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Common chemicals pose danger for fetuses, scientists warn
Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times
In a strongly worded declaration, many of the world’s leading environmental scientists warned Thursday that exposure to common chemicals makes babies more likely to develop an array of health problems later in life, including diabetes, attention deficit disorders, prostate cancer, fertility problems, thyroid disorders and even obesity.
The declaration by about 200 scientists from five continents amounts to a vote of confidence in a growing body of evidence that humans are vulnerable to long-term harm from toxic exposures in the womb and during their first years. ..
The scientists’ statement also contained a rare international call to action. The effort was led by Dr. Philippe Grandjean of Harvard University and the University of Southern Denmark, and Dr. Pal Weihe of the Faroese Hospital System, who have spent more than 20 years studying children exposed to mercury.
Many governmental agencies and industry groups, particularly in the United States, have said there is no or little human evidence to support concerns about most toxic residue in air, water, food and consumer products. About 80,000 chemicals are registered in the United States.
Yet the scientists urged leaders not to wait for more scientific certainty and recommended that governments revise regulations and procedures to take into account subtle effects on fetal and infant development. Chemicals with evidence of developmental effects include compounds in plastics, cosmetics and pesticides. ..
(25 May 2007)
Three Gorges Dam Causes Downstream Erosion, Study Finds
Reuters
HONG KONG — China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, is retaining huge amounts of sediment and nutrients and causing significant erosion in the downstream reaches of the Yangtze River, researchers have found.
In a paper published in the latest volume of the Geophysical Research Letters, Chinese scientists said the dam had retained 151 million tonnes of sediment each year since 2003. ..
The researchers from the East China Normal University in Shanghai calculated supplies of water and sediment at places along the river which had previously not been monitored and combined them with the regular gauging stations.
“The Three Gorges Dam, which has regulated the waters of the Yangtze River since 2003, retains two-thirds of the upstream sediment each year,” they wrote.
“In response to this retention, significant erosion occurs in the riverbed downstream of the dam … Sediment flux to the Yangtze River mouth has decreased by 31 percent per year. The Yangtze delta is shrinking.
“Continued sediment retention at these rates, combined with more dams planned for the watershed, will severely affect people and the ecosystems on the Yangtze delta,” they added.
(21 May 2007)
Mud volcano threatens endless ruin as magical solutions fail
Mark Forbes, The Age
THEY come from all across Java — the prophets, the psychics and the pious — to cast spells, prayers and offerings into the massive mud lake that has subsumed nearly 700 hectares around the town of Sidoarjo.
The ooze has forced more than 43,000 Indonesians from their homes. And still it flows. ..
One year ago on Tuesday a gas exploration well part-owned by Australian mining giant Santos blew, sending a geyser of mud and toxic gas into the air. Nearby villages and factories were flooded, a major highway and railway were covered and later East Java’s main gas pipeline ruptured.
Despite all attempts to plug the flow — drilling relief wells and even dropping chains of concrete balls into its centre — more and more mud spurts from the volcano, about 1 million barrels each day. The rising tide covered thousands more homes in March.
It is the region’s worst social and ecological mining disaster, according to leading Indonesian environmental watchdog, Walhi.
The displaced await compensation, mitigation efforts are farcical and arguments continue about who will bear the multibillion-dollar cost. ..
(26 May 2007)
