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| Above the fold. News aggregated by www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org | Read today's editorials |
| Daily links to top stories in the news about environmental health. Sewage adds to Detroit's headache. The spring rains came bursting down this year, and down again and yet again. And in this bankrupt city, the aging sewage system couldn't keep up – just like it couldn't in 2011 and 2009. Detroit is failing its citizens in many ways. Climate change is adding to the woe. Daily Climate Detroit’s toxic legacy – bankrupt city faces environmental challenges. A host of factors contributed to the bankruptcy of Detroit, including a fading manufacturing sector and a serious population decline, but a closer look shows that the toxicity in Detroit’s real estate has played a role as well. DC Bureau, District of Columbia. As air pollution from fracking rises, EPA to set rules. On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce the first national rules to reduce air pollution at hydraulically fractured — fracked — wells and some other oil and gas industry operations. McClatchy Newspapers Portland's Precision Castparts ranked nation's top industrial air polluter in study. Portland-based Precision Castparts Corp. is the nation's top industrial air polluter, when accounting for toxicity and population exposure, according to a new ranking released by researchers at the University of Massachusetts. Portland Oregonian, Oregon. Mercury contamination in fish expected to rise in coming decades. In a study published Aug. 25 in the journal Nature Geoscience, University of Michigan researchers say that mercury produced by coal-burning power plants in China and India travels thousands of miles through the air before rainfall deposits it on the ocean floor near Hawaii. CBS News A quest for even safer drinking water. The 53,000 water utilities in the United States deliver some of the safest drinking water in the world — a public health victory of unrivaled success that began in 1908 with chlorination campaigns in Jersey City and Chicago. Still, millions of individual cases of waterborne diseases occur annually. New York Times [Registration Required] Rim fire taking ecological toll over thousands of acres. The Rim fire is incinerating large patches of forest, wiping out habitat for spotted owls and goshawks, and probably claiming old-growth trees, experts say. Los Angeles Times [Registration Required] Texas earthquakes likely triggered by oil extraction. Earthquakes in the Eagle Ford Shale region — including a 2011 quake felt in San Antonio — are likely being triggered by increased oil extraction, according to a new research paper from the University of Texas at Austin. The study will be published this week in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Houston Chronicle Mississippi nuclear waste plan sparks early opposition. The Mississippi Energy Institute is pushing for more exploration of storing and reprocessing used nuclear fuel in the state at the same time that one of the its congressmen is coming out against it. Associated Press Agencies at odds over Chevron refinery fire probe. The federal government is fighting with itself over a massive fire at a Chevron refinery in California that sent 15,000 people to hospitals with respiratory ailments. Associated Press Obama climate plan no war on coal, says energy secretary. President Barack Obama’s plan to combat climate change is not, as critics allege, a “war on coal,” says U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. Bloomberg News Maryland withdraws farm pollution regulation. Maryland officials pulled back a proposed regulation Monday aimed at reducing farm runoff polluting the Chesapeake Bay after chicken growers warned it could cripple the state's lucrative poultry industry if imposed now. Baltimore Sun, Maryland. Turning off the spigot in western Kansas farmland. Across the high plains, many farmers depend on underground stores of water, and they worry about wells going dry. A new study of western Kansas lays out a predicted timeline for those fears to become reality. But it also shows an alternative path. Morning Edition, NPR. Hold the water: Some firms fracking without it. The use of one precious fluid — water — to recover another — oil — chafes in dry country. Now one exploration and production company in San Antonio is fracturing its wells mostly without water, using gas liquids instead, in a practice that’s beginning to spread. Houston Chronicle China hog farms pose major health risk. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation operators say steady, low-dose antibiotics promote animal growth, which boosts efficiency and profits. But a rising tide of science around the world, and here in China, suggests otherwise – that it pushes the evolution of bacteria that are resistant to the drugs. The World, PRI. Ukraine, Japan to monitor Chernobyl and Fukushima from space. Ukraine and Japan on Monday agreed to launch a joint satellite project to track the state of crippled Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plants, sites of the world's greatest nuclear disasters. Agence France-Presse Syngenta challenges EU's bee-saving pesticide ban. Swiss agrichemical giant Syngenta said on Tuesday it was taking the European Commission to court over its suspension of the use of an insecticide it blames for killing bees. Agence France-Presse EPA analysis finds combustion chemical, coal tar constituent carcinogenic to humans. The Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 21 released a draft toxicological review of benzo[a]pyrene that found the combustion byproduct and coal tar constituent is carcinogenic to humans and harmful to developing organs and systems. Bloomberg BNA Flame retardant in furniture can mimic estrogen, say scientists. Junk food and a lack of exercise are not the only dangers of being a couch potato, a study suggests after scientists found that flame retardant chemicals in furniture can disrupt the body’s natural balance by causing a build-up of estrogen. The Telegraph, United Kingdom. More news from today Shortcuts to stories from today about The good news, Avian flu, Climate, Children's health, Air pollution, Cancer, Reproductive disorders, Endocrine disruption, Birth defects, Learning and developmental disabilities, Immune disorders, Environmental justice, Superfund, Water treatment/sewage, Food safety, Integrity of science, Green chemistry. You can also read last weekend's news. Plus: If you were on vacation last week, don't miss last week's top stories... Would you like to display the news stories from EnvironmentalHealthNews.org on your own web site? Check out our RSS feeds. Compiled by Environmental Health Sciences | |
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