Planet DFW

Daily Roundup

The daily sampling of some of the best environmental stories published today:

* Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would ban a controversial plastics chemical from all products for infants and children and would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study its health risks to children and adults, the Washington Post reports. The chemical in question is bisphenol A, which a growing body of new studies has linked to prostate and breast cancers, diabetes, behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity, and reproductive problems in laboratory animals.

* Austin-based Dell Inc. unveiled a new energy-efficient computer that will be introduced later this year, built with a high percentage of recyclable materials, according to Cox News Service.

* Mankind has always wanted to control the weather. Now, the London Independent reports, scientists think they've found a way.

* At a time when parts of the world are facing food riots, Big Agriculture is dealing with a different sort of challenge: huge profits, The Wall Street Journal reports.

* Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural economic stability and fails to provide humane treatment of livestock, an independent report concludes, the Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that the authors of a major study criticizing industrial farming said the agriculture industry is exerting "significant influence" on academic research as Congress weighs how to respond to an unprecedented series of food-safety recalls.

-- Scott Streater

Kroger's plastic bag recycling program is proving successful

It seems that so many companies these days are green. Or at least they say they are. They want to be seen as an environmentally friendly business because you, the consumer, have demonstrated a real concern for all things green. This has resulted in a multibillion-dollar market for green products. And in the pursuit of that money, there's a lot of green advertising. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the veracity of some of these green marketing claims.

But within the green mist, there is some substance. Example: Kroger's Bag 2 Bag recycling program. Since it started the program in November, Kroger store customers in Texas and Louisiana have recycled 113 tons of plastic shopping bags, plastic dry cleaner wraps and other items -- equivalent to eight truckloads of plastics that will not end up in a landfill, or blown into a tree or waterway. Included in that 113 tons, the company says, is 5.5 million plastic shopping bags. The program works like this: when you load up your shopping cart with plastic bags full of groceries, bring the bags back to the store and they recycle them. Kroger's stores also accept plastic bags from competing stores. You can also bring the plastic wraps from your dry cleaner, and the plastic wraps around your water bottles.

Anyway, it's a modest program that's had a lot of impact with not a lot of publicity.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

Here's a sampling of some of the best environmental journalism published today:

* This Associated Press story should make everyone think really hard about what's going on here. The Bush administration is undermining the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to determine health dangers of toxic chemicals by letting nonscientists have a bigger -- often secret -- say, congressional investigators say. At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses.

* Always good to ask: How safe are the supposedly "green" clean products you use? As this Los Angeles Times story notes, the green cleaner market is largely unregulated -- which means consumers still must be wary of what's in the bottle. Even cleaning products labeled "natural" may contain some fraction of synthetic chemicals.

* Very interesting story here in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati could be among the first cities in the country to pass a law protecting poor people and minorities from businesses that pollute their neighborhoods.

* One man, Martin Palmer, argues that religion is a better messenger of climate change than science and politics -- that it can do things the others cannot, according to NPR's All Things Considered. Palmer is the founder of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, a small group working out of Bath, England. Its credo is that religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism are the perfect groups to become climate activists. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports a machine designed to vacuum carbon dioxide -- the chief greenhouse gas linked to global warming -- out of the air is a clunky reminder of how distant the dream that technology can win the battle against global warming really is.

* The Houston Chronicle reports that the Colorado institution where William Gray has worked for nearly half a century may end its support of his seasonal forecasting, a move Gray says is motivated by his criticism of global warming.

* Finally, workplace-safety advocates say low fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and rare jail terms help explain why 16 Americans are killed on the job on an average day -- and why the considerable progress in lowering the death rate has ground to a halt this decade, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wait a minute, 16 Americans, on average, are killed on the job each day? That's somewhat amazing, I think.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

Here's the daily roundup of some of today's most interesting environmental journalism:

* Good story on "green washing" in the Miami Herald. Global warming may be bad for the environment, but it has been great for one industry: eco-marketing, according to the story. Meanwhile, consumers are turning away from chemical-laden household cleaners in favor of natural alternatives, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

* DeCODE genetics Inc. scientists have identified another set of genes linked to breast cancer and the company said it plans to develop a lab test in the next six months that can spot the presence of these and other genes already known to cause the disease, reports The Wall Street Journal (subscription is required).

* The Baton Rouge Advocate reports illegal dumping of construction debris and sewer sludge has become a problem in Louisiana’s rural areas, particularly after Hurricane Katrina.

* In the mysterious underground lairs of your local gas station, leaking storage tanks and pipes have resulted in contamination of soil and groundwater supplies, the Associated Press reports. If you need a statewide example refer to Austin, where a ruptured fuel tank last year sent oil spewing onto a downtown street and into a nearby creek, costing hundreds of thousands to clean.

* The EPA estimates that 20 to 150 tons of soil per acre is lost to storm water runoff from construction sites. That means every time a new house is built, truckloads of soil can wind up in local streams. Click here for the audio report from the Great Lakes Radio Consortium in Michigan.

