• Judge Upholds FDA's Plan to Ban Chicken Antibiotic
  
• Ethics Probe Appears to Clear Interior Deputy Secretary
  
• Lawsuit Filed to Safeguard Vanishing Sage Grouse
  
• Endangered Species and Army Clash Again in Hawaii
  
• Wildlife Service Sued Over Grazing in Southwest Forests
  
• Flame Retardants Appearing in Fish Oil Supplements
  
• Challenging Shrubland Fire Management
  
• Carbon Dioxide Figures in Ancient Temperature Equation
  

Judge Upholds FDA's Plan to Ban Chicken Antibiotic

Bacteria mutate. They produce genes that enable them to resist the antibiotics they have been exposed to.

As people eat chickens that have been treated with antibiotics, the bacteria in their bodies become resistant to the drugs. Then, when those people come down with a bacterial illness, antibiotics will be less effective in fighting it.

The more antibiotics are used, the more rapidly resistance develops. Increasingly more bacteria are becoming resistant not only to one, but many antibiotics.

The FDA first proposed banning the antibiotic drugs for poultry in October 2000.

Chicago based Abbott Laboratories, one of two U.S. producers of Cipro-like drugs for poultry, complied with the ban, but the other producer, Bayer, appealed the proposal.

Bayer makes a Cipro-like antibiotic for use in poultry known as "Baytril."

Both Cipro and Baytril are members of the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics and are very similar.

The FDA showed that use of Baytril in poultry reduces the effectiveness of Cipro in treating Campylobacter, the most common cause of severe bacterial food poisoning.

The six major poultry producers have announced that they no longer use these drugs in chickens produced for human consumption.

Major chicken purchasers, including the giant food franchise chain McDonald's, have instructed their suppliers to stop using fluoroquinolones.

Bayer plans to appeal the decision to the FDA Commissioner, who will then have to review it before affirming or reversing the administrative law judge's decision.

That process could take months or years, during which time Baytril would remain on the market.

Advocates of a ban say Bayer should comply now.

"Bayer wanted a hearing and got it," said Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, senior scientist with Environmental Defense. "Enough is enough. We call on Bayer to live up its slogan 'Expertise with Responsibility,' and voluntarily comply with the ban immediately to protect public health."

Ethics Probe Appears to Clear Interior Deputy Secretary

Critics have alleged that Griles, a former lobbyist for mining and oil industries, has failed to abide by recusal agreements and has played a key role in several decisions that have directly benefited his former employer and clients.

On Tuesday, the Office of Government Ethics announced that its review of a 140 report that summarized an 18 month investigation by the Interior Department's Inspector General (IG) exonerates Griles of most of the allegations, but raised doubts about two.

Griles said in a statement that he was "gratified" by the findings.

The investigation, which began in June 2002, initially focused on what role Griles played in the awarding of more than $1.6 million in contracts to a former client. The company, Advanced Power Technologies, Inc. provides remote sensing technology, which among other uses allows the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management to obtain aerial photos of plant populations.

The investigation of that allegation led to a probe of Griles' ethics regarding a dinner party he held for former business partners to meet top Interior Department officials.

In January 2003, Interior Secretary Gale Norton asked the Inspector General to investigate whether Griles violated his recusal agreement by involving himself in a matter concerning the development of coalbed methane in the Powder River Basin. Griles sent a letter to an official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for the agency to delay releasing criticism of the environmental impact of the Powder River development plan.

In April 2003, Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, requested that the IG's office investigate a slew of alleged inappropriate meetings Griles had with his former clients or clients of his former lobbying firm.

In its report, the Office of Government Ethics said it was possible Griles violated ethics rules for his actions involving the dinner party and the Powder River Basin.

Those two allegations were referred back to Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton, who pronounced herself satisfied that Griles had not violated ethical guidelines. In a statement Norton said the Office of Government Ethics finding "closes the issue."

Environmentalists were not satisfied that the report exonerated Griles.

"The Inspector General's report is damning," said Kristen Sykes, Interior Department watchdog for Friends of the Earth. "It uncovers regular and consistent breaches of Griles' ethics agreements and, more importantly, blatant violations of the public's trust. If this White House is serious about ethics and accountability, Griles should be dismissed immediately."

Lawsuit Filed to Safeguard Vanishing Sage Grouse

The Gunnison sage grouse (Centrocercus minimus) is a distinct species of sage grouse that occurs in small, isolated populations in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah.

Conservationists petitioned for Endangered Species Act protection for the grouse in 2000, when the total population numbered some 3,500 individuals. But no listing was given, and the species has continued to decline by as much as 30 percent in the past two years, to less than 2,700 birds, the lawsuit claims.

Organizations filing the litigation include the American Lands Alliance, the Center for Native Ecosystems, The Larch Company, and Sinapu. They are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.

The urgency of protecting the Gunnison sage grouse attained new intensity for conservationists last summer when West Nile virus was found in Wyoming sage grouse. It was the first time any species of sage grouse had tested positive for the disease.

"The Gunnison sage grouse is struggling to hang on," said Jacob Smith, executive director of Center for Native Ecosystems, one of the plaintiff groups. "And now the discovery of West Nile virus in the Gunnison Basin could ravage the largest remaining population."

Many bird species, including sage grouse, are susceptible to West Nile virus, a disease carried by mosquitoes that is spreading across the West.

Livestock grazing, drought, motorized recreation, and poor land use planning also threaten the species’ continued existence.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Division of Wildlife, and related working groups have failed to recover the species, despite years of collaborative planning and processes,” said Mark Salvo, grasslands and deserts advocate for American Lands Alliance. “Without emergency protection, we might lose this bird."

Sinapu’s Rob Edward said, “In this case, the bird ’s potential extinction foreshadows the withering health of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Colorado. We owe it to our grandchildren to save this bird by protecting its dwindling habitat.”

Western Environmental Law Center attorney Amy Atwood says that bureaucratic foot-dragging by the Fish and Wildlife Service persists, even while the grouse slides toward extinction. "It is time for the Service to finally grant the species the protection it legally deserves."

Endangered Species and Army Clash Again in Hawaii

The exercises would involve mortars and shoulder-launched rockets fired into the west Oahu valley.

Such activities pose a serious risk of wildfire, according to the Waianae Coast community group Malama Makua, and have the potential to cause irreparable harm to dozens of endangered species in the valley and their critical habitat.

The group is asking the court to block the exercises until the Army completes the ongoing consultation process with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service mandated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

"Let us be clear - this is about the military respecting the community, the environment and the rule of law, just like everybody else," said Sparky Rodrigues, Vietnam veteran and Malama Makua board member.

The Army began the current consultation in October 2003, following receipt of a letter sent by Malama Makua giving notice of the group's intent to sue based on the Army's failure to consult the Fish and Wildlife Service regarding a wildfire on July 22, 2003.

The blaze burned some 2,100 acres at Makua and destroyed at least 71 individual endangered plants and over 150 acres of critical habitat.

The letter also gave notice that the Endangered Species Act requires the Army to reinitiate consultation to analyze threats from military activities to newly designated critical habitat for at least 47 species of endangered and threatened plants found at and near Makua.

"The purpose of consultation is to give the Army information that is vital to ensure that military training will not push any species to extinction or destroy essential recovery habitat," said David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is representing Malama Makua.

"By refusing to wait for the outcome of consultation before going forward with live-fire exercises, the Army is not only violating the law, it is playing Russian roulette with Hawaii's irreplaceable natural heritage. History has shown that it takes only one misfired mortar or rocket to spark a catastrophic blaze."

Judge Susan Oki Mollway will hold a hearing on Malama Makua's request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction today.

Wildlife Service Sued Over Grazing in Southwest Forests

The suit, filed in federal court in Tucson on Wednesday, challenges livestock grazing on national forests in New Mexico and Arizona.

It asks the federal court to order the Fish and Wildlife Service to begin a new consultation with the Forest Service, as required by the Endangered Species Act, for approval of the grazing permits.

The suit is one of the largest ever filed against cattle grazing on public lands in the Western United States. Mexican spotted owl habitat includes approximately 13 million acres of southwestern national forest lands.

"We have a responsibility to protect southwest lands and the rare creatures that live here," said John Horning, director of Forest Guardians, a member of the coalition. "Federal officials under the Bush administration have broken their promise to protect endangered wildlife on our public lands and are instead allowing the livestock industry to trample our waters and wildlife."

Through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to the Forest Service since 1998, Forest Guardians obtained extensive information on every grazing allotment in the Southwest and compiled a master database.

The compiled data shows that the Forest Service is allowing close to four million acres to be overgrazed. It finds the agency has failed to monitor other national forest grazing allotments and has no information for more than two-thirds of the 18 million acres of national forest land in New Mexico and Arizona that were open to grazing in 2002.

Despite not having any information, the agency continues to permit grazing that damages fish and wildlife habitat.

"We are tired of hearing the age old excuse that the Forest Service doesn't have the resources to get the job done," said Oscar Simpson of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. "The real problem is the Forest Service's cavalier attitude of allowing livestock grazing, even when they know it will cause damage."

In addition to Forest Guardians, other plaintiffs include New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Gila Watch, White Mountain Conservation League, Carson Forest Watch, Maricopa Audubon Society, Animal Protection of New Mexico, Arizona Wildlife Federation, Southwest Environmental Center, Prescott National Forest Friends, and T & E Inc.

Flame Retardants Appearing in Fish Oil Supplements

The report by European scientists appears in the April 7 edition of the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society.

Fish oils are in high demand as dietary supplements because they contain omega 3 fatty acids, which have been linked to various health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease.

