Kristin Cavallari: 'The Hills' isn't real, the producers tell me what to do

"I pretty much do anything they have me do because I don't care. I mean, we're filming a TV show. Let's make it interesting. Let's have a good time with it," Cavallari told The Los Angeles Times in a Monday report.

"Everyone is trying to get story lines and create drama in their lives. It's just so... fake. There's no truth to it. At all." New The Hills fifth-season episode began airing last night without Lauren Conrad, who announced earlier this year that she was leaving the show to focus on other endeavors.

Cavallari subsequently confirmed that she was joining the The Hill's cast after previously appearing as Conrad's nemesis on Laguna Beach. While she told The Times that Laguna Beach was a more real experience than it's subsequent spinoff, she still took issue with the way she was portrayed as Conrad's enemy.

"I almost felt like it was unfair for [MTV] to come into our lives at such a young age and sort of mess with things," she told The Times about Laguna Beach. "I don't regret it, but I was 17 -- of course I wanted to be on TV. I felt like they should have been a little bit more careful with us."

Cavallari has now accused producers of continuing to concoct storylines for her, stating that she arrives at pre-selected locations for episodes that film between Wednesday and Friday each week.

"They tell us what to talk about," she told The Times. "Listen, I have fun with it. They film Curb Your Enthusiasm the same way."

Cavallari also reiterated her previous claims that she treats The Hills as a job.

"What else would I see it as? Hanging out with my friends? That's not it. It's a job. It's pretty easy," she told The Times.

"The thing is, if this was a reality show about my life, they would follow me going to auditions and studying with acting coaches, but they didn't want to show that because it's not glamorous. They make it seem like we have perfect lives and like we have all this money."

According to The Times, Cavallari laughed throughout her interview and was asked what she thought was so funny.

"Because I don't think I'm supposed to be saying this," she reportedly replied.

While both Conrad and Audrina Patridge have previously claimed that The Hills is unscripted, however there's been an almost overwhelming amount of evidence in the past to suggest otherwise.

The Hills creator and former MTV executive Adam DiVello -- who has previously refuted rumors that the show is scripted and instead acknowledged some scenes are "a little fake" to put them in context -- told The Times that viewers watch the show to see a story be told and aren't as "concerned about exactly what's happening in these kids' lives and how accurate it is."

"This is a sliver of Kristin's life and it's not every person she knows in her life. She has an idea of where we're going with the show," he told The Times. "I think she's walking through and knows this is all going to be a drama."

While Heidi Montag has previously claimed that The Hills is not an accurate portrayal of her life, her husband (and established unabashed liar) Spencer Pratt told The Times otherwise.

"The Hills could not be more real, that's what I keep laughing at," Pratt told The Times. "It's a dream role for these girls to get so out of hand and so out of line on TV and then when the tabloids ask them what's going on they say, 'I'm just filling out the story line.' That's an easy way out."

Cavallari added that the debate can continue about The Hills' authenticity, however she doesn't think many people still buy that it's actual reality.

"Maybe people in Kansas. In Middle America they think it's real," she told The Times. "Living in L.A., it's hard to tell what people really do believe."

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When nature speaks itself

Woke up half asleep. Raining, it was a late afternoon sinister and the dorm was full of busy students. My roommates are hastening with their things. Not unusual. They are always eager to be home. Like who does not? I, who’s stuck in those extended rest, laid there staring at them, imagining to be fetched home as the others.

Silence, there was complete darkness I had to be at my aunt’s place nearby. That was the time I believed there’s a typhoon and till that time I wished I had my own television.

Loris, my buddy from Iligan was there, as always. I couldn’t forget the times we ate together with canned goods and candles, hoping for at least water and electricity. We stayed with each other courageously yet feeling helpless.

The typhoon was named Millenyo 2006. It was indeed a Millenium. The electricity was off. There was no water supply. The rain was not peaceful and the wind was fierce. Big trees went down and it lasted for 3 days. The water was back after 4 days and electricity, a week after.

That was four years ago. The experienced I had was not merely a big deal when we’re in a City. I thought nothing could have been worst.

We had our batch meeting last Saturday, September 26, 2009. My cousin told me classes were suspended since we are on the signal two. But still, I insisted to go.

The meeting lasted for around two hours. Everyone was enthusiastic yet reluctant to cross the thigh level flood. Some walked pass through it, others on piggyback by men. I feared I couldn’t go home so I asked my friends to take the risk. Julie, Rona and Dada were hesitant. Eric is somewhat estimating. Not until Rona got splashed with flood, she hurriedly stepped out. I followed her then Eric next. I heard Julie shouted “Take care! Bye! “. It was a simple statement that scuttles through my conscience.

The three of us started our journey crossing from school. There was no vehicle fearless enough to cross the water level. That was an advantage when you mastered the route ccp-sm-lrt. Well, not exactly the land railroad transit (lrt). It took us half an hour or so to finally reach our destination.

After lrt, we headed our circle route to mrt via Cubao but not through gateway-farmers bridge. It was closed. Damn! When we badly needed that route! After a long search, we reached mrt then Boni finally! Unfortunately, motorcycles refused to take us home not till we agree to pay more. We tried the shortcut but there was no escape. The water was towering the engine was smoking. So we paid a little less since we make it to the circle.

Our crazy adventure started there. We met a City officer who was very kind yet he nearly startled through a gutter base. He was so accommodating and cheerful in spite the weather scene. Eric departed his way home, leaving us unresolved.

Minutes after figuring out what to do, a group of men clutching to a huge bath tub were shouting towards us. They would like us to hop inside and all we could do was laugh. It was a funny experience and we enjoyed chatting with them. The water was getting high at their shoulder level.

The journey hasn’t end there. We still need to enter the village. We are exhausted by the walking galore and we’re both desperate to dry ourselves. Another group of men crossed our way. This time, they were holding to an air bed with a board on top and two little chairs. It was fun and we arrived home at last! What an experience!

by: Suyenne L. Rojas

Contact: suyenne31@yahoo.com

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Gut worms protect against allergy

Infection with hookworm and other parasitic worms is endemic in Vietnam, but rates of asthma and other allergies are low.

British and Vietnamese scientists gave local children treatment to clear their body of worms.

They found this led to an increase in dust mite allergy among the children.

The next step is to understand exactly how and when gut parasites programme the human immune system Dr Carsten Flohr University of Nottingham

Thanks to improved hygiene practices, parasitic worms have been mostly eradicated among human populations living in developed countries.

However, experts believe that over millions of years of co-evolution worms have found methods to dampen down host immune responses to prolong their own survival inside humans.

This relationship seems to have become so intertwined that without gut worms or other parasites, our immune system can become unbalanced, which, in turn, could contribute to the development of asthma and other allergies.

The latest study was conducted in a rural area of central Vietnam where two in every three children have hookworm and other gut parasite infections, and where allergies are extremely rare.

More than 1,500 schoolchildren aged six to 17 took part.

Regular tablets

Some of the children were given repeated tablet treatments to clear their body of gut worms.

The treatment did not produce any conclusive effect on rates of asthma or eczema.

However, those children who received the tablets did have a significantly increased risk of developing allergies to the house-dust mite.

Up to 80% of people with asthma also have allergies to house-dust mites and other environmental allergens.

The researchers said this strongly suggests that gut worms have the potential to tone down human immune responses.

