Pollution

The Crisis in Flint Isn't Over. It's Everywhere.

Wed, 2016-06-01 21:36 — Maeryn Obley

Tony Palladeno’s rental units sit unoccupied; his water still irritates his skin and eyes when he bathes. Photo by Dan Winters

Image: Tony Palladeno’s rental units sit unoccupied; his water still irritates his skin and eyes when he bathes. Photo by Dan Winters

wired.com - June 1st 2016 - Ben Paynter

At his home near Kearsley Park, on the east side of Flint, Michigan, Tony Palladeno Jr. grabs his keys and a pair of 1-liter medical-grade plastic bottles—one full and one empty. He filled the first yesterday, with slightly cloudy water from his own tap. To fill the second, he strolls a few doors down to a two-story home he once rented out.

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Lead in Morristown hospital's water was up to 22 times over federal limit

Sun, 2016-03-06 21:48 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Morristown Medical Center has been issued two violation in connection with the lead contamination of its tap water over the past month, officials said. (File Photo)

nj.com - March 3rd 2016 - Justin Zaremba

Morristown Medical Center has been issued two violations in connection with the lead contamination of the tap water at its 100 Madison Avenue location.

In one instance, a water sample showed the presence of lead nearly 22 times above the federal action limit, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Two laboratories conducted testing on water samples taken from the hospital on Feb. 26 — the state Department of Health's laboratory and a private, certified facility, Garden State Laboratory, according to DEP spokesman Bob Considine.

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WHO Unveils Alarming Data on Air Pollution

Sun, 2016-01-24 20:33 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by George Hurlburt

Smog in central London in 2011. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

care2.com - by Lizabeth Paulat - January 24, 2016

New figures to be released from the World Health Organization show some incredibly alarming statistics on global pollution. The impact it has on health cannot be understated. According to the data it kills more people annually than HIV and Malaria combined. Yet the misery doesn’t stop at death. It also causes millions to suffer from chronic illnesses such as asthma and lung inflammation.

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES AND RESEARCH WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW:

CLICK HERE - The Guardian - Shock figures to reveal deadly toll of global air pollution

CLICK HERE - Nature - The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale

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Flint Water Crisis: What's in that Contaminated Water

Sat, 2016-01-23 17:31 — Kathy Gilbeaux

LeeAnne Walters shows water samples from her Flint home. Photograph: Ryan Garza/AP

theguardian.com - by Mona Chalabi - January 22, 2016

. . . Here are some fast facts about just what’s in the Flint water and how it came to pass.

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By 2050, There Will Be More Plastic than Fish in the World’s Oceans, Study Says

Thu, 2016-01-21 00:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A September 2008 photo released by the Ocean Conservancy on March 10, 2009, shows a trash-covered beach in Manilla, Philippines. (Tamara Thoreson Pierce/Ocean Conservancy/AP)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - World Economic Forum - The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Independent study tallies 'true catch' of global fishing

washingtonpost.com - by Sarah Kaplan - January 20, 2016

There is a lot of plastic in the world’s oceans.

It coagulates into great floating “garbage patches” that cover large swaths of the Pacific. It washes up on urban beaches and remote islands, tossed about in the waves and transported across incredible distances before arriving, unwanted, back on land. It has wound up in the stomachs of more than half the world’s sea turtles and nearly all of its marine birds, studies say . . .

. . . But that quantity pales in comparison with the amount that the World Economic Forum expects will be floating into the oceans by the middle of the century.

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Landfill Fire Threatens Nuclear Waste Site Outside St. Louis

Thu, 2015-11-05 21:38 — Maeryn Obley

Flares at the Bridgeton Landfill outside St. Louis burn off noxious fumes, including those generated by an underground fire that's been burning since 2010. The "fire" is really a high-temperature chemical reaction that consumes the waste below the landfill's surface. Véronique LaCapra/St. Louis Public Radio

Image: Flares at the Bridgeton Landfill outside St. Louis burn off noxious fumes, including those generated by an underground fire that's been burning since 2010. The "fire" is really a high-temperature chemical reaction that consumes the waste below the landfill's surface. Véronique LaCapra/St. Louis Public Radio

npr.org - November 3rd, 2015 - Veronique Lacapra

Imagine you are a parent, and that out of the blue, you get a letter from your child's school telling you not to worry — that they're ready to evacuate or shelter in place if an underground fire at a nearby landfill reaches radioactive waste on the same property.

That's pretty much what happened recently in suburban St. Louis.

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US - Central

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Welcome to Armageddon, USA: A Tour of America’s Most Toxic Town

Sat, 2015-09-19 23:42 — Maeryn Obley

An abandoned town.

Image: An abandoned town.

wired.com- August 30th, 2010 - Ben Paynter

Larry Roberts angles his white Mercury Grand Marquis into the empty parking lot of a tiny café, G & J’s Gorillas Cage, and cruises into a space near the front door. The restaurant’s red and white metal trim is faded and rusted, and the lightbulb-lined roadside sign has been dark for years. Hand-painted placards in the windows advertise burger baskets, corn dogs, and a couple of untruths—”Last Place in Picher!” and “Yes, We’re Open!”

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A Fish With Cancer Raises Questions About Health Of Susquehanna River

Sun, 2015-05-10 20:06 — Maeryn Obley

Image: A smallmouth bass with confirmed malignant tumor was caught by an angler in the Susquehanna River near Duncannon, Pa., on Nov. 3, 2014. John Arway/Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission

npr.org - May 7th, 2015 - Krishnadev Calamur

Late last year, an angler caught a smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River near Duncannon, Pa. That fish, officials from the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission said this week, had a malignant tumor. It's the first time this type of tumor has been found on a smallmouth bass in the river, the agency says.

Cancerous growths and tumors on fish are "very, very infrequent," John Arway, the agency's executive director, said in an interview.

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Five years later: Deepwater Horizon disaster leaves oil and dispersants lingering in the Gulf

Sun, 2015-05-03 19:42 — Maeryn Obley

The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.

Image: The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.

inhabitat.com - April 21th 2015 - Charley Cameron

As we mark the fifth anniversary of the explosion that rocked the Deepwater Horizon rig, claiming 11 lives and sparking a 87 day-long, 200-million-gallon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, studies continue to reveal the devastating impact of the oil—and dispersants used in clean up—on marine life. Recent reports show that the dispersants were more damaging to corals than the oil itself, and continue to diminish shellfish and sea turtle populations, while large questions loom over the ongoing unexplained deaths of dolphins along the Gulf Coast. And, as the NRDC points out, it will take years, if not decades longer to fully understand the effects of the disaster.

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Study Indicates Ebola-Infected Sewage May Require Longer Holding Period

Wed, 2015-03-11 21:48 — mike kraft

INFECTION CONTROL TODAY March 11, 2015
Storing Ebola-infected sewage for a week at 86 degrees Fahrenheit or higher should allow enough time for more than 99.99 percent of the virus to die, though lower ambient temperatures may require a longer holding period, according to a new study by researchers at Georgia State University's School of Public Health.

The study co-authored by Lisa M. Casanova, assistant professor of environmental health, and Scott R. Weaver, research assistant professor in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, used bacteriophage Φ6, a type of virus, as a stand-in to study how long Ebola and similar viruses can survive in latrines and other systems for collecting and disposing of sewage. Bacteriophage Φ6 has a lipid envelope, meaning it has structural similarities to Ebola and several other types of virus, allowing for a safe study that did not require use of Ebola itself.

"The places hardest hit by Ebola are the places that often have the least infrastructure for safely disposing of sewage and are using things like pit latrines," says Casanova. "They need the answers to questions like this."

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