E waste problems and solutions

Global Environmental Services

E-waste is a serious issue, as seen in the documentary Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground. Here is a company that is doing something about it! Global Environmental Services works with an extensive network of OEM(TM)s and product brokers on the recovery side of the electronics industry. They can provide accurate and up to the minute pricing for used technology for any model, configuration, or condition of equipment. GES also has the expertise to provide the same information at the component level. This network allows GES to provide consistent product availability and pricing information. GES works to solve problems, not relocate them. Loading a container and shipping scrap indiscriminately is reckless. They follow best practices of recycling in the best interest of the environment and require all of their downstream partners to do the same. GES is currently being audited to become an e-Steward!

Click here to learn more about Global Environmental Services!

When Even Angels Wept

March 18, 1937 began like any other day for the school children of New London, Texas. Thirteen minutes before the last bell was to dismiss, 293 of those children had fallen victim to the worst school tragedy in American history. Accumulation of leaked natural gas produced one quick and massive explosion heard for miles. Nothing remained from what was once considered the richest rural school in the world. Only the few surviving children and their tears endured. At that moment, the world knew a generation had died. When Even Angels Wept is a documentation using actual words of those who lived to tell their story from that fateful day. Year after year may pass, but their ageless recollections still stand the test of time. See the film trailer: When Even Angels Wept

Website of the New London School Explosion

Hazmat: The Sustainability Link

Hazmat: The Sustainability Link

Part 1: Determine a Hierarchy for Managing Hazardous Materials

Part 2: Why Develop a Green Purchasing Plan?

Part 3: Five Ways To Reduce Waste in Commercial Buildings

Part 4: Compliance Considerations for Managing Hazardous Materials

A Safer Spring

A Safer Spring?

lawnsign circle.jpg

Be alert for pesticide warning signs.

Teach children to stay away from areas where pesticide warning signs are posted.

Avoid taking walks or exercising where you see landscapers applying chemicals to lawns, trees or shrubbery.

Do not walk on granules scattered on streets and sidewalks to avoid tracking the residue into your home where it accumulates on carpets and house dust.

Talk to your neighbors. Ask them to notify you if they use herbicides or insecticides. You need to keep children and pets inside and to cover play equipment, sandboxes, garden vegetables and lawn furniture.

Close windows to keep the spray or vapor cloud from drifting into your home.

Consider keeping children and pets off lawn areas that have been contaminated even after the warning signs are gone.

Educate your neighbors and friends about safe, ecological approaches to insect and weed control.

Use alternative lawn care signs. They are good conversation starters and help concerned individuals to identify each other. For example, in Newton, MA the Green Decade Coalition promotes the lawn sign:"Pesticide Free: Too Precious to Poison." In Wellesley, Massachusetts, the city's Natural Resources Department and the Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project adopted the Green Decade committee's logo as part of their green and white round lawn sign that says "Keep Wellesley Safe. Pesticide Free."

See Resources: http://greendecade.org/resourcegreenCAP.html

Center for Health, Environment & Justice PVC Campaign

Bill Moyers: PVC Toxic Part 1

Check out this video on how the industry has been hiding information from their workers on the dangers of working with PVC....Does your child's lunchbox contain PVC? Just 3 weeks to the release of CHEJ's Back to School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies.

Length:9:29

Bill Moyers: PVC Toxic Part 2

Just 2 weeks 'til the release of CHEJ's Back to School Guide! Check out part 2 of Bill Moyers' expose on the toxic PVC industry - the same industry that makes PVC lunchboxes and backpacks!

Length:9:58

The America's Children and the Environment website

http://www.epa.gov/envirohealth/children/index.htm has recently been updated with the most current data available for measures of contaminants, body burdens and illnesses important for children's environmental health.

You can visit the website now to see new data for:

-Percentage of children living in counties in which air quality standards were exceeded (1993-2007)
-Childhood blood lead levels (1976-2006), and
-Percentage of children with asthma (1980-2007).

Overall, updated data are presented for 18 different measures of children's environmental health, including measures for drinking water contaminants, blood mercury levels, and neurodevelopmental disorders. For each of these measures, there is now data up through at least 2006. A complete list of the updated measures is provided below.

America's Children and the Environment Measures updated July 2009
E1 – Criteria air pollutants – time series extended to 2007
E2 – Air quality index – time series extended to 2007
E3 – Criteria air pollutants – time series extended to 2007
E6 – Drinking water contaminants – time series extended to 2007
E7 – Drinking water contaminants – time series extended to 2007
E8 – Pesticide residues – time series extended to 2007
E9 – Land contaminants – time series extended to 2008
B1 – Blood lead – time series extended to 2006
B2 – Blood lead – updated to 2003-2006
B3 – Blood lead – updated to 2003-2006
B4 – Blood mercury – updated to 2003-2006
D1 – Asthma – time series extended to 2007
D2 – Asthma – updated to 2004-2007
D3 – Respiratory diseases – time series extended to 2006
D4 – Respiratory diseases – time series extended to 2006
D7 – Mental retardation – updated to 2004-2007
EI1– Mercury in fish – time series extended to 2006
EI2 – Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder – updated to 2004-2007

The America's Children and the Environment homepage can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/envirohealth/children/index.htm

9 - Indoor Environments: Reducing Public Exposure to Indoor Pollutants
RFA#EPA-OAR-ORIA-09-09
http://www.epa.gov/air/grants/09-09.pdf
Closing Date: September 14, 2009

This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits proposals from eligible entities for demonstration, training, outreach and/or education cooperative agreements that will have a national scale impact to reduce exposure to indoor air contaminants and yield measurable environmental outcomes.

Applicants must address one or more of the following EPA indoor air quality program priority areas:
1. Radon.
2. Indoor asthma triggers.
3. Indoor air quality management programs in schools.

EPA also welcomes proposals that are designed to address multiple IAQ contaminants and other relevant issues, such as ventilation and moisture
control, to promote comprehensive improvement of IAQ in homes, schools and/or offices.

Frankenfoods, Natural Versus Organic, & Labor Rights...

July 16, 2009

Organic Bytes #182: Frankenfoods, Natural Versus Organic, & Labor Rights...

Health, Justice and Sustainability News
from the Organic Consumers Association

In This Issue

• Quote of the Week: New Study Reveals Major Health Problems Linked to Genetically Engineered Foods
• Alert of the Week: Support the OCA's National Organic Standards Board Endorsements
• Alert Update of the Week: Tell Whole Foods and UNFI: Organic Means Respecting Workers' Rights
• Survey of the Week: Consumers Think 'Natural' is Greener Than 'Organic'
• Related Web Forum Posting of the Week: The Debate Over 'Natural' Versus Organic Products - Where Do You Stand On This Issue?
• Good News of the Week: Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock
• More Headlines of the Week

K-12 IPM Education

The NE IPM Center’s School IPM Working Group has a 2 year project to pilot IPM education in K-12 classrooms using IPM curricula developed at Penn State (http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/53.htm) and CT (http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Ipm/curriculum/curricK_1.html)

Other IPM curricula

MI (http://www.pested.msu.edu/CommunitySchoolIpm/curriculum.htm)

MN (http://www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pestmanagement/ipm/ipmpubs.htm#pestpatrol)