Pearl River Contamination in New Orleans May Pose Health Risks

April 3, 2009 - Environmental officials in Mississippi are warning residents along the swolen Pearl River that its waters may be contaminated.

A statement from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality advises against swimming in the river and its tributaries and eating anything out of the water unless it is thoroughly cooked.

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Toxic contamination haunts Vermont neighborhood

March 29, 2009 - Years ago, it turns out, chemicals including PCE were allegedly dumped on the ground outside of Parkway Cleaners, a dry-cleaning business that once operated directly across the street from LaBelle’s home.

The latest results from test wells on the former dry cleaner site show that the PCE in the groundwater below is at 14,000 parts per billion, 2,800 percent above the state’s accepted level of 5 parts per billion.

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Daly City California housing complex haunted by toxic past

March 2, 2009 - When Gail Smith moved to Midway Village, a tidy public housing development near the Cow Palace in Daly City, she felt lucky to pay a reasonable rent for a great place.

She didn't know that toxic waste scraped from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s former gas-manufacturing plant next door - a site on the state's hazardous-waste cleanup program - had been used as fill under the complex's buildings and parks.

Over the years, residents have reported breathing difficulties, headaches, skin sores and rashes, and neurological and reproductive problems. But unless the disease is rare mesothelioma from asbestos, proving a link between exposure to toxic chemicals and individual illness is almost impossible, health experts say.

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How Much Do Chemicals Affect Our Health?

April 25, 2008 - Philip Landrigan doesn’t look like a tough guy. With his nest of white hair and vibrant blue eyes, he seems more like an amiable country doctor than a Harvard-trained physician who has fought the world’s most powerful corporations and bullied bureaucrats to protect the public from poisonous pollutants for nearly 30 years.

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Nearby contamination has Indiana has residents concerned about their water

February 16, 2008 - Darlene Hendrix didn’t learn until early February that some residences northwest of hers had wells contaminated by perchloroethylene, an industrial solvent.

“It scares me because I’ve got my grandchildren living here. Nobody mentioned anything to us. You really don’t know what you’re drinking,” said Hendrix, who lives on North Fruitridge Avenue. “I just want to make sure everything is OK with our water and that it’s safe.”

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Green group spotlights toxic sites in Newark, New Jersey

February 17, 2008 - Neighbors of the crumbling former Pabst brewery in Newark are probably accustomed to the factory's hulking, hollowed-out buildings, which have been undergoing demolition for a few years.

But what might not occur to them and others, according to environmental officials, is that chemicals remain on the site, seeping into the soil or perhaps buried in it, and that asbestos may drift into the air every time a block of concrete is broken off and tossed in a pile of rubble.

Yesterday, a group of about 150 spent the morning touring some of the most environmentally blighted spots in Newark, and learning just how toxic they are.

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Group concerned with heightened cancer and chronic illness in two Texas communities looking closely at groundwater contamination

February 3, 2008 - Those concerned with heightened cancer and chronic illness in Zavalla and lakeside communities are looking closely at the possibility of groundwater contamination by Lufkin-area industries sitting on top the recharge zone for the minor aquifer that provides drinking water to these communities.

After water quality is examined, the group known as Concerned Citizens of Zavalla intends to look at potential air pollution and soil contamination. The group agreed water quality was the easiest place to start.

While state and city officials oversee testing, the group is focused on compiling a local database of all cancer cases known in the area based on surveys they have disseminated to the public.

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Health alert issued for neighbors of Florida Superfund site

January 18, 2008 - The Escambia County Health Department has issued a precautionary health advisory for individuals who may live or work near the Escambia Treating Company Superfund site at 3910 N. Palafox St.

Soil excavation and clean-up are taking place and that digging may produce dust particles and release odors.

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Coal tar contamination causing health worries among residents and officials in New Hampshire town

January 15, 2008 - Shortly after the Liberty Hill coal tar contamination was made public there were, residents and town officials have been raising concerns over health and environmental issues. The health fear is that the toxins underneath the Gilford neighborhood might be affecting area residents.

Now, three sisters are sharing their childhood story of Liberty Hill and their bouts with chronic illnesses. Robin Allard, Kim Bolton, and Allison Stresing sisters believe their health problems are linked to the coal tar that has been under Liberty Hill for the better part of six decades.

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Is contaminated water responsible for health problems in Adams County Colorado?

December 28, 2007 - Sharon Britton says oil and gas companies contaminated her water and made her sick, forcing her to desert her home in rural Adams County.

Her plight, as she tells it, dates to at least 2004, when water from her well showed a dark-grayish tint. Laundered clothes came out dingy.

