Miscellaneous and Health Issues
Reverb: Current Volunteer Opportunities
It's that time of year again - volunteer season is upon us! This year we've got opportunities for you to volunteer on five awesome tours, helping us activate our greening programs and encouraging fans to get in on the action.
This year we're looking for volunteers for:
Dave Matthews Band
Jack Johnson
John Mayer
Lilith Fair
Honda Civic Tour - Paramore
In exchange for helping us out, you'll get a chance to catch the show! Once the Eco-Village has been closed up for the night, you'll be free to watch the headlining act from the general admission area.
To learn more and fill out an application, visit
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Help Rush Limbaugh become Sierra Club's Top Fundraiser!
On Monday, May 17, Rush Limbaugh asked his listeners "When do we ask the Sierra Club to pick up the tab for this leak?" and blamed "the greeniacs" for driving oil drilling offshore.
Since then, our supporters have responded with outrage. . .and donations! We want to let Rush know that we appreciate his fundraising efforts on the Club's behalf.
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Racial Wealth Gap Quadruples in Since Mid 1980s
The Institute on Assets and Social Policy published a report on Monday based on economic data from the same 2000 families from 1984 to 2007 (hat tip Michael Powell). Its sobering results likely understates the case, since it does not include the post financial crisis period. The study found that the median wealth gap between white families and black families rose from $20,000 in 1984 to $95,000 in 2007. Note that home equity was excluded from the calculation.
Essentially, this underlying trend was that of the rich getting richer:
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Texas Finally Managed to Erase Cesar Chavez
EL PASO, Texas — Cesar Chavez was a Chicano leader who led the fight in a proud movement in the 1960's for the rights and dignity of migrant farm workers. He fought so they would receive better treatment and better pay for their hard labor in the fields.
By organizing the United Farm Worker and using peaceful protest as a tool for change Chavez gave voice to an entire minority in what can be seen as American free speech at its finest. To the Texas State Board of Education, however, Chavez isn't worth putting in the high school history books.
“Personally I believe that not mentioning him [Chavez] would be taking away the identity of people who really struggled and managed to shape the political landscape. Most importantly though, Chavez is indeed an iconic figure in our society. Leaving him out doesn't do the Chicano culture any justice,” said graduate student and Chicano Ricardo Cortez.
Every 10 years the Texas curriculum is changed in schools and one of the many things discussed is who and what will be in history books. In January the discussion to remove César Chavez from Texas history books sparked a debate with those in the Chicano community.
The Texas State Board of Education board members believe that there is an over-representation of minorities in textbooks. Most of these members are strongly conservative and believe that the separation of minorities should be done away with.
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The Oil Disaster Is a Health Disaster, Too
How to Protect Public Health in the Aftermath of Major Disasters
The tragic BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has taken 11 lives. The immediate economic and environmental damages are still unfolding as the 7,500 square mile oil slick oozes toward the Atlantic Ocean. But Louisiana's vibrant fishing and seafood industries have been shut down in anticipation of oil contamination.
The oil gusher also poses a less visible, but just as dangerous, threat to public health from the oil, its fumes, and the dispersants—the chemicals used to clean up the oil. All can be highly toxic and harm the health of those exposed to them, especially volunteers and workers engaged in cleanup operations and those with respiratory ailments, the elderly, and young children living on the Gulf Coast.
There is no clear public health infrastructure to monitor and address these potential human health hazards or any others that may arise in the future. So we need to learn from the health disasters of the past, such as those that occurred from the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and the World Trade Center attack of 2001, and not wait for this to become a public health emergency before responding.
The human health problems evolving from the BP oil disaster are insidious and unknown. The first and most obvious are the health effects from the oil itself. This is mostly a risk for those in the immediate Gulf region and the cleanup workers. More concerning is the ill effects that may come from the way that BP cleans up these oil disasters using dispersants. These are chemicals sprayed directly on the oil slick to break it up into much smaller particles. This does not remove the oil, but the dispersal makes it less visible and prevents it from washing up on the shoreline by breaking the oil into droplets that then often sink to the ocean floor.
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Malaria may not rise as world warms
Studies suggest that strategies to combat the disease are offsetting the impact of climate change.
Of the many climate-change catastrophes facing humankind, the anticipated spread of infectious tropical diseases is one of the most frequently cited — and most alarming. But a paper in this week's Nature adds to the growing voice of dissent from epidemiologists who challenge the prediction that global warming will fuel a worldwide increase in malaria.
On the surface, the connection between malaria and climate change is intuitive: higher temperatures are known to boost mosquito populations and the frequency with which they bite. And more mosquito bites mean more malaria.
Yet when epidemiologists Peter Gething and Simon Hay of the Malaria Atlas Project at the University of Oxford, UK, and their colleagues compiled data on the incidence of malaria in 1900 and 2007 (see page 342), they found the opposite: despite rising temperatures during the twentieth century, malaria has lost ground. According to the models the researchers used to tease out the factors affecting the incidence of malaria, the impact of public-health measures such as improved medications, widespread insecticide use and bed nets have overwhelmed the influence of climate change. "Malaria is still a huge problem," says Gething. "But climate change per se is not something that should be central to the discussion. The risks have been overstated."