Researcher Dr Carsten Flohr, of the University of Nottingham, said: "The next step is to understand exactly how and when gut parasites programme the human immune system in a way that protects against allergies, and for such studies, follow-up from birth will be essential."

The hope is that the work could aid the development of new treatments which work in the same way as gut parasites, by dampening down or rebalancing the immune system so that the body does not respond to allergens and trigger asthma attacks.

Dr Elaine Vickers, research relations manager at the charity Asthma UK, which funded the research, said: "The prospects of further studies in this area are very exciting as we could see groundbreaking treatments for asthma and other allergies developed as a result."

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C. diff rise due to 'gene switch'

The rise in Clostridium difficile infections in recent years is due to genetic changes rather than dirty hospitals, say UK researchers.

Comparison of an historic strain and a strain from the outbreak at Stoke Mandeville hospital in 2003 found it had evolved to be more virulent.

It can spread more easily and cause more severe symptoms, the team reports in Genome Biology journal.

NHS trusts have a target to cut C. difficile infections by 30% by 2010/11.

The bacteria are present in the gut of as many as 3% of healthy adults and 66% of infants.

It rarely causes problems in healthy people but can lead to illness when the normal balance of bacteria in the gut is disrupted, for example with use of certain antibiotics, and it is the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhoea.

In the past five years, a new group of highly virulent C. difficile strains has emerged - PCR-ribotype 027 - which cause more severe diarrhoea and a higher rate of deaths.

Analysis of the full genome of the "hyper-virulent" strains and an older strain showed the bacteria have acquired genes which enable them to survive better in the environment, spread more easily and make patients more severely ill.

In all, five different genetic regions appear to have accumulated in the bacteria in past couple of decades, the team reported in Genome Biology.

Fighting back

The number of cases of C. difficile has risen dramatically since the 1990s, although latest figures show cases are now consistently falling.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital saw two major outbreaks of C. difficile between 2003 and 2006 that caused 35 deaths.

Study leader Professor Brendan Wren, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the study would help scientists understand how C. difficile became so aggressive.

"These strains came from nowhere and the sudden rise in C. difficile was due to their spread.

"The bugs are fighting back and the one clear thing that comes out of this study is it is not down to cleaning but that the strain has evolved with new chunks of DNA.

"The deep clean programme was never going to work against this organism in the long term."

Hygiene measures are still needed to keep the infection under control, he added.

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said it closely monitored the evolution of C. difficile strains.

"All strains of C. difficile require intervention and control - the intervention involved when dealing with the 027 strain is no different than how any other strain is treated.

"All C. difficile requires treatment and vigilant infection control procedures in order to reduce rates of infection."

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Pregnant? Flu shot may come with some hassle

WASHINGTON — It's hard for pregnant women to escape the message: You're at extra risk from swine flu — it could trigger premature labor, hospitalize you for weeks, even kill you — so be among the first in line for the vaccine next month. But only about one in seven pregnant women gets a flu shot each winter.

While health officials are working hard to raise that number, repeated swine flu warnings won't overcome a key obstacle: Many obstetricians don't vaccinate. And not only are women reluctant to hunt for flu shots elsewhere, historically some pharmacists and others have been wary of vaccinating them.

“Maybe this year we can change that culture,” says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It's not supposed to happen that you, when you are pregnant, are fighting for your life on a respirator.”

Pregnant women make up 6 percent of H1N1-confirmed deaths even though they account for only 1 percent of the population, according to the CDC. They're at least four times as likely to be hospitalized as other flu sufferers.

Vaccine is a two-for-one deal during pregnancy: It can protect not just mom but the baby, too, for the first few months after birth. That's important because flu can easily kill newborns, yet babies can't be vaccinated until they're 6 months old.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no count of how many OBs offer flu vaccine, though it's still considered a minority. An extra complication: Each state's health department will decide who offers the H1N1 vaccine, aiming for locations that vaccinate the most people. Those decisions haven't been made public yet. Even if your OB requested shots, he or she may not get any, at least from initial shipments. So the CDC and ACOG are urging OBs to partner with a hospital or drugstore to guarantee their patients a shot, a message the government will reiterate Tuesday in a swine flu seminar for OBs nationwide.

Yet providers who don't routinely treat pregnant women may not understand flu's risk and the shot's safety record, says Dr. Neil Silverman of the University of California, Los Angeles. Take pharmacists, expected to be key vaccinators. Silverman gets phone calls from women who say a pharmacist won't fill a flu-shot prescription. For every patient who calls, “I know there are at least two who just say, ‘Well, OK, I'm not going to do this,' and just walk away.”

The American Pharmacists Association is urging its members to follow the CDC's pregnancy guidelines, but a few stores may still balk, says association chief of staff Mitchel Rothholz.

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For some pregnant women, H1N1 shots a hard sell

In a few weeks, the first shipments of the H1N1 flu vaccine will arrive in Minnesota, and Stephanie Pelach, who is six months pregnant, will have a decision to make.

Should she get a vaccine, approved only weeks ago, that has never been tested in pregnant women? Or take her chances with a flu strain that can be especially dangerous during pregnancy?

For Pelach, who lives in New Brighton, it's a sobering choice. "There is this slight concern -- is this safe for me, is this safe for my baby?" she said. "I wasn't expecting it to be this emotional of a decision."

Health officials say that pregnant women should be among the first to get the new vaccine.

But they know it will be an uphill battle persuading some people -- even those who are at high risk -- to take it.

"With vaccines, you're asking a currently healthy person to do something to prevent a future harm," said Dr. Greg Poland, a Mayo Clinic expert in pandemic flu and infectious diseases. "To me, it's an easy decision. But I recognize not everybody would feel that way."

Many major medical organizations, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are urging pregnant women to get the shots. Experts say the vaccine for H1N1 -- also known as swine flu -- is basically a variation on the seasonal flu shots that have been used for decades, made by the same manufacturers, using the same processes.

But advocates are running into something of a cultural backlash from those who believe that the vaccine is unnatural, unnecessary or unsafe.

"I won't get the swine flu vaccine and I won't give it to my kids," said Heather Lenort, of Plymouth, who is pregnant with her third child. Lenort, 34, said she is dubious about vaccine safety in general, and thinks this one is simply too new and untested.

"I feel like there hasn't been enough history of the side effects that it might cause, not only to me but the unborn baby," she said.

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Finding Order in the Apparent Chaos of Currents

Suppose a blob of dioxin-rich pesticide is spilled into Monterey Bay. It might quickly disperse to the Pacific Ocean. But hours later, a spill of the same size at the same spot could circle near the coastline, posing a greater danger to marine life. The briny surface waters of the bay churn so chaotically that a slight shift in the place or time an oil drop, a buoy — or even a person — falls in can dictate whether it is swept out to the open ocean or swirls near the shore.

ut the results are not unpredictable. A team of scientists studying Monterey Bay since 2000 has found that underlying its complex, seemingly jumbled currents is a structure that guides the dispersal patterns, a structure that changes over time.

With the aid of high-frequency radar that tracks the speed and direction of the flowing waters, and computers that rapidly perform millions of calculations, the scientists found that a hidden skeleton guided whether floating debris lingered or exited the bay.

Over the past 10 years, scientists have made enormous strides in their ability to identify and make images of the underlying mechanics of flowing air and water, and to predict how objects move through these flows.

