Environmental▼News what would happen under largescale growing, unless the management regimes altered.” Anti-GM activists claimed vindication of their warnings about these bioengineered crops. “The conclusions clearly show that the alleged benefits of the use of GM seeds do not exist. For years, the GM corporations have been claiming that their crops would reduce weed killer use and benefit wildlife. Now we know how wrong they are,” says Doug Parr, science director of Greenpeace U.K. The pro-GM lobby also viewed the results as good news. “It was not GM versus conventional farming that was significant, but different approaches to crop type, herbicide use, and management practices,” says Paul Rylott, chair of the agrochemical industry’s Agriculture Biotechnology Council. “This research highlighted that the impact on biodiversity is all to do with how farmers control weeds; when you want to grow a highquality, safe, affordable food, you have to control weeds that otherwise degrade quality, safety, and affordability. This evidence reiterates commercial experience around the world, that GM crops are more flexible and can enhance biodiversity.” GM supporters also claim that pesticide-resistant crops encourage environmentally friendly “no till” farming. Still to be heard is the U.K. government, which will use these results, published as eight papers on November 29 (Philos. Trans. R. Soc. 2003, 358, 1775–1889), to help it decide whether to allow such GM crops to be grown commercially. The government expects to reach a decision in the first half of next year. In the trials, 273 fields were each divided into half GM and half conventional crops. The farmers decided how and when to plough the fields and apply herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, following normal commercial practice. The GM maize and rape were resistant to the herbicide glufosinate-ammonium, and beet was resistant to glyphosate.
More insects, such as butterflies and bees, were found in and around the conventional beet and spring rape fields because a greater number of weeds grew to provide food and cover. Moreover, there were 60% fewer weed seeds in GM beet fields and 80% fewer weed seeds in GM spring rape fields. Such seeds are important in the diets of some animals, particularly farmland birds. In contrast, there were more weeds in and around the GM maize crops, more butterflies and bees around at certain times of the year, and more weed seeds than in the conventional maize fields. The
fields sown with conventional maize were the poorest in plant and animal life. The broad-spectrum herbicides used on GM rape and beet were more effective on weeds than the herbicides applied to the conventional counterparts, says Firbank. However, most conventional maize farmers used atrazine either before or just after weeds started to grow, because it was better at killing weeds than the herbicide used on GM maize. Background information on the trials can be found at www. defra.gov.uk/environment/fse/ index.htm. —MARIA BURKE
Asbestos investigation under way After years of local controversy over the health risks from naturally occurring tremolite asbestos (Environ. Sci. Technol. 1999, 33, 348A–349A), a federal agency on October 20 began an investigation in one of the fastest growing regions of California. Some researchers believe that the study might reveal a major public health problem. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry (ATSDR) comes to El Dorado, a suburb of Sacramento, with experience investigating the effects of tremolite exposure in Libby, Mont. In Libby, tremolite asbestos occurs as a contaminant in vermiculite that was mined primarily for use as insulation. Asbestos exposure in the small town of about 12,000 has led to 192 deaths and has sickened hundreds of others, according to a 2001 story by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Tremolite asbestos has long been known to promote mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lung. A U.S. EPA expert panel in February 2003 unanimously agreed that the carcinogenic potency of tremolite fibers is 2 orders of magnitude greater than for chrysotile fibers. EPA is currently reevaluating its 1986 assessment of asbestos toxicity, which considers all asbestos fibers to be equally hazardous. The ATSDR health evaluation will use this assumption. Some asbestos health experts fa-
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miliar with both places believe that El Dorado County, whose population is projected to grow to more than 200,000 in the next 10 years, has the makings of a much bigger tragedy. “Thirty years from now, everybody will forget Libbybut El Dorado will be one of the greatest public health disasters of the 21st century in the United States” if development continues unchecked, says pathologist and epidemiologist Bruce Case at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. El Dorado’s population is 10 times that of Libby, and tremolite asbestos is widespread near the surface. Activities that stir up the soil can lead to exposure. In Libby, exposure came from vermiculite mining operations, which lofted tremolite into the air. Miners are also thought to have brought tremolite into their homes on their clothes. Pathologist Jerrold Abraham at the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University recently found extremely high concentrations of asbestos fibers in the lungs of a dog that had lived in El Dorado for more than 13 years. The data are slim, but they indicate that it is likely that substantial human exposures in this area have already occurred, he says. Since it takes decades for mesothelioma to develop, such lung data may be one of the few ways to predict the future. New studies of Libby residents
CHRIS ANAYA
The baseball and football fields at Oak Ridge High School were closed for play in August, but students still maintain them despite the health risks.
