Fw: OPPT-Newsbreak Friday, 4 June 1999

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>OPPT NEWSBREAK Friday 4 June 1999

>

>

> Today's " Toxic News for the Net "

> Brought to you by the OPPTS Chemical Library

> http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/oppt_nb.txt

>

> NEWS

>

> " U.S. Begins Impounding Pork, Chicken Imported from EU Amid

>Dioxin Fears. " Wall Street Journal, 4 June 99, A6. " Belgian Food

>Scare Expands to Beef, Pork [World in Brief: Europe]. "

>Washington Post, 4 June 99, A28. " Belgian Beef, Pork Examined as

>Europe's Dioxin Scare Widens. EC Weighs More Restrictions to

>Halt Food Contamination. " Washington Times, 4 June 99, A15.

> The U.S. is impounding all shipments of pork and chicken

> from the European Union, following the European Commission's

> orders that Belgian poultry, pork and other foods be

> destroyed on the suspicion that they might be tainted by

> cancer-causing dioxin. As a precaution, the Agricultural

> Department will conduct a systematic review of EU imports

> since January to determine whether the recall is needed

> nationwide. While the Agricultural Department's policy does

> not cover beef or beef products, the order in Belgium was

> expanded yesterday to include the destruction of beef and

> beef products. The dioxin scare, which erupted last week

> when a Belgian television station " reported that dioxin-

> laced fat was used as an additive in poultry feed " , is being

> tagged the 15-nation EU's worst food scare since the 1996

> outbreak of mad-cow disease in Britain.

>

> " Faulty Warning Labels Add to Risk in Prescription Drugs. " New

>York Times, 4 June 99, A23.

> The FDA, concerned with deaths and injuries from drugs it

> has approved, put into effect a rule allowing the agency to

> require drug manufacturers to publish " med guides " to

> accompany a handful of especially risky prescription

> medications, to be announced later. With the flood of new

> prescription drugs entering the market, the FDA is

> increasingly concerned that consumers are placed at risk by

> receiving incomplete information on a drug's side effects,

> the release of which the government does not control.

> Patients who do not receive information on all known side

> effects of the drug they are taking are, therefore, in

> danger of overlooking potentially serious side effects they

> might experience from the medication, for example, symptoms

> of overdose. The case of 7-year-old Cory Christens, who

> died from cardiac arrhythmia, a well-known side effect of

> imipramine (and one which was not listed in the information

> his parents received with the prescription) illustrates the

> danger of not being fully informed about prescription

> medication.

>

> " The Ultimate Indignity: Fabled Beaches Are Soiled. " New York

>Times, 4 June 99, A4.

> The sewage line which collapsed in January forcing officials

> to dump raw sewage off the beaches of Rio De Janeiro while

> repairs were being made, is now under control. The beaches,

> a major tourist attraction, are not open for swimming,

> however.

>

> " Federal Agencies Told to Lower Energy Use. " New York Times, 4

>June 99, A23.

> President Clinton issued an executive order yesterday

> directing Federal agencies to reduce their energy

> consumption by 35% from 1985 levels by 2010. Better

> conservation on the part of the nation's biggest energy user

> would save taxpayers an estimated $750 million per year and

> reduce emissions of ozone-depleting gases. The order does

> not apply to energy used for national security or for

> transportation.

>

> ACROSS THE USA, FROM USA TODAY

>

> " Berkeley, California [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 3 June 99,

>4A.

> EPA will conduct tests to determine the amount of

> radioactive tritium that escapes from the Lawrence Berkeley

> Laboratory facility each day. Environmentalists claim that

> the emissions are above safety limits.

>

> " Atlanta, Georgia [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 3 June 99, 4A.

> The Atlanta Gas Light Company will spend up to $150 million

> over the next six years to clean up its contaminated coal

> sites, where natural gas was once extracted, in Georgia and

> Florida.

>

> " Concord, New Hampshire [Across the USA]. " USA Today, 3 June

>99, 4A.

> The House committee is considering a bill which would

> eliminate the chemical MTBE from gasoline by 2003. The

> carcinogenic chemical, added to gasoline in 1995 to burn

> cleaner fuel, has been found in drinking water.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> AROUND THE BELTWAY: DC/VA/MD REGIONAL NEWS

>

> " EPA Faults Review of Planned Resort [Metro in Brief: land]. "

>Washington Post, 4 June 99, B3.

