Featured

Cancer in the Air, and in Your Hair

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Two new reports identify byproducts of everyday life as culprits behind an increase in avoidable cancers and other health issues. Diesel emissions from the Port of Oakland and the freeway system around West Oakland puts millions of people at risk of cancer, asthma and other diseases, according to a new report from the California Air Resources Board. The study found that 1,200 cancer cases per million people were attributable to diesel exhaust, most from trucks, but also from port activities, which collectively cause hundreds of premature deaths. In France, a new study has found a “small but consistent risk” of bladder cancer among male barbers and hairdressers. The study also found personal use of hair dyes had a possible correlation to bladder cancer, lymphoma and leukemia.

Environment

From Bike Lanes to "Wildlife Highways"

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The town of Cambourne in the United Kingdom is notable not just for its abundance of bike lanes and pedestrians, but also for the wetlands, woodlands and lakes, which have attracted an unusual variety of wildlife. According to The Independent, Cambourne was developed in the 1990s on what used to be farmland, and built “wildlife highways” to link ponds, forests and other habitats before the local office park or housing developments were approved. By linking habitat fragmented by development, isolated plant and animal species are more able to move around, mingle and propagate. As a result, Cambourne is rich with biological diversity, including numerous bird species, deer, badgers, newts, dragonflies and voles. Although the town is not chock-full of solar houses or wind turbines, it has been lauded by wildlife campaigners for its protection of habitat.

Democracy & Civics

"Enviropig": Less Pollution, More Questions

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A little bit of genetic editing is all that’s required to slash the environmental damage caused by sewage from industrial pig farms, researchers in Canada say. Salon.com reports that scientists in Guelph, Canada, have combined an E.Coli gene with a mouse protein, and spliced it into pigs to improve their ability to breakdown phytase, a natural substance rich in phosphorous. In industrial conditions, phosphorous from superabundant pig sewage leaches into water supplies, causing algae blooms, fish kills, and similar ecological mayhem. Now, advocates fear FDA approval of cloned meat for American consumption will open the door for the genetically modified “Enviropig,” as it’s been dubbed, to enter the marketplace and the ecosystem without proper testing. In fact, that already happened in Canada, where a simple error saw 11 stillborn Enviropigs turned into poultry feed for a farm in Ontario, rather than incinerated as required by Canadian law.

Democracy & Civics

Radiation on the Reservation

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As the market booms for uranium mining in the American West, a Seattle newspaper took a new look at what can happen when industry ignores the potential risks of the practice. The Seattle Times reported on the toxic mess left behind by uranium mines on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington: toxic pools, radioactive homes and very high rates of cancer. Former workers say the mines had very lax safety controls when they were in operation, and left behind little help with cleanup. Residents tell of driveways paved with radioactive rock from the mines and of children playing with rubber balls used in processing the radioactive ore. Many tell of relatives dying of cancer, and National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie, who grew up on the reservation, told the Times “I have very little doubt that I’m going to get cancer.”

World

Beijing Olympics: It's the Water

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A senior Chinese official has sharply criticized a multi- billion-dollar government plan to divert water from the Hubei and Shaanxi provinces north to Beijing, the BBC reports. An Qiyuan, a former Community Party leader from Shaanxi province, said that the plan would endanger the livelihood of millions of residents, and that compensation is necessary to prevent what the BBC described as “social upheaval and environmental harm.” The plan — which will cost at least $60 billion, more than the Three Gorges Dam — will build a network of canals and dams to deliver water from southern rivers to the thirsty north, where the Beijing Olympics alone are expected to increase water needs by 30 percent. Drought is already affecting more than 12,000 square miles in Hubei Province, and a quarter-million people are “facing problems with drinking water,” according to the BBC. Source:
“Olympics ‘threat to water supply'”
BBC News, February 27, 2008
Previously on Newsdesk.org:
“Trouble at the Roof of the World”
Newsdesk.org, December 26, 2007
“Cracks at the Seams?

World

London Shifts Gears to Favor Bicycles

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Armed with a proposal to develop 12 major “superhighways” for bicyclists throughout the city, along with a daily “congestion charge” of almost $50 for polluting vehicles, England’s capital city is gearing up to become the world’s newest bicycle utopia. London’s mayor hopes the programs will result in a 400 percent increase in the number of cyclists in the city by 2025. The plan, which will cost approximately $780 million over ten years, will also develop cycling networks in outlying suburban areas, and link London neighborhoods with business and commercial districts. London will also take a cue from Paris, which recently began providing free bicycle rentals for short trips, by developing its own free rental service in the city center. Source:
“City’s Two-Wheeled Transformation”
The Guardian (U.K.), February 9, 2008

Economy

Much Puffery About Air-Powered Car

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An automobile that runs on compressed air got a boost this week with an investment from India’s Tata Motors. MDI Industries, of Carros, France, designed the cars based on technology invented by Guy Negre, a former Formula One engineer. The project has been in development for 14 years, but no carmaker has yet put the car into production. Now, according to some reports, Tata is planning to manufacture and sell air cars in India later this year for the equivalent of about $5,000. But, in the Financial Times of London, Tata’s managing director downplayed expectations, saying: “It’s a very exciting concept, this way of running a car.

Democracy & Civics

Great Lakes Toxics Data Suppressed?

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Millions of people in the Great Lakes region may face health problems from toxic pollution, but a study on the risk is under wraps seven months after its conclusion, and the scientist who led the project has been demoted. The Center for Public Integrity reports that Dr. Christopher De Rosa, a federal toxicology researcher, told his superior that delaying the report has the “appearance of censorship of science … regarding the health status of vulnerable communities.” In a letter to De Rosa, Dr. Howard Frumkin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that the study’s quality is “well below expectations.” De Rosa has since been demoted, according to the CPI, in what he claims is illegal retaliation by Frumkin.

Environment

The Melting Mountains

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The Arctic ice caps and Antarctic glaciers are well-known barometers of global warming, but melting masses of ice in the Himalayas are in perhaps even more danger. Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper flew a plane over Nepal’s Himalayan glaciers, and found that the ice there is retreating more rapidly than scientists expected. In some places, mountain lakes have grown so large they threaten to burst their banks –- which could lead to massive flooding in the heavily populated areas downstream. The newspaper quoted an unnamed Sherpa man as saying, “Year by year, the snow-white part of the mountains becomes smaller while whole mountains darken.” Nearly half the world’s population depends on water that originates in the Himalayas.

Democracy & Civics

Genetically Engineered Trees Cut Down

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An electric fence wasn’t up to the task of protecting a field of genetically engineered trees in New Zealand. Twenty of the modified pine trees were cut down last week, and a spade left behind bearing a telltale “GE Free New Zealand” sticker. The New Zealand Herald reports that a hole dug under the Scion Research fence was all it took for the attackers to gain access to the field, which was planted to investigate tree reproduction. An activist group, the Soil and Health Association, had previously called for the trees to be cut down, but said it was not responsible for the attack. A spokesman for the group told the Herald that Scion’s security measures were inadequate, leading not only to the incursion by humans, but also to the potential removal of experimental genetic material from the site by rabbits.