show that exposure to tremolite asbestos also causes a range of respiratory illnesses, says EPA scientist Christopher Weis, who collaborated on a 2000−2001 clinical study in which about 6800 Libby residents had chest X-rays. About 18% of the population had scarred lungs, including about 40% of men over 65 (Environ. Health Persp. 2003, 111, 1753–1759). “Nothing like this has ever been recorded before,” says Weis. “The results really rocked us; we were completely surprised.” The California Air Resources
Board (CARB) has been monitoring the air in the El Dorado region since 1998. However, CARB has mainly conducted ambient air monitoring above the human breathing zone and not disturbed the soil, so the organization’s data may not be relevant, says ATSDR’s regional representative Libby Levy. Recent experiences with amphibole asbestos in Libby and in the World Trade Center cleanup have demonstrated the need for aggressive sampling to get an accurate reflection of exposure, says Arnold
News Briefs A rare commodity “Too many MBA students still graduate without an understanding of social impact and environmental management,” says Judith Samuelson of the Aspen Institute, which has released a report on business schools jointly with the World Resources Institute; both are nonprofit organizations. Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship includes data from 100 business schools in 20 countries. The report lauds six schools for preparing future executives with solid training in managing environmental and social impacts: George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management; the University of Michigan Business School; the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School; the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Yale School of Management; and York University’s Schulich School of Business. For more information, go to www. beyondgreypinstripes.org.
WERF to investigate health complaints related to sewage sludge The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) announced in September that it will spend $200,000 to jump-start the creation of a scientific “SWAT team” that could rapidly investigate health complaints related to the land application of sewage sludge. Participants at a biosolids meeting in July organized by WERF, the U.S. EPA, and the New England Biosolids and Residuals Association ranked this project as the most important way to begin to address the 2002 National Research Council recommendations that called for a more current and thorough treatment of pathogens in sludge and their possible health effects (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002, 36, 338A). However, several invited representatives of citizen groups boycotted the
conference in protest over the treatment of former EPA microbiologist David Lewis. WERF will work with EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stakeholders to draft a plan for a pilot project. Included in the models to be considered are teams that evaluate the spread of infectious disease, said a WERF spokesperson. Coming to grips with the causes of odor and figuring out how to control smells were also ranked highly among the 31 research projects that were sketched out at the meeting. However, WERF has no plans to increase the $1.5 million in grants the foundation awards each year in biosolids-related research projects. —REBECCA RENNER
If you have never seen a “bevelope,” keep your eyes open. In early October, the U.S. EPA announced that bevelopes won a contest aimed at reducing the environmental impact of shipping the millions of books purchased online each year. EPA and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, a major proponent of the cradle-to-cradle design philosophy, cosponsored the contest. Allen Schluger Co. and Shorewood Packaging collaborated on the bevelope contest entry. Microsoft currently ships DVDs in bevelopes, which are made from 100% post-consumer waste and have expandable “bevels.” For more information on the contest, visit www.mbdc.com/challenge.
