Environmental Toxins: February 2007 Archives

Court Throws Out Award Against Philip Morris

The Supreme Court threw out a $79.5 million verdict that ordered Philip Morris to pay a smoker's widow $79.5 million. The ruling is promising news for other businesses looking to set stricter limits on big-dollar verdicts. However, the ruling did not address Philip Morris's argument that the settlement was unconstitutionally large. Philip Morris and its supporters had hoped that the court would limit the amount that could be awarded in future punitive damage cases.

Court Nixes Award Against Philip Morris

Justice Stephen Breyer said that the award given to Mayola Williams could not stand because a jury only can punish a defendant for the harm done to the person filing the lawsuit, not to others whose cases were not before it. "To permit punishment for injuring a nonparty victim would add a near standardless dimension to the punitive damages question," said Breyer. Philip Morris had said that the Oregon jury who had made the original ruling had been encouraged to punish Philip Morris for health problems suffered by all the Oregonians who had suffered health problems as a result of smoking. Mayola Williams had argued that the award was appropriate because it punished Philip Morris because it punished the company for "massive market-directed fraud" that led people into thinking that cigaretters were not dangerous.

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Fetal Exposure to Environmental Toxins Can Cause Obesity

Research from the University of Missouri suggests that fetal exposure to everyday chemicals can cause a person to become more at risk for obesity later in life. Frederick vom Saal, a professor of biological sciences at University of Missouri and leader of the research, says that when fetuses are exposed to certain chemicals, their DNA may be subjected to mutations that lead to an increased risk for obesity and disease.

Fetal Exposure to Common Chemicals Can Activate Obesity

vom Saal said that his research suggests that "certain environmental substances called endocrine-disrupting chemicals can change the functioning of a fetus’s genes, altering a baby’s metabolic system and predisposing him or her to obesity. This individual could eat the same thing and exercise the same amount as someone with a normal metabolic system, but he or she would become obese, while the other person remained thin." vom Saal tested the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including bisphenol-A, on lab mice and observed the mice as they aged. Data showed that mice exposed to chemicals were obese throughout their lives.

Chemicals Faulted For Increasing Obesity: US Scientists
Everyday plastics and pesticides may influence obesity
Environmental Disease

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Lawsuit Filed Over Peanut Butter

A lawsuit has been filed against ConAgra Foods, saying that the corporation played a role in the salmonella outbreak that caused the family's two children to become sick. Dr. and Mrs. Charles Osborn filed the suit "individually and as next friends" for their five- and two-year old children. The suit was filed several days after ConAgra announced a recall of its Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter on February 14.

Dr. Osborn said that his daughter had become sick several times over the last few months. Both of his children had had high fevers and vomiting and were put on antibiotics. However, neither of the Osborns were in the country to care for their children at the time of the children's illnesses; the Osborns were in Mexico on a medical mission. “As a doctor, I know how salmonella is contracted. As a parent, it makes me sick to think that while my wife and I were on a medical mission trip to Mexico, my children were at home suffering because of waste-contaminated peanut butter without their parents to comfort them,” Osborn said in a press release. Clay Jenkins, the family's attorney, said he was trouble that the peanut butter salmonella contamination largely affected children, the elderly and the immuno-compromised.

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EPA Gives Grant to Clean School Bus Project

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given a $94,876 grant to the American Lung Association to help fund a project to reduce diesel emissions from school buses in the Chicago area. The EPA says that the grant money will be used to retrofit 43 buses in school districts in Green Oaks, Mundelein, Grayslake, and Ingleside with equipment to reduce harmful diesel emissions.

EPA Awards $94,876 Grant to American Lung Association for Chicago Clean School Bus Project

The grant is a part of the EPA's Clean School Bus USA program. The program aims to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses. "Breathing diesel exhaust is not good for anyone, especially children with asthma," said Mary A. Gade, a regional director for the EPA. "EPA is working with the American Lung Association to upgrade buses so students can breathe cleaner air and live healthier lives." Diesel emissions contain nitrogen oxides and fine particles that can cause respiratory and heart diseases and affect lung function and structure.

