toxins

On the heels of our reporting about Canada's probable move to ban BPA plastics comes a story about researchers working at Missouri University of Science and Technology to develop hybrid plastics that would biodegrade in landfills within four months. As our editor Nicole Dyer pointed out in a comment to the BPA post, the larger and more important issue facing plastics is their propensity to stick around forever.

Our most popular and addictive drugs come from plant toxins; caffeine, tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, are all derived from what are supposed to be poisons. These toxins were developed by plants to ward off herbivores who would otherwise eat them. So why is it that we not only tolerate them, but have found ourselves in a position of craving them, sometimes desperately? It is a paradox at which researchers are taking a fresh look.

Last fall we reported on the growing mess of garbage swirling in the North Pacific Gyre. Its a swath of ocean arguably the size of the continental U.S. where all the plastic refuse from Asia and the western coast of North America ends up when its washed out to sea. Turtles mistake bags for jellyfish and birds mistake floating chips for prey. Animals have been discovered starved to death because the entire contents of their stomachs were plastic fragments. Sail a boat out to the middle of the gyre and the problem is in plain sight. Unfortunately for us, the more severe problem is the one we cant see.

When a pile of castor beans and a couple of vials of white powder turned up on Thursday in a room at the Extended Stay America Hotel near the Las Vegas strip, authorities went into panic mode, calling in police, Homeland Security and FBI agents to investigate.

Scientists at the Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a fast, portable lab that can detect toxic levels of lead and other heavy metals in samples of blood, urine or even saliva. The battery-powered device, which is about the size of a fishing tackle box, should reportedly cost just a tenth of todays bulkier systems. And its fast: Instead of sending samples off to a lab, and waiting for the results, everything can be done on-site. After a simple finger prick, results follow within two to five minutes.