Green Buckeye RN

Sport fishing in local rivers and streams can be fun…and a risky business as well if you plan to consume your catch.  Down load the Ohio Environmental Council’s (OEC) poster, “A Family’s Guide to Eating Fish in Ohio,” at http://www.theoec.org/PDFs/fact%20sheets/FishPosterFINAL.pdf. for information on which fish to enjoy and which should be avoided.

The OEC also offers a fact sheet on safe fishing and eating at http://www.theoec.org/PDFs/fact%20sheets/FishConsumption.pdf.

For a complete fish advisory for Ohio, visit the Ohio Department of Health website at www.odh.ohio.gov.

Summer is here, despite a record-breaking amount of rain for Ohio last month.  The sun will come out eventually.  Be ready with a safe protective sunscreen.  Down load the Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Safer Sunscreens at http://cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/.  Enjoy!

The new website for Practice Greenhealth is finally here!  While it is still a work in progress as we continue to update and reorganize our information, our new look has been revealed. Visit us at www.practicegreenhealth.org. (And bookmark it!)

Recycle your cell phone from home
Do you have old cell phones and PDAs in a desk drawer somewhere? Don’t thrown them away, recycle them!

Throwing them away puts toxic metals into the environment, while recycling reduces the need for more mining.

If you use EARTHWORKS’s http://www.recyclemycellphone.org/, you can even recycle your phone from home for free.

You can also set up a recycling program in your community to help benefit a local charity!

Once in homes, paint was out of makers’ control, Rhode Island high court decides
Wednesday,  July 2, 2008 3:23 AM
By Spencer Hunt

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The Rhode Island Supreme Court might have put an end to a Columbus lawsuit intended to hold paint manufacturers financially responsible for cleaning up thousands of homes contaminated with lead paint.

The court’s unanimous decision yesterday reversed a February 2006 jury decision that found paint companies, including Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams, liable for lead risks in homes.

Rhode Island wanted the paint companies to pay as much as $2.4 billion to remove lead paint hazards from 240,000 homes.

The case inspired a wave of similar suits, including cases filed by the city of Columbus and the state of Ohio. A number of Ohio cities dropped their cases earlier.

“Most everybody pinned their hopes on how Rhode Island moved,” said Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. “I think it’s fair to say, with Rhode Island’s decision, we’ll have to seriously re-evaluate this case and see if it should continue.”

The city estimates that cleaning up 150,000 lead- contaminated homes could cost $1.7 billion.

“Obviously, this ruling in Rhode Island does not bode well for our legal strategy,” said Dan Williamson, spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

Jim Gravelle, a spokesman for the Ohio attorney general’s office, said the state isn’t going to drop its suit.

“This in no way restricts Ohio’s right to hold lead-paint companies liable for the extreme harm that they have caused Ohio citizens, under ‘public nuisance’ or any other causes of action,” he said.

The state’s and city’s suits were patterned on the Rhode Island case, which declared lead paint a public nuisance, an act that interferes with a commonly held public right.

Rhode Island justices said the state’s public-nuisance law cannot cover lead paint that has been in homes for decades. Lead, which was banned in paint in 1978, can cause learning disabilities and other health problems in children who consume lead-paint chips or dust.

The ruling essentially says that once the paint was in homes, it was out of the manufacturers’ control. As such, they weren’t liable when the paint became a threat to children.

The decision follows paint-industry arguments and similar state supreme court decisions in New Jersey and Missouri.

Charles H. Moellenberg Jr., an attorney for Sherwin- Williams, said the Rhode Island decision will help his efforts to win dismissal of Ohio’s and Columbus’ suits, both of which were filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

shunt@dispatch.com

They’re in millions of mouths worldwide, but have been linked to heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Now a report concedes they may have a toxic effect on the body

Amalgam dental fillings – which contain the highly toxic metal mercury – pose a health risk, the world’s top medical regulatory agency has conceded.

