Canary’s Cry for Sunday, Nov. 16

In light of the recent fires in California, The New York Times says “In Fighting Wildfires, People Concerned About Chemicals.” The concern is about the fire retardant dropped from planes. “Yet while many residents praise — and even demand — the use of retardant to protect their homes and neighborhoods, the potent mix of chemicals in the most common type can leave scars of its own, hurting watersheds and the fish and other animals that live in them. Increasing concerns over retardant are prompting opposition to its use in certain situations and further stirring the debate in the West over how much is too much when it comes to fighting wildfires.”

DelawareOnline reports on “Study: Steel mill dust may be toxic.” A preliminary report measuring specific air pollutants near the Claymont Steel mill confirms what some residents have long suspected: Metallic soot that settles every day on cars, windows and porches might be hazardous to their health.

The Canton Rep says “Outdoor wood burners raise a stink.” Legislation that would severely restrict, essentially banning, outdoor wood-burning appliances is expected to get a vote at Monday night’s City Council meeting. Councilman James Griffin, D-3, introduced the legislation in an effort to help deal with what he considers a neighborhood nuisance — smoke coming from an outdoor wood-burning appliance at 336 Arlington Ave. NW. Griffin said he also wants to prevent more of the outdoor furnaces from cropping up throughout the city.

The New York Times has a report on “Exxon, making the case for oil.” Exxon has moved away from its extreme position debunking CO2 emissions as the cause of climate change and has stopped financing climate skeptics this year. One of Exxon’s ads says the company aims to provide energy “with dramatically lower CO2 emissions.” Yet even though the company acknowledges that climate change is a risk to the world, it dismisses most green alternatives and continues with hydrocarbons. The report says, “Ultimately, the biggest test for Exxon’s long-term business model is the fact that rising energy use — whether in the United States or in China — will eventually have to be reconciled with reducing carbon emissions and finding low-carbon energy sources.”

JS Online says “BPA leaches from ’safe’ products.”

Products marketed for infants or billed as “microwave safe” release toxic doses of the chemical bisphenol A when heated, an analysis by the Journal Sentinel has found.

The newspaper had the containers of 10 items tested in a lab - products that were heated in a microwave or conventional oven. Bisphenol A, or BPA [link added], was found to be leaching from all of them.

The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands. The changes to the mammary glands were identical to those observed in women at higher risk for breast cancer.

The newspaper’s test results raise new questions about the chemical and the safety of an entire inventory of plastic products labeled as “microwave safe.” BPA is a key ingredient in common household plastics, including baby bottles and storage containers. It has been found in 93% of Americans tested.

For the Exxon and BPA stories: Thanks, Linda!

Photo by Kevitivity.

Canary’s Cry for Wednesday, Nov. 12

Salon tackles the Bush Administration’s policy on environmental protection with “The EPA’s Stalin Era.” The highly critical essay by Rebecca Clarren says: As a coalition of more than 40 national and local environmental organizations put it in a letter to EPA administrators this past April: “EPA, under pressure from the Bush White House, has given the foxes the keys to the environmental protection henhouse.” (Thanks Eloise and Will!)

ABC News in Chicago finds problems at the post office. Those of us with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity know that mail is toxic, right? We get sick when we go into post offices and we dread having to sort through our own mail not knowing whether or not we’re going to get knocked on our butt by some toxic chemical embedded in the paper. Miss Molly, one of our flock over at I Learned Something Today, found yet another story about something that can kill you– this time it’s the air inside U.S. postal service hubs. From ABC News in Chicago, “Sorting Through a Sickness,” (click on link to see video):

Nationwide, hundreds of postal employees say they’re ill with what they call severe, mysterious, respiratory problems. Many of them are right here in the Chicago area.

Current and former postal workers blame paper dust inside the post offices. The last government studies on postal dust were ten years ago. The U.S.P.S says the science can’t verify their theory. That’s not acceptable for people who say they’re “sorting through a sickness.”

“I do believe that my life is going to be shortened,” says former postal employee Delphine Howard. She and other former US postal workers in the Chicago area say they’re all fighting chronic respiratory illness. Their medical records reflect their claims. They all say they’ve never smoked.

“I began to have breathing problems, asthma symptoms ,bronchitis,” said former employee Betty Booker.

Sandra Sutton echoed that, saying, “I turn asthmatic and it shuts my lungs down.”

More than 450 employees and former employees on a petition to occupational health officials and postal unions blame health concerns on paper dust fibers inside post offices. Several are fighting for health benefits.

[...]

Postal workers continue to fight for more studies.

As for people on the petition who have since passed away, some of their family members still blame the post office work environment and postal dust. Dr. Oliver says that would be a rare instance, but studies do show that postal dust does contain volatile organic compounds from ink jet printers, which can be harmful. [My emphasis added because to this VOC finding I say: D'oh.]

Health reports “Both Indoor and Outdoor Pollutants Linked to Heart Problems” :

Inhaling air pollution during your daily routine—both inside and outside your home—appears to cause a small rise in blood pressure and have an impact on blood vessel function, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans.