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Proposed Benzene Reduction in Houston

Bill White, the mayor of Houston, has proposed a new air quality measure that would reduce benzene levels in the city by negotiating with industrial plants from Houston to Galveston County. White hopes that the plan would reduce benzene concentrations along the Houston Ship Channel and in east Houston. A 50 percent reduction in benzene emissions from all factories along the Ship Channel would be needed to achieve safe levels. "Reductions from these facilities will result in the greatest improvement to our air quality," said Loren Roan, the mayor's senior environmental analyst.

Clean air quest knows no limits

White said that any polluting plant could be targeted by the plan. "So long as none of their benzene goes into the air we breathe, I have no problem with them. So long as they put stuff in the air that blows into the lungs of our citizens, I've got to stand up for our citizens," White said. "And I believe, the citizens of outlying communities will benefit as well." Operators of plants listed in the benzene plan say that they will be willing to cooperate.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Peanut Butter Recalled

ConAgra Foods Inc. is asking that consumers throw away jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter beginning with product code "2111;" this batch of peanut butter has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 288 people in 39 states since August. The contaminated peanut butter was produced by ConAgra at a plant in Sylvester, Georgia but it is unclear how salmonella got into the peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Recalled Over Salmonella

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that this appears to be the first salmonella outbreak caused by peanut butter. ConAgra officials say they are unsure why the CDC believes their peanut butter to be the source of the outbreak because its own tests of the peanut butter and of the plant have been negative. Spokesman Chris Kircher said that "we're trying to understand what else we need to do or should be doing. We want to do what's right by the consumer."

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DuPont to Appeal Verdict

DuPont has asked to Mississippi Supreme Court to throw out a $14 million verdict awarded to Glen Strong, an oyster fisherman who says that chemicals from a Gulf Coast plant caused his multiple myeloma. DuPont's DeLisle plant is located about five miles from Strong's Bay St. Louis home. Strong's lawyers claimed that Strong's blood cancer was caused by dioxins that entered Strong's body through the air and by eating oysters from St. Louis Bay. DuPont called no witnesses in its defense, depending on the testimony of Strong's doctor who said that there was no way to determine the root cause of Strong's cancer.

DuPont to appeal $14M jury award to Strong

In its appeal, DuPont asked if the lower court had been fair in judging the company based on the plaintiff's "reliance on junk science" and a "failure to offer competent proof" of an actual cause of Strong's cancer. DuPont also said that they were unfairly prevented from calling experts to testify; DuPont says these experts could have shown that the DeLisle plant was not the cause of Strong's cancer. The DeLisle plant makes titanium oxide, a pigment used in paint, plastics and toothpaste.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Secondhand Smoke Damages the Heart

New research shows that secondhand smoke exposure not only increases the risk of lung cancer, but also increases the risk of heart disease. Even low-level indirect exposure to cigarette smoke was linked to a significant increase in heart disease risk. This research, conducted by researchers from the U.K.'s University of Nottingham, was the first research to directly measure secondhand smoke exposure through levels of a nicotine byproduct in the blood. Older studies have relied upon participants to recall their level of exposure.

Secondhand Smoke Hurts The Heart, Too

Those study participants who had low and high exposure levels to second-hand smoke had significantly higher levels of two markers of heart disease risk. "These findings suggest that secondhand smoke exposure has a clinically important effect on susceptibility to heart disease, even at relatively low levels of exposure, and they highlight the importance of minimizing the public's exposure to secondhand smoke," said researcher Andrea Venn, Ph.D.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Low-Level Toxicants Harm Brain

Low levels of mercury and lead can damage developing brain cells. This finding might explain why these toxicants can cause such a wide range of mental and medical problems. Mark Noble, a professor of biomedical genetics and neurobiology at the University of Rochester, was the senior author of the study and this study could play a major role in identifying methods of prevention and treatment for those who have been exposed to environmental toxins.

