Syria conflict blocks aid to 1 million needy, U.N. agency says

BEIRUT — The World Food Program said Tuesday that Syria's civil war has blocked the United Nations agency from delivering aid to at least 1 million people who are in desperate need of help.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the U.N. agency's local partner, has been stretched to capacity and violence between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition has prevented aid workers from reaching some needy Syrians, said Abeer Etefa, an agency spokeswoman.

Truck drivers have been reluctant to transport food into conflict areas, and World Food Program staff members have had to ride in armored vehicles to monitor food distribution in some areas, Etefa said.

She said the U.N. agency also has had difficulty accessing its main warehouse in Damascus, the capital.

"There are serious bread and fuel shortages across the country, with large numbers of Syrians who are displaced and seeking shelter," she said. "We are already helping 1.5 people million in Syria, but we estimate that 1 million are still in need of food assistance."

Damascus and surrounding areas have seen intense fighting. Airstrikes have targeted rebel-held areas, and antigovernment fighters have carried out assassinations and set off bombs in the city.

Conditions have forced the World Food Program to find alternative access points into Syria, including sending food overland from Lebanon instead of relying on the main harbor in Tartus. Shipments to the port were cut off after a shipping company refused to deliver there, but have since resumed.

An estimated 597,240 Syrian refugees are facing harsh winter weather, many equipped with only flimsy canvas tents and insufficient clothing. In northern Jordan, a riot broke out Tuesday over bread shortages at the Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border, an aid worker said. No more information was immediately available.

Zaatari has been inundated by heavy rain over the last two days, making some parts of the camp uninhabitable. Twenty-four families were moved to prefabricated huts because of mud and pools of water, said Mohammad Askar, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.

"The problem is that there are only 2,500 of these prefabricated huts from Saudi Arabia. This is not enough to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance," Askar said.

Also Tuesday, Yarmouk, a sprawling enclave of mostly Palestinian refugees, was shelled and saw fighting between Syrian rebels and government supporters. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based nongovernmental organization, said four people in the camp, in southern Damascus, were killed by shelling and a fifth by a sniper.

Syria's 21-month-old civil war has split Yarmouk's Palestinians into armed pro- and anti-Assad factions. In December, the camp was shelled as pro-rebel fighters tried to take it over and clashed with Assad's supporters.

Fourteen Palestinian factions issued a statement calling for calm and urging fighters to withdraw from the camp "in order not to bear the responsibility of the continuing displacement of [Yarmouk's] residents," the Associated Press reported.

ned.parker@latimes.com

Bulos is a special correspondent.

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Rogue Planet Confirmed Orbiting Around 'Eye of Sauron'

LONG BEACH, California – Astronomers have confirmed that a controversial exoplanet called Fomalhaut b actually does exist and have calculated its potential orbit. The results show that the object is even stranger than scientists could have imagined, dubbing it a “rogue planet.”

The uncertainty about this object started in 2008, when scientists released an image taken with NASA’s Hubble space telescope of a tiny dot of light in the debris disk of a young, bright star called Fomalhaut, which is about 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. At the time, they presented only two data points, showing the exoplanet as it existed in 2004 and 2006. It was a sensational image — the enormous debris disk made the star resemble the “Eye of Sauron” from the Lord of the Rings movies — and was one of the first directly imaged extrasolar planets ever seen.

But follow-up from other researchers failed to find the purported world. The original instrument on Hubble that saw Fomalhaut b broke in 2007 and was never replaced, meaning the team that discovered the exoplanet couldn’t reproduce their results either. When they spotted it in 2010 with another instrument, the object seemed to have drifted too far to the right to be in orbit around the star. This led some astronomers to discount the discovery of Fomalhaut b.

But late in 2012, a few other telescopes managed to snap images of the exoplanet. And now, the original team has presented their own new data. “We have three times as many orbits and there you see it very clearly in 2012,” said astronomer Paul Kalas of the University of California at Berkeley and the SETI Institute, pointing to a new image released today during a press conference here at the American Astronomical Society 2013 meeting.