After years of insisting the fillings are safe, the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a health warning about them. It represents a landmark victory for campaigners, who say the fillings are responsible for a range of ailments, including heart conditions and Alzheimer’s disease.

Read more at http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/us-issues-health-warning-over-mercury-fillings-856582.html

Atlanta Business Chronicle

The Home Depot Inc. has started a national program to help people recycle compact fluorescent light bulbs at all of its 1,973 U.S. stores.

The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer’s Canada division began a similar program in November 2007. The new program in the United States is the first one made widely available by a retailer, Home Depot said.

Customers can bring in any expired, unbroken compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, and give them to a store associate at the returns desk. The bulbs will be turned over to an environmental management company for recycling.

“With more than 75 percent of households located within 10 miles of a Home Depot store, this program is the first national solution to providing Americans with a convenient way to recycle CFLs,” said Ron Jarvis, senior vice president of environmental innovation for Home Depot.

In a related move, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) also will switch from incandescent bulbs to CFLs in its light fixture showrooms in U.S. stores by fall 2008. The move will save it $16 million a year in energy costs.

PFCS are found in non-stick cookware, stain and water-repellent treated materials such as carpets and furnishings, and even fast food wrappers.  PFCS are linked to thyroid abnormalities, low birth weight, and elevated cholesterol, among other health effects.

PFCS may remain in the human body for years. 

http://www.ewg.org/files/EWG_pfcguide.pdf

FREE BOOKLETS FOR AFFECTED MIDWESTERN AREAS

(Columbia, MD, June 25, 200 - A guide developed to help homeowners and contractors safely clean up homes damaged in the recent floods along the Mississippi River is available immediately. Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Clean-Up of Flooded Homes is a do-it-yourself booklet that provides easy step-by-step instructions on how to handle mold removal in flooded homes before starting to rebuild or renovate. The guide is currently accessible online at http://www.centerforhealthyhousing.org/FloodCleanupGuide_screen_.pdf.
Agencies working directly with individuals impacted by the floods can also receive a free shipment of printed booklets to distribute to those needing assistance. Please call the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) at (877) 312-3046 for more information.

Weeks of heavy rains have brought flooding problems to communities all along the Mississippi River, from Iowa to Missouri. Officials in Cedar Rapids, Iowa are calling it the worst storm in 15 years. Many homes have already endured extensive damage and required evacuation and in many places the water is still on the rise.

“Removing standing water and water damaged materials within the first 48 hours is critical for preventing mold growth,” said Rebecca Morley, executive director of NCHH based in Columbia, MD. “Mold exposure may cause allergic reactions, such as asthma attacks, sneezing, runny nose, red eyes and skin rash. Even dead mold spores pose a risk, especially for children and adults with respiratory problems,” said Morley.

To read the full press release, please go to http://nchh.org/Press_release_flood_guide_june_2008_FINAL.pdf.

Two chemicals widely used in cleaning agents for homes, offices and hospitals cause birth defects and fertility problems in mice whose cages have been in contact with them, according to Patricia Hunt at Washington State University in Pullman. The quaternary ammonium compounds ADBAC (n -alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride) and DDAC (didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) were identified after an exhaustive search for what was causing a massive drop-off in mouse fertility after Hunt moved her research animals to Pullman from Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2005. The chemicals were in the disinfectant Virex* used in the facility. It is Hunt’s second accidental foray into toxicology. In 2003 she linked a rash of mysterious egg defects in her research animals to bisphenol A, a chemical that began leaching from plastic water bottles after a high-pH floor detergent was mistakenly used to clean them. Hunt, who studies mammalian egg development, announced her latest results at the Society for the Study of Reproduction meeting in Kona, Hawaii, last month.

What alerted you to the problem?

After the move we began to experience breeding problems in our mouse colony.

Only about 10% of females that were mated in one experiment got pregnant, and of those a large number of late-stage fetuses died. This is very unusual in mice. There were also discrepancies in the developmental ages. Some litters were accelerated, some litters were delayed. And we saw more birth defects in the first few months of our study than we had seen in our previous 13 years at Case.

