Yellow: the color of sunshine, happiness, friendship…and, potentially, serious health risks. Environmental scientists at Rutgers University have discovered that yellow printing inks and dyes in a number of paper products and clothing brands contain chemicals that have been banned in the U.S. for decades…”When you touch these things, you are getting [PCB 11] on your hands,” Dr. Lisa Rodenburg, associate professor of environmental organic chemistry at Rutgers and lead author of the study, tells TakePart. “[The chemicals] can also get out of the pigment and find their way into water…” She and a team of researchers from Rutgers analyzed 18 ink-treated paper products made in the U.S. and found that 15 contained PCB 11. What’s worse: All 28 paper products they tested from 26 foreign countries contained PCB 11. And 100 percent of the 16 articles of clothing they tested had traces of PCB 11, including children’s clothing purchased from Walmart.
Archives for February 2014
If the world had a giant thermostat, who would control the weather?
As the prospect of a warmer planet becomes reality, scientists are seeking ways to control the climate and keep the planet cooler. It’s a risky and highly controversial idea and, if successful, could imperil the ozone layer and lead to changes in rainfall patterns worldwide. It could also pit nations against one another as they try to control the weather or even use it as a weapon. “Whose hand would be on the thermostat?” a leading climate scientist at Rutgers University, Alan Robock, asked the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in 2009. “What if Canada or Russia wanted the climate to be a little warmer, while tropical countries and small island states wanted it cooler?”
Unstable Atlantic deep ocean circulation under future climate conditions
Today, deep waters formed in the northern North Atlantic fill approximately half of the deep ocean globally. In the process, this impacts on the circum-Atlantic climate, regional sea level, and soak up much of the excess atmospheric carbon dioxide from…
Yellow Pigments in Clothing and Paper Contain Long-Banned Chemical
Throwing on pajamas and curling up with a magazine could mean exposure to chemicals banned several decades ago. New, unpublished research has found that traces of polychlorinated biphenyls – banned in the United States 35 years ago – are leaching out of clothing and printed materials from around the world…”It’s out there in levels that are worrisome,” said Lisa Rodenburg, an associate professor of environmental chemistry at Rutgers University and senior author of the study. “Even at the parts per billion levels, if you find it in almost everything you test, that means people are in almost constant contact,” she said.
Cities support more native biodiversity than previously thought
The rapid conversion of natural lands to cement-dominated urban centres is causing great losses in biodiversity. Yet, according to a new study involving 147 cities worldwide, surprisingly high numbers of plant and animal species persist and even flourish in urban environments – to the tune of hundreds of bird species and thousands of plant species in a single city…”While urbanisation has caused cities to lose large numbers of plants and animals, the good news is that cities still retain endemic native species, which opens the door for new policies on regional and global biodiversity conservation,” said lead author and NCEAS working group member Myla F. J. Aronson, a research scientist in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Rutgers updates vegetable production guide
Hot off the press. Rutgers University has just posted online its updated vegetable production recommendations for 2014, and they’re available for free download at http://njaes.rutgers.edu. Hard copies are available at local county Extension offices.
Articles Contributed by Rutgers Extension Personnel Rank Among Top 50 “Most Read” in the Journal of Extension
The Journal of Extension (JOE) is the official refereed journal of the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves as a forum for emerging and contemporary issues affecting Extension education.
Environmentalist Lester R. Brown, originally from Stow Creek, shares personal history in new book
He’s been called “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” and “one of the great pioneer environmentalists,” of our time, yet on the phone, during a candid conversation with Lester R. Brown, talk shifts from the day’s weather – a nor’easter just swept through the area bringing snow and ice – taking walks to live longer, to ancestry.com…Today, as founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, Brown is the author of 51 books, which have in turn been translated into 638 different languages, a feat Brown said is “just amazing for someone who didn’t aspire to be a writer…” At first, armed with agricultural degrees from Rutgers University, he became a successful tomato farmer, where he began getting closer to nature to try to better understand things.
Shore’s back bay areas struggle with flooding as sea level rises
It doesn’t take a superstorm, just a steady rain to flood Frank Santora’s street. Water runs down Bayside Terrace into the lagoon and when it rises above the stormwater valve, which it frequently does, it bubbles back into the street where it sits until it evaporates, he said…”They have had to struggle with flooding from low-lying areas around Barnegat Bay. It’s going to get worse with rising sea level. We know that. We’re anticipating that and there needs to be strategies put in place,” said Michael Kennish, a Rutgers University research professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Science in New Brunswick.
Wes Kline Receives 2014 Distinguished Service to New Jersey Agriculture Award
Wesley Kline, agricultural and resource management agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County, received a 2014 Distinguished Service to New Jersey Agriculture award at the annual State Agricultural Convention on Feb. 5. The Distinguished Service Awards are presented each year during the convention banquet by the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture (SBOA) to […]