With their four data points, the original team has been able to calculate several potential orbits for the object. They show the exoplanet moving on a highly eccentric orbit around its parent star, coming in as close at 40 astronomical units (AU) and then swinging out to 350 AU. (An AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun). There is some indication that the planet’s orbit is very inclined relative to the debris disk around Fomalhaut, meaning that the exoplanet doesn’t pass through it, instead moving above and then underneath the dust.

This movement suggests to Kalas and his team that Fomalhaut b is a rogue planet, acting much more like a comet or icy body in our solar system’s Kuiper belt, which generally orbits far from the sun but may sometimes come in closer. The astronomers think the mass of the exoplanet is at least as much as an icy dwarf world, like Sedna in our solar system, but it could be as big as Jupiter. In either case, it’s unlike anything seen in our own system and shows that the architecture of other planetary systems could greatly differ from our own.

Image: NASA, ESA, and Paul Kalas (University of California, Berkeley and SETI Institute). Video: NASA/STSCI

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“Snakes on a Plane” director David R. Ellis dies in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – David R. Ellis, the child actor and former stuntman who went on to direct gory films including “Snakes on a Plane“, has been found dead in a Johannesburg hotel.

Ellis, 60, was last seen alive in a restaurant on Saturday. His body was discovered in a bathroom by a hotel manager at the weekend. There was no indication of foul play or robbery, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is unknown what was the cause of death,” South African police said.

Ellis was in South Africa shooting a movie.

His 2006 film “Snakes on a Plane” about reptiles slithering through a jet inflicting gruesome deaths on passengers spawned numerous parodies, massive internet hoopla and was one of the most heavily hyped films of the North American summer season.

The film’s star, Samuel L. Jackson, threatened to quit when the studio considered changing the title, saying he had taken the job based on the name.

“So talented, so kind, such a Good Friend. He’ll be missed. Gone too soon!” Jackson tweeted on Tuesday.

Ellis also directed other B-list thrillers including “Shark Night” and “Cellular”.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Gaps Seen in Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers

Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already gotten at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled teenagers, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.

The study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.

The findings, based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each, linked suicidal behavior to complex combinations of mood disorders like depression and behavior problems that include attention-deficit and eating disorders, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

The study found that about one in eight teenagers had persistent suicidal thoughts at some point, and about a third of them had made a suicide attempt, usually within a year of having the idea.

Previous studies have had similar findings, based on smaller, regional samples. But the new study is the first to suggest, in a large nationwide sample, that access to treatment does not make a big difference.

The study suggests that effective treatment for severely suicidal teenagers must address not just mood disorders, but also behavior problems that can lead to impulsive acts, experts said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,386 people between the ages of 13 and 18 committed suicide in 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available.

“I think one of the take-aways here is that treatment for depression may be necessary but not sufficient to prevent kids from attempting suicide,” said Dr. David Brent, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in the study. “We simply do not have empirically validated treatments for recurrent suicidal behavior.”

The report said nothing about whether the therapies given were state of the art, or carefully done, said Matt Nock, a professor of psychology at Harvard and the lead author; and it is possible that some of the treatments prevented suicide attempts. “But it’s telling us we’ve got a long way to go to do this right,” Dr. Nock said. His co-authors included Ronald C. Kessler of Harvard, and researchers from Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Margaret McConnell, a consultant in Alexandria, Va., said that her daughter Alice, who killed herself in 2006, at the age of 17, was getting treatment at the time. “I think there might have been some carelessness in the way the treatment was done,” Ms. McConnell said, “and I was trusting a 17-year-old to manage her own medication; we found out after we lost her that she wasn’t taking it regularly.”

In the study, researchers surveyed 6,483 adolescents from the ages of 13 to 18 and found that 9 percent of male teenagers and 15 percent of female teenagers experienced some stretch of having persistent suicidal thoughts. Among girls, 5 percent made suicide plans and 6 percent made at least one attempt (some were unplanned).

Among boys, 3 percent made plans and 2 percent carried out attempts – which tended to be more lethal than girls’ attempts.

(Suicidal thinking or behavior was virtually unheard-of before age 10.)

Over all, about one-third of teenagers with persistent suicidal thoughts went on to make an attempt to take their own lives.

Almost all of the suicidal adolescents in the study qualified for some psychiatric diagnosis, whether depression, phobias, or generalized anxiety disorder. Those with an added behavior problem – attention-deficit disorder, substance abuse, explosive anger – were more likely to act on thoughts of self-harm, the study found.

