Plastic Burning Makes It Harder for New Delhi Residents to See, Study Suggests
26 February
Health + Wellness
New Delhi's smog is particularly thick, increasing the risk of vehicle accidents. SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP via Getty Images
India's New Delhi has been called the "world air pollution capital" for its high concentrations of particulate matter that make it harder for its residents to breathe and see. But one thing has puzzled scientists, according to The Guardian. Why does New Delhi see more blinding smogs than other polluted Asian cities, such as Beijing?
<p>To answer this question, scientists looked at the chemical composition of the region's smog and found that its density is likely linked to the burning of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastics</a>. The specific <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals" target="_self">chemicals</a> released by this burning and other industrial processes are responsible for around 50 percent of the low visibility, the study authors wrote.</p><p>How did they reach this conclusion? The study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-020-00677-x" target="_blank">Nature Geoscience in late January</a>, measured the chemical composition of the particulate matter in the cities of Delhi and Chennai. These are both cities in the Indo Gangetic Plain, a region blanketed in dense smog, particularly in December and January, a PTI story published by <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/plastic-burning-fog-visibility-reduction-delhi-7163964/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Indian Express explained</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers found that the smog in both cities, though particularly in Chennai, had high amounts of chloride. The researchers then looked at which chemicals also spiked along with the chloride, and found it matched what would be released by the burning of plastic, The Guardian explained.</p><p>"We realised that despite absolute PM2.5 mass burden over Delhi being much less than other polluted megacities around the world, including Beijing, the pollution and atmospheric chemistry of Delhi is much more complex to understand," lead author and IIT Madras Department of Civil Engineering associate professor Sachin S Gunthe told PTI. "This work put forward importance of measurements and modelling approaches to scientifically conclude that half of the water uptake and visibility reduction by aerosol particles around Delhi is caused by the hydrochloric acid (<a href="https://indianexpress.com/about/hcl-technologies/" target="_blank">HCl</a>) emissions, which is locally emitted in Delhi potentially due to plastic contained waste burning and other industrial processes."</p>
<p>The low visibility is a deadly and costly problem for New Delhi, the study authors wrote. It increases car accidents and flight delays. Particulate matter in general caused 12,000 excess deaths in New Delhi in 2017, according to one estimate. But the burning of plastics poses other, unique risks, The Guardian explained. It can release highly toxic dioxins that contaminate the food chain and react with smog to increase levels of ground-level ozone, which have been linked to crop yield reductions of 20 to 30 percent.</p><p>However, the study's findings have one bright side.</p><p>"Given that we find plastic burning as a potential cause of the reduced visibility, we hope these findings will help policy makers to efficiently enforce and implement policies that are already in place towards regulating open burning of plastic contained-waste and other potential chlorine sources," Gunthe told PTI.</p>
<p>Still, the problem of plastic waste is larger than two cities in India. Around 90 percent of waste in low income countries is either left in dumps or burned outdoors, according to The Guardian. The emissions from the burning of plastics can also contribute to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. This means the ultimate solution needs to be a global one.</p><p>"Better waste management needs to be a priority but eliminating plastic pollution also requires a rethink of global plastic production and use," Gary Fuller concluded for The Guardian.</p>
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Infants and young children may experience high phthalate levels because they often put plastic products in their mouths. Image Source / Getty Images
By Stephanie Eick
You may not realize it, but you likely encounter phthalates every day. These chemicals are found in many plastics, including food packaging, and they can migrate into food products during processing. They're in personal care products like shampoos, soaps and laundry detergents, and in the vinyl flooring in many homes.
<p>They're also in the news again after an editorial by scientists in the <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306014" target="_blank">American Journal of Public Health</a> included an urgent call for better federal regulation of the chemicals.</p><p>In particular, scientists are urging state and federal agencies to eliminate phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) from products used by pregnant women and children. Despite evidence of the harm these chemicals can cause, federal regulation in the United States has been minimal beyond <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/01/26/2018-01451/prohibition-of-childrens-toys-and-child-care-articles-containing-specified-phthalates-revision-of" target="_blank">children's toys</a>. A recent move by the General Mills-owned food brand Annie's to <a href="https://www.annies.com/faq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eliminate phthalates from its macaroni and cheese</a> suggests stricter rules are feasible.</p><p>So, what's the risk, and what can you do about it?</p><p>I'm an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wKXbh1UAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental epidemiologist</a> who studies the impact of pregnant women's exposure to environmental chemicals. Here are answers to three important questions about phthalates.</p>
<h2>Who's at Risk?</h2><p>Ortho-phthalates, commonly referred to as phthalates, are synthetic chemicals that are used to manufacture plastic. They help make plastic more flexible and harder to break.</p><p>Despite their abundance in many products, phthalates can be harmful to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018329908" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pregnant women</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935115001899?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">their children</a>. These chemicals can disrupt the endocrine system, the glands that release hormones as the body's chemical messengers. Studies suggest that can lead to pregnant women <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021000684" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">delivering their babies early</a>. Other studies have found that children born to mothers exposed to high levels of phthalates can have a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935115001899?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lower IQ</a> and poorer social communication development, and that these children are also more likely to develop <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP2358" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ADHD</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X18303255?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">behavior problems</a>. Researchers have also found effects on the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280349/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">genital development of male infants</a> born to mothers exposed to phthalates during pregnancy.</p><p>While phthalates can be found in nearly everyone, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018329908" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">minority women have been found to be especially burdened</a>. Studies show that many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.03.030" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">beauty products</a> targeted at these communities contain high levels of chemicals.</p><p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0b013e32835e1eb6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Infants and young children</a> may experience high phthalate levels because they often put plastic products in their mouths as they explore the world.</p><p>Phthalates can enter food at <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Phthalates_FactSheet.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">many places</a> in the supply chain, including through plastic tubing for liquids during production, plastic storage containers and even food preparation gloves. Foods that are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4050989/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">high in fat</a> in particular can absorb phthalates through exposure during processing. Eating out doesn't avoid the risk. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.02.029" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study of U.S. children and adults</a> showed that those who ate food outside of their homes had higher phthalate levels.</p>
<h2>How Do I Know if a Product Has Phthalates?</h2><p>Figuring out which products have high levels of phthalates isn't always easy. While <a href="https://phthalates.americanchemistry.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">phthalates</a> are required to be listed on ingredients labels, they are sometimes included instead as part of the fragrance, which <a href="https://www.safecosmetics.org/fragrance-disclosure/learn-more/trade-secrets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">allows them to be excluded</a> from the ingredients list.</p><p>Many companies have voluntarily removed phthalates, and many consumer products are now labeled "phthalate free." The <a href="https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Environmental Working Group</a>'s Skin Deep website also offers a way to search for details about chemicals in cleaning and personal care products.</p>
<h2>How Do I Keep My Family Safe?</h2><p>Phthalates are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/Phthalates_FactSheet.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rapidly metabolized</a> and generally removed from the body once exposure stops. Until there is better regulation, a few simple changes can make a big difference in promoting health and reducing phthalate levels in the home.</p><p>One <a href="http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1003170" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">easy change</a> is to swap out all plastic food packaging containers with glass containers. If that's not possible, it's best to let food cool to room temperature before placing it in plastic food storage containers.</p><p>Don't microwave anything in plastic, because phthalates can <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph110100507" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">migrate from food storage containers</a> into food.</p><p>You can also reduce phthalate exposure by checking labels to avoid using products that include phthalates, by <a href="http://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1003170" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eating less processed food</a> that might have absorbed phthalates during production, and by cooking more meals at home.</p>
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephanie-eick-1212588" target="_blank">Stephanie Eick</a> is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: Stephanie Eick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-phthalates-and-how-do-they-put-childrens-health-at-risk-155841" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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woman holding water sprayer
Photo by Trung Thanh on Unsplash
Dealing with pest infestations in your home can be stressful. While there are plenty of exterminators that can use toxic chemicals to rid you of your problem, sometimes you want a less harmful solution. Luckily, there are some DIY, eco-friendly methods and natural products that can effectively keep pests out of your home. Below, we're discussing some easy-to-use, natural pest control options for the most common household pests.
