heavy metals

The Environmental Protection Agency has done little to curb the export of discarded electronic products containing hazardous waste, much of which ends up in poorly regulated countries and harms the environment and public health, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report being released today.

In the US, 290 million scrap tires are generated each year!  Reusing them in playgrounds is a good idea from a recycling viewpoint, but what about our children’s safety?  To create playground cushioning, the tires are ground up and magnets are used to remove metals; however, according to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), ground up tires release 49 different chemicals, including seven carcinogens.

Hospitals across Latin America are eliminating their use of thermometers, blood pressure monitors & other instruments that contain mercury in order to reduce health risks & their impact on the environment.

Fireworks displays create surges of pollutant ozone in lower levels of the atmosphere, where it is a respiratory irritant, greenhouse gas, and plant toxin.  Some scientists believe fireworks are  an “insignificant source of pollution”, because they occur infrequently; however, no source of greenhouse gases is insignificant considering our current climate crisis, not to mention the heavy metals and potassium perchlorate in these grand patriotic displays.

Mexican teens have won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize over competitors from 27 other nations for coming up with an ingenious, simple, low-cost, time-effective, scalable solution for removing lead from water: eggshells.