The Environmental Protection Agency’s first administrator to have come up through the ranks has been invited to avoid the likely January rush of fleeing agency heads. Stephen Johnson has been asked to resign now.

For those squeamish barbequers who worry that charring burgers, chicken, steak and about anything else on the backyard grill will cause cancer, take heart. We may all be saved by the what’s in our spice cabinet.

One of the most interesting things about writing this blog is reading the comments you send in reaction. Unlike the stories I write for the paper, which seem to generate mostly anti-Bush comments, my blog items attract insightful � and often witty � responses that make me laugh and, sometimes, make me cringe.
For example, in [...]

On the 19th, we ran in the PI a story in the P-I on a hazmat coalition involving King Country and three dozen other political entities that removed from its Web site and handout materials a wallet-sized shopping guide to
which fruits and vegetables contained the most and least pesticides.
The story explained that agri-business groups had [...]

Radiation, kitchen design, safety, granite, odd

In the chaotic and weird world of regulating agricultural chemicals, EPA gets praised for banning one pesticide and sued for not banning another, all on the same day.
This morning, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the EPA to stop the continued use of a pesticide called endosulfan, which has already [...]

From top doctors and scientists to widows, public health experts are mustering to try to keep the EPA from watering down regulations determining the cancer-causing danger of asbestos exposure.
At a meeting in Washington tomorrow, the EPA’s Superfund cops � the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency � will take testimony on the agency’s plans to [...]

With 1,220 persons infected with salmonella saintpaul in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided to declare victory in its war against tainted tomatoes.
It’s not that they found the source of the dangerous red fruit. They haven’t. It’s not that people aren’t getting sick, they are. [...]

Pathogens, chemicals, from research on fish diseases flowed out untreated from lab in Victoria, B.C.; some say it could endanger dwindling salmon stocks.

Sellers of meat or poultry contaminated with E. coli, Salmonella or other foodborne diseases will soon no longer be able to hide behind government privacy regulations. This morning, Ed Schafer, the Secretary of Agriculture, said that beginning next month USDA will announce the specific retail stores that received meat and poultry involved in a Class 1 recall, which is one that involves a reasonable probability of serious health consequences or death for those with weakened immune systems.