Bed Bugs
<p>Bed bugs are among the most prevalent pests to infest homes, and they're among the most stressful for homeowners to manage.</p><p>Luckily, there's a simple DIY solution you can use to kill bed bugs in their tracks. Sprinkle baking soda around the areas you believe to be infected, including around the base of your beds and couches, especially near the legs.</p><p>When bed bugs inevitably try to traverse the powder, the baking soda will naturally dry them out and can kill them before they get to you to feed. Let the powder sit for about a week before vacuuming it up and disposing of the dead bed bugs.</p><p>Pro tip: baking soda is effective against cockroaches as well!</p>Termites
<p>Termites feed on wood and often burrow into the framing of your home to feed, gradually causing damage and potentially compromising the structural stability of your house.</p><p>Many pest control companies use bait stations with potentially harmful chemicals to kill termites, but you can often get a successful treatment using vinegar and lemon juice. The acidity will either deter termites or kill those that are exposed to it.</p><p>Simply mix a cup of white vinegar with the juice from four lemons, and place the mixture in a spray bottle. Apply the solution to areas where you see termite damage or believe the insects may enter your home. Reapply regularly to ensure thorough treatment.</p>Rodents
<p>Whether you live in a rural setting, or an urban sprawl like New York City, mice, rats, and other rodents have an uncanny ability to find a way into your home. However, many of us still feel bad about using poison or rodent traps to kill or capture them. Thankfully, there's a much simpler method for keeping rodents out that won't cause them any harm.</p><p>Mice and rats naturally stay away from certain scents, and peppermint is one of the odors they detest the most. Soak some cotton balls in peppermint oil and place them around your home where you believe the rodents are entering. The smell can help keep them at bay and may make them decide to relocate entirely.</p><p>If you have a major infestation you can't solve on your own, don't hesitate to look for <a href="https://www.peststrategies.com/exterminators/new-york/new-york-city/" target="_blank">eco-friendly pest control companies in cities like New York</a> that use non-toxic solutions and integrated pest management. Their treatments often have better results than homemade repellants while remaining safe for the environment.</p>Ants
<p>It's never pleasant to find ants in your home, and keeping them outside where they belong is often straightforward, even without harmful insecticides.</p><p>Ants leave scent trails to help others locate food sources. Aside from eliminating potential attractions in your home like garbage, crumbs, or unsealed food, destroying the scent trail is an excellent way to ruin their chance of finding a meal in your house.</p><p>The acidity and pungent odor of lemon juice can wipe out a scent trail. Spraying some around areas where you notice ants entering your home can help deter them altogether.</p>Mosquitoes
<p>Mosquitoes are just about the only thing that can ruin a beautiful, sunny day in your yard. Most pest management companies can spray pesticides to keep them at bay, but these can be harmful to you, your family, and other beneficial insects on your property.</p><p>Luckily, there's an eco-friendly solution that can keep mosquitoes away for weeks on end. Mix about two cups of mint-flavored mouthwash, three cups of Epsom salt, and three cans of stale, non-alcoholic beer (yes, really!). Spray the solution around your yard, avoiding only flowers.</p><p>The zero-toxicity repellent can deter mosquitoes entirely, leaving you to enjoy the outdoors in peace.</p>
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A neighborhood that flooded during Hurricane Harvey near the Motiva refinery flaring in Port Arthur, Texas on Aug. 26, 2020. Michael Stravato / for The Washington Post via Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
Texas oil refineries released hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants including benzene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide into the air as they scrambled to shut down during last week's deadly winter storm, Reuters reported Sunday.
<p>Winter storm Uri, which <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/19/texas-power-outage-winter-storm-deaths/" target="_blank">killed</a> dozens of people and cut off power to over four million Texans at its peak, also disrupted supplies needed to keep the state's refineries and petrochemical plants operating. As they shut down, refineries flared — or burned off — gases in order to prevent damage to their processing units.</p><p>According to the Texas Commission on Environment Quality, the five largest refiners emitted nearly 337,000 pounds of pollutants in this manner.</p>
<p>ExxonMobil's Baytown Olefins plant in Baytown released 68,000 tons of carbon monoxide and nearly a ton of benzene in what it called a "safe utilization of the flare system."</p><p>Critics noted, however, that benzene is harmful to bone marrow, red blood cells, and the immune system.</p><p>"There is no safe amount of benzene for human exposure," Sharon Wilson, a researcher at the advocacy group Earthworks, told Reuters.</p>
<div id="c9b47" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8e087bc318806cfd5b8a2494c188f447"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1363487660971597828" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The five largest U.S. oil refiners emitted tons of pollutants into the skies over Texas this week, including benzen… https://t.co/yZtlbByZ6U</div> — Reuters (@Reuters)<a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/statuses/1363487660971597828">1613915765.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Motiva's Port Arthur refinery released 118,100 pounds of pollutants into the air between Feb. 15 and Feb. 18. This was triple the amount of excess emissions the plant reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the entire year of 2019.</p><p>Valero's refinery in Port Arthur flared 78,000 pounds of pollutants over 24 hours beginning Feb. 15, while Marathon Petroleum's Galveston Bay refinery released 14,255 pounds in less than five hours that same day.</p><p>Hilton Kelly, who lives in Port Arthur, told Reuters that there were "six or seven flares going at one time."</p><p>Wilson said that the flaring "could have been prevented" by winterizing the refineries.</p><p>"We need someone in the Texas legislature to file a bill requiring the oil and gas industry to thoroughly winterize all their equipment," Wilson <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/texas-oil-and-gas-plants-quadruple-air-pollution-as-sys-1846299152" target="_blank">told</a> Earther. "The bill probably won't pass in Texas, but that will create some more scrutiny about it."</p>
<div id="86ff1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8fd2fac7710d8b3f605704c950e6e4b0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1363528659458400256" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“If [the industry] had winterized their equipment, this wouldn’t be happening."
ICYMI: oil & gas "pollution event"… https://t.co/5jHzhVhW2d</div> — Earthworks (@Earthworks)<a href="https://twitter.com/Earthworks/statuses/1363528659458400256">1613925540.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Earther reports that between Feb. 11 and Feb. 18, there were 174 so-called "emissions events" from fossil fuel facilities in Texas, compared to between 37 and 46 such events in weeks before the storm.</p><p>In addition to the previously mentioned pollutants, chemicals released from Texas facilities include over 6,500 pounds of the <a href="https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/isoprene.pdf" target="_blank">carcinogen</a> isoprene from a Shell plant in Deer Park near Houston, as well as an indeterminate amount of methane, which is <a href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-other-important-greenhouse-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">84 times more harmful</a> to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over the short term.</p><p>Wilson told Earther that "in Texas we don't count methane" in pollution reports.</p><p>The release of large amounts of dangerous pollutants during Uri stands in stark contrast with <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/17/he-lying-people-are-dying-calls-texas-governor-resign-he-blames-power-outages-wind" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">claims</a> by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that alternative energy sources such as solar and wind are responsible for Uri's deadly power outages and that the Green New Deal would be a "deadly deal" for the United States.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/21/no-safe-amount-environmentalists-sound-alarm-over-texas-refineries-release-hundreds" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>
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Freeway traffic around Los Angeles, California. A new study warns drivers of exposure to dangerous chemicals inside their cars. Ron and Patty Thomas / E+ / Getty Images
Californians with long commutes may be inhaling chemicals that put them at risk for cancer and birth defects, a new study has found.
<p>Led by UC Riverside, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041202100026X?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">study published in<em> Environment International</em></a> found that up to 90 percent of the population with 30-minute commutes in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara and Alameda counties have at least a 10 percent exceeded risk of cancer due to inhaling unhealthy levels of chemicals stitched into the fabric of their cars.</p><p>Long periods spent in cars expose commuters to unsustainable levels of two carcinogens known as benzene and formaldehyde, the study found. "These chemicals are very volatile, moving easily from plastics and textiles to the air that you breathe," David Volz, a UCR professor of environmental toxicology, <a href="https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/02/15/commuters-are-inhaling-unacceptably-high-levels-carcinogens" target="_blank">told UCR.</a></p>
<p>While benzene and formaldehyde are listed under California's <a href="https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/about-proposition-65#:~:text=Proposition%2065%20requires%20businesses%20to,defects%20or%20other%20reproductive%20harm.&text=Proposition%2065%20requires%20California%20to,defects%20or%20other%20reproductive%20harm." target="_blank">Proposition 65</a>, which requires workplaces to post warnings of exposure to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals" target="_self">chemicals</a> that could cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm, how they infiltrate private spaces, like the inside of someone's car, is less recognized and therefore less regulated, UCR reported.</p><p>The average commute time for Californians is 30 minutes, <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/databases/article238667598.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee reported</a>. This time spent is expected to grow as cities become more crowded and expensive.</p>
<p>"Of course, there is a range of exposure that depends on how long you're in the car, and how much of the compounds your car is emitting," Aalekhya Reddam, a graduate student and lead author of the study, told UCR. Keeping windows down during a long commute could allow "some air flow," diluting "the concentration of these chemicals inside your car," Reddam added.</p><p>But chemicals inside their cars are not the only toxins harming Californians. Heavy pollution, caused by on-road sources, on average disproportionately harm African American and Latino Californians compared to white Californians, <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/inequitable-exposure-air-pollution-vehicles-california-2019" target="_blank">according to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists</a>. This exposure comes with a heavy cost, causing lung and heart ailments, asthma and premature death.</p>
<p>In response, plans to reduce emissions and pollution from passenger vehicles are underway. In September, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order, requiring the end of sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035, <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/#:~:text=SACRAMENTO%20%E2%80%93%20Governor%20Gavin%20Newsom%20today,passenger%20vehicles%20to%20be%20zero%2D" target="_blank">according to a statement</a>.</p><p>Yet while California is often celebrated for its climate policy, its high emissions from cars persist. "Passenger vehicles alone produce nearly a third of California's emissions, more than all of the electric plants, livestock, and oil refineries in the state put together," <a href="https://grist.org/article/whats-driving-californias-emissions-you-guessed-it-cars/" target="_blank">Grist reported</a>.</p><p>But increases in emissions, from car tailpipes, for example, have less to do with the lack of environmental policies and more to do with urban-planning decisions. In Los Angeles, the city's layout creates sprawling neighborhoods, causing longer commutes, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-california-insight/a-climate-problem-even-california-cant-fix-tailpipe-pollution-idUSKCN1PQ4MJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters reported</a>.</p>
<p>Long commutes are also a problem for Californians living in the Bay Area. "There's simply not enough housing to live in the Bay Area, and even housing units are very expensive," transportation researcher Giovanni Circella <a href="https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/abc10-originals/the-future-of-super-commuters/103-e1017771-6910-49cf-a56b-a40e005c4c3a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told ABC10</a>. "So, a lot of lower-income workers cannot afford to live in San Francisco and they need to commute long distances."</p><p>As the state becomes more crowded and more expensive, highlighting how the transportation sector in California harms its citizens could inform policymakers and auto manufacturers to safeguard commuters from the risks coming from both inside and outside of their cars.</p><p>"There should be alternatives to these chemicals to achieve the same goals during vehicle manufacturing," Volz told UCR. "If so, these should be used."</p>
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New studies show that the world is back on track to repairing the damage to Earth's ozone layer. Annette Riedl / picture alliance via Getty Images
By Martin Kuebler
In recent years, scientists had been alarmed by a sudden unexplained rise in ozone-attacking chemicals in the atmosphere. Higher levels of trichlorofluoromethanes, also known as CFC-11, were showing up in air samples — despite being officially banned worldwide since 2010.
<p>Scientists were worried that this surge was slowing efforts to fix the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/healing-the-ozone-layer-a-ray-of-hope-for-planet-earth/a-46251681" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thin protective layer in Earth's atmosphere</a> which absorbs most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Unfiltered exposure to the sun's rays can contribute to DNA damage and increase the long-term risk of skin cancer and other health issues.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY0MzE2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MTE4NTAxMH0.CrBIdkhjAqw4NLkzygYtJoE4SmQjG-znecnLOd7JmfE/img.jpg?width=980" id="298f7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="857e00dcd356432b85825357f64b4821" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
<h3>Ozone Recovery Efforts Back on Track</h3><p>But on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00360-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two studies published in science journal <em>Nature</em></a> reported that atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 had once again dropped significantly. By late 2019, levels were falling by about 1% a year — the fastest on record, according to the report — showing that the world was back on track to repairing the damage to Earth's ozone layer, by mid-century.</p><p>Using data and measurements from air-monitoring stations in South Korea and Japan, scientists were able to determine that the largest source of the global increase in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/china-blamed-for-baffling-rise-in-ozone-depleting-gas/a-44583004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"rogue emissions" attributed to factories in eastern China</a> was no longer active.</p><p>Stephen Montzka, an atmospheric chemist at U.S. scientific agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado, who led one of the studies, said the setback caused by the illegal emissions was expected to be "negligible."</p>
<p>Meg Seki, acting executive secretary of Ozone Secretariat at the UN Environment Program (UNEP), credited the reversal to international cooperation and action in line with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.</p><p>The international treaty, agreed in 1987 to ban the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, has been signed by almost every country in the world. CFC-11, once used in refrigerants, as propellants in aerosol cans and in polyurethane foam insulation, has been officially banned since 2010.</p><p>"The [Montreal] treaty did its job," Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, an advocacy group based in Washington, told <em>Nature</em>. "Whoever the offending parties were — including most definitely China — they got their act together."</p><p>"China also did its part in strengthening its policies, regulations, monitoring and enforcement," Seki told DW.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Ecology and Environment in Beijing could not be reached for comment. But in an April 2020 press release, <a href="http://english.mee.gov.cn/News_service/media_news/202004/t20200430_777142.shtml" target="_blank">the ministry announced the first results of a two-month crackdown</a> on the illegal production and use of CFC-11. The campaign resulted in an executive with a thermal insulation firm near Shanghai being sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined 50,000 yuan (€6,400/$7,700). The company was also fined 700,000 yuan and had to forfeit more than 1.4 million yuan in profits since 2017.</p><p>"The Chinese government has always attached great importance to international environmental conventions and has been resorting to strict law enforcement as a major guarantee to safeguard the achievement China has made in implementing these conventions," the ministry said in a statement after the sentencing.</p>
<h3>Construction Industry Crackdown</h3><p>The illegal emissions first came to light in May 2018, when researchers with NASA and the NOAA noticed an unexplained spike in atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11 dating back to 2013. From 2002 and 2012, according to <em>Nature, </em>CFC-11 emissions fell by about 0.85% a year. But from 2013 that figure was cut almost in half, to about 0.4% — the result of about 13,000 metric tons a year of newly produced CFCs in the atmosphere.</p><p>Scientists and researchers with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) were able to trace around 60% of the illegal emissions to eastern China. Posing as buyers, EIA investigators found the use of CFC-11 was widespread in China's plastic foam sector. The banned chemical is cheaper than the alternatives and was found to be widely used to produce more effective insulators for the booming construction industry.</p><p>"Our investigations revealed widespread illegal use of CFC-11 in China as a blowing agent for the production of polyurethane (PU) foams," said Clare Perry, a climate campaign leader with EIA. "The information we provided kickstarted a nationwide inspection and enforcement action by China, which has clearly been successful."</p>
<h3>'Wake-Up Call' for Montreal Protocol</h3><p>According to EIA, companies admitted to mislabeling the banned CFC-11 as <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/banning-the-super-greenhouse-gas/a-36044849" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) compounds</a> and other chemicals. China, which joined the Montreal Protocol in 1991 and said it successfully ended the industrial use of CFCs in 2007, questioned the conclusions of the EIA study. Nevertheless, the government said in mid-2019 it would boost monitoring efforts and impose penalties on companies caught illegally producing the chemical.</p><p>"The action taken in 2018 by China in response to our investigations appears to have led to an immediate reduction of CFC-11 emissions," said Perry. "This issue should be a wake-up call to the Montreal Protocol — the failure to detect the illegal CFC-11 production and use prior to its scientific discovery compels a very serious look at the current monitoring, reporting and verification systems."</p><p>Perry told DW the parties to the Montreal Protocol were already talking about how to expand the atmospheric monitoring network, but said more change was necessary. "They need to consider how they can ensure long-term compliance and enforcement, particularly considering the challenges of taking on new controls of HFCs with the Kigali Amendment."</p><p>The Kigali Amendment, which entered into force in 2019, aims to also phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which were developed to replace CFCs in the 1990s but act as potent greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change.</p><p>"Addressing the existing gaps in monitoring, and filling those gaps strategically with new monitoring stations, would help to improve the detection of regional emissions of ozone depleting substances," said Seki of UNEP.</p><p>At the projected recovery rates, UNEP has said the ozone layer over the Northern Hemisphere and the regions around the equator "will heal completely" by the 2030s, the Southern Hemisphere by the 2050s and the polar regions by the 2060s.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ozone-layer-recovery-back-on-track-after-china-slows-cfc-11-production/a-56540342" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) have one of the highest rates of cancer of all mammals, and scientists have long wondered why.
