Environmental Health

Eleven years after the 9/11 terrorism attack, Department of Homeland Security officials explained to a House Energy subcommittee why their program to harden security at U.S. chemical plants still hasn't been implemented.

"The GAO says the Department of Homeland Security has not established the need or effectiveness of a multibillion-dollar upgrade to the BioWatch system."

"The current poster child for global warming is a polar bear, sitting on a melting iceberg. Some health officials argue the symbol should, instead, be a child."

"PORTLAND, Ore. -- Who bears responsibility for an impoverished child with a mouth full of rotting teeth? Parents? Soda companies? The ingrained inequities of capitalism? Pick your villain, or champion. They are all on display here as the largest city in the nation with no commitment to fluoridating its water supply -- and one of the most politically liberal cultures anywhere -- has waded into a new debate about whether to change its ways and its water."

"Two more cases of hantavirus infection have been linked to Yosemite National Park, one fatal and the other believed to have originated in the park's high country, marking the first time the outbreak has been traced beyond the Curry Village campground."

"This year's outbreak of West Nile virus is the worst since the illness was first observed in the United States in 1999, officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday."

"Residents in almost all parts of the United States live on lands that contain minor to substantial concentrations of radionuclides of one type or another.1 These substances often make their way into tap water, leading to exposures by ingestion, inhalation, or dermal pathways during showering or other contact with the water.

Cases of the hantavirus disease that recently killed four in California occur regularly in many parts of the U.S.