Chemicals

WASHINGTON--Amid reports that Syria is shifting its chemical weapons arsenal, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday warned the Syrian government that the United States considers use of such weapons a “red line” that would force it into deeper involvement in the country's civil war. “This is a red line for the United States,” Clinton said in an appearance in Prague with the Czech prime minister, Karel Schwarzenberg. While she said she would not “telegraph in any specifics” what the administration would do if the government of embattled President Bashar Assad used the weapons against Syrians, “we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.”             She said the issue was “very much on the minds of the administration and like-minded countries around the world.” She said that “there is a line between even the horrors that they have already inflicted on the Syrian people and moving to what would be an internationally condemned step of utilizing their chemical weapons.” Clinton's comments echoed President Obama's public comments in August that use of Syria's large arsenal of chemical weapons is the one red line that would certainly prompt U.S. intervention. “That would change my calculus,” he said then.

This post has been updated and corrected. See the notes below. WASHINGTON - The Obama administration fears that Syria's embattled government may be about to use its arsenal of deadly chemical weapons against opposition forces because conventional arms have failed to halt their advance, according to the White House spokesman. “We are concerned that an increasingly beleaguered regime, having found its escalation of violence through conventional means inadequate, might be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters Monday afternoon.

BEIRUT - The United States bluntly warned Syrian President Bashar Assad against using chemical weapons as his forces lose ground to rebel fighters, and the United Nations said it was pulling nonessential foreign staff from Syria because of deteriorating security. Warnings from President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials Monday reflected U.S. concerns over new intelligence indicating that Syria might be preparing to unleash some of its chemical agent stockpiles.

Residents of three southern New Jersey towns were told to stay indoors and 18 people were treated for exposure after a bridge collapsed Friday, causing a freight train to derail and release a potentially hazardous chemical, officials said. Three train cars dropped from the bridge into a creek in Paulsboro in Gloucester County at about 7 a.m. and were leaking, according to the statement that authorities e-mailed to reporters. PHOTOS: Train derails; tanker car topples into creek At least one of the cars that fell into the creek is believed to have contained vinyl chloride, which can cause dizziness and harm breathing.

Environmental activists and leaders of this impoverished community, outraged by unreported spills of cancer-causing chemicals, are trying to block expansion of a toxic waste dump that is the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi River. Activists say the history of the troubled Chemical Waste Management dump and new citations alleging failure to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last four years show the company cannot be trusted to protect public health. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control issued the citations earlier this month -- and is the agency that must rule on the proposed expansion.

A search warrant served by the New Jersey police and the FBI on Saturday turned up cache of assault weapons and chemicals used to make bombs at a New Jersey doctor's home, authorities said. Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times by the Associated Press, said 60-year-old Robert Rivera of Ridgewood faces half a dozen charges including recklessly creating a risk of widespread injury or damage, unlawfully possessing a destructive device, and possession of an assault firearm.

BEIRUT - - Syrian rebels seized a government missile defense base near the northern city of Aleppo on Friday that had been the source of regular attacks on surrounding villages, activists said. Free Syrian Army rebels and an Al Qaeda-linked group called Al Nusra Front surrounded the base early Friday and fought with soldiers for hours, activists said. They overran the base around dawn, killing dozens of troops and taking others hostage, said Abu Firas, spokesman for the Revolutionary Council for Aleppo and Its Suburbs.

In a case that U.S. prosecutors said started with a disputed $200 bill, a Tucson contractor has been convicted of a chemical attack on a customer's house--and is accused of leaving feces, dead woodpeckers and graffiti behind too. A federal jury in Tucson recently found 49-year-old Todd Russell Fries guilty of unlawful possession and use of a chemical weapon after he systematically harassed a couple who had stopped payment because they were unhappy...

Deepening the mystery surrounding the health effects of bisphenol A, a large new study has linked high levels of childhood and adolescent exposure to the industrial chemical to higher rates of obesity - in white children only. The latest research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., measured bisphenol A, or BPA, levels in the urine of a diverse group of 2,838 Americans ages 6 to 19. Researchers from New York University also reviewed data on the participants' weight, dietary intake, physical activity and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Chlorine has long been the industry standard to keep pool water clean and clear, but consumer demand for alternatives has prompted the emergence of new technologies, including the saltwater systems that came into vogue a few years ago and the copper-and-silver ionization and ozone-gas systems that are increasingly popular. "I don't like the stuff that goes into swimming pools," said Philip Daughtry, a Topanga Canyon poet who often swims in the koi pond he refers to as his "backcountry swimming hole.