Fw: OPPT Newsbreak, 27 July 1999

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>OPPT NEWSBREAK Tuesday, 27 July 1999

>

>

> Today's " Toxic News for the Net "

> Brought to you by the OPPTS Chemical Library

> http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/oppt_nb.txt

>

> NEWS

>

> " DES Exposure Found to Pose Lifelong Risk. New Research Suggests

>Effects May Extend to Grandchildren of Women Who Took the Drug. "

>Washington Post Health, 27 July 99, 9.

> In 1971, the Food and Drug Administration told doctors to

> stop prescribing DES, or diethylstilbestrol, to expectant

> mothers as a treatment option for preventing miscarriages

> because a rare vaginal cancer called clear cell

> adenocarcinoma was occurring at unusually high rates in

> daughters of women who had taken the drug. The disease most

> often struck at between 15 and 27 years of age. New

> research presented last week at a National Institutes of

> Health meeting found that women who were exposed before

> birth to DES appear to have an increased risk of health

> problems throughout life, including occurrence of the cancer

> later in life, miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies,

> stillbirths, premature births, and autoimmune diseases. Men

> exposed before birth to DES have an increased risk of

> genital malformations and, some studies suggest, testicular

> cancer. Two new studies in mice suggest that DES may affect

> future generations. Sidebars: " DES at a Glance " and

> " Resources. "

>

> " Families Dispute Rarity of Devastating Brain Disease. They

>Suspect Mad Cow'-Type Illness Is Linked to Deer Meat. " USA

>Today, 27 July 99, 8D.

> Beverly Goodman of Fort Worth, Texas, whose father died of

> Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and other relatives of CJD

> victims believe there is a link between the disease in

> humans and a similar disease in deer and elk called chronic

> wasting disease (CWD). The Centers for Disease Control and

> Prevention says it has found no connection between the

> deaths of two young hunters and CWD, but the heads of about

> 300 deer killed in Oklahoma and Utah during the upcoming

> hunting season will be sent to a federal lab for brain

> testing. Sidebar: " Anatomy of a Killer. " Accompanying

> articles: " Death Comes Swiftly, Mercilessly " profiles some

> families of CJD victims. " Indestructible Organism Eats

> Through the Food Chain " describes how the agent causing

> bovine spongiform encephalopathy spread through animal

> feeding practices such as feeding cattle a protein

> supplement made of rendered cows.

>

> ACROSS THE USA, FROM USA TODAY

>

> " Hartford, Connecticut [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July 99,

>10A.

> Twenty-eight of the 30 " birthing hospitals' " in the state

> suspended routine hepatitis B vaccinations for babies under

> 6 months old after the Association of American Physicians

> and Surgeons said the vaccine may be linked to 25,000

> adverse reactions.

>

> " Bonners Ferry, Idaho [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 26 July 99,

>8A.

> A road was closed and 100 to 200 people were evacuated after

> 33,500 gallons of anhydrous ammonia escaped from a tanker on

> a derailed Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train and

> formed a potentially deadly cloud.

>

> " Baton Rouge, Louisiana [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July

>99, 10A.

> State Judge Downing temporarily blocked a permit

> allowing GTX Corp. to reopen the Marine Shale Processors

> hazardous waste plant in Amelia until he is assured that a

> buffer zone between the plant and Bayou Boeuf will protect

> the bayou from any pollution.

>

> " Blue Hill, Maine [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 26 July 99, 8A.

> Conservationists oppose a plan by Atlantic Salmon of Maine

> to build a salmon farm in Blue Hill Bay because they say it

> would depress property values and pollute the bay with fish

> waste. The company says the project would create jobs and

> would not interfere with lobstermen's harvests.

>

> " Portland, Maine [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July 99, 10A.

> The state Board of Environmental Protection will hold a

> hearing Wednesday on a request by the Maine Turnpike

> Authority to expand the toll road from four to six lanes

> from Wells to Scarborough, a 30-mile stretch.

>

> " polis, land [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 26 July 99,

>8A.

> The land Department of the Environment expects to

> propose rules this summer requiring large poultry firms to

> take some responsibility for disposing of chicken manure

> produced on poultry farms on the Eastern Shore. " Details of

> the proposed regulations weren't disclosed. "

>

> " Grand Rapids, Michigan [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 26 July

>99, 8A.

