The control group showed no significant difference in complaints about any of the exposures. Gasoline blended for winter use in some regions with air pollution problems includes 15 percent MTBE, an oxygenate used to make fuel burn more cleanly. Measures of simulated driving performance, and heart and respiration rates, were not significantly affected by exposure to MTBE in gasoline, said Lioy. The researchers could not give a physiological reason for the symptoms. By maximizing partnerships and leveraging funds, we can do a lot more for America's freshwater mussels and the rivers where they live.
Poachers target U.S. mussels because of their value in the production of cultured pearls.
Most of these pearls have centers made from U.S. mussels. The mussel shells are ground, shaped into beads and inserted into live oysters, which then coat the beads with minerals, resulting in pearls. States regulate the legal harvest of all freshwater mussel species, often closing waterways to harvest. Shells from state regulated rivers in the South and Midwest are in the most demand by the pearl industry because they are larger and thicker than other mussel shells and produce larger, more valuable pearls. Poachers violate state harvest regulations in order to collect the larger, more profitable shells.