120 “cold-stunned” sea turtles wash up on the shores of Cape Cod Bay

The Boston Globe

Scores of rare turtles found stranded on Cape

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

Rescuers placed cold-stunned turtles in fruit boxes.

By Reenat Sinay Globe Correspondent  December 21, 2015

 

 

Massachusetts Audubon Society volunteers recovered about 120 “cold-stunned” sea turtles during the weekend after strong winds caused them to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod Bay.

The majority of the reptiles found on the beaches of Wellfleet, Truro, Eastham, and Brewster were Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species and the rarest type of sea turtle.

It was an unusually large late-season stranding for the turtles, who most often get stuck on Cape Cod shores around Thanksgiving as they try to make their way south to warmer waters for the winter.

Young sea turtles often feed in Cape Cod Bay during the summer but can get trapped in the “hook” of the Cape and become hypothermic as temperatures drop, according to Mass Audubon.

Despite their rarity, Kemp’s ridleys are the type of turtle most often found stranded on Massachusetts beaches.

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Public Emergency Declared Over Elevated Lead Levels In Flint's Water

It's not the water supply. It's the plumbing.

By COREY WILLIAMS

Posted: 10/02/2015 11:35 AM EDT

ASSOCIATED PRESS In this Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015 photo, Genetha Campbell carries free water being distributed at the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church in Flint, Mich, Since the financially struggling city broke away from the Detroit water system last year, residents have been unhappy with the smell, taste and appearance of water from the city’s river as they await the completion of a pipe to Lake Huron. They also have raised health concerns, reporting rashes, hair loss and other problems. A General Motors plant stopped using the water, saying it was rusting its parts. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DETROIT (AP) -- A public health emergency has been declared in cash-strapped Flint after tests showed the Michigan city's water supply is causing elevated levels of lead in children and following months of complaints about the smell and taste. Gov. Rick Snyder this week questioned the switch to the Flint River from the Detroit water system in 2014, a decision that was made as a cost-saving move while a new regional pipeline is built to Lake Huron. And on Thursday, the Genesee County health department declared a public health emergency, recommending that people not drink the water unless it has been filtered and tested to rule out elevated levels of lead. More steps will be announced Friday. The problem: Although the river water is treated, it is corrosive and releasing lead from old plumbing in thousands of homes. A coalition of residents and national groups petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to order the state to reconnect Flint to Detroit water. Read More Here

China says massive area of its soil polluted

Beijing still not releasing soil pollution data: Xinhua

• Xinhua

Technical staff examine soil contaminated by heavy metal pollution. (File photo/Huang Chih-liang)

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection will not issue data related to soil pollution for the time being but will discuss the situation after an in-depth investigation, the ministry confirmed on Thursday. The ministry said it will be difficult to investigate soil pollution nationwide, adding that it will conduct further investigations in heavily polluted areas.
In January, Beijing lawyer Dong Zhengwei sent an application to the ministry asking it to issue soil pollution data, as well as create detailed measures to handle it.
The ministry said in February that the data is a state secret and refused to issue it. Dong was not satisfied and sent a second request. In response the ministry said soil pollution is still being investigated and related data remains a state secret, adding that data will be released after further evaluation. After news of Dong's requests spread online, many people began to wonder just how polluted the country's soil is.
Ma Jun, head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, said in an interview with the Legal Daily that polluted soil may affect public health via food, crops and underground water.
"Soil pollution is related to public health. Therefore, the public should have the right to be informed about the situation," Ma said.

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China says massive area of its soil polluted

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 17, 2014

More dead pigs found in China river: report Beijing (AFP) April 17, 2014 - At least 170 dead pigs have been found in a Chinese river, state media reported Thursday -- the latest in a string of similar incidents that have raised fears over food safety.The animals were found floating in a tributary of China's second-longest waterway, the Yellow River, in northwestern Qinghai province, the official Xinhua news agency said.The grim discovery follows a series of scandals involving dead pigs in Chinese rivers. Last year 16,000 carcasses were found drifting through the main waterway of the commercial hub of Shanghai.In Qinghai -- the furthest west such an incident has been reported -- "the source of the dead pigs is still under investigation," Xinhua said, citing local authorities.Industry analysts say sick pigs are sometimes dumped in rivers by farmers hoping to avoid paying the costs of disposing of the animals by other means.Around 500 dead pigs are recovered every month from a Chinese reservoir in the southwestern province of Sichuan, state-run media reported in March. Authorities also found 157 dead pigs last month in a river in central Jiangxi province. China is a major producer of pork, which surveys have found to be the country's most popular meat.

A huge area of China's soil covering more than twice the size of Spain is estimated to be polluted, the government said Thursday, announcing findings of a survey previously kept secret.
Of about 6.3 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) of soil surveyed -- roughly two thirds of China's total area -- 16.1 percent is thought to be polluted, the environmental protection ministry said in a report.
The study, which appeared on its website, blamed mining and farming practices among other causes.
"The national soil pollution situation is not positive," the ministry said, adding that more than 19 percent of the farmland which was surveyed is polluted.
The ministry last year described the results of its soil pollution survey as a state secret and refused to release the results, a move which incensed environmental campaigners.
The government has come under increasing pressure in recent years to take action to improve the environment, with large parts of the country repeatedly blanketed in thick smog and waterways and land polluted.

