Free Republic

Antidepressants pose a threat to wildlife due to their presence in water supplies, say experts ... ... Dr Helena Herrera, of Portsmouth’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, said many prescribers might not be aware antidepressant medication was potentially harmful for marine life, or that it persists in the environment. ... Their research [Dr Helena Herrera, of Portsmouth’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and Professor Alex Ford, of Portsmouth’s Institute of Marine Biology], published in British Journal of Psychiatry, suggests even one step towards addressing the environmental problem of such drugs would help. ... In a previous study, Professor...

After a ban on non-biodegradable utensils went into effect over the weekend in Seattle, local officials are advising food service businesses to “[s]top using plastic straws and plastic utensils.”An ordinance pending before the New York City Council would make that city’s food service businesses the next front line in liberal politicians’ war on plastic straws.For the last two months, the New York City Council has deliberated over a bill that would make it a civil offense for any food service provider in the city to offer customers straws or stirrers “made of plastic or any other non-biodegradable material.” If passed,...

Nate May's Prius is loaded down with water. The back is filled with boxes, each holding three one-gallon jugs that he just bought at Walmart. He and other volunteers are driving around Charleston, W.V., dropping off the jugs to people who have contacted his ad hoc group, the West Virginia Clean Water Hub. It's paid for with donations. "There are a lot of people this has put in a difficult bind. Some of them can't get out, some of them are elderly, some of them — it's just too much of a financial burden," May says. "We just take them...

A local group is attempting to clean the waters in Corvallis’ Sequoia Creek — and potentially the Willamette River beyond it — using an unusual tool: mushrooms. The process used by volunteers with the Ocean Blue Project, an ecological restoration nonprofit, is to place mushroom spawn and a mixture of coffee grounds and straw in burlap bags that mushrooms can grow in, and then place the bags so that water entering storm drains will filter through them. The technique is attempting to take advantage of the natural ability of mycelium — the underground part of fungi — to break down...

A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace - alongside genocide and crimes against humanity - is being launched in the UK. The proposal for the United Nations to accept "ecocide" as a fifth "crime against peace", which could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is the brainchild of British lawyer-turned-campaigner Polly Higgins. The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment like fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry. Supporters of a new ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute...

Scientists now tell us there is something in our waters that we least expected. That “something” is a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors, and Dr. Vicki Blazer, a fisheries biologist at the United States Geological Survey, thinks the chemicals are responsible for the high concentrations of intersex fish found in the Potomac, and other rivers in the mid-Atlantic. The chemicals also prove a threat to human health, but a bit of explanation, first. Our body’s endocrine system is a complex network of glands and hormones that regulate growth, development, and the operation of various organs. The endocrine glands (for...

50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation Updated April 12, 2004 by Paul Connett, PhD Professor of Chemistry St. Lawrence University Canton, NY 13617 1) Fluoride is not an essential nutrient (NRC 1993 and IOM 1997). No disease has ever been linked to a fluoride deficiency. Humans can have perfectly good teeth without fluoride. 2) Fluoridation is not necessary. Most Western European countries are not fluoridated and have experienced the same decline in dental decay as the US (See data from World Health Organization in Appendix 1, and the time trends presented graphically at http://www.fluoridealert.org/who-dmft.htm ). The reasons given by countries for...

A really inconvenient truth. In 2002, thanks to soccer star David Beckham, the world was introduced to the “metrosexual.” Two years later, and with less mainstream-media attention, we got our first exposure to “Intersex.” Intersex is not some new perversion or a weird combination of science fiction and pornography. It is an unfortunate condition that is affecting freshwater fish all over the developed world. It occurs when fish of one sex also exhibit sexual characteristics of the other sex. In 2004, for example, researchers on the Potomac River, downstream from Washington, D.C., found large-mouth bass that in most respects were...

Residues of birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and a host of other compounds are finding their way into the nation’s waterways, and they have public health and environmental officials in a regulatory quandary. On the one hand, there is no evidence the traces of the chemicals found so far are harmful to human beings. On the other hand, it would seem cavalier to ignore them. The pharmaceutical and personal care products, or P.P.C.P.’s, are being flushed into the nation’s rivers from sewage treatment plants or leaching into groundwater from septic systems. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, researchers have...

   Naturally and Safely Treat Contaminated Soil and Water with Natural Enviro 8000 BioremediationNatural Environmental Systems, LLC announces the addition of Natural Enviro 8000 Bioremediation, for use in the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents from soil and water, to its existing line of all natural microbial products.(PRWEB) October 2, 2006 -- Natural Environmental Systems, LLC (www.naturalenviro.com)announces the addition of Natural Enviro 8000 Bioremediation, for use in the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents from soil and water, to its existing line of all natural microbial products. Natural Enviro 8000 is a proprietary blend of microorganisms that have...

