Fw: OPPT-Newsbreak Thursday, 3 June 1999

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>OPPT NEWSBREAK Thursday 3 June 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

>

> " Belgian Dioxin Scare Widens to Pork [World Watch]. " Wall Street

>Journal, 3 June 99, A19. " EU Gives Order to Destroy Belgian

>'Chicken a la Dioxin. " Washington Post, 3 June 99, A24.

> Hours after the European Commission ordered the destruction

> of Belgian poultry, eggs and other by-products potentially

> contaminated with dioxin, the Belgian government quarantined

> about 500 pork producers. While no conclusive evidence

> supports that any pigs have been poisoned by the same feed

> that ignited the poultry scare, a scare nonetheless has

> erupted from knowledge that the source from which pork

> producers purchased chicken and pig feed is the same. Two

> managers of the company, Verkest, were arrested for

> allegedly supplying contaminated oil to animal-feed

> producers.

>

> " Radioactive Waste Disposal Fails [Washington in Brief]. "

>Washington Post, 3 June 99, A6.

> The Energy Department acknowledged that it has failed in its

> attempt to separate the most highly radioactive material

> from less radioactive liquids in 35 million gallons of waste

> being stored in drums at the Savannah nuclear weapons

> facility in South Carolina. The project has cost nearly

> $500 million and has proven to be too dangerous because it

> produces large amounts of explosive benzene gas. Energy

> Secretary Bill directed that Westinghouse Corp.

> be replaced as the project's contractor and that outside

> scientists be brought in to help find an alternative

> technology.

>

> " Canada, with Water to Spare, Is in No Mood to Share. " Wall

>Street Journal, 3 June 99, B1, B10.

> Wary of losing their surplus of water in large exports to

> other nations whose demand for water is growing, the

> Canadian government encouraged its provinces and territories

> to ban bulk removal of water from water basins. Of all

> countries, Canada has the greatest total renewable fresh-

> water resources according to 1998 data supplied by the World

> Resources Institute. Now under consideration and to be

> determined, in part, by the results of a forthcoming

> environmental impact study, is the Gisborne Lake project.

> The project, which would create 150 " sorely needed "

> permanent jobs, would involve bottling and exporting water

> from Gisborne Lake in Newfoundland. Public opinion in

> Canada reveals that water is a very emotional issue.

>

> " Big Tobacco Cleared in Death Blamed on Secondhand Smoke. "

>Washington Post, 3 June 99, A7.

> A Mississippi jury ruled that Philip Cos., R.J.

> Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Brown & on Tobacco Corp.

> did not cause the cancer death of Burl , a nonsmoker.

> 's family had claimed that he got lung cancer from

> breathing customer's secondhand smoke while he worked as a

> barber for 37 years.

>

> ACROSS THE USA, FROM USA TODAY

>

> " St. Louis, Missouri [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 1 June 99,

>25A.

> Starting June 1 all gas stations in the region will be

> selling reformulated gasoline. Gas prices will not be

> affected. Compliance inspections will follow.

>

> GLOBAL WARMING

>

> " Government Told to Cut Emissions. President Targets Change in

>Climate. " Washington Times, 3 June 99, A5. " Clinton to Order

>Agencies to Cut Energy Use Emissions. " Washington Post, 3 June

>99, A8.

> President Clinton is expected to issue today an executive

> order directing government agencies to reduce energy use for

> lighting, heating and cooling to 35 percent below 1985

> levels by 2010, and to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 30

> percent below 1990 levels by 2010. Agencies will be

> directed to make these cuts by using private energy-

> conservation contractors; installing more efficient lighting

> systems, boilers, and cooling systems; improving building

> insulation; and making wider use of renewable energy

> technologies.

>

> BIOTECHNOLOGY

>

> " Advance Seen In Sharing Bone Marrow. " New York Times, 3 June 99,

>A19.

> Researchers reporting in today's New England Journal of

> Medicine say that the lives of 12 young leukemia patients

> were extended because the patients received bone marrow

> transplants using marrow that had been treated pre-

> operatively with a new, highly selective immune-suppressing

> drug called CTLA4-Ig. As anticipated, scientists say this

> drug enabled the patients, none of whom could be perfectly

> matched with a donor, to receive bone marrow transplants

> from poorly matched donors without experiencing life-

> threatening complications that would most certainly occur

> otherwise, such as severe graft-versus-host disease (foreign

> tissue rejection). CTLA4-Ig prevents white blood cells in

> the recipient from promoting an adverse response to the

> donor's marrow. Though all patients have died, five lived

> for as long as 29 months following transplant surgery which

> is longer, doctors say, than they would have survived

> without the transplants.

>

> " Diabetes Drug Shows Promise in Insulin-Cell Transplants. " New

>York Times, 3 June 99, A20.

> Using a combination of the experimental drug, anti-CD154,

> and transplanted insulin-producing cells, scientists

> reported that they had " cured " diabetes in laboratory

> monkeys. Recently approved by the FDA for human trial

> testing, anti-CD154 is an artificially made antibody that

> prevents part of the immune system from warding off foreign

> tissue. Research results will be published this year in The

> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

>

> LIVING IN THE INFORMATION AGE

>

> " Taking the Old Baedeker Into the Next Century: Center For Land

>Use Interpretation [Circuits: Library/City Guides]. " New York

>Times, 3 June 99, E10.

> Web addresses with site descriptions are listed in this

> feature about where to go online for guides to cities.

> Included on this list is the Center for Land Use

> Interpretation, a Web database at http://www.clui.org, which

> visitors can search by location or category to retrieve

> environmental assessments of various locations worldwide.

> Categories include " waste sites " and " nuclear/radioactive

> sites " .

>

> INTER ALIA

>

> " Engineered for the Aquarium, But Will They Take the Bait?

>[Circuits: News Watch]. " New York Times, 3 June 99, E3.

> Mitsubishi engineers in Japan have developed a robotic fish,

> a 2-foot long sea bream that swims in a fish tank at a

> museum in Yokohama. The fish robot, the company

> anticipates, is a prelude to the development of underwater

> vehicles that will be propelled using the same technology.

> Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is also considering making robot

> replicas of rare and extinct species of fish for museum

> exhibits. Photograph with article.

>

>

>

>* All items, unless indicated otherwise, are available at the

>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

>Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxics Substances (OPPTS)

>Chemical Library

>Northeast Mall, Room B606 (Mailcode 7407)

>Washington, D.C. 20460

>(202) 260-3944; FAX x4659;

>E-mail for comments: library-tsca@....

>(Due to copyright restrictions, the library cannot provide

>photocopies of articles.)

>

>*Viewpoints expressed in the above articles do not necessarily

>reflect EPA policy. Mention of products does not indicate

>endorsement.*

>

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