Environmental Health Featured Science Activities

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) were transported 2 kilometers downstream of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) outfall in a coastal plain stream. EDCs persisted downstream of the outfall with little change in the numbers of EDCs and limited decreases in EDC concentrations.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist Dr. Michael T. Meyer has had a prolific career, publishing 60 journal articles and 45 USGS publications. Mike's publication record has recently led to his designation as a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher, ranking among the top 1 percent of researchers from 2002 to 2012 for most cited documents in their specific field (Environment/Ecology). He was...

A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ( MCPA ) scientists measured 127 organic chemicals in groundwater underlying urbanized areas in Minnesota. These chemicals include ones commonly used and consumed in our daily lives, in products such as human–use and veterinary pharmaceuticals, fragrances, surfactants, plastic components, and fire retardants. The...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Minnesota Department of Health ( MDH ) scientists are assessing the distribution of arsenic in groundwater in Minnesota. Naturally occurring arsenic is common in groundwater in Minnesota. About 15 percent of drinking water wells statewide have arsenic concentrations that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) drinking water standard of 10 micrograms...

U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) scientists have completed the most comprehensive evaluation to date (2014) of decadal–scale changes in pesticide concentrations in groundwater of the United States. Such assessments are essential for tracking long–term responses to changes in pesticide use and land–management practices.

A U.S. Geological Survey USGS Health-Based Screening Level ( HBSL ) Web site includes human-health benchmarks for 351 contaminants (79 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) Maximum Contaminant Levels ( MCLs ), 117 EPA Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides ( HHBPs ), and 155 USGS HBSLs ). The Web site also provides detailed toxicity information used to calculate HBSLs . A comprehensive...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists studying a midwestern stream conclude that pharmaceuticals and other contaminants in treated wastewater effluent discharged to the stream are transported into adjacent shallow groundwater. Other mobile chemicals found in wastewater are expected to have similar fates.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are focusing on new efforts to help protect human and environmental health during disasters. Two papers published recently summarize important characteristics of materials released into the environment by natural and anthropogenic disasters, such as volcanic ash, building collapse dusts and debris, flood sediments, flood waters, wildfire ash and debris...

Maps and data tables that describe nutrient loading to major estuaries throughout the conterminous United States are now available online. These maps show the major sources of nutrients and their contributing areas for 115 estuaries along the Atlantic coast, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Northwest coast and from 160 watersheds draining into the Great Lakes. Information on the sources and areas...

Conserving nature can improve human lives. From forest watersheds that perform natural filtration of drinking water to coral reefs that break tsunami waves before they flatten seaside villages, intact ecosystems provide innumerable services to human society. Might biodiversity be healthy for the ecosystem and also protect people against infectious diseases? While most disease ecologists would say...

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) diagnosed West Nile Virus (WNV) in numerous eared grebes and bald eagles that died in a 2013 mortality event in the Great Salt Lake (GSL). Diagnoses were based on findings during pathological analysis to determine cause of death, including molecular detection of WNV genetic material in tissues, and isolation of WNV from multiple tissues from each...

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists and collaborators discovered that long-wave ultraviolet (UV) light directed at the wings of bats with white-nose syndrome (WNS) produced points of distinctive orange-yellow fluorescence. The orange-yellow glow corresponds directly with microscopic skin lesions that define the current "gold standard" for diagnosing WNS . White-nose syndrome, a fungal disease...