These short-term changes may help explain why long-term exposure to air pollution is linked to a greater risk of heart attack and death due to heart disease.

The researchers looked specifically at particulate matter, a type of air pollution that is smaller than 2.5 microns. (A human hair, by comparison, has a diameter of about 100 microns.) These tiny particles can be inhaled deep in the lungs and are more dangerous than larger particles, which tend to be trapped in the nose or upper airways and sneezed or coughed out of the body.

Who’s chirping about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity today?

Earth911 writes about chemical sensitivity when they address the question: Isn’t it more eco-friendly to buy an artificial Christmas tree? Well, they say, it depends on who you ask.

Real or Fake?

The National Christmas Tree Association annually releases this fact sheet to help educate the public. It compares the pros and cons of fake vs. real trees in everything from origin to production to ingredients.

Take a Deep Breath

Nearly 500,000 acres of Christmas trees in the U.S., with each acre providing the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people. When one tree is cut down, three seedlings are planted the following year to replace it making it the ultimate carbon offset. In 2008 alone, an estimated 40-45 million Christmas trees were planted in North America.

On the flip side, those trees are often sprayed with pesticides. While fake trees are not depleting resources and can be reused year after year. However, artificial trees contain lead to produce the PVC material in the needles. These trees can off-gas, and can create issues for those who have chemical sensitivities.

The Galway Tent Blog, out of Dublin and dedicated to the topic of incinerators, says “No more incinerators should be approved,” citing “recent research, including that relating to fine and ultrafine particulates, the costs of incineration, together with research investigating nonstandard emissions from incinerators, has demonstrated that the hazards of incineration are greater than previously realised. The accumulated evidence on the health risks of incinerators is simply too strong to ignore and their use cannot be justified now that better, cheaper and far less hazardous methods of waste disposal have become available.” An excerpt from the study’s Executive Summary:

Toxic metals accumulate in the body and have been implicated in a range of emotional and behavioural problems in children including autism, dyslexia, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning difficulties, and delinquency, and in problems in adults including violence, dementia, depression and Parkinson’s disease. Increased rates of autism and learning disabilities have been noted to occur around sites that release mercury into the environment. Toxic metals are universally present in incinerator emissions and present in high concentrations in the fly ash.

Susceptibility to chemical pollutants varies, depending on genetic and acquired factors, with the maximum impact being on the foetus. Acute exposure can lead to sensitisation of some individuals, leaving them with lifelong low dose chemical sensitivity.

Rincon Hill San Francisco, a community blog, announces a neighborhood meeting and adds, “Individuals with severe allergies, environmental illness, multiple chemical sensitivity or related disabilities should call the City Accessibility Hotline at 415-554-8925 to discuss meeting accessibility.” Bravo!

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and truly clean energy

The development of truly clean, green energy is an important issue for people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. While those of us with MCS are forced to eliminate the toxicity of our immediate surroundings and of our basic consumer products as best we can in order to function and be productive, there are people out in the big bad world who are just as dedicated to eliminating toxicity of the larger environment. While the environmental activity of previous decades was more focused on the direct polluting of our air, waterways and soil (and therefore our bodies), the threat of climate change has shifted the focus to a much larger problem. And that larger problem is triggering greener critical mass thinking, finally.

It’s important for those of us with MCS to understand and support the efforts of people like Al Gore, because the environmental trends that are taking root in response to climate change are going to help us in our cause of MCS awareness. As more people become educated and aware of the differences between dirty, polluting energy (the “drill-baby-drill” mind set) vs truly clean, green energy (wind, solar, geothermal), I believe more people will also begin to take a look at the toxicity in their own immediate environment: their homes and places of work, and the food, air, and water they consume. This is all good news for those of us with MCS.

People usually do not change habits without a strong motivation. In the case of those of us with MCS, myself included, we are motivated by health issues to turn toward an organic, nontoxic lifestyle. We have no choice.  Because of our health issue, most of us were way ahead of the greenie curve. We all have adjusted our lifestyle, which has by default lessened our foot print, and we have heralded the call for others to do the same. Of course, those at the front edge of a movement are often seen as the “fringe” element, kooky people not in step with the norm. Well, guess what? The world is catching up with us. Why? Because the toxic paradigm has hit critical mass and is now hitting everyone where it counts: in the pocketbook.

So, what I see happening is the perfect storm, the convergence of several strong micro and macro environmental and social movements, all of which just culminated in the election of a U.S. president who promises Change. Environmentalists, scientists, consumers (especially parents), politicians, and the global marketplace are now pretty much all on the same page, even if for different reasons. And they, along with a growing consensus in the general population, are demanding truly clean, green energy, and along with it, I believe, the elimination of toxic products in the marketplace and thus in our environment and in our bodies.

For those of you who are not already, I’d like to get you in the mood for fully participating in the discussion on alternative energy. To start us off here on The Canary Report, I’d like to share with you a publication from Environment America, a federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. It’s called “Renewing America: A Blueprint for Economic Recovery.” Here’s the Executive Summary below, and here’s where you wonky types can download the full report.

Across the country, Americans are hurting. From the big cities of the coasts to the industrial heartland to our rural communities, the slumping economy is taking its toll in shuttered businesses, disappearing jobs, bankruptcies, foreclosures and an increased sense of anxiety about our collective future.

To revive the American dream, we need to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation—one that puts people back to work, contributes to long-term prosperity, rebuilds our communities, and protects our environment.

There is one path to a renewed economy that achieves all of those goals—one that is increasingly recognized by opinion leaders, politicians, investors and workers as our best chance to work our way out of our current economic troubles, while building a stronger, more self-reliant and environmentally responsible America.

It is the path to a clean energy future.

Clean energy in America is not some distant dream. We have the technology, the tools and the know-how to use energy more wisely and to get more of our energy from clean, renewable sources. What’s more, clean energy can be produced right here at home, creating new jobs in all sectors of the nation’s economy—including many jobs that can never be outsourced.

Americans are already beginning to see the benefits of clean energy in their local economies. Laid-off workers in the nation’s “Rust Belt” are getting back to work building wind turbines and solar cells; farmers in the Midwest are supplementing their incomes with royalties from wind farms; residents of economically distressed inner cities are learning how to install solar panels and weatherize homes for greater energy efficiency. Every part of the country has the opportunity to benefit from a transition to a new energy future.

But to turn this trickle of green jobs into a torrent of new economic opportunities, we need to act boldly—and fast. With a strong policy commitment to clean energy and the investment to match, we can:

• Embrace a future of clean power by making our economy more energy-efficient and getting 100 percent of our electricity from clean, renewable sources.

• Achieve energy independence, by cutting our consumption of oil in half—nearly as much as we currently import from all other nations.

• Speed economic recovery and create millions of new jobs in dozens of different occupations in every part of the country.

This report lays out a blueprint for how we can repower America for the 21st century, cleaning our environment while revitalizing our economy. A new president and a new Congress create a golden opportunity to chart a new future for America. The time to begin is now.

Five green Obama dreams from Zaproot

From Zaproot.

Yes, we can change. Obama wins the presidential election and here are our top 5 green dreams for 2009. Zero Pollutions Motors creates the car of the future, and it runs on air. And, check out the latest in Green Gadgets.

A letter to President-Elect Obama

Dear President-Elect Obama,

I am jubilant at your victory! I wish you a heartfelt congratulations. It was a long, hard campaign that you managed flawlessly, and if your skills at running a campaign are any indication of the way you will run the federal government, then we are in good hands indeed.

I know many people and organizations are petitioning you this week, pleading their case or personal issue and hoping you will deliver the change you’ve promised. Those of us who have suffered under the policies of the Bush Administration are desperate for relief and we each want to make sure that our corner of the universe is touched by your promise of change.

I’ve worked in Democratic politics at both the local and national level enough to know that campaigns are one thing and governing something else entirely. I know that you will not be able to deliver on absolutely everything you hope to. But rather than feeling desperate that my particular issue will not be addressed and righted in the coming eight years, I instead feel great confidence that indeed it will.

My issue is the environment. Not the Big Picture of climate change that most of the world is focusing on right now– of course arguably the most important issue of our times–, but rather the immediate environment of our homes, places of work, and public spaces. You see, I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and so my issue is the need for strong, enforced policy that forces corporate entities and businesses to stop polluting our air, water, soil and bodies with toxic synthetic chemicals.

I am especially concerned about the 80,000 synthetic chemicals that are being put into everyday household and other commercial products, most of which have not undergone rigorous study as to their impact on public health. This is disconcerting given that many of these toxic chemicals from the marketplace are showing up in our blood, and most disturbing, the blood of our children.

The Bush Administration has allowed corporate interests to run rough shod over environmental and consumer policy. Bush officials have lied to the American people and to the international community about the severity of toxic chemicals in the marketplace, which left the European Union no choice but to take control of the issue on the global stage. I am grateful for that, but deeply ashamed that my country is not at the forefront of this pressing issue.

Of all the images produced during your stirring campaign, what sticks with me the most are the faces of the people in the crowd at Grant Park as you addressed the nation as the new president-elect. I don’t believe I have ever seen such unbridled joy and optimism at any political event. But now comes the time for the real work, and I know in my heart of hearts that you will do what’s right and lead the federal government to do its job in protecting the health, safety and welfare of the American people.

Aloha and mahalo to you, our native son. Go do us proud. Imua!

Susie Collins

Erin Brockovich investigates brain tumor cluster

Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist portrayed by Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning movie, met with people in Cameron Monday night. KMBC-News clip:

Report at MyCameronNews.com:

Brockovich speaks to Cameron residents concerned about brain tumors

Approximately 200 Residents of Cameron, Mo. gathered in the gymnasium of the Cameron High School in the hopes that community activist Erin Brockovich would lead them to answers. After feeling unsatisfied with answers from government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Missouri Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control and the Department of Natural Resources who stated that the number of brain tumors in the area were below statistical rates, Brockovich was welcomed with open arms in hopes of finding a reason for the community’s recent health scare.

