• Government Bans Lead Candlewicks
  
• Mixed Results From Health Study of Rocky Flats Workers
  
• Federal Officials Launch Urban River Restoration Effort
  
• Coastal Gulf States Are Sinking
  
• Conservationists Decry Oregon Black Bear Policy
  
• Quota Set to Protect Spiny Dogfish Shark
  
• Agencies to Assess Impact of Improving New York Port
  
• Pink Bollworms Could Adapt to Biotech Cotton
  

Government Bans Lead Candlewicks

The ban against manufacturing, importing, or selling candles with lead wicks will become effective in October 2003.

"The ban of lead-cored candlewicks should give parents with young children peace of mind that the burning of votive, pillar or container candles will not emit a dangerous toxin," said CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton.

The federal ban applies to all domestic and imported candles and was issued by CPSC under authority of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. CPSC officials say it should deter manufacturers from making non conforming wicks, allow the U.S. Customs Service to stop shipments of non-conforming wicks and candles, and allow for the U.S. government to seek penalties for violations of the ban.

A petition asking CPSC to ban lead candlewick was filed by Public Citizen, the National Apartment Association, and National Multi Housing Council in 2001.

The commission's investigation determined that a voluntary industry agreement in the 1970s to remove lead from candlewicks had not been adhered to by all manufacturers.

CPSC staff found that some lead-cored wicks could emit relatively large amounts of lead into the air during burning and some of the tested candles emitted lead levels some seven times above the rate that could lead to elevated levels of lead in a child.

Recent studies have indicated that children may be more susceptible to lead than previously thought. Lead in the blood can damage the nervous system, kidneys, and reproductive system.

Mixed Results From Health Study of Rocky Flats Workers

The 10 year health study of some 16,300 individuals who worked at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant between 1952 and 1989 found these people had lower death rates for all causes and for cancer when compared to the general public. Still, the researchers concluded that for certain cancers, mortality rates for Rocky Flats workers were higher than those for the general public.

The government funded study was conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

According to the researchers, the risk for lung cancer from inhaling radioactive particles is the most important finding in the study. Through a case-control study of 180 workers who died of lung cancer and 720 who did not, they found a statistically significant risks for lung cancer for cumulative internal lung doses greater than 400 milli Sievert.

The study also found unspecified tumors of the nervous system at over two times the expected rate. More research is needed to determine what is responsible for these increases and scientists with the University of Colorado are continuing to study the possible causes.

The study's authors believe it should be a first step to further understanding the health risks to nuclear workers.

The most important area for future work, according to the authors, is the estimation of doses from internal exposures to plutonium and other isotopes, for all workers, with methods like those used in the lung cancer case-control study.

They also are completing analyses of cancer diagnoses for Rocky Flats workers reported to the Colorado Central Cancer Registry. The registry is based at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Federal Officials Launch Urban River Restoration Effort

This initiative is designed as a collaborative effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to promote urban river cleanup and restoration nationwide.

The Anacostia River, which flows through the District of Columbia and Maryland, is one of the nation's most polluted rivers, contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, heavy metals, and raw sewage discharges from combined sewer overflows.

"For years, the Anacostia River has been called Washington D.C.'s "Forgotten River," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. But today, more and more people are responding to the obligation to be good stewards of our natural treasures and rivers."

Each pilot project receives a $50,000 state grant from the EPA as well as the commitment of the agency and the Army Corps to coordinate cleanup efforts. Virginia's Elizabeth River was also awarded a pilot project designation today, and the other six pilot projects will be announced throughout the year.

According to EPA officials, the pilot projects will use partnerships with state and local governments, tribal authorities and private organizations, to focus efforts on water quality improvement, cleanup of contaminated sediments and human and animal habitat restoration.

"We see this Anacostia project as a step in demonstrating how governments and private non-profit organizations can work together as we continue to restore this contaminated river to a healthy state and bring new economic life to Washington, DC," said Major General Robert Griffin, the Army Corps director of Civil Works. "We expect that Washington will grow stronger as this river, from which it draws its identity, is restored."