In our breeding colony, the pups were very small at weaning, which pointed to a lactation problem. And we were losing a lot of mothers during birth.

This was probably the same problem of late-stage fetal death; dead fetuses were blocking the exodus of fetuses further up the uterus so the mothers couldn’t give birth.

We then superovulated the females, trying to get larger numbers of eggs and embryos. We got a few more embryos, but they seemed to be moving through the reproductive tract too fast. We were picking up eight-cell embryos out of the uterus. [snip]

How did you identify the cause?

I asked the guy who runs mass spectrometry to tell us which chemicals were present in swabs from our cages. He found that every cage we washed in our cage washer came out with the signature of quaternary ammonium compounds in the Virex disinfectant. [snip]

Why haven’t you published your data?

We’ve never been able to run controlled experiments that demonstrate beyond all doubt that this is what’s going on, because every time we try to do it we end up re-contaminating the environment in the facility.

We did a side-by-side control. We exposed ten cages and left ten cages, but we found after several months that we had reintroduced the contaminant into our clean cages through the washer. We tried hand-washing the cages outside the facility, but the variables were too hard to control. [snip]

*A spokesperson for Johnson Diversey, which makes Virex, says: “The current abstract is the first we have heard of that attempts to establish a correlation between quaternary ammonium compound disinfection residues and reproductive or developmental effects in laboratory mice. The US Environmental Protection Agency review of these compounds has never indicated any concerns regarding reproductive effects. We will continue to monitor research about the safety profile of quaternary ammonium compounds.”

Published online 18 June 2008 | Nature 453, 964 (200 | doi:10.1038/453964a

www.nature.com/news/2008/080618/full/453964a.html

Access this new FDA publication for consumers at http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/drug_disposal062308.html. 

CDC released the new Healthy Homes Inspection Manual at the National Environmental Health Association’s Annual Education Conference on Sunday.  The Manual was jointly published by CDC and HUD.  Go to www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/books/inspectionamanual/ to download the manual.

The Healthy Housing Inspection Manual supplements the 2006 CDC/U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Healthy Housing Reference Manual (available at www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/books/housing/housing.htm).  The Manual addresses the broad range of housing deficiencies and hazards that can affect resident health and safety. The purpose of the manual is to . improve communication and collaboration among public health professionals, housing professionals, property owners, property managers, and residents; . increase the understanding of the relationships between exposure to hazardous agents, conditions in the home, and adverse health outcomes, and . improve an inspection program’s ability to address an array of housing deficiencies in an efficient, effective, and timely manner.

The Manual introduces the elements of an all-inclusive home inspection to environmental health professionals, public health professionals, housing managers, specialists, and inspectors. It is also a useful reference for outreach workers and for others interested in preventing those illnesses and injuries caused by residential health and safety hazards.

Local jurisdictions or others can adopt the manual in its entirety or modify it based on local needs.

The inspection manual consists of two parts:
- Model Resident Questionnaire adapted from NCHH’s Pediatric
Environmental Home Assessment and
- Visual Assessment Data Collection Form adapted from HUD’s Public
Housing Assessment System (PHAS) and its Physical Assessment Subsystem
(PASS)

CHICAGO (June 23, 200 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 asks the public to provide information that could affect its decision to approve a request from AK Steel Corp.  AK Steel wants an exemption that allows the company to continue to dispose of hazardous waste from its steelmaking operations into two existing underground injection wells on its property in Middletown, Ohio.  The original exemption from federal restrictions on land disposal of hazardous waste was approved in 1990. 

EPA tentatively plans to re-issue the exemption pending public comment.  It has reviewed information provided by the company that shows the waste will not move out of the underground layers of rock where it will be confined when it is disposed in the deep wells.

EPA has scheduled an information meeting and public hearing on this issue for July 21 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Middletown Council Chambers, One Donham Plaza, Middletown, Ohio.

A fact sheet and the proposed decision to approve the exemption are available at the Middletown Library, 125 S. Broad St., or on EPA’s Web site: http://www.epa.gov/region5/water/uic/pubpdf/ak_factsheet.pdf.