<p>The answer, <a href="https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/storage/app/media/Misc/PDF/Research%20Publications/2020/Gulland_et_al_2020_CSL_Cancer_Herpesvirus_FMS.pdf" target="_blank">published in Frontiers in Marine Science in December 2020</a>, is complex. But a key component is exposure to toxic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals" target="_self">chemicals</a>, from when the California coast was an industrial dumping ground.</p><p>"It is extraordinary, the level of pollutants in these animals in California. It is a big factor in why we're seeing this level of cancer," study coauthor and Marine Mammal Center pathologist Dr. Pádraig Duignan told the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-01-31/california-sea-lions-cancer-ddt" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>.</p>
<p>In the past 40 years, 18 to 23 percent of the sea lions treated at the Marine Mammal Center hospital in Sausalito, California died of a particular type of cancer, the center wrote in a <a href="https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/news/significant-cancer-rates-in-california-sea-lions-have-major-human-health-implications" target="_blank">press release</a>. This is unusual, as wild mammals tend not to develop this disease. In fact, the California sea lions have the highest rate of a single type of cancer of any mammal, including humans.</p><p>This shocked study lead author Frances Gulland when she first started to work at the Marine Mammal Center 26 years ago.</p><p>"<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">Wildlife</a> should not be getting cancer like this, that's crazy!" Gulland told the Los Angeles Times. "How can that be?"</p>
<p>But the 250,000 or so California sea lions breed on islands off the Central California coast, the study authors noted. This is the same area that saw dumping of DDT in the 1960s, and pollution from industrialization and urbanization in the following decades. Industrial trash, radioactive material and waste from oil refineries was also dumped into the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean" target="_self">ocean</a>, the Los Angeles Times reported.</p><p>"With all the dumping since the Second World War, right up to the 1970s, that's a lot of stuff out there," Duignan told the Los Angeles Times. "These legacy chemicals haven't broken down anything appreciable in intervening years, and nobody knows if they ever will. This is something that they're going to have to be exposed to for who knows how long."</p>
<p>To find out if the chemical dumping was to blame for the cancer, researchers examined 394 dead sea lions over a more than 20-year period. They found that the sea lions were infected with a herpes virus that was partly responsible for triggering the cancer. At the same time, the sea lions with higher concentrations of DDT, PCBs and other toxic chemicals in their blubber were more likely to see the cancer spread.</p><p>What's more, the sea lions in the study had some of the highest concentrations of organic pollutants in their blubber of any marine mammal, the press release noted.</p><p>The results show the dangers that toxins can pose to wildlife long after they are phased out of use. They also have troubling implications for human health.</p>
<p>"Even though some of the pollutants we're finding in the blubber have been out of use for years, these cancer-causing elements remain in the environment for a very long time and wreak havoc on opportunistic coastal feeders like sea lions," Duignan said in the press release. "It concerns me knowing that we consume very similar seafood as these cancer victims and that the ocean is raising a loud and clear alarm in the sick bodies of a sentinel species."</p><p>Gulland agreed.</p><p>"While there is more to be learned about the complex factors that play into the development of this disease, what we learn from these animals contributes to research that underpins the threat to human health from pollutants in the ocean," she said in the press release.</p>
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Fireworks contribute to air pollution and plastic waste. herraez / Getty Images
By Elliot Douglas
First developed in China more than a thousand years ago, fireworks have since become an integral part of celebrations all over the world. From New Year's Eve festivities, to U.S. Independence Day and Diwali in India, many events have become almost synonymous with the spark and spectacle of mini explosions lighting up the night sky.
