Trace amounts of radioactive cesium released from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been found in bluefin tuna caught off the western coast of the United States, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Toxic mercury in the arctic, long thought to be coming primarily from atmospheric sources, is also being carried into the region by rivers. The Arctic accumulation of toxic mercury is caused by both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers that carry the
Researchers found “modestly elevated levels” of two radioactive isotopes in 15 bluefin tuna caught off the coast of San Diego, California in August 2011, according to the study published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study
Temperatures are increasing on a global scale. But in the central and eastern United States warming has not kept pace with other parts of the world over much of the last century.Parts of the United States cooled between 1930 and 1990. Climate scientists have taken
International medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that 1,500 children in a mining village in northwest Nigeria have suffered lead-poisoning and are not receiving care. The deaths, affecting children working in artisanal gold mines and those living
Contamination and toxicity in stream sediments caused by pyrethroid insecticides generally increased with the degree of urbanization in seven metropolitan areas across the U.S, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study. The study confirmed that pyrethroid
A large amount of empty drug capsules are discarded into a sewage gutter, forming a colorful layer stretching for over 300 meters on the side of Zhengshang road near Ligang village, Zhengzhou city, Central China’s Henan province, April 21, 2012. The capsules with
After devastating tsunami on March 11 2011, the Japanese government estimated that 5 million tons of debris was swept up by the event. Estimates are that about 70 % sunk to the seafloor and 1.5 million tons left floating. More than a year later, the debris from that
Many types of aerosol particles circulate in the atmosphere, but one of the most damaging to human health is known as PM2.5, a technical term for microscopic bits of matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (one thirtieththe width of a human hair). These small
According to a report released by the University of California and comissioned by the California State Water Resources Control Board, one in 10 people living in California’s most productive agricultural areas is at risk for harmful levels of nitrate contamination in
