Healthbuzz » Healthy Planet

Presidential bets dared vs. toxic cosmetics.

LaVonne — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

On the eve of International Women’s Day, environmentalists campaigned in Manila to urge presidential bets to protect maternal and child health against toxic chemicals, particularly those in cosmetics.

Researcher: Pesticide ‘castrates’ male frogs.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Atrazine is widely used as weedkiller on American farms. And a new study shows this common chemical may have gender-bending effects on frogs.

When stuff happens, the Earth can suffer.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Author Annie Leonard believes we need to come together as a community and demand change “upstream” of stuff — including demanding protections that will remove toxins from shampoo, and changing trade regulations.

The Chesapeake’s three stages of truth.

LaVonne — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

The philosopher Schopenhauer once said that truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. With time more people will reach the conclusion that the Chesapeake Bay is in trouble.

Leukemia: the price of living close to an oil refinery?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Swedish scientists have discovered a remarkable increase in the incidence of leukemia in people living close to an oil refinery.

No gold medal for ski wax.

LaVonne — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

The Olympic skiers who recently dazzled the world on Canadian slopes couldn’t have reached the speeds they did without ski wax. But the material may have a dark side.

Phthalates predispose mice to allergies.

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) rubbed onto mouse skin changed the chemistry of the rodents’ immune system and made them more prone to developing contact allergies, reports a new study published in the scientific journal Immunology.

A common herbicide turns some male frogs into females.

LaVonne — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Some 225,000 kilograms of atrazine fall with the rain each year, sometimes up to 1,000 kilometers from the source. All that atrazine may be having another effect besides controlling weeds: turning male frogs female.

Tap water contaminant ‘castrates’ frogs.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

An herbicide that contaminates the tap water consumed by millions of Americans has been found to produce gender-bending effects in male frogs, “chemically castrating” some and turning others into females, a study shows.

Study says herbicide causes frogs’ sex change.

lindy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000

A powerful and widely used herbicide called Atrazine changes the sex of many male frogs to females and emasculates three-quarters of others, according to research reported this week by a UC Berkeley professor and molecular toxicologist.