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Study suggests US Dietary Guideline for upper limit of sugar consumption is too highA recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that adults who consumed high fructose corn syrup for two weeks as 25 percent of their daily calorie requirement had increased blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, which have been shown to be indicators of increased risk for heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends that people consume only five percent of calories as added sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 suggest an upper limit of 25 percent...

<p>CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio third-grader who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight.</p>

Some 5 to 20 million tons of debris--furniture, fishing boats, refrigerators--sucked into the Pacific Ocean in the wake of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami are moving rapidly across the Pacific. Researchers from the University of Hawaii tracking the wreckage estimate it could approach the U.S. West Coast in the next three years, the UK Daily Mail reports. "We have a rough estimate of 5 to 20 million tons of debris coming from Japan,"

On “GMA” this morning, Karl Rove noted that new GOP frontrunner has many strengths, but Rick Perry’s thoughts on Social Security are not among them. Perry’s campaign has not backed away from what Perry wrote in his book “Fed Up” — that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” a “failure,” “something we have been forced to accept for more than 70 years now,” and one of many New Deal programs that have “never died, and like a bad disease, they have spread.” But Rove pulled no punches today, calling that stance “inadequate.” “They are going to have to find a...

It's exotic and beautiful, a 15-foot tall plant with clusters of dainty white flowers and human-sized leaves -- resembling, it is often said, Queen Anne's Lace on steroids. But giant hogweed is an invasive species that is spreading around much of the northern United States. Even worse, its sap is extremely poisonous, with the potential to cause blistering burns and even blindness. Now that the giant hogweed's flowering season is here again, experts are taking the opportunity to draw people's attention to the plant -- for the sake of human health as well as for the health of the environment....

...When I set out to interview public health authorities and researchers for this article, they would often initiate the interview with some variation of the comment “surely you’ve spoken to Robert Lustig,” not because Lustig has done any of the key research on sugar himself, which he hasn’t, but because he’s willing to insist publicly and unambiguously, when most researchers are not, that sugar is a toxic substance that people abuse... ...What we have to keep in mind, says Walter Glinsmann, the F.D.A. administrator who was the primary author on the 1986 report and who now is an adviser to...

America's 10 Most Toxic CitiesPhiladelphia Lands on Atop The Most Toxic Towns List By Morgan Brennan March 5, 2011 During the Revolutionary War Philadelphia served as one of America's first capital cities. These days, however, Philadelphia could be considered the capital of toxicity, since the city and its environs ranked No. 1 on our 2011 Most Toxic Cities list. One big reason: The sprawling Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), including parts of four states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and one county in Maryland), is pocked with more than 50 Superfund sites---areas no longer in use that contain hazardous waste. **SNIP**...

Bank of America Corp has put up for sale at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets, the New York Post said on Monday, citing sources. Bids are due by the end of December for the assets, which includes already written-off loans and mortgage-servicing rights, the paper said.

$700B TARP bailout ends Sunday, will wind up costing $100B or lessThe Troubled Assets Relief Fund (TARP), an unpopular government rescue program credited by economists with preventing another Great Depression, will go out of business Sunday. By Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman Originally published Friday, October 1, 2010 at 9:18 PM WASHINGTON — An unpopular government-rescue program credited by economists with preventing another Great Depression will go out of business Sunday, two years to the day it was created. On Oct. 3, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), known as the bank-bailout bill, loses authorization to make new expenditures....

In an honor that could be misinterpreted as a slap in the face, a Los Angeles school district has named a new academy after Al Gore -- the only problem is the school was built on toxic soil. The Los Angeles Times reports that crews worked up to the Labor Day weekend to try to clean up the Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences in the run-up to its Sept. 13 opening. The $75.5 million facility was named after Gore, who has made bringing awareness to climate change a personal cause since leaving office, and environmental author Rachel Carson. The...

Al Gore school stands on top of toxic groundMark Raby | Tue 7th Sep 2010, 09:28 am Call it hilarious, offensive, or dangerous, but any way you slice it there will be controversy over a new school named after Al Gore that's opening for the first time next week. The Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences has just wrapped up construction in Los Angeles, and should be ready to open its doors when the school years starts on September 13. But there's something unmistakably ironic about the name of this school. It's named after environmental activist Rachel Carson, and bloated Nobel...

Democratic governors expressed "grave" concerns to White House officials this weekend about the Obama administration's suit against Arizona's new immigration law, warning it could cost the party in crucial elections this fall, The New York Times reported late Sunday. The closed-door meeting took place at the National Governors Association in Boston on Saturday, according to two unnamed governors who spoke to the Times. "Universally the governors are saying, 'We've got to talk about jobs, and all of a sudden we have immigration going on,'" Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, was quoted as saying. "It is such a toxic...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-08/harry-reid-so-toxic-in-nevada-his-son-runs-for-governor-without-last-name.html

NEW ORLEANS – Scientists provided a new estimate for the amount of oil gushing from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday that indicates it could be worse than previously thought. A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day of oil. That is an increase over previous estimates that put the maximum size of the spill at 2.1 million gallons per day.

Five years ago Molly and Zachery Gray were in the midst of a dark, lonely spiral. It began with Molly's first miscarriage. "It was a really emotional process of being so joyful and so happy and ready to make that step into parenthood and that being pulled away from you," said Molly, 32. "[The pregnancy is] happening and all of a sudden it's gone. It's really hard." After a second miscarriage the Grays were on a desperate hunt for answers. After Molly got pregnant a third time, she heard about a small study to test the blood of pregnant women...

NaturalNews) If someone were to begin marketing toxic sewer sludge as "high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic" compost, he or she would likely be considered a crook and possibly sued for false advertising. Unfortunately, this is what the city of San Francisco and Synagro, "the largest recycler of organic residuals in the United States," have begun doing to the people of San Francisco. Most waste treatment facilities across the U.S. contract treatment and disposal responsibilities to Synagro. Because it is no longer permissible to dump toxic sewage directly in the ocean, most of it ends up being reused on farm fields as "fertilizer."...

Reporting from San Francisco - After years of legal wrangling, the federal government agreed Wednesday to remove a fleet of mothballed military ships that has dropped tons of heavy metal pollution into a waterway northeast of San Francisco. As part of a settlement with environmental groups, the U.S. Maritime Administration said it will remove 52 obsolete and decaying vessels -- nicknamed the Ghost Fleet -- from the estuary between the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Five others have been removed since November. The agency plans to get rid of the 25 worst offenders in less than...

WASHINGTON — As the final round of the battle over health care reform begins today, President Barack Obama and the Democrats are in reach of a historic legislative achievement that has eluded presidents dating back a century. The question is at what cost. By almost any measure, enactment of comprehensive health care legislation would rank as one of the most significant pieces of social welfare legislation in the country's history, a goal set as far back as the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and pursued since by many other presidents. But unlike Social Security or Medicare, Obama's health care bill would...

Most Indian Plastic Toys Are 'Toxic' The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) studied a sample of Indian toys and found that all of them contained high levels of phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals used to soften plastic and the group says India has no regulations to control their use. The use of these chemicals in Europe and the US is strictly regulated. 'Most vulnerable' The CSE studied a sample of toys sold in India and found that all of them contained high levels of phthalates, Sunita Narayan, director of CSE told a press conference in Delhi. Nearly half of them...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2009 – Twelve soldiers and three sailors conducted a 10-day Toxic Industrial Chemical Protection and Detection Equipment training exercise here recently. Army Staff Sgt. Timothy Price is scrubbed off as he makes his way through the decontaminating process during a Toxic Industrial Chemical Protection and Detection Equipment training exercise on Contingency Operating Base Basra, Iraq, Dec. 15, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Samantha M. Stryker   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “You never know what could pop up,” said Army Capt. Leann Yi, 17th Fires Brigade Chemical, Biological, Radiological...

