Prime
Time Crime |
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Bio Related Events
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Canadian food industry
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War on Legal Drugs
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You are
not half human
More than half of your body is
not human, say scientists.
Human cells make up only 43% of the body's total cell count. The rest
are microscopic colonists.
(BBC)
MORE:
Microbiota
How bacteria are changing your mood
Toxic chemicals in baby products
Two-thirds of 137 items tested contained
PFOA
or
PFOS, both banned in Canada and internationally.
(Toronto Star)
Very little is being done
FASD is part of a problem everyone knows Canada's corrections
system faces - but no one is sure just how big the problem is thanks
to under-diagnosis. FASD
is a brain injury that is caused when an unborn baby is exposed to
alcohol. It is the leading known cause of preventable developmental
disability in Canada, impacting at least 1% of people across the
country,
according to Health Canada.
(CBC)
Cancer fields
SEATTLE - More than 50 soccer players at the same university have been
diagnosed with cancer
- allegedly linked to chemicals in their artificial turf field.
(Daily Mail)
Artificial
turf
No risk to public
MULBERRY
- Mosaic,
the company that kept secret a massive sinkhole that drained a 215M
gallon radioactive pond into a Florida underground aquifer said it
didn't go public with the crisis for 3 weeks because it found 'no risk
to the public.'
(ABC) MORE:
Sinkhole drains contaminated water into Floridan aquifer
World's highest rate
Research shows newborn babies in some Arctic regions have the highest
rates of serious lung infections ever recorded in medical literature.
(Globe & Mail)
Microbeads labelled toxic
OTTAWA - The federal government has officially listed
microbeads as a
toxic substance, giving it the ability to ban the plastic beads used
in cleansers. An
online notice published says the tiny plastic beads commonly found
in facial and body scrubs is now listed as a toxic substance under the
Environmental Protection Act, which gives the government the option to
control their use or institute an outright ban.
(CP)
Disaster you've never heard about
LOS ANGELES - The US government deliberately hid 'the
worst nuclear disaster in US history,'
according to
experts and an
in-depth
investigation by NBC4 Southern California. (zerohedge)
MORE:
North
American Aviation
Sodium
Reactor Experiment
Toxic ponds are leaking
Researchers have found heavy metals leaking from unlined coal ash
ponds near 21 power plants in 5 US states: Tennessee, Kentucky,
Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina.
High levels of heavy metals, including arsenic and selenium,
were found in surface waters or groundwater at all of the sites
tested. (Duke University)
RELATED:
Sheen on Lake Ontario traced to oil spill from nuclear power plant
Environment watchdog spring report
OTTAWA - A new report by the federal environmental watchdog says
Health Canada isn't doing enough to protect Canadians from hazardous
chemicals in household and cosmetic products.
(CBC) REPORT:
2016 Spring Reports of the Commissioner of the Environment and
Sustainable Development
Chemicals in your cosmetics
Plague kills 40
ANTANANARIVO
- An outbreak of the
Plague
has killed 40 people out of 119 confirmed cases in Madagascar since
late August and there is a risk of the disease spreading rapidly in
the capital.
(Reuters)
PREVIOUS:
Plague
Bubonic plague
Death toll
SILIGURI
- The death toll from
Encephalitis
outbreak in north Bengal has climbed to 102 while the disease has
spread its tentacles to
Assam
as well taking 43 lives there.
(Indian Express)
MORE:
Outbreak
Public health emergency
The World Health Organization has declared
polio
a 'public health emergency of international concern,' marking only the
second time the UN agency has given such a designation after the H1N1
flu pandemic in 2009.
(Toronto Star)
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What could go wrong?
CHALK RIVER -
Indigenous groups say a plan to store nuclear waste near the Ottawa
River in eastern Ontario is 'insanity' and want the federal government
to intervene. Canadian
Nuclear Laboratories, a private company,
wants a 10-year licence to keep running the
Chalk
River Laboratories in eastern Ontario.
CNL has plans for a permanent nuclear waste disposal site at
Chalk River. (CBC) MORE:
Safety stand down
Rotten stench in the air?