Doctors have tested a range of therapies to prevent or reduce recurrent suicidal behaviors, with mixed success. Medications can ease depression, but in some cases can increase suicidal thinking. Talk therapy can contain some behavior problems, but not all.

One approach, called dialectical behavior therapy, has proved effective in reducing hospitalizations and attempts in people with so-called borderline personality disorder, who are highly prone to self-harm, among others.

But suicidal teenagers who have a mixture of mood and behavior issues are difficult to reach. In one 2011 study, researchers at George Mason University reduced suicide attempts, hospitalizations, drinking and drug use among suicidal adolescent substance abusers. The study found that a combination of intensive treatments – talk therapy for mood problems, family-based therapy for behavior issues and patient-led reduction in drug use – was more effective that regular therapies.

“But that’s just one study, and it’s small,” Dr. Brent said. “We can treat components of the overall problem, but that’s about all.”

Ms. McConnell said that her daughter’s depression seemed mild and that there was no warning that she would take her life. “I think therapy does help a lot of people, if it’s handled right,” she said.

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Shares Fall Again as Investors Remain Wary

Stocks fell Tuesday, retreating further from last week’s rally after the federal budget deal, as companies started to report quarterly results.

In the wake of a 4.3 percent increase in the two sessions around the close of the budget negotiations, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has fallen, with investors finding few catalysts to extend the rally that took the index to five-year highs.

“We had a brief respite, courtesy of what happened on the fiscal cliff deal and the flip of the calendar with new money coming into the market,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Ala.

Stock in AT&T fell 1.7 percent to $34.35, making it one of the biggest drags on the S.& P. 500, after the company said it sold more than 10 million smartphones in the quarter.

The figure beat the same quarter in 2011, but meant increased costs for AT&T. Wireless service providers like AT&T pay large subsidies to handset makers so that they can offer discounts to customers who commit to two-year contracts.

Fourth-quarter profits are expected to beat the previous quarter’s lackluster results, but analysts’ estimates are down sharply from October. Quarterly earnings are expected to grow by 2.7 percent from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The Dow dropped 55.44 points, or 0.41 percent, to close at 13,328.85. The S.& P. 500 fell 4.74 points, or 0.32 percent, to 1,457.15. The Nasdaq composite index lost 7.01 points, or 0.23 percent, to 3,091.81.

“The stark reality of uncertainty with regard to earnings, plus the negotiations on the debt ceiling, are there, and that doesn’t give investors a lot of reason to take bets on the long side,” Mr. Hellwig said.

With AT&T’s fall, the S.& P. telecom services index was the worst performer of the 10 major S.& P. sectors, down 2.7 percent.

Stock in Sears Holdings fell 6.4 percent to $40.16 a day after the company said the chairman, Edward Lampert, would become chief executive after Louis D’Ambrosio steps down because of a relative’s health. Markets declined as some of the first earnings to be reported were weak.

The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose 11/32, to 97 28/32, and the yield fell to 1.86 percent from 1.90 percent late Monday.

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Huell Howser dies at 67; TV host profiled California people and places

California broadcasting legend Huell Howser has passed away at the age of 67.

In a TV arena in which premiums are placed on the fanciful and trendy, screaming housewives and snarling reality-show participants, no one seemed more out of place or less likely to become a popular star than Huell Howser.

His platform was traditional and unflashy -- highlighting familiar and off-the-beaten-track spots all around California in public television series with titles such as "California's Gold," "Visiting," "Road Trip" and "Downtown." But though his shows were focused on points and people of interest, it was Howser who turned into the main attraction, tackling his subjects with an awestruck curiosity and relentless enthusiasm. His upbeat boosterism accompanied an appearance that was simultaneously off-kilter and yet somehow cool with a hint of retro -- a thick, square mane of white hair, sunglasses, shirts that showed off a drill sergeant's build and huge biceps, and expressions that ranged from pleasantness to jaw-dropping wonder with some of his discoveries. Often, he wore shorts.

