industryterm:toxic chemicals

#Pyrénées : Il pleut (et il neige) du #plastique dans les montagnes de l’Ariège révèlent des scientifiques
▻https://www.20minutes.fr/planete/2497255-20190415-pyrenees-pleut-neige-plastique-montagnes-ariege-revelent-

https://img.20mn.fr/rPoA_OxjR_W0Fn3ZJJ4sNw/648x360_pyrenees-ariegeoise-fevrier-2019.jpg

Pour prélever leurs échantillons, durant cinq mois d’hiver, les scientifiques ont pris pourtant soin de sélectionner un coin supposé être à l’abri des activités humaines et industrielles. Il est situé à plus de 5 km de tout village et à 120 km de Toulouse, qui plus est en pleine zone Natura 2.000.

Alarm as study shows how microplastics are blown across the world  | Environment | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/15/winds-can-carry-microplastics-anywhere-and-everywhere

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/269c249cfe697498169b8a9fd6737ee0be06e9ef/0_0_5740_3443/master/5740.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&s=192ceb8ffca6d441ea3d17eab6abbfcb

Many scientists are concerned about the potential health impacts of microplastics, which easily absorb toxic chemicals and can host harmful bacteria, with some even suggesting people are breathing the particles. The new research shows microplastics can remain airborne.

“When you get down to respiratory size particles, we don’t know what those do,” said Deonie Allen. “That is a really big unknown, and we don’t want it to end up something like asbestos.” Plastic fibres have been found in human lung tissue, with those researchers suggesting they are “candidate agents contributing to the risk of lung cancer”.

Europeans Help ’Idlib Rebels’ To Equip Missiles With Chemical Warheads – Report
▻https://southfront.org/europeans-help-idlib-rebels-to-equip-missiles-with-chemical-warheads-rep

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Chemical-weapons.jpg

French militants-experts are helping Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) [former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria] to arm newly delivered missiles with chemical warheads, local sources familiar with the situation told the Russian news agency Sputnik on November 22.

According to the sources, the White Helmets organization transferred five containers with toxic chemicals from one of HTS’ warehouses in the town of Kafr Nabl in the southern Idlib countryside to an underground facility in Idlib city, which has recently been built near the Central Prison.

“The five containers were handed over in the underground facility to French experts, of the black ethnicity .. they arrived recently to modify missiles of an unidentified type, which were supplied along with their launchers through the border,” Sputnik quoted the sources as saying.

South Front, Sputnik : rien que des complotistes contre la révolution en #syrie

OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria (►https://www....
▻https://diasp.eu/p/6997497

OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria

#Syria #OPCW #war #Chemical #Weapons #Douma #politics #international

Number of toxic chemicals on supermarket vegetables has risen 17 fold since the 1960s
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/21/number-toxic-chemicals-supermarket-vegetables-has-risen-17-fold

The number of chemicals on supermarket vegetables has increased by up to 17 fold in 40 years, data shows, as the organic food industry and scientists have warned that consumers are exposed to a “toxic cocktail” of #pesticides.

Figures released for the first time by the Soil Association, which certifies organic food, show the number of toxic chemicals found in onions, leeks, wheat and potatoes has been steadily increasing since the 1960s.

This is despite industry data showing that the volume of pesticides found on supermarket vegetables has halved since the 1990s.

[...] The figures were compiled by data firm Fera Science, which used to be a Government arm, and were only made public after the Soil Association paid for them to be released from archives.

#pollution #santé #UK

Medical school to examine whether professor published paper partly written by chemical company
▻http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/medical-school-examine-whether-professor-published-paper-partly-written-

Officials at a medical school in New York State say they will investigate a faculty member who, according to internal documents released last week by a federal court in California, put his name on a paper partially ghostwritten by employees at #Monsanto, the giant agricultural chemicals company based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Officials at the New York Medical College (NYMC) in Valhalla, New York, had not heard of the ghostwriting allegation until they were contacted by ScienceInsider, says Jennifer Riekert, the college’s vice president of communications. “Now that we’re aware of this, we’re going to have to obtain the materials involved and learn all we can about this situation,” she says.

