TennesseeCitizenScienceWatch

ACE Project | Citizen Empowerment: Community-Based Water Testing

Citizen water monitoring through the ACE Project empowers the citizens of the Central Appalachia to claim their rights to clean water and healthy communities. This citizen science initiative equips everyday people with the knowledge, instruments, and professional support to monitor local waterways.

In some cases, state agencies in the Appalachian coal-bearing regions have failed to hold the coal industry accountable for inaccurate and sometimes unlawful record keeping of surface water impacts. This lack of enforcement highlights the need for independent water monitoring.

via www.ace-project.org

Over 5,000 Children's Products Contain Toxic Chemicals Linked to Cancer and Hormone Disruption | Alternet

Over 5000 children’s products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption and reproductive problems, including the toxic metals, cadmium, mercury and antimony, as well as phthalates and solvents. A new report by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States  reveals the results of manufacturer reporting to the Washington State Department of Ecology. 

via www.alternet.org

The Toxic Chemical Experiment on Our Reproductive Systems – Women's Voices for the Earth

A great article by Cassidy Randall on how toxic chemicals impact women.

Women are the first environment for the next generation. Biologically, we can pass chemicals on to our children in the womb and through breastfeeding.

Read the whole article at www.womensvoices.org

You can also take action by asking your senator to co-sponsor the Safe Chemicals Act, which was recently re-introduced. This act would require that chemicals be evaluated for safety before they're placed in products like children's toys, cleaning products, and furniture. It would also take immediate action to phase out the most dangerous chemicals.

Rosner and Markowitz: Your Body Is a Corporate Test Tube | TomDispatch

Great article at Tom Dispatch by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, authors of Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America’s Children...

Today, we are all unwitting subjects in the largest set of drug trials ever. Without our knowledge or consent, we are testing thousands of suspected toxic chemicals and compounds, as well as new substances whose safety is largely unproven and whose effects on human beings are all but unknown. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) itself has begun monitoring our bodies for 151 potentially dangerous chemicals, detailing the variety of pollutants we store in our bones, muscle, blood, and fat.  None of the companies introducing these new chemicals has even bothered to tell us we’re part of their experiment.  None of them has asked us to sign consent forms or explained that they have little idea what the long-term side effects of the chemicals they’ve put in our environment -- and so our bodies -- could be.  Nor do they have any clue as to what the synergistic effects of combining so many novel chemicals inside a human body in unknown quantities might produce.

Read the whole story at www.tomdispatch.com

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American Babies Born Right After Fukushima Show Elevated Rate of Abnormalities | Alternet

A new study suggests nuclear fallout from Fukushima caused a spike in congenital illnesses among infants in the United States.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, found increased rates of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in West Coast babies born within nine months of the Fukushima meltdowns beginning March 11, 2011. Newborns in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington showed up to 28 percent higher rates of CH than in 36 control states. If left untreated, congenital hypothyroidism can impede physical and mental development.

via www.alternet.org

Chemical Disasters, Agent Orange, and GMOs: Monsanto's Legacy Traced in Exposé | Common Dreams

Chemical disasters, Agent Orange, and the first genetically modified plant cell are among just some of the dark milestones belonging to the history of the biotech giant Monsanto highlighted in a new report released Wednesday by consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

The in-depth historical analysis Monsanto: A Corporate Profile presents a corporation "steeped in heavy industrial chemical production," who only recently began marketing itself through an "environmentally friendly, feed-the-world image"—an image that is contradictory to a century of toxic chemical production and a food supply saturated with un-labeled GE crops, herbicides, and artificial growth hormones.

Monsanto, as FWW shows, now holds vast "undue influence over lawmakers, regulators, and our food supply," and has caused great devastation to farmers around the world through its global seed monopoly.

Read more at www.commondreams.org

UN, WHO Panel Calls Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals a 'Global Threat' | Common Dreams

An international team of experts reported today that evidence linking hormone-mimicking chemicals to human health problems has grown stronger over the past decade, becoming a "global threat" that should be addressed.

The report is a joint effort by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to give policymakers the latest information on chemicals that alter the hormones of people and wildlife. 

via www.commondreams.org

Crash of River Barge Creating Oil Disaster in the Mississippi | Common Dreams

A unknown amount of crude oil continues to pour into the Mississippi River after a barge carrying 80,000 gallons of oil crashed into a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., early Sunday morning.

"It's still considered an active leak," said Lt. Ryan Gomez of the Coast Guard's office in Memphis, Tenn. "We don't have an estimate or accurate amount of what was released," he said, though an oily sheen was reportedly spotted three miles downriver of Vicksburg.

via www.commondreams.org

Barge with 80,000 gallons oil hits bridge, leaks - Yahoo! News

A barge laden with 80,000 gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., over the weekend, spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for miles each way, the Coast Guard said. A second barge was damaged.

Although an oily sheen was reported up to three miles downriver from Vicksburg, investigators were uncertain how much of the oil had spilled when the bridge was hit early Sunday, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Ryan Gomez said.

via news.yahoo.com

Contamination event at Oak Ridge Depleted Uranium Recycling Facility

From Virginia Against Uranium blog:

On Friday, December 7th, workers at the Energy Solutions Bear Creek Depleted Uranium Recycling Facility in Oak Ridge Tennessee, workers placed a drum of Depleted Uranium shavings in Area 9 of the old ATG building, covered with mineral oil. When workers arrived at the facility Monday morning they discovered the poly drum had completely disappeared, the Depleted Uranium shavings were on the floor, the oil was on the floor, and some of the shavings had changed in physical appearance, now seemingly looking like ash.

According to information released by EnergySolutions, the poly drum had burned up and the contents of the drum were now mixed with the ash and oil on the concrete floor.

via virginiaagainsturanium.blogspot.com

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