Month: May 2018

Restaurant diners may ingest extra pollutants

This article discusses dining out or dining in?

Eating meals cooked at home was linked to lower body levels of certain hormone-meddling chemicals. Dining out may boost exposure to certain potentially toxic pollutants, a new study finds. Researchers measured higher levels of these phthalates (THAAL-ayts) in the bodies of people who recently dined out than in those who had been eating only foods that had been cooked at home.

Phthalates are found in many products, notably cosmetics, floor tiles and certain types of plastics. These chemicals also are used in food packaging. Many studies over the past few decades have shown phthalates can mimic the action of certain hormones. (Such pollutants are known as endocrine disruptors.) Hormones are important chemicals that help direct the activity of cells throughout the body. The effects of phthalates on hormones may alter how reproductive organs develop in infants and children. These chemicals might even impact the timing of puberty, animal studies have shown. That’s why environmental scientists recommend limiting exposures to phthalates.

 

Study: Pediatricians are concerned about climate change, and here’s why

This article discusses health issues and climate change. Doctors have long raised alarm about the potential health risks of climate change, but it turns out that children are particularly vulnerable.

Children are estimated to bear 88% of the burden of disease related to climate change, according to a paper published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics.
The new paper highlights some studies on the implications of climate change for children’s health and then calls for the world to better prepare for these health risks, not just in the future but in the present.
“We already have seen the impacts,” said Dr. Kevin Chan, chairman of pediatrics at Memorial University and head of child health at Eastern Health in Canada, who co-authored the paper.
Chan pointed to Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey and Irma as examples of climate change-related weather events that have affected children’s health, along with extreme heat waves and emerging infectious pathogens such as the Zika virus.

Meat and fish multinationals ‘jeopardising Paris climate goals’

This article discusses how many of the world’s largest protein producers failing to measure or report emissions, despite accounting for 14.5% of greenhouse gases.

Meat and fish companies may be “putting the implementation of the Paris agreement in jeopardy” by failing to properly report their climate emissions, according to a groundbreaking index launched today.

Three out of four (72%) of the world’s biggest meat and fish companies provided little or no evidence to show that they were measuring or reporting their emissions, despite the fact that, as the report points out, livestock production represents 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is clear that the meat and dairy industries have remained out of public scrutiny in terms of their significant climate impact. For this to change, these companies must be held accountable for the emissions and they must have credible, independently verifiable emissions reductions strategy,” said Shefali Sharma, director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy European office.

 

Study: Radium has been widely spread on Pennsylvania roadways without regulation

This article describes how toxic fracking wastewater has been poured on roadways in 11 states, without any oversight. 200 times more of the carcinogen has been released into the environment through legal road brining than has as a result of oil and gas industry spills.

Wastewater from the oil and gas industry that’s being spread on roadways to control dust and ice in at least 13 states, including Pennsylvania, poses a threat to the environment and to human health, according to a study released this week.

The wastewater, commonly referred to as “brine,” contains high levels of salt along with lead, radium, organic contaminants and other heavy metals in concentrations above safe levels for drinking water. Researchers have found that nearly all of the metals from brine leach out from roadways when it rains, and they speculate that the pollutants could wind up in nearby bodies of water and find their way into local drinking water sources.

“Even though the highest volumes of brine are being spread on roads in northwestern Pennsylvania, most of this activity is occurring within the Allegheny River watershed,” William D. Burgos, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Pennsylvania State University who co-authored the study, told EHN. “And the Allegheny River is the drinking water source for city of Pittsburgh.”

In their report, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the researchers noted that in Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2014, spreading oil and gas wastewater on roads released more than four times more radium to the environment (320 millicuries) than was released from oil and gas wastewater treatment facilities, and 200 times more radium than spills. Some lead and radium was also found to settle into roadways.

Plain sailing: how traditional methods could deliver zero-emission shipping

This article discusses the impact that an old technology, sails, can have on GHG emissions from cargo ships.