OXBOW
- As the number of shale oil wells has soared in SK, the risk of
hydrogen
sulfide leaks has multiplied. A year-long investigation reveals
what the government and industry knew - and kept from the public.
(Toronto Star)
MORE:
Screams from the yard
There's no sense in speaking up
Government dodges questions
Paper pulled
VANCOUVER - Researchers from the UBC are retracting their scientific
paper linking
aluminum in vaccines to autism in mice, because one of the
co-authors claims figures published in the study were deliberately
altered before publication.
(CBC)
Lab risks
WINNIPEG - More than a dozen employees may have been exposed to
potentially dangerous pathogens in incidents at Winnipeg's
National Microbiology Laboratory over a 22-month period.
There were 14 cases involving possible exposures in 45 incident
reports between Jan 2015 and Oct 2016. (CBC)
We've been deceived
TrialsTracker
maintains a list of all the trials registered on the world's leading
clinical trials database and tracks how many of them are updated with
results.
Amid pharmaceutical companies and research bodies from around the
world on ClinicalTrials.gov
9 Canadian universities and institutions rank in the top 100
organizations with the greatest proportion of registered trials
without results.
(CBC)
Killed by a kiss
MONTREAL - Myriam Ducre-Lemay, 20, had recently met the boy when she
went to his house to spend the night after a party in 2012, her mother
said. After the boyfriend
ate a peanut butter sandwich for a late-night snack, he returned to
the bedroom and gave Myriam the fatal kiss, the mother, Micheline
Ducre, told the Journal
De Quebec.
(Daily Mail) MORE:
Coroner's report prompts allergies concerns
Household dust deadly
WASHINGTON - Everyday items like non-stick cookware, children's toys,
cosmetics, pizza boxes, and cellphones release toxic chemicals into
the air that settle into the dust inside your home, a revelation that
new research is linking to a host of serious health problems.
(CTV) REPORT:
Potentially harmful chemicals widespread in household dust
Residents sue
MISSISSIPPI MILLS - A group of Mississippi Mills residents is
suing the National Research Council for more than $40M after
residential wells were contaminated by chemicals originating from an
NRC fire lab in their neighbourhood.
(CBC) MORE:
Fire lab source
PFAS in drinking water
Infected
More than
half the world's population is infected with the form of the herpes
virus that causes cold sores, according to new numbers from the WHO.
The study, published
in the journal PLoS ONE, reports that 3.7B people under age 50 carry
herpes
simplex virus
Type 1 (HSV-1). (CTV)
Toxic school
CHANGZHOU - The
opening of the new 153-acre campus of the Changzhou Foreign Languages
School last fall was supposed to mark a bright new era for the
institution's 2,500 seventh-through-12th-graders.
An expose aired on state-run China Central Television found
nearly 500 students had developed illnesses - including cancer - and
quoted experts saying their ailments were likely linked to toxins in
the soil and water, including chloroform and benzene.
(LA Times)
9th farm
VANCOUVER - Federal officials say avian
influenza has been detected in a 9th
poultry barn in BC's Fraser Valley.
(Globe & Mail) PREVIOUS:
5th farm
Countries ban Canadian poultry
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Dangerous air
More than 95% of the world's population is breathing polluted,
unsafe air and the hardest hit areas are in Africa and Asia, a major
study of global air pollution has found.
(Fox)
State of global
air 2018
Breathing dangerous air
95% breath dangerous air
Cost of
pollution in Canada
Pollution responsible
Cost of polluted environment
Air pollution deaths
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Toxic air
Pollution costs
IISD
Clear
the air for children
Already polluted
Environmental Defence
Pre-polluted
India declares air pollution emergency
Energy and air pollution
90% of world breathing bad air
Air pollution deaths
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Satellite finds unreported toxic air pollution
Air pollution rising
WHO global urban ambient air pollution
Common chemicals when combined
Downwind of plants
Pollution in area with cancer spikes
Government defend air quality
Air pollution leading cause of cancer deaths
.pdf
Air
pollution causes cancer
Air
pollution and cancer
IARC
Air pollution
Pollution tied to death rate
India's tea bosses on polluted water
Cancer prevalence in the population |
IEA
sulfur dioxide
Air pollution
deadly
7M deaths linked to air pollution
Residents not told
about bad air
Increased cancer risk
10M people at risk from pollution
Guide to less toxic products
Nuclear plant spills tritium
EPA reins in smog limit
Canadian health measures 2007-09
BPA present in 91% of Canadians
Chemicals pollute Ontario's
leaders
Coal causing lung cancer
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Likely to get cancer
Almost 1 in every 2
Canadians is expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime,
and 1 in 4 Canadians will die from the disease, a new report by the
Canadian Cancer Society predicts.