<p>But as awareness of climate and environmental issues grows, the impact of these pyrotechnic light shows is inching into a spotlight of its own. Made of harmful plastics and chemical compounds, fireworks don't only cause ground pollution, but can seriously affect the quality of the air we breathe.</p><h2>The Real Impact of Fireworks</h2><p>In November, concern over excessive air pollution during the coronavirus pandemic prompted several Indian states and the capital of New Delhi <em>—</em> which has one of the worst smog problems in the world <em>—</em> to ban fireworks from this year's Diwali festival.</p><p>Often known as the festival of lights, Diwali is a five-day celebration observed by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs that ends in large firework displays.</p><p>Many revelers defied the ban. On the final day of the festival, the India Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded "severe" fine particulate matter (PM2.5) levels of 481 in the capital. The index has a maximum rating of 500.</p><p>According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "PM2.5 can penetrate the lung barrier and enter the blood system. Chronic exposure to particles contributes to the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as of lung cancer."</p><p>In Germany, a recent Federal Environmental Agency report said over 2,000 tons of particulate matter are added to the atmosphere every year by fireworks. Of that, 75% is generated on December 31st, when the skies and pavements become a canvas for bangers and rockets let off at will on any and every street corner.</p>
<h2>Contributors to Pollution</h2><p>Jürgen Resch, leader of the German environmental group the Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), has long been campaigning for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/could-germany-ban-personal-fireworks/a-51814772" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stricter firework legislation</a>. Though estimates on levels of greenhouse gas emissions generated during the country's annual festivities vary, Resch explained that the problem goes beyond air pollution.</p><p>"In Germany, we see 10,000 tons of plastic and hazardous waste caused by fireworks left lying around after New Year's Eve every year," he said.</p><p>Georg Alef from leading German fireworks manufacturer Weco is quick to point out that there is no such thing as a climate-neutral firework. But he says modern technology has made a difference to their environmental impact, and that his company is working to make its products more eco-friendly.</p><p>"There is a combustion and as with every combustion, reactions produce something into the air. Our products are not free of fine particles," he said.</p><p>"But then there is the question of the use of heavy metals or heavy metal compounds such as lead, mercury, chrome and so on. These are all natural components, which were perhaps still used in parts in the last century. But today they are banned."</p><p>Alef claims Weco has gone further than many other firework manufacturers: for example by trialling compostable fibers in their rockets and using batteries that are partly made of plant-based materials. By 2021, they hope to be able to replace the plastic caps of rockets with a version made from recycled paper. Nitrogen-based rather than carbon-based fireworks are also produced by some companies.</p><p>Weco says one issue slowing down progress is that biodegradable materials are both more expensive than regular firework parts and not yet widely available. There's also the issue of safety. It can take years for new firework components to be properly tested.</p><p>"We can't use every (eco-friendly) component, especially when it comes to security concerns," Alef said. "And if you want to have complete zero emissions, then the only way is to get rid of fireworks entirely."</p>
<h2>Drone Shows and Laser Shows</h2><p>That is an appealing thought for the likes of Resch. </p><p>"Why do we have to celebrate events by firing rockets and letting off explosions in this primitive way?" he said.</p><p>And there are alternatives. In South Korea, where fireworks usage is largely limited to official events, drone shows have gained traction in recent years, often producing brilliant and beautiful results.</p><p>The German city of Landshut, where fireworks have been banned at New Year's Eve for several years, has become renowned for its impressive laser light shows. And in the Irish capital Dublin, previous years have been welcomed in with a mixture of traditional pyrotechnics and laser shows.</p><p><span></span>While Alef believes fireworks are an important part of German culture and an "artform" that must be preserved, Resch hopes the pandemic will offer a chance for firework-loving countries to embrace more environmentally friendly alternatives.</p>
<p>
<em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/fireworks-can-they-ever-be-eco-friendly/a-55907048" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle.</a></em>
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An aerial view of the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund site on Sept. 22, 2020 in Rancho Palos Verde, CA. Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
A joint report on Monday highlighted the pressure that President-elect Joe Biden is already facing to deliver on his environmental justice campaign promises—particularly when it comes to the 34 Superfund sites nationwide for which there is no reliable cleanup funding—the largest backlog of "unfunded" sites in 15 years.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The federal Superfund program began with the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-cercla-overview" target="_blank">Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)</a>, passed by Congress in 1980. While cleanup efforts were initially paid for by a trust fund created by taxing the chemical and petroleum industries, lawmakers let the tax expire 25 years ago.</p><p>The new report on the cleanup program from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-will-inherit-hundreds-toxic-waste-superfund-sites-climate-threats-n1252276" target="_blank"><em>NBC News</em></a>, <em><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">InsideClimate News</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Texas Observer</a></em> is the fifth installment of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/superfund-sites-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Super Threats" </a>series about Superfund sites and climate change. The first report, published in late September, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/superfund-sites-climate-change/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detailed</a> how hundreds of hazardous waste sites across the United States are threatened by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, which are all exacerbated by a climate crisis that the Trump administration often refused to acknowledge let alone act to address.</p><p>Both reports pointed to a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis which found that 945 Superfund sites are vulnerable to extreme weather events that are intensifying because of human-caused climate change, including hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation, or wildfires. The news outlets behind the series created an<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/map-see-toxic-sites-near-you-are-threatened-climate-change-n1240932" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> interactive map</a> for all the locations on the office's list, which includes over half of the unfunded sites—19 of 34.</p>
<div id="b03a5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="539a490467d6c3af2cb231aa97a42739"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1343520823013871616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">President-elect Joe Biden will have his work cut out for him as he attempts to reverse President Trump’s environmen… https://t.co/NIZ6juIClW</div> — Inside Climate News (@Inside Climate News)<a href="https://twitter.com/insideclimate/statuses/1343520823013871616">1609155300.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The outlets reported Monday that Democrats in Congress, environmentalists, and former officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are urging Biden to consider climate change when creating cleanup plans for not only the unfunded backlog—which has grown under President Donald Trump—but all 1,570 Superfund sites.</p><p>"Even before taking office, the Biden administration accomplished one of the GAO's key recommendations: acknowledge the climate threat," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). "A Biden EPA will need to assess every federal Superfund project and help states do the same. As the GAO showed, climate change brings a new priority to rapid Superfund cleanup work."</p><p>As the outlets reported:</p><blockquote>Beyond Whitehouse's call for climate-threat assessments at every site, one senior former EPA official said the incoming Biden administration should review all of the agreements negotiated by the Trump EPA at Superfund sites with corporations liable for cleanups.<br><br>"You will want to see if the responsible parties were being given preferential treatment," said Mathy Stanislaus, who served as assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management during the Obama administration.<br><br>Stanislaus said such reviews should focus first on any agreements negotiated since the election by the lame-duck Trump EPA.<br></blockquote>
<p>Earlier this month, Public Citizen <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/15/new-trump-lame-duck-temper-tantrum-tracker-will-document-final-gasps-nations" target="_blank">launched</a> an online tool to track Trump's "most corrupt, norm-breaking, dangerous, and unjust actions during the lame-duck session," noting that the past four years have featured "cruelty, recklessness, and cronyism" from the outgoing administration.</p><p>The watchdog group has been critical of Trump's EPA administrators. Currently the agency is run by former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, who was <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/28/gop-slammed-shameful-vote-ex-coal-lobbyist-andrew-wheeler-confirmed-epa-chief" target="_blank">confirmed</a> by the Republican-controlled Senate in early 2019. His predecessor, Scott Pruitt, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/05/finally-victory-people-and-planet-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-resigns" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stepped down</a> in July 2018 in the face of several ethics scandals.</p><p>The Monday report noted that "the Superfund program is led by Peter C. Wright, a lawyer who previously worked for Dow Chemical and represented the company in negotiations with the EPA over Superfund sites."</p><p>Although party control of the Senate will be determined by a pair of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/28/perdue-and-loeffler-silent-2000-checks-while-praising-trump-leadership-covid-relief" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">runoff elections</a> in Georgia on January 5, Biden has already announced several of his preferred Cabinet picks, including Michael Regan, the top environmental official in North Carolina, to head the EPA—a move that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/17/michael-regan-nc-official-reportedly-tapped-be-bidens-epa-head-urged-genuinely" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drew</a> a range of responses from campaigners.</p><p>On the campaign trail, Biden promised to take bold climate action with a focus on frontline communities. His $2 trillion green energy and environmental justice plan, unveiled in July, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">earned </a>praise from various activists, including Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement.</p>
<div id="28f6b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1bb1d6e0d5f2a65c1b4bad9e5b683f76"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1343604912794595333" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">[email protected]'s @VarshPrakash and @DiverseGreen's @andresforchange: @JoeBiden needs to make good on environmental j… https://t.co/7dvRKDzRET</div> — Defend Our Future | #TimeToAct 🌎✊🏿✊ (@Defend Our Future | #TimeToAct 🌎✊🏿✊)<a href="https://twitter.com/DefendOurFuture/statuses/1343604912794595333">1609175348.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Writing for <em>The Hill</em> on Monday, Prakash and Green 2.0 executive director Andrés Jimenez <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/12/28/biden-needs-make-good-environmental-justice-promises" target="_blank">welcomed</a> Biden's selection of Regan for EPA and Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.)<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/17/perfect-choice-progressives-applaud-biden-pick-deb-haaland-interior-secretary" target="_blank"> for interior secretary</a> as "an encouraging sign that his administration is prioritizing the voices of the populations who are most in need of serious attention and aggressive action on some of the most important environmental challenges our nation faces."</p><p>"Still, much difficult work remains to be done if the concerns of frontline and at-risk communities are to be truly prioritized with forging and implementing equitable environmental policies," Prakash and Jimenez wrote, emphasizing that "communities of color have been disproportionately affected by our federal government's lack of action to solve ongoing environmental problems" and "are also at<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/06/29/climate-change-racism/" target="_blank"> higher risk</a> of the consequences of human-induced climate changes."</p><p>The pair urged Biden to "follow through on his promises to root out<a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> systemic racism</a> when it comes to our nation's environmental policy," appoint environmental leaders of color to positions at all levels of his administration, and "take urgent action to curb the global climate crisis and to restore justice for communities impacted by air, water, and land polluters."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/28/biden-already-facing-pressure-tackle-backlog-unfunded-toxic-waste-sites-threatened" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Electronic waste to be dismantled as recyclable waste at the Electronic Recyclers International plant in Holliston, Massachusetts. Zoran Milich / Contributor / Moment Mobile / Getty Images
By Doug Johnson
Laptops, phones and tablets come out in new, flashier upgrades each year, and consumers lap them up, eager to own the latest desirable models with the most cutting-edge features. But with every upgrade, older models mount up in landfills around the world.