* The enormous expanse of concrete and asphalt known as Mexico City was once a lake. And each year, starting about this time, it seems hell-bent on becoming one again, the Los Angeles Times reports.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

Here's a sampling of some of the best environmental journalism published today:

* The operator of a controversial coal-fired power plant now under construction about 45 miles northeast of Temple is touting the facility's clean technology and contribution to the local economy. But environmentalists say the plan could affect Bell County air quality, reports the Temple Daily Telegram.

* PETA last week announced it would award $1 million to the first person to come up with a way to make commercially viable in vitro meat by 2012, according to Time Magazine. The fake meat would have to be indistinguishable from the real deal and cheap enough to succeed in the marketplace.

* Is the next front in the environmental wars the ingredients used in nail polish, baby powder and dandruff shampoos? Well, at least that's what they say in this article by the Vancouver Sun.

* Is this some rare good news on plastics? Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the FDA has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by an industry trade group, the Washington Post reports.

* Health officials are still trying to figure out whether the lead found in some artificial grass poses a serious health hazard for children who play on the fields, according to The New York Times.

* The Boston Globe reports an increasing number of scientists are starting to emphasize the extent to which soil -- even more than petroleum or water or air -- is a limited and fragile resource.

* We are now faced with a momentous challenge: global warming. Time Magazine reports the steady deterioration of the very climate of our very planet is becoming a war of the first order, and by any measure, the U.S. is losing. Meanwhile, this (audio) report by NPR says that stabilizing the earth's climate will ultimately require zeroing out all emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Some geological engineers are toying with some pretty wild ideas to counter climate change.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

Here's a sampling of some of the best environmental journalism published today:

* Just how safe are the "green" cleaning products you use at home? Just because a cleaning product is biodegradable and made from plant-based sources doesn't mean it's without its own potential adverse effects on health, reports the Los Angeles Times.

* Almost two years ago, Marc Alston began to look around for a way to share the 50-mile daily commute between his home in Wappingers Falls and his job in White Plains. He found the solution on the Internet through a Web site that allows commuters to find others going their way, according to this story by The New York Times. Meanwhile in Atlanta, one of the fastest sprawling regions in the country, homebuyers are starting to pay attention to commute times as they choose where to live, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

* Well, this is a new one to me. The New York Times explores whether hybrids are healthy for drivers. The flow of electrical current to the motor that moves a hybrid vehicle at low speeds produces magnetic fields, which some studies have associated with serious health concerns including leukemia, according to the story.

* In February, most TV broadcasts will be available only in digital form, meaning sets that rely on antennas to receive over-the-air analog signals will no longer work on their own. With this looming, the Washington Post reports that recycling centers and landfills across the country are preparing for a surge of unwanted TV sets in coming month, driven by the switch to digital.

* The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on one of the more fascinating issues associated with the green movement: faith is a driving factor. The faith community has become one of the major players in environmental issues, able to address green issues from a different perspective.

* It seems Gov. Rick Perry doesn't much like ethanol. The Houston Chronicle reports that Perry has asked federal regulators to relax rules requiring use of corn-based ethanol in the nation's fuel supply, arguing the mandate is driving up world food prices and harming the Texas economy.

* Just how serious is the international food crisis? The Washington Post reports the Bush administration and Congress have been caught flat-footed by rapidly escalating global food prices and are scrambling to respond to a crisis that they increasingly view as a threat to U.S. national security.

* More bad news about plastics, this time from Discover magazine. Present in everyday items like panty hose and perfume, computers and catheters, baby rattles and billiard balls, plastics are so ubiquitous we seldom give them a second thought. Yet they pose problems both familiar and unfamiliar, according to the story.

* Meanwhile, the London Guardian reports that the worldwide effort by supermarkets and industry to replace conventional oil-based plastic with eco-friendly "bioplastics" made from plants is causing environmental problems and consumer confusion.

* Interesting story in National Geographic. Almost nothing about today's China inspires optimism about environmental issues, according to the story. China already has four of the ten cities with the most polluted air, and increasingly the nation's problems are the world's.

* Newsweek reports that climate change, increased demand, pollution and other hazards are threatening bodies of water around the globe.

-- Scott Streater

Here are some truly green household cleaning tools

I understand how the woman in this photograph feels. Nothing bites more than cleaning the house. I hate scrubbing sinks and toilets, vacuuming up dog hair from the floor, doing laundry. And if that wasn't enough, there's the possibility that the cleaners you're using may contain some harsh chemicals that might not be good for you. I can't help you on the house cleaning stuff, but I can point you to information that can help you be truly green when you clean.