(CBC)
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Canadian cancer statistics 2017
Half of all Canadians will get cancer
Bad luck
Crunching the
numbers
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Latest health emergency
GENEVA - Declaring
that the Zika virus is 'spreading explosively,' the chief of the
WHO
announced that it will hold an emergency meeting of independent
experts to decide if the virus outbreak should be declared an
international health emergency.
(CBC)
Zika
|
Few cases brought back to Canada
What makes a public health emergency
Case of sexually transmitted Zika virus
Birth
defects
Microcephaly
Virus to spread
across Americas
Danish find Zika virus in returning tourist
2016
Rio Summer Olympics
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Patients escape
MBANDAKA - 3
patients infected with the deadly Ebola virus slipped out of an
isolation ward at a hospital in the Congolese city of Mbandaka.
Two patients left the hospital on Monday, one was found dead
and another was sent back to hospital and died shortly afterwards.
Another patient left on Saturday, but was found alive the same day and
is under observation.
Health officials are particularly concerned by the disease's presence
in Mbandaka, a crowded trading hub upstream from
Kinshasa, a city
of 10M people.
(Reuters)
Patients
taken to prayer meeting
New phase
Systems failure
Ebola
outbreak, one year on
Ebola budget unaccounted for
Unsafe practices
Virus mutating
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2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak
WHO admits it botched attempt
Canadian
vaccine seems to work
Vaccine 100%
effective
Vaccine trial
proves successful
Cleared to fly
Anger over flight
Nurse to be moved
Spanish nurse
121 more dead
Canadian vaccine to begin trials
Vaccine delay
10,000 mark
Ebola case in Mali
'Most severe'
MSF
Pushed to the
limit and beyond
.pdf
WHO admits Ebola mistakes
Endgame begins
Ebola budget report
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Detailed report
Canada won't issues visas
House-to-house search
Ebola 'could
lead to failed states'
2nd care worker tests positive
Health worker tests positive
Screening 'mostly a waste of time'
Canada screening at 6 airports
Don't joke about Ebola
Deaths exceed 4,000
ScienceInsider
NewLink Genetics
Texas patient
dies
Blunders
Ebola in the US
|
Bodies pile up
2014 Time
'Person of the Year'
Sierra Leone banning Christmas
Timeline of NY Ebola case
From the Ebola
clinic
Real risk to UK
Aid row
Dead abandoned in streets
Risk in Canada is still low
Don't panic
Liberia's
chief medical officer
Liberia finds
'missing patients'
Liberia
creates 'plague villages'
Confusion as
patients vanish
Liberia buckles
under Ebola strain
|
More than 3,000 dead
Sierra Leone
begins lockdown
House-to-house hunt
6M confined to their homes
Accelerating
Bodies dumped in the street
Ebola victim dies
in Saudi Arabia
Ebola blockades
Core of experimental drug
How to protect yourself
Treated with untested drug
Ethics of using experimental drugs
Use of untested drugs ethical
Releasing patients poses no risk
Clinic raided
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'Trash bag' method success
Global health emergency
Guinea shuts
borders
Treatment centre overwhelmed
Deaths rise
Suspects arrested
8 bodies found in village latrine
Ivory Coast
blocks refugees
More
deaths
Death
toll jumps
Virus spreading
Ebola virus
Crowd attacks treatment centre
Ebola vials found in car trunk
Bio material smuggled
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Radon high risk
VANCOUVER - The BC Building Code separates the
province into two areas based on their potential for radon exposure.
