Antidepressants make for sad fish

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 1 week (www.sciencenews.org)

The drugs are becoming more common in river waters and can play dangerous head games with fish.

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Fungi can stabilize uranium pollutants!

Darkfrog submitted, created time 8 months 2 days (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

U.S. military equipment uses depleted uranium. Its density makes it very useful for armor and munitions. However, even though it is less radioactive than regular uranium, the tiny particles that are released on contact can still leave soil and water supplies dangeously polluted. Researchers have foudn a naturally occuring mycorrhizal fungus that can convert uranium particles into a stable form that will not enter the food chain.

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Fertile Runoff Threatens Environment

Another Problem with Biofuels?

jane2007 submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (www.time.com)

Agricultural fertilizer byproducts like nitrogen are running off farms and into streams and rivers, they in turn feed excess growth of algae. When algae dies and decomposes, the process sucks much of the oxygen out of the water. Fish and other sea life flee, or suffocate. Is it another problem with biofuels?

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Feminized to Extinction

cappuccion submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

All across the world, people are polluting waterways with estrogen. Excreted in urine, the hormone passes through most wastewater plants and ends up in streams and lakes, where some studies suggest it is feminizing male fish. Now a large experiment has shown that even a very low level of estrogen in a lake can cause enough reproductive harm to wipe out an entire population of minnows in 2 years.

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Hexavalent chromium in drinking water causes cancer in lab animals

claudia submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.eurekalert.org)

Researchers announced today that there is strong evidence a chemical referred to as hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6, causes cancer in laboratory animals when it is consumed in drinking water. The two-year study conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) shows that animals given hexavalent chromium developed malignant tumors.

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China: Yangtze Is Irreversibly Polluted

collapsar submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.examiner.com)

China's massive Yangtze river, a lifeline for tens of millions of people, is seriously polluted and the damage is almost irreversible, a state-run newspaper said Monday. More than 370 miles of the river are in critical condition and almost 30 percent of its major tributaries are seriously polluted, the China Daily said, citing a report by the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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