health
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Marla Cone to lead expanded news operation
Award-winning environment reporter Marla Cone is leaving the Los Angeles Times to join the ranks of nonprofit journalism, becoming the top editor of Environmental Health News starting today. Cone, whose work at the L.A. Times includes a series of articles highlighting the environmental threat posed by brominated flame retardants and investigations into the health of […]
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Slower
Kent A. Sepkowitz doesn’t mention it in this op-ed about lowering auto speeds, but it would save a heck of a lot of gas too. I’m sure politicians will be eager to propose it!
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Umbra on bedbugs
Dear Umbra, I desperately need your help. My house has become infested with bedbugs! I’m trying to find an environmentally friendly way to get rid of them. I’ve tried a thorough cleaning and tried using diatomaceous earth (fossil shell flour) to no avail. The local exterminator is looking more and more appealing. Please stop me […]
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Under pressure from Big Canned Tuna, FDA lax in mercury regulation
Under strong pressure from Big Canned Tuna, the Food and Drug Administration is crazily lax in regulating mercury in tuna. Among many examples: In 2000, a draft advisory to pregnant women listed canned tuna as a product highly contaminated with mercury; after FDA officials met with the three largest tuna companies, the final advisory left […]
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Some good news about high gas prices
I’m a bit late on this, but it’s still worth mentioning. Via The New York Times: Traffic deaths in the United States declined last year, reaching the lowest level in more than a decade, the government reported Thursday. Some 41,059 people were killed in highway crashes, down by more than 1,600 from 2006. It was […]
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Umbra on Method cleansers
Dear Umbra, I’ve noticed lately that Method cleaning products are now being sold in a number of different retail outlets, whereas before they were only sold in Target. This shouldn’t seem too weird in our every-store-sells-the-same-thing world, but seeing these products on the shelves in Whole Foods got me wondering more about them. You see, […]
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Putting cow hormones into fish food makes them balloon
Update [2008-8-22 13:20:9 by Tom Philpott]:I was alerted to the rBGH-tilapia news item by this blurb in the Organic Consumers Association news feed on Aug. 19. But when you click on the link provided by OCA, you’re taken to a source dated 2003. Unlike reader Mr. Mean, who (very cordially) comments below, I sloppily didn’t […]
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Umbra on toxins in your body
Dear Umbra, I saw an infomercial late at night about these foot pads that you wear to sleep and they will “remove toxins from your body.” I didn’t know who else to ask, so you win that lottery. Do we actually have that many toxins in our body? And does wearing silly pads on our […]
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Making a stink about green(ish) deodorants
Choosing a deodorant can be the pits. Upon moving to Washington, D.C., about a year ago, I quickly realized two things: Our Nation’s Capitol was built on a swamp and The Hill is called that for a reason. So biking — my chief form of transit in the city — can be quite the damp, […]