Low-level toxicants can harm brain

"There is a huge problem in toxicology. There are 80,000 to 150,000 environmental toxicants about which we know nothing. Nobody knows how to screen for them or even where to start," said Noble. Noble and his colleagues conducted research in the lab by exposing glial cells to low levels of lead and mercury and found that the cells stopped dividing when exposed to the toxins. The mercury levels used by Nobel had been thought to be safe, but "it turns out they are not," says Noble. When the researchers looked at cellular pathways affected by toxin exposure, they found that toxicants were disrupting cell function by increasing oxidative stress.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Proposed Power Plant May Increase Pollution

A proposed power plant in Chelsea Creek, Massachusetts may make the already bad pollution in the residential area even worse. In 1996, Chelsea built a new school complex for more than 1,300 public elementary school children, expecting that the air pollution in the neighborhood would not get any worse. However, the new power plant would be only a few hundred feet from the school and consequently could expose vulnerable lungs to even more dangerous particulate matter.

To Limit Chelsea Pollution

The developer of the proposed plant says that the plant would burn only the cleanest diesel oil and actually improve air quality because it would reduce the need for the dirtier power sources in the area. It is questionable if this would be the true scenario. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, diesel exhaust in Chelsea is five times higher than the national average. Chelsea's diesel exhaust levels exceed the EPA's level at which carcinogenic effects occur by 20%. Chelsea also has much higher rates of asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases than other areas in Massachusetts. The new power plant has potential to make Chelsea an even less healthy place in which to live.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Women in Polluted Areas at Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Women who live in places that have higher levels of air pollution are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and dying of cardiovascular disease than those who live in areas of less pollution. The study monitored more than 65,000 women between the ages of 50 and 79, who live in 36 cities around the United States. Kristin Miller, an author of the study and a doctoral student in epidemiology at University of Washington said that "our findings show that both what city a woman lived in, and where she lived in that city, affected her exposure level and her disease risk."

Women in Polluted Areas at Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

The researchers looked at women who did not initially have cardiovascular disease and watched them for up to nine years. The researchers noted whether women died from heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular causes or coronary bypass surgery. They then found causality between outdoor air pollution levels near the women's homes and discoverd that women living in areas of higher pollution had significantly greater rates of cardiovascular disease. The researchers looked at particulate matter levels; this comes from industrial sources and from wood burning fireplaces. "These soot particles, which are typically created by fossil-fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants, can contain a complex mix of chemicals," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, a leader of they study. "The tiny particles - and the pollutant gases that travel along with them - cause harmful effects once they are breathed in."

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pace of Toxic Site Cleanup Criticized

U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Barbara Boxer say that the federal government is being too slow in its cleanup of toxic waste sites across the country. Boxer said that under the Bush administration the pace of toxic cleanups has dropped about 50% and is expected to fall further. "It is the community that pays . . . They have the right to know why the Environmental Protection Agency has not done more. There should be a light at the end of the tunnel," said Boxer.

Pace of Toxic Site Cleanup Criticized

New Jersey has the most Superfund sites in the country, in large part because of its industrial past. The Cornell-Dubilier site once was home to an electronics manufacturing plant from 1936 to 1962. During that time, the company contaminated the area with chemicals used to manufacture polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs. The EPA says that 18 buildings at the located are contaminated with PCBs and metals like mercury, chromium, lead, and arsenic.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wood Smoke is Carcinogenic

While a roaring fireplace provokes images of safety and warmth, we now know that wood smoke is dangerous to our health. Burning wood leads to large amounts of particle pollution; thousands of studies have linked particle pollution to health problems such as asthma attacks, diminished lung function, respiratory ailments, heart attacks, and strokes. Particle pollution is especially dangerous for children because their lungs still are developing.

Thank You for Not Burning

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers fine particle pollution to be its "most pressing air quality problem." The California Air Resources Board says that residential wood burning is the single largest contributor to winter particle pollution, contributing more particle pollution to the air than cars, diesel vehicles, or industry. Wood smoke also contains toxic and carcinogenic substances like benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins. Wood burning fireplaces may soon be a thing of the past.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Residents Say Ethanol Plant Could Poison Town

Wight, the developer of a proposed ethanol plant on the west side of Rockford, has sued several families in order to silence their opposition to the development of the plant. The families were concerned about the air pollution that the plant would produce; much of the pollution is comprised of known or suspected carcinogens.

