Environmental Health News
Links to articles in today's press about environmental health. Many more links available today at www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org

Environmental Health News
  • NIEHS Director: "We kind of jump from the proverbial fry pan into the fire" when replacing chemicals.
    As head of the federal institute examining environmental health, Linda Birnbaum and her staff are taking on many controversial topics, including Bisphenol A and new flame retardants. She is concerned about what role chemicals play in cancer and other diseases.

  • Owners sue Quadrant Homes over 'sick' houses.
    Homeowners contend that mold growing in houses built by Quadrant Corp -- flowering, they claim, because rushed construction schedules didn't leave time to dry wet building materials -- is circulated through poorly designed and badly built heating systems, poisoning occupants.

  • Deaths not linked to H1N1 vaccines.
    About 40 people have died after being inoculated against H1N1 pandemic flu, but investigations so far show the fatalities were not caused by the vaccine, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

  • Mild asthma leads to higher risk of kids getting H1N1: Study.
    Even mild asthma increases a child's risk of being hospitalized with more severe H1N1 flu, researchers in Toronto are warning.

  • Group recommends less-frequent Pap tests.
    Only days after a federal panel scaled back on breast cancer screening recommendations, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has done the same for Pap smears.

  • Scientists make mad cow discovery.
    Scientists at the University of Leeds say they have made a significant discovery which could help in the treatment of "mad cow disease".

  • Climatologists baffled by global warming time-out.
    Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

  • Nigeria still battles to make food, drugs safe?NAFDAC boss.
    The Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Dr. Paul Orhii, has said Nigeria is still grappling with the challenge to make safe qualitative, affordable food and medicines available to the people.

  • Seized web drugs overwhelmingly fake, often dangerous.
    Buying discount drugs over the Internet can be like playing Russian roulette with your health.

  • Work on water treatment plant begins.
    Town residents are about a year away from the completion of a new water treatment facility. The official ground-breaking ceremony was held Tuesday, Nov. 17, on a picture perfect day at the plant's future site at 500 Route 107.

  • Fines paid for air quality lapses.
    State environmental regulators have reached a settlement with a New Jersey company that calls for a $355,000 fine and the installation of new monitoring equipment in response to air emissions violations in 2007.

  • Hidden hazard: ice rink air.
    Ice rink air -- is it healthy enough for you and your family to breathe?

  • Coffin nails: State smoking worst.
    Sadly, West Virginia has America's worst rate of deadly cigarette smoking and exposure to dangerous second-hand smoke inside homes. We urge the state's excessive number of smokers to be brave and break free.

  • The controversy over mammograms.
    It is important to keep the findings and recommendations of the expert panel in perspective. They are a mere guidance. The decision about whether to be screened is left to each woman--to determine what risks and benefits she is most comfortable accepting.

  • Addicted to mammograms.
    The public has been led to believe that breast cancer tumors need to be found as early as possible, so convincing people that we are screening too much is an uphill battle.

  • Is electro smog causing your headache?
    Swindon will become Britain's first Wi-Fi town, and no doubt many other towns will follow. But these new grids will add immeasurably to the amount of electromagnetic radiation in the air - with potentially disastrous consequences for the nation's health.

  • From blood to oil, the curse of a Sudanese village.
    The inhabitants of Rier, a festering clutter of tumbledown straw huts and rubbish in southern Sudan, say the peace and progress promised by the White Nile Petroleum Operating Company, has not been realised and that oil exploitation has only poisoned their lives.

  • Researchers' financial interests often not reported to U.S.
    Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, researchers are rarely required to eliminate or reduce these conflicts.

  • Nothing to sneeze at: Doctors' neckties seen as flu risk.
    The list of things to avoid during flu season includes crowded buses, hospitals and handshakes. Consider adding this: your doctor's necktie. A debate has emerged in the medical community over whether they harbor dangerous germs.

  • HHS to warn consumers of flu drug price gouging.
    The Department of Health and Human Services will issue consumer warnings about price variations for a scarce liquid form of the flu-fighting drug Tamiflu, a spokesman said Wednesday.


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