The study analyzed 21 fish and vegetable oil dietary supplements commercially available in the United Kingdom.

The supplements contained four classes of oils: pure vegetable oils, fish and vegetable oil formulations, cod liver oil and whole body fish oil.

The researchers measured levels of persistent organic pollutants in the supplements, including pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are used widely as flame retardants.

These levels were compared with levels measured in the same brands purchased eight years ago from the same retailers, and with fish oils used to supplement salmon aquaculture feeds obtained four years ago.

Supplements based on vegetable oil and whole body fish oil showed little or no contamination throughout the current and previous studies.

"The cod liver oils have similar levels of PCBs and pesticides compared to samples obtained from the same outlets," Jacobs says. "But the levels of flame retardants are higher."

Flame retardant levels in cod liver oils from the new study ranged from about 15-34 nanograms per gram of fat, while the range was 0-13 only four years ago.

"This is a relatively large increase," said Dr. Miriam Jacobs, who lectures in food safety and toxicology at the University of Surrey in Guildford, England and was one of the authors of the latest study. "The extensive use of these chemicals in recent years means that they can get into places where they should not be, such as the marine environment."

The findings add to a growing number of studies that have found flame retardants in unexpected places, from human breast milk in the United States to peregrine falcon eggs in Sweden.

The researchers say the findings are not enough to define new dietary recommendations, but call for further research into the pollutants.

"Regulatory authorities conduct food-monitoring programs for dioxins and PCBs, but far less so for other contaminants," Jacobs said.

Challenging Shrubland Fire Management

The report, published in the March issue of "Frontiers in Ecology and Environment," challenges the assumption that fuel age is the most important factor of shrubland fire management. Natural fire regimes in southern California, are "more driven by extreme weather conditions," according to the research team led by Max Moritz, assistant professor in the Ecosystem Sciences Division of the University of California-Berkeley.

"We should not assume future climates which increase fuel loads will alter fire patterns," Moritz and his team caution. "Our results contradict the widely held belief that large wildfires in California shrublands are the direct result of unnatural fuel accumulation due to fire suppression."

The research team examined the fire history of coastal and southern California shrublands. They discovered that the majority of shrublands risk of burning was fairly steady, at about 2.7 percent each year.

"Historical fire patterns and quantitative measures of hazard therefore refute the common assumption that fire probabilities in shrublands are strongly driven by vegetation age, and that large fires are necessarily caused by a buildup of older fuels," the authors state.

Of the 10 sites surveyed, only the region near Santa Barbara, at the western end of the Santa Ynez Mountains, showed a marked increase in fire hazard as the plants grew older.

These results may be due to regional differences, as this region is less strongly affected by nearby weather conditions, such as the Santa Ana winds. These warm, dry offshore winds race across California at a minimum of 25 knots. High fire danger is associated with these winds, which occur between October and February with the highest frequency in December.

The findings of Moritz and his colleagues parallel those found in Australia, and are thus relevant for other fire-prone regions that face extreme weather conditions.

Carbon Dioxide Figures in Ancient Temperature Equation

The researchers say their new findings, reported in the March issue of "GSA Today," resulted from including the ocean's changing acidity in their calculations.

"Reviewing the geologic records of carbon dioxide and glaciations, we found that carbon dioxide was low during periods of long-lived and widespread continental glaciations and high during other, warmer periods," explained Dr. Dana Royer, research associate in geosciences at Penn State.

Royer said the findings cast doubts on previous suggestions that cosmic ray flux correlated better with ancient temperatures than CO2.

"While cosmic ray flux may be of some climatic significance, it is likely of second order importance on a multimillion year timescale," Royer said.

The researchers looked at climate changes that occurred over the past 570 million years.

A direct record of global temperature and CO2 exists for the past 100 years and ice cores provide CO2 information for the past 400,000 years.

But there are no direct measurements for the remainder of that time.

A close correspondence between carbon dioxide and temperature has generally been found for the past 570 million years, Royer explained, and scientists typically use proxies to determine measurements in the distant past.

Oxygen isotope ratios in shallow marine carbonate fossils were used by some researchers to determine surface water temperatures, and this indicated that CO2 and temperature were not correlated, but that cosmic ray fluxes were correlated to temperature.

"The acidity of the oceans changes depending on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the amounts of calcium and calcium carbonate in the water," says Royer. "When corrected for acidity, the temperature curve matches the glacial record much better."

The corrected temperature curves correctly predicted two major glaciations, one around 300 million years ago and one 30 million years ago.

The cosmic ray flux does predict these glaciations, but also predicts cold temperatures when there is no evidence for ice.

"The global temperatures inferred from the cosmic ray flux model do not correlate with the temperature record determined from oxygen isotopes in shallow marine carbonate fossils, when these estimates were corrected for past changes in oceanic acidity," Royer said.