American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 8, 2007
...nvironment. It shows promise for cleaning up soil contaminated with TNT, a widely used military explosive. The st...erage consumer. In a world that fears terrorists, contaminated food, and airborne pollutants, instrument companies are working to design portable, inexpensive, use...Pollution causes 40 percent of deaths worldwide, study finds
...nd many other serious health problems. Soil is contaminated by many chemicals and pathogens, which are passed on to humans through direct contact or via food and water. Increased soil erosion worldwide not only results in more soil being blown but spreading of disease microbes and various toxins. At the sam...Improved NIST SRM aids lead poisoning detection
... from lead-based paint in older buildings, or from contaminated soil near highways where vehicles once used leaded gasoline. Lead levels in children have dropped since lead was banned from both paint and fuel, but they remain significant. In 1990 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) established...UF to lead research on life-threatening fungus
...ienced outbreaks, in many cases after the organism contaminated ventilation systems or fireproofing materials. Despite hospitals' infection control measures aimed at minimizing risks, including special air filtration systemsdesigned to filter out Aspergillus and other infectious agents, facilities can still have ...New aerogels could clean contaminated water, purify hydrogen for fuel cells
...tory have identified a new technique for cleansing contaminated water and potentially purifying hydrogen for use in fuel cells, thanks to the discovery of a innovative type of porous material. Argonne materials scientists Peter Chupas and Mercouri Kanatzidis, along with colleagues at Northwestern and Michigan S...Seawater intrusion is the first cause of contamination of coastal aquifers
...In fact, about 60% of Spanish coastal aquifers are contaminated by seawater intrusion, a generalised phenomenon in...namics. According to Prof. Benavente, freshwater contaminated by a 5% of seawater can no longer be used for common purposes, such as human use, agriculture or far...Study finds contaminated water reaching Florida's offshore keys
...ssor at the UGA College of Public Health. When the contaminated groundwater mixes with surface water and reaches the reef, the corals as well as human health might be harmed. The findings were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Water Quality Protection Program Steering ...Decoding mushroom's secrets could combat carbon, find better biofuels and safer soils
...e global carbon, and help remove heavy metals from contaminated soils. The Agaricus mushroom family are highly e...ects of using such fungi for the bioremediation of contaminated soils. Agaricus bisporus is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms and the genome research ...UT and Atom Sciences Collaborate on NIH grant to develop test for major african disease
...come from different environmental sources, such as contaminated water sources. By understanding the sources, medical professionals and researchers will be better able to understand how people acquire the disease, which is known in some areas of Africa as "wounds that do not heal," according to Small. As the b...Biocontrol of invasive water hyacinth contributes to socioeconomic and health improvements in Africa
...f malaria and schistosomiasis. Rotting vegetation contaminated drinking water, increasing cases of gastrointestinal diseases. Dr. Ogwang and his colleagues used the natural predators of the plant to help eradicate it--the mottled water hyacinth weevil, N. eichhorniae, and the chevroned water hyacinth weevil, N......earby areas were exposed to radiation by breathing contaminated air and drinking contaminated water and goats milk. While the total radiation dose level is still being computed up to the tim...Wright State scientist receives grant to help clean up polluted American harbors
... risk assessment monitoring tool for harbors where contaminated sediments are a common problem, said Burton, who chairs the universitys Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. His research over the last 25 years has focused on developing effective methods for identifying ecological effects and contaminati...Children of smokers have more than 5 times higher levels of a nicotine toxin
...tion of, or closeness to clothing or other objects contaminated with, smoke particles during sleep. Nearly 40% of under-fives are believed to be exposed to tobacco smoke at home, and smoke may be responsible for up to 6,000 deaths per year in young children. The authors say: Babies and children are routinel...Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...n shed the pathogen and infect cattle drinking the contaminated water as well as vegetables if the water is used for irrigation. In the study researchers orally inoculated American bullfrog tadpoles and metamorphs with E. coli O157:H7 and tested for infection after 14 days. Tadpoles, which were housed in flow...University of Pittsburgh researchers culture blood-forming stem cells from human fat tissue
...onstitution carries some risk that these cells are contaminated with the patients own tumor cells. Since it has been shown in some cases that tumor cells contaminating bone marrow grafts are the source of recurrent malignancies after autologous transplantation, this might be a way of giving patients who need bone...Lung and bladder cancer deaths continue decades after arsenic exposure
...rinking water in a region of northern Chile became contaminated with very high amounts of arsenic beginning in 195...eak, lung cancer deaths among men and women in the contaminated region were about three times higher than in the control region, while bladder cancer deaths were si...Researchers find 24 species believed new to science in Suriname rainforest
... feared extinct because gold mining activities had contaminated a creek where it was last seen more than 50 years ago. Overall, the survey recorded 467 species at the two sites, including large cats such as panther and puma, various monkeys, and a range of reptiles, amphibians, bats, birds, fish and insects ind...Swabs not reliable for detecting lead dust in homes
...lts from ingesting lead-based paint, lead dust, or contaminated soil. Some county health departments across the nation use LeadCheck Swabs as an educational tool, recommending the kits to mothers bringing home infants from the hospital. The swabs are sold at many retailers; they cost about $1.30 each when purch...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- May 23, 2007
...m that is used as an indicator that water has been contaminated by fecal material has been reported by scientists at the University of Minnesota. In the report, published in the April 15 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology , a biweekly journal, Michael J. Sadowsky and colleagues cite several prev...Genome of Clostridium botulinum reveals the background to world's deadliest toxin
.... Occasionally it gets into a living animal, via contaminated food or open wounds, leading to infant botulism or wound botulism, both of which are serious human infections. The host can be quickly overpowered and, in some cases, killed by the toxin, and C. botulinum has a new food source. "Although in the sa...