absorb 43.abs.02 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Residents of a Chinese region where 80 percent of families include workers who dismantle and recycle electronic devices have high concentrations of flame-retardant chemicals in their blood, researchers report. Inhabitants of a fishing village not far away also carried elevated amounts of the chemicals, called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

Much of the world's electronic waste ends up in China, where most handlers of the materials work without protective gear. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US They smash the components and strip out metals, releasing dust laden with deca-BDE, a flame retardant commonly added to plastic components.

In this first study of PBDE occupational exposure in China, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou and Lancaster University in England analyzed blood samples from individuals at two sites in southern China. One group of people lived in Guiyu, an electronic-waste-dismantling area in southern China. People in a comparison group lived in Haojiang, a fishing village 50 kilometers away.

PBDEs come in 209 forms that include different arrangements of up to 10 bromine atoms. Studies in mice and rats have shown that PBDEs with 5 or 8 bromine atoms harm brain development (SN: 10/13/01, p. 238; SN: 10/25/03, p. 266). Growing evidence suggests that deca-BDE, which contains 10 bromine atoms, can cause the same developmental problems either on its own or when it breaks down into PBDEs with fewer bromines, says Linda Birnbaum, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's experimental toxicology division.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US

Deca-BDE is widely used in electronics and upholstery. The Guiyu residents had a median concentration of deca-BDE up to 200 times as high as were typically seen in two Swedish studies of industrial workers.

Total PBDE concentrations among individuals in Guiyu had a median value three times as high as did the individuals in Haojiang, the researchers report in the Aug. 15 Environmental Science & Technology. The elevated concentrations of PBDEs in villagers in Haojiang indicate that airborne dust particles might have carried the chemicals to the village, says Gareth Thomas of Lancaster University, a coauthor of the study. The highest deca-BDE contamination ever reported was recorded in a 32-year-old Guiyu man whose blood contained 3,100 parts per billion (ppb) lipid. Lipid molecules, or fat, accumulate these chemicals.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US

The astronomical concentrations of deca-BDE, a median of 310 ppb lipid in Guiyu, indicate regular, heavy exposure to the chemical, comments Åke Bergman of Stockholm University. That's because deca-BDE has a half-life in the body of just 15 days. "In order to keep up these very high concentrations, the people need to be continuously exposed," he says.

The overall PBDE concentrations seen in the Guiyu residents are in "a risk region" for exposing a woman's fetus to amounts of the compounds that could damage a developing brain, Bergman adds.

He notes that electronic-waste recycling is done in other countries by workers who may be no better protected than the Guiyu workers are. "We may have a few more areas in the world where we have [elevated] exposure to humans and also to the environment," he says.

10 steps 556.ste.000123 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Hieroglyphics carved into recently discovered stairs on the side of an ancient Maya pyramid recount a tale of betrayal and warfare spearheaded by two dominant city-states.http://louis-j-sheehan.biz

A hurricane that hit the Guatemalan site of Dos Pilas last summer exposed a section of the staircase. Researchers led by Federico Fahsen of Vanderbilt University in Nashville excavated the area and deciphered inscriptions blanketing 10 newly uncovered steps. http://louis-j-sheehan.biz The finds, described in the October National Geographic, add to eight previously investigated steps in the same staircase that had been discovered nearby.

Writing on the new steps describes events from nearly 1,500 years ago, during the reign of a Dos Pilas king named Balaj Chan K'awiil. Inscriptions tell of his installation at age 4 by order of his older brother, who ruled the nearby kingdom of Tikal.http://louis-j-sheehan.biz

Balaj Chan K'awiil maintained good relations with Tikal until his early 20s, when hieroglyphics note that another Maya kingdom, Calakmul, conquered Dos Pilas.

Aligning himself with Calakmul, the young ruler then defeated Tikal in battle and executed his brother.http://louis-j-sheehan.biz

Researchers had known that Dos Pilas became a regional power around that time. The new information shows that the settlement was a pawn in a battle between Maya superpowers, says Fahsen. In contrast, some anthropologists regard Dos Pilas as having been one of many comparably powerful city-states.

Fahsen presents the first evidence for an attack on Dos Pilas by Calakmul, comments Harvard University's David Stuart, a specialist in Maya writing. However, other Dos Pilas hieroglyphics deciphered over the past decade had already outlined a fierce rivalry between Tikal and Calakmul, with Dos Pilas caught in the middle, Stuart says.

supreme 77773.sup.44 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5–4 decision today ruled that the Navy does not have to consider the effect of sonar on whales when training with sonar off the coast of California. "The Court does not question the importance of plaintiffs' ecological, scientific and recreational interests, but it concludes that the balance of equities and consideration of the overall public interest tip strongly in favor of the Navy," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "The determination of where the public interest lies in this case does not strike the Court as a close question." http://Louis-J-sheehan.info

Environmentalists, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued to stop the sonar exercises, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) charged that the high-intensity mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar blankets vast areas of the ocean with noise pollution, causing whales, including endangered beak whales, to beach and/or die. The Navy does not dispute the potential danger to the mammals, acknowledging in its own environmental assessments that the sonar may permanently damage as many as 500 whales and temporarily deafen at least 8,000 whales.

A lower court had imposed six injunctions on the Navy when using such sonar, including shutting it down when marine mammals are within 2,200 yards or when on the surface, a 12-mile no-sonar buffer zone off the coast of California and routine monitoring for marine mammals. NRDC senior attorney Joel Reynolds notes that the decision only obviates the need for the Navy to shut down such sonar but left in place the other protections. http://Louis-J-sheehan.info

The Navy also reached an agreement in September 2007 with a host of environmental groups to confine even more damaging low-frequency active (LFA) sonar—which remain strong for at least 300 miles and can be detected across entire oceans—to certain regions of the North Pacific.

"It does not need to be an either/or scenario when it comes to ensuring our country is secure and our marine wildlife is protected," says IFAW lawyer Nathaniel Wechsler "Our military can protect endangered species and meet our nation's security needs at the same time." Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire