Earth

Chemistry

A new source of dioxins: Clean hands

Manufacturers have been adding the germ fighter triclosan to soaps, hand washes, and a range of other products for years. But here’s a dirty little secret: Once it washes down the drain, that triclosan can spawn dioxins.

Earth

Interphone study finds hints of brain cancer risk in heavy cell-phone users

A major decade-long international study concludes that, overall, cell-phone users show no increased risk of developing brain tumors. The same study reports that among people who have used cell phones the most and longest — for at least 10 years and on average 30 minutes or more a day — risk of brain tumors is substantially elevated when compared to people who don’t use cell phones. And the real enigma: Tumor risks calculated for each of the lower cell-phone use categories was substantially under that seen in people who use regular, corded phones.

Earth

Interphone’s data on cell phones and cancer: The spin begins

A May 16 press release by the cell phone industry reports that “The International Journal of Epidemiology today published a combined data analysis from a multi national population-based case-control study of glioma and meningioma, the most common types of brain tumour.” In fact, the journal hasn’t. Yet. But the industry group was anxious to put its spin on the paper’s findings after a handful of UK newspapers reported on this study – well in advance of the scheduled lifting of a news embargo on its data.

Earth

Gulf spill: BP gets go ahead for full-scale underwater use of dispersants

All week, U.S. federal agencies have been evaluating an unprecedented use of oil dispersants: to break up crude spewing from the seafloor. BP won preliminary approval to try them in limited tests against an ongoing torrent of oil spewing from the base of a devastated exploration rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Late morning on May 15, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard issued their joint approval for a scale-up of the novel subsea application of these chemicals.

Chemistry

EPA issues greenhouse-gas rules for new factories and more

EPA released new rules on greenhouse-gas emissions for new power plants, factories and oil refineries — any big new facility, really that emits huge amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, or any of several other classes of chemicals. Existing facilities can continue to spew greenhouse gases at current levels.

Earth

Lizards threatened by warming

Analysis suggests climate change could wipe out 20 percent of species, 39 percent of local populations.

Earth

Earliest birds didn’t make a flap

The feathers of Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis probably were not strong enough to support sustained flight.

Ecosystems

Spill update: From booms to dispersants

Choppy seas prevailed in the northern Gulf of Mexico on May 13, with even protected waters hostingrough 4 to 5 foot waves, according to the Coast Guard. But three-plus weeks into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and ensuing spill from a BP exploratory well, measures to respond to the catastrophe continued ramping up.

Chemistry

Chinese would turn cigarette butts into steel’s guardian

People smoke a lot of cigarettes, which leads to a lot of trash. Tom Novotny has done the math: An estimated 5.6 trillion butts each year end up littering the global environment. But Chinese researchers have a solution: recycling. Their new data indicate that an aqueous extract of stinky butts makes a great corrosion inhibitor for steel.

Chemistry

Another plastics ingredient raises safety concerns

Bisphenol A’s ‘twin’ may be more potent at perturbing estrogen signals.

Earth

Archaeopteryx fossil seen in new light

X-ray technique reveals original tissue in the feathers of a primitive bird fossil.

Earth

Gravity lows mark burial sites of ancient tectonic plates

Dips in Earth's gravitational field are tied to 'slab graveyards'