Environmental Health

A mysterious kidney disease is killing hundreds of men yearly in Central America. The men are all sugar cane workers. Dehydration and heat stress from strenuous work are key contributing causes, but researchers suspect that exposure to an unknown toxic substance may be an important triggering factor also.

Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene report for iWatch News (Center for Public Integrity) December 12, 2011.

 

"A federal agency announced Thursday that it had found no evidence that decades of live fire and bombing exercises by the Navy on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques had caused health problems documented among its residents."

In many places across the country today, manmade pollution and natural contamination of drinking water poser serious threats to people's health. Polls show Americans want such problems solved, and for four decades, the two political parties worked together to protect public health. But now Republicans (and some Democrats) in both House and Senate are trying to pass bills that would end safe drinking water and most other environmental protections.

"Air concentrations of the brominated chemicals doubled every 13 months in recent years in Cleveland and Chicago."

"An exhaustive new report meant to address public fears about possible links between breast cancer and the environment finds evidence strong enough to make only a few firm recommendations, most already well known and none with a large proven benefit."

"Exposure to atrazine, a commonly used weed killer, increases the risk of reproductive problems in a wide range of animals, says a new review study that analyzed research from around the world."

"Worries about fires, explosions and chemical releases prompted the federal agency in charge of workplace safety on Wednesday to expand a special inspection program focusing on the nation's chemical plants. Regulators believe the industry is particularly vulnerable to such hazards, meriting the closer attention."

"Yet some plants will continue to be shielded from the special inspections, despite past worker deaths, because of their status as 'model workplaces.'

"The arsenic-in-juice war continues. Today, Consumer Reports released an alarming study that found high levels of arsenic in samples of apple juice."

"For 17 years, the Hendra virus smoldered in its host bat population, only rarely crossing to humans. Then it exploded, likely triggered by heavy rains and floods in Australia earlier this year. And that has public health doctors nervous about climate change. "

Nancy Bazilchuk reports for the Daily Climate November 29, 2011.