EPA Announces New Mercury and Air Toxics Standards

    The EPA recently announced that it would be implementing long over-due power plant emissions standards for mercury and air toxics such as arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide.   This is significant in that it helps to protect families and communities from the side effects of exposure to these pollutants and in that there has never been a standard such as this although amendments to the Clean Air Act were passed over 20 years ago.  This is of particular importance to me as the mother of small children living in a metropolitan area. The occurrence of asthma and other respiratory illnesses among young children has long been associated with air pollution, especially in minority urban communities. 

    What's even better is the cost savings in terms of health care.  According to the EPA, the value of the air quality improvements for people's health alone totals 37 to 90 billion dollars each year! Also, over half a million "sick" days will be averted leading to higher productivity for workers and lower health care costs for American families.   

    In addition, it is well known that mercury accumulation in certain types of fish can be very hazardous to pregnant women and unborn children.  However, fish is also widely considered to be a healthy food choice. Maybe this new standard will over time, allow us to buy tuna and other types of fish without worrying so much about mercury accumulation in our bodies. This is certainly a step toward holding polluters more accountable as well as overall care for human health.  For more information take a look here and here. Let me know what you think!

Why "On the Sixth Day"?

So, what's the reason behind the title of my blog? Well, just in case you hadn't figured it out, it has everything to do with the Sixth Day of Creation.  On this day, God not only created humankind, but gave us the task of being responsible for the rest of creation.  God spoke, "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth. Genesis 1:26 (taken from The Message Bible).  So, you see, environmental responsibility is not just for those some deem as "treehuggers" (although there's nothing wrong with hugging a tree every now and then). Bible believers are also without a doubt charged with caring for creation.  My intent with this blog is to discuss environmental issues, how they can affect us, and the steps we can and should take to make a difference.

Finally!

I have completed my Master's Degree in Environmental Management, with a GPA of 3.6, all while being a full-time mom and wife. Yep, every once in a while, I do toot my own horn.  Overall, the program was excellent and did a great job of demonstrating real world applications of environmental theories and management principles.  I'm so happy to be done. Whew!

Endocrine Disruptors

In my post on October 15th, I posed the question of why it is important that there are significantly more toxic and industrial waste sites located near poor and predominately minority communities than near more affluent communites. The answer: endocrine disruptors. In a nutshell, endocrine disruptors, such as PCBs and Dioxins (which are probable carcinogens), among others, are synthetic chemicals that when absorbed into the body, affect the behavior of hormones, either mimicking or blocking them, and disrupting normal body functions. Helloooo, this isn't supposed to happen! 

Industrial activities are just one culprit for the release of endocrine disruptors into the environment. For example, over a period of 30 years, GE released over 1 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River, which has been contaminating the sediment for years. Clean up just recently began, but is going to be a long and costly process. In the meanwhile, people are continuing to eat fish from this river, even though it is strongly recommended that this practiced be avoided. We don't know yet how this is affecting people and we may not know for years. The point is this: more minorities and poor people live near toxic waste sites, toxic and industrial waste sites can be ground zero for chemicals that are known to cause illness. Generally speaking, if one is poor in this country, one doesn't have the access to healthcare that more affluent people have.  There is already a double whammy here, my theory is that spending the majority of your time near a toxic waste dump doesn't help much. I'm no expert, but it seems problematic to me.


Click here and here for more information about endocrine disruptors.