All Stories by Janet Raloff
-
Weed Killer in the Crosshairs
Concerns prompt reexamination of atrazine’s safety.
- Agriculture
EPA reviews hints of weed killer’s fetal risks
The Environmental Protection Agency will be convening meetings of its Scientific Advisory Panel on pesticides throughout 2010 to probe concerns about the safety of atrazine, a weed killer on which most American corn growers rely. The first meeting of these outside experts started Tuesday. And although a large number of studies have indicated that atrazine can perturb hormones in animals and human cells — and might even pose a possible risk of cancer amongst heavily exposed people, these outcomes were not the focus of EPA’s review Tuesday. Risks to babies were.
- Health & Medicine
Body fat linked to late puberty in boys
Boys can take a lot of ribbing from their peers for not being macho enough. A new study now indicates that it can take longer to begin transforming into a man if a boy starts out fat.
- Earth
The FY 2011 budget: So much for transparency
Cabinet officials and other administration leaders met with reporters yesterday to outline the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 federal budget. That spending blueprint includes $147-billion-and-change for research and development programs. But in contrast to past years, details tended to be skimpy today — and any chance for followup or verification of apparent trends has proven more difficult than usual.
- Climate
Indian climatologist disputes charges over Himalayan projection
London’s Sunday Mail reported that it had reached the author of a chapter in a purportedly authoritative 2007 climate-change assessment and learned that this scientist – Murari Lal – deliberately used unsubstantiated sources for conclusions about the rate of glacier melting in the Himalayas. Lal doesn’t dispute that mistakes were made – ones that likely exaggerated projections of glacier melting. But he does challenge the newspaper’s charge that those mistakes were politically motivated.
- Humans
Cigarettes might be infectious
Science & Society blog: The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.
- Climate
IPCC’s Himalayan glacier ‘mistake’ not an accident
A London newspaper reports today that the unsubstantiated Himalayan-glacier melt figures contained in a supposedly authoritative 2007 report on climate warming were used intentionally, despite the report’s lead author knowing there were no data to back them up.
- Earth
Feds propose banning giant snakes
Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced plans to ban the importation and interstate transport of nine species of giant snakes. It’s a good idea, but a little like closing the barn door after the horse — or in this case, the pythons and anacondas — got loose.
- Climate
IPCC admits Himalayan glacier error
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged today that it had erred in projecting the rate and impacts of retreating Himalayan glaciers in a 2007 report.
- Earth
BPA is regulated . . . sort of
Food and Drug Administration officials “say they are powerless to regulate BPA” because of a quirk in their rules, according to a story that ran Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It comes from a reporter who has made an award-winning habit of documenting the politics that have helped make the hormone-mimicking bisphenol-A a chemical of choice for many manufacturers.
- Climate
IPCC relied on unvetted Himalaya melt figure
British newspapers have uncovered what appears to be an embarrassing fact-checking omission by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. It regards the degree of glacial melting in the Himalayas — information that said parts of the area could be icefree a quarter century from now.
- Health & Medicine
BPA and babies: Feds acknowledge concerns
Federal health and research officials outlined new guidance today for parents on the use of plastics made from bisphenol-A, a hard, clear plastic. Their bottom line: Minimize BPA-based products that could make contact with foods or drinks that infants or toddlers might consume — especially hot foods and drinks. But the Food and Drug Administration stopped short of recommending that parents pitch baby bottles and sippy cups made from BPA. Nor did it call for parents to avoid processed infant formulas and baby foods — some of which it acknowledges are contaminated with traces of BPA.
