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The laboratories at EMSL Analytical provide affordable mold, lead, asbestos and other contaminant testing solutions.

Westmont, NJ

As the economy shows signs that the country is over the worst of the recession with a 3.5% third quarter growth in GPD, the number of homes going into foreclosure continues to climb. Even with all the government sponsored efforts to prevent foreclosures the past three months have likely seen the highest number of foreclosures in the country’s history.

According to one recent report by RealtyTrac® one in every 136 homes in the U.S. are now in foreclosure, which is 23% increase over the same period last year. The market is now flooded with these properties and many first time homebuyers and real estate investors are looking to buy these discounted properties.

Real estate foreclosures come in all types of conditions from move-in ready to completely run down, vandalized and neglected properties. Many of these same properties are being sold by the banks ‘as is’ so buyers need to be aware of potential problems with such issues such as mold contamination, lead paint and asbestos.

Properly conducted home inspections should identify many of these issues, but a number of buyers forgo this important step which can lead to costly environmental issues later. EMSL Analytical, one of the nation’s largest environmental testing laboratories, provides affordable testing solutions for prospective buyers and property inspectors.

“Up to 24 million homes in the U.S. contain substantial lead paint hazards according to the CDC and the EPA recently announced new guidance for properties constructed or renovated between 1950 and 1978 because of concerns with PCBs in caulking material,” reported Joe Frasca, Executive Vice President for EMSL Analytical. “Millions more likely have issues with mold and asbestos so it is imperative to have a property inspected and tested to protect the buyer’s interests,” Frasca continued.

To learn more about environmental testing or other testing needs please visit www.EMSL.com, email info@EMSL.com or call (800) 220-3675.

About EMSL Analytical, Inc.
EMSL Analytical is a nationally recognized and locally focused provider of indoor air quality, environmental, industrial hygiene, food and materials testing services and products to professionals and the general public. The company has an extensive list of accreditations from leading organizations as well as state and federal regulating bodies.

[Source: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=107209]

WASHINGTON — The new PBS Frontline documentary “Poisoned Waters” reported on April 21st that a new wave of chemical compounds that scientists describe as raising dangers for human health have been found in drinking water systems of cities across the country by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Poisoned Waters,” airing nationwide on PBS, (check local listings) reveals new evidence that today’s growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers’ face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, and eventually into America’s waterways and drinking water.

“The long-term, slow-motion risk is already being spelled out in large population studies,” Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health tells correspondent and Pulitzer-prize winner Hedrick Smith. Those studies correlate health risks with exposure to chemicals in the environment known as endocrine disrupters because they disrupt the body’s normal functioning.

“We can show that people with higher levels of some of these chemicals may have a higher incidence” of disease and such harmful effects such as lower male sperm count, asserts Linda Birnbaum, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “In most cases, we don’t know what the safe levels are.”

Tests by the U.S. Geological Survey of source waters for urban drinking water systems, have documented new contaminants coast to coast. Other scientists say these chemicals are causing fish kills, frogs with six legs, male fish with female eggs in their gonads and other mutations. They see these mutations as warnings to humans.

Millions of people are being exposed to endocrine disruptors, Lawrence explains, “and we don’t know precisely how many of them are going to develop premature breast cancer, going to have problems with reproduction, going to have all kinds of congenital anomalies of the male genitalia — things that are happening at a broad low level so that they don’t raise the alarm in the general public.”

Using Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound as case studies, “Poisoned Waters” examines how these emerging pollutants along with old industrial contaminants like PCBs, lead and mercury and agricultural pollution from concentrated hog, cattle and chicken growing operations, have kept America from making many of the nation’s waterways fishable and swimmable again — a goal set by Congress nearly four decades ago.

“The environment has slipped off our radar screen because it’s not a hot crisis like the financial meltdown,” says Smith. “But pollution is a ticking time bomb. It’s a chronic cancer that is slowly eating away the natural resources that are vital to our very lives.”

“Poisoned Waters” is a FRONTLINE co-production with Hedrick Smith Productions, Inc. Hedrick Smith is correspondent and senior producer. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. For more info go to www.pbs.org/frontline/poisonedwaters

SOURCE Hedrick Smith Productions

Southern Research Institute is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 scientific research organization that conducts preclinical drug discovery and development and advanced engineering research in materials, systems development, environment and energy. Their more than 600 scientific and engineering team members support clients and partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense, aerospace, environmental and energy industries. Southern Research is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., with facilities also located in Wilsonville, Ala., Anniston, Ala., Frederick, Md., and Durham, NC. For more information about Southern Research and its capabilities and accomplishments, visit www.SouthernResearch.org.

Led by Dr. Derek Eggert, Southern Research will now begin developing approaches to remediate problematic constituents contained in commercial and industrial effluents

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 11 — Southern Research Institute today announced that it is adding a new research capability focusing on the remediation of problematic constituents in water and wastewater sources. Environmental toxicologist Derek Eggert, Ph.D. will lead the new program that is located on Southern Research’s main campus in Birmingham.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Eggert has joined Southern Research, enabling us to expand our environmental services to industry,” said Michael D. Johns, vice-president of Engineering at Southern Research. “The remediation of industrial water is important to the quality of our water systems. Because of Derek’s expertise, Southern Research can now help develop environmentally and economically sound solutions to treat those problems.”

By creating the Water and Wastewater Treatment team, Southern Research will help remediate contaminants — such as arsenic, mercury, selenium, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc and oil and grease — from various waste streams in order to reuse or discharge into a local waterway.

Before joining Southern Research, Dr. Eggert was a research assistant in Environmental Toxicology at Clemson University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Clemson University. He is a member of The Wildlife Society, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and Sigma Xi.

CONTACT:
Rhonda Jung, 205-337-9634
Jung@SouthernResearch.org

The importance of recycling paper is increasing year by year. Newspapers, magazines and packaging of commercial products recycling allows human beings to safeguard the forests and, consequently, to safeguard the future of all living species. But the reason for this interest is not only related to ecological benefits but to economic advantages too. In fact the use of secondary material (pulping) limits the use of virgin raw materials and simultaneously reduces the amount of material destined for landfill with disposal costs reduction.

The quality of recycled paper is increasing as well allowing its use in the graphics industry in place of virgin fiber paper for the most of the uses. Technological evolution and mind-changing of consumers have encouraged the development of this kind of paper and the evolution of green printing, which in addition to using recycled paper utilizes for example soy based inks rather than petroleum based inks, with consequent lower emission of volatile organic compounds than traditional petroleum inks and improving the recycling process itself.

The production of recycled paper does not pollute as long as the paper mills have adequate facilities for handling both paper for pulping and waste water and process residuals. Important to stress, confirming the sustainability of the production of recycled paper, that process residuals (sludge) can be reused in several sectors: brick industry, road works as substrates, amendments in agriculture.

Finally, in a world of “disposable” the philosophy of “use and reuse” finds its place in the paper industry and the outcome is positive because it allows the use and development of alternative materials and alternative products.