Government Adds Formaldehyde to List of Known Carcinogens
The U.S. government has added formaldehyde to a list of known carcinogens, despite years of lobbying by the chemical industry. Formaldehyde is a substance found in plastics and often used in plywood, particle board, mortuaries and hair salons. The decision comes just months after the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration warned that a hair-care product, Brazilian Blowout Acai Professional Smoothing Solution, contained unacceptable levels of formaldehyde, and salon workers have reported headaches, nosebleeds, burning eyes, vomiting and asthma attacks after using the product and other hair-straighteners. The government also said Friday that styrene, which is used in boats, bathtubs and in disposable foam plastic cups and plates, may cause cancer. Leading the lobbying effort against labeling formaldehyde as a carcinogen has been the conservative billionaire Koch brothers. Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, is one of the country’s top producers of formaldehyde.
Nuclear waste transport
On Tuesday ten Greenpeace activists in the Netherlands chained themselves to railway lines to block a shipment of nuclear waste. The train, carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste from the country’s Borssele nuclear power plant, is currently en route to France. Greenpeace said the train consisted of three wagons “with an amount of radiation comparable to that released at the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima”.
Iraq Claims U.S. Lost $18.7 Billion, Tripling Initial Reports
A top Iraqi official is claiming that as much as $18.7 billion of Iraqi money was lost by the United States during the first year of the U.S. occupation. A recent U.S. report put the amount unaccounted for at $6.6 billion, but Iraqi’s parliament speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, said the actual total is three times that. The Bush administration flew in a total of $20 billion in cash into the country in 2004, but nearly all of the money is unaccounted for.