• Fastest Glacier Doubles in Speed
  
• Low Exposure to Benzene May Still Be Harmful
  
• Great Lakes Officials Sign Restoration Accord
  
• New Habitat Plan for Florida Sea Turtles Wins Praise
  
• New Jersey Supreme Court Shoots Down Bear Hunt
  
• Coalition Files Suit to Protect Grizzly Bears
  
• Factory Farms May Leak Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
  
• Baltimore Breathed Pollution From 2002 Quebec Forest Fires
  

Fastest Glacier Doubles in Speed

Jakobshavn Isbrae is Greenland's largest outlet glacier, draining 6.5 percent of Greenland's ice sheet area.

The stream's near doubling of ice flow from land into the ocean is important, scientists said, because this one glacier has increased the rate of sea level rise by four percent of the 20th century rate of increase.

"This speedup is the most dramatic change observed in a large glacier to date," said Mark Fahnestock, coauthor of the new study and a glaciologist with the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS). "Observing a doubling of the flow of one of the large rivers of ice draining the Greenland Ice Sheet in such a short time raises questions about the nature and stability of the ice sheet."

The study, published Friday in the journal "Nature," relied on data from satellites and airborne lasers to derive speed and thickness of the glacier between 1985 and 2003.

The data showed that the glacier slowed down from a velocity of 6,700 meters per year in 1985 to 5,700 meters per year in 1992, where it remained constant until 1997.

But by 2000, the glacier had sped up to 9,400 meters per year, topping out with the last measurement in spring 2003 at 12,600 meters per year.

Similarly, the glacier began thinning by as much as 15 meters (49 feet) a year just as its velocity began to increase between 1997 and 2003.

Along with increased rates of ice flow and thinning, the floating ice that extends from the mouth of the glacier into the ocean, called the ice tongue, began retreating in 2000, breaking up almost completely by May 2003.

The rapid movement of ice from land into the sea provides key evidence of newly discovered relationships between ice sheets, sea level rise and climate warming, according to the study.

"This finding suggests the potential for more substantial thinning in other glaciers in Greenland," said Waleed Abdalati, a senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and co-author of the study.

"Other glaciers have thinned by over a meter a year, which we believe is too much to be attributed to melting alone. We think there is a dynamic effect in which the glaciers are accelerating due to warming."

Low Exposure to Benzene May Still Be Harmful

The study found that white blood cell and platelet counts were lower even with benzene exposure levels below one part per million (ppm), the current level deemed safe by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

It also found that benzene exposure lowered the number of progenitor cells, which include stem cells, in the blood. These stem and progenitor cells are precursors to all blood cells.

Researchers say the findings strengthen the link between benzene and leukemia, a cancer that begins with mutations in blood stem cells.

"We need more studies to fully understand what these changes mean," said Martyn Smith, a senior author of the paper and a University of California at Berkeley professor of toxicology. "We need to look into what other kinds of biologic changes may be happening after benzene exposure in the bone marrow where blood cells are formed."

Benzene is a clear, colorless liquid that evaporates easily into the air, occurs naturally in crude oil and is present in refined gasoline.

A widely used solvent in paints, adhesives and paint removers, benzene is also found in tobacco smoke.

People can be exposed to benzene by smoking, breathing secondhand smoke, pumping gasoline, driving, and from air pollution.

Elevated levels of benzene can occur in the air around gas stations, areas of high car traffic, and industrial plants that either produce or use it.

The study was conducted in Tianjin, China, from 2000 to 2001 by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the National Cancer Institute and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers compared blood and urine samples from 250 people exposed to low levels of benzene in shoe manufacturing factories with a control group of 140 people working in clothing factories who were not exposed to benzene.

They also monitored the levels of benzene in the air over the course of 12 to 16 months.

Great Lakes Officials Sign Restoration Accord

New Habitat Plan for Florida Sea Turtles Wins Praise

Indian River County officials agreed to develop the plan in 1999 after being sued by the Caribbean Conservation Corp (CCC), a sea turtle research and protection group. The organization challenged the county in court for illegally authorizing sea walls on critical sea turtle nesting beaches.

