Changing a baby's diaper...it can be more of a public service than anything else. I'll never forget when I did it on a non-stop flight from Newark, NJ to Japan with two young boys.

Through the turbulence and the inevitable tears, I just kept thinking to myself how thankful the passengers on the plane would be to have fresh air for the rest of the flight.

Ken voted Ultimate Green Game Changer
Changing today's environmental scene... that's a public service, too. And it's also what EWG President and co-founder Ken Cook was named by Huffington Post as doing better than anyone else.

After weeks of voting, readers of the consistently top-rated blog named Ken "The Ultimate Green Game Changer" for harnessing new media to reshape federal environmental policy and public awareness.

The title accurately summarizes our goal at EWG when it comes to toxics reform: we're changing legislation to be based on science, not assumptions. Our research team generates report after report, each filled with unique, bulletproof analyses that go directly to the Hill and consumers, leaving nothing to question.

Using new media, before it was new media
To do this effectively, we take full advantage of new media - and have been for years. We shared our cell phone radiation report with thousands through our searchable widget. Skin Deep, our cosmetic safety database, gives people the information that manufacturers don't quite cover. And we have volumes of easy-to-read consumer tip sheets to make non-toxic living simple.

THANK YOU for being one of the 1.7 million to vote. We could never do what we do without your generous support and partnership.

And yes, although changing the green game isn't always easy or clean, someone's gotta do it. And we're glad Ken is continually stepping up to the plate.

He kinda looks like Clark Kent, too
Affectionately called (by Arianna Huffington and staffers alike) "The Clark Kent of environmental activists," Ken bravely takes on industry, legislation and anything (or anyone) else that stands in the way of keeping this planet and its inhabitants safe.

Thanks, Ken, for changing the game. It needs it.

PS - The competition was stiff:

• Isabella Rosellini,


• Kitchen Gardens International's Roger Doiron,


• The Story of Stuff's Annie Leonard,


• 350.org's Bill McKibben,


• Treehugger's Graham Hill,


• Climate Counts' Gary Hirshberg,


• David De Rothschild,


• Carrot Mob's Brent Schulkin, and


• Avoiding Mass Extinctions Engine's Gavin Starks.

Game changers one and all.

When we talked a few weeks ago about insufficient government cell phone regulations, we discussed "SAR" values and the legal limits the government has set for the amount of radiation a phone can emit. But SAR values aren't always easy to pin down - so today we're going to look closely at what they are and how they can vary by phone.

What does SAR mean, anyway?
"SAR" stands for "specific absorption rate" - it's a measure of how much radiation is absorbed by your body, given in Watts per kilogram (W/kg). Scientists test for SAR values using models of the human body filled with viscous fluid designed to mimic human tissue. The phone is placed next to the mold, and while the phone transmits a signal, a probe inside the human model measures the absorbed energy levels. The phone's SAR value is designated as the highest amount of radiation detected during these tests.

What determines a phone's emission level?
A phone's SAR value is largely determined by the design of its inner hardware and antenna. But, since the SAR measures how much radiation is absorbed by your body (heartening, huh?), the value is determined by both a) the amount of radiation emitted by the phone, and b) what body part is doing the absorbing (yes, some absorb radiation more than others).

SAR values for an individual phone can vary, based on several factors:

1. Network & frequency
   Most phones sold today can operate on several networks (e.g. 2G v. 3G) and at different frequencies (which band of the network the phone is using to send and receive signals). The same phone can emit different levels of radiation depending on which network and which frequency it's being used on at any given time.
2. Where you're using it
   Phones emit radiation when they're transmitting signals from your handset to a base station (cell tower), so the harder a phone has to work to send a signal, the more radiation it will emit. As a result, when you're using your phone far from a base station (say, in a rural area) or if there are physical obstacles in the way, the SAR value would be higher.
3. How you're using it
   A phone also uses more power to transmit a voice signal, so texting emits less radiation than talking.

4. Where you're holding it
   Originally, SAR measurements focused primarily on values when held at the head. But over time, cell phone use has changed - now we're carrying phones in our pockets and often leaving them there while talking on a headset or not using them.

   This means less radiation to the brain (that's good) but more to the lower torso. SAR values vary based on the type of body tissue absorbing the radiation, and research has shown that skin and muscles absorb more radiation than fat and bones. This raises concern about exposures at the waist, particularly to reproductive organs that don't have a protective layer of bone (like a skull provides the brain) shielding them from cell phone radiation
   
   Also, as you'd instinctively assume, the farther away the phone is from you, the less radiation you'll absorb from it. Holding the phone 10 inches away can reduce radiation exposure by a factor of 400. (Another reason texting and a headset are good ideas - you'd be yelling to get heard while holding the phone that far away.)

SAR testing not perfect
Scientists acknowledge that SAR testing has significant precision problems, and current research is lacking in many ways. For instance, we don't know much about SAR values when phones are in "data mode" (you know you love those iphone apps), when they're held at various orientations (say, flipped around in your pocket) or how SAR values change for people of different ages and body types.

Children may be especially at risk, because their tissue conducts more (it has more ions than that of adults). Also, their thinner skulls don't provide as much of a radiation shield - one recent study showed that a child's head could absorb twice the amount of radiation as an adult's. As a result, kids using high-emitting, perfectly legal cell phones could be exposed to radiation over the legal limit.

You can make it better
More research is needed, but the U.S. currently lags behind Europe when it comes to knowing what's going on with cell phones (surprise!). Tell the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update their cell phone regulations (which they haven't done since their introduction in the mid-1990's) by sending them an email using EWG's easy form.

And in the meantime, since SAR values vary so much, you can make choices to reduce your exposure. Use EWG's 8 tips to reduce your cell phone radiation exposure - they'll make good sense now that you understand the "why" behind them all.

Stay tuned for more on cell phone radiation in coming weeks -- including finding a phone that has low SAR values to start with.

Thanks to Flickr and Cyrillicus for the photo!

It was an important series on an important issue that adds value to the clean water debate - even for people who are well aware of the problem.

Which is why we're sharing this video conversation with NYT reporter Charles Duhigg, who authored the report, and Democracy Now hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. If you don't have the 20 minutes now, you'll want to make it later.

Not so long ago, many of us were happily - and possibly a little smugly - sipping water from our reusable aluminum water bottles. Including my kids (such cute designs, right?).

Until, that is, we learned that Sigg and Gaiam bottles weren't exactly the BPA-free solution we had spent all that money on.

Naturally we rushed to dump them, exchange them, find something safer (and preferably cheaper!). And we heard the understandable question that rang throughout consumerland:

Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?

At EWG we know (and knew) that all reusable aluminum water bottles are lined - because no-one likes to drink straight from aluminum. It just doesn't taste right. In fact, we even suggested that people go with stainless steel instead to avoid the plastic liner - which we suspected might contain BPA.

Why?

Because that plastic liner happens to be an epoxy resin liner, whose "key building block," according to the American Chemistry Council, is (you guessed it) BPA. And stainless steel doesn't need one; unscrew that Klean Kanteen and what do you see inside? More stainless steel.

See for yourself how the bottles are made
Check out this excellent "how it's made" video - it'll take you all the way from aluminum "puck" to epoxy resin liner (kids welcome, it's educational). Courtesy of Sigg (they should know).

Now you know.
For the many people who aren't immersed in the science of chemicals and human health, as we are, it simply didn't cross their minds that their metal water bottle was also plastic.

Just as it still hasn't crossed many people's minds that their metal food cans are lined with plastic (yes, there's BPA in that, too). Because we're busy. We just want to eat the food and drink the water, already.

[Thanks to Flickr CC & EthanPDX for the perfect pic]

1. The previous 2 weeks 10/26-11/09-weakened defenses due to attending some meetings at work in person instead of phoning into them and staying in my safe room. The meetings were short, less than an hour, and very small in terms of attendance. I knew it would make me tired and possibly sick, but I didn't think it would lead to something like this. I also had a SEVERE reaction to a rheumatologist who literally bathed himself in hand sanitizer WHILE I WAS IN THE ROOM! This is a tough one for me. The easiest way out of this is to say you're allergic to hand sanitizer whenever you check into a clinic and they ask perfunctory questions like that before the doctor comes in, but I can't. My insurance company keeps trying to get out of paying for an environmental medicine specialist because they think my condition is due entirely to allergies, even though there is absolutely no evidence of allergies in my medical history and all the tests I've taken prove a complete absence of allergies (my doc today even said so).
2. Monday 11/09-Burning sensation in throat, but that's all.
3. Tuesday 11/10-Burning sensation continues, coughing begins. The flu is bad enough, but when you have reactive airway disorder and the flu makes you start coughing, you reach the tipping point very quickly. I managed to get a full day's work in, because let's face it, I am one tough (foolish) bastard. By the end of the day I had a migraine and every time I coughed (which was a lot) it felt like my head would explode. Atrovent, which I had almost stopped using, became a life saver and lowered the frequency of coughing. Night time temperature-99.5.
4. Wednesday 11/11-Called in sick to work. Easily fatigued, no appetite. Lived on the couch under a blanket. Night time temperature-101.5.
   
