health
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Groups sue FDA to stop Big Ag antibiotic abuse — and it just might work
A growing weight of research links routine antibiotic use on factory farms to the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria — which are showing up in more and more places worldwide (including, according to recent studies, in your local supermarket). Doctor groups, from the American Medical Association to the American Society of Microbiology, have appealed to the […]
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Speak Out For Mercury Safeguards at EPA's Hearings
This is a big week for public input for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed safeguards against mercury and other air toxics spewed out by coal-fired power plants. EPA is holding three public hearings – two on Tuesday (in Chicago and Philly) and one on Thursday (Atlanta) – so people like you and me can make […]
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Fat city: The way your neighborhood is built could be killing you
Road to ruin.Photo: Alfonso SurrocaCrappy urban development isn’t just ugly and noisy and dirty. It is turning out to be lethal. One Toronto study looked at how the quality of a community’s streets can affect people’s health, factoring into drastically reduced life expectancy. It’s the focus of an article in The Globe and Mail that […]
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Will Chicago be the last city with a coal plant?
It has been a big month for clean energy in the Midwest. Yesterday, We Energies announced plans to repower its coal-burning power plant in downtown Milwaukee. Earlier this week Dominion announced plans to retire the State Line plant in Indiana just over the border from Chicago. Last week LG&E indicated it will replace the Cane […]
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Daylight-mimicking LEDs save power, might reduce symptoms of Alzheimer’s
All the cool kids know that CFLs are merely a bridge technology — and now students at Drexel University have a grant to enhance their successor, which are household lights comprised of light emitting diodes. LEDs aren’t new tech — they’re already used in your monitor, television, Christmas tree, throwies, etc. They're super efficient, plus […]
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Nixing pollutants could save $76.6 billion in health care costs
Between medical costs and lost productivity for parents, environmental illnesses in children cost $76.6 billion annually, says a new study in Health Affairs. That’s the cost of all illnesses that are correlated with exposure to pollutants and toxins. (Some of the associations are better-documented than others, but many — like lead poisoning, which costs $50.9 […]
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Coca-Cola adds BPA to list of ways it doesn’t care about your health
Did you hear? The science around BPA — a substance that the government of Canada has declared "toxic" and has banned in baby bottles — "just isn't there," according to the CEO of Coca-Cola. If this kind of through-the-looking glass denial of science sounds familiar, it's because it's happened before, with tobacco and climate change […]
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Company gives lumps of coal to children
The coal gift bag. Photo: Russ MaddoxThis week, we got an email from Seward, Alaska, where our friend Russ Maddox was shocked at what his 9-year-old granddaughter brought home from a field trip last week to Aurora Energy Service’s Seward coal loading facility: The gift bag included cellophane wrapped coal candy, a real lump of […]
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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 […]