"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal judge has sided with Alpha Natural Resources in the company's effort to keep testimony about West Virginia University studies linking mountaintop removal to birth defects and cancer among coalfield residents out of a legal challenge to one of Alpha's new mining permits."
"Despite billions of dollars spent on nanotechnology research and development over the past decade, the human and environmental safety of nanomaterials remains unclear. As a result, a new nanomaterials safety research strategy is needed, and new governmental oversight is required to ensure the essential research is carried out, according to a report released [Wednesday] by the National Research Council (NRC)."
"Consumer safety inspectors at the Port of Houston have seized more toys deemed unsafe for children - largely because of choking hazards and lead paint - than almost any other consumer product imported to the United States, second only to fireworks."
"Mexico’s Laguna Region is famed as the country’s largest milk-producing area. But overexploitation of groundwater resources has combined with the effects of climate change to give the region a more dubious distinction. The remaining water supplies are contaminated with arsenic, and related rates of cancer are well above the national average."
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"Kentucky's leaders should consider the health hazards of mining, moving and burning coal as they craft the state's energy policy, an environmental group said Tuesday.
The Kentucky Environmental Foundation, based in Berea, released a 44-page 'health-impact assessment' on coal and sent copies to Gov. Steve Beshear and the General Assembly.
"Children living near DuPont’s plant in West Virginia are exposed to much higher concentrations of an industrial chemical than their mothers, according to a newly published study."
The assessments, expected late January 2012, could have wide-ranging direct and indirect effects in realms such as toxic site cleanups, brownfield development, manufacturing processes, domestic food production and sales, and international trade of food and possibly other goods.
Author Cynthia Barnett explains water-use truths and fallacies, offers tips for investigating water projects proposed for your audience area, and reports how some of the country’s most progressive engineers and local governments are showing that it’s absolutely possible to live with far less water.
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