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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(5)
Plague/Virus:(2)
Climate Chaos:(8)
Resource Depletion: (6)
Biology Breach:(13)
Recovery:(10)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination  ~ global warming  ~ water issues  ~ airborne pollutants  ~ smart policy  ~ stupid humans  ~ melting glaciers  ~ rising sea level  ~ carbon emissions  ~ heavy metals  ~ bird collapse  



ApocaDocuments (10) matching "contamination" from this week
[see full week] ~ [see all stories tagged "contamination"]
Sun, Jan 18, 2009
from London Guardian:
Stop scattering ashes, families are told
So many people want to scatter the ashes of family and friends in beauty spots that the government has been forced to step in with anti-pollution rules. Last month, staff at the Jane Austen House Museum in Hampshire discovered piles of human ashes scattered around the novelist's home and gardens, and football grounds, rivers, parks, golf courses, lakes, rivers and mountain tops have all become favourite remembrance spots. Until 1960, only about one in three people in Britain chose cremation and it was uncommon for anyone to ask to have their ashes scattered. But, says the Cremation Society, there are now more than 420,000 cremations a year, 70 percent of all deaths. Most families want to sprinkle the ashes in places meaningful to the deceased. In the 1970s, about 12 percent of ashes were taken away from the crematorium - now it is nearer two-thirds. ...


What are we supposed to do with the ashes -- eat 'em?

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Sun, Jan 18, 2009
from Dhaka Daily Star:
Industrial pollution chokes people, crops alike
Ammonia mixed toxic gas and urea dust emitted from Jamuna Fertiliser Factory (JFF) in Jamalpur have allegedly been wreaking havoc on the local environment and causing debilitating illnesses among the locals. The toxic gas of the largest urea producing factory, at Tarandani of Sarishabari upazila in Tangail, has also been harming crops, trees, livestock, poultry and fish resources for the last 17 years. Many trees around the factory do not have a single leaf....Since its inception the JFF has been producing 1,700 tonnes of urea per day, 5,60,000 tonnes a year. Urea is produced from ammonia and carbon dioxide gas. Chemical formaldehyde is also mixed with the urea to make it hard. Formaldehyde acts as a disinfectant and it kills most bacteria and fungi (including their spores). ...


This is a strange case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Formaldehyde.

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Sun, Jan 18, 2009
from Kingston Daily Freeman:
MERCURY RISING: Bald eagles in region face new threat
AFTER BEING pushed by humans to the brink of extinction and then re-establishing habitats in the Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains, bald eagles are again facing a manmade threat to their existence. A Maine-based environmental organization has found an alarming accumulation of mercury in the blood and feathers of both juvenile and adult bald eagles in the Catskills. While environmentalists say there is not yet conclusive scientific data to indicate the eagles are being harmed by the mercury levels in their systems, the study has found mercury levels in Catskills eagles to be close to those associated with neurological and reproductive problems in the common loon in the Adirondack Mountains and in Maine. The study also seems to support the belief that the Catskill Mountains region is a likely “hot spot” for methylmercury. ...


Another bad rap for the raptors.

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Sat, Jan 17, 2009
from Science News:
Livestock manure stinks for infant health
The manure generated by thousands of cows or pigs doesn’t just stink — it may seriously affect human health. New research examining two decades’ worth of livestock production data finds a positive relationship between increased production at industrial farms and infant death rates in the counties where the farms reside. The study reported in the February American Journal of Agricultural Economics implicates air pollution and suggests that Clean Air Act regulations need to be revamped to address livestock production of noxious gases. The new work is in line with several studies documenting the ill effects of megafarms, which typically have thousands of animals packed into small areas, comments Peter Thorne, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Higher rates of lung disease have been found in workers at large poultry and swine operations and respiratory problems increase in communities when these large-scale farms move in, Thorne notes. “This study is a very important contribution,” says Thorne. “This is an industry we really need — it provides food and a lot of jobs — the answer isn’t for everyone to become vegetarians.” ...


