Word: toxicants
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Doctors admit that no one knows precisely what concentrations of environmental arsenic are toxic, and the wood-treatment industry insists that wherever that line is, its products don't cross it. Environmental groups, however, disagree, insisting that at any dosage level, children and arsenic don't mix. Says Richard Wiles, pesticide director for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group: "We've pretty much set up an arsenic delivery system for kids...
...long time. Even when a playground is torn down, the wood must still be disposed of--not an easy thing to do. Dumping it in an unlined landfill allows arsenic to seep underground. Mulching it scatters CCA on the surface. And burning it fills the air with toxic smoke. Leaving the structures to disintegrate on their own could take a while. CCA is such an effective preservative that those pressure-treated wooden forts and castles might still be standing a generation from now. In retrospect, the old metal swings and jungle gyms are starting to look pretty good...
...rocky, sun-baked desert floor, with Las Vegas about 90 miles to the southeast. The proximity to that city is a problem for Nevadans--and perhaps for the future of nuclear power in this country--because the Federal Government wants to bury inside Yucca Mountain the most toxic garbage that humankind has produced: 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste generated by America's 103 nuclear power plants. A thousand feet below the mountain's peak, a tunneling machine called the "Yucca Mucker" has bored a 25-ft.-wide shaft into its center; inside that shaft, technicians in hard hats...
Like some sort of biblical plague, toxic mold has been creeping through homes, schools and other buildings across the U.S. Although press reports have focused on stachybotrys, strains of aspergillus, chaetomium and penicillium have also triggered their share of grief. At least two families have burned their homes to rid themselves of the contamination. Thousands more, including antipollution crusader Erin Brockovich, are suing home builders, landlords and insurers for damages to their property and their health. Last month the California state senate approved the country's first mold bill, which would set standards for acceptable levels indoors and require home...
...test the weak points all along the border's 1,952 miles. In Tijuana smugglers cram three people into a car trunk and a fourth behind a dashboard, then drive through the customs checkpoint, hoping nobody suspects anything. In Calexico aliens float down a stream choked with toxic chemicals and sewage, betting the border patrol won't jump in to pull them out. In nearby Nogales smugglers tunnel 6 ft. under the border and funnel people through...