 2012
from Daily Beast:
Chemicals in the Environment Interfere With Pregnancy
There's no shortage of obstacles for couples trying to get pregnant, and a recent study by the National Institutes of Heath (NIH) has found yet another barrier: chemicals that you've most likely already been exposed to, and can't do much about.
Using blood and urine samples from 501 couples trying to get pregnant, the study found 4 chemicals in women and 9 chemicals in men associated with a longer time to pregnancy, after adjusting for other factors that affect fertility like smoking and age.
The chemicals were associated with a 20 percent reduction in odds of achieving pregnancy each menstrual cycle.... The chemicals, which include PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), are not found in factories or FDA-banned products're in meat, fish, and dairy. ...
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That means we'll just have try 20 percent harder!
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Tue, Aug 30, 2011
from BBC:
What is killing killer whales?
Marine experts are concerned about an invisible threat to the animals that has been building in our seas since World War II.
That was when industries began extensively using chemical flame retardants, such as PCBs.
These chemicals were later found to harm human health and the environment, and governments around the world banned their use in the 1970s.
But their legacy lives on in the world's seas and oceans, say biologists, posing a modern threat to animals such as killer whales, also known as orcas....
As large mammals, killer whales consume a large amount of prey.
But this position at the top of the food chain, as "apex predators", makes them particularly vulnerable to changes in their prey.
That is because orca feed on fish that in turn eat polluted prey or absorb pollution from the water. So the orca ingest all of the pollution in the chain, in a process called "bioaccumulation"....
Dr Jepson says this fat solubility is a considerable issue for female cetaceans such as killer whales who feed their young for up to a year on high fat milk to kick-start their development.
"You get this huge maternal transfer. It's been calculated that in whales and dolphins about ninety percent or more of the mother's body burden of PCB can be offloaded, particularly to the first calf," he tells BBC Nature.
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The top of the food chain is only as strong as its bioaccumulated links.
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Mon, Jul 4, 2011
from Mother Jones:
Persistent pollutants linked to diabetes?
But another culprit may be contributing, too: exposure to certain pesticides and other toxic chemicals. A new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Diabetes Care found a strong link between diabetes onset and blood levels of a group of harsh industrial chemicals charmingly known as "persistent organic pollutants" (POPs), most of which have been banned in the United States for years but still end up in our food (hence the "persistent" bit--they degrade very slowly).
The ones with the largest effect were PCBs, a class of highly toxic chemicals widely used as industrial coolants before being banished in 1979. Interestingly, the main US maker of PCBs, Monsanto, apparently knew about and tried to cover up their health-ruining effects long before the ban went into place. Organochlorine pesticides, another once-ubiquitous, now largely banned chemical group, also showed a significant influence on diabetes rates....
How are these awful chemicals sticking around and still causing trouble decades after being banned? POPs accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals--and transfer to the animals that eat them, including humans who eat meat and fish. In industrial animal farming, livestock are often given feed that includes animal fat, which helps POPs hang around in the food chain. "We feed the cow fat to the pigs and the chickens, and we feed the pig and chicken fat to the cows"....
Farmed salmon, too, carry significant levels of these dodgy chemicals, especially PCBs.
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POP goes the food chain!
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Thu, May 12, 2011
from Toronto Globe and Mail:
Fraser River sockeye face chemical soup of 200 contaminants
Sockeye salmon are exposed to a soup of chemicals in the Fraser River, and some of the ingredients are accumulating to potentially lethal levels in eggs, while others may be disrupting the sexual function of fish, according to a scientific review conducted for the Cohen Commission... While it is unlikely that contaminants are "the sole cause" of sockeye population declines, the report says there is "a strong possibility that exposure to contaminants of concern, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and/or contaminants of emerging concern has contributed to the decline of sockeye salmon." ...
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Coldcocking the sockeye!
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Thu, Jan 27, 2011
from Earth Institute:
Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup
In any case, plastic marine debris is now found on the surface of every ocean on Earth.... Some plastic and marine debris comes from fishing gear, offshore oil and gas platforms, and ships. But 80 percent of it comes from the land--litter that gets stuck in storm drains and is washed into rivers and out to sea, the legal and illegal dumping of garbage and appliances, and plastic resin pellets inadvertently spilled and unloaded by plastic manufacturers. Trash Travels, Ocean Conservancy's 2010 report, states that 60 percent of all marine debris in 2009 consisted of "disposable" items, with the most common being cigarettes, plastic bags, food containers, bottle caps and plastic bottles. And no matter where the litter originates, once it reaches the ocean, it becomes a planetary problem as garbage travels thousands of miles carried by the gyres.... The majority of the plastic found in the ocean are tiny pieces less than 1 cm. in size, with the mass of 1/10 of a paper clip. ...
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I think I liked the story of stone soup a lot more.
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Wed, Jan 19, 2011
from MSNBC:
Weight loss may send pollutants into bloodstream
Weight loss may have an unwanted side effect, according to a new study in the journal Nature: It may send a flood of environmental pollutants into the bloodstream.
Body fat stores certain pollutants, including such pesticides as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). If a person loses weight and significant amounts of body fat are broken down, these chemical compounds, known as persistent organic pollutants, are released and can lead to disease, said researchers from Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. ...