On May 10, the 43.5-metre schooner Avontuur arrived in the port of Hamburg. This traditional sailing vessel, built in 1920, transported some 70 tonnes of coffee, cacao and rum across the Atlantic. The shipping company Timbercoast, which owns and operates Avontuur, says it aims to prove that sailing ships can offer an environmentally sustainable alternative to the heavily polluting shipping industry, despite being widely seen as a technology of yesteryear.

Similar initiatives exist across the world. In the Netherlands, Fairtransport operates two vessels on European and transatlantic routes. In France, Transoceanic Wind Transport sails multiple vessels across the English Channel and Atlantic Ocean, and along European coasts. The US-based vessel Kwai serves islands in the Pacific. And Sail Cargo, based in Costa Rica, is building Ceiba, a zero-emission cargo sailing ship.

Study: Keeping Global Warming to 1.5 Degrees Could Spare Millions Pain of Dengue Fever

This article discusses the impact on health from global warming. The tropical disease is spread by mosquitoes that thrive in the wetter, hotter conditions that accompany climate change.

Scientists have predicted that climate change could create the wetter, hotter conditions that favor diseases spread by various insects and parasites. This study focuses on one widespread disease and on one geographical region.

Published May 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study was conducted by researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and the Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso in Brazil.

It is part of an urgent effort by scientists around the world to collect evidence on the difference between 2 degrees of warming and 1.5 degrees, under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is due to report on the latest science this fall.

EPA used disavowed research to justify putting dirtier trucks on the road

This article discusses how the EPA, under Pruitt, used faulty study to justify putting polluting trucks back on the roads.

At a time when acts of defiance against the Trump administration are ​​​​routine in Sacramento, the rebuke that breezed through the California Assembly this month still came as a jolt. Even Trump loyalists in the chamber joined in.

The message to the administration was clear: Forget about your plan to unleash on freeways a class of rebuilt trucks that spew as much as 400 times the choking soot that conventional new big rigs do. Getting caught behind the wheel of one of these mega-polluters in California would carry a punishing $25,000 minimum fine under the measure that lawmakers passed 73 to 0. It had the support of 25 Republicans.

Farmers unable to cope with shocks induced by climate change

This article discusses the impact on farmers from global warming.

LAHORE: Ijaz Ahmed Rao has just finished sowing cotton on his 60 acres in Bahawalnagar. He is now worried that an unusual heatwave, which has gripped the country for several days, may have devastating effect on his crop.

“If the present heatwave continues for a longer period, it would stunt or slow down plant growth. That means I’ll have to spend more on fertilizers to mitigate the impact of adverse weather on my crop,” he told Dawn by telephone.

The ongoing heatwave is not the only worry that keeps Mr Rao occupied these days. He is becoming less and less certain about the timing, intensity and duration of monsoon that has become erratic now. “Torrential rains will increase the risk of disease and pest attack, causing production losses. It is as bad, if not worse, as extreme dry and hot weather,” he argues.

Suing the European Union Over Climate Change

This article discusses a lawsuit against the EU over its inaction on global warming.

A case is being pursued against the European parliament and the council of the EU for allowing overly high greenhouse gas emissions to continue.

A case is being pursued in the Luxembourg-based general court, Europe’s second highest, against the European parliament and the council of the European Union for allowing overly high greenhouse gas emissions to continue until 2030. The families, including young children, claim their lives have been blighted by the policy decisions in Brussels, and that the EU’s inadequate emissions targets will cause more suffering.

The legal complaint asserts that the EU’s existing climate target to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, does not protect their fundamental rights of life, health, occupation and property.

Study: Invisible scum on sea cuts CO2 exchange with air ‘by up to 50%’

This article discusses how an ocean scum is blocking the absorption of CO2 by the oceans. Scientists say the findings have major implications for predicting our future climate.

An invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered.

Researchers from Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Exeter universities say the findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, have major implications for predicting our future climate.

The world’s oceans absorb around a quarter of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making them the largest long-term sink of carbon on Earth.

Greater sea turbulence increases gas exchange between the atmosphere and oceans and until now it was difficult to calculate the effect of “biological surfactants”.

Teams from the Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Space Agency developed a system that compares “the surfactant effect” between different seawaters in real time.

They found surfactants can reduce carbon dioxide exchange by up to 50%.