Kalamazoo MI Cleanup Delayed After Lyondell Bankruptcy

April 9, 2010- Environmentalist Jeff Spoelstra says an 80-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River that runs through toxin-laced land in southwestern Michigan was on its way to becoming safe again. The area, once home to Potawatomi Indians and Dutch celery farmers, was finally on the verge of getting cleaned up.

Then, in January 2009, Lyondell Chemical Co. filed for bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based petrochemical giant argued in court that as it reorganized, it could avoid what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said were about $2.5 billion in cleanup costs for the river, which flows into Lake Michigan, and another $2.5 billion in liabilities at 10 other polluted spots across the country.

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Brooksville FL Residents' Fight Against a Landfill in Their Neighborhood

February 23, 2010- Paige Cool and Alison Walter are putting up a great fight against a landfill planned for their rural neighborhood east of Brooksville. The letter of opposition they sent to the state Department of Environmental Protection is well written and footnoted like a doctoral dissertation.

I learned that construction and demolition debris landfills such as the one planned for their neighborhood are not as harmless as commonly believed and can contaminate the groundwater with arsenic and other toxins.

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Polluted Kansas Mining Town Seeks $3.5 Million From Federal Government to Buy Out Residents

August 24, 2009- It is barely a town. A ghostly remnant of nearly a century of mining is more like it — not much left except for a few dilapidated houses nestled amid mountains of gray mine wastes. Massive sinkholes and uncapped shafts dot the landscape, a deadly reminder for the unwary of the abandoned underground mining caverns below. The smell of sulfur wafts across the road. A creek runs red from minerals left behind by long-gone lead- and zinc-mining operations.

Children have grown up here swimming in some of the 200-feet deep sinkholes where the blue water is so acidic that for years people thought they were getting a sunburn playing in them. Toxic dunes of lead-ridden crushed rock and sand called chat have beckoned a generation of motorcycle and four-wheeler enthusiasts.

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Contaminants Plague Fairbanks, AK Home

April 28, 2009- Debra Jorgensen said she started sensing something was wrong at her Hamilton Acres home six years ago. People were getting sick from no apparent cause. About the same time — months after a major earthquake hit Fairbanks and Interior Alaska — people started smelling an unusual, sweet smell in the basement.

Environmental soil tests at the property itself, however, wound up detecting concentrations a handful of toxins including chloroform and trimethylbenzene — a common gasoline additive.

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US Real Estate Heading to Detox

April 1, 2009- As much as $2 trillion of real estate may be undervalued due to the presence of environmental contamination. The National Brownfield Association (NBA) says environmental hazards are estimated to be present in 20 to 50 percent of all industrial real estate properties.

Abandoned gas stations and dry cleaners, railroad properties, factories, and closed military bases all may leave toxins in the land. No one knows exactly how many “brownfields” there are in the United States, but estimates range from 400,000 to more than a million, according to the NBA.

Brownfields can be significant hazards to ecological systems, water quality, soil quality, and human health. One company that is dedicated to cleaning up these toxic sites is Kleinfelder, based in San Diego, Calif. CEO Bill Siegel said 40 percent of their work is environmental—planning new projects and cleaning up old sites.

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The Link Between Obesity, Cancer, and Toxicity

March 10, 2008 - Studies of cancerous breast tumors have shown elevated concentrations of these toxic man-made chemicals, including parabens found in deodorants and antiperspirants.

Other studies of large groups of people have attempted to find lifestyle and demographic factors connecting obesity and toxicity. These studies are called ‘epidemiological’ studies because they look for trends in disease among members of a large population. A major study showed that living near a hazardous waste site increases the risk of being hospitalized for diabetes. The most influential risk factor for diabetes is obesity. As one would expect, diabetics are at increased risk to be obese, especially as teens.

To complete this unholy triad scientifically, several studies have shown that obese people have high levels of toxins stored in their fatty tissue. The theory resulting from this academic work is that the body is using fatty tissue, which has a relatively low level of metabolic activity, as a place to store the toxins away from the body tissues that have high levels of metabolic activity, such as blood, organs, and muscle. In effect, body fat becomes a storehouse of toxins in an attempt to “firewall” the body from toxicity.

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