Any written comments should be mailed, postmarked by Aug. 5, 2008, to Rebecca Harvey, UIC Branch Chief, EPA Region 5, Underground Injection Control Branch, (WU-16J), 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604-3590.

Columbia, Maryland - On June 21, EPA agreed to a series of investigative steps that will move the nation closer to national standards for reducing formaldehyde in housing.

The move comes on the heels of a March 24, 2008 petition launched by over 25 environmental, housing, and health organizations to extend the California formaldehyde standards nationally. The California standards require a dramatic reduction in formaldehyde off-gassing from hardwood plywood, particleboard, and medium density fiberboard, which are used in most low-cost furniture and wood building materials.

Formaldehyde in housing gained national attention when groups such as the Sierra Club identified high levels of the chemical in the homes of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors residing in FEMA trailers.

“Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and can cause severe irritation to the respiratory system and may aggravate asthma. It is commonly found in pressed and composite wood products such as furniture, doors, and windows. Formaldehyde is of special concern for children, the elderly, and individuals with pre-existing respiratory problems,” said Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing.

To read the full press release, please visit http://nchh.org/html/news_room.htm.

 CHICAGO (June 20, 200 - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 today will begin to assess hazardous materials, oil, orphan containers and sites that potentially present an imminent danger to health or the environment in 37 flooded counties in Indiana.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency has funded EPA with $150,000 to conduct the assessments.

The Indiana counties affected by floods are Adams, Bartholomew, Boone, Brown, Clay, Daviess, Dearborn, Decatur, Gibson, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Huntington, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Pike, Putnam, Randolph, Ripley, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Vermilion, Vigo, Washington, and Wayne. 

As with any flooding situation, EPA recommends that residents avoid contact with floodwater. More EPA advice about floods is available at:  http://www.epa.gov/naturalevents/flooding.html

More information about Midwest flood response and recovery is available at:  http://www.usa.gov/flooding.shtml

Childhood Lead Exposure Linked to Violent Crime, Loss of Brain Mass

A long term study of children in Cincinnati found that children exposed to lead early in life are more likely to be arrested in their 20s for violent crimes. The results were published in the Public Library of Science Journal – Medicine.

The results are part of a larger study that began in 1979 to study the impact of prenatal and early childhood lead exposure on children’s growth and development. Study participants lived in Cincinnati, in areas with high concentrations of older, lead-contaminated homes. Children were tested pre-natally and until the age of seven. Researchers then compared study participants with county arrest and incarceration records.

The study found that arrest rates increased as blood lead levels increased. Researchers adjusted results for other outside factors and variants.

Lead Also Impacts Gray Matter in Brain
A companion study  found that childhood lead exposure also reduced gray matter volume in the brain in adulthood. The reductions were related to specific regions of the brain, including those responsible for “executive function, mood regulation and decision making.”

When lead gets into the bloodstream and reaches the brain, it replaces calcium inside cells, possibly accelerating cell death.

Additionally, brain mass reductions were more pronounced in men than women. Researchers hypothesize that estrogen offers some level of protection against cell destruction by lead.

“This research confirms that no level of lead exposure is safe,” said Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “That’s why it is critical to make sure children in Columbus get screened and homes with lead paint pigment in them get cleaned up.”

This month you can help protect water from corporate control by lending a hand in the fight to keep Akron’s water system public!

On May 3rd, the citizens of Akron, Ohio launched a voter initiative campaign to prevent the sale of any Akron utility without prior voter approval. A coalition of labor, faith, and community groups, under the title Citizens’ SOS (Save Our Sewer and Water), started their campaign after Akron Mayor Donald Plusquellic stated in his State of the City address that he hoped to privatize the city’s wastewater system.

On June 28 Citizens’ SOS and AFSCME Ohio are asking registered voters across the state to help circulate petition signatures in Akron and put this important initiative on the November ballot. Note: Petition circulators must be registered to vote in Ohio.

