Exposure to toxic chemicals in our environment begins early in life--even before birth.

  Ken Cook, President and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group, is a strong proponent for a Kids-Safe Chemical Act, to reduce children's exposure to toxics in the environment.

 Additional online resources from the Environmental Working Group  include the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides, and their Cosmetic Saftety database.

Click here to view Ken Cook's 20-minute video summary presentation on the 10 Americans  study.

The Environmental Working Group is also pressing for the creation of a human "toxome," similar to the genetic map known as the human genome, to identify where and how toxic chemicals affect the body's healthy biological processes.

Although the Sonoma County dump, west of Cotati,  has been closed for more than three and a half years, the former manager of the facility says the issues behind its closure are political, not environmental.

Ken Wells (right), the former manager of the Sonoma County landfill says the  "leak" discovered beneath the dump back in 2004, has taken on an exaggerated significance due to subsequent regulatory conflict between the county and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. The actual contamination was quite minor, he contends, and was easily contained and repaired, so that no pollutants escaped into the local groundwater.

  County officials won't say, but indutry observers say Waste ManagementInc. is the only potential buyer for the Meacham Road dumsite that meets the criteria set forth in the county's Request for Proposals.

Ken Wells is also among those who would prefer that the county retain ownership of the landfill, perhaps contracting with a private firm to operate it. As the county's waste diversion rate-currently at 64%-goes up even more, the volume of trash going into the dump will contuine to shrink, he predicts. That's part of his overall vision of a long-term future for the facility.

Although the Sonoma County dump (seen from the air, above) is no longer accecpting trash, all other services there are continuing. There's a list of them, and related operation, such as local transfer stations, available here.

The most harmful form of mercury is being washed into coastal waters through subsurface groundwater, a new study has found, and at rates far higher than from the air. That research was conducted at two Northern California sites, including Stinson Beach (right) in Marin County.

When we hear about mercury levels in fish, the actual compound is a form called mono-methyl mercury. U.C. Santa Cruz biochemist Dr. Adina Paytan (left) explains the difference, and what is known about how it gets converted.

Mercury washes out of the atmosphere more of less uniformly, but levels of bacteria in groundwater tend to vary widely. Dr. Paytan points to coastal areas with failing septic systems as likely sources for higher concentrations of subsurface methyl mercury.

While the biochemical conversion process can occur anywhere that mercury exists alongside the active bacteria, researcher Frank Black (standing, right) says the degree to which the methylated mercury is then carried into the ocean water depends a lot on the subsurface geology of a particular area.

Here's a source for background reading on Mercury in the Environment.

There's more to the story of pirates along the Somali coast than just bad guys in boats. In today's report, John Reid, President of the Conservation Strategy Fund in Sebastopol, looks past recent headlines to the root causes of this outbreak of nautical lawlessness.

Because natural resources are essential to the survival of millions of residents of undeveloped nations, CFS President John Reid (right) predicts that, in order to help preserve them, climate change will soon become a major factor in shaping US foreign policy.

 Michael Winship, senior writer for the weekly PBS public affairs program "Bill Moyers Journal," has additional background on this issue here.