Ethanol Plant Could Poison Rockford, County Residents

A 130-foot emissions stack will transport the estimated 463 tons of air pollution off site; much of the pollution will be taken into Rockford. Census data shows that about 20,383 residents live within two miles of the proposed site and about 90% of these people are Rockford residents. Of the 463 tons of pollution, about 99.61 tons will be particulate matter. Wight's associates have a history of legal trouble related to environmental, labor and EEOC standards. Wight's design engineering consultant has been sued by state and federal departments of justice for ignoring their environmental permits and also paid millions of dollars in fines.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

EPA Sampling Air Above Plume

Tests are being conducted to decide what can be done about a plume of contaminated groundwater beneath a Billings neighborhood. The Environmental Protection Agency placed air-sampling devices in homes to get a better idea of what risk residents are being subjected to by fumes that may be seeping in from underground pollution.

EPA Sampling Air Above Plume

Investigators are looking at whether elevated levels of PCE, a chemical used in dry-cleaning operations, are coming from groundwater into areas where people can inhale them. The area in question is southwest of downtown Billings and is known as the Billings PCE site. The area is believed to have been contaminated by a dry-cleaning operation. While drinking water in the area is not threatened because residents are on the city system, pollution in the groundwater may become vaporized and thus become present in the air that residents breathe.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

EPA Scientist Want Tighter Smog Limits

Federal scientists are suggesting tighter smog standards, saying that it would allow tens of millions of Americans to breathe more easily. The plan will conflict with President Bush's hopes of weaning Americans from gasoline by using more ethanol; ethanol produces more pollution than gasoline. The Environmental Protection Agency says that more rigid standards "would provide greater health protection for sensitive groups, including asthmatic children and other people with lung disease, healthy children and older adults — especially those active outdoors, and outdoor workers."

EPA Scientists Urge Tighter Smog Limits

About 160 million people now breathe illegal levels of ozone pollution, largely in major cities in California and on the East coast. The recommendation has caused controversy in the EPA. EPA staff members have felt they were under pressure from the government not to give a specific recommendation for levels. President Bush, in his State of the Union speech, urged Americans to reduce gasoline consumption by substituting alternate fuels, largely ethanol. This likely will increase smog by at least 1%.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Utah Pollution

As of late, Utah's mountain peaks have been covered by nasty winter pollution. Northern Utah's valleys have been buried under an "inversion" as of late; this is a blanket of warm air that traps cold air close to the ground and traps car exhaust and factory emissions.

Utah's mountains, valleys under a 'soup'

Salt Lake and Davis counties have been under a "red" pollution alert for 16 days in January; this means that the air is so unhealthy to breathe that the elderly and those with respiratory problems should avoid the outside air. While such inversions are new to Utah, this one is "wide, deep, and dramatic," according to Bob Dalley of the state Division of Air Quality. The pollution caused by inversions is relieved by a hard wind or storm, no matter the direction, to send the pollution elsewhere.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Highway Exhaust Stunts Lung Growth

According to a new study, children who grow up within a third of a mile of a freeway may suffer lung damage. Researchers looked at 1,445 children living in 12 Southern California areas for eight years, from age 10 to 18. They discovered that the closer the children lived to a freeway, the more likely they were to have reduced lung growth, as measured by standard tests.

Highway Exhaust Stunts Lung Growth

Gennet Paauwe, a spokeswoman from the California Air Resources Board, said that "living near freeways is a health issue is something we’ve known about for a long time. All of this points to the fact that California’s air pollution control program needs to continue with its aggressive reduction in air pollutants. But I think this would translate to any other part of the U.S. where people are living near heavily trafficked roadways.” The development of lung function also was lowered in teenagers who did not have asthma and who did not smoking, suggesting that living near highways has a negative effect even on otherwise healthy children.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 01:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alabama Man Affected by Benzene Dies

Jack Cline, the Alabama man who fought for years against the benzene manufacturers he blamed for poisoning him, died from the complications from a rare form of leukemia at the age of 67. Cline's death comes one week after he learned that the Alabama Supreme Court had stood by its previous decision to block his lawsuit on the grounds that he waited too long to file it. Cline's lawyer, Robert Palmer, expressed frustration at that decision: "In my mind, this was one of the worst decisions the Alabama Supreme Court has ever made," he said.

