Class 13 - e-Waste

Class presentations

Class readings

• e-waste Toxipedia
• Basel Action Network (BAN)

Current events

• Weed killer in the crosshairs. In recent years, questions have surfaced about atrazine's safety, especially after monitoring programs picked up the chemical in drinking water and lab studies demonstrated the pollutant's ability to emasculate - if not deform - amphibians and fish. Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/56253/title/Weed_Killer_in_the_Crosshairs

• Anger fuels water-fluoridation debate in Watsonville. Suspicion of fluoridation comes from the right and the left. Some see it as a dangerous erosion of liberty. Others believe it's an underhanded way for businesses to get rid of industrial waste. Los Angeles Times, California. Registration Required http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fluoride15-2010feb15,0,5058891.story

• Weed killer in the crosshairs. In recent years, questions have surfaced about atrazine's safety, especially after monitoring programs picked up the chemical in drinking water and lab studies demonstrated the pollutant's ability to emasculate - if not deform - amphibians and fish. Science News http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/56253/title/Weed_Killer_in_the_Crosshairs

• Leaking radioactive tritium believed to have reached Connecticut River. Radioactive tritium leaking from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon is now believed to have reached the Connecticut River; calls are growing for the plant to be closed down while the leak is located and repaired. Springfield Republican, Massachusetts. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/radioactive_tritium_leaking_fr.html

• Port rethinks dumping of PCBs in Elliott Bay. PCB-contaminated mud dredged from a Superfund site may be headed to a landfill rather than being dumped into the open waters of Elliott Bay as planned. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/331350_port12.html

• Men who are exposed to benzene at levels close to the U.S. permissible limit are more likely to have an abnormal number of chromosomes in their sperm, according to new research. Having the wrong number of chromosomes in sperm or eggs is the largest known source of miscarriage in people. More... http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/benzene-linked-to-sperm-abnormalities/

• Wanted: Volunteers, all pregnant. Authorized by Congress in 2000, the National Children's Study began last January. With several hundred participants so far, it aims to enroll 100,000 pregnant women in 105 counties, then monitor their babies until they turn 21. New York Times Registration Required http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/16child.html