pollution (Page 16)

Newswise – A psychiatrist’s study of the suicide rate in a North Carolina county has revealed that it may be linked to releases of hydrogen sulfide and other airborne chemicals from a nearby paper mill and other industrial sites.

This is the second study to propose a possible link between increased suicide rates in a North Carolina community and chemical exposures from nearby industry. Psychiatrists think that suicides may be triggered by chronic low-level exposure to hydrogen sulfide and other potential neurotoxins released from nearby asphalt plants and petroleum remediation sites.
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Newswise – Everyone talks about California smog, but it’s the air in the Western states in the US that is getting bad. One reason is that so many people drive heavily polluting vehicles, while California has strict emissions laws. By mid-century, the EPA says air quality in the West will deteriorate.

Computer modeling by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory predicts that future climate change on U.S. regional air quality, and they will be most dramatic in the West. By fall 2050, the model shows, a temperature increase will contribute to a doubling of stagnant, bad-air days?from one week to two?west of the Rockies to the coastal mountains.
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It’s hard to believe that air pollution can lead to lower female fertility and more miscarriages, but scientists are now convinced this is the case. The number of couples having trouble conceiving and taking fertility drugs or using in-vitro fertilization in order to have a baby has skyrocketed at the same time that the air has gotten dirtier.

What is our government doing about this? Under Bush, air cleanup programs have been rolled back and people who are anti-environment have been put in charge of the few that remain. The Clear Skies Initiative doesn’t clean up the air, it just moves the pollution around, by the exchange of “points” that allow power plants and factories to continue to pollute our skies.
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Oh, no, not Teflon! We’ve all loved this non-stick cooking surface ever since it was developed from research done by NASA for the space program. But now the EPA warns that even low-level exposure to this substance can cause “apotential risk of developmental and other adverse effects” on human health.

Juliet Eilperin writes in the Washington Post Teflon may eventually be regulated by the government, causing havoc in the business community, as well as in kitchens all over the world. The EPA wants to fine DuPont, the company that produces perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C-8 (the main ingredient in Teflon) over $300 million for suppressing the results of its studies showing the dangers of the popular non-stick coating.
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