> Slime discovered in a tributary of the Thornapple River was

> attributed to deicing fuel from the Kent County

> International Airport. Airport officials are now

> considering whether to collect the chemicals for recycling

> or for discharge to the Grand Rapids sanitary-sewer system.

>

> " Highlands, New Jersey [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July 99,

>10A.

> Environmental advocates and lawmakers say a proposal by

> Castle Astoria Oil Terminals Inc. to dispose of dredged

> material by dumping if off the coast of New Jersey " violates

> the spirit of a 1996 dumping ban. " Officials from the U.S.

> Corps of Engineers say the material is cleaner than the

> contaminated material already at the site.

>

> " Providence, Rhode Island [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July

>99, 10A.

> Residents who filed a lawsuit to stop construction of two

> middle schools and an elementary school say the school

> board's selection of the former Springfield Street dump as

> the building site amounts to environmental racism because

> " low income and minority parents would not question the

> contamination at the site. "

>

> " Berea, South Carolina [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 27 July 99,

>10A.

> An EPA official said the removal of corroded 55-gallon drums

> buried at a contaminated landfill in Greenville County that

> was to be conducted this month will likely be delayed

> because county officials have not signed an order and filed

> the necessary paperwork.

>

> " Cheyenne, Wyoming [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 26 July 99, 8A.

> The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is working to meet a

> September deadline for compliance with range reforms that

> require federal agencies to conduct an environmental

> analysis of each grazing lease that is up for renewal or

> expiration.

>

> AROUND THE BELTWAY: DC/MD/VA REGIONAL NEWS

>

> " Fumes Make Children Sick [District]. " Washington Times, 27 July

>99, C6.

> A strong odor, probably from cleaning fluids that were mixed

> at high concentrations, caused the evacuation of Brightwood

> Elementary school yesterday. No one was hospitalized but

> some reported nausea and headaches.

>

>Judge Rejects Class Action Tobacco Suit [Metro in Brief: The

>District]. " Washington Post, 27 July 99, B3.

> D.C. Superior Court Judge A. Levie rejected a class

> action lawsuit against the tobacco industry filed on behalf

> of thousands of District smokers, ex-smokers, and their

> heirs. Levie said that " [w]hile smokers' attorneys could

> show that cigarettes cause harm, it would take an

> individual assessment' of each smoker's injury to prove

> legally that tobacco companies were at fault. "

>

> ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND CANCER

>

> " Study Tying Power Lines to Cancer Short-Circuited. " USA Today,

>26 July 99, 6D.

> Liburdy, who the federal Office of Research

> Integrity (ORI) said committed scientific misconduct by

> discarding data that did not support his conclusions in a

> 1992 study linking electromagnetic fields around power lines

> to certain cellular changes in the body, has agreed to have

> some of his data retracted and to a three-year ban on

> receiving federal funds. In May, Liburdy agreed to ask

> scientific journals that published his work to retract three

> graphs. In a letter in _Science_ last month he wrote, " My

> scientific conclusions stand as published...I admit no

> scientific wrongdoing. I could not afford a protracted

> legal battle with the ORI, and a settlement was reached by

> which I admit no liability. "

>

> " Regulatory Power Is the Dangerous Kind [Review & Outlook]. "

>Wall Street Journal, 27 July 99, A22.

> M. Whelan, president of the American Council on

> Science and Health, discusses P. Liburdy's

> falsification of data concerning a link between

> electromagnetic fields and cancer [see news article above].

> She lists some of the costs incurred by various towns and

> companies taking preventative measures based on a possible

> links between EMF's and adverse health effects. After

> discussing the nature of " regulatory science " she concludes:

> " Meanwhile, those of us involved in research and policy

> making in the private sector are constantly queried about

> our funding, motivation and agenda, which critics regard as

> " too pro-industry. " If the Liburdy case means anything, it

> is that government-funded regulatory scientists should be

> subject to similar levels of scrutiny by Congress, the media

> and peer-reviewed scientific journals. "

>

> CAMPAIGN 2000

>

> " Nature Boy [Editorials]. " Washington Times, 27 July 99.

> The WT comments on last week's opening of a Connecticut

> River dam so that Vice President Al Gore would have

> sufficient river depth for a campaign-related canoe trip.

> They conclude: " Evidently water conservation is for other

> people. Under the circumstances, perhaps the best thing Mr.