Saturday, June 28, 10am - 2pm

AFSCME Council 8  *  AFL-CIO Akron Regional Office

1145 Massillon Road  *  Akron, OH 44306

(800) 361-6657 or (330) 784-6390

For more information, contact Jon Keesecker at jkeesecker(at)fwwatch.org or (202) 683-2463, or Citizens’ SOS at ldavis(at)afsc.org or (330) 928-2301.

From The Foundation Center

Cause and Effect

The higher the ratio of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants to grocery stores and produce vendors in a neighborhood, the higher the prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes (10 pages, PDF) — a joint report from the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, PolicyLink, and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research — finds this to be the case in both lower- and higher-income communities. The report was funded by the California Endowment.

Read the report here: http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/By_Topic/Disparities/Obesity_and_Diabetes/Designed%20for%20Disease.pdf

The 6TH Annual Conference on Children’s Health and the Environment September 18-19, 2008 University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman Quad Philadelphia, PA.

www.gwu.edu/%7Emacche/philadelphiaconference08/

Save the date for the 6th Annual Conference on Children’s Health and the Environment. The conference is organized by the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PESHU) of Region 3; the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (MACCHE).  This two day event is targeted to health care providers, public health professionals and the interested public. The first day will include an optional Walk in the Park - a guided tour of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. The second day will be full of engaging discussions on children’s environmental health.

Discussions will explore the intersection between the environment and child health issues and will be centered on the following tracks:

-        Climate Change
-        Healthy Homes
-        Children in Nature
-        Exposure to toxicants and outcomes in children
-        Emerging Issues in Children’s Environmental Health

Continuing education credits will be available to our target audience.

Cosponsored by: The Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (MACCHE) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry RIII (ATSDR) Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) Drexel University School of Public Health (DUSPH) The George Washington University (GWU) Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH) University of Pennsylvania Center for Public Health Initiatives (CPHI) US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) US Environmental Protection Agency RIII (EPA)

For details, visit the website at:
www.gwu.edu/%7Emacche/philadelphiaconference08/

The Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (MACCHE) 2100 M St NW, Ste 203 Washington DC 20052
Tel:  1-866-MACCHE1 (622-2431)
Email: pehsu@gwu.edu
Web: http://www.Health-e-kids.org

Lawsuit Seeks Chemical Safety Testing and Labeling for Home Air Fresheners Government and Corporate Responsibility Needed to Protect Consumer Health
NEW YORK (June 13th, 200 – The federal government needs to inform consumers about the chemical ingredients found in household air fresheners and the potential risks those chemicals pose to human health, according to a lawsuit served this week by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club, and Alliance for Healthy Homes (AHH).  The lawsuit follows a 2007 NRDC analysis of more than a dozen common household air fresheners, which found that most contained chemicals called phthalates that may affect hormones and reproductive development, particularly in babies.  Air fresheners can also contain other chemicals linked to increased rates of cancer and asthma.

The lawsuit, filed against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would require the government to mandate that manufacturers test air fresheners for safety and properly label their products with full ingredient lists.  Since the release of NRDC’s 2007 air fresheners report, Clearing the Air, this information is still not available to the public.

The lawsuit can be downloaded here:
http://docs.nrdc.org/health/hea_080613A.pdf

Below is a statement by Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Mae Wu:

“Consumers deserve to know that the products they bring into their homes are safe for use.  Picking an air freshener off the store shelf shouldn’t be a guessing game.  Air fresheners can contain chemicals that may cause cancer, reproductive defects, or respiratory problems like asthma, yet the government continues to turn a blind eye. Meanwhile, the manufacturers will not commit to testing all the chemical ingredients of their products for safety, or even sharing the ingredient lists with consumers.

“If manufacturers refuse to be up front about the chemicals in their products and the potential health risks they cause, then it is the government’s responsibility to demand that information for Americans. It’s impossible for consumers to make informed choices to protect the health of their families when basic information is being withheld.”

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080613.asp