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The BP oil disaster is a health disaster, too
The tragic BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has taken 11 lives. The immediate economic and environmental damages are still unfolding as the 7,500 square mile oil slick oozes toward the Atlantic Ocean. But Louisiana's vibrant fishing and seafood industries have been shut down in anticipation of oil contamination.
The oil gusher also poses a less visible, but just as dangerous, threat to public health from the oil, its fumes, and the dispersants—the chemicals used to clean up the oil. All can be highly toxic and harm the health of those exposed to them, especially volunteers and workers engaged in cleanup operations and those with respiratory ailments, the elderly, and young children living on the Gulf Coast.
There is no clear public health infrastructure to monitor and address these potential human health hazards or any others that may arise in the future. So we need to learn from the health disasters of the past, such as those that occurred from the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 and the World Trade Center attack of 2001, and not wait for this to become a public health emergency before responding.
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CDC misled District residents about lead levels in water, House probe finds
The nation's premier public health agency knowingly used flawed data to claim that high lead levels in the District's drinking water did not pose a health risk to the public, a congressional investigation has found. And, investigators determined, the agency has not publicized more thorough internal research showing that the problem harmed children across the city and continues to endanger thousands of D.C. residents.
A House investigative subcommittee concludes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made "scientifically indefensible" claims in 2004 that high lead in the water was not causing noticeable harm to the health of city residents. As terrified District parents demanded explanations for the spike in lead in their water, the CDC hurriedly published its calming analysis, knowing that it relied on incomplete, misleading blood-test results that played down the potential health impact, the investigation found.
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The American Cancer Society Trivializes Cancer Risks: Blatant Conflicts of Interest
CHICAGO, IL, May 20, 2010 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Cancer Prevention Coalition Chairman Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is drawing public attention to the 2010 President's Cancer Panel report which explicitly cited Bisphenol-A (BPA) as a "chemical of concern," and warned that "more than 130 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, and other disorders."
Bisphenol-A is widely used as a plasticizer in polycarbonate baby bottles, besides adult personal care and cosmetic products, food can linings, microwave oven dishes, dental sealants, and also medical devices. Other recently recognized major sources are cash register and credit-card receipts, which are coated with microscopic powdered BPA, and which many of us handle daily.
The Panel rejected the March 2009 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety assessment of BPA as "incomplete and unreliable because it failed to consider all the relevant scientific works." The Panel also warned that FDA's "safety assessment on BPA" had been rejected by a March 2009 consortium of independent experts from academia, government, and industry. The Panel report further emphasized that "science at the FDA is deficient, and the Agency is not prepared to meet regulatory responsibilities."
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Wind turbines pose no health hazard, says Ontario's top doc
Provincial study finds no evidence people get sick from the low frequency noise
Wind turbines don't make people sick, Ontario's chief medical officer of health says after conducting a study of adverse health effects associated with the clean energy sources.
After examining scientific papers and reports on wind turbines from a number of databases and sources, Dr. Arlene King released a report Thursday that concludes that while some people living near turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the evidence to date does not demonstrate a “direct causal link” between turbines and ill health.
However, a groundswell of people living in communities near some of the turbines claim the low-frequency noise emitted from the blades has sickened nearly 106 Ontario residents, who report health problems ranging from hypertension to sleeplessness and nosebleeds in children.
There are over 690 green-energy wind turbines across Ontario.
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The Tennessee deluge of 2010: Nashville's ‘Katrina' and the dawn of the superflood
One of the epic extreme weather events in U.S. recorded history devastated one of America's great cities this month. But the status quo media has barely told the story of Nashville's Katrina (let alone its link to human-caused climate change).
Since the great Tennessee deluge of 2010 foreshadows the shape of things to come for many of the world's great cities if we stay anywhere near our current emissions path, I'm going to begin a multipart series on it. Uber-meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters and I have already touched on the link to warming already (see AP: Calling deadly Tennessee superstorm an “unprecedented rain event” did “not capture the magnitude”), and I'll have more scientific analysis on that next week. What follows is some straightforward — but stunning — reporting on the disaster by guest blogger Eric Normand, a Tennessee-based writer and musician.
The rain began falling on the morning of Saturday, May 1st, 2010, and by the time it finished, approximately 36 hours later; it had dumped a record rainfall of between 12 and 20 inches across Middle and Western Tennessee, devastating 52 of Tennessee's 95 counties. Rivers that normally spanned 100 feet across swelled to a half-mile or more, flooding cities, towns, and roadways, washing away homes and bridges, destroying businesses and infrastructure, and leaving thousands homeless. At least 33 people died across Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky; some while trapped in cars on flooding interstates, others who were swept away from flooding homes by the raging waters, while thousands more were left stranded in remote communities without power or communication for days. Water plants were decimated, the Grand Ole' Opry and many other historic buildings and icons damaged or destroyed, and more than $1.9 billion of damage has been sustained to the private sector in Nashville alone.