> Gore could do for nature would be to keep his direct

> experience with it to a minimum. "

>

> PHARMACEUTICALS IN THE NEWS

>

> " CDC Gets More Cases of Illnesses Tied to Rotavirus Vaccine. "

>Washington Post Health, 27 July 99, 11.

> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopped

> vaccinations of children with RotaShield, a vaccine against

> the diarrheal illness rotavirus, on July 16 after the use of

> the vaccine was linked to a rare bowel obstruction called

> intussusception. Officials continue to investigate the link

> to the vaccine as they receive additional reports of the

> bowel obstruction problem. Jon Abramson, chairman of the

> American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious

> Diseases said, " Our recommendation is not to use the

> vaccine until we can get enough data to assure us that it is

> safe.' "

>

> BIOTECHNOLOGY

>

> " A Fungus to Kill Marijuana Has Environmentalists Wary. " New York

>Times, 27 July 99, A1, A14.

> Florida's Office of Drug Control hopes to apply an

> engineered soil-borne fungus called Fusarium oxysporum to

> areas in the state where marijuana crops could be growing so

> that the fungus can eat the plants. The bioherbicide is

> considered safe and is currently being tested.

> Environmentalists are concerned that if the fungus is

> introduced it could mutate and cause disease in wild plants

> and food crops.

>

> LIVING IN THE INFORMATION AGE

>

> " Team of Scientists to Prepare a Rolodex of Life on Earth

>[science Times]. " New York Times, 27 July 99, D2.

> A team of scientists from around the world is planning the

> creation of a worldwide electronic information network

> called the Global Biodiversity Information Facility in which

> all recorded data on the earth's animals, plants and

> microorganisms will be pooled for access via the Internet.

> The database will be launched under the aegis of the

> Organization for Economic ation and Development,

> located in Paris. The development of this online

> clearinghouse will take several years and is expected to

> provide scientists with a measuring stick for basic

> questions on the world's species, including their evolution

> and disappearance.

>

> CAR CORNER

>

> " Gas Additive Needs Less Use, Panel Says. Ether Contaminates

>Drinking Water. " Washington Post, 27 July 99, A4. " Panel

>Advises Less Use of Gas Additive. " USA Today, 27 July 99,

>5A.Agency Will Ask Congress To Drop Gasoline Additive. " New York

>Times, 27 July 99, A1, A16. " Concerns In New York Area About

>Effects of Fuel Additive. " New York Times, 27 July 99, A16. " EPA

>Advisory Panel Urges Reduction In Use of Antipollution Fuel

>Additive. " Wall Street Journal, 27 July 99, B10.

> An advisory panel to EPA will formally recommend today that

> the use of the gasoline additive MTBE, or methyl tertiary-butyl ether)

> be reduced because of concerns about water

> contamination from leaking storage tanks and other gasoline

> spills. MTBE is an oxygenate added to gasoline in areas

> with severe air pollution problems to help reduce emissions

> of carbon monoxide, smog-causing pollutants, and toxic

> chemicals. EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner said, " We

> must begin to significantly reduce the use of MTBE in

> gasoline as quickly as possible without sacrificing the

> gains we've made in achieving cleaner air. " She said she

> will work with Congress to change the Clean Air Act's

> requirement that 2 percent of reformulated gasoline consist

> of oxygen, " a provision added to the act to promote the use

> of ethanol, " and will strengthen the agency's efforts to

> crack down on leaking underground storage tanks.

>

> INTER ALIA

>

> " Loophole Dredges Up Old Wetlands Threat [Earth, Wind and Fire:

>EPA, Interior, FAA]. " Washington Post, 27 July 99, A17.

> This Federal Page article by Tom Kenworthy discusses EPA and

> Army Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act issues involved in a

> loophole in the dredging regulations that had been tightened

> in 1993, but was thrown out by a 1998 U.S. Court of Appeals

> decision based on wetlands dredging being governed by the

> Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. " In the year since that

> ruling, say EPA official, welded-shut backhoes have come

> back with a vengeance as developers have rushed to drain

> wetlands without having to obtain 404 permits...'This is

> serious,' said EPA Administrator Carl M. Bronwer. The

> amount of damage, the number of acres of wetlands that are

> essentially being destroyed is a real concern.' "

>

>

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