At issue is a 2000 paper published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. It concluded that a review of studies of one of Monstano’s most successful products, the widely-used herbicide #Roundup, showed no evidence of harmful effects on people.

#corruption #fraude

You’ll never want to buy synthetic clothing after watching ’The Story of Microfibers’ : TreeHugger
▻http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/microfibers-may-be-small-theyre-enormous-problem.html

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2017/03/plastic_clothing.png.600x315_q90_crop-smart.png

Earlier this month, the Story of Stuff released its newest video on the problem of microfibers. The three-minute film offers a short yet powerful explanation of how the miniscule bits of synthetic fibers washing off our clothes are creating an environmental catastrophe in the #oceans.

The microfiber pieces are smaller than a grain of rice, measuring less than 5 millimeters in length, which mean they cannot be filtered out by washing machines or even waste water treatment plants. They get flushed out into waterways and oceans, where they act like little sponges, attracting and absorbing other toxic chemicals around them, like motor oil and pesticides. Eventually they climb their way up the food chain, until they reach human bellies at mealtime.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqkekY5t7KY&feature=youtu.be

#vêtements #synthétiques #pollution #chaine_alimentaire #toxiques #empoisonnement

Electronics recycler fined $444,000 for illegally disposing of dangerous waste overseas | September News | Washington State Department of Ecology
▻http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2016/114.html

Electronics recycler fined $444,000 for illegally disposing of dangerous waste overseas
Total Reclaim sent TVs and monitors to China, exposing workers and environment to toxic mercury

SEATTLE – The Washington Department of Ecology has fined Seattle-based electronics recycler Total Reclaim Inc. $444,000 for illegally disposing of flat-screen televisions and monitors with fluorescent tubes containing toxic mercury. The company shipped the flat screens to Hong Kong, where they were broken apart in the open by unprotected workers.

“Total Reclaim has been a leading electronics recycler in Washington, so they knew what they were doing was wrong,” said Laurie Davies, manager of Ecology’s Waste 2 Resources program. “This penalty is a reminder that recyclers can’t take shortcuts when it comes to properly managing toxic chemicals.”

Total Reclaim’s actions were revealed in an investigation by the Basel Action Network, a nonprofit group that certifies electronics recyclers for E-Cycle Washington and similar programs. The Basel Action Network attached GPS tracking beacons to electronics, then dropped off the units at recycling facilities. The group followed some of the trackers to Hong Kong, and filmed how the flat screens were dismantled and disposed of.

Total Reclaim later admitted that it sent the flat screens to undocumented recycling facilities and that it withheld information from customers and auditors. The company provided records to Ecology that showed it shipped flat screens overseas beginning seven years ago.

Washington law requires electronics recyclers to either properly recycle e-waste themselves, or ensure that it is legitimately recycled elsewhere. E-Cycle Washington was set up to prevent the toxic materials in old electronics from ending up in the environment, whether here in Washington or elsewhere in the world.

The flat screens illegally disposed of by Total Reclaim represent a small portion of all of the electronics collected for recycling in Washington. So despite the actions of Total Reclaim, Ecology believes it is important to continue recycling electronics to keep lead, mercury and other toxics out of the environment.

Washington residents can recycle TVs, monitors, computers and other electronics for free at participating E-Cycle Washington locations. For questions about where other items can be recycled, call or visit 1-800-RECYCLE.

Total Reclaim has 30 days to pay the penalty or may file an appeal with the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board.

#déchets #environnement #Pollution #trafic_de_déchets

Why everything from Samsung phones to hoverboards are (literally) exploding
▻http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-everything-from-samsung-phones-to-hoverboards-are-literally-explodi

Behind all the incidents is the small, powerful and ubiquitous lithium-ion battery, a technology that has been ascendant for more than a decade in a wide variety of products.