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We have painted ourselves into a fat corner.
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Fri, Jan 14, 2011
from San Francisco Chronicle:
Toxics found in virtually all pregnant U.S. women tested in UCSF study
Multiple chemicals, including some banned since the 1970s and others used in items such as nonstick cookware, furniture, processed foods and beauty products, were found in the blood and urine of pregnant U.S. women, according to a UCSF study being released today.... Of the 163 chemicals studied, 43 of them were found in virtually all 268 pregnant women in the study. They included polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, a prohibited chemical linked to cancer and other health problems; organochlorine pesticides; polybrominated diphenyl ethers, banned compounds used as flame retardants; and phthalates, which are shown to cause hormone disruption.
Some of these chemicals were banned before many of the women were even born.... The chemicals found in 99 percent to 100 percent of the women included certain PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, perfluorinated compounds, phenols, PBDEs, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and perchlorate.
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Just think of it as vaccinating fetuses against future toxic buildup.
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Fri, Oct 29, 2010
from TIME:
Flame Retardants in Everyday Products May Be a Health Hazard, Scientists Say
Here's a fact to brighten your Thursday: you have a much smaller chance than your grandparents of bursting into flames. That's because brominated and chlorinated flame retardants (BFR and CFR) -- classes of chemicals that inhibit fire ignition -- have become common ingredients in everything from clothes to couches to computers. (You can thank safety-conscious California for that; the state's tough laws on flame retardants led to their wide-scale use by manufacturers around the country.)
But fire safety has come with a cost. The chemicals used to prevent fires have repeatedly been shown to cause damage to human health. First polychlorinated binphenyls (PCBs) were found to be severely toxic to people and the environment, and the chemicals were banned in 1977. Next came polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE), another class of chemicals used as flame retardants; over the years PBDEs have been found to accumulate in organic tissues and in the environment -- even in human breast milk -- and they are hormones disruptors, with links to thyroid and other health problems. PentaBDE and OctaBDE have been banned by the European Union and withdrawn from production by the only U.S. manufacturer; one other chemical, DecaBDE, is still in wide production but is restricted in the European Union and will be voluntarily withdrawn from the U.S. in 2013.
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Other BFRs and CFRs have emerged as substitutes for restricted flame retardants, but it turns out that they, too, may be linked to health problems.
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CFRs and BFRs contain compounds that are carcinogens, reproductive and neurological toxins and endocrine disruptors. And like their predecessors, once these chemicals come into contact with the human body, they can hang around for a long time, accumulating in greater proportions. ...
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Better Freakin' Rethink! Chemical Follies Ricochet.
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Thu, Aug 5, 2010
from ACS, via EurekAlert:
Homes of the Poor and the Affluent Both Have High Levels of Endocrine Disruptors
Homes in low-income and affluent communities in California both had similarly high levels of endocrine disruptors, and the levels were higher in indoor air than outdoor air, according to a new study believed to be the first that paired indoor and outdoor air samples for such wide range (104) of these substances. The study appears in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.... Examples include phthalates, which are found in vinyl and other plastics, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are found in older paints, electrical equipment, and building materials. EDCs also are among the ingredients in some pesticides, fragrances, and other materials.... Levels were generally higher indoors than outdoors -- 32 of the compounds occurred in higher concentrations indoors and only 2 were higher outdoors. The scientists expressed surprise at finding higher concentrations of some phthalates outdoors near urban homes contributing to higher indoor levels as well, but concluded that EDCs "are ubiquitously common across socioeconomic groups." ...
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The disrupted will always be with us.
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Mon, Jun 28, 2010
from AP:
Report: Toxins found in whales bode ill for humans
Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.
A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.... The researchers found mercury as high as 16 parts per million in the whales. Fish high in mercury such as shark and swordfish -- the types health experts warn children and pregnant women to avoid -- typically have levels of about 1 part per million.... "The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings," Payne said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Whaling Commission's annual meeting. ...
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Who would have expected toxin bioaccumulation to become an evolutionary force?
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Mon, Jun 7, 2010
from Akron Beacon Journal:
EPA and Goodyear on Toxic Dump: Plan is to let nature clean up
It has taken 16 years, but the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. are inching closer to finalizing a remedy for a decades-old toxic waste dump in Springfield Township....
A small part of that tract is contaminated with low levels of industrial solvents, cyanide, heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls.
The EPA is reviewing the latest plan by Goodyear and its consultants to deal with the pollution in the soil and groundwater on a portion of the 94 acres where Summit County later built a sewage treatment plant.... The remedy is called natural attenuation and relies on naturally occurring bacteria to destroy the contamination.... The 7.5-acre dump site was first used in 1943 as a toxic waste dump by Goodyear Aircraft Corp. (later Goodyear Aerospace).
Goodyear disposed of waste solvents, heavy metals, plating and polishing wastes, and cyanides at the site until 1966.
The EPA is unsure how much or exactly what was dumped at the site. ...
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"Natural attenuation" of heavy metals and PCBs. The solution to pollution is dilution!