Seventh-Grader's Science Project Turns Up Some Disturbing Results NEW YORK - Jasmine Roberts never expected her award-winning middle school science project to get so much attention. But the project produced some disturbing results: 70 percent of the time, ice from fast food restaurants was dirtier than toilet water. The 12-year-old collected ice samples from five restaurants in South Florida -- from both self-serve machines inside the restaurant and from drive-thru windows. She then collected toilet water samples from the same restaurants and tested all of them for bacteria at the University of South Florida. In several cases, the ice tested...

California Cavity-Epidemic Study Reveals Fluoridation is Ineffective New York – February 14 -- Fluoridated California communities have huge cavity rates and large dentist-neglected populations, according to a recent California study,1 reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Although dentistry promises steep cavity reductions with fluoride-laced water supplies, that’s not happening in California which is in the midst of a cavity epidemic.2 For example: fluoridated Long Beach children have more cavities (75%) 3 than California state (71%) despite a state-wide fluoridation rate about one-fourth that of Long Beach. California is 27% fluoridated. Los Angeles County is 44% fluoridated,4...

Thursday November 24, 4:27 PM 80-kilometer slick flows into China's Harbin city HARBIN, China (AFP) - An 80-kilometer-long (48-mile) slick of highly toxic benzene flowed along the icy Songhua river into one of China's biggest cities, contaminating water supplies for up to four million people. The carcinogenic chemical reached the outskirts of Harbin, capital of China's northeastern Heilongjiang province, about 5:00 am on Thursday, authorities said. Although water supplies were cut off about 30 hours before the poisoned water reached the city and there were no reports of people being contaminated, the environmental impact of the potential disaster was still...

DISEASE IN IRAQ BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 24 - A virulent form of hepatitis that is especially lethal for pregnant women has broken out in two of Iraq's most troubled districts, Iraqi Health Ministry officials said in interviews here this week, and they warned that a collapse of water and sewage systems in the continuing violence in the country is probably at the root of the outbreak. The disease, called hepatitis E, is caused by a virus that is often spread by sewage-contaminated drinking water. The officials said they had equipment to test only a limited number of people showing symptoms,...

THE GREAT DIVIDE | RURAL WASTELANDS UANGMENGYING, China - Wang Lincheng began his accounting at the brick hut of a farmer. Dead of cancer, he said flatly, his dress shoes sinking in the mud. Dead of cancer, he repeated, glancing at another vacant house. Mr. Wang, head of the Communist Party in this village, ignored a June rain and trudged past mud-brick houses, ticking off other deaths, other empty homes. He did not seem to notice a small cornfield where someone had dug a burial mound of fresh red dirt. Finally, he stopped at the door of a sickened young...

Perhaps you recall the line from "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's film - now 40 years old - about nuclear war and fluoridation. "As human beings," Gen. Jack D. Ripper says to Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake, "you and I need fresh pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids." Hard to imagine what General Ripper would have thought of the recent announcement by Britain's Environment Agency that it had found traces of the antidepressant drug Prozac in rivers and groundwater. The idea of someone dumping mood-altering pharmaceuticals into the water supply sounds suitably Strangelovian. But the source in this case is...

Associated Press Writer TALLAHASSEE -- Gun range owners will get immunity from lead cleanup lawsuits under certain conditions and police will be banned from keeping electronic lists of law-abiding gun owners under bills signed Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush. The National Rifle Association praised Bush for signing the bills, both of which were pushed hard by the gun-owners' group. The range bill arose out of a Pinellas County lawsuit that sought to force a gun range to clean up lead under the ground. Environmentalists say if the lead leaches into the groundwater it can be dangerous. The measure (SB 1156),...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon missed a deadline for sending Congress a report on perchlorate contamination at defense sites nationwide, prompting complaints Monday from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that handles military construction, released a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying she was "deeply disappointed" the department missed Friday's congressionally mandated deadline. "Additionally, I am troubled by the fact that the department has consistently avoided providing information to Congress about perchlorate contamination on Defense Department sites, and describing what, if anything, it has done to remediate the contamination," Feinstein wrote. Perchlorate, an ingredient...

FAIRFAX, VA -- After overwhelming support in the Florida Legislature, National Rifle Association (NRA) backed legislation (SB 1156) to stop government lawsuits against shooting ranges is headed to Governor Jeb Bush`s desk. The Governor has stated that he will sign this bill into law. SB 1156 passed both houses by a better than 2 to 1 margin. "This bill protects shooting ranges, but it also protects the environment," said former NRA president and current board member Marion Hammer. "This law will stop damaging lawsuits by state agencies, protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, and encourage environmental clean-up...

A bill that would prevent state regulators from filing environmental lawsuits against sport-shooting ranges, where lead bullets can accumulate and potentially contaminate groundwater, took another step forward Thursday in the Florida Senate. The bill (SB 1156) now requires range owners and operators to use best management practices suggested by the Department of Environmental Protection to ease any environmental degradation. By following these guidelines, ranges would be exempt from regulators' lawsuits. "Florida will hold out a carrot, and that carrot is your compliance with best management practices," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua. The DEP would have until next January to make...