The Big Source of Pollution That No One Talks About: Oceangoing Ships
▻http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/06/study-pollution-ships

http://www.motherjones.com/files/ship_pollution.jpg

oceangoing ships are also a major source of pollution around the world, and according to a new study, they’re emitting toxic chemicals that can cause major health problems.

#mer #trafic_maritime #pollution

Iraq seeks help in its fight to overcome the toxic fallout of war and terror - The Ecologist
▻http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2790446/iraq_seeks_help_in_its_fight_to_overcome_the_toxic_fallout_of_war_and_

Iraq is working hard to remediate the environmental impacts of two Gulf wars and Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons programme, writes Wim Zwijnenburg. But it now faces new hazards deliberately caused by Islamic State - and is in desperate need of international support.

De Saddam à nos jours

Al-Jubury has accused IS of polluting water sources with oil waste and toxic chemicals, and destroying agricultural land, leading to desertification, economic losses and threatening food security.

It appears that IS has adopted a strategy of using environmental damage as a weapon of war through the “deliberate contamination of rivers, lakes and streams with toxic waste and oil contaminants.”

To address this problem, local news agencies have reported that the MoE will begin an environmental assessment of affected areas. According to Luay al-Mukhtar, director of the ministry’s department for the regulation of chemicals and polluted sites, the purposde is to

“prevent the spread of disease and to safely dispose of waste. As part of this project, ministry teams will perform laboratory checks and analysis of water, soil and air in every area that has been cleared and secured of [IS] control.”

La #pollution comme arme de #guerre, les Irakiens sont servis et ils ne sont pas sortis de l’auberge ! #Irak #santé #environnement #eau #sols #industrie_pétrolière #armes_chimiques #industrie_chimique

All toxic chemicals removed from Syria reach destruction sites
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/all-toxic-chemicals-removed-syria-reach-destruction-sites

All the toxic chemicals removed from Syria under a deal with the #Syrian_government to destroy its #chemical_weapons stockpile have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement that the 1,300 tons of chemicals removed from Syria were now being destroyed at various locations. The watchdog said 32 percent of the total had been destroyed by July 21. read more

#CIEL: Chemical industry secretly manipulating US-EU trade negotiations (TTIP), March 10, 214
▻http://www.ciel.org/Chem/TTIP_10Mar2014.html

A leaked document** from the December 2013 round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations exposes the extent of chemical industry influence over secretive ongoing US-EU trade negotiations. Chemicals industry proposals to TTIP would have a chilling effect on the regulatory environment, slowing down the implementation of precautionary decisions on toxic chemicals, undermining democratic decision making and stifling the innovation of safer alternatives.

A report published today by #ClientEarth and CIEL shows that the leaked proposal from #lobby groups, the American Chemistry Council and the European Chemical Industry Council, would damage future protective #legislation on toxic chemicals.

For years the US government and the chemical industry has complained about protective EU chemicals laws being a trade barrier, with some industry groups calling it the largest transatlantic trade barrier. The major aim of the TTIP is to minimise what it calls technical barriers to trade. Its actions could weaken the implementation of vital laws to protect people and the environment. 

“This proposal illustrates two huge and interrelated problems with TTIP,” says Baskut Tuncak, Staff Attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law, “the privileged position of industry to craft language in the trade agreement without public input, and the unlimited potential of TTIP to affect the ability of countries to regulate on toxic chemicals, energy and climate change, food and agriculture, and other critical issues.” 

“The overriding theme of the proposals is secrecy,” says Vito Buonsante, ClientEarth Lawyer. “The industry wants to restrict the transparency of information, which is essential if people are to make choices about what they expose themselves to. They also want to undermine the democratic process by putting decision making in the hands of industry dominated committees.”

The report also shows that the leaked proposals would have a particularly damaging effect on legislation concerning chemicals that interfere with hormonal systems, such as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs are found in everyday products such as sunscreens, deodorants and children’s toys.

▻http://www.ciel.org/Publications/CH_Pro.pdf
▻http://www.ciel.org/Publications/ToxicPartnership_Mar2014.pdf

#accord_de_partenariat_transatlantique #APT #produits_chimiques #toxiques #santé #criminels

#syria agrees on April target to remove chemicals: diplomats
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-agrees-april-target-remove-chemicals-diplomats

Syria has agreed to a new timetable to remove its #chemical_weapons by late April after failing to meet a deadline to ship out the arsenal earlier this month, diplomats said on Wednesday. Under a US-Russian deal reached after a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds of people around Damascus last year, President Bashar al-Assad’s government should have handed over 1,300 tons of toxic chemicals by February 5 for destruction abroad. read more

#OPCW #Top_News

The Story of South African #farms
▻http://africasacountry.com/the-story-of-south-african-farms

In 2011 an investigation by Human Rights Watch into working conditions on #South_Africa’s wine and fruit farms drew international attention. The report documented numerous instances of human rights and labour abuses, including instances where workers faced physical abuse from farmers and were exposed to toxic chemicals. While the report was criticized by many in [...]

#MEDIA #Flip_Engelbrecht #racism

Scientists link mass death of British bees to farm pesticides | Herald Scotland
►http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/environment/scientists-link-mass-death-of-british-bees-to-farm-pesticides.132659

Nicotine-based pesticides in widespread use by farmers are implicated in the mass deaths of bees, according to a new study by US scientists.
Honeybee hives are being lost every year in the US; a million colonies a year are lost in France, Germany, Italy and the UK
(...)
Pesticide companies have been trying to protect their multi-billion pound businesses by lobbying internationally against bans on neonicotinoids, a group of toxic chemicals designed to paralyse insects by attacking their nervous systems.

#abeilles #environnement #chimie #agriculture

Why GMOs Won’t Feed the World (Despite What You Read in the New York Times)
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/hunger-and-the-globalized-system-of-trade-and-food-production-/50595-why-gmos-wont-feed-the-world-despite-what-you-read-in-the-new-yo

This article discusses how “sustainable intensification”—the production of food while reducing agriculture’s negative impacts on the environment—is a better alternative to GMO technology. Unlike GMO crops that rely on synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, sustainable farming increases the capture of carbon in the soil while simultaneously decreasing health risks from exposure to toxic chemicals. In this article Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, argues that GMOs do not strengthen social networks or up production significantly and they are not the answer to global food needs.

#agriculture #ogm

Banksy directs shocking ’Simpsons’ opening (video) - Live Feed
►http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/banksy-directs-shocking-simpsons-opening-54659

“The Simpsons” has taken random shots at its corporate parentage, use of Korean animation studios and merchandising efforts before — but never to this degree and in such a gonzo fashion. The clip contains images of a grim sweatshop animation factory, with children working with toxic chemicals and kittens being fed into a woodchipper to create Bart Simpson dolls.

Did BP’s oil-dissolving chemical make the spill worse? | HeraldTribune.com
►http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110530/ARTICLE/110539976/-1/news?p=all&tc=pgall

BP succeeded in sinking the oil from its blown well out of sight — and keeping much of it away from beaches and marshes last year — by dousing the crude with nearly 2 million gallons of toxic chemicals. But the impact on the ecosystem as a whole may have been more damaging than the oil alone.

The combination of oil and Corexit, the chemical BP used to dissolve the slick, is more toxic to tiny plants and animals than the oil in most cases, according to preliminary research by several Florida scientists.

#pétrole #pollution #cdp

BBC News - Georgia’s ’secret’ arsenic village
►http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13538604

Arsenic mines and factories in Georgia abandoned after the fall of the Soviet Union are leaking toxic chemicals, and scientific studies show high rates of illness in local children.

#industrie #chimie #pollution #Géorgie

Environmental Illness in U.S. Kids Cost $76.6 Billion in One Year
►http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2011/2011-05-04-02.html

It cost a “staggering” $76.6 billion to cover the health expenses of American children who were sick because of exposure to toxic chemicals and air pollutants in 2008

#chimie #santé