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Sat, May 15, 2010
from PhysOrg.com:
Rivers closest to Toronto have highest concentrations of PCBs, other chemicals: study
A University of Toronto study of the concentrations of PCBs and other chemicals in the rivers running into Lake Ontario reveals significantly higher concentrations in areas closest to the centre of Toronto, an indication of the profound effects the city has on water quality.... The team looked specifically at concentrations of chemicals that have been strongly associated with human health problems: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a banned industrial chemical from the 1970s; polycyclic musks, a common fragrance compound used in a range of personal care products; polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a recently banned flame retardant; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a toxic byproduct of fossil fuel combustion in the rivers. They also measured the concentration of these chemicals in air, soil and rain.
"In the Humber River watershed we saw an almost 100-fold increase in concentrations of polycyclic musks in the river water in the downtown area around Old Mill compared with parts of the river north of the city," said Matthew Robson, a research fellow in the Department of Geography and Program in Planning. "We saw similar increases in concentrations for all of the other chemicals in air, rain and soil...." ...
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I'm sure Milwaukee is different. And Des Moines. Or LA. Or Houston. Or Nairobi! Those silly Canadians.
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Wed, Apr 21, 2010
from Great Falls Tribune:
FWP: Monsanto knew paint was harmful
Property owners are teaming with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to try to force Monsanto Chemical Co. to pay millions to clean up chemicals contaminating a blue-ribbon trout stream here, but the company says the contamination is FWP's fault. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a long-lasting pollutant, have tainted waters downstream from the Big Spring Trout Hatchery five miles south of here.
The PCBs were contained in the paint FWP used since the 1960s to paint raceways at the hatchery. Paint chips eventually made it into the creek, contaminating fish downstream. The hatchery's raceways are concrete, rectangular-shaped pools where fish are reared... Monsanto attorney Thomas Carney disputed Oaas' allegations. He also said Monsanto "didn't have anything to do with putting paint chips in to the creek." ...
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We call that The Monsanto Clause.
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Mon, Apr 12, 2010
from Michigan Public Radio:
Invasive Species and PCBs
New University of Michigan research finds invasive species are accelerating PCBs up the food chain.
Recent dredging of the Saginaw River was intended to remove PCB contaminated soil. U of M fishery biologist David Jude says tests indicate the dredging worked.
But he says walleyes are showing signs of increased PCB contamination. Jude traces the problem to two invasive species, zebra mussels and round gobies.
"Zebra mussels filter a liter of water a day. They are removing a large amount of the algae out of that water," says Jude, "and as a result of that they are picking up a lot higher concentration of PCBs. There are some really outrageous high concentrations of PCBs in zebra mussels in the Saginaw River."
Jude says as other aquatic life eats the invasive mussels, the PCBs move up the food chain.
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Can we just call it unintended bioremediation?
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Thu, Apr 8, 2010
from Bloomberg:
Kalamazoo Cleanup Delayed After Lyondell Bankruptcy
Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. The area, once home to Potawatomi Indians and Dutch celery farmers, was finally on the verge of getting cleaned up.
Then, in January 2009, Lyondell Chemical Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based petrochemical giant argued in court that as it reorganized, it could avoid what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were about $2.5 billion in cleanup costs for the river, which flows into Lake Michigan, and another $2.5 billion in liabilities at 10 other polluted spots across the country.... If a company has to pay the billions the U.S. seeks for cleanups, its debt investors can end up getting pennies on the dollar. If the decision goes the other way, the costs can fall on taxpayers.
"It's a no-win situation," says Evan D. Flaschen, a bankruptcy lawyer at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, who isn't involved in cases mentioned in this story.
"If the debtor can walk, the toxins keep boiling, often getting worse with time. If the debtor has to pay billions for a cleanup, they might go out of business, losing thousands of jobs. Pick your poison."... Companies in bankruptcy can argue that environmental liabilities are just like other claims -- and that they can ditch them to get a fresh start.... "It's the most-maddening thing," McKinney says. "It's the community that's going to lose." ...
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That smell of toxic bullshit? Lyondell says it "smells like money."
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Wed, Mar 10, 2010
from Environmental Health News:
PCBs alter key brain chemical that stops nerve-to-nerve signals.
Certain types of PCBs can affect the way a brain chemical responsible for halting brain signals sends its chemical messages from nerve to nerve, according to research conducted on frog egg cells. These results further tease apart PCBs' complex effects on brain chemicals and better explain how these interactions can result in abnormal brain function.
PCBs are known to affect behavior, memory and learning in animals and people. Exactly how they do this still eludes researchers, although the persistent contaminants have been shown to affect several key cell chemical pathways that are essential for normal brain activity. Prior studies have focused on how PCBs interfere with the brain chemicals that allow the brain's nerve cells -- called neurons -- to communicate.
Yet, little is known about how PCBs impact the opposing -- yet equally important -- chemical signals that inhibit and stop nerve messages from crossing the gaps -- or synapses -- between nerve endings. This study from the Netherlands finds that some types of PCBs can affect the main inhibitory neurochemical GABA. ...
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GABA-DABBA-DO!
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Tue, Mar 9, 2010
from AP, via PhysOrg.com:
GE: Limit PCB contamination during Hudson dredging
General Electric Co. on Monday proposed a halting further dredging of the Hudson River if PCBs churned up by the work spread too much pollution downriver during the second phase of an ongoing cleanup. GE made the proposal as the company and the federal Environmental Protection Agency were set to release separate reports assessing the dredging in 2009 of PCB "hot spots" north of Albany. The EPA had yet to release its report Monday afternoon, but the agency has been much more upbeat in its assessments of the dredging than GE, which is paying for the cleanup.... Crews working the river last summer found contamination of the river bed was deeper than expected and the work took longer.