Brockovich opened her town hall meeting by stating, “I won’t have all of the answers you are looking for tonight. It will take a long time to find out what is causing the problem here. But I can say that I am very uncomfortable with what I am learning.”

Link to full story at MyCameronNews.

Canary’s Cry for Tuesday, Oct 28

Blacksmith Institute in collaboration with Green Cross Switzerland issued a Top Ten List of the world’s most dangerous pollution problems [Urban Air Quality at left]. The report names pollution as one of the leading contributing factors to death and disability in the world and highlights the disproportionate effects on the health of children.

The Top Ten list includes commonly discussed pollution problems like urban air pollution as well as more overlooked threats like car battery recycling. The problems included in the report have a significant impact on human health worldwide and result in death, persistent illness, and neurological impairment for millions of people, particularly children.  According to the report, many of these deaths and related illnesses could be avoided with affordable and effective interventions. “Our goal with the 2008 report is to increase awareness of the severe toll that pollution takes on human health and inspire the international community to act,” said Richard Fuller, founder of Blacksmith Institute. “Remediation is both possible and cost-effective.”

Army Times reported that “Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns.”

Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk.

An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.

The billowing black plume from the burn pit at 15-square-mile Joint Base Balad, the central logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq, wafts continually over living quarters and the base combat support hospital, sources say.

Reuters INDIA picked up the Reuters Washington story “Does mold make you sick?” Fungus expert Joan Bennett did not believe in toxic mold — the cause of “sick building syndrome” and many lawsuits — until her New Orleans home was flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When she got a whiff of the foul air that the black goo had created in her home, she decided to change her research focus and try to find out how and if the fungi that took over most of the flooded homes on the Gulf Coast might make people ill. “The overwhelming obnoxiousness of the odor and of the enveloping air made me start to believe in something that I had never believed in before — sick building syndrome,” Bennett, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, told a news conference.

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, still relevant in 2008

It was the ruthless destruction of that idyll of rural America that formed the basis of a work that has been rightly hailed as giving birth to the modern environmental movement.

It’s nice to see Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring (1962) still being reviewed and heralded as an important work, “a work that has been rightly hailed as giving birth to the modern environmental movement.”

It’s bittersweet reading a review given in the context of 2008, and the reviewer’s assertion, “If Rachel Carson’s book has a central message today, it is that every action has its consequences, for in poisoning the world, we poisoned ourselves.”

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who was only reluctantly drawn into researching [the impact of pesticides being aerially sprayed across North America], and at the time she penned her epic work, she was already suffering from the cancer that would, just two years later, take her life.

She begins Silent Spring with these words: “There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.”

It was the ruthless destruction of that idyll of rural America that formed the basis of a work that has been rightly hailed as giving birth to the modern environmental movement.

Carson’s ability to make science understandable was formidable.

I have never read as simple or elegant an explanation of chemical composition as she provides for the organochlorides, the group to which the 200-odd chemicals that were then destroying her country belonged.

It was not just nature that was suffering.

Carson carefully details many instances of fatal human poisonings. A farmer’s wife was poisoned after her husband sprayed. A baby and a small dog died after returning to a house where endrin had been used to kill cockroaches.

In some programs, half the men who sprayed DDT for the World Health Organization suffered convulsions and death.

Link to full book review

Canary’s Cry for Monday, Oct. 13

WCSH6.com carries an AP release on Johns Hopkins scientists who report that high levels of a noxious gas from stoves can be added to the list of indoor pollutants that aggravate asthma symptoms of inner-city children, especially preschoolers.

The LA Times reports on how people in China also suffer from indoor air pollution because of stoves and smoking. The air inside lower-class homes is up to 10 times worse than the gloom outside, researchers say.

StarTribune.com in Minneapolis-St.Paul Minnesota reports on problems caused by people sitting around the back-yard fire pit: some neighbors are up in arms over the health risks from the smoke.

StarTribune.com also reports on biomonitoring to measure chemicals directly in people’s bodies: their blood, urine, hair and other body tissues and fluids. Studies are looking for arsenic in people in south Minneapolis and 3M chemicals in the east metro, another study will test mercury levels in newborns’ blood. A fourth test will check the urine of pregnant women for a group of seven compounds called phenols, found in a wide variety of items from plastics to personal care products.

Bloomberg.com carries a story on the mold problems in Galveston one month after Hurricane Ike.

SCTV news in Orange County, California, warns about unhealthful air quality caused by the wild fires.

Photo by Gypsy D

The Pesticide Trap

Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.

The story of Anan, a peasant farmer in southern India caught up in the vicious cycle of pesticide-dependent cotton growing.

Link

More on plastics and flame retardant

Critical health risks from plastic revealed by six environmental research studies

Exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates and flame retardants (PBDEs) are strongly associated with adverse health effects on humans and laboratory animals. A special section in the October 2008 issue of Environmental Research, “A Plastic World,” provides critical new research on environmental contaminants and adverse reproductive and behavioral effects.

Plastic products contain “endocrine disrupting chemicals” that can block the production of the male sex hormone testosterone (phthalates used in PVC plastic), mimic the action of the sex hormone estrogen (bisphenol A or BPA used in polycarbonate plastic), and interfere with thyroid hormone (brominated flame retardants or PBDEs used in many types of plastic).

Two articles report very similar changes in male reproductive organs in rats and humans related to fetal exposure to phthalates. Two articles show that fetal exposure to BPA or PBDEs disrupts normal development of the brain and behavior in rats and mice. Two other articles provide data that these chemicals are massively contaminating the oceans and causing harm to aquatic wildlife.

The other studies integrate new laboratory research with a broader view reflecting exposures to a variety of chemicals in plastic. These ubiquitous chemicals found in many plastics act independently and together to adversely affect human, animal and environmental health.

The articles show amongst others the massive contamination of the Pacific Ocean with plastic, and the amount of contamination has increased dramatically in recent years; animal brain structure, brain chemistry and behavioral effects from exposure to BPA and “phthalate syndrome” in rats’ male offspring.

“For the first time a series of articles will appear together that identify that billions of kilograms of a number of chemicals used in the manufacture of different types of plastic can leach out of plastic products and cause harm to the brain and reproductive system when exposure occurs during fetal life or prior to weaning,” emphasized Dr. Frederick vom Saal, Guest Editor of the “Plastic World”.

“Not only are these studies of scientific importance, they also contribute to the ongoing US congressional hearings involving the Food and Drug Administration,” remarked Gert-Jan Geraeds, Publisher of Environmental Research, “As such, “The Plastic World” has a broader societal impact and raises awareness of increasingly important environmental issues”.

Link to release at Medical News Today

Link to photo by Margaret Wertheim, the Institute For Figuring. The Toxic Reef is the latest spawn of the Institute For Figuring’s “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef” project. As befits its name the Toxic Reef is a hybrid conglomeration made from yarn and plastic garbage. The purpose of this reef is to draw attention to the growing problem of plastic trash that is pouring into the world’s oceans and devastating marine eco-systems. Globally we now produce around 100 million tons of plastic a year - of this an estimated 10% ends up in the oceans, where it kills sea turtles and albatrosses and is ingested by jelly fish and other marine creatures. Much of this plastic accumulates in a great vortex in the north Pacific that is known formally as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This patch is now twice the size of Teaxs and 30 meters deep!! Scientists who study it say there is no way to clean up this mess - all we can do is to stop consuming so much plastic crap! More information about the Rubbish Vortex can be seen on the IFF website at www.theiff.org

Plastic sucks

I was raising a stink about plastics way before any of us knew about the dangers of BPA. I’ve carried my portable water with me in glass bottles for over 15 years because I cannot tolerate the taste of water that’s been stored in a plastic bottle, pleh!

But that’s not the only problem with plastic. Beth over at Fake Plastic Fish is dedicating her blogging life to the elimination of plastic because it’s not only bad for people, it’s bad for the planet: every scrap, every single molecule of plastic ever made still exists somewhere on the planet, a huge amount of which is floating around in the ocean as a big huge gross Plastic Island. Beth says:

What’s wrong with plastic anyway?

Good question. Here are some answers:

• Plastic is made from oil… This post lists the main problems with plastic from creation to disposal and beyond.
• Is your water cooler messing with your hormones? A post about the problems of #7 polycarbonate plastic.
• Woman Drinks Wine… Why plastic wine corks and screw caps are problems for the environment.
• …The Perils of PVC. What’s PVC and why should we avoid it?
• And here’s a link to a PDF version of the IATP Smart Plastics Guide, which lists the different types of plastics and explains which ones are the most harmful and why.

Link

Video snitched from Fake Plastic Fish

Our lichen kin are in trouble

Lichens may be canary in the coal mine

SEVEN-MILE HILL, Ore. — On a bluff overlooking The Dalles, Ore., and the east end of the Columbia River Gorge, Forest Service scientist Linda Geiser [at left] and two assistants climb out of their rig and set to work.

Geiser and graduate student Peter Nelson begin dismantling black plastic tubes called passive samplers that have gathered data on the nitrogen content of rain and fog at the site for the past three years.

Grad student Larissa Lasselle grabs two sample bags and heads downhill into a thicket of ponderosa pine and oak. Her job: to collect lichens from tree branches for laboratory analysis.

It was at this site that Geiser, a Forest Service ecologist, collected some of the first evidence that air pollution was damaging the gorge environment. The messenger — like a canary in a coal mine — was the community of lichens that grows here, both those that flourish and those that fail to thrive.

Lichens are neither plants nor animals. They belong to the fungi family, but are actually part fungus, part alga. They come in many shapes and colors, and reproduce both sexually and asexually. They can dissolve rock, survive severe cold, and remain dormant for long periods.

But for Geiser, their most useful characteristic is their sensitivity to nitrogen and acid rain, major forms of pollution in the gorge.

The Seven-Mile Hill site is 62 miles west of Portland General Electric’s Boardman, Ore., coal-fired plant, the largest source of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide in the eastern gorge. Near the coal plant is a sprawling dairy feed lot, a major source of ammonia that contributes to acid rain and fog.

Together, those sources are responsible for most of the air pollution that blows west into the gorge during winter months.

Link to full story at columbian.com

Keep yourself safe from fire retardant

News out this weekend says researchers found Californians to have higher levels of flame retardant PBDEs in their blood than people elsewhere, and levels in California homes can be 10 times higher. This is a story of unintended consequences: while trying to protect people from risk of fire by implementing the strictest fire retardant laws, California lawmakers exposed the public to PBDEs, a highly toxic chemical. The Envionmental Protection Agency has been very slow and very lame in responding to the growing research showing PBDEs “in human breast milk, fish, aquatic birds, and elsewhere in the environment.”

I have a horrible reaction to flame retardant: my eyes itch, my throat gets scratchy, my chest hurts, and then brain fade and confusion kicks in. And it stinks! Not fun. I’ve known for years that the stuff is toxic, my body tells me so, and if you’re a canary, I’ll bet your body tells you the same thing. The most common exposures I encounter are from living room furniture in other people’s homes, but I’ve also had bad experiences from night gowns that were given to me as a gift and new TVs when they heat up.

My living room furniture is a futon couch and chair, with solid wood frames and cotton stuffing with organic cotton covers. I searched high and low to get quality frames at a good price, and the stuffing and covers were not cheap, but well worth the expense to keep the house nontoxic. I stay away from any fabric with flame retardant (or other chemical additives), and my last new TV was put in a well ventilated room until the chemicals burned off.

Here’s some info on fire retardants from MomsRising.org:

THE FIRE RETARDANT TOXICS LOWDOWN:

Recent tests have found that highly toxic fire retardant chemicals are present not only in furniture throughout California, but in baby products such as portable cribs, strollers, playpens, swings, nursing pillows, high chairs and changing table pads—items that infants and young children come into repeated intimate contact with on a daily basis. These products are required to meet California’s flammability standard, Technical Bulletin 117 (TB 117).

This standard, which regulates all furniture products (including children’s products), has led to the annual use of tens of millions of pounds of brominated and chlorinated fire retardants (BFRs and CFRs) in California since 1975.

Brominated and chlorinated fire retardants have been linked to endocrine disruption, neurological and developmental impairments, cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, and a host of other health disorders.1,2

Today, virtually every Californian tested has been found to have these fire retardants stored in their bodies, with babies showing the highest levels. High levels have also been found throughout the food chain, including breast milk, dairy products, meat, poultry, and fish. 3,4 AB706 seeks to modernize TB 117 through the use of safer chemicals and fire safety methods that not only protect human and environmental health from fire, but hazardous chemicals as well.

THE PROBLEM:

Toxic flame retardants threaten human health & the environment:
• Children are at greatest risk from exposure to brominated and chlorinated flame retardants.

In 1977, brominated Tris, which had been used to make children’s sleepwear fire resistant, was banned after it was found to be carcinogenic in animal tests and to leach into children’s bodies.5 Its replacement, chlorinated Tris, was also phased-out after it was found to be a mutagen, meaning it changed DNA. Today, chlorinated Tris is the second most-used fire retardant in furniture, and was recently cited by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to be “a likely carcinogen that could pose both cancer and non-cancer chronic health risks”.

• Brominated fire retardants known as PBDEs have been found in breast milk, in humans and animals.

PBDEs have increased 40-fold in human breast milk since the 1970s. Women in North America on average have ten times the levels of women in Europe or Asia. Recent studies found that pet cats in the U.S. have very high levels of PBDEs in their blood. Researchers have identified an association between PBDEs and the spike of hyperthyroidism rates in cats which emerged after PBDE’s began to be used in significant quantities in the consumer marketplace.

Link to full information

Environmental health book causes controversy

Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children, by Philip Shabecoff and Alice Shabecoff, links toxic products to a rise in childhood disease and death.

Dick Clapp, an environmental health professor at Boston University’ School of the Public Health (BUSPH), explores the controversy surrounding a book that links environmental problems to disease.

The journalist authors highlight polluted communities where children have high rates of health problems and industries that produce toxic substances. BUSPH’s Insider interviewed Clapp about the reactions to the book:

Insider: What is Poisoned Profits about and why does it strike a chord with environmentalists?

Richard Clapp: Poisoned Profits chronicles tragedies of child health caused by environmental toxicants. It covers cases of cancer, autism, and other illnesses and disorders, and it offers possible links to these hazards. It also follows the money - it reveals the names of businesses that are responsible and talks about what they’ve done to avoid accountability for children’s suffering. It is a hard-hitting book written by smart and capable journalists.

I: Some reviewers have criticized the authors for showing many specific examples of illness but not enough evidence to link the illnesses to specific exposures. Are they hyping the evidence?

RC: Well, it is true that epidemiological studies don’t provide definitive answers to specific cases of disease. Epidemiologists look at groups of people, and how disease moves in a population, rather than at individuals. It can be very difficult to prove unequivocally that a child’s birth defect was caused by a specific chemical from a specific company. But epidemiology offers the best science to understand how diseases occur in populations by looking at patterns. The Shabecoffs make the case that the epidemiological evidence is strong in linking some child illnesses to toxic exposures.