<p>In 2019, we generated a record 53.6 million metric tons of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/can-the-pandemic-help-us-to-embrace-refurbished-electronics/a-53741181" target="_blank">e-waste</a>, according to the <a href="http://ewastemonitor.info/" target="_blank">Global E-waste Monitor</a> put out by United Nations University's (UNU) — a UN research and academic institution — among other organizations. It predicts that this amount will reach 74 million tons by the end of the decade.</p><p>Apart from the sheer volume of waste piling up on trash heaps, electronics often contain toxic chemicals such as mercury and chlorofluorocarbons that can leach into the surrounding environment.</p><p>Despite growing awareness of the problem, little of this waste is being <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/china-cleans-up-electronic-recycling/a-42570581" target="_blank">recycled</a>.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.rebelmouse.com/res/scraper/embed?type=mp4&adapt_to_iframe=1&url=https%3A//tvdownloaddw-a.akamaihd.net/dwtv_video/flv/afw/afw20201127_01CheckWaste_sd_avc.mp4&thumb=https%3A//static.dw.com/image/55734519_6.jpeg" id="e56a3" frameborder="0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4dba197d882512042d93384bcf6566e5" expand="1" height="480" width="100%"></iframe>
<p>"While consumers will often say 'Yes, of course I am in favor of recycling, and yes, I recycle,' when you actually look at behaviors, it doesn't match up with the percentages who say they would do it," said Laura Kelly, director of the Shaping Sustainable Markets group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a London-based independent research organization.</p><p>Which is why some experts are calling for a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dematerialization-is-it-time-to-rent-not-buy-electronics/a-55948968" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">radical overhaul</a> of electronics manufacturers' business model.</p><p>"Innovation is very much needed in order to reuse as much as possible," said Ruediger Kuehr, director of the Sustainable Cycles Program at UNU and one of the Global E-waste Monitor's authors.</p><p>Kuehr believes we need to "dematerialize" the electronics sectors – instead of buying and owning the latest tech we should lease the devices we use, with manufacturers shifting their model to providing a service instead of material goods.</p>
<h2>Shifting Responsibility From Consumers to Manufacturers</h2><p>With manufacturers maintaining ownership of their products, the burden of recycling would shift from consumers — who often don't know how best to dispose of old devices — to companies who would reuse materials and parts for new products.</p><p>In 2019, only 17.4% of e-waste — 9.3 million tons — was formally collected and recycled, according to the latest <a href="http://ewastemonitor.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">E-waste Monitor</a>. This largely ends up with recycling facilities that operate independently of manufacturers. And because e-waste isn't their problem, the manufacturers themselves have little incentive to design products with easy disassembly and recovery of reusable materials in mind.</p><p>The new devices with space-age-smooth casings are often virtually impossible to take apart, meaning even the precious materials they contain will end up in landfills. And for manufacturers, the faster we discard and replace them, the bigger their profits.</p><p>Yet for certain products, leasing models are already proving to make good business sense. Japanese electronics company Canon, has a scheme to lease large office printers in Europe, which Kuehr cited as an example of dematerialization. Hewlett-Packard and Xerox offer similar initiatives.</p><p>When a lease ends, Canon takes back the used printer, refurbishes it for the next customer or, if it is no longer in working order, ships it to its facility in Giessen, Germany, where it is broken down to the chassis. Parts are then reused in repairing other machines. This allows the company to recover 80% of the materials by weight, according to Canon sustainability manager Andy Tomkins.</p>
<h2>Numbers Game</h2><p>Tompkins said Canon wasn't only motivated by environmental concerns. Considering the size of the machines — and the volume of materials involved — it "makes economic sense to do this as well," he said. There are also relatively few of these printers out in circulation, making it easier for them to be recalled than, say, cellphones.</p><p>But Tompkins believes subscription models could work for smaller, more numerous devices, if consumers were ready for it. Unlike with office machines, many private customers still want to own a product. Moreover, they want to own one that is new.</p><p>It would also require manufacturers to redesign their product lines — in the same way that Canon's made-for-lease printers are made to be taken apart with maximum recovery of materials in mind — and build facilities to undertake this work.</p><p>Even then, there is a limit to the volume of materials that can be recycled. Blair Fix, a political economist and author of the book Rethinking Economic Growth Theory From a Biophysical Perspective, points out that everything degrades and nothing is perfectly recyclable. "We're always going to need materials," he said. And right now, it is often far cheaper to produce new materials — like plastics from oil — than recycle used ones.</p>
<h2>Incentives for Change</h2><p>Kelly at the IIED noted that, in many cases, corporations do adopt environmentally progressive policies on their own. One reason is that sustainability commitments can enhance their brand. But non-renewable resources are also declining.</p><p>The E-Waste Monitor estimates the value of the raw materials thrown out in old electronics in 2019 at $57 billion (€47 billion). Of this, only $10 billion worth of raw material was recovered "in an environmentally sound way." Some of this value is in rare elements such as gold and those — like cobalt — that are becoming ever scarcer because they are essential to electronics.</p><p>Forward-thinking companies that start rolling out circular strategies now could have a head start if the economics shifts in favor of recycling, Kelly says.</p><p>There is little sign of companies doing so yet, though, and Fix says dematerialization electronics might require government intervention. Regulations could oblige manufacturers to take on the costs of disposing of their products, while public money could subsidize some of manufacturers' costs for setting up their own disassembly and recycling plants.</p><p>"If producers would market it this way, it could really make a difference," Kuehr said.</p>
<p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dematerialization-is-it-time-to-rent-not-buy-electronics/a-55948968" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em>
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Op-ed: How the FDA Ignores the Law When Approving New Chemical Additives to Food
28 December 2020
Insights + Opinion
The FDA has consistently reviewed individual chemicals without regard to the cumulative effect on chronic disease. LauriPatterson / Getty Images
By Maricel V. Maffini and Thomas G. Neltner
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) failure on food chemical safety has left consumers at risk of chronic diseases.
