National Research Council (free download with registration) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=14668 [Description] Across the United States, thousands of hazardous waste sites are contaminated with chemicals that prevent the underlying groundwater from meeting drinking water standards. These include Superfund sites and other facilities that handle and dispose of hazardous waste, active and inactive dry cleaners, and leaking underground storage … Continue reading »
Filed under Human Health …
Health Risk Assessment from the Nuclear Accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, Based on a Preliminary Dose Estimation
World Health Organization http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/fukushima_report/en/index.html The earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March 2011 led to releases of radioactive material into the environment from the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A major release of radioactivity to the environment is always of concern, owing to potential acute and long-term health effects. Evidence … Continue reading »
Water Treatment Contaminants: Toxic Trash in Drinking Water
Environmental Working Group http://static.ewg.org/reports/2013/water_filters/2012_tap_water_report_8b.pdf [Association of California Water Agencies] The Environmental Working Group issued a report Feb. 27 focused on disinfection byproducts in drinking water. The report, called “Water Treatment Contaminants: Toxic Trash in Drinking Water,” suggests that consumers are being exposed to disinfection byproducts, especially trihalomethanes (THMs), at greater concentrations than most people realize … Continue reading »
Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda
National Research Council http://bit.ly/VLijaY For many household surveys in the United States, responses rates have been steadily declining for at least the past two decades. A similar decline in survey response can be observed in all wealthy countries. Efforts to raise response rates have used such strategies as monetary incentives or repeated attempts to contact … Continue reading »
Driving Innovation: How Stronger Laws Help Bring Safer Chemicals to Market
The Center for International Environmental Law / by Baskut Tuncak http://www.ciel.org/Publications/Innovation_Chemical_Feb2013.pdf [Business Green] [A report published last week by the US NGO] the Center for International Environmental Law … found stricter chemical regulations help to boost green technology innovation. CIEL’s report found there was an increase in patent filings for alternative chemicals following the introduction of … Continue reading »
Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty
National Academy Press http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12568 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of several federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans against significant risks to human health and the environment. As part of that mission, EPA estimates the nature, magnitude, and likelihood of risks to human health and the environment; identifies the potential regulatory actions that … Continue reading »
Maternal Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution and Term Birth Weight: A Multi-Country Evaluation of Effect and Heterogeneity
Environmental Health Perspectives (published online before print: February 6, 2013) / by Tracey J. Woodruff, et al. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/2013/02/1205575/ [San Francisco Chronicle] Mothers who breathe the kind of pollution emitted by vehicles, coal power plants and factories are significantly likelier to give birth to underweight children than mothers living in less polluted areas, according to international … Continue reading »
Food, Water and Energy: Know the Nexus
GRACE Communications Foundation / by Peter Hanlon, Robin Madel, Kai Olson-Sawyer, Kyle Rabin and James Rose http://www.gracelinks.org/1802/issue-paper-know-the-nexus Food, water and energy systems are inextricably linked, and as recent events like droughts, oil spills and increasing food prices make clear, the United States can no longer view these systems in isolation. Our new paper… explains that … Continue reading »
Utilization of Mine Influenced Water for Natural Gas Extraction Activities
Establishment of a Process for Evaluating the Proposed Use of Mine Influenced Water (MIW) for Natural Gas Extraction Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection http://files.dep.state.pa.us/Mining/Abandoned%20Mine%20Reclamation/AbandonedMinePortalFiles/MIW/Final_MIW_White_Paper.pdf [From Forbes] Based on a recommendation by Governor Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, the PADEP published a white paper in January detailing how the agency intends to review proposals from Oil & … Continue reading »
Estimation of Regional Air-quality Damages from Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Extraction in Pennsylvania
Environmental Research Letters (2013, v8 p014017; doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014017) / by Aviva Litovitz, Aimee Curtright, Shmuel Abramzon, Nicholas Burger and Constantine Samaras http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014017/pdf/1748-9326_8_1_014017.pdf [Abstract] This letter provides a first-order estimate of conventional air pollutant emissions, and the monetary value of the associated environmental and health damages, from the extraction of unconventional shale gas in Pennsylvania. Region-wide estimated … Continue reading »
