Toxics

TARLAC, Philippines – Authorities intercepted 2 trucks carrying hazardous medical waste in Tarlac province on Thursday. The rotting garbage, composed of medical refuse, came from hospitals in Metro Manila.

This Christmas, make sure that the gift you give will not harm the receiver. The EcoWaste Coalition on Monday said that it had discovered that popular gift items usually given to children such as painted toys, glasses and mugs contain toxic chemicals that could damage the brain.

Civil society organizations urged the government to prioritize action that will protect children from being poisoned by lead, a neurotoxic chemical, in paint products.

(Last of a series) Even the Rolls Royce of England’s Queen Elizabeth is fitted with an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) conversion kit. Or so the LPG conversion industry leaders claim as they protest against what they say are the “unscientifically proven” claims of cab drivers and passengers concerning the allegedly harmful effects of LPG.

AN environmental watchdog warned consumers to be diligent in shopping for holiday gifts to prevent children’s exposure to unsafe toys proliferating in the market.

The EcoWaste Coalition, a toxic watchdog, yesterday asked top retailers to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility by removing children’s products that have been found to contain health damaging chemicals.

Dangerous chemicals have been found in at least 124 children’s products such as toys, accessories, cosmetics and school supplies, an environmental group said. The EcoWaste Coalition said this amounts to 29 percent of the 435 children’s products the group included in its testing.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is cracking down on businesses handling pollutive and hazardous substances without appropriate permits.

MANILA, Philippines – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned yesterday 23 more cosmetic and skin whitening products on the market were found containing excessive levels of mercury, a toxic substance that can damage the body’s vital organs.

Fear not it’s National Poison Prevention Week (NPPW)! The mere mention of the word poison is enough to make us cringe. By poison, we mean a substance that can cause a disturbance to organisms, usually by chemical reaction, when a sufficient amount is ingested. Of course, there are the other potent things that can poison…

MANILA, Philippines — Recognizing the urgent need to increase public awareness of the preventive aspects of poisoning at home, in school, and workplace, and the general environment, Presidential Proclamation No. 1777 of 2009 has designated the fourth week of June every year as National Poison Prevention Week.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will voluntarily suspend US sales of a poultry-pumping additive, which is also sold in several other countries including the Philippines, after studies showed that it can leave traces of arsenic in chicken livers, the US government said on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).

Illegal injections of a cancer-treating chemical pose a risk of death to legions of Filipinos who use them to try to whiten their skin, health authorities warned on Tuesday.

With the opening of another school year a few days away (or ilang tulog na lang, kids!), a lot of savvy parents have probably done their yearly assignment  that is, the requisite school shopping. Through the years (or school year after school year), this shopping list of school essentials seems to grow longer and longer…

Manila, Philippines – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assured the public yesterday that it has been randomly collecting and testing school supplies and toys for hazardous substances.

BEIJING—Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of “land mines.”

Kids, are you ready to go back to school? I know, I know, you’re still on vacation — staying out late, sleeping late, way past your bedtime, snuggling under the crisp sheets till kingdom come or till the harsh rays of the sun come streaming through your window.

MANILA, Philippines — Following an investigation on discarded mercury-containing lamps at a garbage transfer station in Tondo, Manila, green groups appealed to the government to come up with an effective mechanism on the collection of spent fluorescent lamps that continue to pose threats to human health and environment.

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Luzon is in a quandary on where to dump hospital devices and other wastes such as busted fluorescent lights containing mercury.

TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Philippines  – Mercury traces were found in three major rivers in this province, prompting the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and the Mining and Geosciences Bureau to ask local officials to ban the use of the toxic substance by small-scale miners.

TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Philippines  – Mercury traces were found in three major rivers in this province, prompting the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and the Mining and Geosciences Bureau to ask local officials to ban the use of the toxic substance by small-scale miners.

MANILA, Philippines –  Local celebrities came together in a campaign against mercury-containing thermometers and sphygmomanometers in the market.

Government appears helpless in dealing with a growing unregulated backyard industry – one that exports acid-drenched lead derived from used vehicle and industrial lead-acid batteries.

Edgar Yu of Bagong Pilipino, a concerned consumer, sent us an e-mail hoping to enlighten readers on the “much-hyped and pushed CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) that are very dangerous to health but they are not saying.”

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—In some places in the Philippines, breathing would be like committing suicide.

MANILA, Philippines—Around 100 families were evacuated Sunday night following an alleged ammonia leak at an ice plant in Quezon City.

A proposal by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago for a Senate inquiry into antimicrobial chemical ingredients used in soaps and a wide range of consumer products has won the backing of a non-governmental toxic watchdog.

Now, this topic is hot, hot, hot! There’s probably one sitting in your kitchen. And you’re probably using it more than once a day. It’s that M word: the microwave oven, of course! Latest scientific clinical studies done by Swiss, Russian, and German experts dish out this burning warning: Throw away those microwave ovens! And…

It’s all over (the holiday hoopla, that is) but the cleaning up. But before you pick up your trusty broomstick and dust pan, and take out those cleaning aids from your musty cabinet shelves, read this: A toxic watchdog has urged the public to use safer alternatives to avoid health risks due to cleaning chemicals.

THE Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday assured the public that they would do some preventive measures on all plastic toys that are being sold in the country now that the Christmas season is coming. Health Secretary Enrique Ona in a radio interview said that the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) would conduct tests to…