One of the key controversies about fracking is the chemical makeup of the fluid that is pumped deep into the ground to break apart rock and release natural gas. Some companies have been reluctant to disclose what’s in their fracking fluid. Scientists and environmental advocates argue that, without knowing its precise composition, they can’t thoroughly investigate complaints of contamination.

Disclosure requirements vary considerably from state to state, as ProPublica recently charted. In many cases, the rules have been limited by a ‘trade secrets’ provision under which companies can claim that a proprietary chemical doesn’t have to be disclosed to regulators or the public.

One apparent proponent of the trade secrets caveat? The American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, a nonprofit group that brings together politicians and corporations to draft and promote conservative, business-friendly legislation. ALEC has been in the spotlight recently because of its support of controversial laws like Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ provision.

This weekend, as part of a story on ALEC’s political activity, The New York Times noted that the group recently adopted ‘model legislation’ on fracking chemical disclosure, based on a bill passed in Texas last year. According to The Times, the model bill was ‘sponsored within ALEC’ […]

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We arrived at the White House on Easter Monday, the South Lawn overrun by children and their parents enjoying the annual Easter Egg Roll. This was the fourth time in the past four years that we had sat down for an extensive interview with Barack Obama, but the tenor and timing were markedly different than the previous conversations. This time he was focused on the campaign, his thinking dominated by the upcoming battle for a second term.

The president was more somber than in our past interviews – and less inclined to depart from the handful of themes he had been concentrating on in recent weeks. He avoided discussing Mitt Romney, even when asked a direct question, and focused primarily on the very real constraints he operates under as president, from the intransigence of Congress to the dilemma of America’s anti-drug laws. He also seemed intent on summing up the arguments he’ll soon be taking out on the campaign trail, making clear that he plans to run on his remarkable record of accomplishments: extending health insurance to 32 million Americans, staving off a major economic collapse, rescuing the auto industry, reforming student loans, ending discrimination against gay soldiers, pulling U.S. troops […]

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Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found in tiny sea creatures and ocean water some 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of Japan, revealing the extent of the release and the direction pollutants might take in a future environmental disaster.

In some places, the researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered cesium radiation hundreds to thousands of times higher than would be expected naturally, with ocean eddies and larger currents both guiding the ‘ radioactive debris ‘ and concentrating it.

With these results, detailed Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team estimates it will take at least a year or two for the radioactive material released at Fukushima to get across the Pacific Ocean. And that information is useful when looking at all the other pollutants and debris released as a result of the tsunami that destroyed towns up and down the eastern coast of Japan.

‘We saw a telephone pole,’ study leader Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist and oceanographer at WHOI, told LiveScience. ‘There were lots of chemical plants. A lot of stuff got washed into the ocean.’

Drifting radiation

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, led to large […]

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Hearts Respond Positively to Optimism

An optimistic outlook on life not only protects against cardiovascular disease, but also slows the progression of disease, according to Harvard University researchers.

A review of more than 200 studies found that positive psychological well-being — specifically, optimism and life satisfaction — reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, independent of other factors such as age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, or body weight, reported Julia K. Boehm, PhD, and Laura D. Kubzansky, PhD.

A positive attitude also appeared to be associated with overall better blood pressure control and heart rate variability, as well as reduced biomarkers for inflammation, according to the study published online April 17 in Psychological Bulletin.

The absence of the negative is not the same thing as the presence of the positive, researchers said. It may be better to bolster psychological strengths rather than simply mitigating psychological deficits to improve cardiovascular health, they concluded.

Metal Allergy No Hindrance to PCI

Metal allergies should not keep cardiac patients from receiving coronary stents composed of nickel or other metals to which they may be hypersensitive, a single-center study suggests.

A group of 29 patients with metal allergy had similar inhospital and 30-day deaths, myocardial infarctions, and deaths at 4 years compared with […]

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