Topping it all off was a molasses-smooth Tennessee twang that gave an irresistibly folksy flavor to his frequent exclamations of "Oh my gosh" and "Isn't that amazing." The voice and the aw-shucks demeanor were also catnip for comedians who delighted in imitating his tone -- he was once parodied on "The Simpsons," and he was a favorite target of comedian Adam Corolla on his radio shows and podcasts. But he also proved to be a savvy businessman through his deals with broadcasters and sales of his shows on DVDs.

PHOTOS: Huell Howser

Howser, 67, one of public television's most iconic figures, died Sunday night, his assistant Ryan Morris said. No other details were given.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of Huell's passing," Al Jerome, president and chief executive of KCET, said in a statement. "This is a tremendous personal and professional loss to his friends and colleagues as well as his legions of fans. Throughout his more than two decades with KCET, Huell inspired everyone at the station with his enthusiasm and storytelling about this great state in which we live. Huell was able to brilliantly capture the wonder in obscurity. From pastrami sandwiches and scarves loomed from lint to the exoticism of cactus gardens and the splendor of Yosemite -- he brought us the magic, the humor and poignancy of our region. We will miss him very much."

Howser's death came only weeks after the announcement Nov. 27 that he was retiring and not filming any more original episodes of "California's Gold."

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2012

Despite shifts in TV trends and fashions, Howser's approach never varied -- he was merely a man with a microphone and a camera. He played down its simplicity ("It's pretty basic stuff … it's not brain surgery"), and said it fit his strategy: to shine a spotlight on the familiar and the obscure places and people all over California.

"We have two agendas," Howser said in a 2009 interview with The Times. "One is to specifically show someone China Camp State Park or to talk to the guys who paint the Golden Gate Bridge. But the broader purpose is to open up the door for people to have their own adventures. Let's explore our neighborhood, let's look in our own backyard."

His anti-gliltz, aggressively genial approach with people was his trademark. He expressed endless amazement at his subjects, whether it was the making of French dip sandwiches at Philippe's restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, the burgers at the Apple Pan ("This is like … amazing!") or the massive swarm of flies buzzing around Mono Lake. "Look at this, look at this," he would often exclaim, prodding his interviewees to always tell him more.

Some of the people he interviewed had thought it was just an act, but came to discover that Howser was the same on camera and off.

"I had watched him while growing up, and I always thought that aw-shucks stuff was just an act," said Paul Chavez, chairman of the board of directors of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which runs the National Chavez Center in the Tehachapi Mountains. The center, which honors the legacy of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, was the subject of Howser's "California Gold," two years ago.

"But after a few minutes," said Paul, who is one of Chavez's sons, "Huell was like an old friend that I had known for years. His enthusiasm was contagious. Shortly after the show ran, we got a noticeable increase in visitors."

Real estate executive Kimberly Lucero echoed Chavez's assessment about Howser's enthusiasm. As vice president of marketing and sales for the Kor Group, a real estate and development company, Lucero was the host's guide in 2005 for a show on downtown Los Angeles' historic Eastern Columbia Building, Howser was almost breathless, surveying the gold-leaf entrance: "Look at this … look at this entrance! What in the world were they thinking when they built things like this?"

"His excitement was truly infectious," said Lucero, who is currently vice president of marketing and sales for the Ritz Carlton Residences. "Nothing was staged."

But even those who poked fun at his upbeat attitude were seldom mean-spirited or cruel -- their affection for him was evident through the wisecracks.

He was such a local fixture that a Pink's hot dog was named after him. Though those who came into contact with him said he was the same on-camera as he was on, he maintained a sense of mystery. He was a savvy businessman who was very conscious of his gift. One local reporter once said that Howser's easy-going manner should not be underestimated: "He would be real tough."

And though he was generous, Howser, who was never married, was intensely private, rarely giving glimpses into his own life. He had an apartment on Rossmore Boulevard, but also lived in his "dream house" in Twentynine Palms, which he decorated with mid-century furniture he bought from second-hand stores in Palm Springs.

Howser was aware that his ever-present cheerfulness was an eyebrow-raiser: "Sometimes, people say, 'Are you putting that on?'" he said in 2009. "That's kind of a sad commentary, don't you think? Like there's got to be something wrong with someone who's enthusiastic and happy like that. Do I have bad days? Yes. Do I get depressed? Yes. Am I concerned about the state of the California economy and budget? I'm not some Pollyanna who doesn't recognize that there's hunger and poverty and racism in the world."

