Endocrine disruptors, cocaine common in Minnesota waters

Posted: 30 May 2013 

Researchers found 56 chemicals — including cocaine — at trace amounts in 47 of 50 Minnesota lakes, including many in relatively pristine parts of the state. Some are thought to be endocrine disruptors, which can block or act like hormones in people and wildlife. They are used in pharmaceuticals, personal care products and industrial processes, but are largely unregulated.

Glyphosate (Roundup): Most Biologically Disruptive Chemical in Our Environment?

Monsanto wants you to believe that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is only “minimally toxic” to humans, whatever that means. But the most recent study on the most widely used herbicide in the world says, once again, otherwise. According to the report: Glyphosate residues found in the main foods of the Western diet – sugar, wheat, and genetically modified corn and soy – inhibit critical enzymes in mammals. Its negative impact on the body is “insidious and manifests slowly over time, as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

Read the study (PDF)

National Audubon Society Celebrates 10th Anniversary Rachel Carson Awards 

The National Audubon Society will celebrate their 10th AnniversaryWomen in Conservation Luncheon by presenting the 2013 Rachel Carson Award to two exceptional women at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on Wednesday, May 29. The prestigious award, launched in 2004, recognizes visionary women whose dedication, talent and energy have greatly advanced environmental and conservation causes locally, nationally and globally.

http://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/documents/wic_general_press_release_final.pdf
 
Keynote is historian Douglas Brinkley, who will speak about the legacy of Rachel Carson and women like Marian Heiskell and Lady Bird Johnson who will leave ever-lasting impacts on our country. An excerpt from his new book Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Stewart Udall and the Environmental Movement, 1961 to 1964, appeared in Audubon magazine, the same publication that dared print an excerpt of Carson’s Silent Spring, the iconic, bestselling book published 50 years ago.

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/conservation/rachel-carson-and-jfk-environmental-tag-team

The Radcliffe Institute presents "The Food-Water-Energy Nexus and the Challenge to Sustainability" as part of its Water Lecture Series.

The Food-Water-Energy Nexus and the Challenge to Sustainability, Water Lecture Series Monday, Apr 15, 2013 5:00 pm, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Peter P. Rogers, Gordon McKay Research Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Moderator: Joanna Aizenberg, director of the science program of Academic Ventures at the Radcliffe Institute, the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a director of the Kavli Institute for Bionanoscience, and a founding core faculty member at the Wyss Institute

Over the past few decades the world has undergone five major global transitions around the nexus of food, water, and energy. These transitions include urban population transition, with the majority of the global population now residing in cities; nutrition transition, with demand for new foodstuffs that rely on increased consumption of animal products and other high-value foods; climate transition, with increased temperature and uncertain water supplies; agricultural transition, with huge increases in food demands; and energy transition, with a move from cheap fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. These changes have happened so fast that well-tried solutions and historically based planning to water-management problems are no longer viable. The result is a mismatch between populations and available resources. In his talk, Rogers will explore this ever-developing nexus and its challenge to sustainability.

Lecture is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4:45 p.m.; lecture begins at 5 p.m.

EPA/NIEHS Children's Centers 2013 Webinar Series, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EDT

Join us for this month's webinar presenting research from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley. The webinar features presentations and interactive discussions including recent findings and new developments in children’s environmental health.

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: 
Dana C. Dolinoy, Ph.D.: Early Exposure to Bisphenol A and Lead: Effects on Metabolic Homeostasis and the Epigenome
Joseph Wiemels, Ph.D.: DNA Methylation Changes in Blood Cells That Impact Leukemia—Role of Environment

2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.: 
Questions and Answers 

Common pesticide kills beneficial gut bacteria, allowing disease-causing bacteria to thrive
A study recently published in Current Microbiology shows that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is toxic to beneficial gut bacteria in poultry. Disease-causing bacteria, such asSalmonella and Clostridium, on the other hand, are resistant to glyphosates. Beneficial gut bacteria usually suppress the growth of the harmful bacteria, keeping the harmful bacteria numbers in check. If glyphosate is introduced to the system, those good bacteria will die off, allowing the harmful bacteria to burgeon and leading to potentially deadly levels of toxins. Unfortunately, these symptoms aren’t limited to the poultry being fed feed with Roundup residue, but could also affect people who consume the poultry.

Pesticide is costly for bees, then birds, then?
The Earth Times
... allowed concerns about neonicotinoid insecticides to go unnoticed is parallel to the Silent Spring ignorance that reigned supreme for Rachel Carson.

The hazards of plastic waste. Every year, humans produce nearly 280 million tons of plastic. And much of that plastic ends up in the environment, harming marine life and other ecosystems. Now a group of scientists has a potential solution. Because plastics absorb hazardous pollutants, they should be considered hazardous waste. Living On Earth
http://bit.ly/Wcp2el