Because sea turtles dig nests and deposit their eggs on beaches, they are unable to dig nests where seawalls and other forms of coastal armoring are placed on beaches.

Armoring can also lead to additional erosion of turtle nesting habitat down the beach, but coastal property owners, including many affected by the recent hurricanes that came ashore at Indian River County, often must resort to sea wall construction as a last resort to save property threatened by erosion.

The idea behind a habitat conservation plan is that it regulates activities that harm endangered species by allowing a certain level of harm, or take, in exchange for a range of activities carried out to protect the species, according to David Godfrey, CCC executive director.

"This habitat conservation plan will require Florida and its coastal residents to come to terms with how sea walls must be regulated to protect sea turtles," Godfrey said.

Under the terms of the plan, Indian River County will also implement provisions that include protections of coastal nesting areas, controls for predators such as raccoons, a sea turtle monitoring program, and restriction on beachfront lighting, which disorients baby turtles, causing them to crawl landward towards parking lots and roads rather than the ocean.

"This plan is a major step forward for sea turtle conservation and sets the standard for future sea wall construction throughout Florida," said David Guest, attorney for Earthjustice, which represented CCC in the case.

Some 5,600 loggerhead turtles nest along Indian River County beaches annually, making it one of the most critical nesting areas in the continental United States. These beaches also provide nesting habitat for endangered green and leatherback turtles.

"For these species to survive, Florida must protect its sea turtle nesting beaches," Godfrey said. "This habitat conservation plan takes a major step in that direction."

New Jersey Supreme Court Shoots Down Bear Hunt

The court determined that the state must develop a comprehensive management plan for the species before it can authorize another hunting season.

Last year hunters in New Jersey killed 328 black bears during a six day bear hunt - the state's first in 33 years.

That hunt was approved amid concern that conflicts between black bears and humans are on the rise - proponents of this year's hunt echoed that rationale.

Estimates of the state's black bear population range from 1,600 to 3,200 bears.

In July the state Fish and Game Council, an independent panel appointed by the governor, ordered another six day hunt.

But state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell opposed the decision and blocked the Division of Fish and Game from issuing permits for the hunt.

Hunting groups filed suit and last month a lower court ordered Campbell to comply with the council's decision.

Some 4,000 permits were issued for the six day hunt.

The state Supreme Court found that Campbell has the authority to override the council's decision and ordered state officials to develop a comprehensive black bear management strategy.

It ruled that because the "Commissioner and the Council now disagree regarding whether a black bear hunt should occur in 2004, and there being no comprehensive policies in place against which a decision in respect of a bear hunt can be made ... the black bear hunt cannot take place."

"I am grateful that the Supreme Court upheld the commissioner's authority to ensure that wildlife management policies are appropriately balanced," Campbell said.

Coalition Files Suit to Protect Grizzly Bears

The coalition aims to block a national forest road management plan it says fails to protect the grizzlies.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Montana, asks a federal judge to invalidate the new road plan and to require the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service to devise a new plan that reflects the habitat needs of the bears.

"The grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak and the Selkirks are at a crossroads," said Tim Preso, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing the coalition. "If we act now to protect and restore their habitat, they stand a fighting chance at survival."

The lawsuit challenges the agencies' approval of new road standards that will apply in habitat for the struggling Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk grizzly bear populations, each numbering only about 40 bears.

The agency decisions, issued between April 2001 and March 2004, allow the Kootenai, Lolo, Idaho Panhandle and Colville National Forests to maintain a network of more than 20,000 miles of forest roads.

The existing road network has contributed to poaching and killing of numerous grizzly bears that were mistaken for black bears resulting in a decline in the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population.

With the proposed Rock Creek and Montanore mines in the Cabinet Mountains also looming as threats, the federal government has admitted that both the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk grizzly populations deserve the strongest legal protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act.