Howser was born Oct. 18, 1945, in Gallatin, Tenn., near Nashville. His father, Harold, was a lawyer, and his mother, Jewel was a homemaker. "Huell" is a combination of both their names.

His Los Angeles TV career began when he joined KCBS in 1981 as a reporter. In 1987, he moved to KCET-TV to produce "Videolog," a series of short programs featuring unique human-interest stories. That show evolved into "Visiting … With Huell Howser". In 1990, he started traveling for his "California's Gold" segments.

In 2011, Howser announced that he was donating all episodes of his series to Chapman University, a private Christian college in Orange, to be digitized and made available for a worldwide online audience.

greg.braxton@latimes.com

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Brad Pitt Joins China's Version of Twitter, Creates Confusion

World-traveling man of intrigue Brad Pitt has joined China’s version of Twitter — Sina Weibo — and in his first message hinted that he could be making a visit to the country, which he had reportedly been banned from visiting. Or maybe not.

In a mysterious message posted to Pitt’s account the actor simply stated: “It is the truth. Yup, I’m coming.” The tweet of sorts got thousands of comments, the AP reports, and has raised speculation that the actor could be headed to the People’s Republic. The Inglourious Basterds star was reportedly banned from entering following his appearance in 1997′s Seven Years in Tibet, which offered a harsh portrayal of Chinese rule. However, a few hours after it was posted, the message reportedly was deleted.

Whether the ersatz tweet was an accident, something that was posted prematurely, or simply removed because it was being misconstrued, the actor’s cryptic appearance on the microblogging service brings up some interesting issues about the intersection of tech and culture in China. Because even if he’s not on his way to the Communist country — which would not be entirely impossible since, as Entertainment Weekly notes, the country lifted the ban on Seven Years director Jean-Jacques Annaud — his presence on the site is still a big get for Weibo and a move that shows the importance of both American celebrities and social networking in China.

Weibo, which according to parent company Sina Corporation has some 400 million registered accounts, has erupted in the world’s most populous nation, where actual Twitter is blocked by Chinese censors. The Chinese microblog service is also subject to censors as well; at the government’s behest some 1,000 Sina employees reportedly go through messages on Weibo and remove content considered offensive. But there are indications that more freedom is coming to the social network, like the fact that users now seem to be able to search for Chinese officials like President Hu Jintao and even write criticism despite the Great Firewall.

Pitt isn’t the only star to have a presence on Weibo. His Interview with the Vampire co-star Tom Cruise and British actress Emma Watson are also on the service, which launched in 2009 and boasts functionality similar to a Twitter/Facebook hybrid – allowing users to not only post messages but also embedded videos and images. And as American films gain in popularity in China — Pitt’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith brought in $7.5 million at the Chinese box office — it only seems logical that more and more celebrities will use the service to reach their international fanbase.

But for Pitt, who along with his partner Angelina Jolie is known for humanitarian efforts, one can’t help but wonder if any messages he has for China could go beyond movie promotion — whether he delivers them online or in the flesh.

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‘Mary Poppins’ to close on Broadway in the spring

NEW YORK (AP) — “Mary Poppins” is closing up its big umbrella on Broadway.

An official close to the show’s producers said Monday that the 6-year-old musical will end performances in March at the New Amsterdam Theatre and eventually be replaced by a musical adapted from the film “Aladdin.”

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before the official announcement. The New York Post first reported the news, citing an anonymous source. A Disney representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Mary Poppins,” co-produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, is based both on the children’s books by P.L. Travers and the 1964 movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It tells the story of the world’s most practically perfect nanny in Edwardian London.

With a big cast, lavish sets and stunts that include Mary flying with her umbrella and Bert the chimney sweep tap dancing upside-down, the show was a hit after opening in 2006, two years after debuting in London.

When it closes, it will have been performed 2,619 times and have been seen by more than 4 million people. It recouped its initial Broadway investment within a year, and has gone on to be among the top 10 grossing shows for the past six years and top five for attendance. It will rank as the 22nd longest-running show in Broadway history.

Its soon-to-be vacant home at the New Amsterdam Theatre will be taken by the musical “Aladdin,” which has melodies by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice — the same team who created the animated film version that starred Robin Williams. The musical, with a book by Chad Beguelin, had its premiere in Seattle in summer 2011.