Assisted by instruments that can track in fine detail how parcels of fluid move, and by low-cost computers that can crunch vast amounts of data quickly, researchers have found hidden structures beyond Monterey Bay, structures that explain why aircraft meet unexpected turbulence, why the air flow around a car causes drag and how blood pumps from the heart’s ventricles. In December, the journal Chaos will highlight the research under way to track the moving skeletons embedded in complex flows, known as Lagrangian coherent structures.

“There’s been an explosion of interest in this area,” said David K. Campbell, editor in chief of Chaos, a physicist and provost at Boston University. “Why it’s become more interesting is that experimentalists can now watch these structures emerge.”

The patterns of flow have fascinated thinkers for centuries. In the 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci sketched the swirling eddies he saw in rivers and the vortexes of blood he imagined in the aortic valve. Just as those visible patterns of flow change quickly, eluding our ability to predict the fate of objects caught up in them, the hidden structures of flow also move and morph over time.

The concept of the structures grew out of dynamical systems theory, a branch of mathematics used to understand complicated phenomena that change over time. The discovery of the structures in a wide range of real-world cases has shown that they play a key role in complex and chaotic fluid flows in the atmosphere and ocean.

The structures are invisible because they often exist only as dividing lines between parts of a flow that are moving at different speeds and in different directions. In the ocean, the path of a drop of water on one side of such a structure might diverge from the path of a drop of water on the other side; they will drift farther apart as time passes.

“They aren’t something you can walk up to and touch,” Jerrold E. Marsden, an engineering and mathematics professor at Caltech, said of the structures. “But they are not purely mathematical constructions, either.”

As an analogy, Dr. Marsden suggests imagining a line that divides a part of a city that has been affected by a disease outbreak from a part that has not. The line is not a fence or a road, but it still marks a physical barrier. And as the outbreak spreads, the line will change.

To find the structures, scientists must track flow, not by watching it go by but from the perspective of the droplets of water or molecules of air moving in it. “It’s like being a surfer,” Dr. Campbell said. “You want to catch the wave and move with the wave.”

In the laboratory, researchers shine lasers on tiny particles caught in a flow, capturing their speed and trajectory with fast, high-resolution digital cameras similar to the way tracer rounds from machine guns track the path of bullets. In the ocean or atmosphere, scientists rely on instantaneous data from high-frequency radar, laser detection systems, buoys and satellites. In the human body, phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging has helped researchers map the complex patterns of blood flow in detail. Computers take in the data from all those sources, applying algorithms that unveil the flow structures.
“We’re just recognizing that these things exist and are playing a role in a variety of scenarios,” said Thomas Peacock, a mechanical engineering professor at M.I.T. who is evaluating how Lagrangian coherent structures affect vehicle performance and efficiency. “The idea is that cars, airplanes and submarines down the line would be fitted with sensors that will help them adapt to these structures.”

Studies of the air flow patterns surrounding Hong Kong International Airport have shown that Lagrangian coherent structures cause unexpected jolts to planes during landing attempts, forcing pilots to waste fuel while they revert to holding patterns. George Haller, an engineering professor at McGill University in Montreal who forged the mathematical criteria for finding such structures in fluid flows, is working with the airport’s officials to design a tool that allows pilots to see and navigate around the structures. It will rely on data from laser scans, analyzed by computers as planes approach the airport.

At Stanford, researchers are mapping blood flow in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms to see whether frequent exercise changes the flow structures in ways that correlate to slower bulging of the artery.

The scientists studying Monterey Bay found a Lagrangian coherent structure that acts as a moving ridge, separating a region of the bay that spreads pollutants out to sea and a region that recirculates them in the bay. They watched this ridge drift and change over 22 days and found that if computed in real time, it could be used to predict one-day windows when pollutants could do less damage to the bay environment.

The scientists proposed building a holding tank for the fertilizers and pesticides that wash from farmland into the neighboring watershed that could release pollutants only at times when they would quickly drift into the ocean, where they would be so diluted they would pose less harm to marine life. In a later experiment, scientists found that the path of buoys dispatched in the bay followed the path predicted by the computer simulations.

Researchers who studied the waters along the southeastern coast of Florida found a similar structure that they argued could be used to reduce the effects of pollution near Hollywood Beach, south of Fort Lauderdale.

Their research in Monterey Bay piqued the interest of Art Allen, a physical oceanographer for the Coast Guard who thinks that Lagrangian coherent structures could improve search-and-rescue operations for people lost at sea by offering more precision than current techniques.

Researchers in private industry and the French Navy have expressed interest in using models of the structures to track the spread of oil after spills in coastal areas, said Francois Lekien, an applied mathematics professor at the École Polytechnique at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium who was a co-author of the bay studies.

Strategies based on Lagrangian coherent structures have yet to be tested to see if they curb coastal pollution. And they have several limitations. Scientists cannot yet predict what happens to pollutants that do not float on the ocean surface. The models do not yet account for the interaction with wind patterns that also guide how floating objects or people drift at sea. The method also requires continuing, detailed data akin to what was available in Monterey Bay, which has an ocean monitoring program that far surpasses that of most coastal areas.

Even if the structures in flow do not guide engineering or pollution strategies as well as researchers hope, many scientists believe that unearthing and visualizing them provides useful insights. For example, the structures identified in coastal waters have exposed flaws in our intuition about flow. “There are myths out there that it’s O.K. to dump pollutants at high tide,” said Dr. Marsden, co-author of the Monterey Bay and coastal Florida studies. “But it’s really these structures that will determine where pollutants end up.”

Finding the structures in various settings has also given researchers a fresh perspective on what remains a great scientific puzzle: the dynamics of flow.

“In complex systems such as the atmosphere, there are a lot of things that people can’t explain offhand,” Dr. Haller said. “People used to attribute this to randomness or chaos. But it turns out, when you look at data sets and find these structures, you can actually explain those patterns.”

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Scars linger from nuclear accident 10 years later, couple still fights in court while village grapples with how to move forward

OKAIMURA, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) On Sept. 30, 1999, Shoichi Oizumi and his wife Keiko couldn't figure out why helicopters were hovering over their auto parts factory in the village of Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture.

"Firefighters came to our factory to tell us to close the windows as an accident took place at JCO Co.," a nuclear fuel processor across the street, the 81-year-old Oizumi said. "But they did not know precisely what happened.

"I looked out the window, but I did not see any abnormal signs, such as smoke. I called the village office, but the officials did not know what really happened either," he said.

It was when the couple tuned in to the 7 p.m. TV news at home that they knew Japan's first criticality accident had occurred at JCO at 10:35 a.m.

The critical state lasted around 20 hours until its termination at 6:14 a.m. the next day, eventually causing the deaths of two JCO employees and exposing hundreds of residents, including the Oizumis, to radiation.

The village was thrown into panic, with many residents forced to evacuate, traffic systems suspended and schools closed. The area was also hit by devastating rumors that its farm products were contaminated with radiation.

The village is a center for nuclear research and development, playing host to numerous facilities, including labs operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

Ten years have passed since the nuclear disaster and the community now appears to have regained its composure, with the number of residents continuing to grow — despite the graying of Japan's overall population — and the local government enjoying healthy finances.

But the Oizumis are still struggling as the only individuals involved in a legal battle over the accident, in which they argue that their health has deteriorated since they were exposed to radiation, seeking ¥57.6 million in damages from JCO and its parent company, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.

The lawsuit has been rejected by the Mito District and Tokyo High courts, but the couple have appealed to the Supreme Court.

