"Pennsylvania Doctors Worry Over Fracking 'Gag Rule'"
"A new law in Pennsylvania has doctors nervous."
Source: NPR, 05/18/2012
Health
How Muzzling Scientists Helps the Chemical Industry
A Chicago Tribune investigative series on flame retardant chemicals helps illustrate how federal agency control of what scientists say to reporters can help the chemical and tobacco industries. By reporter Michael Hawthorne.
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"Fears of Gene Pollution Emerge In Tijuana River"
"It’s the kind of scenario that might evolve in Hollywood: A college professor detects drug-resistance genes collecting in local wetlands, where they survive for weeks and are spread far and wide by seabirds.
But the discovery of extra-hardy DNA flourishing on the edge of San Diego isn’t science fiction. It’s the result of research by David Cummings, a microbiologist at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, 05/08/2012
Denver Post Exposes FDA Secrecy on Food Threats to Public Health
Reporter Michael Booth's story resurrected the old issue of whether the public has a right to know the identity and source of foods in commerce that government agencies actually know may be causing fatal illness. The FDA refused to comment on the story.
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Mitochondria Related to Ocean Bacteria, But Not the Ones We Thought
"Two billion years ago, around the time atmospheric oxygen levels were rising, one cell engulfed another, and instead of becoming lunch, the ingestee became an Earth-changer and, eventually, a vital part of you: mitochondria."
Source: Scientific American, 04/17/2012
"EPA Faces Suit From 11 Groups Over Coal Ash"
"Eleven environmental organizations are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it to better regulate toxic coal ash and citing recent groundwater contamination at 29 coal ash dump sites in 16 states, including two in Western Pennsylvania."
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 04/06/2012
"Plan to Let Poultry Plants Inspect Birds Is Criticized"
"WASHINGTON — Federal food safety inspectors said a proposal by the Agriculture Department to expand a pilot program that allows private companies to take over the inspections at poultry plants could pose a health risk by allowing contaminated meat to reach customers.""Currently, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors are stationed along the assembly lines in poultry plants and examine the birds for blemishes, feces or visible defects before they are processed."
Source: NY Times, 04/06/2012
Are Data Behind Companies' Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trade Secrets?
EPA's upcoming rulings on confidentiality for data going into the companies' GHG calculations will be important. Those determinations may impact whether companies' reporting is accurate — and whether they can ever be held accountable for their emissions.
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Dykstra Returns to the Calling of Journalism, Climate Change and the Next Best Story
Bill Dawson has the "Inside Story" on ex-CNN science, environment, weather and technology executive producer Peter Dykstra's return to the journalism fold.
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"US Biosecurity Board Revises Stance on Mutant-Flu Studies"
"The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) today recommended the publication of two controversial avian flu papers."
Source: Nature, 04/02/2012
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