The Weekly Toxic Times
From the Michigan Network for Children's Environmental Health
News highlights from the week of Friday, December 7, 2007
(plus news for December 8-9, 2007)
A recap of the top stories on toxins in Michigan, National, and International news.
Michigan News
Dioxin report details deception
Detroit Free Press, Friday, Dec, 7, 2007
“With the state's complicity, Dow Chemical Co. has delayed cleanup and misled the public about the dangers of dioxin it dumped decades ago into rivers downstream of its Midland plant, Environmental Protection Agency officials charged in a confidential August internal report…”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071207/NEWS05/712070316/1001
High dioxin levels found near Dow Chemical
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s The Environment Report, Monday, Dec. 3, 2007
Article discusses pollution of the Tittabawasee River and EPA’s response.
http://www.environmentreport.org/story.php3?story_id=3767
Toxic sites threaten great lakes resource
Kalamazoo Gazette, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007
“KALAMAZOO – Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality says its cleanup money is nearly gone and there are still thousands of sites where toxic chemicals pool underground, threatening drinking water, streams and eventually the Great Lakes…”
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/
news-26/119717768558960.xml&coll=7
House votes to ban smoking statewide
Detroit Free Press, Dec. 6, 2007
“LANSING -- An outright ban on smoking in workplaces -- restaurants and bars included -- was approved by the House on Wednesday, giving anti-smoking activists their biggest victory in the Capitol so far…”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/NEWS06/
712060416/1001/NEWS
National News
WARNING: The chemical bisphenol A has been known to pose severe health risks to laboratory animals. AND THE CHEMICAL IS IN YOU.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007
“For more than a decade, the federal government and chemical-makers have assured the public that a hormone-mimicking compound found in baby bottles, aluminum cans and hundreds of other household products is safe. But a Journal Sentinel investigation found that these promises are based on outdated, incomplete government studies and research heavily funded by the chemical industry. In the first analysis of its kind by a newspaper…”
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=692145
Investors take aim at plastic products
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007
“Already under attack from a host of critics, companies that make and sell plastic products are being hammered by a new, unexpected adversary - their shareholders. In the past two years, more than two dozen shareholder resolutions have taken publicly held corporations to task for their use of potentially toxic chemicals…”
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=694805
Canadian retailer bans some plastic bottles
Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2007
“OTTAWA, Dec. 7 — A line of water bottles that had become a symbol of environmental responsibility has been removed from the shelves of Canada’s leading outdoor gear retailer over concerns about a chemical used in its manufacture. The Mountain Equipment Co-op, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, removed the bottles, sold under the brand name Nalgene, and other polycarbonate containers from its 11 large-scale stores on Wednesday…”
High weedkiller levels found in river checks
Washington Post, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007
“Atrazine, the second most widely used weedkiller in the country, is showing up in some streams and rivers at levels high enough to potentially harm amphibians, fish and aquatic ecosystems, according to the findings of an extensive Environmental Protection Agency database that has not been made public…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/12/08/AR2007120801451.html
Group sounds alarm on infant formula cans
CNN, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007
Articles discusses Environmental Working Groups report on bisphenol-A linings in baby formula cans.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/04/bpa.formula/
Start with safe toy recommendations from a panel of experts
Oshkosh Northwestern, Monday, Dec. 3, 2007
Article provides general tips mainly from owners of specialty toy stores about what toys are safer. Material is from the Associated Press.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20071203/OSH05/712030301/1168
Hidden household toxins
Forbes, Monday, Dec, 3, 2007
“That couch you're sitting on could be making you sick. That's because there's a good chance it's been coated in polybrominated diphenylethers, or PBDEs, a class of flame retardant chemicals, which are designed to slow a fire and provide adequate time for escape…”
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2007/12/03/health-toxins-household-
forbeslife-cx_rr_1203health.html
Lead paint isn't the only peril lurking in toys: Cindy Skrzycki
Bloomberg, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007
Article is an opinion piece discussing a variety of chemical dangers in toys that NGOs have highlighted and discussing the response of some of the major actors, including California in passing a law banning chemical plastic softeners in toys for children under age three.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=
aBobGnqAngAg&refer=home
and in the Washington Post:
City seeks Superfund
San Bernardino and the Inland Empire’s Sun, Dec., 4, 2007
Article discusses designation of a new Superfund site due to perchlorate-contaminated ground water.
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_7637295
Still no toxic cleanup plan for Navajos
L.A. Times, Dec. 7, 2007
“WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency plans to resume long-stalled testing for toxics on the Navajo reservation unleashed by abandoned Cold War uranium mines, but it and four other federal agencies have yet to come up with overall cleanup and health plans…”
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/
la-na-navajo7dec07,1,2040014.story
Pollution health risks in our midst
Chicago Tribune, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007
“The U.S. Steel mill in Gary and the BP refinery in nearby Whiting rank among the nation's worst factories on health threats to neighbors from water pollution, according to a Tribune analysis of new federal research…”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-epa_
bd09dec09,1,1895000.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
International News
Perchlorate contamination of drinking water may pose a greater health risk than previously thought
Medical Research News (Australia), Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007
“Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have shown that perchlorate - an industrial pollutant linked to thyroid ailments - is actively concentrated in breast milk. Their findings suggest that perchlorate contamination of drinking water may pose a greater health risk than previously realized…”
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=33144
Chemicals in lipstick linked to breast cancer
Perth Now (Australia), Friday, Dec. 7, 2007
“A study has shown that butyl benzyl phthalate, or BBP, can interfere with the healthy development of breast tissue. Environmental campaigners have called for it to be banned in the cosmetic industry, where it is used to make products glossy. The man-made substance is part of the phthalate family of chemicals, which mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen…”
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22885510-5005370,00.html
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