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MBDC
Green packaging
Environmental▼News Den, senior science adviser for EPA’s Region 9. An aggressive sampling campaign requires stirring up the ground and sampling at the breathing zone level. For example, when technicians used a tractor rake to drag the baseball infield and the dirt track surrounding the football field of the local Oak Ridge High School in July, some results exceeded worker safety exposure limits. In August,
the school’s football stadium and baseball diamond were closed, and they have yet to be reopened. Scientists interviewed for this story and many citizens worry that local authorities fail to realize the magnitude of the problem and that federal authorities can’t act because they believe they don’t have jurisdiction over a naturally occurring problem.
No one wants a repeat of what happened in Libby. A May 2003 General Accounting Office report criticized EPA for underestimating the extent of contamination in Libby when citizens first complained in 1982. EPA only began an extensive investigation and cleanup after media reports called attention to the health disaster, according to the report. —REBECCA RENNER
Independent, long-term study shows regulations and technology cut vehicle emissions tenance programs, which generally exempt newer cars. Changes in gasoline formulation also cannot explain the factors of 3 or 4 differences in emissions that they found, the researchers say. The only explanation left is that the combination of federal mandates and the auto manufacturers’ improved ability to meet these mandates has made emission control devices more reliable over longer time periods, says Stedman. DONALD STEDMAN
The first independent, long-term, on-road analysis of tailpipe emissions from newer cars and light-duty trucks shows these vehicles emit less pollution over time than older vehicles, according to research in the Nov 15 issue of ES&T (pp 5097–5101) from the University of Denver. The researchers assert that four decades of federal regulations have successfully prodded automotive manufacturers to improve the performance and durability of their emissions control technology. In other words, car designers are getting better at creating more durable emissions reduction technology every year. For the past 13 years in Denver and 5 years in Los Angeles and Chicago, Donald Stedman’s group, which pioneered on-road sensing, has measured carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons, and nitric oxide (NO) in vehicle emissions near off-ramps of major thoroughfares. The subset of data discussed in the ES&T paper was collected from 1997 through 2001 on vehicles less than four years old. It demonstrates that each succeeding model in its first year emitted less pollution than the previous year’s models in their first year—even during a period when regulations remained static. For example, the researchers found that in the cars they analyzed in Denver, emissions of CO, hydrocarbons, and NO decreased an average of 12%, 7%, and 16%, respectively, each year. By looking only at emissions of new vehicles, the researchers ruled out effects of inspection and main-
This four-year-old vehicle is an example of on-road emissions testing by Stedman’s group. Date and time are listed across the top of the image, and carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide readings, respectively, across the bottom.
Experts agree. Brett Singer, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer who has worked on emissions studies, says that “certification tests don’t tell us what is really happening on the road,” whereas this study underscores “the on-road effect of all these standards we are putting in place.” Louise Bedsworth, a senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit organization, says the research shows that manufacturers
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are taking more responsibility. How will these results impact future policy making? Opinions vary. Joel Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Reason Public Policy Institute, a public policy think tank, believes that the Tier 2 regulations, which require the same emissions limits for light trucks as for cars and take effect for the 2004 model year, are sufficient for the future. He says that even without Tier 2 or additional regulations, emissions would decrease at least 85%, despite people driving more. “It means that fleet turnover will eliminate most of the remaining emissions from automobiles during the next 20 years or so.” On the other hand, Bedsworth adds that regulations can do more to further reduce air pollution. Reflecting on the progress that has been made is important, she says, but we cannot run the risk of “resting on our laurels.” Stedman renews his longtime call to simply get the “gross polluters”—the small percentage of older, poorly maintained cars that emit more than half of the automotive pollution—off the road now. Gross polluters of CO now compose only 6% of the fleet in Denver, down from 9% in 1989, but the cars still on the road expel an average of 480 grams of CO per kilogram of fuel or 32 times the median. “When we started out 13 years ago, 1 car in 10 was putting out more emissions than the other 9 put together, and we are now at 1 car in 20,” Stedman says. “Shouldn’t we be spending our money dealing with that one rather than making everyone spend more money on new cars?” —RACHEL PETKEWICH