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Oil Sand Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level

Todd Korol/Reuters

An oil sands mine Fort McMurray, Alberta.

OTTAWA — The development of Alberta’s oil sands has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding lakes well beyond natural levels, Canadian researchers reported in a study released on Monday. And they said the contamination covered a wider area than had previously been believed.

For the study, financed by the Canadian government, the researchers set out to develop a historical record of the contamination, analyzing sediment dating back about 50 years from six small and shallow lakes north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the center of the oil sands industry. Layers of the sediment were tested for deposits of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, groups of chemicals associated with oil that in many cases have been found to cause cancer in humans after long-term exposure.

“One of the biggest challenges is that we lacked long-term data,” said John P. Smol, the paper’s lead author and a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “So some in industry have been saying that the pollution in the tar sands is natural, it’s always been there.”

The researchers found that to the contrary, the levels of those deposits have been steadily rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.

Samples from one test site, the paper said, now show 2.5 to 23 times more PAHs in current sediment than in layers dating back to around 1960.

“We’re not saying these are poisonous ponds,” Professor Smol said. “But it’s going to get worse. It’s not too late but the trend is not looking good.” He said that the wilderness lakes studied by the group were now contaminated as much as lakes in urban centers.

The study is likely to provide further ammunition to critics of the industry, who already contend that oil extracted from Canada’s oil sands poses environmental hazards like toxic sludge ponds, greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of boreal forests.

Battles are also under way over the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would move the oil down through the western United States and down to refineries along the Gulf Coast, or an alternative pipeline that would transport the oil from landlocked Alberta to British Columbia for export to Asia.

The researchers, who included scientists at Environment Canada’s aquatic contaminants research division, chose to test for PAHs because they had been the subject of earlier studies, including one published in 2009 that analyzed the distribution of the chemicals in snowfall north of Fort McMurray. That research drew criticism from the government of Alberta and others for failing to provide a historical baseline.

“Now we have the smoking gun,” Professor Smol said.

He said he was not surprised that the analysis found a rise in PAH deposits after the industrial development of the oil sands, “but we needed the data.” He said he had not entirely expected, however, to observe the effect at the most remote test site, a lake that is about 50 miles to the north.

Asked about the study, Adam Sweet, a spokesman for Peter Kent, Canada’s environment minister, emphasized in an e-mail that with the exception of one lake very close to the oil sands, the levels of contaminants measured by the researchers “did not exceed Canadian guidelines and were low compared to urban areas.”

He added that an environmental monitoring program for the region announced last February 2012 was put into effect “to address the very concerns raised by such studies” and to “provide an improved understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development.”

Earlier research has suggested several different ways that the chemicals could spread. Most oil sand production involve large-scale open-bit mining. The chemicals may become wind-borne when giant excavators dig them up and then deposit them into 400-ton dump trucks.

Upgraders at some oil sands projects that separate the oil bitumen from its surrounding sand are believed to emit PAHs. And some scientists believe that vast ponds holding wastewater from that upgrading and from other oil sand processes may be leaking PAHs and other chemicals into downstream bodies of water.

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On the Road: T.S.A. Experiments With Behavior Screening

The Transportation Security Administration is taking another step back from its one-size-fits-all security screening that requires all airline passengers to remove their belts, shoes and coats at checkpoints.

The agency already makes some exceptions, including allowing some frequent travelers who have passed background checks to move more quickly through security — an E-ZPass, of sorts, called PreCheck for passengers traveling in the United States.

Now, the agency is testing a new behavior detection program where officers use on-the-spot observations and conversations with passengers to select some for the quicker pass through the checkpoint.

The program, which the T.S.A. calls “managed inclusion,” is being tested at airports in Indianapolis and Tampa, Fla. If the tests are successful, the agency plans to expand the program to more airports this year.

The idea is to selectively identify certain passengers who appear to pose no threat and invite them to use special lanes dedicated to the PreCheck program that the agency began in October 2011.

