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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
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Species Collapse:(3)
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This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination  ~ alternative energy  ~ climate impacts  ~ toxic buildup  ~ efficiency increase  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ water issues  ~ smart policy  ~ economic myopia  ~ global warming  ~ carbon emissions  



ApocaDocuments (6) matching "contamination" from this week
[see full week] ~ [see all stories tagged "contamination"]
Sun, Jun 7, 2009
from CNN:
Search for downed plane highlights ocean trash problem
The massive amount of garbage in the ocean likely complicates the search for the remains of an Air France flight that went missing Monday near Brazil, oceanographers who spoke with CNN said. Earlier this week, investigators said they had located pieces of the plane in the southern Atlantic Ocean, which might have given them clues to the origin of Air France Flight 447's crash. But on Thursday, Brazilian officials said what they had found was nothing more than run-of-the-mill ocean trash.... Much of the ocean trash is plastic, which means it won't go away for hundreds of years, if ever. And the problem has gotten so bad that soupy "garbage patches" have developed in several locations, called gyres, where ocean currents swirl. One of them is estimated to be the size of Texas. There are about five or six major trash-collecting gyres in the world's oceans, with the most famous located in the Pacific Ocean about midway between North America and Asia... ...


At least the trash is trying to be tidy.

ApocaDoc
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Thu, Jun 4, 2009
from Scripps News:
Authorities scrambled to corral radioactive La-Z-Boy recliners
An Indiana manufacturer unknowingly used metal blended with a dangerous radioactive isotope to make parts for 1,000 La-Z-Boy recliners more than a decade ago. The discovery of that contamination -- which received virtually no publicity at the time -- triggered a federal and state effort to keep the popular chairs out of American living rooms, a Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found. The isotope -- Cobalt-60 -- used by No-Sag Products Co. of Kendallville, Ind., had been blended in Brazil into metal No-Sag used in 1998 to make brackets for the chairs, according to Rex Bowser, director of the Indoor Air and Radiological Health Emergency Response Program of the Indiana State Department of Health.... Experts said that the amount of radioactivity in the recliners, though relatively low, could have posed a health threat over time....in Indiana and across the United States -- even though scrap yards and recycling operations are the primary line of defense against rogue radiation -- neither the federal government nor any state requires those businesses to screen metal goods for radiation or report it when found. ...


'Specially since folks pretty much live in their La-Z-Boys!

ApocaDoc
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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from Los Angeles Times:
California Senate approves ban on BPA in plastics
Despite a fierce lobbying effort by the U.S. chemical industry, the state Senate narrowly approved a proposal Tuesday that would ban the use of a substance in baby bottles, toddler sippy cups and food containers that independent scientists say is a threat to childhood development. The bill by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A -- commonly dubbed BPA -- now goes to the Assembly, where it is expected to face a wall of resistance from manufacturers of the products that contain the chemical... Researchers from the chemical industry say the public health threat has been vastly overblown, and manufacturers of BPA argue that it has passed muster with nearly a dozen regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States. ...


Perhaps these chemical industry researchers have been hitting the bottle a bit too much!

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Wed, Jun 3, 2009
from University of Minnesota:
U of M Study says Minnesota households flushing 25 percent more pharmaceuticals, household chemicals than 30 years ago
In addition to a 25 percent overall increase in medicines and chemicals in the wastewater, researchers found caffeine in all samples; salicylic acid (the active compound in aspirin) was in 75 percent of samples, ibuprofen in 50 percent and endocrine disruptors -- typically found in birth control pills and hormone replacement products -- in nearly 85 percent. Researchers also found that water use did not vary from season to season, but was affected by the household's age, with younger households using nearly twice the amount of water per person than households with occupants 55 and older. The good news is a 33 percent decrease in the amount of oil and grease flushed down the drain. Concentrations of phosphates were also down —due to phosphate-free detergents and household cleansers—while the amount of nitrogen in household wastewater remained the same. ...


What's that? Hormones are tasty?

ApocaDoc
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Tue, Jun 2, 2009
from McClatchy Newspapers:
Garage sales covered under new product safety laws
Just like megasize toy manufacturers and stores that sell products from China, the notoriously broad and confusing federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act applies to you and your front yard. Anyone selling products, even used ones, that have been recalled or banned by the act is in violation. The act covers everything from toys with lead paint to cribs that might strangle babies. "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse," warns a 27-page Consumer Product Safety Commission resellers' handbook, released this month. "But more importantly ... you do not want to sell products that have the potential to harm anyone, especially a child." ...


Anger over this could spark the revolution we've been waiting for.

ApocaDoc
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Mon, Jun 1, 2009
from Sydney Australian:
Spray blamed for new bird deaths
BIRDS are again dropping dead from the sky in a new toxic drama in Western Australia. Nearly 200 ibises, ravens, gulls, ducks and a pelican were found dead or frothing and convulsing in Perth at the weekend. The discovery comes a year after the mysterious mass death of 200 birds only a few kilometres away and two years after the Esperance lead contamination scandal which emptied the skies over the holiday town of Esperance for months when thousands of birds were poisoned. The Department of Environment and Conservation yesterday blamed the latest deaths on the pesticide Fenthion, but said it was unclear whether it was a deliberate bird poisoning or had been caused by someone illegally dumping pesticide. ...


Perhaps... this is what the prophet Chicken Little was talking about.

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