Chemicals

"In Japan it is known as detergent suicide, a near-instant death achieved by mixing common household chemicals into a poisonous cloud of gas. By some counts, more than 2,000 people there have taken their own lives, inhaling the gas — in most cases hydrogen sulfide — in cars, closets or other enclosed spaces. The police now say they are seeing an increasing number of similar suicides in the United States."

"Gastroschisis, a birth defect in which the intestines grow outside the body, is more common among babies conceived in the spring when the levels of the herbicide atrazine in water are highest, researchers from Indiana reported."

EPA chief Lisa Jackson told the Senate Environment Committee Wednesday that American Electric Power's recent narrative about job loss resulting from EPA's mercury regulations was were "misleading at best and scare tactics at worst."

"On Monday in Geneva, representatives of the 143 countries belonging to United Nations-sponsored Rotterdam Convention, regulating hazardous chemicals, are to begin a meeting where chrysotile, the type of asbestos fibre mined in Quebec, will be on the top of the list of new products to be regulated."

"Apples sold in the United States are more contaminated with pesticide residue than virtually any other produce, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) said today."

"This month the Environmental Protection Agency made public the names of 150 chemicals that were investigated in health and safety studies but whose identities were withheld as confidential business information."

"The government issued warnings on Friday about two materials used daily by millions of Americans, saying that one [formaldehyde] causes cancer and the other [styrene] might."

"The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic, though the agency is stressing that the amount is too tiny to be dangerous to people who eat it."