Science News of the Year: 1998
Back to Science News of 1998
Environment & Ecology
- After 34 industrial nations pledged to control many of the most toxic
long-lived industrial pollutants, the United Nations began work on a global treaty to ban
or phase out these chemicals (July 4, vol. 154: p. 6).
- Representatives of 62 nations signed a new Rotterdam Convention to
control the export of potentially harmful chemicals into countries that decide they cannot
ensure the compounds' safe use (Sept. 19, vol. 154: p. 181).
- European chemists found detectable drug residues—excreted by
people taking a wide variety of drugs—in samples ranging from treated sewage to open
water to drinking water (March 21, vol. 153: p. 187*).
- The Environmental Protection Agency described its plan to screen up
to 62,000 commercial chemicals for hormonal activity in humans and wildlife (Sept. 5, vol.
154: p. 148; Oct. 17, vol. 154: p. 251).
- Certain types of electromagnetic fields foster cancer in animals and
can alter normal sleep and heart rhythms in people (Jan. 10,
vol. 153: p. 29*). Such fields can also affect human cells—perhaps inducing
cancer—through enzyme-driven cell-to-cell signaling (Feb. 21, vol. 153: p. 119). An
expert panel recommended that electric and magnetic fields should be considered possible
human carcinogens (Aug. 22, vol. 154: p. 127).
- Fishing fleets, a new study showed, are maintaining their yields only
by harvesting stocks that are lower and lower in the food chain—an ecologically
unsustainable practice (Feb. 7, vol. 153: p. 86*).
- The World Conservation Union reported in its first IUCN Red List of
Threatened Plants that one out of every eight known plant species is in peril (April 25,
vol. 153: p. 264).
- Invasive algae, apparently escapees from aquariums, have been
spreading throughout the northern Mediterranean Sea, wiping out native seafloor life and
prompting calls for a U.S. ban on trade in this species (July
4, vol. 154: p. 8*), Nov. 21, vol. 154, p. 332).
- A host of new studies, including several conducted in people, suggest
that nighttime exposure to light may foster the development of certain cancers (Oct. 17,
vol. 154: p. 248).
- Heavy exposure to pesticides appears to hinder preschoolers' hand-eye
coordination, recall, and ability to draw pictures of people (June
6, vol. 153: p. 358*).
- Boys have been making up a smaller proportion of newborns, which
suggests that environmental toxicants may be selectively hindering normal development of
male fetuses (April 4, vol. 153: p. 212*).
- Researchers identified a skin fungus as the immediate cause of
amphibian die-offs in otherwise undisturbed areas of Australia, Central America, and the
United States (July 4, vol. 154: p. 7*). A commonly used
pesticide also appeared capable of contributing to frog and toad declines (Sept. 5, vol. 154: p. 150*).
- Fifty years may not be enough time to restore animal species to
mountain streams that were once choked by farm runoff, and reforesting just stream margins
may not protect adequately (Dec. 12, vol. 154: p. 375).
- Old bird-egg collections in British museums reveal thinning shells
some 50 years before DDT's introduction, adding weight to concerns about the effects of
acid rain on wildlife (April 25, vol. 153: p. 261*).
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