Earth
- Earth
Chemical Reaction: Two flame retardants to phase out in 2004
The sole U.S. manufacturer of two widely used brominated fire retardants pledged to phase out its production of both products by the end of next year.
- Earth
Frosty Florida: Spread of agriculture may promote freezes
Planting crops in south Florida may have increased the risk of the freezes farmers hoped to avoid.
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Cast-Iron Foot: Undersea snail has mineral armor
An as-yet-unnamed species of snail living around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the Indian Ocean bears a suit of armor forged from the minerals dissolved in the hot fluids that spew from its seafloor environment.
- Earth
UV-pollutant combo hits tadpoles hard
Coincident exposure to ultraviolet light and an estrogen-mimicking pollutant severely jeopardized the chance a tadpole would reach adulthood.
- Earth
Sewage linked to fish-gender quirks
Releases from sewage treatment plants appear to impair reproductive tissues in fish.
- 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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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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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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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
