Category Archives: carcinogens

Residential traffic pollution associated with rising incidence of childhood leukemia

A new meta-analysis report by the CDC published in the April 2014 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concludes the following: “Exposure to elevated concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants in the near-road environment is associated with numerous adverse … Continue reading

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PCBs, GE, & FOIA

Yesterday’s Albany Times Union published damning information about GE’s PCB contamination of the Hudson River.  The polluted 200-mile stretch from Hudson Falls to the Atlantic Ocean makes it one of the largest Superfund sites, according to the EPA.  PCBs were banned in 1977 and are … Continue reading

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Inert but potent

Three environmental and public health groups represented by Earthjustice filed suit yesterday, asking the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to require the EPA to promulgate final rules requiring public disclosure of specific pesticide ingredients. The Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, and Physicians for … Continue reading

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Fraud in Asbestos Litigation

Asbestos, a heat resistant mineral fiber, was commonly used as insulation and in manufactured goods as a fire retardant until it was banned for many of these uses in the 1970s. In 1989, EPA attempted to ban all products containing … Continue reading

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Good and Bad News on Phthalates in the U.S.

This study recently published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the monthly peer-reviewed journal supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that phthalate exposure in the … Continue reading

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Connecting the dots between BPA and U.S. health care costs

The incidence of chronic disease, use of synthetic chemicals, and evidence that many of them have human health impacts have grown during the past few decades.  So has U.S. health care spending (an eightfold increase since the 1960s).   As Philip … Continue reading

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No More Tears – and probable carcinogens

Johnson & Johnson has just quietly reformulated its baby shampoo as a result of consumer pressure.  It no longer contains formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.  In 2011, J&J promised to remove both chemicals from all of its baby care products by the … Continue reading

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Losing “The Good Earth”

China’s government acknowledged this week that 8 million acres of its farmland – a land mass about the size of Belgium — is too polluted for growing food.    In 2013, dangerous levels of cadmium were detected in rice grown in Henan, a … Continue reading

Posted in agriculture, agriculture and human health, air pollution, cadmium, carcinogens, China, environmental health, environmental health law, food contamination, lead, pesticides, pollution control standards, synthetic chemicals | Comments Off on Losing “The Good Earth”

The next CHE-AK teleconference on coal and mercury

Our guest blogger and VLS alum Maricarmen Cruz-Guilloty Environmental Health and Justice Coordinator, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, invites you to this teleconference on Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 9am Alaska/10am Pacific/1pm Easter: Dirty Coal: From Mining to Mercury Contamination – Alaska … Continue reading

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Join this teleconference TODAY on breast cancer and the environment

We just received this announcement from Maricarmen Cruz-Guilloty Environmental Health and Justice Coordinator, Alaska Community Action on Toxics: 10/16 Free Call – Breast Cancer and the Environment: Prioritizing Prevention. 9-10 am AK time. Sign up today. Please join this call … Continue reading

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