environmental hazards

9 Stories

Abandoned Red Sea Tanker Is Disaster Waiting to Happen

It's on the verge of dumping out four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez

(Newser) - A ghost ship holding more than a million barrels of crude oil is rotting in the Red Sea. It could just sink. Or it could explode. And if either of those things happens, millions of people will be without water, on top of the environmental devastation, the Guardian reports. It...

Fukushima Running Out of Room for Toxic Water

There's 200K tons of contaminated water and counting

(Newser) - If you thought the environmental crisis that is Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant was last year's news, think again. The plant is still struggling with thousands of tons of contaminated water, which it used to cool down overheated reactors following the 2011 earthquake, says the water treatment manager at...

Greenies Rage After Obama Drops Ozone Plan

Environmentalists still uncertain how to retaliate against president

(Newser) - Environmentalists are reeling today after President Obama backed away from a plan to enact stricter ozone pollution standards on Friday. And this, only days after the State Department gave preliminary support to a pipeline slated to carry tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast from Canada. "There is shock...

Chesapeake 'Dead Zone' Could Be Largest Ever

Marine life threatened in oxygen-starved portion of bay

(Newser) - High nutrient pollution levels have caused the Chesapeake Bay's underwater "dead zone" to expand unusually quickly this year: It covers a third of the bay and will likely become the bay's largest-ever area of oxygen-starved water. The dead zone, which sucks oxygen from deep waters and kills...

Gulf's Real Threat: Aging Oil Platforms

Old pipes, platforms raise the risk of failure, experts say

(Newser) - The massive Gulf oil spill raised the alarm about huge, state-of-the-art deep-water drilling rigs. But greater danger may actually come from the region's aging oil infrastructure, say experts. Older structures face increased risk of accidents, particularly fires—more than 50% of the 3,000 oil platforms in the Gulf are...

Regulators Let BP Blow Off Wildlife Permits

Endangered species protections simply ignored

(Newser) - The Minerals Management Service appears to have blatantly ignored a law requiring new oil drilling operations to get permits from the agency that assesses risk to endangered species. The MMS gave the okay to the Deepwater Horizon rig and dozens of others without getting the permits, the New York Times ...

Cancer Risk From Chemicals 'Grossly' Understated
Cancer Risk From Chemicals 'Grossly' Understated
President's panel
May 6, 2010 10:09 AM CDT

Cancer Risk From Chemicals 'Grossly' Understated

Carcinogens in food, water systematically ignored

(Newser) - Environmental factors play a much bigger role in causing cancer than currently acknowledged, and President Obama needs to do something about it, the President's Cancer Panel concluded today. “The true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated,” the authors found after two years of testimony and...

Chemicals Used on Oil Spill Pose New Hazards

Less oil reaches shore, but toxins remain in the water

(Newser) - BP has begun using huge amounts of chemical dispersants to contain the oil slick that has tripled in only a day and is now the size of Puerto Rico. (AP has more on the growing size here .) And while those chemicals—being used above and below the surface—will...

7 Unlikely Threats to the Planet

 7 Unlikely Threats 
 to the Planet 
earth day
Apr 22, 2010 4:21 PM CDT

7 Unlikely Threats to the Planet

Mobile phones and concrete are on the list

(Newser) - Environmental hazards lurk everywhere, says LiveScience , which rounds up 7 "secret polluters." A sampling:
  • Cell phones: They use a rare mineral called coltan, which mainly comes from Congo via unsound mining methods. Plus, the phones have toxic chemicals that can pollute upon disposal.
  • Concrete: The way it's manufactured
...

9 Stories