Guide Educates Consumers on Food Additives

Americans are eating more and more processed foods. And that means that food labels are getting longer, as manufacturers add new ingredients to their products. But labels may not tell consumers much about those additives or how much the food was processed. To help educate themselves, consumers can now turn to a new guide to food ingredients. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Steve Frenkel has more:

PCB Contamination Through Sewer Overflow

Despite a 1970’s ban, PCBs have remained a problem throughoutthe Great Lakes Region. Now residents in one Detroit neighborhood aresuing the city over PCB exposure. Families on one street say theirhouses have been contaminated with PCB’s from city sewer lines. TheGreat Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jerome Vaughn reports:

Algae: The Missing PCB Link?

Toxic chemicals known as P-C-B’s haven’t been used in the U.S. for morethan two decades. But dangerous levels of P-C-B’s remain in the naturalenvironment and pose a threat to human health. To address this problem,scientists are trying to understand how these chemicals get into thefood chain. Now, a scientist at Northwestern University has found alikely answer. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Steve Frenkelreports:

FDA Faces Lawsuit

A national coalition of scientists, health experts and religiousleaders is suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The lawsuitfiled today (Wednesday, May 27th) claims that the F-D-A’s policy towardgenetically engineered food doesn’t protect consumers. The Great LakesRadio Consortium’s Steve Frenkel reports:

Are Sperm Counts Declining?

Are sperm counts on the decline? Federal researchers hope they can find out. The government is about to launch the largest project ever to find out if something’s gone wrong with male reproductive health. The study will follow a recent report from the California Department of Health Services that startled the scientific community. The study found a significant drop in sperm count and raised questions about whether environmental chemicals are the culprit. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Edelson Halpert has more:

Commentary – Radioactive Legacy

Last month (March 1998), the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency released the results of an eight year study. Its purpose was to examine a proposal to bury high level nuclear waste deep in the bedrock of the Canadian Shield. As Great Lakes Radio Consortium Commentator Suzanne Elston discovered, the panel concluded that out of sight, isn’t necessarily out of mind:

Radium Girls

It’s not unusual for authors to feel a bond with the people they write about. But that connection is especially strong between a modern-day university professor and a group of working class women in the early 1900’s. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson has more:

Drinking Water Linked to Miscarriages

A new government-sponsored study of three California towns has turned up a potentially serious finding: that some tap water could be dangerous for pregnant women. The study is the first to find that high levels of chemicals used to disinfect water could increase the risk of miscarriage. That’s raised a red flag at the Environmental Protection Agency. And now the EPA’s moving quickly to see if the California findings hold true elsewhere. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Edelson Halpert reports:

Cooking Methods Lower Exposure

For years, residents around the Great Lakes have been warned not to eat certain species of contaminated fish. But a new report to be published in the American Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that certain cooking techniques can minimize the risk of exposure to toxins like P-C-B’s. However, environmentalists say the report may missing the bigger picture. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Steve Frenkel has more: