Latest Articles
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Garbage Cans and Garbage Can’ts
Federal Court Rules EPA Incineration Emission Standards Insufficient Federal standards governing emissions from garbage incinerators are inadequate and must be rewritten by the U.S. EPA, ruled the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., yesterday. The controversy over incineration emissions began in the 1980s, when garbage incinerators became common nationwide. The EPA issued a set […]
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Rotterdam It
Convention on Dangerous Chemicals Goes Into Effect The Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty meant to protect developing nations from dangerous chemicals already banned or restricted in wealthy nations, went into effect yesterday, after garnering support from 50 signatory countries, as needed to give it the force of international law. Many toxic chemicals, particularly pesticides for […]
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Pipe Down
D.C. Issues Warning Over Lead in Residential Pipes Washington, D.C., health officials will announce today that pregnant women and children under the age of 6 who live in homes in the city with lead service lines should immediately stop drinking unfiltered tap water and have their blood tested for lead. D.C. Water and Sewer Authority […]
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Get the word on seafood that’s safe to consume
The dish on fish. It’s been a winter of bad news for seafood lovers. A joint draft fish advisory from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. EPA added tuna — America’s second-most popular seafood after shrimp — to its list of mercury-containing fish that should be restricted in the diets of pregnant […]
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GM: Unsafe for Any Seed
Much of U.S. Food Supply Contaminated With Genetically Engineered DNA Most ordinary crop seeds in the U.S. are contaminated with strands of genetically modified DNA, and unless federal regulations and farm practices are tightened considerably, the entire U.S. food supply will soon contain GM elements, says a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned […]
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Wham, Bam, Thank You, Dam
Embrey Dam Removal Heralds Larger Trend The Army Corps of Engineers blew up the Embrey Dam in Fredericksburg, Va., yesterday, allowing the Rappahannock River to flow unmolested from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay for the first time since 1910 — and making it the longest free-flowing river feeding into the Chesapeake, a […]
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Bad Crops, Bad Crops, Whatcha Gonna Do?
International Battle Over GM Food Continues In other genetic modification news, skirmishes over the safety and labeling of GM foods are erupting this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as delegates from around the world convene to discuss the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The U.N. accord, which went into force last September, governs cross-border trade in […]
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Nader’s presidential bid is eliciting heated rhetoric from enviros
See Ralph run. Ralph Nader — that alternately beloved and begrudged gadfly — buzzed back onto the political scene Sunday with an announcement that he intends to mount yet another presidential campaign. Mainstream environmentalists, among others desperate to oust President Bush, were not amused. Speaking on Meet the Press, Nader sounded a familiar battle cry […]
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Readers sound off on diapers, Dennis Kucinich, and more
Cut from Different Cloth Re: Kid Commando Dear Editor: I usually love your magazine, but I was disappointed by your column on diapering options. I think it’s great that you educated people about “elimination communication,” but this is a challenging technique, as you described, so not many parents are likely to be willing or […]
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Wood-labeling program less green than it appears
If you’ve got plans to undertake a woodworking project — building a deck, say, or a fancy new china cabinet — you’re probably not going to figure a plane ticket to Burma or Humboldt County, Calif., into the budget, even if you’d like to be sure that the wood you’ll use has been harvested sustainably. […]