Radon Area 1 is east of the Coast Mountains and covers the Interior of
the province. Radon Area 2 covers everything west of the mountains.
According to
Health Canada, radon kills 3,200 Canadians a year and is the
second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.
(CBC)
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Radon
Radon at dangerous levels
High radon levels
High radon levels
Get your home tested for
radon
Radon in RCMP buildings
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Measles outbreak
Measles,
all but wiped out by 2002, has begun resurfacing in Canada this year.
The BC outbreak involves a church
group in Chilliwack that doesn't believe in vaccinations.
(SunMedia)
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Confirmed in Edmonton
Warning at 2 Calgary restaurants
Across Canada
Anti-vaccination movement
Outbreak shows importance of education
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Canada
won't oppose limits
Canada's dying
asbestos industry was dealt another blow with Minister
Christian Paradis announcing that the
federal government will no longer oppose global rules that restrict
use and shipment of the substance. (CBC)
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Asbestos
Inside the asbestos trade |
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Lead in school drinking water
VANCOUVER - Unsafe levels of lead were found
in drinking water in 25% of the BC schools that reported test results
this year, including eight schools that found levels more than 100
times higher than the allowable limit.
(Toronto Star)
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FDA lipsticks and lead
Left behind by mine
Giant Mine
Nepotism and neglect
Arsenic-tainted water
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Guilty plea
OTTAWA - Dr. Klaus Nielsen was arrested in
Oct 2012 with 17 vials of potentially lethal brucella bacteria
placed on ice in a kid's lunch bag and stowed in his suitcase as he
prepared to leave Ottawa.
(SunMedia)
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Researcher charged
Pathogens to China
Former CFIA employee arrested
CFIA
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Antibacterial soaps
WASHINGTON - The
FDA
says there is no evidence that
antibacterial chemicals
used in liquid soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs. (AP)
Ruling
|
Electronic waste tracked
E-waste - all those discarded electrical
or electronic devices, from cell phones and TVs to tablets and
computers. (Toronto Star) MORE:
Toxic
'e-waste' dumped in poor nations
StEP
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Toxic places
A list of 10 filthy
sites, from Russia to Indonesia to Ghana, has been amassed by the global
environmental group The
Blacksmith Institute - which says 200M people
are endangered daily in the top 10 places alone. (Daily Mail) REPORT:
Top toxic sites 2013 .pdf
10 most toxic places
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Growing and aging
populations
The WHO's International Agency for Research
on Cancer said cancer was growing "at an alarming pace" worldwide and
new strategies were needed to curb the sometimes fatal and often
costly disease. (Reuters) REPORT:
WHO: World cancer report 2014
World Cancer Day 2014
Focus on global spread of cancer
Cancer
'tidal wave' on horizon
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Flu won't spread
The WHO says it is confident that the bird
flu virus will not spread in Canada after an Alberta nurse who had
recently travelled to China died of the virus. (CTV)
PREVIOUS:
H5N1 death
H5N1
H1N1 in lungs of child who died
NB woman dies, H1N1 strain
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Get phthalates out
OTTAWA
- Conceding a decade-old voluntary ban on
hormone-disrupting chemicals in children's toys hasn't
worked, Health Canada announced new regulations
requiring toy companies to get
phthalates out of soft
vinyl toys. MORE:
Children win claim
EU's discarded computers are poisoning Africa's kids
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Teck
liable
Teck Resources
treated the Columbia
River as a free waste disposal system for decades, said a Washington
state judge who has ruled the Canadian company is liable for the cost of
cleaning up the contamination of the river south of the border. (CBC)
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Container ordered out
MONTREAL - The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)
has sounded the alarm, ordering that a shipping container be removed
from the Port of Montreal after its contents tested positive for
radioactivity. (CBC) MORE:
Hanjin Shipping
Cobalt-60
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Sites cleanup to cost more
OTTAWA - The federal government has
underestimated the cost of cleaning up contaminated sites under its
jurisdiction by at least $2B, according to an estimate by the
parliamentary budget officer.