I: So, is Poisoned Profits sensationalism or fair comment?

The reason that I think Poisoned Profits is so controversial is because the book names names and the polluters are afraid that this information could be used against them in court. However, I would say this information is accurate background to the larger picture. It’s well-researched and well-vetted - so it’s controversial, but sound.

Link

Vog is coming my way on Sunday

Trade winds to ebb by Sunday evening; weekend may end amid vog

Great. The wind is going to bring the vog to Hamakua tomorrow. Well, it was a good break while it lasted.

For those of you who haven’t been following the local air drama, our vog situation here on The Big Island got very bad earlier this year when the volcano started spewing especially nasty, toxic chemicals, the worst in historical memory. This did not bode well for my health. Although I cannot prove a causal trigger, at the height of the toxic levels this past spring, my breathing became difficult in general and my multiple chemical sensitivity heightened to an absolutely exquisite level. It got so I couldn’t even go into Hilo for shopping and chores, and I started going north to Waimea.

So this next week may be difficult for me. I can hardly wait!

For those wondering when vog will return to East Hawaii, the smart money is on Sunday.

That’s because the National Weather Service is predicting that the normal northeasterly, or trade wind patterns, will dissipate sometime Sunday afternoon. That would give the vog from Kilauea volcano a path toward the Hilo area with little or no wind resistance.

“It’s not going to be a statewide Kona winds event,” said Derek Wroe, a NWS forecaster in Honolulu. “The winds are going to get light and variable, and when that happens … the vog is not going to just sit around the source around the Volcano area. And it is possible that possibly late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night into early Monday morning, that some of this vog may come down the mountain to Hilo.”

Areas likely to be affected, according to a statement from the state Department of Health, are Volcano village, middle and upper Puna, Hilo, Hamakua and South Kohala. The DOH advises residents and visitors to be prepared and aware of the surrounding air conditions, and how they may react to vog in the air.

“People who have been exposed to vog in the past, we’re asking to take precautions on their own,” said Bill Hanson, a county Civil Defense administrative officer. “If they feel they are being affected by vog or sulfur dioxide, they should limit their exposure by getting indoors, closing their doors, closing their windows. … However, if it gets to a point to where they need to seek medical attention or just get out of the area, that is also advisable.”

Advice includes not smoking and avoiding second-hand smoke, drinking plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration, and being prepared to evacuate, if necessary, including securing homes, businesses and property, preparing an evacuation kit, planning for the care of family pets and livestock, and familiarizing all family members of emergency plans.

[...]

On the Internet:

Hawaii County Civil Defense, http://co.hawaii.hi.us/cd/index.htm;

Hawaii Department of Health, http://hawaii.gov/health; governor’s Web site on vog, http://hawaii.gov/gov/vog;

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/

Link

Link to photo: The Volcanic haze settled in over East Hawaii on May 15, 2008, by Perceptions Unlimited on Flickr

Related posts on The Canary Report:

Volcanic gas invading island

Vog and health problems

Living in a haze

New brochure on climate change and chemical safety

The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety has published a new brochure entitled: “Managing chemicals in a changing climate to protect health.”

The changing climate is likely to bring along some changes in the ways chemicals are developed, used, distributed and broken down. The brochure wants to draw attention to the implications these changes might have for human exposure to chemicals.

One way in which climate change can affect exposure to chemicals is through its effect on how chemicals move and transform in the environment. For example, increased temperatures may cause volatile chemicals to disperse more quickly in the air, thus possibly leading to higher exposures. Higher exposures can also arise because of a more frequent use of certain chemicals in an effort to combat the consequences of climate change (eg. increased use of pesticides because of falling crop yields).

Aside from higher and different exposures, climate change may also make exposure more dangerous, as there are indications that chemicals are more harmful in warmer temperatures.

Some groups of people are more vulnerable to these changes in chemical exposure. Inherent characteristics, like age, or circumstances, like poverty or malnutrition, can result in an impaired ability to withstand harm.

In the brochure it is emphasised that in developing climate adaptive strategies, attention should be paid to the management of chemicals and the need to improve systems to ensure chemical safety. Countries that do not yet have adequate capacities and capabilities to soundly manage chemicals are encouraged to develop these, as climate change will probably create new and expanded problems.

The brochure can be downloaded here. Available in English, French and Spanish.

Link

Seven years after 9-11, breathing ailments persist

As the world waits — and waits — for the World Trade Center’s redevelopment project to rise from the gaping hole along Church Street, downtown residents and recovery workers continue to suffer from the illnesses related to the September 11th attacks. Sinus pressure, coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing are just a handful of symptoms afflicting thousands of those who lived and worked in lower Manhattan during and immediately after the tragedy — all are effects of the air’s contamination.

Years after the attacks, New Yorkers and out-of-state volunteers continue to emerge saying they suffer from a World Trade Center related illness. Last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a campaign to seek out such victims — with advertisements soon to appear on subways and television screens across the city. The mayor and medical experts predicted thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — of untreated responders, volunteers and residents could be eligible for medical care.