Oink... quack quack... moooooooo Whaaaaaaaaaaa!

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Sat, Jan 17, 2009
from Chicago Tribune:
U.S. warns of Teflon chemical in water
Less than a week before the Bush administration leaves office, federal environmental regulators are issuing a controversial health advisory on drinking water contaminated with a toxic chemical used to make Teflon and other non-stick coatings. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is advising people to reduce consumption of water containing more than 0.4 parts per billion of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA -- a level critics say is not strict enough. Studies have shown the chemical, which is linked to cancer, liver damage and birth defects, has built up in human blood throughout the world. It is unclear how many cities might exceed the new limit because the EPA doesn't require water treatment plants to test for PFOA... Critics called the EPA's advisory a last-minute gift from the Bush administration to DuPont and a handful of other companies that make PFOA. Some scientists have proposed limits as low as 0.02 parts per billion. ...


If it doesn't stick, then what's the worry?

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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. ...


A new kind of food chain: the pollution chain!

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Wed, Jan 14, 2009
from ProPublica:
Jackson to Be Asked About Regulating Perchlorate in Drinking Water
In the latest volley of a years-long battle involving the Environmental Protection Agency, the military and the White House, the EPA announced last week that it will delay its decision [1] on whether to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel that has been found at harmful levels in drinking water across the country. The announcement that the EPA won't act until it receives advice from the National Academy of Sciences puts the contentious decision onto the already-heavy regulatory agenda awaiting Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the EPA. ...


I still fail to see what's wrong with a little rocket fuel in my drink!

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Tue, Jan 13, 2009
from Brisbane Courier-Mail:
Two-headed fish larvae blamed on farm chemicals in Noosa River
CHEMICAL contamination from farm runoff has been blamed after millions of fish larvae in the Noosa River were found to have grown two heads. The disfigured larvae are thought to have been affected by one of two popular farm chemicals, either the insecticide endosulphan or the fungicide carbendazim. Former NSW fisheries scientist and aquaculture veterinarian Matt Landos yesterday called on the Federal Government to ban the chemicals and urgently find replacements. Dr Landos said about 90 per cent of larvae spawned at the Sunland Fish Hatchery from bass taken from the river were deformed and all died within 48 hours. ...


I guess this is a case where two heads AREN'T better than one!

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Tue, Jan 13, 2009
from Bloomberg News:
Food Production Chaos Looms in Africa as Soil Quality Worsens
African farmers and climate change are combining to damage soil at a rate that may plunge the continent, home to about 1 billion people, into chaos as food production declines. “The situation is very severe and soil fertility is declining rapidly,” Jeroen Huising, a scientist who studies soils at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, or CIAT, said today in an interview. “Many countries like Kenya already don’t have enough food to feed their population and soil degradation is worsening an already critical situation.” Africa, where half the agricultural soil has lost nutrients necessary to grow plants, is hampered by a lack of information about soil conditions, Huising said. About 236 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, or one in three there, are chronically hungry, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. ...


Meanwhile, in America, I can't even finish my portion.

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Mon, Jan 12, 2009
from Chicago Tribune:
Studies show SE. Ind. site high in mercury levels
INDIANAPOLIS - Rain and snow that fall near a cluster of coal-burning power plants in southeastern Indiana are laced with some of the highest concentrations of atmospheric mercury in the nation, a new federal study has found. The U.S. Geological Survey research found the elevated levels of the toxic metal near Madison, Ind., adding to evidence that mercury spewed by power plants can end up in high concentrations in rain and snow that falls nearby. The findings, along with a study that found the most toxic form of the metal in more than 80 percent of samples taken from streams statewide, document the legacy of one pollutant from modern industry, the researchers say. "Everywhere we looked in Indiana we found mercury, and it's not the same everywhere, nor is it the same year to year or season to season," said Martin Risch, a USGS scientist who authored both papers. ...


Turns out it's not just yellow snow that's off limits for eating...

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