Environmental News Network

Study: caring for foster youth past 18 improves transition to adulthood
Chicago - Foster youth allowed to remain in care past age 18 are more likely to go to college than those who exit at 18, according to a study released by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago at a Congressional briefing. The study, which is the most comprehensive examination of youth leaving foster care since the passage of the 1999 Foster Care Independence Act, found that extending care might also increase earnings and delay pregnancy. However, when compared to adolescents not in foster care, youth aging out of the child welfare system are faring poorly as a group. >> Read the Full Article
Lice from fish farms threaten Canadian wild salmon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Infestations of sea lice at salmon farms on Canada's west coast are threatening local wild pink salmon populations and could result in their extinction in another four years, Canadian researchers said on Thursday.
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Quake early warning system predicts shaking, averts casulties

BERKELEY -- A California earthquake early warning system now being tested accurately predicted the ground shaking in San Francisco a few seconds before the city felt the Oct. 30, 2007, magnitude 5.4 quake near San Jose, according to a statewide team of seismologists.

Active early warning systems already created in places like Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey automatically stop elevators at the nearest floor, halt trains, isolate hazardous chemical systems and machinery and move people to a safer location or position.
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Scientists discover genetic switch for circadian rhythms
Irvine, California — University of California, Irvine researchers have identified the chemical switch that triggers the genetic mechanism regulating our internal body clock. The finding, which uncovers the most specific information about the body’s circadian rhythms to date, identifies a precise target for new pharmaceuticals that can treat sleep disorders and a host of related ailments. The study appears in the Dec. 13 issue of Nature. Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, found that a single amino acid activates the genes that regulate circadian rhythms. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and Sassone-Corsi was surprised to find that only a single amino acid activates the body-clock mechanism because of the complex genes involved. >> Read the Full Article
California scientists create new standard for cleaner transportation fuels
Davis, California - University of California experts today released their much-anticipated blueprint for fighting global warming by reducing the amount of carbon emitted when transportation fuels are used in California. This "Low Carbon Fuel Standard," designed to stimulate improvements in transportation-fuel technologies, is expected to become the foundation for similar initiatives in other states, as well as nationally and internationally. >> Read the Full Article
Poisonings, suicides fuel rise in U.S. injuries, deaths

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death rate from injury in the United States is rising this decade after declining since the late 1970s, spurred by increases in accidental poisonings and suicides, health officials said on Thursday.
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Indonesian man dies from bird flu

Runizar Roesin, head of the bird flu centre in Jakarta, told Reuters the 47-year-old man from Tangerang died on Thursday evening.
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Mitchell steroid report fingers top baseball stars

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dozens of top baseball stars including Roger Clemens were named on Thursday in the long-awaited Mitchell Report on steroids use, which Major League Baseball hopes will help clean its tarnished image.
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Growing chronic disease will hit poor nations
Developing countries will be severely hit by a growing epidemic of chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCDs), say the authors of a new series launched by The Lancet this week (4 December). CNCDs include heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer — diseases that are often seen as secondary to the threat of infectious disease in the developing world. But experts say CNCDs are becoming an increasing danger, and low- and middle-income countries must take action now. >> Read the Full Article
Countries 'ill prepared' as bird flu risk continues

NEW DELHI - Many countries continue to be plagued by poor bird flu surveillance and diagnosis capacity, and weak national preparedness plans, experts have warned.
The third global progress report of the United Nations System Influenza Coordination (UNSIC) and the World Bank is released this month (December). It warns that the risk of global influenza pandemic is as great in late 2007 as it was in mid-2005, when the first cases began to emerge.
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