BACKGROUND AND METHODS Mass psychogenic illness may be difficult to differentiate from illness caused by bioterrorism, rapidly spreading infection, or toxic substances. We investigated symptoms attributed to exposure to toxic gas at a high school in Tennessee. In November 1998, a teacher noticed a 'gasoline-like' smell in her classroom, and soon thereafter she had a headache, nausea, shortness ...

Mercury exposure is the second-most common cause of toxic metal poisoning. Public health concern over mercury exposure, due to contamination of fish with methylmercury and the elemental mercury content of dental amalgams, has long been a topic of political and medical debate. Although the toxicology of mercury is complex, there is evidence for antioxidant protection in the prevention of neurolo...

Introduction Many of the substances used as food additives possess no outstanding toxic property; others which may be used as adjuncts in processing may be toxic but are present in the food only in very small quantities. The study of non-toxic substances resolves itself into the problem of trying to prove a negative. An experimental investigation of the toxicity of many of the chemicals used in...

Petroleum-derived substances are complex and composed of aliphatic (normal-, iso-, and cycloparaffins), olefinic, and/or aromatic constituents. Approximately 400 of these complex substances were evaluated as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge program. The substances were separated into 13 groups (categories), and all available data we...

Doing a better job of protecting children from environmental hazards requires having more and better information about both children's susceptibility and their exposure to toxic substances. There are many critical gaps in knowledge of this issue. This article presents several examples specifically related to children's exposure to pesticides which illustrate environmental risks for children. Th...

This quality assessment of the Skagerrak-Kattegat is mainly based on recent results obtained within the framework of the Swedish multidisciplinary research projekt 'Large-scale environmental effects and ecological processes in the Skagerrak-Kattegat' completed with relevant data from other research publications. The results show that the North Sea has a significant impact on the marine ecosyste...

Licensed child care centers are generally considered to be safe because they are required to meet state licensing regulations. As part of their licensing requirements, many states inspect child care centers and include an assessment of the health and safety of the facility to look for hazardous conditions or practices that may harm children. However, most states do not require an environmental ...

for pulp and paper manufacture. The science, a proven environmental track record, and strong market demand demonstrate that ECF is without rival in terms of pollution prevention, resource conservation, and product quality. "Chlorine dioxide is a solution to dioxin and other persistent, bio-accumulative, toxic substances in mill waste water." [1] Dr. Robert Huggett, former U.S. EPA Assistant Adm...

Stresses provoked by adverse living conditions are inherent to a changing environment (climate change and anthropogenic influence) and they are basic factors that limit plant development and yields. Agriculture always struggled with this problem. The survey of non-toxic, natural, active substances useful in protection, and stimulation of plants growing under suboptimal and even harmful conditio...