"We are determined to hand down what happened 10 years ago so people will never suffer damage from a nuclear accident as we have done," Shoichi Oizumi said.

In the evening on the day of the accident, Keiko Oizumi, now 70, started suffering abdominal pains and she eventually felt weak and lost her appetite.

"I felt as if I was packed with lead in my body," she said.

She developed symptoms of depression, suffering heart palpitations or dizziness when she heard such words as "JCO," "criticality" and "radiation." She eventually tried to commit suicide. Shoichi Oizumi, meanwhile, has seen skin problems worsen since the exposure.

Yukie Inose, 69, a close friend of Keiko Oizumi since their childhood and a former employee at the couple's factory, said in a statement submitted to the Tokyo High Court: "Keiko seemed to have become a different person since the accident. We couldn't have a chat as we used to, and I couldn't do anything for her, although she became emaciated."

Their livelihood was also destroyed because they were forced to shut down their factory two years after the accident in the face of their deteriorating health, they argue in the lawsuit.

JCO, for its part, gave up resumption of uranium processing operations in April 2003 after the Mito District Court found the company and six of its employees guilty over the fatal accident, ruling the company allowed workers to use buckets to pour too much uranium solution into a processing tank, causing a nuclear fission chain reaction.

The company now engages in storage of low-radiation nuclear waste.

While still taking medication for posttraumatic stress disorder, Keiko Oizumi is now sometimes accepting media interviews while attending public meetings to share her experiences.

"As I myself worked for a small factory, I understand that JCO may have been involved in sloppy work to fulfill its quota amid intense competition," she said. "I believe that not only JCO but also the central government is responsible for the accident as it gave the approval to the company to conduct the nuclear business."

The nuclear fuel-processing facility, meanwhile, was divided into 18 parts, packed into drums in 2005 and is kept in special storage in the JCO compound, remaining in the shade of obscurity.

A full-scale replica of it was created and set up at the Ibaraki Science Museum of Atomic Energy in the village in 2006.

Tokaimura Mayor Tatsuya Murakami, who was in his first term when the accident took place, said the original should have been preserved to pass down the memory of the accident to future generations.

While Tokaimura has boasted of itself as a "village of atomic energy," Murakami is known for his cautious stance over nuclear power.

While admitting that memories of the disaster among people have gradually faded, he said, "Our village tried to make further advances in nuclear power unconditionally, but the JCO accident has made us recognize the importance of strengthening safety regulation over nuclear facilities."

Murakami was elected to a fourth term earlier in September in a narrowly victory or an opponent who had appealed for an active nuclear policy.

Kazumasa Aizawa, an antinuclear village council member, said, "We, the villagers, shared a deep sense of fear over nuclear power for 20 hours during the critical state, and I think this common experience forms the basis of Mr. Murakami's re-election."

Aizawa, for his part, advocates alternative energy sources, while Murakami said, "It may be possible for the village in a 50- or 100-year term to abandon nuclear facilities, but it is unrealistic at present. . . . I think we have to consider how to coexist with them."

Looking to the village's future, Murakami would like to promote scientific research on nuclear power. One way might be to establish an educational institution to train technical experts from home and abroad to contribute to the safety of nuclear facilities.

As part of efforts to "preserve the records of the JCO turmoil," the mayor is now working to archive the village's documents over the criticality accident.

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Australia 'uranium' dust concerns

Environmentalists have raised concerns that another giant dust storm blowing its way across eastern Australia may contain radioactive particles.

It is argued that sediment whipped up from Australia's centre may be laced with material from a uranium mine.

Scientists have played down concerns, saying there is little to worry about.

Last Wednesday Sydney and Brisbane bore witness to their biggest dust storm in 70 years. Both were shrouded in red dust blown in from the desert outback.

The massive clouds of dust that choked heavily populated parts of Australia have caused problems for people with asthma, as well as those with heart and lung conditions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8270222.stm

"I thought the whole city was on fire, it was just so red"

But some environmental campaigners believe that the dry, metallic-tasting sediment could threaten the health of millions of other Australians.

David Bradbury, a renowned filmmaker and activist, claims the haze that engulfed some of the country's biggest cities in the past week contains radioactive grains - or tailings - carried on gale force winds from a mine in the South Australian desert.

"Given the dust storms... which [the] news said originated from Woomera, and which is right next door to the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs, these [storms] could blow those tailings across the face of Australia," Mr Bradbury asserted.

Mining companies have stressed that dust levels are carefully monitored, while the health concerns have been dismissed by a senior environmental toxicologist.

Barry Noller from the University of Queensland says that many of the particles from mines in the outback are simply too heavy to be carried by the wind over long distances.

"In a big dust storm, the dust is not going to come from one isolated site, it is going to be mixed in with dust from a [wide] area and diluted considerably," Mr Noller said.

The latest murky haze that spread over parts of Queensland at the weekend is dissipating and weather forecasters say it should soon start to move out to sea.

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Philippines Assesses Typhoon's Damage

The Philippines and its capital city, Manila, were counting the economic cost Monday of the worst flooding in more than 40 years as rescuers and volunteers plucked dead bodies from swollen rivers and tried to reach survivors still marooned by the devastating weekend storm.

At least 240 people were killed by floodwaters or smothered in landslides by Typhoon Ketsana, which dumped more than a month's worth of rain on Manila and the surrounding area in just 12 hours Saturday. At least 37 people are missing, and officials are trying to verify scores more reported deaths as the floodwaters recede from the most affected areas. Disease is another threat: The inundation of putrid, polluted water is raising concerns about typhoid and bacterial infections among the more than 1.8 million people affected or displaced by the deluge.

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European Pressphoto Agency

People wade through the floods in Cainta, east of Manila, on Sunday after a tropical storm battered the Philippines with record rainfall over the weekend.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the Philippines is seeking international assistance with the relief effort. "The potential for a more serious situation is there, and we cannot wait for that to happen," he said in a nationally televised briefing as criticism about the government's handling of the situation -- especially allegations that it had failed to provide adequate drainage -- mounted. At its peak, the flood covered 80% of Manila.

Concerns are growing, too, that the paralysis that the flood brought to Manila and its 12 million people could weigh on the Philippines' fragile economic recovery in the second half of the year. Officials estimated the economic cost -- including damaged roads, bridges and crops -- at around 1.4 billion pesos, or $30 million.

The city -- a sprawling metropolitan conglomeration -- accounts for 40% of the country's total economic output, and many of the people who live there work in the informal economy. Economists say about a third of the Philippines' working population works "off the books," and if they don't work, they don't earn. The longer it takes for Manila to return to normal, the greater the hit to consumer spending, which is one of the Philippine economy's largest drivers.

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Associated Press

A boy stands beside a sign on a vehicle which was written in mud as residents slowly return to their homes in suburban Marikina city, east of Manila.

The agricultural areas surrounding Manila also were damaged by the storm. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told reporters that the farm sector suffered 820 million pesos, or $17 million, in damage. He said the government will distribute quickly gestating rice seeds to help recover losses.

Relief efforts may help provide support for consumer spending in the short term, and wealthier Filipinos are buying canned goods, instant noodles and shelter materials and donating money for flood victims. Rebuilding work in the worst-affected areas may also provide an economic lift, while Filipino expatriates, who send home billions of dollars each year and provide about a tenth of the country's economic output may also send home more money to help families affected by the disaster.

"The question is how much alleviation there will be," said Luz Lorenzo, an economist with ATR-Kim Eng Securities Inc. in Manila. "When you net everything out, there is still going to be a negative impact."

Ms. Lorenzo, who previously forecast the Philippine economy would grow 3% this year, said she is looking at reducing her outlook because of the dislocations caused by the storm. Last year the Philippine economy expanded by 3.8%.

Share prices at the Philippine Stock Exchange sank in thin trading as investors tried to make sense of the turmoil.

In the foreign-exchange market, the Philippine peso was at 47.525 pesos to the dollar in early afternoon trading in New York, compared with 47.125 pesos on Friday. Philip Wee, a currency strategist with DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore, said the flooding shouldn't have too much impact on the value of the peso because remittances from Filipino expatriates have shown buoyant growth this year.

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AFP/Getty Images

People clean mud and debris from the roofs of their homes as flood waters recede in the outlying suburbs of Marikina City, near Manila on September 28, 2009.

Some climate-change activists attempted to link the Manila flood to global warming, though it is unclear whether rising temperatures are increasing the frequency of the typhoons and storms that regularly batter the Philippines, a chain of islands in the South China Sea that is home to more than 90 million people and where a third of the people live on less than $2 a day.

Delays in rescuing flood victims in Manila -- nearly 8,000 people were rescued, and 69,000 evacuated to emergency centers -- have prompted a surge of criticism of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government as authorities struggled to secure enough rubber boats to reach everybody needing assistance. Her anointed successor in next year's presidential elections, the defense minister, Mr. Teodoro, could take the brunt of the blame, though poor drainage has been a persistent problem in the crowded, low-lying metropolis for years.

Ms. Arroyo described the flood as "an extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us."

There also is the prospect of further storms. Meteorologists say the country could be hit by a typhoon or another storm in the coming days. A tropical depression and an additional low-pressure area are forming in the Pacific Ocean and heading in the Philippines' direction.

"There is the very big possibility that they could further intensify into a typhoon," Nathaniel Cruz, a weather forecaster with a government agency, told a Manila television station.

—Cris Larano in Manila contributed to this article.

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• Environment
• Water

Adelaide latest victim of global water shortages

Australia's fifth-largest city could be reliant on bottled water as early as next week as overuse and drought stretch the Murray river to its limit

• Buzz up!
• Digg it

• Toni O'Loughlin and John Vidal
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 17.58 BST
• Article history

Lake Hume, part of the Murray River system in Australia, has been devastated by drought. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

The water in Australia's biggest river is running so low and is so salty that the nation's fifth-largest city, Adelaide, is at risk of having to ship water in to its residents, politicians have warned.

Adelaide's water crisis follows similar problems in cities around the world, as the combination of growing population, increasing agricultural use and global warming stretches resources to the limit. Experts are warning of permanent drought in many regions.

Toni O'Loughlin on drought in Adelaide, South Australia Link to this audio

Salinity levels in some stretches of the Murray river already exceed the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendations for safe drinking, and South Australia's water authority and 11 rural townships east of Adelaide have been told to prepare for the worst.

"Another dry year will deplete our reservoirs and the water in the Murray will become too saline to drink. We are talking about 1.3 million people, who are not far off becoming reliant on bottled water. We are talking a national emergency," said South Australian MP David Winderlich.

As early as next week, water from parts of the river may become too dangerous to drink, which would require the water authority to begin delivering supplies to hospitals, clinics, aged care facilities and local supermarkets in plastic bottles, said Winderlich.

"There's simply too many people pulling water out of the river," said Roger Strother, Coorong council mayor. "We've been saying that one day it would catch up, and this summer is when it is going to happen. It could be next week."

Recent rains have topped up Adelaide's dams, but only enough for one year, and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, which oversees water use across the whole of south-east Australia, says water levels in reservoirs are much lower than expected. Today the authority said the whole basin was at 25% capacity.

Australia's worst drought in a century has lasted over 10 years in places, and many cities have had to restrict water use.

Climate experts fear the continent faces a permanently drier future as the impact of global warming kicks in. South Australians have watched the waters stagnate as farmers, especially cotton and rice growers upstream, siphoned up to 83% of the water from the river system.

The WHO says the acceptable level of salinity for safe drinking water is 800 EC (electrical conductivity) units but the salinity in parts of the Murray is now around 1,200 EC units. The water authority says it will begin shipping water when the salinity rises to 1,400 EC units.

Adelaide is one of many cities around the world facing acute water shortages as populations grow, long-term droughts continue and ground water is not replenished. The Chinese water minister, Chen Lei, today told engineers at a water conference that two-thirds of Chinese cities now face serious shortages due to rapid industrialisation and climate change.

"Compared to 1956-79, the average rainfall has dropped 6% in three major river basins," Lei said. "Most parts in the north of China are now facing water shortages problems, especially because of the increasing influence of climate change and the faster speed of industrialisation and urbanisation."

By 2015, Lei said, water efficiency would have to be increased by 30%. "Water abstraction must be strictly controlled. We should have strict management of groundwater exploitation and consumption, put a limit on total use of groundwater, and ban or set quotas on groundwater exploitation. Nearly two out of three cities are facing water shortages, and the farmland affected by drought reaches nearly 15m sq km a year."

According to a new UN environment programme report, perennial drought conditions are developing in south-eastern Australia and south-western North America. "Projections suggest that persistent water scarcity will increase in a number of regions in coming years, including southern and northern Africa, the Mediterranean, much of the Middle East, a broad band in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent," the report said.

"There is growing concern that thresholds or tipping points may now be reached in a matter of years or a few decades, including dramatic changes to the Indian subcontinent's monsoon rains, the Sahara and west Africa monsoons, and climate systems affecting the Amazon rainforest," it said.

Hopes in some countries that an El Niño weather event would bring rain to parched areas of the US this week declined as the US government climate prediction centre said temperatures in the equatorial Pacific had stopped climbing. During strong El Niños, abnormally warm waters in that region pump heat and moisture into the atmosphere, which leads to intense storms.

Cities around the world under water stress

Beijing: Most of Beijing's water comes from the Miyun reservoir, but a decade of drought and huge population increase has left extreme shortages. Water diversion projects are helping, but this is depleting resources from other regions. The city must spend $3.5bn (£2.2bn) in the next five years to cope with a population expected to rise to 17 million.

Nairobi: The city has imposed water rationing, following an acute drought that has affected all Kenya's water catchment areas. River and reservoirs are at historically low levels. Flower farms and export-oriented agriculture are also reducing supplies available to people.

Mexico City: 2009 has been the driest year recorded in the city of 19 million people. Water is rationed and many areas have no piped water for days at a time. The government has imposed fines of up to $1,200 for hosing down cars and sidewalks or watering lawns during daytime hours. Signs warn that the city could run out of water next spring unless residents switch to low-flow showers and toilets, and plug leaks.

Gaza: Water fit for human use will run out in the Gaza strip within 10 years, the Gaza Coastal Municipal Water Utility and UN agencies said this month. Tap water is already salty, and only 5-10% of groundwater is drinkable. Gaza's population is expected to increase to 3 million by 2025.

Kathmandu: Erratic rainfall and drier winters have left Nepal's capital very short of water. The water company can provide only 160m litres a day but the demand is well over 200m litres. Many households are drilling their own boreholes to extract groundwater with electric pumps, but the water table is sinking approximately 2.5 metres a year and this is not sustainable in the medium term.