A representative from United States Exploration Inc., which owned an oil and gas well on Britton's land at the time, came to visit. According to Britton, he said their water showed high iron levels. A water filter appeared to solve that problem
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But early in 2006, Britton said she started having health problems, including a rash across her torso. She also had excessive thirst.

In October 2006, her husband, Jim, heard gurgling around their water well. Soon after, state regulators and Noble Energy - the new owner of the oil well - discovered that methane linked to its well was tainting the Britton's water supply.

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Tallevast, Florida residents want cleanup delayed

November 3, 2007 - Residents of this polluted community want a defense contractor to suspend cleanup-related activities at a former beryllium plant, saying they fear the work could be causing health problems.

But state environmental and health officials and Lockheed Martin Corp. said there's no link between the work and resident complaints of headaches, nausea and burning nostrils and throats.

Lockheed recently installed two extraction wells at the former Loral American Beryllium plant at 1600 Tallevast Road. The wells, and two others, are part of an intermediate cleanup of decades-old contamination directly beneath the facility.

The contamination also extends into the surrounding neighborhood. Lockheed, through its prior acquisition of Loral, owned the plant when the contamination was discovered in 2000 and thus is responsible for the cleanup.

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Residents fear contamination is the cause of disease cluster in Middleborough, MA

October 7, 2007 - The big news in this struggling southeastern Massachusetts community is a proposed $1 billion casino complex that many hope will bring financial salvation.

But for a small group of residents, the hope for economic revival is overshadowed by health concerns. They are awaiting a report later this year that could reveal whether the dozens of cases of Lou Gehrig’s disease centered around a downtown industrial area were caused by pollution.

The cases, which both state and federal officials call a disease cluster, are located within a mile of Everett Square — a densely settled neighborhood adjacent to the town’s onetime factory row. It is now home to two Superfund sites.

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Arizona resident believes soil contamination is causing health problems

May 30, 2007 - ohn Stoddard says he was healthy when he bought 40 acres bordered by Aravaipa and Laurel creeks near Klondyke in 1995, but by 2002 he was declared disabled.

Today, Stoddard, 54, has a variety of physical ailments and wonders if the high concentration of lead in the soil near his home could be the cause of pain and stiffness in his joints and numbness and tingling in his fingers and toes.

Blood tests show he has lead and arsenic in his blood, but not at toxic levels. Stoddard said the blood tests do not indicate how much lead has been absorbed by organs in his body, and further testing is needed.

An Arizona Department of Environmental Quality report from April 25 shows that most surface soil on residential property near two mine tailings piles in Aravaipa Canyon contain high levels of lead. The report states the lead concentration is more than the remediation level of 400 parts-per-million.

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Common chemicals pose danger for fetuses, scientists warn

May 25, 2007 - Los Angeles Times

Exposure to toxic materials in the womb can cause health problems later in life, an international panel declares.

In a strongly worded declaration, many of the world's leading environmental scientists warned Thursday that exposure to common chemicals makes babies more likely to develop an array of health problems later in life, including diabetes, attention deficit disorders, prostate cancer, fertility problems, thyroid disorders and even obesity.

The declaration by about 200 scientists from five continents amounts to a vote of confidence in a growing body of evidence that humans are vulnerable to long-term harm from toxic exposures in the womb and during their first years.

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BodyBurden: The Pollution in Newborns

A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood

Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood — and the developing baby — from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol. This is the human "body burden" — the pollution in people that permeates everyone in the world, including babies in the womb.

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Health Officials Offer Few Answers to Residents of Oregon Towns

May 18, 2007 - Tiny pieces of the pollution puzzle were all state health officials could offer to residents of the Trainsong, Bethel and River Road neighbor- hoods Thursday evening.

Health officials couldn't say whether any of the dozen polluted industrial sites ringing the neighborhoods are connected with ill health, whether the environment there is improving or worsening, or what was going on to explain the pattern of illness.

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Study: Industrial Pollution Begins in Womb

A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood

In the month leading up to a baby's birth, the umbilical cord pulses with the equivalent of at least 300 quarts of blood each day, pumped back and forth from the nutrient- and oxygen-rich placenta to the rapidly growing child cradled in a sac of amniotic fluid. This cord is a lifeline between mother and baby, bearing nutrients that sustain life and propel growth.

Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood — and the developing baby — from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol. This is the human "body burden" — the pollution in people that permeates everyone in the world, including babies in the womb.

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Exposure to chemicals, not family history, cause vast majority of breast cancer cases

May 14, 2007 - More than 200 chemicals — many found in urban air and everyday consumer products — cause breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today.

Writing in a publication of the American Cancer Society, researchers concluded that reducing exposure to the compounds could prevent many women from developing the disease.

The research team from five institutions analyzed a growing body of evidence linking environmental contaminants to breast cancer, the leading killer of U.S. women in their late 30s to early 50s.

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