But the coalition says the plan allows the Forest Service to build roads into some of the best remaining grizzly bear habitat in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk regions.

"Under the current situation, both the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk grizzly populations are warranted for endangered listing, both are suffering excessive mortalities, and both have populations too small to be viable," said Brian Peck of the Great Bear Foundation. "If we actually degrade the bears' habitat further, these populations haven't got a prayer."

The groups represented in the lawsuit include Cabinet Resource Group, Great Bear Foundation, Idaho Conservation League, Natural Resources Defense Council and Selkirk Conservation Alliance.

Study Finds Factory Farms May Leak Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

Researchers detected bacteria resistant to at least two antibiotics in air samples collected from inside a large swine operation in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Until now, little research has been conducted regarding the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the air within industrial swine facilities.

The study adds to the understanding of various pathways by which humans can be exposed to antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as consumption of retail pork products and contact with or ingestion of soil, surface water and groundwater near production operations.

The use of antibiotics in industrial animal production has an impact on the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria that threaten human health.

Using antibiotics in animals can decrease the effectiveness of the same antibiotics used to combat human infections.

The non-therapeutic use of antimicrobials in livestock production makes up at least 60 percent of the total antimicrobial production in the United States.

Non-therapeutic doses of drugs are given to swine to promote growth and improve feed efficiency - not to treat actual swine disease.

"These research findings add another piece to our understanding of human exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria," said Dr. Kellogg Schwab, a coauthor of the study and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the study's corresponding author.

"Finding and documenting the multiple environmental pathways of exposure are critical to finding solutions to the growing, serious problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans," Schwab said.

The airborne bacteria samples that were found to be resistant to more than one drug were - enterococcus, coagulase negative staphylococci, and viridans group streptococci.

These bacteria are associated with a variety of human infections.

The study found that 98 percent of the isolated samples were resistant to at least two of the following antibiotics: erythromycin, clindamycin, virginiamycin, and tetracycline.

All of these drugs - or their human drug counterparts - are important antibiotics in the treatment of human infections.

By contrast, none of the bacterial samples were resistant to vancomycin - an antibiotic that has never been approved for use in swine production in the United States.

The researchers believe workers at concentrated animal feeding operations are at greatest risk for airborne exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria. The same workers may also become reservoirs of drug resistant bacteria that can be spread to family and the broader community, they said.

The study, published last week online in the journal "Environmental Health Perspectives" also raises questions about the spread of drug resistant bacteria to areas beyond the immediate site through ventilation fans and by the application of manure from feeding operations to off-site fields.

Baltimore Breathed Pollution From 2002 Quebec Forest Fires

The researchers determined that airborne particulate matter from the Quebec forest fires traveled about 700 miles south to Baltimore and readily penetrated people's homes.

Fine particulate matter is harmful to individuals with respiratory ailments and is considered a serious health concern.

"This study provides a dramatic example of the significance that global air pollution has, not only on the outdoor air quality in our communities, but on air quality indoors where even the most susceptible among us look for protection," said Dr. Timothy Buckley, senior author of the study and an associate professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

The researchers used satellite images, trajectory models, light detection, and ranging measurements to link emissions from the Canadian forest fires to levels of particulate matter in Baltimore.

At the peak of the episodes, levels of fine particulate matter increased eight fold on July 7, 2002 and exceeded federal health standards.

Indoor levels closely matched the outdoor concentrations, demonstrating that being indoors offered little protection from the airborne pollution.

In light of their findings, the authors suggest that health advisories encouraging people to stay indoors during high particulate matter events should be reviewed.

"Although the source discussed in this study is natural, similar analogies can be drawn about the long range transport of pollutants from man-made sources," said Dr. Amir Sapkota, lead author of the study and a post doctoral fellow in the school's Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

"This underscores the point we have long realized - air pollution is both a local and global issue," Sapkota added. "In addition to working locally, we need to bring other countries together to tackle the issue of transcontinental transport of air pollution."

The study appears in the current online issue of "Environmental Science and Technology."