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Archive for July, 2010

Parking lot dust could cause cancer

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

A cancer-causing chemical used to seal pavement, paring lots and driveways is showing up in dust in American homes, and at alarming levels, claims a new study.

The class of chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH, are a significant component in coal tar. Coal tar is a waste product of steel manufacturing. One of the principal PAH chemicals, benzo[a]pyrene, has long been regarded as a deadly carcinogen.

A study commissioned by the United States Geological Survey compared house dust from 23 ground-floor apartments in Austin — 11 with coal tar-sealed parking lots and 12 coated with other substances, or not sealed at all. The study found that dust in the apartments next to the coal-tar-sealed lots had  pollution levels 25 times higher, on average, than the other lots.

More than half the apartments with the coal tar-sealed lots had dust with levels of PAHs that would increase the risk of cancer if ingested by preschoolers, the researchers said. The dust inside several suburban homes in the Austin area were also examined and found to contain benzo[a]pyrene thousands of times the level that would trigger a cleanup at a toxic-waste site.

Children are at greatest risk to these kinds of chemicals because they have a higher metabolic rate, they get a bigger dose per pound of body weight, their organs are still developing and they play on or near floors where carpets concentrate and retain toxins. Emerging evidence also suggests that babies exposed to PAHs while in the womb may be more prone to asthma and other ailments and may have lowered IQs.

Source: InvestigateWest

Vatican radio towers raise cancer risks

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

ROME — A court-ordered study has found that electromagnetic waves beamed by Vatican Radio leave residents living near the station’s antennas at a higher risk of cancer, Italian media said this week.

“There has been an important, coherent and meaningful correlation between exposure to Vatican Radio’s structures and the risk of leukaemia and lymphoma in children,” the report said, according to the daily La Stampa.

The report also warned of “important risks” of dying of cancer for people who had resided at least 10 years within a 5.5-mile radius of the radio’s giant antenna towers near Cesano, about eight miles north of Rome.

A Rome judge ordered the report in 2005 as part of an investigation into a complaint filed in 2001 by Cesano residents who alleged health hazards posed by the electromagnetic waves.

A 2001 investigation by Italy’s environment ministry showed that magnetic fields in the area were six times more powerful than allowed, while Rome’s Lazio region estimated that the rate of deaths from leukaemia among children in the Cesano area was three times higher than in adjoining areas.

Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, is an enclave of Rome covering 0.17 square miles.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

This is what happens when corporate influence goes unchecked

Friday, July 9th, 2010

To those who say that government isn’t the answer to our problems, we offer this rather egregious list from Move On of the top-10 reasons we need more — not less — governmental oversight.

1. Exxon Mobil made billions in profits, and yet paid not one dime in federal income taxes in 2009.

2. The 2005 energy bill had a little known provision, commonly called the Halliburton Loophole, which exempted natural gas drilling from the Clean Water Act. The result? Water so contaminated that you can light it on fire.

3. Massey Energy was cited more than 2400 times for safety violations in its mines, but chose not to fix potentially lethal problems because low penalties meant it was cheaper to simply keep paying the fines. This spring, 29 miners were killed in an underground explosion at a Massey mine in West Virginia.

4. Michael Taylor was the FDA official who approved the use of Monsanto’s Bovine Growth Hormone in dairy cows (even though it’s banned in most countries and linked to cancer). After approving it, he left the FDA—to work for Monsanto. Until last year, when he moved back to the government—as President Obama’s “Food Safety Czar.” No joke.

5. Internal Toyota documents outline how the company was successful in limiting regulator actions in the recalls last year—saving hundreds of millions while the death toll continued to climb.

6. GE and its lobbyists—including 33 former government employees—have successfully lobbied Congress to override Defense Department requests to cancel a GE contract to work on a new engine for the Joint Strike Fighter jet. GE will need $2.9 billion to finish the project.

7. Top executives at 9 big banks including Citibank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley paid themselves over $20 billion in bonuses just weeks after taxpayers bailed them out to the tune of 700 billion dollars.

8. During the waning days of the Bush administration, officials responded to a long-term lobbying campaign by pre-empting product liability lawsuits for dozens of entire industries. They bypassed Congress entirely and rewrote rules ranging from seatbelt manufacturing regulations to prescription drug safety.

9. Sunscreen manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough, in the interest of profits, are opposing an FDA proposal requiring full reporting on sunscreen labels. The New York Times just confirmed that current SPF ratings don’t even measure sun rays that cause cancer.

10. And of course BP—a company with a record of 760 drilling safety and environmental violations—was granted safety waivers in order to operate the deepwater drilling rig that ultimately created the worst environmental disaster in US history.