At a scoping meeting last week in Biloxi, Miss., Vietnamese shrimpers said they have pulled up nets full of oil from the seafloor and have had to decide whether to report the oil to the Coast Guard, which would mean dumping their day’s catch, or pretend they don’t see the oil.

John Lliff, a supervisor with NOAA’s Damage Assessment Remediation and Restoration Program, said no one knows how much of the seafloor is covered in oil. Simply lowering a camera to the Gulf floor can take as long as 4 hours. The oil may have sunk in part because of dispersants. Other factors such as sediment might also have caused it to sink, Lliff said.

Shrimpers in Biloxi also said that in places where shrimp have been plentiful, there are no shrimp now.

Fishermen in Pensacola and Panama City, Fla. brought a day’s catch to a scoping meeting to show that several fish had lesions. The fishermen were concerned the lesions were a result of the oil spill.

“Lesions do occur in fish,” Lliff said. “Typically, they are a low occurrence, but fishermen there are saying they are coming up every catch.”

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas that is produced by burning fuel, such as gasoline, wood, paper, natural gas, or kerosene.  When inhaled, carbon monoxide CO quickly enters the blood stream and prevents oxygen from being transported to the body’s cells.

A car used by the group was found running in a closed garage underneath the room.  Friends told The Miami Herald the car had needed a jump-start earlier and could have been left running to keep the battery charged. A door to a staircase up to the room had been left open, and high levels of carbon monoxide were found inside.

It is estimated that each year carbon monoxide poisoning kills 5,000 persons in the U.S. and injures over 10,000 persons.  Many of these deaths are due to faulty or defective products, including lawn mowers, gas stoves, hot water heaters, furnaces, fireplaces or snow blowers.  Exposure can occur even in the outdoors. Cases have been reported of children who suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from exposure to boat and jet-ski exhaust fumes.

Persons who have suffered brain damage, or the families of loved ones who have died, have filed lawsuits against the product manufacturers and/or property owners for the injuries they suffered. Lieff Cabraser represents victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.

In April 2010, Ms. Mercado was diagnosed with a severe lung disease as a result of her exposure to ConAgra’s microwave popcorn which contained butter flavorings with added diacetyl. The disease is associated with inhaling butter flavoring vapors and has been identified as bronchiolitis obliterans — literally, an obliteration of the lung’s airways. Breathing tests can identify difficulty in moving air in and out of the lungs, called lung obstruction. In the case of bronchiolitis obliterans, that obstruction is “fixed,” meaning it doesn’t respond to normal asthma medications.

About her injury, Ms. Mercado stated, “I have always taken good care of myself and never would have thought that something as seemingly harmless as eating microwave popcorn would have hurt me so badly.” The lawsuit charges that Ms. Mercado sustained a severe lung disease after consuming microwave popcorn containing the butter flavoring chemical diacetyl. The chemical is used for the aroma and taste in butter, some cheeses and snack and bakery products.

Learn more about diacetyl injuries and the rights of victims of diacetyl-related lung diseases.

Just over a year ago, one billion tons of toxic coal sludge broke loose from a containment pond belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority, burying hundreds of acres of Roane County and threatening local water supplies and air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency immediately promised new national standards to replace a patchwork of uneven — and in many cases weak — state toxic materials regulations.

Unfortunately, the agency’s (non-public) recommendations are now the focus of a huge dispute inside the Obama administration, with industry lobbying hard for changes that would essentially preserve the status quo. The Times opines that the dispute should be resolved in favor of the environment and public safety.

Click here to read the full piece on the New York Times website. You can learn more about lawsuits relating to the Tennessee coal sludge spill here.

In a report released this week, “Trouble in Toyland,” U.S. PIRG found that although many manufacturers and retailers are complying with the new law, a handful are not, and it is difficult for consumers to distinguish between the two.

Read the full article on the Mercury News website.

Read the full story on the Environmental Health News website.

Fifteen people died and 170 were injured in a March 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery. BP agreed in September of that year to correct the safety problems.

Read the full story on the Bloomberg website.

Girls were more likely to be aggressive if their mothers had high levels of BPA — an estrogen-like chemical used in many consumer products — early in pregnancy or at about 16 weeks, the study says. A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks. The girls had aggression scores that were similar to those of boys, as measured by a commonly used test, says co-author Joe Braun of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Boys appeared unaffected by BPA.

Braun says he plans to follow children until age 5, because behaviors can change over time. Based largely on animal experiments, the government’s National Toxicology Program last year expressed “some concern” about BPA’s effects on the brain, behavior and prostate gland in children before and after birth. Hugh Taylor, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Yale University School of Medicine, notes that the new findings closely match the animal studies.