Health Hazards

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday warned consumers against buying or taking dietary supplements containing ephedrine, such as Herbal Ecstasy, saying that the stimulant has been linked to 15 deaths and hundreds of adverse reactions. The FDA issued the alert against only those products advertised as alternatives to street drugs aimed at young people, such as "ecstasy," that promise euphoria, heightened sexual awareness and enhanced athletic performance.

Health risks and the cost of hauling away tons of contaminated soil have all but killed hopes of converting a former dump site in Santa Fe Springs into a park, city officials said. Instead, oil companies that dumped toxic waste at the 43-acre site for more than a decade beginning in the 1950s are looking at topping the area with clay and concrete to make way for a possible outdoor storage facility, a plan suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Environmental Protection Agency is about to unveil a long-awaited plan for restructuring the government's campaign against cancer-causing pollution, replacing old guidelines that listed certain chemicals as "possible," "probable" or "known" carcinogens, and reducing the role of animal testing.

It's the chemical responsible for removing 520 tons of carbon monoxide every day from Southern California's smoggy skies. It has helped slash the level of the dread cancer-causer benzene in gasoline. But there is preliminary evidence that the good-guy chemical of California's air pollution wars could in some cases become a dark prince on another pollution front--ground water contamination, state regulators say.

Alone in a deserted cemetery, a teenage boy enjoys a moonlit walk--and a cigarette. As the smoke slowly filters down to a nearby grave, a restless zombie rises from the earth and directs a rotted finger to the tombstone. "DIED FROM SMOKING," it reads. Created by an eager group of students at Nobel Middle School in Northridge, the macabre message is part of an animated public service announcement to warn people about the hazards of tobacco.

Alone in a deserted cemetery, a teenage boy enjoys a moonlit walk--and a cigarette. As the smoke slowly filters down to a grave, a zombie rises and directs a rotted finger to the tombstone. "Died From Smoking," it reads. Created by an eager group of students at Nobel Middle School in Northridge, the message is part of an animated public service announcement to warn people about the hazards of tobacco.

Glum faces dotted Venice Beach on Monday as beach-goers, many of them on spring break, strolled along the wind-swept sand and gazed at the choppy water. They could look, but they could not touch: Los Angeles County health officials the day before had prohibited swimming along a four-mile stretch of coastline because of the largest dry-weather sewage spill in several years.

New data have determined that the ozone layer protecting the Earth from harmful solar radiation has continued to shrink at an unabated and unacceptable pace, government scientists reported Wednesday. But, they said, careful adherence to an international agreement banning the production of chemicals that eat away at the protective zone can be expected to begin reducing the danger as early as the start of the next decade. "Global ozone is declining . . .

Jeffrey S. Wigand has been temporarily muzzled by a Kentucky court from talking in public about his experiences at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. But neither a restraining order nor an expensive public relations campaign waged against him is stunting Wigand's rise to prominence as one of the most visible, vocal critics of the cigarette industry.

Lawyers representing homeowners in toxic contamination lawsuits against Lockheed Martin Corp. have filed a new case adding 550 clients. The third mass lawsuit filed since November brings to about 1,500 the number of residents suing the giant defense contractor over alleged health problems and declining property values that they attribute to decades of toxic releases from the now-defunct "Skunk Works," which built advanced military aircraft.