All posts tagged "Environmental"

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No human organ is safe from microplastic contamination, it seems — not even the testicles.

Researchers at the University of New Mexico recently tested 70 samples of testicular tissue — 47 from dogs and 23 from humans — and found microplastics in every single one. The attention-grabbing study, published last week in the journal Toxicological Sciences, highlights microplastics’ “pervasive presence” in male reproductive systems, and their potential consequences on male fertility. ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Beginning Monday, California employers will be barred from discriminating against employees who use marijuana in their off hours. Assembly Bill 2188 requires employers to change how they test for marijuana use among employees, using tests that show current impairment and not just past usage. The law carves out some exceptions, such as for those who work in the construction trades. “Technology to test for marijuana impairment has actually advanced quite a bit, so basically employers can now just test for THC — the psychoactive component in cannabis — and that can show impai......

CHICAGO — Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration moved to officially scrap Mayor Brandon Johnson’s plan to build a migrant camp on a controversial Southwest Side lot, the state announced Tuesday morning while issuing a scathing rebuke of the city’s evaluation of the land’s potential environmental hazards. In a statement, Pritzker’s office said an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency review of the city’s environmental report — which was released late Friday evening — indicates “concerns related to insufficient soil sampling and remediation.” But because the time required for additional testing......

CHICAGO — President Joe Biden’s administration is moving to require utilities to replace every toxic lead pipe connecting homes to water mains during the next decade, though Chicago and several other cities likely will get more time to finish the job. Ingesting tiny concentrations of lead can permanently damage the developing brains of children and contribute to heart disease, kidney failure and other health problems later in life. One study estimated more than 400,00030025-2/fulltext) deaths a year in the U.S. are linked to lead exposure30025-2/fulltext). For decades dust from lead-based pain......

STETATTLE CREEK, North Cascades — Bubbles tumbled and danced on the surface of this creek as stones interrupted the flow of the aquamarine water, once home to spring Chinook and steelhead, below the bank where Scott Schuyler and his daughter Janelle walked in early November. Stetattle was derived from stəbtabəl' (stub-tahb-elh), or grizzly bear, in the Lushootseed language spoken by the Upper Skagit people who lived on these lands for at least 10,000 years. But grizzlies haven't lived here for decades. Today, federal agencies have offered up three potential plans for grizzlies' future in the N......

SEATTLE — Rewind, for just a second, to 2018 and imagine a series of nets trawling the depths of the east Bering Sea. Most every year, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration look for snow crabs. They drop nets for half an hour across 400 different spots in the sea. They haul in and weigh their catch and then calculate a rough number of snow crabs in the area. For that particular year, those scientists estimated 11 billion crabs were living, crawling, eating and reproducing in the frigid waters below, said Cody Szuwalski, a fishery biologist at NOAA. They had never ......