GE said PCBs kicked up into the water during dredging presented a serious problem. So the company proposed setting a "hard cap" on the amount of PCBs that would be allowed to flow downstream during Phase 2. Crews would start by targeting the contaminated areas that otherwise would be most likely to pollute fish downriver.
"(T)o send more PCBs downriver than would happen without dredging eliminates the benefits of the remedy identified by EPA," the GE report said.... PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are considered probable carcinogens. GE plants in Fort Edward and neighboring Hudson Falls discharged wastewater containing PCBs for decades before the lubricant and coolant was banned in 1977. ...
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PCBs -- our favorite "forever" toxin.
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Thu, Feb 25, 2010
from University of Iowa, via EurekAlert:
UIowa study measures levels of PCBs flowing from Indiana canal to air and water
"We have analyzed PCBs in surficial sediment, water, suspended particles and air and examined the potential for chemical movement in the harbor system," Hornbuckle said. "We have shown that the system is currently a significant source of PCBs to the air and to Lake Michigan, even under quiescent conditions."... "We were not surprised to discover that PCBs were continuously emitted from the sediments of the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. However, without our study, there was no way to determine how much was being released. Now we better understand the magnitude of the PCB release to Lake Michigan and to the air over the harbor and canal," Hornbuckle said. "We have found that this tributary releases more PCBs to Lake Michigan than any other known direct discharge of PCBs to the lake." ...
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PCBs -- the gift that just keeps on giving.
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Tue, Jan 26, 2010
from Newport News Daily Press:
Virginia scraps its annual water pollution monitoring program
Tasteless, odorless and nearly as clear as water, polychlorinated biphenyls are among the most dangerous toxic chemicals in Virginia's waterways.
Every year, state officials monitor the chemicals, known as PCBs, by testing fish from selected river basins. Fish advisories follow. Not this year.
Facing a $5 million funding cut, the state Department of Environmental Quality last summer scrapped the $365,000 PCB monitoring program.
"There won't be any new advisories in Virginia because there's no new data," said Rob Hale, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which was under contract to do the work. ...
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I've seen their state motto: "Virginia, where health comes last!"
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Wed, Nov 18, 2009
from Science News:
PCBs hike blood pressure
No one would choose to eat polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — yet we unwittingly do. And a new study finds that the cost of their pervasive contamination of our food supply can be high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease.
PCBs comprise a family of 209 related, colorless and oily compounds. Discovered more than a century ago, they quickly won widespread adoption as the electrical insulator of choice throughout the electric power industry. Being chemically stable and heat resistant, PCBs also found use in other applications: as lubricants, as additives to make plastics more pliable, in adhesives, even as a component of some inks.
Over the years, the toxicity of PCBs has slowly emerged. Some have been designated not only as probable carcinogens, but also as agents that diminish immunity and pollutants that lower birth weight and IQ. Now, researchers with the Anniston, Ala., Environmental Health Research Consortium report that these toxic pollutants also appear to impair vascular health. ...
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This story makes my blood boil!
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Tue, Nov 10, 2009
from New York Times:
Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash
Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one -- an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.... PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles. Scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say that fish tissues contain some of the same chemicals as the plastic. The scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat. ...
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What's that? You want to turn back time?
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Mon, Nov 9, 2009
from Las Vegas Sun:
Quagga mussels a toxic threat to Lake Mead
...Years before they showed up in Southern Nevada, the little mollusks colonized the Great Lakes, and researchers there have found that the rise in their quagga populations correlates with increases in dangerous toxins. There are two reasons for this: poop and algae. Quaggas can poop poison pellets and can turn swaths of open lake into algae-filled dead zones.
The scoop on the poop is this: Each mussel works like a tiny liver, absorbing toxins and heavy metals such as mercury, selenium, polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs) from the lake water in a process called bioaccumulation.
But quaggas are not content to do a good deed. They later expel those chemicals and metals -- in the form of a highly concentrated pellet. Those toxic pellets sink to the lake floor. ...
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Can we introduce some little portajohns for them?
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Thu, Sep 17, 2009
from Reuters:
Chemical Pollutants Linked to Fewer Female Births
High exposure to certain now-banned industrial chemicals may lead to fewer female births, a new study suggests.
The findings, reported in the journal Environmental Health, add to evidence that the two groups of related chemicals -- polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) -- may affect human reproduction...
For the current study, researchers used data from a group of Michigan residents who, in the early 1970s, had been inadvertently exposed to high levels of PBBs; the chemicals had been accidentally mixed into animal feed, leading to human exposure through contaminated meat, eggs and milk.
The researchers observed that, from 1975 to 1988, women in the study group had a higher-than-average rate of male births, relative to the national average.
There was also a suggestion of increased odds of a male birth when both parents' combined PBB exposure was particularly high -- above the midpoint for the study group -- compared with couples whose PBB exposure was lower.
Similarly, couples with high PCB levels had a higher rate of male births. ...