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The American Interest

Filth to Table

Relentless Pollution is Poisoning China’s Food, Soil

© Getty Images

In many parts of China, officials are caught between two competing priorities: industrial development and food production. Most often, officials’ prime concern is industrial development—characterized by factories and mining, usually—since it is the bigger driver of economic growth. But, predictably, unfettered industrial development results in extremely poor conditions for food production. And it’s getting worse. Much worse. An article in yesterday’s New York Times has some sobering statistics.

An alarming glimpse of official findings came on Monday, when a vice minister of land and resources, Wang Shiyuan, said at a news conference in Beijing that eight million acres of China’s farmland, equal to the size of Maryland, had become so polluted that planting crops on it “should not be allowed.” [...]
One-sixth of China’s arable land — nearly 50 million acres — suffers from soil pollution, according to a book published this year by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The book, “Soil Pollution and Physical Health,” said that more than 13 million tons of crops harvested each year were contaminated with heavy metals, and that 22 million acres of farmland were affected by pesticides.

The result of farming on polluted land is unsurprising: poisoned food. 155 batches of rice collected from markets and restaurants in Guangdong Province in May were found to have excess levels of cadmium.

Read More Here
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Related articles

• China says massive area of its soil polluted
• One-fifth of China's farmland polluted
• More dead pigs reportedly found in China river
• China's Polluted Farmlands Now A Major Concern
• China says massive area of its soil polluted
• Beijing still not releasing soil pollution data: Xinhua
• One-fifth of China's farmland polluted

China has announced its first pilot projects to treat metal pollution in soil and prevent farmland from further contamination, government's overall efforts are underfunded and inefficient.

Land contaminated by waste from factories in Lanzhou, Gansu province. (File photo/Xinhua)

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China Begins Soil Pollution Clean-up amid Doubt over Funding

Apr 11, 2014

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has announced its first pilot projects to treat metal pollution in soil and prevent farmland from further contamination, but critics say the government's overall efforts are underfunded and inefficient.
The Ministry of Finance will subsidize soil pollution prevention and treatment in three cities in the central province of Hunan, state media reported, as pilot efforts to halt developments that have rendered 3.33 million hectares (8 million acres) of Chinese farmland too polluted to grow crops on.
Hunan was the source of rice containing dangerous levels of toxic cadmium sold in the southern city of Guangzhou last year.
Under the plan, the Ministry of Agriculture will monitor and control metal residues to prevent them from leaking into the soil, while the rice crop will be replaced with cotton and other non-edible products.
But government efforts to protect agricultural and urban soil fall massively short of what is needed, said Lan Hong, a professor at Renmin University's School of Environmental and Natural Resources.
In the current five-year plan, the Ministry of Finance has budgeted 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in spending on soil pollution prevention efforts, but Lan said it would cost at least 140 billion yuan, nearly five times above the budget, to solve the problem.
"The funding is based on data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, but it is at the lower end of estimates. Some of the environmental damage will only be exposed after many years," Lan told Reuters.

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Plants used to weed out soil pollution

Chinese scientists have developed soil remediation technologies to prepare for large-scale applications.

The technologies focus on using plants to absorb heavy metal contaminants in soil.

The technologies were developed by the Center for Environmental Remediation of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which began research 10 years ago.

Soil contamination is serious in China, with large areas of cropland polluted, said Lei Mei, a professor at the center.

Soil remediation technologies have been applied on 133 hectares of land in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Henan, Yunnan and Hunan provinces and Beijing on a trial basis, and Lei said she believes the technologies will have “good application prospects”.

A report from the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Thursday showed that about 19.4 per cent of farmland in China was polluted, according to Xinhua News Agency.

“The publication of the survey result is a milestone for soil remediation in China,” Lei said.

Read More Here

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Related articles

• China Begins Soil Pollution Clean-up amid Doubt over Funding
• Plants used to weed out soil pollution
• Heavy metal pollution costs China US$3 billion annually
• China's Polluted Farmlands Now A Major Concern

UK : Monsanto is under investigation amid allegations it sanctioned the dumping of toxic waste on sites across the country despite evidence that it would poison the landscape for generations.