Coastal Gulf States Are Sinking

NOAA researchers warn the analysis indicates that population zones will face increased dangers from storm surge and flooding due to ongoing subsidence of coastal areas along the northern Gulf of Mexico.

For example, they estimate that at the current rate of subsidence, 15,000 square miles of land along south Louisiana will be at or below sea level within the next 70 years.

"We found that subsidence or loss of elevation ranges from one-third to 1.5 inches per year across south Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi," said Roy Dokka, executive director of the Louisiana State University Center for Geoinformatics. "A sinking coastline puts coastal communities increasingly at risk to future storm events."

The findings were announced last week at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, along with suggestions of how it can work with state and local officials to protect coastal populations from the impact of storm surge and flooding from future hurricanes and coastal storms.

"We have diagnosed a problem, and NOAA is uniquely capable to recommend and implement a remedy," said Conrad Lautenbacher, undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

"We are taking long term and near term steps that will save lives during dangerous storms, prevent further subsidence, and closely monitor the situation so that we are always working with the most current data."

The near term the NOAA National Weather Service has installed monitoring systems that will give more accurate forecasts of coastal water levels, Lautenbacher explained. The National Weather Service is also using the new information on ground elevations in the forecasting of coastal storms.

Over the longterm, the agency and its partners will explore "drastic coastal reclamation" in an effort to halt the coastal subsidence."

"Census reports indicate that this area of the country is rapidly growing in population, making a quick response time more and more critical to saving lives," Lautenbacher said. "Additionally, the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico is critical to the national economy and our energy supply."

Conservationists Decry Oregon Black Bear Policy

The coalition says it is reviewing its legal options to halt the decision to continue the policy, issued this month by the Oregon division of Wildlife Services, a department within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

"For two decades, this program has followed the Tony Soprano school of wildlife management," said Brian Vincent, program coordinator for the Animal Protection Institute, one of the groups opposed to the policy. "Timber companies put out contracts on bears who claw a few trees and Wildlife Services bumps the bears off. There are better ways to save trees then to snuff Smokey."

The other groups considering legal action to block the program are the Humane Society of the United States, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Oregon Sierra Club, Sinapu, Siskiyou Project, and Umpqua Watersheds.

The USDA's Wildlife Services program was developed in the mid 1980s in response to complaints from timber companies, who say that black bears damage trees on their property. The bears peel bark from trees to access sap in order to fuel their post-hibernation energy needs.

According to the coalition, Wildlife Services kills an average of 119 bears each year in Oregon as a result of the program. The conservationists and animal rights groups say there are alternatives to killing bears to protect the tress.

"There has been minor bear damage to tree plantations ever since tree plantations were invented on a large scale in the 1950s," said Francis Eatherington of Umpqua Watersheds. "It used to simply be a cost of doing business. But now corporations are trying to squeeze out more profits from the Oregon woods by killing bears."

Quota Set to Protect Spiny Dogfish Shark

The spiny dogfish is a small schooling shark that forms groups of hundreds or thousands of individuals of the same sex and size.

Distributed in the western North Atlantic from Labrador to Florida during spring and autumn, dogfish migrate northward to the Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank region and into Canadian waters in summer and southward in autumn and winter.

These small sharks have been harvested for the last 100 years for their oil rich liver which was used in lamp oil and machine lubricants. The oil was later used as a source of vitamin A. Today spiny dogfish is valued as food in many countries.

Dogfish are known to feed on many species of fish and crustaceans, but generally target the most abundant species. In the Northwest Atlantic, maximum ages reported for males and females are 35 and 40 years, respectively. The species bears live young, with a gestation period of about 18 to 22 months, producing two to 15 pups with an average of six.

The principal commercial fishing gears used for catching dogfish are otter trawls and sink gillnets. Dogfish are frequently caught as bycatch and discarded during groundfish operations, particularly in the Mid-Atlantic Southern New England area.

The spiny dogfish fishery is managed under an Fishery Management Plan (FMP) developed jointly by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the New England Fishery Management Council.