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Since pollution is feminizing males won't it all even out soooooo nicely!
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Sun, Sep 6, 2009
from Bloomington Alternative:
Our PCBs: Forgotten but not gone
Six PCB Superfund sites lie within 20 miles of the Courthouse Square. And PCBs cause cancer, neurologic disorders, endocrine system disruption, reproductive problems and birth defects in people and nonhuman animals. Often associated with PCBs are other chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as dioxin and furans. Dioxin is the most powerful chemical carcinogen known. It's second only to radiation as the most potent carcinogen discovered to date. It was used in the Vietnam War as a defoliant called Agent Orange.... The Westinghouse Corp. (now CBS) manufactured PCB-filled electrical capacitors in Bloomington for about 30 years. The PCBs, manufactured by Monsanto under the trade name Innerteen, were used as insulating fluid. In 1975 a Bloomington newspaper reporter discovered that since about 1958, Westinghouse had routinely poured PCBs into the Bloomington sewer system and dumping defective, PCB-filled capacitors at eight locations: Lemon Lane Landfill, Neal's Landfill, Neal's Dump, Bennett's Quarry, the Winston Thomas Sewage Treatment Plant, the Anderson Road Landfill, Fell Iron and Metal (a salvage yard) and the Westinghouse property. The first four are on the National Priorities List, a list of contaminated sites commonly referred to as Superfund sites. ...
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You can be sure... if it's Westinghouse.
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You're still reading! Good for you!
You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy):
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day!
Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
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Wed, Sep 2, 2009
from San Jose Mercury News:
'Pacific Garbage Patch' expedition finds plastic, plastic everywhere
Scientists who returned to the Bay Area this week after an expedition to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" brought piles of plastic debris they pulled out of the ocean -- soda bottles, cracked patio chairs, Styrofoam chunks, old toys, discarded fishing floats and tangled nets.
But what alarmed them most, they said Tuesday, was the nearly inconceivable amount of tiny, confettilike pieces of broken plastic. They took hundreds of water samples between the Farallon Islands near San Francisco and the notorious garbage patch 1,000 miles west of California, and every one had tiny bits of plastic floating in it. And the closer they sailed to the garbage patch, which some researchers have estimated to be twice the size of Texas, the more plastic pieces per gallon they found... crews on the three-week voyage discovered tiny jellyfish eating bits of the plastic debris. The jellyfish are, in turn, eaten by fish like salmon or tuna, which people eat. ...
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Planet Plastic
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Thu, Aug 27, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Cancer in wildlife, normally rare, can signal toxic dangers
Thirty years ago, a Canadian marine biologist noticed something mysterious was happening to beluga whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Decades of over-hunting had decimated the population, but several years after the government put a stop to the practice, the belugas still hadn't recovered.
Two decades and hundreds of carcasses later, he had an answer.
"They were dying of cancer," said Daniel Martineau, now a professor of pathology at the University of Montreal.
The white whales were victims of intestinal cancers caused by industrial pollutants released into the St. Lawrence River by nearby aluminum smelters.
Now research points to environmental pollutants as the cause of deadly cancers in several wildlife populations around the world. Normally rare in most wildlife, cancers in California sea lions, North Sea flounder and Great Lakes catfish seem to have been triggered or accelerated by environmental contaminants. ...
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This supports the premise, I think, that HUMANS are a cancer!!
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Mon, Aug 24, 2009
from St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Massive cleanup of Washington County Landfill in Lake Elmo for PFCs is under way
Call it Lake Elmo's Big Dig.
Beginning this summer, enough garbage will be removed from the Washington County Landfill to fill the Metrodome five times.
"Look at this -- it's the size of a football stadium," shouted Jeffrey Lewis over the racket of bulldozers as he pointed to an enormous pit this month. "And this is only one-eighth of it."
Lewis, who manages landfill cleanups for the state, is chasing an environmental bogeyman -- PFCs, or perfluorochemicals -- made by 3M Co.
The clear, odorless PFCs are seeping into the soil from 2.5 million cubic yards of garbage. So Lewis is overseeing the effort to dig up the entire 60-acre site, install liners and replace the garbage.
At $21 million, it easily will be the most expensive landfill cleanup in state history. ...
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It's potty time for Lake Elmo!
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Sat, Jul 18, 2009
from Wired:
Potential Neurotoxin Could Be in Our Food
One of the most comprehensive analyses yet of human exposure to PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, shows that the chemical -- long used in everything from computers to sleeping bags -- enters humans through their diets, not just their household.
"The more you eat, the more PBDEs you have in your serum," said Alicia Fraser, an environmental health researcher at Boston University's School of Public Health who headed the new study, published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives.
PBDEs are chemical cousins of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which are known to cause birth defects and neurological impairments. PCBs were banned throughout the world by the mid-1970s, when PBDEs were gaining popularity as flame retardants. PBDEs were soon found in most plastic-containing household products. ...
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PBDE: Peanut Butter & Deepfried Escargot.... Yum!!
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Wed, May 27, 2009
from Cape Cod Times:
Study links strandings to pollution
Cape Cod is one of the top areas in the world for marine mammal strandings. The animals are sometimes loaded with parasites or are sick. But, despite a long history of pollution in our coastal waters, the toll pollution takes on sea creatures has been harder to establish.