Yahoo! has an interesting article highlighting six (mostly) natural cleaners for the home. Basically, the article notes that you need little more than the following six ingredients -- baking soda, borax, lemon juice, salt, olive oil and white vinegar -- to clean just about anything in your home. (Kind of confusing that the article includes this link to another story detailing the 18 things you need for the clean home, but whatever.) All this means you don't have to spend more at the grocery store for items billed as "eco-friendly" cleaning products. That is if you're willing to clean with vinegar.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

The daily roundup of some of the best environmental journalism:

* Yesterday I blogged about a study that found high levels of ozone in airplane cabins. Now, a BBC investigation shows how air passengers could be exposed to toxic fumes in the cabin while flying.

* Spurred by visions of their cities frying in a warmer world, mayors around the nation have grasped a green solution: trees, according to the Washington Post. But their releaf teams have had to confront a brutal reality: Planting a tree is a lot harder than it looks. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that mandating higher fuel economy hasn't stopped Americans from burning more petroleum on the highways.

* Here's a disturbing story in the journal Nature. As much as 20 percent of the world’s cancers have been linked to infections caused by common viruses. The results, which will be presented today at the European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, are preliminary: while viruses have been found associated with lung tumours, there is no direct evidence that the viruses are actually causing the cancer, according to the story. But the notion that a virus could contribute to some cases of the disease is a plausible one.

* As the popularity of artificial turf grows, critics in Minnesota and across the nation are beginning to voice concerns about potential health and environmental risks, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. One of those health risks, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, is lead.

* Interesting story about a California study that found residents living near a railway have higher rates of health problems. Thousands who live near a busy San Bernardino railroad switching yard and cargo hub face a greater risk of developing cancer because of diesel pollution from locomotives and other equipment.

* Increasingly efficient global transport networks make it practical to bring food from distant places where labor costs are lower. But the International Herald Tribune reports that the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution, especially carbon dioxide, from transporting the food.

-- Scott Streater

Recycled paper towels may not be the quicker-picker-upper, but they're eco-friendly

You probably don't think much about all the resources expended and nasty chemicals used to make the paper towels you use to clean up the kitchen. But you should. And you should also know there are some good alternatives, such as paper towels that use recycled materials.

Grist online magazine tested some of the top brands against a roll of traditional paper towels from Bounty. The results: The recycled towels held up pretty well. Bounty scored fairly higher, but the magazine recommends two recycled brands: 365 Everyday Value from Whole Foods, and Seventh Generation Natural.

Anyway, check it out.

-- Scott Streater

Daily Roundup

The daily sampling of some of the best environmental journalism published today:

* This is an odd one. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley measured high levels of ozone on some international and domestic flights, according to this story in New Scientist. Some say the research suggests that all aircraft should be fitted with ozone converters. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (subscription required).

* The Denver Post reports on why recycling really matters to people. Not long ago, few people contemplated their trash. But now, in a condition some researchers have dubbed Waking-Up Syndrome, anxiety over global warming and each individual's responsibility for it surfaces in phases akin to the early stages of grieving: denial, slow acknowledgment, despair, anger and then action, according to the story. An event with innocent beginnings starts a spiral into full-on green guilt as a nagging question takes hold in your mind like a bad song from drive-time radio: Where does my garbage go?

* Louisville Courier-Journal reports that concerns for the health of their children and Mother Earth are leading some parents to adopt new practices.

* The Food and Drug Administration doesn't set standards on ingredients manufacturers are allowed to use in beauty products. Thus, ABC News reports, your lipstick could contain hormone-disrupting benzophenone, and mascara could contain mercury. But, according to the story, more cosmetic companies are going green.

* Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. was ordered Wednesday to stop selling and using products that the Environmental Protection Agency said contain two "illegal and unregistered" herbicides, according to the Columbus Dispatch. They were used in a commercial fertilizer and in a consumer product sold under the name "Miracle-Gro Shake 'n' Feed With Weed Preventer All Purpose Plant Food." The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and Associated Press also have stories.

* The Associated Press reports that hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists say they have been pressured by superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group. The Union of Concerned Scientists said more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work, according to the story. This Washington Post story provides some examples of interference.

* Air-quality experts worry that proposed changes to clean-air regulations may allow developers to build at least two dozen new coal-fired plants near pristine areas such as national parks, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Despite blunt internal criticism by its own staff experts, the EPA is proceeding with a plan by year's end to revise regulations under the Clean Air Act that currently safeguard areas with some of the nation's cleanest air.

* The Denver Post reports that worldwide emissions of two major greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide and methane -- jumped dramatically in 2007, according to a federal study released Wednesday. Among scientists in the geophysics and meteorology fields, few now doubt that the planet is warming or that human activity is to blame -- though views still diverge on the dangers posed, according to U.S. News & World Report. And though this should come as no surprise to anyone, Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and the president's brother, says he is "light green" on the environment and is skeptical that humans are causing global warming, the Associated Press reports. He made the comments, according to the story, during an address to several hundred business people meeting in a hotel ballroom in Dallas.

-- Scott Streater