https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Soil pollution from an old incinerator in the Swiss city of Lausanne has not resulted in increased health risks to the local population, a study concluded Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-lausanne-toxic-soil-worsen-health.html Environment Wed, 21 Aug 2024 11:33:38 EDT news643458813 After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-dioxins-ohio-derailment.html Environment Fri, 03 Mar 2023 07:56:36 EST news597052588 Lausanne, the capital of Olympic sport overlooking Lake Geneva, is reeling after discovering that much of its soil is polluted with toxic compounds belched out by an old incinerator. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-lausanne-tackles-toxic-soil-discovery.html Environment Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:18:21 EDT news553583897 Dioxins are a group of toxic and persistent environmental pollutants. These compounds are formed through a variety of processes but commonly through incomplete combustion of organic matter. Levels are usually monitored in industrial settings for safety reasons using offline laboratory analyses that are carried out periodically. New work published in the International Journal of System Control and Information Processing offers an emission concentration estimate from soft measurements that utilizes a deep forest regression algorithm. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-dioxins.html Environment Fri, 24 Sep 2021 09:48:43 EDT news551695701 Bacteria that can help defuse highly toxic dioxin in sediments in the Passaic River—a Superfund hazardous waste site—could eventually aid cleanup efforts at other dioxin-contaminated sites around the world, according to Rutgers scientists. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-bacteria-defuse-dangerous-chemical-rassaic.html Environment Wed, 19 Aug 2020 12:47:19 EDT news517060034 A research team in Ehime University characterized the complex composition of chlorinated, brominated and mixed halogenated dioxins as well as their major precursors in soils from e-waste burning and dismantling areas in Agbogbloshie (Accra, Ghana), a major hub of informal e-waste processing in Africa. The findings were published on February 22, 2019 in Environmental Science & Technology. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-characterization-hidden-dioxins-e-waste.html Environment Fri, 12 Apr 2019 07:36:07 EDT news474273359 During the Vietnam War, United States aircraft sprayed more than 20 million gallons of herbicides, including dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, on the country's rain forests, wetlands, and croplands. Agent Orange defoliated the thick jungle vegetation concealing Viet Cong fighters and destroyed a portion of the country's food crops, but it was primarily the dioxin contaminant that harmed so many Vietnamese and U.S. military personnel. A new article from the University of Illinois and Iowa State University documents the environmental legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam, including hotspots where dioxin continues to enter the food supply. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-toxic-byproducts-agent-orange-pollute.html Environment Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:03:00 EST news470498573 Vietnam and the United States on Tuesday launched the second phase of a dioxin clean-up in Danang, where millions of litres of Agent Orange were stored during the war between the former enemies. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-vietnam-danang-dioxin-clean-up.html Environment Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:17:33 EDT news396001048 Dioxins forms faster, at lower temperatures and under other conditions than previously thought. This may affect how we in the future construct sampling equipment, flue gas filtering systems for waste incineration and how to treat waste incineration fly ash. These are some of the conclusions Eva Weidemann draws in her doctoral thesis, which she defends at Umeå University on Friday the 26 of September. https://phys.org/news/2014-09-unforeseen-dioxin-formation-incineration.html Environment Thu, 18 Sep 2014 08:50:01 EDT news330244541 Top scientists from a variety of fields say they are about as certain that global warming is a real, man-made threat as they are that cigarettes kill. https://phys.org/news/2013-09-certainty-scientists.html Environment Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:10:01 EDT news299242338 Since the horse meat saga began in 2012, some of us have decided to eat more fish and seafood - after all, we have been told they are better for our health. Well, that may not be quite true today. While EU law allows consumers shopping at supermarkets to learn where their seafood comes from, most restaurants are under no obligation to reveal how far their seafood has travelled to get to a diner's plate. https://phys.org/news/2013-03-tool-seafood-contamination.html Environment Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:40:01 EDT news283422431 Studies uncover risks and threats to Arctic inhabitant's health that might be due to contaminants brought by warmer air and sea water currents resulting from climate change. https://phys.org/news/2013-03-chemicals-pollutants-threaten-health-arctic.html Environment Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:59:31 EDT news282553164 (AP)—Two years after the triple calamities of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster ravaged Japan's northeastern Pacific coast, debris containing asbestos, lead, PCBs—and perhaps most worrying—radioactive waste due to the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant looms as a threat for the region. https://phys.org/news/2013-03-japan-cleanup-lags-tsunami-nuke.html Environment Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:53:03 EDT news282113572 When people wash their hands with antibacterial soap, most don't think about where the chemicals contained in that soap end up. University of Minnesota engineering researchers do. https://phys.org/news/2013-01-antibacterial-agent-common-soaps-amounts.html Environment Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:04:30 EST news278074523 (Phys.org)—Sweden is hungry for trash and has turned to Norway for an offer it would find hard to refuse, no pun intended. Sweden is asking its neighbor for trash. Sweden's success is Sweden's problem. Sweden is a model recycler. Thanks to a highly efficient waste management system in Sweden, the vast majority of this household waste can be recovered or reused. As a result, Sweden has run short of garbage. Since it does not produce enough burnable waste for its energy needs, Sweden is suffering a downside to being such an enviable model of recycling. The average in Europe of trash that ends up as waste is 38 percent. Sweden's is 1 percent. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-sweden-norway-trash-lots.html Energy & Green Tech Sun, 28 Oct 2012 15:48:58 EDT news270658041 (Phys.org)—Millions of flat-screen monitors and television sets will soon become obsolete, posing environmental hazards, and Purdue University researchers are developing tools to help industry efficiently recycle the products. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-environmental-impact-tools-aid-recycling.html Engineering Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:26:32 EDT news269076359 (AP) -- Vietnam on Friday started the first phase of a joint plan with former enemy the United States to clean up environmental damage leftover from the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, a lasting legacy from the Vietnam War. https://phys.org/news/2011-06-vietnam-joint-agent-orange-cleanup.html Environment Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:19:40 EDT news227531971 (PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine that you’re a grass shrimp. Now, imagine that you’re a rational grass shrimp, and that you have a choice of living in an environment with relatively high levels of dioxin, poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and other floating nastiness or a relatively unpolluted environment with clean water and plenty of food.  https://phys.org/news/2011-06-crustaceans-polluted-worse.html Plants & Animals Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:21:06 EDT news226920022 Japanese workers tackling the Herculean task of clearing millions of tonnes of debris from last month's earthquake and tsunami also face health risks from asbestos and dioxins. https://phys.org/news/2011-04-asbestos-dioxin-threats-japan-tsunami.html Environment Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:24:16 EDT news223183445 (PhysOrg.com) -- When reactive oxygen species (ROS) hit the body, vitamin E helps to prevent damage to tissues and cells by acting as an antioxidant. The health benefits of vitamin E are numerous, and in fact, studies have found that people with higher levels of vitamin E in their system have a lower risk of heart disease and certain forms of cancer. A team led by Thomas Rosenau from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (Austria) now describe their synthesis of a series of modified vitamin E derivatives that show promise as dioxin receptor antagonists in the European Journal of Organic Chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2011-03-vitamins-tocopherol-derivatives-dioxin-receptor.html Biochemistry Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:21:36 EDT news219658832 The environmental scientist whose work on dioxins last year prompted governments around the world to suspend the use of some pesticides says there is more to the problem and authorities need to act urgently. https://phys.org/news/2010-12-toxicologist-urgent-action-dioxins.html Environment Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:50:01 EST news210946511 China has said it aims to cut the intensity of dioxin emissions in key industries by 10 percent by 2015, as part of efforts by the world's top polluter to tackle ever-worsening air quality. https://phys.org/news/2010-11-china-rein-dioxin-emissions-air.html Environment Tue, 09 Nov 2010 04:20:01 EST news208497716 (AP) -- The government has spent many millions of dollars in recent decades cleaning up sites contaminated with dioxin and, in extreme cases, relocating residents of entire neighborhoods tainted by the toxin. https://phys.org/news/2010-10-dioxin-cleanups.html Environment Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:32:09 EDT news207757886 Contrary to popular belief, paying a premium price for free-range eggs may not be healthier than eating regular eggs, a new study reports. Scientists found that free-range eggs in Taiwan contain at least five times higher levels of certain pollutants than regular eggs. Their findings appear in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2010-06-fowl-news-hints-taiwan-free-range.html Biochemistry Wed, 16 Jun 2010 12:23:33 EDT news195909793 Specific dioxins derived from the antibacterial agent triclosan, used in many hand soaps, deodorants, dishwashing liquids and other consumer products, account for an increasing proportion of total dioxins in Mississippi River sediments, according to University of Minnesota research. https://phys.org/news/2010-05-dioxins-common-soap-ingredient-mississippi.html Environment Tue, 18 May 2010 13:30:02 EDT news193406935 Throughout our lives we are exposed to an enormous range of man-made chemicals, from food, water, medicines, cosmetics, clothes, shoes and the air we breathe. At the request of the EU, researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have looked at the risk of "chemical cocktails" and have proposed a number of measures that need to be implemented in the current practice of chemical risk assessment. https://phys.org/news/2010-03-chemical-cocktail-affects-humans-environment.html Environment Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:05:37 EDT news189079522 A proposal under debate in the U.S. Congress to ban the export of electronics waste would likely make a growing global environmental problem even worse, say authors of an article from the journal Environmental Science and Technology appearing online today. https://phys.org/news/2010-03-e-waste-wont-environmental-threat.html Environment Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:34:58 EDT news188454875 The signs posted along Michigan's Tittabawassee River warning of dangerous dioxin levels don't really worry fisherman David Mitchell. https://phys.org/news/2009-12-decades-old-dioxins-pollute-river.html Environment Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:10:03 EST news179934710 Swiss researchers have found that Alpine glaciers melting under the impact of climate change are releasing highly toxic pollutants that had been absorbed by the ice for decades. https://phys.org/news/2009-10-toxic-legacy-seeps-alpine-glaciers.html Environment Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:31:07 EDT news174735023 (AP) -- New environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near a former U.S. air base where American troops stored the herbicide during the Vietnam War. https://phys.org/news/2009-09-survey-dioxin-high-vietnam-base.html Environment Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:30:01 EDT news171886547