Piney Point: Bending the rules at Piney Point, a $140-million mess.

The earthen embankment containing the Piney Point waste has suffered from structural problems requiring patching with gravel. (2003, Times Archive) [ CERRI, LARA | St. Petersburg Times ] The warning signs were clear: The Piney Point fertilizer plant was headed for disaster. State regulators knew in 1995 that the owner, Mulberry Corp., was struggling. If […]

Water fights

For eons now, liberals have teased conservatives about one thing (well, many things, but I’m thinking of one in particular): the fluoridation of water. “Oh, you work at NATIONAL REVIEW? What do you do, write editorials denouncing the fluoridation of the water supply?” Ha, ha, ha. (Actually, we spend our time advocating separate lunch counters […]

New Cavity-Fighting Agent Shows Promise

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – An experimental cavity-fighting toothpaste may be better at preventing tooth decay and cavities than traditional fluoride toothpaste, according to a study. The new agent does not contain any fluoride, which has been the cornerstone of cavity prevention for decades. The product, called CaviStat, contains the amino acid arginine as well […]

Palo Alto council agrees to put fluoride issue on ballot

The Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously Monday to put a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot to take fluoride, a cavity-fighting chemical, out of the city’s water. Councilman Bern Beecham made the motion. A monthslong initiative headed by Palo Alto psychologist Susan Willis gathered enough valid signatures to put the issue up for a […]

DEP says Piney Point biggest threat to environment

MANATEE COUNTY — A top Department of Environmental Protection official said Tuesday that the defunct Piney Point phosphate plant is the state’s biggest threat to the environment. “This site constitutes one of the largest risks to the environment in Florida’s history,” DEP Deputy Secretary Allan Bedwell said. “It’s our most significant environmental challenge.” In a […]

96% Better Than Fluoride

ROSLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. – Study Results to Be Presented June, 28, 2003 at the 81St General Session of the International Association of Dental Research Goteborg, SwedenOrtek Therapeutics Inc. announced today that CaviStat(TM), a new cavity fighting agent, was significantly more effective than fluoride in reducing cavities in a two-year 726 patient toothpaste study. The findings […]

Fluoride debate on tap in Palm Beach

Fluoride. It’s in toothpaste, in dental washes for elementary school kids, in special drops and tablets. In minuscule amounts, it occurs naturally in food and even in nonfluoridated water. This summer, after a 12-year respite, Palm Beach County commissioners will take up the decades-old debate again. Fluoride: magic bullet or poison. “Fluoridating water is the […]

Some Davis County Residents Defluoridating Water

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Since Davis County cities began delivering fluoridated water in April, area plumbing businesses have been busy with calls from residents wanting to get rid of the stuff. Culligan, a national water conditioning company, targeted certain ZIP codes in the county with 5-by-8 inch postal cards in the past week advertising […]

S. Phoenix pollution tests in doubt because of rain

Air samples from a south-central Phoenix neighborhood confirm residents’ complaints that a hazardous air pollutant is hovering in the area. But distrustful residents doubted the results, revealed last week by state environmental officials at the initial meeting of a project to reduce toxic exposure in south Phoenix. Rain on three of the five testing days […]

Better safe than sorry

SAN FRANCISCO is poised to become the first city in the nation to adopt the Precautionary Principle — a new policy framework widely used in western and northern European countries for developing laws that protect our health and environment. For years, Bay Area leaders from the breast cancer, public health, environmental health and environmental justice […]