Environmental News Network

Do You Know What Toxic Chemicals Lurk in Your Clothing?
You know that if you eat that sugar-filled cookie, it might spike your insulin, and if you put on cosmetics with chemicals in them, they will probably end up in your blood. But have you ever thought twice about putting on your favorite T-shirt, or snuggling into your cotton sheets? A growing number of parents are demanding organic cotton clothing and diapers for their babies. Many don't stop with clothing, but have furnished their homes with organic flooring or carpeting, organic mattresses, organic linens, organic window coverings etc. Are they fanatics or do they have scientific evidence to support their lifestyle changes? >> Read the Full Article
Flu outbreak shuts Hong Kong schools for two weeks
HONG KONG (Reuters) - More than half a million Hong Kong schoolchildren stayed at home on Thursday after the government shut all kindergartens and primary schools for two weeks to contain an outbreak of flu. A government-appointed panel of experts is investigating the deaths of three children, aged 2, 3 and 7, over the last two weeks. All three had flu-like symptoms. >> Read the Full Article
Asia shows way to fight dengue as global spread looms
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Clarissa Poon was one of an estimated 50 million people who contracted mosquito-borne dengue fever last year. She spent an agonizing week on a drip in a Bangkok hospital as she battled the potentially deadly disease. "There was not a single moment when I wasn't aching everywhere, dizzy and nauseous. I was so weak I couldn't even stand," said Poon, who caught the illness during a family holiday at a beach resort in Thailand. >> Read the Full Article
Foreign donors back away from Indonesia AIDS fight
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Foreign donors who have propped up Indonesia's fight against AIDS/HIV are poised to slash their funding programs, partly because they now consider Indonesia a middle-income country, officials said on Wednesday. Infection rates in Indonesia are increasing rapidly among high-risk population groups, especially drug users and sex workers, and in the easternmost Papua region an AIDS epidemic has spread into the general population. >> Read the Full Article
Drinking Water Contaminated by Pharmaceuticals; Bottled Water Not the Answer
"A vast array of pharmaceuticals -including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans," an Associated Press investigation shows. Water in 24 metropolitan areas, including Detroit, Louisville, southern California and Northern New Jersey is particularly at risk. The report says the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are "tiny." But it also points out that "the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health." Those consequences could include reproductive irregularities, the early onset of puberty, and increasing resistance to antibiotics. >> Read the Full Article
Bird flu shows signs of mutation: China expert
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese expert on respiratory diseases says the H5N1 bird flu virus has shown signs of mutation and urged vigilance at a time when seasonal human influenza is at a peak, newspapers reported on Tuesday. "When avian flu is around and human flu appears, this will raise the chances of avian flu turning into a human flu. We have to be very alert and careful in March," Zhong Nanshan was quoted by the Ming Pao newspaper as saying. >> Read the Full Article
Are fat moms to blame for fat kids? Answer unclear
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British researchers who tried to show why overweight mothers tend to have overweight children said on Monday they had filled in one small piece of the puzzle. Their reassuring finding: women who are too fat when pregnant are probably not somehow driving the obesity epidemic by programming their children to be fat. >> Read the Full Article
Gebrselassie misses marathon due to pollution
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie said on Monday he would not compete in the Olympic marathon because of fears that Beijing's air pollution would damage his health. The Ethiopian runner, who suffers from asthma, said he would still compete in the shorter 10,000 meters event in the August Games. >> Read the Full Article
Japan seeks new form of flu vaccine
TOKYO (Reuters) - A group of Japanese researchers has developed a substance that could potentially help make flu vaccines effective for multiple strains of the disease, including strains of the bird flu virus, Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases said on Monday. The substance faces a lot more testing but investors seized on media reports of it on Monday, pushing the shares of a chemical firm involved in the project, NOF Corp, up nearly 21 percent. >> Read the Full Article
Hong Kong wild bird tests positive for H5N1
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A wild magpie robin in Hong Kong has tested positive for the H5N1 birdflu virus, the government said in a statement on Friday. The bird was found and collected on February 29 near the Tai Po Kau nature reserve in the New Territories. >> Read the Full Article