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Third World population controls won't save climate, study claims

The population explosion in poor countries will contribute little to climate change and is a dangerous distraction from the main problem of over-consumption in rich nations, a study has found.

It challenges claims by leading environmentalists, including Sir David Attenborough and Jonathon Porritt, that strict birth control is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The study concludes that spending billions of pounds of aid on contraception in the developing world will not benefit the climate because poor countries have such low emissions. It says that Britain and other Western countries should instead focus on reducing consumption of goods, services and energy among their own populations.

David Satterthwaite, of the International Institute for Environment and Development , a think-tank based in London, analysed changes in population and greenhouse gas emissions for all countries between 1980 and 2005.

He found that sub-Saharan Africa had 18.5 per cent of the world’s population growth and only 2.4 per cent of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions. The United States had 3.4 per cent of the world’s population growth but 12.6 per cent of the growth in carbon dioxide emissions.

China’s one-child rule had resulted in a sharp decline in population growth but its CO2 emissions had risen very rapidly — 44.5 per cent of the growth in global emissions — largely because of the increasing number of Chinese enjoying Western levels of consumption.

Dr Satterthwaite, whose study is published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization, said: “A child born into a very poor African household who during their life never escapes from poverty contributes very little to climate change, especially if they die young, as many do. A child born into a wealthy household in North America or Europe and who enjoys a full life and a high-consumption lifestyle contributes far more — thousands or even tens of thousands of times more.”

The world’s population has risen from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.8 billion. It is growing by 75 million a year and is almost certain to exceed 9 billion by 2050. Nine of the ten countries with the highest predicted growth rates up to 2050 are in Africa. Uganda’s population is expected to treble from 33 million to 91 million.

The populations of developed countries, including Japan and Russia, are expected to decline over the same period.

A separate study by the Princeton Environmental Institute found that the world’s richest half billion people accounted for 7 per cent of the world’s population but 50 per cent of emissions. The difference in emissions levels between a rich Westerner and a poor African was illustrated in a study this month by the New Economics Foundation.

It found that by 7pm on January 4, a typical person in Britain would have generated the same amount of carbon emissions that someone in Tanzania would be responsible for in the whole year. A US citizen would reach the same point by 4am on January 2.

Last month the Optimum Population Trust called for population restraint policies to be adopted by every world state to combat climate change. The call was endorsed by Sir David Attenborough, James Lovelock and Jonathon Porritt.

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US inertia could scupper world climate deal in Copenhagen, says expert

US ignorance about the risks and reality of global warming could sink hopes of a new global deal to control greenhouse gas emissions at December's climate talks in Copenhagen, an advisor to the German government has said.

Professor John Schellnhuber, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said the US was "climate illiterate" and that the rest of the world may be forced to agree a new deal without it.

"Nobody should dream of the possibility that numbers and targets for countries will be sealed in Copenhagen," said Schellnhuber, one of the world's foremost climate scientists. "If the US doesn't move then nothing will happen."

He added: "The US in a sense is climate illiterate. It is a deeper problem in the US, if you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change. Even in Brazil and China, you have more people who know the problem, who think that deep cuts in emissions are needed."

He predicted that it could be several years before the US would be willing to take on carbon cuts that were ambitious enough to persuade countries such as China to set targets of their own. At UN talks last week, China and India made small steps forward on this issue, but Obama was unable to do the same.

"The political chances seem very slim that something will happen in Copenhagen and even in the years after," he said. "Maybe in the conferences following Copenhagen some countries – including China and the EU – whatever the US does, will say: we go ahead now. Why can't we save the world without the US? Why should that not happen?"

The US has by some distance the largest carbon emissions per capita in the world, and any deal without it would be significantly less effective at curbing global temperature rise.

Speaking on the fringes of a climate science conference at Oxford University today, Schellnhuber said the former US president, George Bush, was to blame for a decade of inaction on climate change, and that many in the Republican party and the wider US population still did not understand the need to act. European nations and others have been waiting for President Obama to engage with the issue in a way that Bush refused to.

Schellnhuber said: "Obama is aware of the problem and he personally wants to do something. The problem is: can he provide the leadership to overcome the system? Every top politician gets to do two or three unpopular things, and the right politicians choose the right things."

To convert a global deal on climate change into US law would require a two-thirds majority vote in the US Senate, something that many in Europe believe is unrealistic given Obama's ongoing troubles with healthcare reform. "It just may not be possible to overcome the American inertia," Scellnhuber said.

Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said: "It's vital for the climate that we get the Americans on board, but if we can't, then we can't just do nothing – we still need to make the biggest emission cuts that we can. If that means China and Europe and others going on without the Americans, then that may be the price we need to pay."

Schellnhuber's comments come as UN talks on a possible Copenhagen deal continue in Bangkok. Negotiators from 190 countries are wrestling with a draft treaty text, which runs to 200 pages and is riddled with alternate options and provisional text in square brackets.

His words reflect growing suspicion in Europe that the talks are crawling towards a unsatisfactory outcome, and that little progress is being made in the US. Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed a growing rift between Europe and the US over the latter's approach to how carbon targets could be set and met.

The Oxford conference is centred around the implications of a 4C rise in global average temperature, which scientists believe could be a possibility if serious carbon cuts are not agreed in Copenhagen.

Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, presented a study demonstrating that the world could see a 4C rise as soon as 2060-2070 – within the lifetime of many people alive today.

Nigel Arnell, a climate expert at the University of Reading, said a temperature rise on this scale would bring about colossal changes in weather conditions, affecting billions of people. Some 15% of land worldwide that is currently suitable for agriculture would become useless, he said. Available land would shift north, to regions such as Siberia, which is currently covered in forest.

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Solar Plan Ignites Some Environmental Concerns

An Obama administration plan to build huge new solar energy plants in the Southwest is causing heartburn in the environmental community.

The Interior Department has proposed allowing two dozen solar energy study areas on public land in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. These would be industrial facilities that would require huge amounts of land and water to operate. They wouldn't allow room for other uses on the land such as recreation.

While conservation groups generally support the president's campaign for more renewable forms of energy, some local groups are concerned about putting industrial-scale solar projects on public land.

In the Southwest, the U.S. government is the largest landowner by far — in Nevada, it owns 85 percent of the state. The Southwest also is one of the best regions in the world for producing energy from the sun. So, it might seem like a no-brainer to build more solar in the unpopulated desert. But Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council in San Diego opposes it.

"It doesn't make any sense to slap up big industrial projects hundreds of miles from where the energy's going to be used," Weiner says.

She says she understands the climate change arguments for getting more of the country's energy from renewable sources. But she says these projects could displace endangered species, such as the desert tortoise.

Enlarge Courtesy of eSolar

The Sierra SunTower facility utilizes 24,000 mirrors to harness solar energy. It covers 20 acres of ground. Some environmentalists have raised concerns about the Obama administration's plan to build new solar facilities because of the land and water requirements.

Courtesy of eSolar

The Sierra SunTower facility utilizes 24,000 mirrors to harness solar energy. It covers 20 acres of ground. Some environmentalists have raised concerns about the Obama administration's plan to build new solar facilities because of the land and water requirements.

"You're destroying habitat and creatures to save the planet?" Weiner says.

Around the Southwest, local groups like the Desert Protective Council have similar concerns. But national environmental groups have a slightly different point of view.

