Environmental Health

"Three years after well blowout, declining seafood catches and deformities point to an environment in distress."

"BASAVILBASO, Argentina -- Argentine farmworker Fabian Tomasi was never trained to handle pesticides. His job was to keep the crop-dusters flying by filling their tanks as quickly as possible, although it often meant getting drenched in poison."

"In the spring of 2005, Georgia-Pacific Corp. found itself facing nearly $1 billion in liability from a product it hadn’t made in nearly three decades: a putty-like building material, known as joint compound, containing the cancer-causing mineral asbestos."

"Under a new global treaty that limits the use of mercury, some light bulbs will be banned. Some batteries, thermometers and medical devices will be banned too. But mascara is exempt."

"This year’s World Food Prize laureates called on a hungry world to embrace the seeds they helped develop, despite controversy that threatens to limit the reach of biotech crops."

"Three researchers who played prominent roles in developing genetically modified crops — Mary-Dell Chilton of Syngenta, Robert T. Fraley of Monsanto and Marc Van Montagu of Belgium — were awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday at the Iowa Capitol. The music- and history-filled ceremony highlighted the prize’s biggest and most controversial week yet."

"The air we breathe is laced with cancer-causing substances and is being officially classified as carcinogenic to humans, the World Health Organization's cancer agency said on Thursday."

"Washington -- A virulent outbreak of salmonella poisoning traced to three Foster Farms chicken plants in the Central Valley has peculiar features that food safety experts said should alarm regulators and consumers alike -- in particular, the number of people who are coming down with a form of the disease that is resistant to antibiotics."

"California's namesake condors nearly went extinct in the 1980s, and only intensive management and captive breeding efforts brought the birds back from the brink. Lead from ammunition remains a major threat to condor recovery, and a new California ban on the toxic ammunition for hunting could help protect the iconic birds, as well as other bird and mammal species."

"Exposure to even low levels of common air pollutants during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of babies being born small, according to one of the largest studies of its kind."

"Under the watchful eyes of scientists, a little forage fish that lives off the southern coast of Maine developed a strangely large appetite."