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Environmental Pollutants: Soybeans can accumulate drugs and personal care products commonly found in wastewater and solid waste
Each year, U.S. farmers fertilize their fields with millions of tons of treated sewage and irrigate with billions of gallons of recycled water. Through this treated waste, an array of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) make their way unregulated from consumers' homes into farm fields. Now researchers find that at least one crop, soybeans, can readily absorb these chemicals, which raises concerns about the possible effects on people and animals that consume the PPCP-containing plants (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es1011115).
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 Newborn babies with suspected liver problems are to be screened for 92 genetic conditions as part of a trail to improve treatment of rare and poorly diagnosed diseases.
The trial is scheduled to begin next month at Birmingham Children's Hospital, with other centres carrying out testing in eight other countries.
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 Bottled water is much less regulated than our tap water. Consumers have a right to know what's in their bottles.
There's plenty to look at on bottled water labels: claims of purity, images of mountain springs, and fine print on filtering processes.
The problem is, amidst all the clutter, consumers can seldom find information to verify the marketing claims being made.
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 The family doctor has traditionally been a reliable figure that parents and children alike could trust for good judgment and to oversee their family’s healthcare. Most people just assume that the education and training that doctors undergo assures them that they use the best of their judgment and that the health practices and drugs administered to patients are the unquestioned latest and correct advice.
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 A ‘gender bending’ chemical in food and drinks containers could be behind rising male infertility, scientists say.
Men with high levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in their bodies are more likely to have low sperm counts, according to a study.
BPA is widely used to harden plastics and is found in baby bottles, CD cases, plastic knives and forks and the lining of food and drink cans.
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 Genetically modified crops are commonplace in fields across the United States, but a new study suggests that some plants have spread into the wild. A survey of North Dakota has turned up hundreds of genetically modified canola plants growing along roads across the state.
The results, presented Friday at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Pittsburgh, show that the vast majority of feral canola plants in the state contain artificial genes that make them resistant to herbicides. Researchers also found two plants that contained traits from multiple genetically modified varieties, suggesting that genetically modified plants are breeding in the wild.
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 Now here's something you wouldn't expect. Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims. No surprise there. But how do you think the company is defending itself?
In a staggering feat of twisted logic, lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."
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 Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.
Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.
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