Low-level Toxicants
Can Harm Brain
by Jamie Talan, Envirolink
Low levels of mercury and lead
exposure can damage developing brain cells -- a finding that might
help explain how these toxicants can lead to a host of mental and
medical problems, a new study said.
"There is a huge problem in toxicology," said Mark Noble, a
professor of biomedical genetics and neurobiology at the University
of Rochester and senior author of the study in the journal PLoS
Biology. "There are 80,000 to 150,000 environmental toxicants about
which we know nothing. Nobody knows how to screen for them or even
where to start."
His study could be a major step in
identifying methods of prevention and treatment.
Noble and his colleagues conducted their work in the laboratory,
where they subjected so-called glial progenitor stem cells in the
brain to low levels of lead and mercury. They found that these brain
cells stopped dividing. They simply shut down. The mercury levels
previously were thought to be safe in humans, Noble said. "It turns
out they are not..."
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ENN
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Michigan and
eight other states sued the Bush administration Tuesday, saying the
White House failed to adequately regulate emissions of mercury and
other pollutants at cement plants.
The states contend a rule issued by
the Environmental Protection Agency in December does not comply with
the federal Clean Air Act.
Mercury comes from raw materials used
to make cement -- such as limestone, clay, sand and iron ore -- and
from fuels such as coal, which fires the kilns where the ingredients
are baked at high temperatures...
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Battle of the Light
Bulbs
by Marc Lifsher and Adrian G. Uribarri,
Envirolink
A new light is
about to burn more brightly: the stubby, squiggly fluorescent bulb.
Environmentalists love it, Wal-Mart is promoting it and Australia is
eyeing it as an easy way to save energy and curb global warming.
Now, California lawmakers are giving it some wattage by considering
a ban on the sale of old-fashioned incandescent bulbs beginning in
2012.
The proposed switch represents a revolution in a lampshade, because
incandescents account for 95% of light bulb sales. Replacing each
descendant of Thomas A. Edison's invention with a low-energy,
long-lasting, compact fluorescent bulb would slash electricity
consumption by 75%, proponents say...
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for the rest of the story.
>
Antarctic Ice Breakups Reveal New Species
National
Geographic News
February 27,
2007—A potentially new species of shrimplike crustacean in the
genus Epimeria was found near Elephant Island in Antarctica,
scientists announced on Sunday.
The 1-inch-long
(2.5-centimeter-long) creature was among nearly a thousand species
collected during the first biological survey of a 3,860-square-mile
(10,000-square-kilometer) section of the sea that was once covered
by thick polar ice.
A 500-billion-ton
ice shelf known as Larsen B disintegrated into the Weddell Sea in
2002—seven years after the nearby Larsen A ice shelf broke apart (see
an interactive map of Antarctica). Experts believe global
warming triggered both events.
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