The suspected link between Chinese drywall and toxic effects reported by thousands of U.S. homeowners was strengthened Monday by three preliminary reports issued by the federal government. The strongest link came from an analysis of air sampled inside dozens of homes containing drywall made in China. "While the study of 51 homes detected hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde ... at concentrations below irritant levels, it is possible that the additive or synergistic effects of these and other compounds in the subject homes could cause irritant effects," the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in its executive summary of the study. Two other...

Thousands of Homeowners Cite Drywall for Ills By LESLIE WAYNE When Bill Morgan, a retired policeman, moved into his newly built dream home in Williamsburg, Va., three years ago, his hopes were quickly dashed. His wife and daughter suffered constant nosebleeds and headaches. A persistent foul odor filled the house. Every piece of metal indoors corroded or turned black. In short order, Mr. Morgan moved out. The headaches and nosebleeds stopped, but the ensuing financial problems pushed him into personal bankruptcy. “My house is not worth the land it’s built on,” said Mr. Morgan, who could not maintain the mortgage...

Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest. The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras." The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed...

The U.S. government wants to clear as much as $1 trillion in soured loans and securities from bank balance sheets with its latest bailout plan. That might prove a short-term respite. No sooner might the Treasury Department mop up those assets than $1 trillion or more in new ones spring up to take their place.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today announced a public-public partnership with PBS to produce and host a program tentatively dubbed 'Legacy Assets Roadshow', with a format reminiscent of the network's popular 'Antiques Roadshow.' Part adventure, part history lesson, and part treasure hunt, the Legacy Assets Roadshow hopes to "tap the viewer's ongoing curiosity about whether that dusty old thing that looks virtually worthless might turn out to be a precious keepsake worth big bucks." Geithner plans to travel to locations around the nation inviting bankers and other financial firm executives to bring in mortgages, mortgaged-backed securities and other items formerly known...

Government sources tell Time Magazine - the Administration’s long-awaited plan to save America’s banks is being delayed ‘again’. Apparently, the cause of this latest delay consists in the Treasury Department’s difficulties, or should we say - inabilities at this point, to create a proposal on financial reform that will help banks clean up toxic assets from their balance sheets through a partnership between private investors and the feds. Administration officials are urging patience and insist they are moving faster than anyone has tried to do before. However, the reality is - the Department’s version of the plan, initially introduced by...

Beijing: Carbolic acid spilled into a river from a chemical plant has forced the suspension of tap water supplies to more than one million people in China's eastern city of Yancheng, officials said on Saturday. The privately owned Biaoxin Chemical Company was found illegally discharging waste water into a river in Jiangsu Province, Xue Yu, Secretary-General of the city administration, said. Two water plants in the city were found contaminated with phenol after the waste water was discharged into the river. The Yancheng City has three tap water plants, which provide drinking water to the city's 1.5 million people. One...

If your owners use mulch in the yard, please have them read the below letter. There’s danger in that there mulch they might be purchasing. Buyer beware. Over the weekend one of our friends experienced a tragedy with one of their dogs and wanted me to pass a special message along to all of our dog loving friends and family. Please tell every dog owner you know. Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from

“Barack Obama,” Howie Kurtz declared, “will never get this kind of cuddly coverage again.” With that, the uber-critic gave voice to one of the cyclical predictions of the primary season’s punditry, the prediction that appears and reappears, never fulfilled, yet never dying: that, at some point, the press will stop fawning over Obama. Kurtz made this particular prediction back in December. Of 2006. Has it materialized? Well, flash forward to February of 2008, to Tuesday’s Potomac Primary. During MSNBC’s live coverage of the returns, as Mssrs. Matthews and Olbermann analyzed the victory speeches of the winners (Obama, by considerably more...

