Product chemicals detected in Sebago Lake
Portland Press Herald - 10/8/2009.By John Richardson – Chemicals from a pharmaceutical and other consumer products have been found for the first time in Sebago Lake, the source of the Portland area's drinking water. The trace amounts of a common pain medication, an ingredient in antibacterial soaps and a chemical that prevents carpet stains don't violate any safety standards or pose any known health threat. But the test results show that Maine's largest drinking water reservoir is not immune to an emerging concern for large water systems around the country. |
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Apples with a sense of place
Grist - 10/8/2009. By April McGreger – One lovely evening a couple of weeks ago, I watched the documentary Food Fight in an outdoor theater in my downtown. The documentary focuses on how the 1960s counterculture – specifically the Berkeley crew of which Alice Waters was a member – led to the current sustainable agriculture boom. The documentary champions the sensual pleasures and health promotion of fresh, locally grown food, but I couldn’t help noticing one glaring omission. |
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Restoration harvest
New York Times - 10/8/2009.By Timothy Egan – Yakimia, Washington: The apples look like Christmas tree ornaments, wearing a blush of dew at first light. The grapes could have been painted on, those clusters of sweet calories in their best October color. And here and there is the smell of hops, newly freed from their climbing nets, headed for breweries bottling a taste of fall. I drove into the Yakima Valley, an edible landscape fed by water from the ice-covered volcanoes, on a day when yet another story appeared about how our food can kill you. |
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Regulators plan to study risks of atrazine
New York Times - 10/7/2009.By Charles Duhigg – The Environmental Protection Agency plans to conduct a new study about the potential health risks of atrazine, a widely used weedkiller that recent research suggests may be more dangerous to humans than previously thought. Atrazine – a herbicide often used on corn fields, golf courses and even lawns – has become one of the most common contaminants in American drinking water. |
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