Alabama Man Who Waged Benzene Battle Dies

Cline worked as a chemist and a melting supervisor at Griffin Wheel Co. near Birmingham. He claimed that over his 37 years at the company, he used benzene to clean oxygen valves before they were installed in the plant's furnaces. In 1999, Cline was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, which is caused by a defect of immature cells in the bone marrow. Because Alabama interprets the statute of limitations on toxic cases, which is two years, as being from the date of last exposure to the substance and not as two years from the point at which the person becomes sick, Cline was unable to file a lawsuit.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Study Launched to Study Link Between Lead Exposure, Brain Development

A landmark study is planned by researchers from Harvard and the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health to look at how genetics and environment lead pollution interact to affect children's intellectual and behavioral functioning. Although it is established that high lead levels in the body affect intelligence, this is the first study in India to measure this effect. The study is unique in that it will measure how lead exposure affects visual-spatial-motor skills and aggressive behavior and it is one of the first studies that looks at how genetic makeup affects the effects of lead exposure.

Genetic Study To Understand Linkage Between Lead Exposure And Children's Intellectual Development In India

"This study represents a cutting edge research collaboration that will gain insights into a global environmental health problem," said Howard Hu M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D, the study's lead investigator. "India and other countries are undergoing rapid urbanization, population shifts to cities, industrialization and a steep increase in the use of fossil fuels for energy and transportation - but population exposures to newer pollution hazards remain understudied," Hu explained. "Understanding the interrelationship of environmental hazards, genetics, and health will provide the information that is needed to formulate regulatory policies, prioritize public health controls, and educate the medical community and the public on how best to mitigate particular environmental exposures. Progress on these fronts would be slow or impossible without public/private partnerships like the one involving Harvard, the University of Michigan, and Bioserve." Hu is Chair and Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Adjunct Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mercury Found in Every Fish Tested

Scientists found that every fish and every river that they tested across the West showed some level of mercury contamination. This suggests at least some pervasive effects of industrial mercury contamination. The survey of 2,707 fish randomly collected from 626 rivers in 12 states is the largest regional testing of mercury levels in fish in the west. The findings by scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon State University were reported in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Mercury found in every fish surveyed

No effort was made to specifically link the mercury in the fish to the mercury in the environment, but the low but widespread levels of mercury suggests that the exposure came from deposition: mercury in the atmosphere falling to the earth in rain and snow, said Alan Herlihy, from the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. Levels of mercury generally were higher in fish-eating fish, like bass, walleye, and pike, as opposed to insect-eating fish, like trout.

Posted by Patricia Bowling at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 28, 2007

Court Throws Out Award Against Philip Morris

February 27, 2007

Fetal Exposure to Environmental Toxins Can Cause Obesity

February 26, 2007

Lawsuit Filed Over Peanut Butter

February 23, 2007

EPA Gives Grant to Clean School Bus Project

February 22, 2007

Proposed Benzene Reduction in Houston

February 21, 2007

Peanut Butter Recalled

February 20, 2007

DuPont to Appeal Verdict

February 19, 2007

Secondhand Smoke Damages the Heart

February 17, 2007

Low-Level Toxicants Harm Brain

February 16, 2007

Proposed Power Plant May Increase Pollution

February 15, 2007

Women in Polluted Areas at Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

February 14, 2007

Pace of Toxic Site Cleanup Criticized

February 13, 2007

Wood Smoke is Carcinogenic

February 12, 2007

Residents Say Ethanol Plant Could Poison Town

February 09, 2007

EPA Sampling Air Above Plume

February 08, 2007

EPA Scientist Want Tighter Smog Limits

February 07, 2007

Utah Pollution

February 06, 2007

Highway Exhaust Stunts Lung Growth

February 05, 2007

Alabama Man Affected by Benzene Dies

February 02, 2007

Study Launched to Study Link Between Lead Exposure, Brain Development

February 01, 2007

Mercury Found in Every Fish Tested