Environmental News Network

Dirty energy threatens health of 2 billion: study
The health of about 2 billion of the world's poor is being damaged because they lack access to clean energy, like electricity, and face exposure to smoke from open fires, scientists said on Thursday. Dangerous levels of indoor air pollutants from badly ventilated cooking fires are a common hazard, while lack of electricity deprives many of the benefits of refrigeration. >> Read the Full Article
Life expectancy in U.S. rises to all-time high of 78
Life expectancy in the United States has increased to almost 78 years, the country's highest on record, amid a downturn in deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to new federal estimates published on Wednesday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said preliminary figures for 2005 showed an increase in the U.S. infant mortality rate from the previous year, although it called the rise statistically insignificant. Black babies under age 1 remained far more likely to die than white babies. >> Read the Full Article
U.S. Failed to Boost Produce Inspections
Government regulators never acted on calls for stepped-up inspections of leafy greens after last year's deadly E. coli spinach outbreak, leaving the safety of America's salads to a patchwork of largely unenforceable rules and the industry itself, an Associated Press investigation has found. The regulations governing farms in this central California region known as the nation's "Salad Bowl" remain much as they were when bacteria from a cattle ranch infected spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200. >> Read the Full Article
Haze of confusion over most-polluted city list
A U.S. group's report naming the Chinese city of Tianjin as one of the world's most polluted places apparently confused the large northern port with a notorious lead-processing town in the country's east. Tianjin, with more than 10 million people, gained unwelcome global attention on Wednesday when the New York-based Blacksmith Institute named it as one of the world's most heavily polluted places for its outpouring of toxins from scrap lead processing. >> Read the Full Article
Ancient Architects Engineered Angkorâ€™s Downfall
University of New South Wales, Australia - The architects of Cambodiaâ€™s famed Angkor â€“ the world's most extensive medieval "hydraulic city" â€“ unwittingly engineered its environmental collapse, says research by University of New South Wales scientists and a team of international scholars. >> Read the Full Article
Study: Cell Phone Use Dangers Still Unknown
LONDON (Reuters) - Cellular phones do not pose short-term health risks, but it remains too soon to say whether they can cause brain cancer or whether children face greater risks than adults, British scientists said on Wednesday. Publishing the largest UK investigation into possible health problems from mobile technology, scientists said the six-year program found no evidence that short-term mobile phone use affected brain function or could cause brain cancer. >> Read the Full Article
New York restaurant Calorie Labeling Rule Overturned
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's fast food restaurants can ignore a city law aimed at making it easier for consumers to tell how many calories are packed into their burgers, fries or tacos, a judge ruled on Tuesday. The new city law stopped short of forcing all restaurants to post calorie and fat counts on their menus, but said those outlets that already make such information available should post it on their menus in typeface as large as the menu item. >> Read the Full Article
Burger King To Limit Ads Targeting Children Under 12
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fast-food chain Burger King Holdings Inc said on Tuesday that, beginning late next year, it will limit advertising aimed at children younger than 12 to food and drinks that meet strict nutritional guidelines. In conjunction with the Council for Better Business Bureaus' children's food and beverage advertising initiative, Burger King has agreed that, by December 2008, it will limit advertising aimed at children under 12 years old to Kids Meals that provide no more than 560 calories per meal, have less than 30 percent calories from fat and no added trans fats. >> Read the Full Article
Child malnutrition in Somalia at critical levels: U.N.
Child malnutrition in Somalia is at critical levels due to violence and lack of access for aid workers, the U.N. children's agency said on Wednesday. >> Read the Full Article
Survey: Consumers Trust Food Grown Locally, But Not Foreign Grown
AMES, Iowa -- A recent survey shows that American consumers trust local foods, but are skeptical about the safety of the global food system. A new survey also found that consumers feel local foods are safer and better for their health than foods from afar. >> Read the Full Article