chemicals
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Ask Umbra: Is it safe for Occupy groups to use wooden pallets?
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Our Occupy group is looking for information regarding the safety of using wooden pallets. They want to use them under tents, to help stay drier, and possibly to burn (for heat only, not for cooking). I found a Grist article on pallets from a few years ago, […]
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Swimming pools don’t have to be insults to the planet
Swimming pools — so awesome and fun, but so not actually good for the environment in any way. But KB Custom Pools, a pool company in Texas, has a sorta-kinda-more-like-a-real-body-of-water alternative. Their Eco-Smart pools match the topography of your backyard, use a filtration system that doesn't require harsh chemicals, and can be heated using solar panels. Gizmodo goes so far as to say it's positively lake-like (minus, of course, the mucky bottom and the fish).
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Do your clothes contain toxic chemicals?
Chemicals in clothing can break down in water into hormone-disrupting nonylphenol (click the infographic to embiggen). If you want to avoid dumping this crap in the waterways, you have two choices: One, never wash your clothing -- which, on top of being gross, will probably not be that effective, since wastewater discharges from textile plants sluiced nonylphenol out into the waterways before your clothes even hit the store. Or two, opt for clothing from companies that don't use nonylphenol-producing chemicals (called nonylphenol ethoxylates, or NPEs). According to research from Greenpeace, though, that might be tough. Of the 15 brands they tested for NPEs, only Gap had zero positive results.
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Critical List: A second leak in Shell's North Sea rig spurting oil; Chinese protest chemical factory
A second leak at the Shell oil platform in the North Sea is proving harder to stop than the first.
A Chinese protest against a chemical factory was one of the largest in three years -- at least 12,000 people -- and may herald a shift towards more public action in the country.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is exchanging ideas with leaders in Rio about greening their cities. -
Is your shampoo making you fat?
More research suggests that the toxic chemicals present in our everyday lives play a role in the obesity epidemic.
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Critical List: EPA gives chemical industry a pass; Rolls-Royce owners snubs EVs
The EPA could ask chemical companies to report on Americans' exposure to their products, but it's not. "Where's there's coal, there's opportunity": The energy industry funds brainwashing — sorry, "education" — for students. The Grand Calumet river ferries about 200,000 cubic yards of toxic crap into Lake Michigan each year. The federal government is cleaning […]
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Another danger of non-organic farming: Exploding watermelons
People opt for organically-farmed food for all different reasons, but here's one of the more compelling ones we've seen: Agricultural chemicals can make watermelons explode. Chinese watermelon crops just had an unfortunate run-in with the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, which makes plants' cells divide faster to pump up growth rates. Supposedly forchlorfenuron can bump up harvest […]
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Are you enjoying your daily chemical cocktail?
A 1970s-era Monsanto ad.Photo: Christian MontoneChemicals and additives found in the food supply and other consumer products are making headlines regularly as more and more groups raise concern over the safety of these substances. In a statement released this week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked for reform to the Toxic Substances Control Act […]
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Beware, moms-to-be: Insecticides could make your kids dumber
No raid for you.Photo: Dhini van HeerenStop huffing the Raid, moms: In other “sh*t that makes kids dumber” news, toddlers’ brains developed more slowly if their mothers inhaled a lot of a common insecticide ingredient while pregnant, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. Reuters explains: On average, women breathing the highest […]