Image Source 
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Monsanto under investigation for 'illegal dumping'

by SEAN POULTER
Last updated at 18:04 12 February 2007

Monsanto is under investigation amid allegations it sanctioned the dumping of toxic waste on sites across the country despite evidence that it would poison the landscape for generations.
The activities of the US chemical giant, best-known in the UK for its support of GM farming, are being examined by the government's Environment Agency and public health bodies.
The focus of the investigation is a site in south Wales that has been called 'one of the most contaminated' in the country.
It appears that toxic chemicals were dumped in the Brofiscin quarry in the 1960s and 1970s despite the fact there was no licence for these materials and the site was not lined or sealed.
This meant a cocktail of highly poisonous chemicals has been able to escape into the environment and threatens to poison local streams and rivers.
The quarry, which is on the edge of the village of Groesfaen, near Cardiff, first erupted in 2003, spilling fumes over the surrounding area.
Since then surveys have found that 67 chemicals, including Agent Orange derivatives, dioxins and PCBs which could have been made only by Monsanto, are leaking from the site.
The Environment Agency says that if the dumping were to take place today there would be a criminal prosecution and civil action to raise the money needed to clean up the site.
However, it appears that much of the dumping was carried out during years when Britain's regime for environmental protection was more lax.
Consequently, there are doubts as to how far any legal action can go or which companies should be liable for clean-up costs that are expected to run into tens of millions of pounds.
A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: "Our overall aim is to understand the current risks to ground water and surface waters and to determine the most cost-effective way forward to protect the local environment and to recover costs from those liable."

Read More Here

Related articles

• Monsanto Pinned for Dumping Vile Smelling Toxic Waste Poisons at UK Town
• Monsanto Pinned for Dumping Vile Smelling Toxic Waste Poisons at UK Town
• Toxic waste dumped into quarry by Monsanto continues to poison British village
• Toxic waste dumped into quarry by Monsanto continues to poison British village

Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted By Herbicide Firm Syngenta

democracynow


   

Published on Feb 21, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org - We speak with a University of California scientist Tyrone Hayes, who discovered a widely used herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system. But when he tried to publish the results, the chemical's manufacturer launched a campaign to discredit his work. Hayes was first hired in 1997 by a company, which later became agribusiness giant Syngenta, to study their product, Atrazine, a pesticide that is applied to more than half the corn crops in the United States, and widely used on golf courses and Christmas tree farms. When Hayes found results Syngenta did not expect -- that Atrazine causes sexual abnormalities in frogs, and could cause the same problems for humans -- it refused to allow him to publish his findings. A new article in The New Yorker magazine uses court documents from a class-action lawsuit against Syngenta to show how it sought to smear Hayes' reputation and prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from banning the profitable chemical, which is already banned by the European Union.

Biological Hazard - State of Texas, [Mount Calm]

Earth Watch Report -  Biological Hazard

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Biological Hazard

USA

State of Texas, [Mount Calm]

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Biological Hazard in USA on Monday, 20 January, 2014 at 10:05 (10:05 AM) UTC.

Description
A case of rabies in a cat is being investigated by the Hill County Sheriff's Office. A Mount Calm woman in her 30s reported Tuesday, January 14, that she had been bitten on the toe by the cat the previous Friday. The incident occurred at a residence on First Street in Mount Calm. The animal, which was showing signs of sickness, was transported to Young's Animal Hospital in Hillsboro for testing. According to sheriff's office Animal Control Officer Rick Brooks, the positive test for rabies was received Thursday, January 16. Both the woman and her nine-year-old daughter started the series of shots for treatment of rabies Thursday evening, the official said. An additional seven cats at the residence were impounded and are scheduled to be euthanized. Mount Calm residents are urged to monitor their pets and be sure vaccinations are up to date.
Biohazard name:	Rabies (human)
Biohazard level:	4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:	Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
Symptoms:
Status:	confirmed

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West Virginia company behind water contamination cited at second facility

• State inspectors found five violations at storage facility
• Company storing coal-cleaning chemicals at second site

• Associated Press in Charleston
• 
  
• theguardian.com, Wednesday 15 January 2014 12.13 EST

Crews clean up a chemical spill along the Elk River in Charleston,West Virginia last Thursday. Photograph: Tyler Evert/AP

State inspectors have cited the company whose spill contaminated the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians for five violations at a second facility where it is storing chemicals, and they say Freedom Industries might have to relocate its materials again because of a lack of a secondary containment plan.
State inspectors found the violations Monday at a Nitro site where Freedom Industries moved its coal-cleaning chemicals after Thursday's spill, according to a state Department of Environmental Protection report. Inspectors found that, like the Charleston facility where the leak originated, the Nitro site lacked appropriate last-resort containment to stop chemical leaks.
A department report described the site's secondary containment as "deteriorated or nonexistent." It described a building with holes in its walls at floor level and a trench surrounding the structure that lets stormwater mix with spilled chemicals.
Department spokesman Tom Aluise said the ditch eventually drains into the river.

Read More Here

Related articles

• Site of W.Va. spill was subject of 2010 complaint
• W.Va. chemical spill company to transfer chemicals
• Freedom Industries Cited for Violations at Nitro Site Where Chemicals were Moved
• W.Va. chemical spill company to transfer chemicals
• Company in W.Va. chemical spill cited at 2nd site
• West Virginia Water Poisoners Caught Red Handed With Violations at Second Containment Site