Earth

  1. Earth

    Pollutants shape baby-gator gonads

    The same pollutants that appear to shorten the length of a grown-alligator's phallus actually lead to this organ's lengthening in baby gators.

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  2. Earth

    POPs treaty enacted

    A new United Nations treaty that seeks to phase down or eliminate production and use of 16 persistent, toxic pollutants has gone into effect.

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  3. Earth

    Seals’ meals, plastic pieces and all

    Bite-size pieces of plastic chipped from wave-battered consumer products work their way up marine food chains, suggests a study of fur seals in Australia.

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  4. Earth

    Blame the Sea? Ocean may be melting ice shelf from below

    Significant portions of a large Antarctic ice shelf just south of one that suddenly broke apart in February 2002 are rapidly thinning and may suffer a similar, catastrophic demise in less than a century.

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  5. Earth

    Flaming Out? Days may be numbered for two fire retardants

    The maker of two controversial flame-retardant chemicals has voluntarily initiated negotiations with the federal government to end their production.

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  6. Earth

    California acts on plastic additive

    Korean engineers have developed a replacement for a plasticizer used in polyvinyl chloride that California has just ruled is a known reproductive toxicant.

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  7. Earth

    Chicken Little? Study cites arsenic in poultry

    Most chicken eaten in the United States contains 3 to 4 times as much arsenic as is present in other kinds of meat and poultry.

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  8. Earth

    Gulf War vets face elevated ALS risk

    Two studies suggest that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War are at elevated risk of developing the fatal neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) compared with other military personnel and with the general population.

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  9. Earth

    Flame retardants take a vacation

    The lifetime in blood of flame- retarding diphenyl ethers, now-ubiquitous pollutants, ranges from 2 weeks to 2 years, Swedish researchers find.

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  10. Earth

    New PCBs?

    New studies have begun linking toxic risks with a ubiquitous family of flame retardants.

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  11. Earth

    Smog chemicals found even in rural western plains

    Analyses of the atmosphere over the south-central United States show that gases emitted from the region's oil and natural gas industries contribute to air pollution—even over remote Kansas cornfields—that can surpass the noxious mix found in urban areas.

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  12. Earth

    Toxic Controversy: Perchlorate found in milk, but risk is debated

    Researchers in Texas have detected the chemical perchlorate in milk, crops, and a significant portion of the state's groundwater.

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