Chemicals

"OTTAWA -- Rising demand for food from the fast-growing economies of the world has provoked a staggering $38.6 billion cash offer for a Canadian fertilizer company." The move came as climate-related drought and heat were driving global food shortfalls.

"Twenty-five years after the worst known outbreak of pesticide poisoning in U.S. history, an agreement is announced that phases out all uses of aldicarb. Manufacturer Bayer CropScience agreed to stop producing the highly toxic insecticide, used to kill pests on cotton and several food crops, by 2015 in all world markets."

"Teenagers may carry the highest levels of bisphenol A -- about 30 per cent more than the rest of the population, according to the first national survey about the compound conducted by Statistics Canada, but exposure to the estrogen-mimicking chemical is widespread, with detectible levels in 91 per cent of Canadians."

"A soil and groundwater cleanup at the site of a 30-year-old jet fuel spill in south Bibb County has alerted neighbors for the first time to the water contamination in their community."

"Without DDT and the other now-banned pesticides that kept bedbugs in check for more than 50 years, the United States is as vulnerable as parts of the world where the insects remain a plague."

"Trains carrying deadly chemicals rumble through our backyards every day, but railroad companies hauling them refuse to publicly disclose exactly what those substances are, or how often they travel through the area."

"BP has agreed to pay a record $50.6 million fine to the federal government for safety violations found by regulators last year at its troubled refinery in Texas City, Tex., where 15 workers died in a 2005 explosion."

"It may be one of the most beloved activities of hyperactive children and the parents who love them: bouncing in a bounce house [Ed. Note: aka 'Moon Bounce']. But, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown of California, it may also be toxic."

Scientists are now studying the effects of Prozac in water on shrimp. After being secreted by humans, drugs like Prozac find their way through sewage systems and into waterways. Their effects on shrimp could be fatal.