Red Flags - Environment

The Link Between America’s Raging Health And Energy Crises

Mon, 15 May 2006 22:37:21 -0400

The energy crisis and the health crisis have several things in common — so common that one must pause and consider whether they are actually the same thing.

Protesting The Right To Poison

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 19:41:00 -0400

The arrival of spring is an unrivalled ritual of hope and renewal. Ironic then, that this most promising seasonal transition is marred by the skull-and-crossbones spectre of lawn and garden chemicals.

Killers In The House

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:24:41 -0500

There was a time, at least so it seemed, when a cancer diagnosis was relatively rare. That’s not the case anymore. Cancer is on the rise in North America. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the number of new cases since 1973 has more than doubled. It is now estimated that 38 percent of women and 44 percent of men will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lives.

While the numbers are increasing, the cancer establishment claims that 50 percent of all cases are related to known risks. Yes, we’re all familiar with the dangers of tobacco, sunburn, poor diet and inadequate exercise. But did you know that your exposure to the final risk factor — toxic chemicals — starts in your own home?

The Trouble With Teflon

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 04:00:00 -0500

I have always had nagging doubts about non-stick cookware. The idea of heating food on a pan coated in cling-free plastic seemed too good to be true. So why do I have a few non-stick tools in my kitchen arsenal? I don’t believe they are superior implements. Instead, I admit that the convenience of them found favor with my lazy inner scullery maid.

There are, however, few shortcuts in life, and a little elbow grease at the end of a cooking extravaganza is finding renewal. The reason is that on Dec. 14, 2005, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) settled the largest penalty — in excess of $10 million — that the EPA has ever obtained under any environmental statute. The charges, according to two civil administrative complaints filed last year, say DuPont failed to comply with federal law and supply data on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon™. Curiously, the settlement occurred two days after DuPont topped BusinessWeek’s ranking of “The Top Green Companies.”

A Little Holiday Cheer

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 04:00:00 -0500

Anyone concerned about the connection between environmental health and human health received an early holiday gift last week. The good news came from computer-software giant Microsoft, which announced it would complete its phase-out of packaging made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as promised by the end of 2005. The milestone makes Microsoft the most recent, and perhaps the most influential, name on a growing list of corporations — including Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and Intimate Brands (owner of Victoria’s Secret, and Bath and Body Works) — that are shaking the PVC habit. Since last summer, Microsoft has already eliminated more than 350,000 pounds of the material, primarily hard plastic “clamshell” cases used for computer parts, from its packaging stream in favor of environmentally friendly alternatives, such as boxboard.

The Food We Eat: Why It’s Important To Choose Organic

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

The day I received my first basket of organic food from Desert Lake Gardens, I found a pair of ladybugs crawling over the produce. My initial reaction was surprise, because like most people, I’ve been conditioned to value picture-perfect fruit and vegetables and to think that it’s unsanitary for any insect — no matter how beautiful it may be — to contact fresh food.

I didn’t consider the ladybug for long before I realized something alarming. In all the years I had shopped in grocery stores, I’d never once seen any living thing on the produce. The sinister explanation is that nothing can live there.

Gustatory pleasure — And Other Good Reasons To Eat Local Food

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 04:00:00 -0500

The summer of 2005 will go down in my memory as the summer of the perfect tomato. That’s not a signature distinction for one outstanding tomato. Rather, it’s homage to hundreds of vine-ripened and jelly-filled delights that took shape in the sunny northeast corner of my city yard.

A designated 6- by 15-foot patch — wedged alongside a few low-maintenance rows of arugula, mesclun mix, baby romaine and herbs — nurtured several flawless glamour, roma, sweet 100s and yellow pear varieties. The plants required minor attention in the form of occasional pruning, tilling and weeding, along with a good shower every other day. In return, not only did they keep a dedicated cast of bumblebees knee deep in pollen throughout the summer, but by mid-July, they filled my kitchen, and that of friends, with a steady supply of edible nightshades. Food writer M. F. K. Fisher famously penned the words “serve it forth,” and so we did with a steady menu of salads, salsas, sauces and toasted sandwiches. Now with frozen plum tomatoes at the ready, I will relive the summer of the perfect tomato all winter long.

A Bottle Of Water Please — Hold The Hormones

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 04:00:00 -0400

I rely on common sense perhaps more than I should when it comes to matters of health. I don’t smoke, for example, even though for years there was no “hard evidence” that definitively established a cause-and-effect link between cigarettes and cancer. But my instinct was that it’s less than ideal to blast my lungs with a vaporous cocktail containing thousands of toxic chemicals. The mountains of epidemiological data connecting the nicotine habit to diseases of the lungs also persuaded me not to light up.

The Worm That Turned Out To Be Helpful

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 04:00:00 -0400

I’ve been following the asthma story for many years. Why is asthma on the increase across the Western World? In the U.K., it is almost endemic amongst children, and I think this is much the same in North America. My son has asthma and he knows several other children in his class who use inhalers.

A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain this explosion in numbers. For a while, people were blaming air pollution. But for many years, the country with the highest incidence of asthma was New Zealand. Now, I have never been to New Zealand, although I would love to go, but to my mind a couple of things about that country make the air pollution conjecture seem a bit unlikely.

Living With Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Mon, 01 Jul 2002 17:59:54 -0400

I am 52 years old and have battled Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) for sixteen years. It began with a strep throat infection that ultimately led to having my tonsils out at age 36. In retrospect, I believe my initial overdose exposure was related to mold that I’d been unknowingly breathing for a year in the Birmingham, Alabama basement apartment where I was living.

Agent Orange: The Persistent Ghost From The Vietnam War

Mon, 18 Mar 2002 10:17:45 -0500

From 1962 to 1970, the US military sprayed 72 million liters of herbicides, mostly Agent Orange, in Vietnam. Over one million Vietnamese were exposed to the spraying, as well as over 100,000 Americans and allied troops. Dr. James Clary, a scientist at the Chemical Weapons Branch, Eglin Air Force Base, who designed the herbicide spray tank and wrote a 1979 report on Operation Ranch Hand (the name of the spraying program), told Senator Daschle in 1988,