<p>The agency is required to review the safety of classes of chemicals rather than individual chemicals. Using the class approach, multiple chemicals adversely affecting the same organ or system (such as the immune, endocrine, or nervous systems) are evaluated together and a safe consumption level is determined for the class. This approach prevents the intentional new or expanded uses of chemical additives that increase chronic disease and, when coupled with a systematic review of prior decisions, results in health risk reduction. Instead, the agency has consistently reviewed individual chemicals without regard to the cumulative effect on chronic disease.</p><p>In the last 60 years, innovations in processing, preserving, and packaging have made food more affordable, convenient, and available. To accomplish this transformation, industry, with the FDA's approval, has brought thousands of chemicals into the food system, resulting in diets increasingly composed of ultra-processed foods without regard for the cumulative effect of these additives and their long-term chronic health consequences.</p><p>When Congress passed the Food Additive Amendment in 1958 in response to a rapidly changing food system and rising public and scientific concerns about the potential health risks of new chemical additives, it included a health-protective requirement: the cumulative effect of chemically and pharmacologically related substances in the diet must be taken into account when assessing the safety of new additives. That means, additives with similar toxic effects, either because they look alike or affect similar body functions, must be evaluated together to prevent exposures above an amount that would cause harm.</p><p>However, food manufacturers and regulators have neglected to consider this cumulative effect, failing to harness changes in food technology and use advances in scientific knowledge to protect the public from dietary chemical exposures. Medical associations and a group of health, environmental and consumer organizations <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FDA-2020-P-2003" target="_blank">have jointly challenged</a> the FDA to change its practice of not accounting for the cumulative health effect of chemicals in the diet as required by law.</p>
We Are Sick
<p>A lot of us are affected by chronic health conditions. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/research/reports/children-diabetes-rates-rise.html" target="_blank">Diabetes in children</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr123-508.pdf" target="_blank">adults</a>; <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_258.pdf" target="_blank">attention</a>, learning and memory disorders; <a href="https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/obesity.asp" target="_blank">obesity in children</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr122-508.pdf" target="_blank">adults</a>; thyroid dysfunction; and the list goes on. Experts call them non-communicable diseases because, unlike pathogens like bacteria and viruses, we do not pass them from one person to another. <a href="https://www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd-status-report-2014/en/" target="_blank">Global public health experts</a> linked tobacco use, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse, and unhealthy diets to increases in the risk of non-communicable diseases.</p><p>Unhealthy diets are usually associated with calorie-dense nutrient-poor foods, often called ultra-processed foods, due to their ingredients resulting from a series of industrial processes, many requiring sophisticated equipment and technology (sweet and savory snacks, reconstituted meats). In addition to industrially produced ingredients (high-fructose corn syrup, protein isolates, hydrogenated oil), such food also contains numerous additives including dyes, flavors, emulsifiers, thickeners, and artificial sweeteners. Further, industrial chemicals used in packaging manufacturing and food processing equipment —such as bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, PFAS, perchlorate— are also found in these foods.</p><p>These intentional uses of chemical additives number in the thousands, and many have been linked to endocrine disruption, neurological and behavioral problems, cancer, and heart and liver disease.</p>Congress Added Guardrails Against Chronic Health Effects
<p>In the U.S., approximately <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2011.00166.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">10,000 chemicals</a> can be purposely added to food or enter the food supply through processing equipment and packaging, and 60 percent of the calories ingested are from ultra-processed foods. In 1958, Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate chemicals intentionally added to food or to food contact materials, commonly known as food additives, to ensure their use is safe. <a href="https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=170.3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Safe</a> means the potential toxic health effects of a new additive that becomes part of the diet must be assessed in combination with other substances already present and are expected to have similar health effects. Thus, the cumulative assessment of health effects by a class of related substances prevents the addition of intentional new or expanded uses of chemical additives that would increase chronic disease. Moreover, this approach, together with systematic review of prior safety decisions results in health risk reduction.</p>FDA Neglected Its Responsibility to Follow the Law
<p>We wanted to investigate whether and how food manufacturers and the FDA had implemented the cumulative effect requirement. To do that, <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/lack-key-considerations-fda-food-chemical-safety-process-leaves-consumers-risk-chronic" target="_blank">we downloaded and reviewed all 877 safety determinations</a> contained in the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/generally-recognized-safe-gras/gras-notice-inventory" target="_blank">notifications inventory</a>. These notices were voluntarily submitted by food manufacturers to the FDA between 1997, when GRAS notification program began, and March 24, 2020. We looked at GRAS notices because they are publicly available and FDA rules require that food manufacturers include in the notice an explanation of how they considered the cumulative health effect of a new additive. Unfortunately, our investigation showed that both the FDA and the food manufacturers appeared to have ignored this crucial safety requirement.</p><p>We searched the documents for terms "cumulative effect" and "pharmacological" presuming that any analysis of the cumulative effect of chemical or pharmacologically related substances would include those terms. We evaluated every positive finding for context and reviewed the document more closely when warranted. We found that in only one of 877 GRAS notices did a food manufacturer consider the cumulative effect requirement in a meaningful way. Notably, that one notice stopped short of establishing a safe exposure for the class as required by regulation. And we found no evidence that the agency either recognized this single attempt to follow the law or had objected to the omissions in the 876 other notices.</p><p>To better understand how these blatant omissions happened, we also reviewed the FDA's relevant guidance for industry documents to determine if they contain information to help industry understand how to consider the cumulative effect of the substance as required by law and regulations. We used the agency's online research tool and identified 21 documents related to food chemicals. For each document, we searched for key terms including "cumulative effect", "chemically related", "pharmacological effects", and "pharmacologically related". We also searched for references to key regulations or statutory provisions directly related to the cumulative effect requirement. We found next to nothing and what information was there was either incomplete or confusing.</p><p>Ten documents did not mention the legal requirement and two simply restated it. Four documents created confusion by using terms such as 'cumulative exposure' or 'cumulative intake.' Five documents provided incomplete and potentially misleading information. For example, excluding the requirement from the definition of safety or paraphrasing the safety requirement in a manner that limited the assessment to a single chemical instead of related substances in the diet.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTA0Njc1NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTM2MzA5N30.cMC_aYedY_I5-sHSVDl7OawtR0Hf4yt1VvLFTYC3BA8/img.jpg?width=980" id="786d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8cb44fa7ba58ac2d2650055494dd6eb4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1264" data-height="711" />
The Unknown Cost of FDA’s Six Decades of Failure
<p>This is an obvious failure by the FDA and food manufacturers that has significant consequences for public health, particularly for communities already facing significant health and socio-economic disparities and for <a href="doi:%20https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-1408" target="_blank">children</a>, who are uniquely susceptible to dietary exposures to multiple chemicals. It is known that fetal and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-11-42" target="_blank">early life exposures</a> have been associated with long-term diseases or disorders that usually manifest later in life. Development of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2014.05.003" target="_blank">neurological, immune, reproductive</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1210/er.2015-1010" target="_blank">endocrine systems</a> have been shown to be particularly susceptible to chemical exposures. For example, several <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2014-203980" target="_blank">food additives and contaminants</a> in common foods – including nitrates, perchlorate, thiocyanate, BPA, phthalates, potassium bromate, synthetic dyes – all harm the thyroid's ability to produce a hormone essential to brain development. The common-sense preventative measure to reduce exposures is to treat chemicals in the diet with related health effects as a class – as Congress mandated in 1958.</p><p>The healthcare costs of long-lasting health conditions, especially when they arise during <a href="https://doi.org/10.1586/erp.11.93" target="_blank">childhood</a>, as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(20)30128-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economic benefits</a> of preventing exposures to substances that disrupt the normal function of the endocrine system have been documented.</p><p>How can this be remedied?</p>Solutions
<p>First, the FDA needs to add definitions of key terms such as "cumulative effect", "chemically related", "pharmacologically related" and "pharmacological effect." This should not be a heavy lift. For instance, the agency's own Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has already <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/77834/download" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">established definitions</a> for pharmacologically related substances and pharmacological effects; food additive regulators could also implement this. We are not implying that additives be regulated as drugs; rather, that the body does not identify whether a chemical that binds to a hormone receptor is a pharmaceutical or a food additive. But it certainly may have a similar biological response with potentially different health consequences depending on the dose, duration of exposure and life-stage of the individual.</p><p>Second, the FDA should review the requirement for all forms industry must complete when submitting petitions or notifications to the agency for review of their products' safety assessment. FDA should provide clear and specific guidance to industry on what it is expected and how to accomplish it. And, of course, the agency needs to ensure compliance with the law.</p><p>Medical and scientific societies together with health and environmental organizations have formally submitted <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FDA-2020-P-2003" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a petition to the FDA</a> to revise its food and color additive regulations and associated guidance to ensure compliance with the requirements in law. Safe food is fundamental to protect the health and well-being of all Americans. Putting into action the protections already available in the law and regulations would also restore the confidence in the FDA's mission to protect the public health by assuring the safety of our nation's food supply.</p><p>Lastly, these efforts should be conducted without delay so we begin to curb the epidemic of chronic diseases that continue to inflict personal and financial pain in so many families and worsen an already strained healthcare system.</p>
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550 Groups Urge Biden to Become #PlasticFreePresident With 8 Executive Actions
09 December 2020
Politics
Joe Biden pulls a photograph of himself and a supporter out of a plastic bag before signing it during a campaign event at Western Iowa Tech Community College on Jan. 29, 2020 in Sioux City, Iowa. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
A large and diverse coalition of over 550 organizations came together Tuesday to call on President-elect Joe Biden to tackle the plastic pollution crisis through executive actions that would collectively help turn the tide against consumer waste that is choking the planet's natural world and harming human health.