At least for now.

Though advocates say the city has adequately responded in the last year to the health effects of the World Trade Center attacks, its ability to treat victims is threatened. Calling federal support “inconsistent and episodic,” Bloomberg said the city needs to have a stable funding source from Washington if it is to continue providing medical care to 9-11 workers and residents.

As of now, the funding the city receives could be cut off in 2009 — eight years after the attacks. With little known of the long-term effects of air contamination downtown, a lack of funding, advocates and city officials say, can cripple the city’s ability to adequately address the health needs of victims in the future.

The Response and Results

A report released last week from the World Trade Center Working Group — an expert panel appointed by Bloomberg to monitor Sept. 11th health-related studies and issues — showed studies were consistent in finding the prevalence of elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among recovery workers and those who lived or worked downtown.

Link to Gotham Gazette.

For a look at the prevelence of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity among first responders and others affected at Ground Zero, visit the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation:

The primary goal of the Chemical Sensitivity Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, is to raise public awareness about multiple chemical sensitivity. To this end, we are now enabling visitors to this site to play a short documentary produced/directed by Alison Johnson that is titled Chemical Sensitivity: A 15-Minute Introduction. This DVD includes information about the development of multiple chemical sensitivity among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War and First Responders and others exposed to the World Trade Center toxins.

It’s a little dry in places but riveting if you’re interested in MCS. Here it is:

Natural gas extraction assaults health of humans, animals and planet

Filmmaker goes to gas land for first-hand look: The Rage of Nature documents experience

I had absolutely no idea that this was happening to people in gas extraction regions: “potential human health impacts from drilling has indicated a correlation with multiple chemical sensitivity; gastrointestinal, liver and respiratory problems; neurological effects; and long-term effects on cardiovascular health.”

Josh Fox wears a protective mask to minimize exposure to contaminated water being sprayed into the air over an evaporation pit in Wyoming.

When filmmaker Josh Fox, a resident of Milanville, PA, first heard that gas exploration might be on the horizon for the Upper Delaware region, he began gathering information on the subject. The more he learned, the more concerned he became.

When he began to have trouble sleeping, Fox decided to see for himself what the industry and its manifestations looked, sounded and smelled like, as well as how it affected the humans exposed to it. Eight thousand miles and 90 days later, Fox had visited Texas, Colorado and Wyoming, and concluded, “It was far worse than I imagined.”

“I was hoping it wasn’t such a big deal,” said Fox in an interview with Dick Riseling, whose show, “WJFF Connections,” is broadcast on WJFF 90.5 FM radio. “But this is a big deal.” The interview stirred such interest that the station aired it a second time and will broadcast it again (see sidebar on page 4).

What Fox encountered on his travels he likened to a “war zone”-uninhabitable and unsellable homes permanently contaminated with hydrogen sulfide; severe health impacts, such as lesions on the brain, neuromuscular effects, loss of the sense of smell; endless truck traffic seven days per week; hundreds of new roads; a foul stench in the air; and seemingly ceaseless noise. During the trip, he interviewed endocrinologist Theo Colburn, whose research on the potential human health impacts from drilling has indicated a correlation with multiple chemical sensitivity; gastrointestinal, liver and respiratory problems; neurological effects; and long-term effects on cardiovascular health.

Fox is in the process of turning his experience into the film, “The Rage of Nature,” which will document his personal journey and perceptions. As a result of what he learned, Fox has concluded that the process of natural gas extraction is “a comprehensive assault on the health of humans, animals and the planet.” He acknowledges that a small number of people and businesses will prosper, but adds, “The majority will not benefit; they will suffer.”

And while Fox says he respects landowners’ rights to do what they choose with their land, he notes, “It’s everybody’s air. It’s everybody’s water. These should fall under the jurisdiction of the community.”

Based on conversations he had in areas where drilling has been occurring, Fox anticipates the Upper Delaware region will experience “a wave of regret,” and a sense of “being swindled or cheated” by the process. “In terms of tourism and recreation, this will no longer be that kind of area once drilling starts,” he said. Fox also believes that the region’s second-home industry will be jeopardized by the presence of drilling rigs and associated activities.

“We’ve got what money-can’t buy-quality of life and peace of mind,” he added.

“The Rage of Nature” is currently being edited and is expected to be completed in January 2009.

Fox is also the founder and artistic director of International WOW Company, a theater group with a membership of over 100 actors, dancers, musicians and technical and visual artists spanning 28 countries on five continents.

Hear it. See it.

• Hear Riseling’s interview with Fox on WJFF 90.5 FM on September 1 at 7:30 p.m. or visit www.wjffradio.org, then click “archives” and scroll down to “WJFF Connections,” then click download to listen online for the next several weeks.
• Visit www.internationalwow.com to learn more about Fox’s work and to access a link featuring clips from “The Rage of Nature.”
• Attend Black Bear Film Festival’s Envirofest at the Grey Towers Historical Site in Milford, PA on Sunday, October 19 ( www.blackbearfilm.com ). Fox will present clips from the film and answer questions.

Link

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