If you went to a beach where one in 28 swimmers later experienced diarrhea, stomachache or nausea, would you jump right in?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new water quality standards that would allow just such a beach to remain open, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“EPA has a duty to protect the public from all of these illnesses, but EPA seems to refuse to acknowledge this duty,” says Steve Fleischli, a senior attorney in the water program at NRDC who has written about the proposed criteria.
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Trichloroethene (TCE) has become a chemical of interest after environmental activist Erin Brockovich suggested that the derailment of a train carrying chemicals 41 years ago could be involved in the mysterious illness striking 16 people, mostly high school students in New York.

Brockovich’s team was dispatched to the Le Roy Junior/Senior High School, in Le Roy, New York, this week to collect water and soil samples. The school is more than three miles from the train wreck site, but some worry that the school was built in 2006 with contaminated supplies. The school district has called the speculation a “distraction” and a “publicity stunt.”

The New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency have been involved. But the agencies have not found an environmental or infectious cause, according to a school district statement. TCE was one of 58 different chemicals and 63 pesticides tested for; the results showed nothing out of the ordinary, according to the state’s health department. FULL POST

If you wanted to know the air quality Monday morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (good), Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (moderate), or Modesto, California. (unhealthy for sensitive groups), a new smart phone app from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could have helped.

The EPA’s free AIRNow app for Apple or Android phones allows users to enter a Zip Code and receive the pollutant and ozone levels for more than 400 cities across the country. You can also choose to check your current location.

The app gives levels for ozone and particle pollution such as automotive exhaust and an overall assessment of “good,” “moderate,” “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” “unhealthy,” “very unhealthy” and “hazardous.”
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 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed stronger air emissions standards for polyvinyl chloride production facilities in an effort to improve the air quality and health in communities nearby.

The standards would require these plants to reduce emissions of such potentially carcinogenic chemicals as vinyl chloride and dioxin.

“In particular, children are known to be more sensitive to the cancer risks posed by inhaling vinyl chloride,” the EPA said in a news release announcing the proposed standards.

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With ongoing problems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant – including the latest warning that radiation has turned up in Tokyo’s drinking water – CNN is looking at past nuclear accidents for a hint of the long-term impact.

The worst nuclear accident ever took place in 1986 when there was a massive explosion at the plant in Chernobyl, in the Ukraine region of the former Soviet Union. A team from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, has conducted long-term studies looking at cancer rates in the area. Scott Davis, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, leads the research, including three studies of childhood cancer, one childhood leukemia study and a study now under way on breast cancer rates.

The team compares people who have the illness being studied, with people who are not sick, while estimating the amount of radiation each individual was exposed to. Through this method they estimate the increase in cancer cases that can be attributed to radiation exposure. An important part of the approach involves making estimates of each individual’s exposure; this is done through computer models and interviews with each person about his or her location and movements.

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Officials in Hialeah, Florida, are conducting autopsies on the bodies of five teenagers, who apparently died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside of their suburban Miami motel room. They had left a car running in a closed garage under their room after they had problems starting it earlier.

Sadly, around this time of year, we often hear about people getting sick and dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.  This tragedy in Florida is a good reminder of the importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports this week  from Kobe, Japan, on the health concerns of an increasingly urbanized world. Today's focus: the toxic effects of air pollution.

A doctor told a House committee Thursday that reducing pollution in “hot spot” communities such as Mossville, Louisiana, was one reason Congress should overhaul the law governing toxic chemicals.

Dr. Mark Mitchell, who has served on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, sited Mossville and West Louisville, Kentucky, as communities surrounded by chemical plants, including plastic manufacturers.

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The Gulf oil disaster has already caused at least 2,239 days of beach closing, advisories, and notices in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, according to a report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

One-fifth of monitored beaches in the Gulf have been subject to closure or advisories because of the spill, the non-profit environmental group reported.

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EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson wants her agency to consider “environmental justice” before taking action.

"Historically, the low-income and minority communities that carry the greatest environmental burdens haven't had a voice in our policy development or rule making,” Jackson said in a statement.

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