"Some of the world's biggest food companies are removing the chemical Bisphenol A from packaging, amid growing concern it is causing a wide range of human illnesses including heart disease and breast cancer." Among them: Nestlé, Heinz and General Mills.
"For the first time, a study in humans suggests that a controversial, estrogen-like chemical in plastic may be related to conditions that reduce men's fertility."
"People living near a steel factory or another source of high manganese emissions are at higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease, suggests a new study."
"The financial risks posed by the loss of species and ecosystems have risen sharply and are becoming a greater concern for businesses than international terrorism, according to a United Nations report released [Wednesday]."
"Pregnant women living in Texas neighborhoods with higher air levels of benzene – a pollutant often released from oil refineries and traffic exhaust – are more likely to have babies with neural tube defects. Women living in the areas with the highest benzene levels had a two times greater risk for their children to be born with spina bifida."
Hydraulic fracturing of underground shale to produce natural gas also releases uranium that is part of the rock, say researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The uranium may pollute groundwater.
Kelly Gant told school board members that ever since gas drilling began near Argyle High School, her daughter has experienced asthma and headaches.
The alumina dust that coats a Texas Gulf Coast town is a sign of risks like those in the Hungarian villages recently buried in a spill of toxic red sludge.
"Children who sleep in bedrooms with fumes from water-based paints and solvents are two to four times more likely to suffer allergies or asthma, according to a new scientific study."
The Consumer Product Safety Commission did an about-face and announced that it will not regulate cadmium -- a toxic metal found in consumer products that is known to damage kidneys and bones. "Instead, the agency will defer to an independent, private-sector group that has been drafting voluntary limits for several months."
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