(HONG KONG) — Residents of Chenxi county in the southern Chinese province of Hunan say thousands of people are seeking medical attention after a local factory polluted the local water supply, although local officials said only 26 people were taken seriously ill. “We are not on the main water supply here, so 80 to 90 percent of villagers rely on the same water supply,” a resident of Banqiao village surnamed Chen told RFA’s Cantonese service. “One by one, they are all going to the doctor because they are getting headaches, swelling and weakness in their limbs.” Chen said that once...

SHENANDOAH, Iowa: Democratic 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday blamed China for a tide of millions of toy exports which she warned could be defective and endanger American children at Christmas. The former first lady also recalled how she had “stood up” to the Beijing government in 1995 at an international conference on women on a day in which she ridiculed her Democratic rival Barack Obama’s foreign policy credentials. “One of the things I don’t believe we should have to worry about is the safety of our food that is served for Thanksgiving or the toys that we buy our...

Congo arrests after toxic dumping Katanga has one of the world's richest belts of copper and cobalt Six people have been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo for allegedly dumping highly radioactive minerals into a river, officials say. The authorities had ordered the nearly 20 metric tons of toxic material to be disposed of at an old uranium mine. But some of those charged with the safe disposal of the waste are reportedly among those who have been arrested. Residents of the large town of Likasi nearby are being warned not to use the water from the contaminated Mura...

(LITTLE ROCK, ARK.) - Tests of two Chinese brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine, a chemical agent that led to another massive pet food recall in March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Wal-Mart quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets. Company spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said 17 sets of tests done on the products found melamine, a contaminant that's a byproduct of several pesticides. "There were very small amounts of melamine found," Galberth told The...

In the wake of an Iraqi official last month blaming America's use of depleted uranium munitions in its 2003 "Shock and Awe" campaign for a surge in cancer there, the Defense Department is facing an October deadline for providing a comprehensive report to Congress on the health effects of such weapons. The report is required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which President Bush signed into law last year. The request for the study is an outgrowth of claims by Iraq war veterans that exposure to depleted uranium and other toxic substances there has negatively affected...