> The National Capital Planning Commission has received a

> letter from Stanley L. Laskowski, EPA's regional

> environmental services director in Philadelphia, restating

> the agency's concerns that the commission did not consider

> alternatives to the proposed National Harbor waterfront

> resort in Prince 's County, Md.. The letter

> criticized the commission for not adequately addressing

> concerns about air pollution from increased traffic or about

> the impact the resort would have on aquatic life in the

> Potomac River. A spokeswoman for the commission said the

> commission is preparing a response to the letter.

>

> EDITORIALS & COMMENTARY

>

> " Feeling Rich? Don't Get Smug Yet [Letters]. " New York Times, 4

>June 99, A28.

> Among the letters responding to Krugman's June 1 Op-Ed

> " Money Can't Buy Happiness. Er, Can It?', Margrethe Winslow

> of Oakland, Calif. points out the environmental costs of a

> consumer culture.

>

> " Talking About Food [Letters]. " New York Times, 4 June 99, A28.

> K.L. (who directs the First Amendment project

> at the Center for Science in the Public Interest), who

> writes in response to a June 1 front-page article, agrees

> that food libel laws " stifle the free speech rights of

> anyone (scientists, educators, public interest groups,

> environmentalists, reporters) who employs a national medium

> (television, radio, the Internet, print publications) to

> discuss food safety. "

>

>

> BIOTECHNOLOGY

>

> " Merck's New Vioxx Is Off to Slow Start In Marketing Race

>[Technology & Health]. " Wall Street Journal, 4 June 99, B6.

> While sales of the new arthritis painkiller Vioxx are off to

> a modest start, Merck & Co.'s salespeople plan to pitch

> their drug to doctors across the country next week, hoping

> to win converts among physicians who currently prescribe the

> competition, Monsanto Co. and Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex, to

> arthritis patients. Both drugs are the sole contenders in a

> new class of drugs, called cox-2 inhibitors, which don't

> produce the side effects of conventional anti-inflammatory

> drugs.

>

> " Consumer Group Seeks Ban on Pfizer's Trovan, Citing Harmful

>Effects [Technology & Health]. " Wall Street Journal, 4 June 99,

>B6.

> Yesterday, a consumer-advocacy group called Public Citizen,

> led by Dr. Sidney Wolfe, petitioned the FDA to ban the

> antibiotic Trovan because 140 cases of serious liver damage,

> including 5 deaths, have been reported in patients taking

> the drug since February 1998. Dr. Wolfe says there are

> eight other drugs in the same class, called quinolones, that

> are just as effective as Trovan and less toxic to the liver.

> The FDA said it would carefully review the petition.

>

> LIVING IN THE INFORMATION AGE

>

> " Soaring Into the Cyberspace Future [Commentary]. " Washington

>Times, 4 June 99, A17.

> R.Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., editor in chief of the American

> Spectator, reports back from " Vortex99 " a cyberspace

> industry conference held last week in Southern California.

> Noting that the speakers were all articulate and

> knowledgeable ( " unlike the gaseous pols of Washington with

> their compulsory platitudes, dubious invocations of virtue,

> and reliance on vogue terms " ), the majority of the column

> talks about the current frontier nature of cyberspace. He

> concludes: " All in all, the cyberspace frontiersmen are

> dwelling in a promising world based on achievement and free

> of politics. Its innovations in the economy have been

> essential to the present boom. And, though cyberspace longs

> to remain free of politics, its innovators give credit where

> credit is due. At Vortex99, one of the technological

> innovators most responsible for the Internet, noted Al

> Gore's paternal claims for the marvel and testified: " I was

> with Al Gore in the early days of the Internet. To this

> very day the Internet runs on many algorithms.' "

>

>

>* All items, unless indicated otherwise, are available at the

>U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

>Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxics Substances (OPPTS)

>Chemical Library

>Northeast Mall, Room B606 (Mailcode 7407)

>Washington, D.C. 20460

>(202) 260-3944; FAX x4659;

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>(Due to copyright restrictions, the library cannot provide

>photocopies of articles.)

>

>*Viewpoints expressed in the above articles do not necessarily

>reflect EPA policy. Mention of products does not indicate

>endorsement.*

>

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