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* Vermont Yankee could close by March 2012 * Entergy fighting for reactor survival Aug 2 (Reuters) - Vermont health regulators said on Tuesday they found a fish containing radioactive material in the Connecticut River near Entergy's (ETR.N) Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant which could be another setback for Entergy to keep it running. The state said it needs to do more testing to determine the source of the Strontium-90, which can cause bone cancer and leukemia. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin wants the 620 megawatts reactor shut in March 2012 when its original operating license was to expire. "Today's troubling...

Ugh. Hong Kong's English daily South China Morning Post has a distinctly unsavory dispatch from the Chinese media this morning: Government scientists have released research that millions of acres of Chinese agricultural land and over 12 million tons of Chinese grain are contaminated by toxic metal pollution, according to this week's edition of the China Economic Weekly, a state-run magazine. Last week, a separate article reported that 10% of Chinese rice contained excess cadmium, a heavy metal known to cause cancer.

Days before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalizes strict new regulations for dealing with toxic lead in residential homes, the agency is quietly cleaning up a dangerous lead contamination at its own headquarters. Dust samples recently taken from EPA’s Ariel Rios headquarters building were in many cases much higher than federal government limits for commercial buildings, documents show.

Tests on leading brands of U.S. bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants, including cancer-linked chemicals three times higher than California's health standard, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.

Birthwort Plant's Dark Side: Contaminated Grain Linked To Kidney Disease And Cancer In Balkan CountriesSeeds from birthwort plant is contaminating the wheat grain in the Balkan region, leading to a devastating kidney disease affecting rural residents in that region. (Credit: Image courtesy of Stony Brook University Medical Center) ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2007) — Seeds from birthwort (Aristolochia clematis), a plant which grows in wheat fields in the Balkan region and which has been used throughout Europe and Asia as an herbal remedy for 2000 years, is contaminating the wheat grain, leading to a devastating kidney disease affecting rural residents in...

Many of the products used are banned in the U.S. Traces of these drugs have been showing up increasingly in imports – especially from China. "In addition to potentially making people sick, overuse of such drugs is contributing to antibiotic resistance, a growing public health concern in a variety of foods," says Food & Water Watch in its report "Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspections." But the grave news on China's seafood exports is worsened by the FDA's inability to inspect imports. The percentage of important seafood shipments with samples taken for laboratory inspection has decreased...

The Food and Drug Administration has opened a criminal investigation in the widening pet food contamination scandal, officials said yesterday, as it was confirmed that tainted pork might have made its way onto human dinner plates in California. More than 100 hogs that ate contaminated food at a custom slaughterhouse in California's Central Valley more.....

Put me out of business, please. Opinion-Editorial By William Marler March 1, 2006 On March 1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued additional Guidelines “for the Safe Production of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables.” This seems to have been prompted by the August 2005 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections of some thirty people, including children, who ate DOLE bagged, pre-washed lettuce. At least 245,000 bags of lettuce were recalled across the country. In that outbreak alone, eight were hospitalized, and one child developed acute kidney failure, all from eating bagged, "pre-washed" lettuce. However, this is not the first...

A researcher inspects the 5,000-year-old mummy known as Oetzi in this file photo from 2000. Oetzi is kept in a sealed-off chamber which researchers now worry may have been penetrated. Updated: 10:02 p.m. ET June 13, 2005ROME - Researchers suspect the corpse of a 5,000-year-old mummy frozen in the Italian Alps might have been contaminated by bacteria since its discovery in 1991, a doctor who cares for the body said Monday.

American regulators knew five years ago that cotamination at the now infamous vaccine plant i Liverpool, England, was both pervasive and persistent, documents show. In fact, evidence was so overwhelming that regulators should have shut down the plant or sought alternative flu vccine sources long ago,say some vaccine experts and pharmac. experts who have reviewed the documents. * continued at kcstar.com

Human tissue contaminated Colorado company failed to follow anti-infection rules By Allison SherryDenver Post Medical Writer Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - A Colorado company may have shipped tainted human tissue to hospitals this spring, according to a federal inspection report that found numerous violations of the company's own safety rules. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials issued a seven-page warning letter to Englewood company AlloSource Inc. in early July for failing to follow the company's own policies in handling cadaver skeletal and muscular tissue. The company ships to hospitals in five states.One patient who received donated human tissue from...