(CBC) REPORT:
Federal contaminated sites cost
.pdf
Breakdown of sites
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Flame
retardants
A
probe conducted by
Marketplace tested the
effectiveness of chemical retardants in upholstered furniture and also
examined their potential health risks. Environmental and health
researchers are also concerned that some of the chemicals are linked to
a wide range of health problems. (CBC)
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Dust a cancer risk
The substance is coal tar sealant, a waste product of
steel manufacturing that is used to protect pavement and asphalt against
cracking and water damage, and to impart a nice dark sheen. It is
applied most heavily east of the Rockies but is used in all 50
states. (Investigate
West)
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Work-related carcinogens
As part of a three-part
series,
Exposed: On the
Job,
CBC News looked at what carcinogens are present in Canadian workplaces
and how Canadian regulations stand up. (CBC) MORE:
North's limits weakest in Canada
Fewer Canadians dying from cancer
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Gene predicts time of death
The
study, led by
University of Toronto professor Dr. Andrew Lim
and published in the November edition of
Annals of Neurology,
emerged from research into seniors’ sleep-wake cycles. (Toronto Star)
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Doctors quit
SEPT-ILES
- Twenty doctors have quit their practice in a remote Quebec town
because of plans to build a uranium mine. (CP)
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Company acquitted
SEATTLE - A federal jury cquitted
WR Grace & Co. and
three of its former officials of charges that they
knowingly exposed residents of
Libby, Mont., to
asbestos poisoning associated with a mining operation
and conspired to hide it. In Libby, where an estimated
1,200 residents have died or developed cancer or lung
disease, the judgment dashed hopes that someone would be
held accountable for decades of suffering. (LA Times)
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Just passing through
MONTREAL - About 50 trucks
will be required to move the uranium, thought to be the
last stocks of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, to a
processing facility operated by Cameco Corp. in Blind
River, Ont. The 550
tonnes of concentrated natural uranium, also known as
yellowcake,
was purchased in a US brokered deal reported to be worth
tens of millions of dollars.
PREVIOUS:
2004 report: No WMD
stockpiles in Iraq |
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Radioactivity leaked unchecked
KASHIWAZAKI -
The nuclear power station at
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
Nuclear Power Plant
pumped radioactive
particles into the air for nearly 3 days after
Monday’s massive Niigata earthquake.
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Leak
bigger than thought
Radiation leak at Russian plant
Nuclear waste dumped
Open-air storage
Toxic legacy of the Cold War
Japan disaster poses 'small' risk
Cancer's 'chaos' explained |
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Clear evidence
GRASSY NARROWS - More than four decades after
mercury was dumped upstream from Grassy Narrows First
Nation, the physical and mental health of the people
there is by many key measures 'considerably worse' than
that of other First Nations in Canada, according to a
landmark new government-funded survey.
(Toronto Star)
Health report released
Mercury dump
Ontario
Minamata disease
Mercury in ecosystems
CFL
Mercury levels still rising
Mercury contamination
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Mercury
poisoning
Grassy
Narrows FN
Free Grassy net
Money for cleanup
Mercury still there
Children of the poisoned river
Mercury still leaking
Signs of poisoning
Reports show the water is still
contaminated
Poisoned people
Contaminated with mercury
Protest dump
6 charged
Canada unprepared
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SCC rules on
bankrupt company
OTTAWA - The
SCC says a bankrupt company doesn't have to pay to clean up the
environmental mess it left in Newfoundland and Labrador. (CBC)
PREVIOUS:
AbitibiBowater
Resolute
Forest Products
|
No perceived health effects
TORONTO - A Health Canada study has found no
evidence to support a link between exposure to wind-turbine noise and
health effects reported by people living near the towering structures.
(CP)
REPORT:
Wind-turbine
noise
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Radiation tests
'alarming'
PORT HOPE
-
New tests that show radiation contamination in a few
Port Hope residents should compel the federal government
to put the town under a health microscope, local
advocates say. (Toronto Star) MORE:
85,000 radioactive baby teeth |
Court dismisses lawsuits
TORONTO - Nurses, people who contracted SARS and their families
cannot sue the Ontario government over the deadly 2003 outbreak that
claimed 44 lives, Ontario's top court ruled. (CP) |
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Cities not getting true air
quality
TORONTO - The federal and provincial
governments are lulling Ontario residents into a false
sense of security about the level of pollution they're
breathing in on city streets.
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Tailings in groundwater
OTTAWA - Tailings
ponds from oilsands production are leaking and contaminating AB
groundwater. (PostMedia) PREVIOUS:
Canadian oil sands
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MERS virus deaths over 200
Saudi Arabia says
282 people are now confirmed to have been killed by the Mers virus,
almost 100 more than initially thought.
(BBC)
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MERS-CoV
MERS
virus spreads easily
More
cases, deaths from MERS
Saudi officials report more
deaths
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Raw sewage
More than 205B litres of raw sewage and untreated waste water spewed
into Canada's rivers and oceans last year, despite federal
regulations introduced in 2012 to try to solve the problem.
(CBC)
Slacking over sewage oversight
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Biosolids
'Disaster waiting to happen'
Farmers split over safety
Illness followed sludge on the fields
Family files suit over sewage
lagoon
Vancouver moves to ban
bottled water
Is
sewage fertilizer safe?
Workplace safety sludge disease
When sludge rules are broken |
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Poisoned, then billed for it
FLINT -
The warning letters arrived in Flint mailboxes in early March.
Rick Snyder's government, which was largely responsible for
the water disaster, announced in Feb that it would stop giving Flint
residents subsidies for their water.
Mayor Karen Weaver then decided to resume the practice of
shutting off the water for people with unpaid bills.
(Toronto Star)
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Flint
water crisis
Rick Snyder
Karen Weaver
State of emergency
Water testing cheats
Lead poisoning
Lead taints city's water
Lead poisoning
Recall
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No cure virus
KERALA -
A rare, brain-damaging virus that experts consider a
possible epidemic threat has broken out in the state of
Kerala, India, for the first time, infecting at least 18
people and killing 17 of them, according to the WHO.
(NY Times) |
Nipah
Sample of killer flu virus found
College
of American Pathologists (CAP)
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1st case in North America confirmed
VANCOUVER -
North America's first human case of the
H7N9
virus has been confirmed in BC.
A couple in their 50s from BC's lower mainland recently
returned from a trip to China and began developing symptoms of a
flu-like illness within a day or two of each other.
(CTV)
Bird flu
confirmed
Husband
confirmed as 2nd bird flu case
China
warns against unsafe research
RAND: Bioterrorism
Bird flu cull hit by
'corruption'
|
Timeline: Bird flu in the UK
Bird
flu spreads to far western China
Fox
Series:
Bird
Flu: Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Category: Biological weapons
China
in national bird flu alert
Bird
Flu drug rendered useless
Vaccine in hands of advocates
Deadly
silence
|
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Hole in a tunnel
HANFORD SITE -
When workers at the
Hanford Site suddenly found
a hole in the ground, there was cause for
concern. The concern was that if the roof of the tunnel
collapsed it could release long-trapped contaminated material into the
air. (CBC)
Work begins to fill hole
Government says sinkhole has been sealed
Take cover
Hanford site
alert
Refrain from eating or drinking
Hanford
VIT plant
Washington River Protection Solutions
Radioactive waste leak
AECOM
EnergySolutions
Areva
Radiation and heart
disease link
|
Hanford site
Hanford Emergency
info
Downwinders
Columbia Basin
Hanford
Site in Washington State
$19B+ 'clean up'
Hanford
cleanup cost soars
GAO report .pdf
Leak reported contained
Underground nuclear tanks leaking
Tourist site
Study:
No radiation level safe
Downwinders'
court win
Sick
DOE workers' claims languish
Hanford
water cleanup not working
Hanford
site: Past horror, future hope
Hanford watch
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Marburg
virus death toll
The
World Health Organization is investigating an outbreak of Marburg
hemorrhagic fever in
northwestern Angola.
(CNN)
|
Congo's
Ebola town is sealed off
Marburg
fever death toll tops 300
WHO to warn on changing avian flu
The
Knowledge
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Prime Time Crime |
Recent
Headlines |