New Study Links Mountaintop Removal to 60,000 Cancer Cases
A breakthrough study suggests that among residents living in mountaintop removal mining counties, 60,000 cases of cancer can be directly tied to strip-mining practices. Researchers behind the study gathered data from communities impacted by mountaintop mining in Boone County, West Virginia. The new study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Community Health: The Publication for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, said that the odds for reporting cancer were twice as high in mountaintop mining environments as they were in non …
Continue →Bill Would Let Health Researchers Ban Toxic Chemicals
New legislation could help health experts target and eliminate potentially harmful chemicals from commerce each year by labeling them as “high concern.†Under the bill, the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and a panel of experts could designate up to 10 chemicals each year to be banned. Those chemicals would become unlawful to use 24 months after the designation. The bill is to be introduced by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, …
Continue →Birth Defects Linked to Coal, Pesticides
Pregnant women exposed to coal and pesticides are up to four times more likely to have children with serious birth defects than women not exposed to those chemicals, a recent Chinese study found. Researchers detected high levels of synthetic pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that come from inhaling smoke from burning coal in the placentas of women with birth defects. The study’s findings were published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers looked at …
Continue →Black Lung Disease Rates Rising in Miners
Black lung disease, a disease that traditionally had impacted coal miners, is on the rise again after retreating in the 30 years after Congress passed harsher safety regulations. The news comes after 29 miners killed in the blast at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia were analyzed for evidence of black lung disease. Almost 75 percent of them showed signs of the deadly condition, health experts reported. Authors of the report suggested that the rise in coal prices …
Continue →Pfizer Contributes Assets to Pay Asbestos Claims
Pfizer Inc. will contribute assets to help its bankrupt, nonoperating Quigley unit pay asbestos claims. Quigley, acquired by Pfizer in 1968, made three products for the steel industry from the 1940s to the 1970s that included asbestos. Pfizer still maintains that it never made or sold any Quigley products, but some claimants haven’t released the world’s largest drug manufacturer from alleged “derivative liability.†Included in the assets Pfizer will contribute is a 281,581-square- foot building leased to a brewery. The …
Continue →New Rules to Reduce Airborne Toxins
The Obama administration recently proposed new rules to reduce mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants by 91 percent within the next five years. Congress amended the Clean Air Act in 1990 to control industrial emissions of air pollutants, but coal-fired power plants were exempt until 2000. Pollutants like lead, chromium, and arsenic can do irreparable damage to the nervous systems of children and fetuses. Additionally, airborne toxins may worsen respiratory illnesses over time. Mercury, in particular, can be …
Continue →Hewlett-Packard Fined for Asbestos Violation
Oregon state environmental regulators fined Hewlett-Packard Co. $9,600 for improper handling of asbestos by a contractor during a remodeling project last summer. A flooring contractor removing carpeting at the high-tech company’s Corvallis campus disturbed 456 square feet of underlying vinyl tiles that contained asbestos. Workers for the contractor, Contract Flooring and Interiors, Inc. of Portland, may have released the asbestos fiber into the air by breaking up the tiles. Left uncovered, the material was allowed to accumulate. Once the danger …
Continue →Non-Stick Pan Chemical May Cause Thyroid Disease
Last week, we wrote about a link between a little-known but widely used chemical called PFOA and liver damage. Now, another study finds the same chemical used to make non-stick pans and water-resistant fabrics can cause thyroid disease.
Continue →Texas Workers Sue BP, Others for Benzene Exposure
Eight workers have filed a lawsuit against BP Products North America Inc. and Pasadena Tank Corp. for exposing them to “extremely high levels of benzene†on the job.
Continue →Plastic Chemical BPA is “Of Some Concern†to Children, FDA Says (Finally)
After months of waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to announce its new stance on the safety of the controversial plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA), we now know the answer.
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