For several years, the T.S.A. has been looking for alternative screening methods to address public dissatisfaction with the current system. But one of those methods, behavior science, has its own critics, who warn of the potential for racial and ethnic profiling. Some critics also question whether the T.S.A. gives adequate training to its behavior detection officers. The officers had been receiving only four days of training, though the agency said recently it was expanding the program to provide “additional specialized training.”

One reason for the expanded program, the agency’s administrator, John S. Pistole, said, is to “make sure that the T.S.A. PreCheck lanes are being fully utilized” throughout the day, rather than just at peak hours. In a year-end report to employees, Mr. Pistole cited as an example what occurred at the Indianapolis airport on the day before Thanksgiving. Nearly a third of all passengers were chosen to go through a dedicated PreCheck lane, rather than the usual less than 5 percent, he said.

David Castelveter, a T.S.A. spokesman, explained how managed inclusion would work if the test phase was deemed successful. “As you are in the queue, behavior detection officers will be observing you, and if they feel that there is nothing that alarms them, you might be asked to come out of the queue, and invited to go through the PreCheck lane,” he said. Behavior detection officers, some with explosive-sniffing dogs, already routinely survey checkpoint lines.

Given the random nature of managed inclusion, there are no guarantees that anyone waiting in a regular checkpoint line will be invited to use one of the exclusive PreCheck lanes. “From time to time you might be pulled out of the line” and invited to use PreCheck, Mr. Castelveter said. Those passengers are able to keep their shoes on and their laptops in their cases, though they still have to go through metal detectors or body-imaging machines at the checkpoints. Their carry-ons are also still put through magnetometers.

It seems to me that the managed inclusion initiative is notable because it is based on the on-site judgment of behavior detection officers, rather than on the background checks that the PreCheck program requires.

Behavior detection officers use techniques familiar in some overseas airports, engaging passengers in casual conversation to look for suspicious behavioral clues.

But the Government Accountability Office has raised questions about the technique. In a 2010 report evaluating the T.S.A. behavior detection program, the G.A.O. cited a National Academy of Sciences study that said “a scientific consensus did not exist on whether behavioral detection principles could reliably be used for counterterrorism purposes.” The T.S.A. disputed that, saying the study did not specifically address airport security, and adding that it was conducting its own detailed research.

PreCheck, which is now at 35 airports in the United States, is still limited in scope. The T.S.A. said PreCheck was used five million times last year. It is open to high-frequency travelers selected by the five major airlines that so far participate — Delta, United, American, US Airways and Alaska. The T.S.A. is working with other domestic airlines to increase participation.

Once they are cleared in background checks, those invited passengers are eligible for boarding passes encoded to allow them to use PreCheck lanes. But randomness is deliberately built into PreCheck, so eligible passengers have no guarantee that they will be allowed to use a PreCheck lane on any given trip.

In addition to the high-frequency passengers selected by airlines, members of the Global Entry program of the Customs and Border Protection agency also are eligible for PreCheck. Global Entry costs $100 for five years and requires a background check and a personal interview. It provides expedited entry via an automated kiosk for airline passengers arriving from overseas, usually allowing them to avoid long lines at Customs and immigration.

I recently got a Global Entry card. The whole process, including the online questionnaire and the subsequent personal interview and fingerprinting at a Customs office, was easy to navigate. Enrollment information is at www.Globalentry.gov.

Managed inclusion, incidentally, is only one of several initiatives that Mr. Pistole has been proposing for this year to expand the population of so-called trusted travelers eligible for less intense checkpoint security. Security experts say that the more frequently people travel, the more “trusted” they become, since their travel patterns are easily determined. Of the roughly 640 million passengers who pass through T.S.A. checkpoints in a year, as many as 40 percent are frequent travelers, “the same people time and time again,” Mr. Pistole said.

Another possible initiative is what Mr. Pistole calls “Global Entry Light.” Details have not yet been worked out, but the basic idea is to adopt some aspects of the international traveler Global Entry program for domestic use by the T.S.A. At a lower enrollment fee, and perhaps with participation by private companies, Global Entry Light would offer expedited screening to qualifying domestic travelers who don’t also travel enough internationally to need the regular Global Entry.

That would be another part of the T.S.A.’s increasing effort this year to “move away from the one-size-fits-all construct” in airport screening and greatly expand the population of so-called trusted travelers eligible for PreCheck, Mr. Pistole said.

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