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Photographers take pictures of the Capitol Christmas Tree as it is unloaded on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on November 30, 2009. The tree is an 85 foot Blue Spruce from Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

The Capitol Christmas Tree is unloaded on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on November 30, 2009. The tree is an 85 foot Blue Spruce from Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

The Capitol Christmas Tree is unloaded on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on November 30, 2009. The tree is an 85 foot Blue Spruce from Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

NEW YORK, Nov. 30 (UPI) — Infant exposure to metals from residential heating oil combustion and diesel emissions are linked to respiratory symptoms, U.S. researchers found.

Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health compared pollutant levels with respiratory symptoms of children between birth and age 2 living in Northern Manhattan and in the South Bronx.

Senior investigator Dr. Rachel L. Miller of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and co-deputy director of at the Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues found the airborne metals nickel and vanadium, were risk factors for wheezing in young children.

Residual oil combustion for heating is a major source in New York City of these metals. Elemental carbon, in diesel exhaust, was associated with increased frequency of coughing only during cold and flu season — September through April, the researchers said.

“It appears that exposure to ambient metals and diesel-exhaust particles in our air may lead to several respiratory symptoms for young children living in urban areas,” Miller said in a statement.

The findings are scheduled to be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in December.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2009. Larijani said there is still a diplomatic chance to settle the nuclear dispute with the world powers. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2009. Larijani said there is still a diplomatic chance to settle the nuclear dispute with the world powers. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2009. Larijani said there is still a diplomatic chance to settle the nuclear dispute with the world powers. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian

Date Taken: November 30, 2009

The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season ended Monday with just three hurricanes, the weakest of which killed the most people and did the most damage.

In all, there were nine named storms and two tropical depressions that didn’t reach the 39 mph threshold for being named.

In May, the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration predicted there would be 9-14 named storms, 4-7 of which would become hurricanes, 1-3 of which would be major. Last week, NOAA said 2009 was the ninth weakest storm season in the past 37 years.

The season that begins June 1 began early with Tropical Depression 1 on May 28, but there was no further activity until August, the busiest month of the season with four named systems. Among them was Hurricane Bill, which reached major Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale with 135 mph sustained winds.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Bill brushed the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Nova Scotia as a hurricane, and crossed the southern tip of Newfoundland as a tropical storm. Two seaside drowning deaths were associated with the storm in Florida and Maine.

The second hurricane of the season was Fred, which developed Sept. 7 into a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds over the Atlantic Ocean and eventually dissipated southwest of Bermuda without making landfall.

The final hurricane was Ida, which was named Nov. 4 east of Nicaragua. While its top winds were 105 mph, a Category 2 hurricane, Ida hit Nicaragua and moved north through Honduras. The storm moved north over the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall in Alabama, turned east and buffeted U.S. East Coast with rain and wind as far north as New Jersey.

At least 10 of the season’s 15 storm-related deaths were attributed to Ida, and damages exceeded $2 million, the costliest of all storms this year.

Two deaths were attributed to Tropical Storm Claudette and one to Tropical Storm Danny, both in August.

Various meteorologists said the Pacific El Nino effect this year was responsible for keeping a damper on major storm development. El Nino produces westerly high-level winds across the Caribbean and Atlantic that blows the top off storms in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

The majority of Atlantic tropical systems begins with large masses of hot, dry air in northern Africa that move eastward and are fueled by warm sea waters that create cyclonic motions.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) — Dishwasher detergent manufacturers are scrambling to eliminate phosphates in compliance with states’ bans, an industry spokeswoman said.

Sixteen states have passed laws banning the sale of detergents with phosphates for home dishwashers as of July 1, 2010, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday.

Phosphates have been blamed for excess algae growth in rivers and streams and was eliminated years ago from most laundry detergents. The Soap and Detergent Association, a Washington, D.C., an industry group, says most of the phosphates in the environment today come from sources other than dishwashing detergents, such as farm runoff.

In the 1990s, European and American companies tired to develop non-phosphate detergents. “Mainstream consumers walked away from it,” said Dennis Griesing, vice president of government affairs for the Soap and Detergent Association.

Griesing said because dishwashers do not have an agitator to assist the soap by shaking things up, it’s harder to replace phosphates for dishwashers than it was for clothes washers.

Although bans have not passed in all 50 states, most Americans will be affected, as detergent makers supplying nationwide chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart and Kroger will not go to the trouble of making different formulas for stores in different states, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

MURMANSK, Russia, Nov. 29 (UPI) — Reindeer herders in northern Russia say climate change threatens their livelihoods.

The Saami — reindeer herders in northern Russia, near the borders of Norway and Finnish Lapland — say a string of mild winters has delayed the freezing of lakes the herds travel over. That, in turn, has pushed back the Saami’s slaughter season, Deutsche Welle reported Sunday.

“The slaughter used to start in early November,” herder Nikolai Filippov said. “But over the past few years, the ice has been weak and sparse so we cannot travel, and the slaughter has to be postponed until just before the New Year. This year, yields will be minimal.

“Sometimes it is still raining around the New Year, and you cannot go over bare ice with the reindeer. So then you will have to wait until after the New Year. In fact, the winter only starts in January. For now it is a mixture of frost and thaw.”.

Filippov said there is no doubt nature is changing.

“In the old days, it never rained in December,” he said. “When it rains in winter, the snow disappears and we can’t move on with our animals to search for reindeer moss.”

Copyright 2009 by United Press International