The chemical that leaked at a uranium-processing plant in Oklahoma on Saturday, resulting in the death of one worker and injury to at least 32 others, breaks down on contact with moisture into a substance that is extremely dangerous even in small amounts, according to Federal officials. The chemical, uranium hexafluoride, is a key material […]
The Environmental Protection Agency has stirred the hornet’s nest of fluoridation by seeking to double the maximum allowable amount of the mineral in the nation’s water supply – a move that is drawing sharp criticism as a possible health hazard. “I don’t think the law really allows them to do this,” says Jackie Warren, a […]
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 — The Environmental Protection Agency today proposed a new standard that would double the maximum permissible level of fluoride in the nation’s drinking water supplies. The new maximum, four milligrams to a liter of water, is well above levels that can cause dental fluorosis, which results in discoloration, mottling and pitting of […]
Sao Paulo — For years, the area around the Brazilian town of Cubatao — with 23 petrochemical companies operating 111 plants in the industrial heart of the state of Sao Paulo — has been referred to as Vale da Morte, or the “Valley of Death,” because of the high levels of air, water and soil […]
WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRN/ — In a statement to the Center For Health Action, Jacqueline Warren, senior counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, expressed serious reservations about the legalities and evidence for proposing a 4-parts-per-million (ppm) standard for fluoride. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency […]
CUBATAO, Brazil – The factories on this swampland have turned the nearby town into a place of superlatives: in Cubatao, pollutants in the rain have reached some of the highest levels known in the world; the air is considered unfit for humans on a record number of days, and more cases of cancer, stillbirths and […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 7 – “No more Cubataos” is now the war cry of Brazilian environmentalists, who insist that Brazil’s main petrochemical center and most polluted city not become a model for other industrial districts. The environmental movement is particularly strong in Cotia, 18 miles from Sao Paulo, and in Araucaria, 12 miles from […]
After two years of limited study, local environmental officials have found amounts of fluoride in Hillsborough County pasture grass that “approach levels damaging to cattle” if animals graze on it for their lifetime. The effect of cattle grazing on grass with too much fluoride is a bone-brittling and tooth-mottling disease called fluorosis. Plants also can […]
Abstract: Airborne particulate matter from the January 1983 eruption of Kilauea volcano was inadvertently collected on air filters at Mauna Loa Observatory at a sampling station used to observe particles in global circulation. Analyses of affected samples revealed unusually large concentrations of selenium, arsenic, indium, gold, and sulfur, as expected for volcanic emissions. Strikingly large […]
Abstract The reverse osmosis process was evaluated for removal of naturally occurring arsenic and fluoride from groundwater. Arsenic removal was affected by the prevalent arsenic species present in the water. Arsenic concentrations were reduced by approximately 60%–90% from nearly 80 ?g/L. Fluoride concentrations were reduced by approximately 60% from nearly 1.7 mg/L. *Original abstract online […]