"All of our energy has to come from somewhere," says Alex Daue, renewable energy coordinator for the Wilderness Society. "I would rather not see a single additional industrial development on the land. But if we don't develop renewables, we're just going to have more mountaintop coal mining removal or additional drilling in the Rockies."

Daue says his group also is concerned about losing the benefits of recreation and habitat for plants and animals. But he says the effects of climate change have a significant affect on public lands and endangered species, too.

The Wilderness Society has pushed the Interior Department to choose properties that already are degraded in some way by past industrial activity or farming, for example. And they've encouraged the department to select parcels that are close to existing transmission lines so new ones won't have to be built.

Daue echoes arguments made by the solar energy industry that rooftop panels alone aren't enough to supply the country's energy needs.

"The bare-bones fact is that we have a centralized electricity infrastructure in this country," says Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. He says that to replace existing coal-powered energy facilities, the country will need industrial-scale solar-powered ones in addition to things like rooftop solar panels.

Resch is frustrated by criticism from within the environmental community, because his industry wants only 670,000 acres of public land for the solar energy study areas.

"When you look at the oil and gas industry today, they have over 44.5 million acres of public land under lease," says Resch. "So you're looking at maybe 2 percent of all the oil and gas lands that are currently leased are being evaluated and considered for solar."

Of course, after the government evaluates the environmental effects of the solar facilities, the number of acres dedicated to them could grow substantially. And that's what really worries local environmental groups concerned about losing special places for recreation and habitat for endangered species.

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EPA seeks to limit plane deicing chemical runoff

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Every winter, airports across the country spray millions of gallons of deicing chemicals onto airliners and allow the runoff to trickle away. When the chemicals end up in nearby waterways, the deicing fluid can turn streams bright orange and create dead zones for aquatic life.

The practice is legal, but environmental officials want it to stop.

"We normally don't think of airports as one of our major polluting facilities," said Chuck Corell, water quality bureau chief with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "I think it's safe to say that for years it was unchecked."

Not every airport lets the chemicals drain off the tarmac uncollected, but those that do range from some of the nation's largest - including John F. Kennedy in New York and Chicago's O'Hare - to small regional airports such as the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids. Both activists and federal environmental officials say the chemicals slowly create waterways that won't support life.

"Here you have millions of gallons a year of this deicing chemical running off untreated directly into that bay," said Larry Levine, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued New York over deicing chemicals that flow from JFK into the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. "Anything that can't swim away is going to die."

Proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations would require airports to capture at least some of the deicing fluid after it is used to rid planes of ice and snow. The agency says those rules would reduce by 22 percent the discharge of chemicals, which lower oxygen levels in waterways and prevent fish and other aquatic creatures from breathing.

The two main types of deicing fluids - propylene glycol and ethylene glycol - are not generally seen as a threat to human health. Ethylene glycol, which also is used in antifreeze, is generally only toxic in humans if ingested. Propylene glycol is a "generally recognized as safe" additive for foods and medications, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Under the EPA's proposed regulations, six of the nation's 14 major airports that are the biggest users of deicing fluid - JKF, O'Hare, Cleveland-Hopkins International, Newark Liberty International in New Jersey, Boston Logan International and LaGuardia Airport in New York - would have to install deicing "pads" or other collection systems to contain 60 percent of fluid sprayed.

The airports would then have to make sure the collected liquid was treated to remove any toxins, the EPA said.

Officials at five of those six airports either said they were meeting all current runoff rules or declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Cleveland airport said that facility already uses a deicing pad.

Mary Smith, director of engineering and analysis division in the EPA's Office of Water, said the other eight major airports already have deicing pads and probably won't have to make changes to comply with the proposed rules.

About 200 smaller airports would be required to collect 20 percent of the fluid by using technologies such as a glycol recovery vehicle, which is basically a vacuum that sucks up the chemical. Airports with less than 1,000 annual jet departures wouldn't be affected.

Dean Schultz, a spokesman for the American Association of Airport Executives, criticized the proposed rules as unnecessary. He pointed to current regulations in which the EPA or an authorized state agency issues general permits or more detailed individual permits that cover deicing discharges. Schultz said additional rules would be redundant and costly.

"We all don't have the same issues. We all don't dump to the same discharge waters," Schultz said. "It's a bit of a shotgun approach to solving the problem when there's already a mechanism in place to deal with it in a more case-by-case basis."

Under existing rules, adopted in the 1990s, airports are required to minimize contamination of stormwater runoff and must monitor for pollutants, including deicing fluid. Some states have required additional measures when reports showed high levels of the chemicals.

Environmental officials in Iowa discovered the issue after residents complained. At the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, neighbors living along a creek noticed the water had turned bright orange. At Des Moines International Airport, neighbors reported water that had a green, cloudy tint with a sweet, chemical odor. A rusty orange fungi was on the creek bed, according to a report by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

In both cases, the state Department of Natural Resources ordered fixes. The Cedar Rapids airport, which was told to fix the problem last January, has appealed. Des Moines in 2000 spent $10 million on a containment system and immediately saw a difference.

"Once the collection system was put in place and operational, I noticed the fish and aquatic life in the creek," said John Wheeler, the airport's environmental manager.

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Schools should test for PCBs in brittle caulking says EPA

The US Environmental Protection Agency is recommending that owners of older buildings – including schools – test brittle, aging masonry and window caulking for high levels of likely cancer-causing chemicals.

The recommendations are targeted at thousands of buildings constructed or renovated between 1950 and 1978, when polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned. Several Massachusetts schools and colleges have recently found high levels of PCBs in caulking.

Scott Richards, director of Facilities at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass. stands in front of one of many buildings on campus that were built in the 1970s with caulk high in PCBs (Stephen Rose for The Boston Globe)

The federal agency said the danger to schoolchildren is unknown but “we’re concerned about the potential risks associated with exposure to these PCBs and we’re recommending practical, common sense steps to reduce this exposure as we improve our understanding of the science,’’ said EPA administrator Lisa. P. Jackson.

The oily PCBs gained infamy for their use in electrical transformers that are present at many of the nation’s filthiest industrial sites. But the oily chemicals were also mixed into caulking to make it rubbery when it was applied to interior and exterior windows, doors and bricks, and used in industrial paints and adhesives to glue everything from tile flooring to cabinets.

As caulking ages, public health researchers have found, they can break down into particles and vapors containing small amounts of PCBs, which can fall to the ground, dust windowsills, and infiltrate a building’s ventilation system. This spring, Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield voluntarily tested its caulking and discovered high levels of PCBs on exterior window and construction joints of several buildings. After discovering high levels of PCBs, New Bedford High School this summer removed adhesives, paint and foam in two classrooms and a teacher’s room and paint on a closet wall.

EPA officials said there was no cause for alarm, yet said building owners should test caulking if it is brittle, cracking or deteriorating or if PCB air levels exceed EPA suggested public health levels. They also recommended building owners do the following: Clean air ducts, improve ventilation by opening windows, clean rooms frequently to reduce dust, use vacuums with high efficiency particulate air filters, wash hands with soap and water often, particularly before eating and drinking.

PCB in caulking is an emerging issue in the country and few schools or industrial buildings, where the caulking was used the most, have been tested.

While the EPA now recommends testing for PCBs, it is not required. Yet the agency requires caulking or other material to be removed if it contains levels about 50 parts per million. In Massachusetts, some caulking has been found at 5,000 parts per million or more. In New York, some caulking was found to contain 200,000 parts per million.

