Benign by Design: Scientists Call for Green Chemistry
Seed Magazine:
There are now tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals—materials that exist nowhere in nature—that are manufactured commercially and go into products that range from electronics to cosmetics, clothing, cookware, and building materials… These chemicals were created to perform specific tasks and are intended to make our lives easier, more convenient, and often safer… But many of these manufactured materials can also behave in ways that produce adverse health impacts.
What green chemistry advocates is the creation of materials that are “benign by design”—safe at every stage of a product’s life from the blend of chemicals that comprise it to how it ultimately gets disposed. Its fundamental principle is that the best way to prevent chemical pollution is to eliminate hazard at the design stage.
The Psychological Effects of Living with Violent Conflict
Flesh & Stone:
Trauma from war and violence has led to a high incidence of psychological disorders in Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
PTSD was more frequently identified in children under age 15, while depression was the main symptom observed in adults. Among children under 15, factors significantly associated with PTSD included being witness to murder or physical abuse, receiving threats, and property destruction or loss.
The study authors concluded, “These observations suggest that short-term psychotherapy could be an effective treatment for specific psychiatric disorders occurring in vulnerable populations, including children, living in violent conflict zones, such as in Gaza strip and the West Bank.”
Ending the Nuclear Threat: An Interview with Queen Noor of Jordan
Plutonium Page interviews Queen Noor, founding member of Global Zero, during last week’s summit in Paris.
I was representing Global Zero at the UN Security Council meeting in September, and Mohammed ElBaradei, in his presentation, said there had been two hundred cases of missing nuclear materials in the previous year alone. At that time, we were operating on the assumption that there had been about twenty-five cases, but that is a situation that unless we work for elimination, and for a global treaty in which all nuclear and non-nuclear states have developed the confidence and trust in the process, those instances are one day going to lead to something as catastrophic as the Haiti earthquake, or ten or fifteen times that, in a major city.
Tap Water as an Overlooked Source of Lead
Rebecca Renner, PhD, at Environmental Health Perspectives:
Providence, Rhode Island, and Portland, Oregon, are two cities that by all accounts have well-run water utilities and health departments. Both have also had recurring problems with lead in tap water, yet both—according to some critics—have downplayed the potential importance of lead in tap water as a route of exposure. The experiences of these cities and others across the United States illustrate the difficulty not only of determining the causes behind specific cases of lead poisoning but also of ensuring that lead sources are eliminated.
New Standards for Airborne Lead
Charles W. Schmidt, MS, also at Environmental Health Perspectives:
The National Emissions Inventory, whose next release is expected 31 December 2010, lists 200 facilities emitting between one-half and 1 ton of the metal annually and 139 facilities emitting more than 1 ton. These facilities, which include smelters, battery recyclers, metal foundries, power plants, and airports, represent new and ongoing sources of lead air pollution that will soon draw additional scrutiny from the EPA. Among them, only one—Doe Run’s Herculaneum smelter—put its surrounding community out of compliance under the original National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS, usually pronounced “nax”) for lead under the Clean Air Act. That will soon change, however, for in 2008, the EPA dropped the lead NAAQS for the first time in 30 years, from 1.5 µg/m3 to 0.15 µg/m3.
Biofuels: Biggest Supply Response to the 2005-08 Oil Shock
Stuart Staniford at Early Warning summarizes his research into the role of liquid fuel alternatives to crude oil in response to the oil price increases of 2005-2008. Specifically, Staniford looks into biofuels, tar sands, gas-to-liquid and coal-to-liquid, and concludes:
…It appears that the behavior of the overall politico-economic system in the presence of an oil shock is to turn first to biofuels. However, a biofuel response in future similar to the response to the last oil price shock will cause fairly dramatic increases in food prices.
That’s probably not a very good idea.
Agreed.