In a study, recently published in the journal Environmental Pollution, Eric Montie, a University of South Florida scientist who did most of his research while a doctoral student at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, found high levels of man-made chemicals in the brains and fluid surrounding the brains of marine mammals. Scientists have known for a while that dangerous compounds like the pesticide DDT, the insulating material PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) and the flame retardant PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) accumulate in the fatty tissue of mammals, particularly top-of-the-food-chain predators that eat chemical-laden prey....Montie tested for the presence of 170 chemicals in brain and cerebrospinal fluid he'd collected from the stranded animals. He found exceptionally high levels of both the widely used flame retardant PBDE and a form of PCB.
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And here we thought they were just looking for hamburgers & fries!
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Wed, May 20, 2009
from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, via EurekAlert:
Contaminants in marine mammals' brains
The most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals' brains reveals that these animals are exposed to a hazardous cocktail of pesticides such as DDTs and PCBs, as well as emerging contaminants such as brominated flame retardants.... The chemicals studied include pesticides like DDT, which has been shown to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity, and PCBs, which are neurotoxicants known to disrupt the thyroid hormone system. The study also quantifies concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs (a particular class of flame retardants), which are neurotoxicants that impair the development of motor activity and cognition. This work is the first to quantify concentrations of PBDEs in the brains of marine mammals.
The results revealed that concentration of one contaminant was surprisingly high. According to Montie, "The biggest wakeup was that we found parts per million concentrations of hydroxylated PCBs in the cerebrospinal fluid of a gray seal. That is so worrisome for me. You rarely find parts per million levels of anything in the brain." ...
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Now, why would marine mammals need flame retardants?
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Sat, May 16, 2009
from Greenwire:
DOJ nominee's industry experience a worry for some
The corporate background of President Obama's pick for the nation's top environmental litigator has spurred concerns that she is ill-suited to lead the office charged with tackling corporate polluters.
Obama announced plans earlier this week to nominate Ignacia Moreno, counsel of corporate environmental programs at General Electric Corp., to serve as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division... [Alex] Matthiessen, whose group focuses on cleaning up pollution in the Hudson River, said he was particularly troubled by Moreno's tenure as counsel to GE, whose plants discharged as much as 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River... ...
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Isn't this yet another case of getting a fox to watch the FOXhouse?
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Tue, Apr 28, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Sleeping with the enemy: indoor airborne contaminants
New research studying household air in homes in Arizona found more than 400 chemicals ranging from pesticides to phthalates, confirming that indoor air can be heavily contaminated with pollutants.
Pesticides, including diazinon, chlorpyrifos and DDT were found at surprisingly high levels, as were phthalates... A total of 586 individual chemicals were identified. The pesticides diazinon and chlorpyrifos were found in the greatest amounts and both were found in all of the 52 homes tested.... Researchers were not able to identify at least 120 of the chemicals. Many of these unidentified chemicals had structures similar to fragrance compounds. Fragrances made up the major chemical component of the collected chemicals. ...
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So... outside is polluted, and inside is toxic? Where else is there?
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Sun, Apr 19, 2009
from Green Bay Press Gazette:
Proof is in the poison: PCB toxins are hazardous to humans
...It has been 33 years since the DNR issued its first fish consumption advisory in response to studies by public health, water quality and fisheries experts. The warning was issued after it was learned that fish store PCBs in their fatty tissue.
The DNR recommends no more than one meal per month of most fish caught in the Fox River from Little Lake Buttes des Morts to the river's mouth in Green Bay and warns people not to eat any carp, catfish or white bass, or any walleye longer than 22 inches...
The warnings haven't stopped fishermen from plying their sport on the river despite the fish advisory that will probably remain in effect for several years. DNR warden Ben Treml said he thinks most people catch the fish for the sport or for mounting. ...
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That just sounds wrong.
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Mon, Jan 26, 2009
from Science News:
Pacific Northwest salmon poisoning killer whales
Killer whales that feast on salmon in the Pacific Northwest are getting a heaping side of contaminants with each meal. The chinook salmon are heavily dosed with chemicals such as DDT and PCBs, nearly all of which the fish acquire in their years at sea, reports a new study in the January Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.... Salmon are known to deliver pollutants, especially PCBs, to coastal, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. PCBs are a kind of endocrine disruptor, known to interfere with development, meddle with immune system function and cause a host of other problems. . The Environmental Protection Agency banned most uses of PCBs in 1979; but the chemicals had been widely used in coolants, pesticides, plastics and other products and are extremely persistent in the environment, cycling through the food web for decades. ...
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If only we could train these Free Willies to spray out the toxins.
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Thu, Jan 15, 2009
from Seattle Times:
Scientists find contaminated orca food
The food supply of Puget Sound's endangered orcas is contaminated, a team of Canadian and Washington scientists has found.
The scientists measured persistent organic pollution concentrations in chinook salmon in order to understand the orcas' exposure to contamination in their food supply. Orcas, or killer whales, are actually a type of dolphin, are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world, and are at risk of extinction in Puget Sound.
The so-called southern resident population of orcas that frequents Puget Sound was listed as an endangered species by the federal government in November 2005.
