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As coal mining declines, community mental health problems linger
By Roberta Attanasio The U.S. coal industry is in rapid decline, a shift marked not only by the bankruptcy of many mine operators in coal-rich Appalachia but also by a legacy of potential environmental and social disasters. As mines close, states, the federal government and taxpayers are left wondering about the costs of cleaning up the abandoned land, especially at mountaintop removal sites, the most destructive type of mining. As coal companies go bankrupt, this has left states concerned taxpayers may have to pick up the environmental cleanup costs. But there are also societal costs related to mountaintop removal mining’s impact on health and mental health. As an immunologist, I…
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Quality Water, Quality Life: Aquatic Health and Contaminants in the Midcoast Oregon Salmon Watersheds
A guest post by Ray Kinney From ridge tops to reefs, environmental degradation has caused many salmon populations to decline to one to ten percent of former numbers. Young salmon survival in freshwater is only 2 to 5% from egg to smolt phase just before entering the ocean phase of their life cycle. Many causative effects for this decline are known, but many remain to be clarified. Politics often prevents adequate investigation of contaminant effects for water quality. Chronic low dose accumulative effects of toxic contaminants take a toll that is generally unrecognized by fisheries managers. Our benevolent rainfall flows down out of the Coast Range to become, once again, part…
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Arsenic in Chickens: Finding More of What Is Already Known
By The Editors Despite the high toxicity of arsenic, there are arsenical drugs — in other words, there are drugs that contain arsenic. One of these drugs, roxarsone, is used in chicken feeds to kill intestinal parasites, promote growth (make the chicken grow faster) and improve pigmentation (make meat look pinker). Roxarsone contains organic arsenic, which is much less toxic than inorganic arsenic. However, mounting evidence suggests organic arsenic can change into inorganic arsenic once administered to chickens. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies inorganic arsenic as a known human carcinogen — This classification is based on extensive population studies of lung cancers that developed following arsenic exposure through inhalation,…
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Lipstick and Heavy Metals
By The Editors Cosmetics are all around us. They have been used for thousands of years. Are they safe? Without discussing the general/global issue of cosmetics safety, we want to bring up something about one of the most used cosmetics worldwide: lipsticks. Although in the last century lipstick use was most prevalent in the Western world, its use is now a global phenomenon. And now, it seems lipsticks contain a potentially unhealthy dose of toxic heavy metals. What are heavy metals? They are high atomic weight elements that exhibit, at room temperature, the properties of a metallic substance. Minute amounts of some heavy metals, including cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, strontium,…
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Lead Poisoning Epidemics and Outbreaks: A Global Problem
By The Editors When we think epidemics, we think infectious pathogens. However, there are other epidemics – one of them is the lead epidemic. Lead poisoning accounts for at least 0.6% of the global burden of disease (WHO, 2009). The Blacksmith Institute considers lead pollution one of the world’s worst pollution problems. In much of the Western world, the problem is almost contained. However, in countries with little regulation, there are devastating lead epidemics and, at times, lead outbreaks. Lead is a toxic, naturally occurring heavy metal found in small amounts in the earth’s crust. Because of its abundance, low cost, and physical properties, lead and lead compounds have been used in…
