Latest Environmental Science & Technology Stories
A new study finds that pregnant women in Northern California have the highest PBDE flame retardant exposures reported to date among pregnant women worldwide. It also describes some of the first evidence from humans that certain flame retardants may interfere with thyroid hormone signaling during pregnancy, which is critical to fetal brain development. The study, described as one of the most extensive to date on flame retardant exposures in pregnant women, appears in the ACS journal...
Tracking urban atmospheric plumes using isotopic signatures of vehicle emissionsScientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have discovered a technique to track urban atmospheric plumes thanks to a unique isotopic signature found in vehicle emissions.Brian Giebel, a Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry graduate student working with Drs. Daniel Riemer and Peter Swart discovered that ethanol mixed in vehicle fuel is not completely burned, and that...
The first scientific measurements in humans show that potentially harmful haloacetic acids (HAAs) appear in the urine of swimmers within 30 minutes after exposure to chlorinated water where HAAs form as a byproduct of that water disinfection method. Reported in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, the study found that HAAs also appeared in the urine of swimming pool workers.Mercedes Gallego and M.J. Cardador point out that government regulations in the United States and...
A new position paper by researchers at the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health (ECEHH - part of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry) and the University of Birmingham has compared the benefits of interaction with actual and virtual natural environments and concluded that the development of accurate simulations are likely to be beneficial to those who cannot interact with nature because of infirmity or other limitations: but virtual worlds are not a substitute for...
To David Cleveland, a professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara, it seemed as though Santa Barbara County would be a great example of what many are advocating as a solution to the problems of a conventional agrifood network "“"“ a local food system.Santa Barbara County ranks in the top 1 percent of counties in the United States in value of agricultural products, with 80 percent of that value in fruits and vegetables. Farmers here grow some of the best fruits and vegetables in...
According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, 80 percent of baby products contain toxic or untested chemical flame retardants. The study said a third of products contain a chemical called chlorinated tris, which was removed from children's pajamas in the 1970s because of cancer concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said there is a "moderate level of concern" about links between tris and cancer, developmental problems,...
Bottlenose dolphins* and beluga whales**, two marine species at or near the top of their respective food webs, accumulate more chemical pollutants in their bodies when they live and feed in waters near urbanized areas, according to scientists working at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), a government-university collaboration in Charleston, S.C.In papers recently published online by the journal Environmental Science & Technology, one research team looked at the levels of persistent...
Indiana University scientists have found chemical flame retardants in the blood of pet dogs at concentrations five to 10 times higher than in humans, but lower than levels found in a previous study of cats.Their study, "Flame Retardants in the Serum of Pet Dogs and in their Food," appears this month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Authors are Marta Venier, an assistant research scientist in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Ronald Hites, a...
Online calculator allows households around the country to track -- and try to reduce -- carbon footprintTips to reduce your carbon footprint frequently include buying compact florescent light bulbs, taking your own bag to the grocery store or buying local produce. But how much difference do these actions make?A new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that who you are and where you live make a big difference in which activities have the largest...
The ongoing spread of non-native mussels in the Great Lakes has caused "massive, ecosystem-wide changes" throughout lakes Michigan and Huron, two of the planet's largest freshwater lakes, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.The blitzkrieg advance of two closely related species of mussels"”the zebra and quagga"”is stripping the lakes of their life-supporting algae, resulting in a remarkable ecological transformation and threatening the multibillion-dollar U.S....