Southern resident orca whales seem to prefer chinook salmon for their diet — fish that the scientists found were contaminated with PCBs, flame retardants and other persistent chemicals that are retained in body fat. ...
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A new kind of food chain: the pollution chain!
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Sun, Jan 11, 2009
from Canadian Press:
Scientists track climate change through whale teeth
WINNIPEG -- Researchers are hoping the huge tusks of the walrus and choppers of the beluga whale will help track the increasing impact of global warming on Canadian Arctic mammals and the Inuit communities that depend on the creatures for food.
Scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Winnipeg are preparing to study the teeth of mammals killed during Inuit hunts to look for any signs that greenhouse gases are taking a toll.
Although scientists have studied the teeth — which have annular rings similar to those of a tree trunk — for many years, this is the first time they are being used to unlock the impact climate change is having in the North.
Experts expect to find a growing number of contaminants like mercury and PCBs in the teeth, as well as evidence of a thinning diet — all attributable to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. ...
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How charming that scientists are now using belugamancy -- divination via whale's teeth!
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Thu, Nov 27, 2008
from Scientific American:
Troubled waters: striped bass moms pass on harmful pollutants to babies
...Striped bass and other fish have been dying in droves off the coast of San Francisco for decades; pollution from industry and agricultural runoff has long been blamed.
Now a team of scientists from the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Diego, have fingered the killer contaminants. They found that wild female fish from the Sacramento River produced eggs containing a host of pollutants at levels high enough to cause biological harm. The list includes chemicals called PBDEs (flame retardants), PCBs (a known carcinogen banned in the 1979), and a slew of pesticides. They even found DDT, the infamous pesticide linked to cancer that was banned in 1972 after being indicted in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring). ...
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This striped bass mom is the microcosm of the macro-contamination of Mother Earth herself.
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Tue, Nov 25, 2008
from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Fox River's dredging for PCBs starts soon
Green Bay - The workhorse in the biggest and most expensive phase to clean up the Fox River is a massive building rising from the banks of the river.
Operating like a factory, the 242,000-square-foot facility will extract chemical compounds from river sediments for an estimated seven years and send them away in scores of dump trucks every day.
After years of jockeying and extensive planning, the actual processing of the contaminated sediments starts in May - making the Fox and the Hudson River in New York the largest remediation projects in the country.
The Fox is the largest single source of polychlorinated biphenyls on Lake Michigan. ...
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Ideally it will be done in a fair and balanced way!
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Sun, Nov 23, 2008
from Science News:
Is Your Fish Oil Polluted?
Diets rich in fish oil offer a number of health benefits, from fighting heart disease to boosting immunity. However, many noxious contaminants preferentially accumulate in fat. These include pesticides, brominated flame retardants, dioxins, and some related compounds known as polychlorinated biphenyls. So there's been some concern that if a fish was pulled from polluted waters, its fat might be polluted too. And those pollutants could end up an unwanted bonus in commercial fish-oil supplements.
A new survey of some 154 different fish-oil capsules sold by 45 different companies now confirms that some supplements are remarkably dirty and others quite pure. In general, PCBs and a breakdown product of DDT were the major pollutants in fish-oil supplements. ...
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Hey. What doesn't kill you ... might make you sick!
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Fri, Oct 17, 2008
from Courier-Mail (Australia):
Narangba toxic waste still unknown, admits company
A company treating dangerous toxic waste admits it does not know exactly what chemicals are stored on its site at the Narangba Industrial Estate.
A cleanup of previous contamination at the BCD Technologies plant is still months away from being completed, despite the spill being discovered late last year.... The Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that an audit it conducted found drums of unidentified material left by the previous owner of the company.
Some drums were later found to contain carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. ...
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The former company didn't keep records? How handy for them.
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Fri, Sep 5, 2008
from Reuters via PlanetArk:
Gull Sets Arctic Pollution Record for Birds
A small Arctic gull has set a record as the bird most contaminated by two banned industrial pollutants, scientists said on Thursday.
Eggs of the ivory gull, which has a population of about 14,000 from Siberia to Canada, were found to have the highest known concentrations of PCBs, long used in products such as paints or plastics, and the pesticide DDT. ...
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Add the worldwide demand for ivory and this bird is dead meat!
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Sat, Aug 9, 2008
from Toronto Globe and Mail:
No matter what flame retardant is used, it shows up in the environment
"Another chapter has been added to the troubled history of flame retardants. The latest compounds used to reduce the risk of fire have been found in household dust for the first time.
First, there were polychlorinated biphenyls, which were banned in the 1970s when it became clear that they were highly toxic and were accumulating in people and wildlife.
PCBs were replaced by PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), which were used in a wide array of consumer products, including televisions and baby clothing. But then those also showed up in wildlife, including whales in the Arctic." ...
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Ultimately, wouldn't it be safer to occasionally burn up in a fire than to be poisoned by flame retardants?
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Sat, Jul 12, 2008
from KOMO News:
Increasingly popular caviar raises health concerns
"...As demand for paddlefish caviar has grown, health officials have become as uneasy ... about a variety of toxins found in the eggs, including mercury, chlordane and cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. But advocates say the level of contaminants is below federal safety standards and that most consumers don't eat enough of it to suffer any ill effects... Washington chef and restaurant owner Nora Pouillon said she doesn't serve paddlefish caviar. "I can't with a clear conscience poison my customers," she said. ...