5. Thursday 11/12-Lymph nodes under jaw tender & swollen. Can't stand without feeling sick and incredibly tired, worse than CFS alone. Created a spreadsheet for work and got a fair amount of project time and research in while laying down, thanks to a method of typing & reading while laying down that I developed because of chronic fatigue syndrome. It came in handy here. Plus, I have to save all my sick days at work for doctor visits. Night time temp-102. No appetite all day.
6. Friday 11/13-Woke up spitting blood and mucus, which would have been great if I was a goth working in a circus side show. Throat is very sore and I sound like Froggy from the Little Rascals when I speak. Lymph glands under jaw still swollen but I'm feeling better. Not nearly as fatigued as before. Still not much of an appetite, but I ate two meals as opposed to Thursday's one. Can't remember what I ate Wednesday if anything. Night time temp-99.5
7. Saturday 11/14-Throat still very sore and frog voice continues but no blood. Slept numerous times during the day. Night time temp-99.5.
8. Sunday 11/16-Woke up coughing. Still have the sore throat and frog voice. No blood. The bathroom scale says I've only lost 5 pounds which is absolutely stunning because I hardly ate anything all week. Night time temp-99.
9. Monday 11/17-Sore throat and frog voice continues. Ate twice and threw the bathroom scale out the window for not showing a better weight loss after all this suffering. Saw the doctor for a pre-existing appointment that was already on the books to do a regular check up on hormone levels as well as some blood stuff and the liver function that they always look at now. Ironically she said my "numbers" were not only much improved and good but that they would also be considered quite strong under normal circumstances, which I figured was due to the latest round of iodine supplementation. While checking the lymph glands she spent an unusually long time massaging my throat, which I figured was due to my old weightlifting days that gave me a remarkably thick and well-defined set of sternocleidomastoids that last even to this day. Granted, my neck is just under 18 inches now and not approaching 22 like before, but I've still got a V-shaped set of pistons in my neck, man. Normally when this area is massaged by a male doctor to check for goiter, they get a "what-the-heck!" look until they realize the mass they're moving around is muscle hidden by a shirt collar and not a swollen thyroid gland. This doctor examined the throat and gave me her phone number-just kidding-she said the blood was from ruptured blood vessels in the throat from all the coughing and not because my body is falling apart. I was given a prescription for azithromycin and used my frog voice when picking it up at the pharmacy.
   

1. Insurance companies are incredible greedy and they've gotten very comfortable being that way. I don't think they really believe I have allergies, they just want to stop paying for an environmental medicine specialist because our appointments usually run very long and he prescribes expensive treatments. The insurance goons go through my medical reports with a fine toothed comb to deny me those treatments because they'll only pay for therapies that are from traditionally accepted causes, but they ignore things like my IgE levels (which is monitored defacto as part of the bi-monthly blood tests to measure hormone levels and other blood indicators) or the RAST tests when it comes to saying I don't have allergies and here are all of the traditionally accepted tests to prove it. It doesn't make any sense to focus so entirely on the details to deny me coverage (and save them $$$$) but then completely and positively ignore the very tests that show I don't have the allergies they are pulling out of the thin air to say I have. It's not bureaucratic bungling in the private sector, in reality it is much simpler than that: They only want to make a profit and they are willing to deny someone the treatment a licensed medical professional feels is necessary in order for them to do so.
   
2. If you get a flu vaccine, find out which one it is. I was one of the first people in Madison to get the H1N1 vaccine, or so I thought. It was the regular flu vaccine. But I sure feel GREAT that all the top execs at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have already got vaccinated for H1N1, because with all their luxury and ability to afford any medical treatment they want regardless of what their insurance company thinks, they would certainly suffer more than a guy with FOUR FREAKIN' CHRONIC AND INCURABLE MEDICAL CONDITIONS, even when one of those conditions involves his OVERLY SENSITIVE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.
3. In what is entirely a non-professional medical opinion, I may have been iodine deficient and taking supplemental iodine may have helped more than just my thyroid hormones, but it sure as heck didn't stop me from getting a bacterial or viral infection (or both, as you'll see in a few moments).
   
4. The theory that people with MCS don't get the cold or the flu because their bodies treat germs or viruses the same way it does a chemical exposure is completely blown out of the water. The impervious nature to colds and the flu which is almost legendary among people with MCS is most likely due to the isolation. We could confirm this by looking at infection rates among supermax prisoners who are only out of their cells one hour a day, but their food is so notoriously bad it would probably invalidate any serious investigation.
   
5. Chicks dig a guy with a thick neck. Even doctors. Supermax prisoners would respect something like that, although from what we've all heard about prisons, a few of them might find it attractive as well.
   
6. Two weird things about the sine flu, or two weird things if you have MCS and get the flu-No runny nose and no GI problems at all.
7. The 102 degree temperature was the first time I felt warm in years. It would have been kinda nice if it wasn't for all that other stuff, like thinking I was gonna die.
   
8. My daytime temp was normal, but it would rise to the stated temperature for the day around 6-7 pm every night.
9. The flu exacerbated nearly every MCS symptom. The RAD was by far the worse. And I'll tell you what, flu aches & pains are absolutely nothing compared to fibromyalgia. I could really tell the difference between the flu pains and fibro.

People think asbestos, a known carcinogen and cause of lung disease, has been banned - and it has, in about 40 countries.

But not here in the United States, where, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, asbestos imports increased between 2007 and 2008 by nearly nine percent, to 1,880 tons. It is still being used in consumer products such as joint compounds and some construction materials. Asbestos can also be found in brakes and clutches of older vehicles, older buildings and as a contaminant in some vermiculite.

On Nov. 11, 12,000 members of the American Public Health Association (APHA), meeting in Philadelphia, passed a resolution urging Congress to ban "manufacture, sale, export or import of asbestos-containing products."

The measure, coordinated with the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which represents victims of asbestos-related disease, calls for other measures to minimize work and public exposure to asbestos, as when asbestos seams are unearthed during road and building construction or aged buildings are renovated or demolished. As well, it urges the U.S. to join with other nations in a global ban on asbestos mining, and manufacturing, and exports of products with asbestos.

"Any fiber of asbestos is potentially harmful to health," said Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, a George Washington University professor who, as chair of the APHA Occupational Health & Safety Section, helped move the asbestos resolution through the APHA assembly. "We don't need another generation or two of victims because this stuff is still out there."

Monforton points out that many people who are now being diagnosed with asbestos-related disease have never worked in asbestos-handling industries. Some were exposed to asbestos fibers as children, because their fathers worked in heavy industry, construction or as vehicle mechanics and brought asbestos home on their work clothes.

It's crucial, she says, that people be protected from asbestos exposed during highway construction, digging for new housing developments and in sand, gravel and vermiculite pits.

Environmental Working Group has published a number of research reports analyzing current asbestos hazards. Among them:

• Asbestos Hotspots - List of locations where asbestos-contaminated vermiculite was shipped by W.R. Grace Company, later
• A Slow Death In Texas - Disclosed rising numbers of asbestos deaths in Texas
• Asbestos - Think Again - An overview of the national toll of asbestos-related disease
• DisGraceful -- W.R. Grace documents showing that workers in at least 14 W.R. Grace insulation factories were exposed to asbestos dust.
• EWG Letter in Support of the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2007

Chrysler Abandons Electric Vehicle Program After Pocketing Taxpayer Bailout originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 01:14:36.

Permalink | Comment | Email this

The late Steve Irwin, who became an international television star as the host of The Crocodile Hunter, has been immortalized by scientists who discovered a rare Australian land snail and named it in honor of the enthusiastic conservationist and wildlife advocate.

Queensland Museum Honorary Research Fellow Dr. John Stanisic and his colleagues named the snail Crikey steveirwini, which combines Irwin's first and last names with his signature cry of "Crikey!" The snail was discovered in the mountainous regions of north Queensland's Wet Tropics near Cairns.

Crikey! Scientists Name Rare Snail After Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin originally appeared on About.com Environmental Issues on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 23:07:24.

Permalink | Comment | Email this