April 30th, 2013

The European Union votes to give honey bees a reprieve from a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, long suspected of triggering massive bee deaths that threaten agriculture worldwide. The pesticides are still be allowed in the United States.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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April 24th, 2013

Apples, strawberries, grapes and celery. All of these are healthy foods, but unfortunately they arrive at the grocery with the highest pesticide residues and top the latest “Dirty Dozen” list released by the Environmental Working Group. The other Dirty Dozen foods include some of the most delectable fruits and vegetables. You’ll just have to buy the organic versions if you want to avoid the trace pesticides that ride along.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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March 22nd, 2013

Beekeepers and environmental groups sued the EPA this week for allowing pesticides that are causing an epidemic of bee deaths. The suit asks the agency to suspend the permits for certain pesticides, which have been shown to poison bees, which in turn threatens a wide array of crops dependent on bee pollination.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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February 13th, 2013

A national report on the state of breast cancer treatment and prevention has concluded that too little attention is being paid to the environmental triggers that lead to breast cancer, whose incidence continues to rise. Among those factors are BPA, pesticides and alcohol consumption.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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January 25th, 2013

European researchers studying the effects of seven common agricultural pesticides on frogs report that exposing the amphibians directly to the chemicals resulted in rates of mortality from 40 to 100 percent.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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May 7th, 2012

Autism now affects one in 88 kids, soaring in the last few decades, seemingly out of nowhere, to become a major health issue.
Research shows that genetics plays a role in autism, but many scientists believe that environmental factors are as important in triggering the disorder.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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March 9th, 2012

Ah, spring. You can smell it on the air — that bracing ammonia smell wafting off your neighbor’s lawn; the acrid odors at the local home store, where the first six aisles have been packed with heaping bags of the season’s poisons.
Hydramethylnon, glyphosate, dicambra, atrazine and 2,4-D.
There’s a little something to wipe out every potential lawn and garden interloper, but the most popular consumer weapons in the annual war on nature are the “weed and feeds.” These fertilizers-herbicide combos were conceived of more than 50 years ago in the US to enrich turf grass, while simultaneously stamping out invading weeds.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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February 23rd, 2012

Just in time for weed-and-feed season, the Natural Resources Defense Council has filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to stop the use of the weed killed known as 2,4-D.
This neurotoxic chemical, infamous as a key ingredient in Agent Orange, is still allowed in products used to treat lawns, golf courses and in commercial operations.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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September 12th, 2011

After studying how pollutants travel in the wake of the flooding in New Orleans that followed after Hurricane Katrina, Texas Tech University toxicologists are warning people to stay out of floodwaters stemming from recent heavy Northeastern rains.

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August 9th, 2011

John Dromgoole, owner of "The Natural Gardener" in Austin, has been advising folks on how to go natural and organic in the garden for a couple decades. Not only does organic gardening save the wider environment, it's critical to keeping our home turf, our kids, our pets and ourselves healthier. Watch the first part of our conversation with Dromgoole in which he talks about the dangers of pesticides, the growing popularity of organic gardening and the wisdom of letting nature work in harmony in our gardens. We visited with Dromgoole in his garden and store, a vast spread of demonstration plots bursting with butterfly food, culinary herbs, produce, native plants, succulents and whimsical garden decor.

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June 13th, 2011

Apples are the most chemically contaminated produce, according to the non-profit Environmental Working Group. To avoid pesticides associated with these fruits and vegetables, look for organic choices when possible.

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February 22nd, 2011

Spring has sprung, or is springing -- quite early, in case you hadn't noticed (hmm...wonder why?). And with the season come the chemicals, raining down upon lawn and garden centers everywhere Ah, I love the smell of Atrazine in the morning. Let us celebrate the beginning of new life --and the end of beneficial insects, pure water, live soil and natural processes! It is amazing that with our vast knowledge of how chemicals contaminate ecosystems, pollute waterways and boomerang back in food and drink with verifiable carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting effects, we collectively buy tons of these synthetic chemicals every spring, summer and fall.

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