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Boy, let's just hope all chefs feel like that.
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Tue, Jun 10, 2008
from NOAA Fisheries Service:
Persistent Man-made Chemical Pollutants Found in Deep-sea Octopods and Squids
New evidence that chemical contaminants are finding their way into the deep-sea food web has been found in deep-sea squids and octopods.... These species are food for deep-diving toothed whales and other predators.... "It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment," Vecchione said. Among the chemicals detected were tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). ...
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Maybe we'll end up making the marine life
too toxic to eat before
we've scraped the ocean clean of them.
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Mon, Jun 9, 2008
from Pensacola News-Journal (FL):
University researchers, attorneys eye PCBs in Escambia Bay while state health officials mum
High levels of a cancer-causing chemical in several fish found in the middle of Escambia Bay indicate that a health advisory about fish in the lower Escambia River may not go far enough.... One of UWF's four mullet samples measured 1,580 nanograms per gram of PCBs, compared to the federal threshold of 20 nanograms per gram and the state threshold of 50 nanograms per gram. All of the mullet samples were higher than state and federal limits. ...
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That's Pretty Crappy, Bro.
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Fri, May 30, 2008
from EuroNews:
Toxic fish scare in France sparks national enquiry
There is new concern over a pollution scare in France. People living along the Rhone river, and regular eaters of fish caught in it, have tested positive for dangerously high levels of a carcinogenic chemical in their blood. Some exhibited four to five times the so-called 'safe' level of PCBs, or polychlorobiphenyles.... Despite being banned from sale for industrial use in France for more than 20 years, PCB was used in glues, paints and even paper.
The startling results of this limited study have now prompted a two year national enquiry to find out just how dangerous France's rivers are. ...
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"O Seine and Rhone, I long to see you
waaayhaaay, you toxic rivers...."
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Tue, Apr 29, 2008
from Uro Today:
Human Exposure to Endocrine Disrupters and Semen Quality
We propose that environmental factors, including exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, may be represented in this idiopathic category of diagnosis. Endocrine disrupters are proposed to modulate or dysregulate the endogenous endocrine system via competitive or non-competitive binding at steroid hormone receptors, changes to synthesis, metabolism or transport of hormones or by changes in gene expression. Significant laboratory evidence supports endocrine disruption as a mechanism of action for several types of chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), bisphenol A (BPA), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), p,p’-DDE (p,p'-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene)- the major breakdown product of DDT and mixtures such as pesticides. Though there is a relative paucity of population-based studies examining the effects of exposure to endocrine disrupters on human semen quality, it may be cautiously interpreted that endocrine disruption due to organochlorine exposures may be manifested as reduced sperm motility and morphology. ...
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If exposure caused impotence, then we'd really see political action.
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Thu, Mar 27, 2008
from Pittsfield Berkshire Eagle:
Plan would leave PCB risk
"KENT, Conn. — General Electric's proposed cleanup of the Housatonic River would leave fish inedible in many stretches of the river, unsafe for human consumption because of high PCB levels.
GE presented its cleanup proposal at a public meeting in the Town Hall here last night. Its plan covers the river south of where the east and west branches meet, just below the Fred Garner River Park on Pomeroy Avenue in Pittsfield. The company will hold another public session at 5:30 p.m. today at the Lee Middle and High School.
Addressing an audience of about 40 people, GE representatives said its plan would strike a balance among removing PCBs from the ecosystem, protecting the environment from an invasive cleanup, and keeping costs low. But its predictions made clear that the enough PCBs would be left behind to present a health risk to some animals and to anyone who ate a steady diet of fish from some parts of the Housatonic. ...
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From the six viable alternatives, GE opted for the most half-assed solution possible. Way to put your imagination to work!
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Sat, Mar 15, 2008
from Green Bay Press-Gazette:
Blocked study draws attention to PCBs
"It has been almost 20 years since the National Wildlife Federation issued its first fish consumption warning, drawing the public's attention to the effects of PCBs and mercury on Great Lakes fish.
Back then, it was met with strong opposition from sport and commercial fishermen, among others. The debate continues to rage today. A 400-page study on health and environmental hazards in the Great Lakes was blocked from publication by the CDC last year. Part of the report draws attention to the health risks associated with eating fish from the Lower Fox River and Green Bay." ...
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This is a Biome Breach scenario in two ways: 1) the presence of PCBs and 2) the public's right to know the truth has been breached by enforced secrecy.
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Tue, Feb 19, 2008
from The Star Press:
Activists fear new list could harm river cleanup efforts
"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A shift in how Indiana compiles a federally mandated list of its polluted waterways has removed about 800 stretches of rivers and streams from that list, leaving environmentalists worried that it could hamper watershed restoration efforts. State officials contend the new methodology has produced a more accurate picture of Indiana’s “impaired” waterways, and will allow them to focus on cleaning up those most tainted with mercury, PCBs and other contaminants. But environmentalists say Indiana’s new approach is problematic because it’s “de-listed” parts of rivers and streams simply because it doesn’t have data on whether they are polluted." ...
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Why are "activists" afraid of this de-listing process; why isn't everybody afraid?
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