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Center for Public Integrity Analysis: BP has Worst Industry Safety Violations Among U.S. Refiners.
Two refineries owned by oil giant BP account for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years, a Center for Public Integrity analysis shows. Most of BP's citations were classified as “egregious willful” by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and reflect alleged violations of a rule designed to prevent catastrophic events at refineries.
BP is battling a massive oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico after an April 20 platform blast that killed 11 workers. But the firm has been under intense OSHA scrutiny since its refinery in Texas City, Texas, exploded in March 2005, killing 15 workers. While continuing its probe in Texas City, OSHA launched a nationwide refinery inspection program in June 2007 in response to a series of fires, explosions and chemical releases throughout the industry.
Refinery inspection data obtained by the Center under the Freedom of Information Act for OSHA's nationwide program and for the parallel Texas City inspection show that BP received a total of 862 citations between June 2007 and February 2010 for alleged violations at its refineries in Texas City and Toledo, Ohio.
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Could a Common Sunscreen Ingredient Speed Cancer Development?
Last year, I wrote a piece for Mother Jones about how sunscreen manufacturers' claims (All day protection! Sweat proof! SPF through the roof!) rarely measure up to the products' performance. So when I heard that the Environmental Working Group was releasing its 2010 list of best and worst sunscreens, I had hope: Would this be the year sunscreen manufacturers finally figured out how to save me from turning into a Twizzler after 10 minutes of yard work?
You'd think so, since according to the new report, 1 in 6 sunscreens is now labeled with an SPF of above 50, compared to 1 in 8 last year. Sounds like good news, since higher SPF means more protection, right? Not really, says EWG senior analyst Sean Gray. The difference between an SPF 50 product and and SPF 110 product is minuscule. Gray believes the sky-high SPF labels can actually be dangerous. "We have studies that show that people who use the higher SPF products don't reapply it," says Gray. "So they end up with more UV exposure overall." (Mother Jones reported on this phenomenon back in the day.)
Another scary new finding: There is preliminary evidence from a recent FDA animal study that a form of vitamin A called retinyl palmitate, present in about 40 percent of sunscreens, may accelerate the development of skin cancer. Researchers applied sunscreens containing retinyl palmitate to one group of hairless mice and sunscreens without the additive to another group. When exposed to UV radiation, the retinyl palmitate group developed lesions and tumors significantly faster than than the non-retinyl palmitate group. What's frightening is that people see "vitamin" and "think it's good for them," says Gray.
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Food poisoning likelier as climate warms
A study on the health effects of climate change in the Maltese islands warns that rising temperatures increases the likelihood of food-borne diseases like salmonella.
“The rise of ambient temperatures in the future is likely to result in an increase in the number of salmonellosis cases,” a study published in joint publication by the Environmental Health Directorate and WHO warns.
Studies quoted in the report already show an alarming 450 cases of diarrhoea occurring every day costing the country a staggering €16 million.
According to the study, salmonella accounts for about 25% of all notified food-borne illnesses, with an average of 133 notified cases each year.
The highest number of cases was registered in 2008.
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Maine Doctors Sound Alarm about Climate Change
Environmentalists have spoken out on climate change for years, but another group is now also trying to raise awareness about the issue: doctors. Several dozen physicians met in Portland to discuss the impact of a warmer planet at an educational workshop organized by Harvard Medical School and the Maine Medical Association.
Some, such as state epidemologist Stephen Sears, already sounded well-versed in the purported links between weather changes and public health.
"One of the things we know from climate change is that there appear to be more severe storms or heavier rainfalls. And when you have over two to three inches of rain -- which we've had several of those storms -- it pushes our sewage systems and our water disposal systems to the limit and sometimes they overflow," he says.
Sears says disruption to these systems creates a potential for water-borne diseases. He points to a recent water main break in the Boston area that required nearly two million residents to boil tap water to avoid parasitic infections. "It does not take very much if our system breaks down for diseases to come back that we think are sort of controlled."
Physicians also tie climate change to increasingly common heat waves in southern Maine, which they say leads to deaths in people with heart and lung disease.
And during the winter, "we're seeing more rain rather than snow, and that sets us up for ice storms that are treacherous and we call it 'orthopoedic weather,'" says Dr. Paul Epstein, assistant director of Harvard's Center for Health and Global Environment.
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Climate change threatens health by Mediterranean
OSLO (Reuters) - People in cities around the Mediterranean including Athens, Rome and Marseilles are likely to suffer most in Europe from ever more scorching heatwaves this century caused by climate change, scientists said on Sunday.
The number of heatwaves was likely to surge to almost 3 each summer from 2071-2100 in the Mediterranean region from just one every third year from 1961-1990, it said. Most other parts of Europe would suffer far less.
The number of Mediterranean summer days with temperatures above 105 Fahrenheit (40.6C), a threshold in the United States for public health warnings, would rise to about 16 a year from 1.6 in the same period.
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