Bills will reportedly aim to expand offshore oil drilling and cut EPA budget. wellesenterprises/Thinkstock The corporate lobbying network American Legislative Exchange Council, commonly known as Alec, is planning a new onslaught on a number of environmental protections next year when Republicans take control of Congress and a number of state legislatures. The battle lines of ALEC’s newest attack on environmental and climate measures will be formally unveiled on Wednesday, when the group begins three days of meetings in Washington DC. ALEC, described by its opponents as a corporate bill mill, has suffered an exodus of tech companies from its ranks recently because of its extreme positions – especially its promotion of climate denial. Read the rest at the Guardian. This article: Conservative Lobby Group ALEC Plans Anti-Environmental Onslaught
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Conservative Lobby Group ALEC Plans Anti-Environmental Onslaught
Pesticides have been linked to everything from bee deaths to the hole in the ozone layer. blueenayim/Thinkstock California keeps detailed data on every commercial pesticide applied across the state. It provides a unique look at how, where and when chemicals are used. The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained more than two decades’ worth of that data from the state – the equivalent of more than 56 million pesticide applications. We used the data to build this app that lets you search for pesticide use around your home, workplace or anywhere else in California. And it helped inform our investigation into the pesticides used by the strawberry industry. As we played with the data, we came across some nuggets that didn’t make it into that story. Here are five of the most interesting things we pulled out of the data: Read the rest at The Center for Investigative Reporting. Continued: 5 Striking Things We’ve Learned About Pesticides in California
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5 Striking Things We’ve Learned About Pesticides in California
Skyonic Corporation of Austin plans to open a $125 million factory near San Antonio next week that will make industrial chemicals. See original: Texas Plant to Capture, and Then Reuse, Carbon
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Apple is upping its green game in a big way, thanks in no small part to former-EPA-chief-turned-Apple-exec Lisa Jackson. On Wednesday, the company announced an official ban of two toxins from its iPhone and iPad production lines, following a five-month-long “Bad Apple” campaign launched by China Labor Watch and Green America.
Benzene and n-hexane, used primarily to clean and polish electronics during the final stages of production, are known to cause a slew of negative health effects including leukemia and nerve damage. Activist groups harangued the company for its use of the chemicals until it conducted its own investigation of 22 of its plants.
Naturally, Apple’s internal probe found nothing of consequence (the use of the chemicals wasn’t widespread, it insists, and didn’t endanger a single worker; what little it did find fell well within the company’s existing safety standards). In true EPA style, though, Jackson and her team tightened the existing rules to explicitly prohibit the use of benzene and n-hexane in final assembly processes. Although the company will still use a tiny bit during the earlier stages of production, Apple, Jackson writes, “treats any allegations of unsafe working conditions extremely seriously.” Hmm.
From the AP:
“This is doing everything we can think of to do to crack down on chemical exposures and to be responsive to concerns,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental initiatives, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We think it’s really important that we show some leadership and really look toward the future by trying to use greener chemistries.”
Hear, hear. And at least Apple has now released an actual list of the substances it regulates to the public, making world domination by iThings a little more transparent.
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Apple Bans Use of 2 Chemicals in iPhone Assembly, Associated Press
Sara Bernard is a Grist fellow, wilderness junkie, and globetrotter. Follow her on Twitter.
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Feeling overly hormonal? Not hormonal enough? Just wait for frackers to move into your neighborhood and let them throw the medical dice for you. Fracking chemicals have been found to screw with many of the hormones that control a wide range of important bodily functions.
Last year, a team of researchers reported that fracking chemicals found in water samples from a heavily fracked region of Colorado messed with human estrogen and androgen receptors in laboratory experiments. Those scientists linked Colorado’s fracking binge with “moderate levels” of such chemicals in the Colorado River, which is a major source of drinking water. That’s screwed up, because those hormones help us maintain sexual health.
But it gets worse. Preliminary findings of a followup study were presented this week by one of the same research team members during a joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society. The early findings suggest that it’s not just sex hormones that frackers can mess with.
The researchers analyzed 24 chemicals commonly used by frackers — noting that those chemicals represent a small subset of the hundreds of chemicals used in fracking, many of which are kept secret. Not only were most of the studied chemicals found to mess with our estrogen and androgen systems, but some of them were also found to affect hormones that prepare our bodies for pregnancy (progesterone), that break down sugar (glucocorticoid), and that regulate growth and development (the thyroid system). Only one of the 24 chemicals did not affect any of the hormonal systems studied.
The analysis, part of an ongoing study, was conducted in laboratories using human cells. Next steps include subjecting mice to drinking water that’s tainted with fracking chemicals.
We would say “poor rodents” — except that so many human neighbors of fracking operations are also being treated as lab rats.
Source
Hormone-Disrupting Activity of Fracking Chemicals Worse Than Initially Found, Newswise
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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West Virginia, with its strong ties to coal and chemicals, has long had a fierce opposition to environmental regulations. Original article: Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations ; ;Related ArticlesSevere Drought Grows Worse in CaliforniaAs California’s Drought Deepens, a Sense of Dread GrowsU.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly ;
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Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations
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