Many school administrators in New England, faced with dwindling budgets, acknowledged privately to the Globe in recent months they avoid testing to avoid the financial burden. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – or more – to get rid of the PCBs.

“This is a good start,’’ said Robert Herrick, senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2004, he tested 24 buildings in Greater Boston that a bricklayer identified as likely candidates for PCB contamination. Eight contained caulking with PCB levels about 50 parts per million.

“But it doesn’t deal with the underlying reality that if you follow the guidance and test for it, you have to remove it. School districts are so financially strapped teachers are forced to bring in their own classroom supplies," said Herrick. He said an answer would be to pass a federal bill now pending to give schools low-interest loans and grants to scrub PCBs from their school.

The health danger caused by the release of PCBs from caulking remains unclear. This family of chemicals includes more than 200 compounds, and they vary in how they affect people. An emerging body of research in laboratory animals suggests the PCBs that can be released from caulking - lighter in weight and less studied than the ones shown to cause cancer - might cause developmental and neurological problems, but the findings are not definitive.

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Prognosis appears good for Fox River

Lee Bergquist

Despite pollution problems, the Fox River has attracted development, including luxury housing. The boat in the foreground, part of the massive cleanup project along the 39-mile lower segment of the Fox, carries booster pumps that send contaminated river sediments to a processing plant.

As the cleanup of toxic chemicals along the Fox River prepares to pause for winter, the project is ahead of schedule - but the price tag has grown.

By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 29, 2009

Green Bay — The dredges on the Fox River motor past abandoned factories, city parks, million-dollar homes and, inevitably, paper mills.

Eventually, 4 million cubic yards of toxic sediment - a legacy of the region's dominance in papermaking - will be removed from the river.

It's a massive undertaking that starts on the dredges and ends on shore with mountains of processed dirt shipped off to landfills.

The 39-mile Fox is the largest source of polychlorinated biphenyls on Lake Michigan. An estimated 620 pounds of PCBs flow into Green Bay every year.

This fall, as workers wind down on the first season of the biggest phase of the cleanup, estimates show the cost of the project has escalated to as much as $875 million, more than double the cost of building Miller Park. The project will pause for winter and resume next spring.

A year ago, state records showed costs then had increased more than $200 million from previous estimates to about $750 million.

Contractors and regulators say the true expense of cleaning up the river is better understood now that the dredges are methodically digging up the river bottom and a Wal-Mart-sized processing plant is in operation.

The project limped along for years with little progress. But now that the work has begun, it's ahead of schedule and targeted for completion in 2017, according to regulators and contractors. Officials estimated the work would take nine years when it began in May.

The goal is to one day make fish safer to eat.

Computer modeling by the state Department of Natural Resources shows the state's fish consumption advisory for PCBs on the Fox would go away by 2036 - 19 years after the project is finished.

For example, the advisory recommends that people should limit their consumption of walleye to one meal a month. Walleye larger than 22 inches shouldn't be eaten.

"If we did nothing, the modeling tells us that fish advisories would continue for many decades - maybe 100 years," said Bruce Baker, a DNR administrator overseeing the cleanup.

Despite the problems with PCBs, the Fox is popular among anglers, boaters and homeowners. Large new homes have been built along the river. Walleye fishing alone generates $6.2 million each year for the local economy, according to the DNR.

The DNR and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which are monitoring the cleanup, say they are pleased with progress so far.

"We consider ourselves to be the good guys around here," said the project manager, Ray Mangrum of California-based Tetra Tech.

Battles aren't over

Still, controversy and unease swirl around the project.

Regulators have tussled with some of the companies responsible for the PCBs that believe it would be more cost-effective to do nothing.

Also, the polluting companies are embroiled in a major battle over how to split the costs. Nearly 100 lawyers are expected to take part in a lengthy trial in federal court in December in Milwaukee.

And now that the work is proceeding, the negotiated plan of removing and covering over sediments continues to rile some environmentalists. They fear capping won't work.

"I do believe that we are starting to make some progress," said critic Rebecca Katers of Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin.

She's been an observer of the process since 1984.

"But they want to declare victory as soon as possible so that the politicians can declare 'mission accomplished' - even if it's not," Katers said.

Since the 1970s, stricter regulations have improved water quality across the country. But culprits such as PCBs are proving to be more difficult.

Earlier this month, the EPA's inspector general said that the agency lacked a coordinated plan to rid PCBs from 43 "areas of concern" around the Great Lakes.

Part of the problem has been a lack of funding or uncertainty over who was responsible for the pollution.

The sites, which include the Milwaukee and Kinnickinnic rivers in metropolitan Milwaukee, represent costs of nearly $3.5 billion, the inspector general's report said.

As it stands now, it could take 77 years to finish all the work, the report said.

But progress has been faster on the Fox, in part, because the source of the contamination - the paper manufacturers - is known.

That's triggered a collaboration of sorts. While the EPA ordered the companies in 2007 to clean up the largest section of the river, the companies also willingly have spent tens of millions of dollars to gather data and do early cleanup work.

"All of this kept taking away the argument that doing nothing wasn't an option," Baker said.

After preliminary work, the cleanup took a major step forward this spring when work began downstream near Green Bay and De Pere - where nearly 90% of the PCBs have been found.

Until a settlement can be reached among all the polluting companies, the work is being funded by Appleton Papers, Georgia Pacific and NCR.

24 hours a day

On the water, flat-bottomed boats and their crews work 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Dredges are outfitted with computer screens that help guide operators to a large rotary device that gobbles up river sediments.

Pumps push the slurry of water and sediments underwater through plastic pipes as far as 10 miles to the giant processing plant on shore.

The plant is a few miles from Lambeau Field. The electric bill alone costs $87,000 a month.

The slurry is dewatered and processed to separate sand and silt. PCBs cling to the organic silt.

Sand is cleaned and recycled for road construction and other uses. PCBs are squeezed with giant presses that turn out material that resembles potting soil. Workers in front-end loaders scoop it up from large piles and toss it into dump trucks.

More than 9,000 loads of soil with low levels of PCBs have been trucked to Hickory Meadows, a landfill in Calumet County. Sediments with the highest levels of PCBs are trucked to a special landfill in Michigan.

The process of capping sediments works nearly in reverse:

Sand or gravel is pumped through miles of pipes to a barge outfitted with a spreader that noisily scatters the material into the river. In other areas, large boulders will also be dropped in for cover to keep the sediments from floating away.

"The goal is to place this stuff in as accurately as possible so it won't float away," said Greg Smith, project manager for J.F. Brennan, a La Crosse-based marine contractor handling the dredging and capping.

Capping is one facet of the project that worries environmentalists the most.

"It's not all going to stay," Katers said. "This has never proven to work on a river of this size."

She worries the river's currents and wave action and the destructive forces of ice will upend the rock and sand and expose the PCBs again.

Jim Hahnenberg, manager of the Fox River project for the EPA, said the caps will be laid in areas with mild currents and more protections.

"These areas should be stable for a very long period of time - nothing is going to escape," Hahnenberg said.

A 2007 study by the National Research Council, a nonpartisan scientific panel, endorsed the approach.

Katers' other complaint is that the regulators lowered the standard - to 1 part per million from 0.25 parts per million - for an acceptable level of PCBs to remain in the river.

But contractors will effectively meet that goal when all the sediments are averaged together, Hahnenberg said.

Dredging, he said, will never be able to remove all PCBs.

"It's not possible," he said.

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