Word: toxicants
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Talk about double messages. Two federal courts have come out with decisions that could 1) limit and 2) increase the number of toxic chemicals to which Americans are exposed. The first concerns four pesticides -- used on crops including tomatoes, fruits and grains -- that cause cancer in laboratory animals. When these crops are processed into jellies, say, or catsup, the pesticides become more concentrated than they are in the field. Even then, the Environmental Protection Agency says, the risk of cancer is 1 in a million at most, and the chemicals should stay on the market...
...other ruling involves worker safety: in 1989 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration limited workplace exposure to more than 400 toxic substances. But OSHA didn't make a separate case for each, as the law requires. Though that would have taken decades, an Atlanta court said the limits are invalid. Workers shouldn't panic: it's unlikely that companies that have spent millions to comply with osha's standards will now spend even more to have safeguards removed...
Another type of immune cell that swings into action at the first hint of pollen produces a substance that is toxic to parasitic worms. "Probably the IgE response is there primarily to protect people against parasites," says Dr. Harold Nelson of the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver. Its response to pollen, he says, is simply a mistake...
...white or bright is bad. Max, the rapacious industrialist, has a Stokowskian white mane that helps Gothamites think of him as Santa Claus, though Selina derisively calls him "Anti Claus." The Penguin's sewer-level lair, Arctic World, is a garishly colorful place; it has ice-white walls, chartreuse toxic bile and a giant yellow ducky that serves as the Penguin's Stygian barge...
...Washington backed a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing peacekeeping troops to reopen Sarajevo airport if a cease-fire is reached so that urgently needed food can be flown in. But the Bush Administration was reluctant to intervene directly, despite its concern that Serbian shelling might hit a major toxic-chemical plant north of Sarajevo and trigger an environmental disaster. Impatience with the Serbian onslaught is growing in the U.S. Senate. Says Senator Richard Lugar: "The time for drawing the line has come...