Living and working next to The New York Times for many years now, I noticed the other day they were moving out to their new building on 8th avenue between 40th and 41st street after around a century on 43rd street. All signs are gone that they ever lived there. They have cleaned their logos off the clocks, the huge lighting bulbs that lined the street and even the doorways. Signs on the front door say closed and directs you to their new building that some critics rave about, but I think looks like the worst designed building I...

~~~snip~~~ Not far away, bulldozers piled up mountains of junk from AuClair's illegal dump, a dump so toxic it has been declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency. He now faces millions of dollars in fines. AuClair's site isn't unusual. Illegal dumps are spread across the Torres Martinez reservation like ugly wounds, making it the most polluted tribal land in California, Nevada and Arizona. Vast swaths of desert have been transformed into toxic trash heaps threatening the tribe and nearby communities. There are at least 26 illegal dumps here, including the largest one in the state. Federal officials...

WASHINGTON -- As federal regulators scrambled last month to contain a pet food contamination outbreak, officials in some Southern states had a different concern: Noticing that catfish imports from China had skyrocketed, they began testing the imported fish. ... The discovery enabled Alabama and Mississippi to put "stop sale" orders on the catfish, tying up more than 700,000 pounds of fish in Alabama alone. But without these last-minute tests, the fish would have been eaten by any number of consumers, despite the presence of the banned antibiotics. ...

"The main reason behind the rising number of cancer cases is that pollution of the environment, water and air is getting worse by day," the paper quoted Chen Zhizhou, a cancer expert at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as saying.

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered nearly 80,000 birds ready for processing after recent tests showed they were unharmed by tainted pet food. While the animals had been held on Indiana farms after ingesting pet food containing compounds such as melamine, testing showed the birds were safe for human consumption, an Agriculture Department news release said Friday.

SHANGHAI -- China says checks on food exporters have turned up no sign of a chemical blamed for the deaths of cats and dogs in North America, and urged US authorities to refrain from further action against Chinese producers. The government body responsible for overseeing food safety said it accompanied US Food and Drug Administration inspectors on visits to two companies blamed for the chemical contamination.

(CNN) -- U.S. health officials said Tuesday that fish intended for human consumption were fed meal that was contaminated with the chemical melamine. ... Officials: Fish pose no 'significant' danger ... Cats dead from kidney failure ...

WASHINGTON - Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption. Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on. Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you’ve got a real international pickle. Does the United States have...

Russia's emergency situations ministry says it is dispatching experts to a Siberian province to find out why yellow and orange snow has been falling in several villages, the ITAR-TASS news agency has reported. "A chemical test unit will be sent to Omsk ... it's main task will be to investigate pollution in the region and establish the degree of danger represented by the anomalous snow fall," the agency quoted an unnamed official from the ministry as saying. Snow ranging in colour from light yellow to orange and carrying a distinctive "musty"

William T. Love came to 1890s Niagara Falls, New York, with hugely ambitious plans. The landowner and entrepreneur envisioned the creation of an enormous utopian metropolis. His city would be home to enviable industry, and housing for more than a million people. Thousands of acres would become "the most extensive and beautiful [park] in the world". He planned to power the city using hydroelectric dams on a new 11-kilometer canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers. Within a year, however, Love's plans failed, and would quickly have been forgotten if it weren't for one problem. The one part of...

Estonia has immobilised the ship at the heart of an environmental scandal in Ivory Coast and launched a criminal investigation after finding toxic waste on board, prosecutors said.The investigation was opened at the request of the environment ministry after the results of analyses conducted on the residue left from cleaning the Probo Koala's oil tanks came today," Piret Seeman, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, told �FР on Wednesday. "The results of the analyses show similarities between the waste on board the Probo Koala in Estonia and the waste delivered by the Probo Koala to Ivory Coast, which caused mass...

A train derailed and spilled a hazardous liquid Tuesday night, prompting about half the population of Crawford to temporarily evacuate, officials said. President Bush's ranch is about 20 miles away from the town and is not near the area evacuated. Bush was not at the ranch at the time of the spill. More than 300 people were told to stay away from their homes for about four hours before they were allowed to return at 10 p.m., said Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore. No injuries were reported after the train spilled vinyl acetate, said Joe Faust, spokesman for BNSF Railway....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A spill of toxic liquids aboard International Space Station on Monday set off a short-lived emergency and fears of a fire aboard the outpost. The station crew was cleaning up from one group of visitors and preparing for their next guests when they smelled toxic fumes, flight engineer Jeff Williams and commander Pavel Vinogradov reported to ground control teams in Houston and Moscow. "The situation is stable right now. There's an obvious smell. There was never any smoke. It was perhaps wrongly assumed to be a fire initially," Williams said. The leak occurred near a...

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against an invasion of toxic toads. Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians. State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads. "The army in the Northern Territory is greater than any other part of Australia," McGowan told national radio. "We'd seek the Commonwealth (federal government) to help us in fighting this...

Toxic Tides: Another reason to worry about hurricanes Sid Perkins When Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne struck Florida in the summer of 2004, they killed 116 people, left thousands homeless, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Now, scientists suggest that the storms may also have triggered an intense, widespread Gulf of Mexico algae bloom that afflicted the state's western coast throughout 2005. DANGER ZONE. The red-and-yellow patch of Gulf of Mexico water off Tampa Bay shows the origin of last year's huge red tide, which may have been fueled by nutrient-rich groundwater discharges boosted by 2004 hurricanes. Hu,...

For the past 30 years, flame retardants have been found in every Canadian home, added liberally as a safety precaution to everything from mattresses and carpets to stereos, televisions and computers. Now Canada is poised to add flame retardants — or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — to its toxic-substances list. If a draft proposal it is circulating is any guide, the federal government is expected to virtually eliminate some varieties of the chemical and place tight controls on others. Regulators are considering drastic action because laboratory studies using animals have linked the chemicals to behaviour changes that bear an uncanny...