<p>"More than 99% of plastic is created from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, including an oversupply of fracked gas, which is spurring a global boom in new plastic production. That plastic is causing serious environmental problems at every step of its lifecycle," the groups <a href="https://www.plasticfreepresident.org/" target="_blank">point out</a>, explaining the need for action.</p><p>In addition to the 10 steps previously proposed by advocacy organizations urging Biden to lead as a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/09/biden-urged-be-climatepresident-taking-these-10-game-changing-steps-first-10-days" target="_blank">#ClimatePresident</a>, the coalition behind the new call is pushing him to become the first<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PlasticFreePresident" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> #PlasticFreePresident</a> by embracing their <a href="https://www.plasticfreepresident.org/plastic-free-president-dec2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Presidential Plastics Action Plan</a>.</p><p>"President-elect Biden can begin solving the plastic pollution crisis in his first days in office without any help from Congress," noted Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, a member of the <a href="https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">#BreakFreeFromPlastic</a> movement and a convening partner of the action plan.</p><p>"Implementing this historic plan would protect vulnerable frontline communities and marine life while addressing a key driver of climate change," she said. "It's time to rein in the fossil fuel industry's insidious plans to keep fracking for plastic and polluting poor communities here and around the world."</p>
<div id="b107b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2229bb7fdab06f6107b4ab6f94329489"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1336397474127351810" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">PLASTIC POLLUTION ACTION! Join Earth Island, our project @PlasticPollutes, and 550+ groups launching TODAY the… https://t.co/COuehe7Kbs</div> — Earth Island Institute (@Earth Island Institute)<a href="https://twitter.com/earthisland/statuses/1336397474127351810">1607456961.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The plan urges the incoming Biden administration to:</p><ol><li>Use the purchasing power of the federal government to eliminate single-use plastic items and replace them with reusable products;</li><li>Suspend and deny permits for new or expanded plastic production facilities, associated infrastructure projects, and exports;</li><li>Make corporate polluters pay and reject false solutions;</li><li>Advance environmental justice in petrochemical corridors;</li><li>Update existing federal regulations using the best available science and technology to curtail pollution from plastic facilities;</li><li>Stop subsidizing plastic producers;</li><li>Join international efforts to address the global plastic pollution crisis through new and strengthened multilateral agreements; and</li><li>Reduce and mitigate the impacts of abandoned, discarded and lost fishing gear.</li></ol><p>Each broad recommendation comes with specific suggestions. As part of the effort to eliminate single-use plastic, the coalition proposes appointing a plastic pollution czar to coordinate reduction efforts across federal agencies and internationally. To make corporate polluters pay, the plan pressures Biden to throw his support behind the historic Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/02/11/greenpeace-responds-introduction-groundbreaking-break-free-plastic-legislation" target="_blank">unveiled</a> in Congress earlier this year.</p><p>"Plastic production and pollution impact public health, the environment, and climate, and it has reached crisis levels around the world, with the United States as one of the biggest contributors," Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) said Friday, explaining why he introduced the bill — with Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) as well as Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) — and vowing to reintroduce it in the next congressional session.</p><p>"The Presidential Plastics Action Plan lays out how the incoming Biden administration can lead on this plastic waste issue and enact real solutions like updating important regulations and greater cooperation with the international community," Lowenthal said. "We are running out of time to deal with this crisis, but our bill and the Presidential Plastics Action Plan are important approaches to put us on the right track moving forward."</p>
<div id="2abb2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d2f92639b32e7cea5c781fe091b0e1e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1336026891103383552" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We need to #BreakFreeFromPlastic, and that means making sure the big manufacturers generating massive amounts of wa… https://t.co/k0wJaNwXHU</div> — Tom Udall (@Tom Udall)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorTomUdall/statuses/1336026891103383552">1607368607.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Noting petrochemical industry plans for more than 300 new projects over the next decade, the coalition pushes the incoming president to direct federal agencies to deny permits for building or expanding refineries, ethane crackers, pipelines, natural gas liquid storage facilities and hubs, import and export terminals, and other related infrastructure.</p><p>In its demand for advancing environmental justice, the plan acknowledges that "petrochemical companies continue to locate new and expanded plastics facilities near existing fossil fuel infrastructure, which means they are targeting the Gulf Coast, Appalachia, the Ohio River Valley, and other communities that already shoulder a heavy burden of oil, gas, and plastic industry pollution."</p><p>One of these hubs is the so-called Cancer Alley, an industrial stretch of Louisiana that runs along the Mississippi River that is the site of a multibillion petrochemical complex that Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group intends to build despite <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/14/groups-challenge-louisiana-permits-formosa-plastics-giant-petrochemical-complex" target="_blank">objections and health concerns</a> from community members.</p><p>Sharon Lavigne, founder and president of the group RISE St. James, is helping to lead the local fight against Formosa's plans for the plant. She is also a supporter of the plastics plan targeting the next administration.</p><p>"If the Formosa Plastics complex is built, it would be a death sentence for St. James Parish. We already have so many people dying here, mostly from cancer, and others with terrible reproductive issues. If the petrochemical buildout continues, we won't be able to breathe the air and we will die," said Lavigne. "We are asking the Biden administration to consider the lives of the people here in St. James Parish and take action to protect us."</p><p>Backers of the action plan want Biden to not only aid communities across the country impacted by plastic pollution and industry but also to address the crisis on an international scale. As <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/16/more-two-thirds-un-members-embrace-global-plastic-pollution-treaty-not-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> last month, under President Donald Trump, the U.S. government has been in a small minority of United Nations member states signaling it is unwilling to participate in a global treaty on the issue.</p><p>Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law, another convening partner of the plan, said that "President-elect Biden should commit the United States to actively support a new global treaty on plastic pollution; use U.S. trade power to support real development, not plastic polluters; and move quickly to reverse U.S. subsidies and export policies that are accelerating the plastic crisis globally."</p>
<div id="0f02c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8ab2741072cce9b2bce05bd8b80313aa"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1336354862502535171" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Plastic is an environmental nightmare. Yet the fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40% ove… https://t.co/5fty1a7M7w</div> — CIEL (@CIEL)<a href="https://twitter.com/ciel_tweets/statuses/1336354862502535171">1607446802.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Other convening partners are the Azulita Project, Beyond Plastics, Break Free From Plastic, Center for Coalfield Justice, Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research and Education, Clean Air Council, Earthworks, Food and Water Watch, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace, Last Beach Clean Up, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Surfrider Foundation, Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, and Wishtoyo Foundation.</p><p>Hundreds of other groups have also signed on, including dozens of local chapters of 350.org, Amazon Watch, Climate Hawks Vote, Friends of the Earth, GreenLatinos, Plastic Free America, Sierrra Club, Stand.earth, WildEarth Guardians, Zero Hour, and various branches of Indivisible and the Sunrise Movement.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/08/over-550-groups-urge-biden-become-plasticfreepresident-eight-executive-actions%20" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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