Articles by Todd Hymas Samkara

Rhymes with unanimity

Basically everyone agrees: we're full of chemicals. Hooray, agreement!

Now what to do about it? Some California lawmakers are suggesting a program to monitor and catalog said chemicals in residents' bodies.

Senate Bill 1379 would create the nation's first statewide biomonitoring program to study levels of chemical contamination in blood, urine, fatty tissue, or breast milk.

Essentially it's a state-specific version of the CDC's National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Predictably though, powerful forces are aligning against it, fearing an educated, informed, environmentally aware public.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities can drive sufferers into poverty as well as ill health

Consider the trappings of modern life: Calvin Klein Eternity, gasoline, Gore-Tex, Aveda hairspray, paint, particle board, polyurethane iPod cases. Is this the face of the future? Photo: iStockphoto. Now imagine that you’re allergic to virtually all of them. Environmentalists usually think about chemical toxicity as either a dramatic local crisis (Bhopal, Love Canal) or the […]

Careful about what stickers you put on your bike, people

Recent bike-related news offers an answer to the oft-posed question, "I'm a police officer -- when the hell am I going to need to know about pop culture?" The answer, of course, is when a sticker on a bicycle bearing an indie band name you're oblivious to prompts the destruction of said bicycle with the jaws of life in order to extract a nonexistent explosive device.

To be fair, the band's name -- "This Bike is a Pipe Bomb" -- isn't quite like affixing a "NIN" or "The String Cheese Incident" sticker to your seat post, but still.

Stats on how much Americans pay for essentials

$1.99 — price of a gallon of 1% milk at Fred Meyer, a big-box chain store, in Seattle $5.69 — price of a gallon of organic 1% milk at Whole Foods in Seattle $4.29 — price of a Big Mac Extra Value Meal at a Seattle McDonald’s (Big Mac, medium fries, medium soft drink) $3.65 […]