This final rule implements a commercial quota of four million pounds (1.81 million kilograms) for the 2003 fishing year that is allocated in two quota periods: Period 1 from May 1 through October 31 when 57.9 percent of the total quota may be caught, and Period 2 from November 1 through April 30 when the rest of the quota may be caught.

This final rule also maintains the existing possession limits of 600 lb (272 kg) and 300 lb (136 kg) for Quota Period 1 and Quota Period 2, respectively, to allow for the retention of spiny dogfish caught incidentally while fishing for other species throughout the entire fishing year.

One set of written comments was submitted during the comment period in response to the proposed rule. The comments were prepared by a group of environmental organizations, including The Ocean Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Audubon Society, and Environmental Defense. They supported the four million pound commercial quota, but urged the service to consider a lower quota.

The National Marine Fisheries Service stated that the organizations' comments were considered in shaping the final rule. Their suggestion for a lower quota was not considered because, the service said, "Any further reduction in landings would have to be considered in light of potential increased spiny dogfish discards."

This action must be taken immediately at the start of the 2003 fishing year on May 1, to conserve this resource, the service says, because an unrestricted harvest would allow vessels to quickly fill the Period 1 quota if spiny dogfish are congregated in areas where other species are being targeted, or targeted by some vessels. In the absence of a commercial quota, there would be no ability to close the fishery to prevent further increases in fishing mortality and potential deleterious effects to rebuilding efforts.

In addition, because this final rule maintains measures implemented in the 2002 specifications, there is no requirement for participants to come into compliance with any new gear requirements.

Agencies to Assess Impact of Improving New York Port

The federal plan for improving port facilities came in the wake of a 1999 study that projected a substantial increase in the amount of containerized cargo destined for the Port over the period to 2060. This study found the existing facilities and associated transportation network may need to make future additional improvements, beyond those currently planned, to efficiently manage projected cargo over that period.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the largest port complex on the East Coast - in 2002 it handled some 21.6 million tons of general cargo.

The varying interests involved with the Port, including local, state and federal agencies,, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2000 to set forth a cooperative approach for implementing economic development and environmental improvement decisions for the Port. The subsequent CPIP considers the Port region as a complete system, and will seek to develop a plan that covers this region and that is economically efficient and environmentally sustainable, and considers environmental restoration efforts in the region.

The EIS for the plan will evaluate potential impacts of various Federal, state, and local port and transportation improvement strategies to achieve this.

As mandated by federal law, the EIS will evaluate a variety of alternatives, ranging up from the no action alternative. It will analyze potential changes to the social, economic, and physical environment that would result with the defined project alternatives, including land use and zoning, traffic and transportation needs, affects on wildlife and the surrounding ecosystem, as well as resource contamination and hazardous waste sites.

The potential impacts will be evaluated both for the construction period and for the long-term operation period of each alternative and the EIS will examine measures to mitigate any significant adverse impacts will be identified.

The agencies will hold public meetings in June to afford public comment on the proposal and its environmental impact, with the formal comment period slated to end in September 2003. More details can be found at www.cpiponline.org

Pink Bollworms Could Adapt to Biotech Cotton

According to a new report from a team of scientists with the University of Arizona, the breakthrough could allow DNA based screens that could be some 1,000 times more efficient in detecting pest resistance than current measures.

Normal pink bollworm caterpillars die when they eat the bolls of genetically modified cotton plants that produce Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) toxin.

Still, there are some resistant caterpillars that survive and the researchers say it may only be a matter of time before the pink bollworm and other pests adapt to Bt cotton. The study is published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They found that each of the three mutations in pink bollworm occurs in a gene encoding a protein called cadherin, which is what Bt toxins attack in insects.

The research team reports that each of the three resistance mutations disrupts instructions for producing cadherin, thus blocking toxicity of Bt.

This resistance is inherited as a recessive trait, so caterpillars with two mutant versions of the cadherin gene are resistant, but those with one or none are susceptible.

According to the study's author, the discovery will speed development of fast and precise DNA-based tests for resistance, which can detect individuals with single copies of resistance genes, and work with either live or dead insects.

And better knowledge of the genetic basis of resistance could open new avenues for designing novel toxins to overcome the insects' defenses, the researchers report.