Historic Additions to Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Target Once Common Pesticides and Flame Retardants: August 26, 2010 marks the entry into force of amendments adding nine new chemicals to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals found in some common consumer products today. They are distributed around the globe and are known to be accumulating in human and animal organisms, endangering the health and safety of humans and the environment.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Bayer CropScience, the manufacturer, have reached an agreement to end use of the pesticide aldicarb in the United States. A new risk assessment conducted by EPA based on recently submitted toxicity data indicates that aldicarb, an N-methyl carbamate insecticide, no longer meets the agency’s rigorous food safety standards and may pose unacceptable dietary risks, especially to infants and young children.

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A new packing material that grows itself is now appearing in shipped products across the country. The composite of inedible agricultural waste and mushroom roots is called Mycobond™, and its manufacture requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material.

And unlike most foam substitutes, when no longer useful, it makes great compost in the garden.

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A study published in the July 23 issue of Cell identifies the mechanism used by several types of common, virulent microbes to infect plants and cause devastating blights. The researchers found evidence suggesting that fungi and oomycetes might infect humans and animals through the same newly-discovered mechanism as they use to infect plants. 

This discovery may generate new strategies to fight human diseases, and devastating plant blights--including the type of blight involved in the Irish Potato Blight. This finding opens new potential avenues for developing therapies for fighting diseases caused by fungi and oomycetes.

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A Science article published on July 9, 2010, describes the discovery of an alternative form of evolution that helpsDrosophila flies conquer nematodes that sterilize them. Nematodes are among the most abundant, diverse and destructive parasites of plants and animals. The article, titled, "Adaptation via Symbiosis; Recent Spread of a Drosophila Defensive Symbiont," is by John Jaenike of the University of Rochester and his colleagues. In a video interview, Jaenike explains the results of this study and their implications for developing treatments for serious human diseases, including river blindness, caused by nematodes; about 17.7 million people worldwide are currently infected with river blindness.