If you were looking to toss some popcorn in your microwave in Denmark this past summer, the popular movie snack wasn't easy to find.

That's because the country's largest retailer months earlier yanked microwave popcorn off its more than 1,200 stores because suppliers couldn't come up with a way to rid the packaging of fluorinated chemicals. The chemicals are not regulated in Denmark but are linked to certain cancers, hormone disruption, organ problems and lower birth weights, and found in the linings of popcorn bags.

Manufacturers use fluorinated compounds in popcorn bags so the paper in the bag doesn't quickly degrade after contacting the butter in the popcorn and, unlike previously used solutions such as wax, the chemicals can withstand microwave heat.

"There was just no solution in the world in popcorn," said Malene Teller Blume, department manager of chemistry and nonfood at Coop Denmark.

But then something happened: innovation. Just last week, Coop Denmark unveiled fluorinated-free microwave popcorn, made by Spanish snack company Liven.

WASHINGTON -- Researchers at Duke University and Environmental Working Group have found evidence of a suspected endocrine-disrupting chemical widely used in popular nail polishes in the bodies of more than two-dozen women who participated in a biomonitoring study.

The study, published today in Environment International, found that all women had a metabolite of triphenyl phosphate, or TPHP, in their bodies just 10 to 14 hours after painting their nails. Their levels of diphenyl phosphate or DPHP, which forms when the body metabolizes TPHP, had increased by nearly sevenfold.

"It is very troubling that nail polish being marketed to women and teenage girls contains a suspected endocrine disruptor," said Johanna Congleton, Ph.D., MSPH, a senior scientist at EWG and co-author of the Duke-EWG study. "It is even more troubling to learn that their bodies absorb this chemical relatively quickly after they apply a coat of polish."

Access original study in Environment International, "Nail polish as a source of exposure to triphenyl phosphate".

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, October 2015
Authors: Jenna Czarnota, Chris Gennings, Joanne S. Colt, Anneclaire J. De Roos, James R. Cerhan, Richard K. Severson, Patricia Hartge, Mary H. Ward, and David C. Wheeler
Read more...

Macy's Inc., responding to a campaign from health and environmental activists, will check with its furniture suppliers to ensure that they aren't using toxic flame retardants in their products.

While Macy's expects that few manufacturers are still using the substances at issue, the retailer will explicitly instruct suppliers to stop using certain chemicals, Jim Sluzewski, a spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.

Compelling evidence shows that fine particulate matters (PMs) from air pollution penetrate lower airways and are associated with adverse health effects even within concentrations below those recommended by the WHO. A paper reported a dose-dependent link between carbon content in alveolar macrophages (assessed only by optical microscopy) and the decline in lung function. However, to the best of our knowledge, PM had never been accurately characterized inside human lung cells and the most responsible components of the particulate mix are still unknown. On another hand carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from natural and anthropogenic sources might be an important component of PM in both indoor and outdoor air.

A NIOSH report on illnesses and injuries from occupational exposure to conventional pesticides notes that the published counts and rates, which cover the years 2007-2010, are likely to be underestimates. According to NIOSH, the estimates are low because many workers with pesticide-related illness or injury do not seek medical care or contact the appropriate authorities. Workers who do seek medical care may receive an inaccurate diagnosis because some healthcare professionals are not familiar with the recognition and management of pesticide-related illnesses. NIOSH notes that inaccurate estimates of pesticide illness and injury among agricultural workers may further affect the data due to the transient employment of seasonal and migrant farmworkers, many of whom are difficult to count.

In most mixtures, the components can be readily separated. If you mix water and table salt (sodium chloride) and then expose the water to air the water eventually evaporates, leaving the salt behind. However, if you distill whiskey, there is a limit to the purification. Even after repeated distillation, the limit is approximately 96 percent ethyl alcohol; the rest is water. Distillation to higher purity is not possible under typical distillation conditions. ...

Blended chemistries, both aqueous and solvent-based and whether or not they are relatively separable, are ubiquitous in critical cleaning applications, and with good reason. Blended chemistries can provide the desired cleaning performance. Blended chemistries may expand the solvency range. This may make it easier to remove adherent soils or complex soil mixtures. Blending an aggressive chemical with a milder chemical can lessen materials compatibility issues. Components and parts with tight spacing are often difficult to clean because the cleaning agent cannot readily access the soil. Surfactants make water less "water-like" by reducing its surface tension. This allows the cleaning solution to flow into small gaps and holes. Adding solvents with relatively high density, low viscosity, and low surface tension can allow the mixture to more readily access the soil to be removed. In some instances, the blend may show a desirable chemical reaction with the soil of interest. Non-additive or synergistic effects may happen in blends, so that cleaning is even better than might be expected based on the individual properties of the chemicals.