State of California fines Chemical Waste Management for PCBs

According to a recent San Fransisco Chronicle article:

State officials have ordered the operators of a massive toxic waste dump in Central California to pay $46,000 in penalties for failure to report releases of hazardous waste.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control on Friday fined Chemical Waste Management for failing to report four separate releases of PCBs into the ground in early 2010.

Read the full article here.

Study finds PCBs are decreasing in the Spokane River, but are still at unhealthy levels

A newly released Department of Ecology (Ecology) study on PCBs in the Spokane River concludes that significant reductions in polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) levels have occurred over the last two decades but concentrations still don’t meet state and Spokane Tribal standards.

Read the study here.

More Problems with Glyphosate: US Rice Growers Sound the Alarm

The Center for Research on Globalization just released an article stating:

Adding to the natural rice industry’s woes after Bayer CropScience contaminated a third of the US rice supply with transgenic rice in 2006, the widespread application of Bayer’s glufosinate and Monsanto’s glyphosate is reducing crop yields, and burning and deforming rice plants that survive.

Read the entire article here.

Monsanto targeted by organic farmers

According to a recent Financial Times article:

A group of organic farmers in the US have filed suit against Monsanto, the world’s biggest seed business, to pre-empt patent infringement actions against them.

Read the full article here.

Sauget area residents file more suits over PCB exposure

According to the Madison County Record:

Three groups of Illinois residents who live in or near Sauget have filed separate lawsuits over the release of various hazardous substances they claim have created a severe health risk and have contaminated their properties.

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Read the full story here.

Researchers find exposure to dioxins and PCBs increases wheezing in babies

Scandinavian scientists have demonstrated that prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins is associated with increased risk of wheeze and infections in infants in a study published this week in Food and Chemical Toxicology.

Read the full article here.

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

Here's a crazy article from Axis of Logic:

"Dr. Don Huber did not seek fame when he quietly penned a confidential letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in January of this year, warning Vilsack of preliminary evidence of a microscopic organism that appears in high concentrations in genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans and "appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals and probably human beings." Huber, a retired Purdue University professor of plant pathology and U.S. Army colonel, requested the USDA's help in researching the matter and suggested Vilsack wait until the research was concluded before deregulating Roundup Ready alfalfa. But about a month after it was sent, the letter was leaked, soon becoming an internet phenomenon..."

Read the full story here.

EPA unveils New Bedford Harbor Cleanup-specific web site

A new EPA sponsored website was recently launched detailing the past, present, and future of the New Bedford Harbor cleanup. The site centralized information regarding the project including: documents,studies and charts and graphs.

This new site will likely be used as a model for other Superfund-specific sites across the county.

Read the full story here.