health
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Tattoo you?
Tattoos getting in the way of epidurals? That could be the biggest environmental health issue of all.
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Reflections on protecting your offspring without losing your sanity
Kidhuggers. It’s a gag-me kind of word, too precious to be catchy. And it certainly won’t ever replace the slur-cum-badge-of-honor for enviros — treehuggers. But maybe it should. Illustration: Keri Rosebraugh The green movement has never been about people with an overfondness for bark and flora. Instead, it’s based on a natural protectiveness, an urge […]
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A Grist special series on parenting and health
Got kids? Got thoughts on kids? Come on over to our parenting blog to chat. Among environmentalists, a common rallying cry is to protect the planet “for our grandchildren.” It’s a lovely sentiment, and a powerful notion — that the choices you make today affect generations yet to come. But what about the generation spattering […]
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Parenting photos and advice from Grist readers and staff
Click photo to launch slide show. To help kick off our series on parenting and health, we asked Grist readers and staff to send us photos of their little ones, along with advice on how to weave a green outlook into everyday life. Here’s what a few of them had to say — share your […]
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ConAgra: No more toxic fake butter
Clearly not responding to my post from yesterday — but rather to steady pressure from the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy and other groups — ConAgra announced it would stop using diacetyl in its Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn brands. Diacetyl, a fake butter flavoring, has been known for years to […]
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While the FDA and EPA look away, noxious fumes from fake butter wreck lungs
Back in May, I drew attention to the remarkable fact that food-industry workers are literally dying from exposure to a key ingredient in microwave popcorn. The food additive diacetyl (responsible for that "buttery note" in nuked popcorn and also in margarine) emits a noxious fume when heated up — one that can literally destroy people’s […]
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Dave’s Second Law of Sustainability Politics
Clean up coal emissions and you end up with more — and more toxic — coal ash. You get cleaner air, but you get ash that can’t be recycled (into, e.g., concrete). You breath free, but you’ve got arsenic and mercury leaching into your groundwater from coal-ash landfills. Look at this vintage coal magic: There […]
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Urban agriculture does more than provide healthy food for those who need it
Phoebe Connelly and Chelsea Ross have a detailed and incredibly heartening story on urban agriculture in In These Times. It focuses on urban ag projects that target inner city "food deserts," where liquor stores outnumber groceries 20-to-1 and the most easily available food is fried. It’s not just about food, though: “We are what most […]
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China’s central government faces a choice between democracy and eco-collapse
"Choking on Growth" is the apt title of the new New York Times series on the "human toll, global impact and political challenge of China's epic pollution crisis." Epic, indeed. The first installment shows how "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes." The statistics are daunting: