Lingering Lead Continues to Pose Developmental Threats Decades Later
Posted on February 23, 2010
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Lingering Lead Continues to Pose Developmental Threats Decades Later
Most people are aware of the damage to cognitive development that arises as a result of lead poisoning. In fact, even though it was used as a sweetener for wine during the Roman Imperial Era, even Roman contemporaries knew it was a neurotoxin. It is especially harmful to pregnant women and children, causing blood and brain disorders, accumulating in the tissues and shaving IQ points off entire neighborhoods.
Until the 1970s, lead paint and leaded gasoline were common in North America. Unlike many of the other neurotoxic metals, it also happens to be rather common, naturally. It is still used extensively in car batteries, though most of these are caught in the hazardous waste recycling stream as per federal, state and provincial law. It’s use in paint has proven particularly difficult to remediate given how long these substances are capable of persisting in soils, particularly in urban areas. The long time use of lead in gasoline has resulted in a very widespread soil contamination.
Stirring up Contaminated Waters: Dredging Operations in Polluted Rivers
Posted on February 17, 2010
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Stirring up Contaminated Waters: Dredging Operations in Polluted Rivers
When air, water and soil pollution end up at the bottom of a river, they usually stay relatively put unless stirred up. This is done on a small scale whenever a large boat anchor puts down in a harbor without mooring. This may also be done when constructing docks or platforms for extraction or recreation. However, the most common way these waters are disturbed is through dredging operations that keep channels open that would otherwise be narrowed and made too shallow for ship traffic by the buildup of silty erosion.
For this reason, many waterways were declared Super fund sites in the US during the 1990s, with special monies made available for the removal and treatment of these sediments, at great cost. Many of the major waterways in North America have been found to contain large amounts of heavy metals, PCBs and other persistent pollutants.
Medicine In Our Water?
Posted on January 23, 2010
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How Everyone Got a Free Dose of Anti-depressant Medications
Pharmaceuticals are not known for handing out their medications, especially those that make good money for them, for free. However, in recent years, that’s exactly what has been happening, in very small doses, in most major North American cities. These and other drugs, including hormones, over-the-counter medications and water soluble vitamins turn up in our water supplies in increasingly larger amounts.
Though there are no thresholds for exposure, there is also (as of the late ‘aughts) no way to filter them out. The molecules in question are simply far too small to be pulled out that way. Furthermore, since there are no regulations regarding these substances, municipal water treatment systems are not compelled to innovate a way to deal with the problem, if they even see it as a problem.
Most people see it as a problem. In fact, until these stories broke, most were unaware that sewage was recycled into drinking water. This has been safely done many times over for the last several decades all over the arid parts of North America.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Posted on January 11, 2010
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Tales From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
There is a place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is about as far from human habitation that one can possibly be while still on the planet. Here, the currents of the North Pacific turn inward and form one of five great oceanic gyre currents. Thousands of miles from the nearest civilization, this area that has for millions of years been home to sea turtles and albatross is now home to the largest floating garbage dump the planet has ever seen.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is often called, is an ever growing mat of swirling plastic. This includes just about every plastic item that has ever been manufactured (and that’s a lot), as well as abandoned nets. In the sunlight and seawater these plastics tend to degrade into even smaller particles that form an even denser mat.
This is tremendously dangerous to wildlife, that is increasingly found dead, having starved to death with a belly full of the stuff, unable to process food.
Why Factory Farmed Meat Causes So Much Pollution
Posted on November 20, 2009
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Why Factory Farmed Meat Causes So Much Pollution
Most North Americans are now familiar with the term “factory-farmed meat.” Though somewhat rhetorical in its use, it is an accurate way to describe the process that has become “conventional” ranching and animal husbandry. There are, of course, many concerns from a humane treatment standpoint, but the pollution concerns from such operations are equally, if not more, compelling.
Consider what happens when you put several thousand cows together who are not part of the same herd. First and foremost, you get a lot of animal waste – enough to fill entire “lagoons” with the stuff. This is rarely, if ever, given much in the way of treatment before being put into the nearby environment. Such lagoons often overflow into river systems during storms, especially in states and provinces without regulation.
The practice of “finishing” these animals on grains allows them to fatten up before slaughter. It also changes their intestinal pH, allowing them to be susceptible to dangerous organisms such as E. coli and others. These grains are also far more likely to be contaminated with heavy metals and PCBs than pasture.
Getting Gassed In Your Sleep - not what you might think
Posted on November 12, 2009
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Getting Gassed In Your Sleep: Pollution in the Bedroom
Most people spend at least a third of their lives in bed. In fact, given that one’s face is planted right in a pillow or mattress much of the time, the potential for being, quite literally, gassed in your sleep is quite high. Many of the materials that make up modern pillows, mattresses and bedclothes have been shown to release fumes that are either themselves or in combination with other bedroom chemicals, harmful to human health. Over the span of a lifetime, this can add up in ways that are just now being explored.
Flame retardants, federally mandated in new mattresses, are known to bio-accumulate in human beings. They are so widespread that in recent tests researchers couldn’t find a single lactating mother who didn’t have this chemical in her breast milk. The coverings and petrochemical fillings are also well known to off-gas for months and even years, with potentially carcinogenic consequences.
Compost Piles: Not Just for Hippies Anymore
Posted on November 9, 2009
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Compost Piles: Not Just for Hippies Anymore
One of the most powerful air pollutants is the naturally occurring organic gas, methane. It is a far better greenhouse gas than carbon and is now found in the atmosphere at concentrations of more than 150% over pre-industrial levels.
When people put organic matter in the regular waste stream, these coffee grounds and sandwich crusts are acted upon by decomposing microorganisms, with methane being a common by-product. This is why garbage dumps must be equipped with release valves. Otherwise, they’d literally explode from the pressure.
One way to avoid the bulk and threat of such waste is to keep your own compost pile. These are not difficult to keep, even if entire books can be written on the finer points. Nor do they need to smell bad. Many cities are now separately collecting organic wastes as part of municipal compost programs, many of which are then used as fertilizer for city and park lands.
Reducing Package Waste at the Grocery Store
Posted on July 6, 2009
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Tips for Reducing Package Waste at the Grocery Store
Everyone eats, and nowhere is this more apparent than at your local supermarket. It’s hard for most to imagine a time when there weren’t supermarkets that included everything from pharmacy to film processing to peaches in February. However, it’s true, the modern concept of a supermarket has only existed in North America since after World War Two.
Along with these supermarkets came a great deal of packaging waste. Increasingly large and “innovative” packaging has been used over the years to draw consumers’ eyes to the tens of thousands of products that vie for your attention on supermarket shelves. Much of it is either non-recyclable or made at such environmental cost that the packaging is “worth” far more than the food inside.
Ways to reduce your reliance upon packaging include:
* buy fresh food wherever possible
* choose items in containers that can be recycled
* bring your own reusable bag
* choose products that come in returnable containers such as glass milk bottles
* avoid processed foods and cook your own meals.
Phosphates In The Environment
Posted on April 21, 2009
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Brighter Whites and Greener Waters
For many years, the use of phosphates in laundry detergents was responsible for making clothes appear far more “white” than they really were. Large ad campaigns throughout the second half of the 20th century re-enforced the notion that whiter laundry was cleaner laundry. In fact, this supposedly cleaner laundry was impregnated with chemical additives during the wash process in an effort to fool consumers with an optical illusion.
Since phosphates are not a direct threat to human health, this wouldn’t be of concern except that it also happens to be a fertilizer – one that is most often lacking for the growth of algae, seaweeds and other lower level marine plant life. This causes algal blooms that in turn lower the oxygen content of waters, kill fish and encourage dangerous organisms to spread though the weakened marine populations, sometimes becoming a major threat to human health and welfare.
Go Fluorescent, For Everyone’s Sake
Posted on March 6, 2009
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A Worldwide Campaign Against the Light Bulb
The technology that brought nighttime illumination to the whole world, didn’t change much for about a century. And, it turns out, that’s a problematic thing. Not only do the filaments burn out quickly, leaving glass and metal that is not recyclable, but they emit far more heat than light, using a great deal of electricity. With the advent of a long lasting compact fluorescent bulb in the 1990s, it became easy for consumers to change out these bulbs and use anywhere from half to one tenth the amount of power for the same amount of light.
In the ‘aughts, governments all over the world have seized upon the light bulb as an inherently wasteful technology that needlessly uses vast amounts of electricity – electricity that has byproducts of carbon dioxide and all the other air pollutants that increase dependence upon fossil fuels. Replacing these bulbs can go a long way in helping nations meet their environmental treaty obligations. They also last longer and produce far less dangerous waste.
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