Family Dollar Values
If Congress approves President Clinton's recent budget proposal, an estimated
$50 million dollars could be used to support worldwide family planning services,
including abortion.
Upon appropriation of these funds the United States will renew its membership
in the United Nations Fund for Population Activities. In 1985, the United
States withdrew from the U.N. program to demonstrate the Reagan administration's
opposition to abortion. The U.N. Fund for Population Activities does not
support "coersive" family planning programs such as China's mandated
abortion policy, and Clinton's proposal has made it clear that the United
States will ensure that none of its funds are used to support such programs.
The shift in policy from the Reagan and Bush administrations is a signal
that the United States will be more active in world population efforts.
Population growth and the continued movement of people from rural to urban
areas are believed to place enormous stress on the environment in many countries.
The effects of population dynamics on the environment were not addressed
at the Environmental Summit in Rio de Janeiro, in part out of reluctance
to open the United States to criticism for withdrawing from the U.N. Fund
for Population Activities.
The United Nations is planning an international conference on population
and development to be held in Cairo in 1994. The United States is expected
to be a strong and active presence at the meeting.
Radon Prevention Program Hits High Gear
The presence of radon in private homes and its potential for causing
lung cancer is certainly not news, but aggressive local, state, and federal
efforts to identify and remediate residences with elevated radon levels
and to prevent radon contamination are.
Unwanted houseguest.
New EPA program targets radon. |
The 1986 reauthorization of the Superfund program included an unrelated
requirement that EPA initiate a radon research and demonstration program.
In addition, EPA has launched a highly effective, state-based radon control
program that provides public information, tests households, and gives remediation
advice. This nationwide program involves a large number of private and voluntary
organizations at the local level, most of which were recruited by state
and local health officials.
EPA also helped draft the environmental health prevention objectives
for radon exposure reduction in Healthy People 2000. One objective calls
for the adoption of local construction standards in at least 35 states that
minimize radon in new buildings where levels of naturally occurring radon
are high. Another objective calls for at least 30 states to require disclosure
of elevated levels of radon when buildings are offered for sale. Both objectives
are to be met by the year 2000.
On 12 April 1993, EPA published a notice in the Federal Register announcing
construction standards for preventing radon contamination in 150,000 new
homes built each year in areas where geologic surveys have demonstrated
high ambient levels of radon.
At the same time, EPA released information on radon in a guidebook targeted
to home buyers and sellers. This guidebook has been endorsed by environmental
and health officials and by realtors and local governments.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has published Case
Study in Environmental Medicine on Radon Toxicity, designed to increase
the knowledge of health professionals engaged in primary care about the
hazards of radon and to aid in the evaluation of potentially exposed patients.
The case study is the 14th in a series of 29 such documents released by
the ATSDR.
Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) has introduced a bill to the Senate to
reauthorize the 1988 Indoor Radon Abatement Act to assure that federal leadership
in radon exposure reduction continues. Joseph Kennedy II (D-Massachusetts)
introduced a companion bill in the House. Hearings on the Kennedy bill were
held on 24 May 1993. Both proposals would continue current radon research
and development and expand the radon prevention programs. The bills would
make disclosure of radon levels when real estate is transferred a federal
law. The bills would also extend requirements for radon testing and abatement
to the workplace.
Results from new epidemiologic studies of radon and lung cancer in the
general population are eagerly awaited. These studies should help determine
accuracy of the current cancer risk assessment conducted by EPA. The estimate
of 7,000 to 30,000 deaths annually from lung cancer is based in large part
on studies of workers exposed occupationally to radon. Because these studies
looked at miners who were exposed to dusts, fibers, and other possible lung
carcinogens, some scientists suggest that the risk is overstated. Most of
the current studies attempt to differentiate the contribution of radon alone
to the risk of lung cancer from the risk of passive and/or direct exposure
to cigarette smoke in residential settings. Whatever the new studies may
find, efforts to reduce exposure to radon in homes throughout the United
States have become an important part of fighting indoor air pollution.
Here Comes the Sun
Solar cells will almost certainly be a component of electric cars currently
being developed by automakers, according to Anthony Catalano, a director
at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. "I
think we can see the day when parking lots would be covered with solar cells,
and you would plug in while you park," said Catalano.
Catalano was one of the more than 600 solar-energy experts that attended
a Photo-voltaic Specialists Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, this May.
Conference participants discussed new developments in solar power and its
ecological advantages. Richard J. Schwartz, head of the School of Electrical
Engineering at Purdue University and general chairman of the conference,
said solar power is already the most economical way of providing electricity
for certain applications, especially in remote areas. For example, it is
cheaper for a farmer to use solar power to pump water for his cattle than
to run electricity from a source 1000 feet away, Schwartz said.
Solar-generated electricity currently costs about 10 times more than
electricity generated by coal. However, the recently developed lighter,
thinner, more efficient solar panels are much less expensive than the older,
bulkier cells, primarily because it takes less material to manufacture them.
If an environmental tax, such as the proposed carbon tax, were implemented,
solar energy would be even more competitive because there is no cleanup
cost.
Morton Prince, a senior scientist with the Department of Energy's photovoltaic
energy division, said that the combined output of all solar cells by the
year 2000 is projected to equal the daily power needed by a city of 1 million
people. Nearly transparent solar panels may one day be used on the facades
of buildings, turning them into giant solar generators, Catalano said. Billboards
and roadside telephones are already using solar panels to generate their
own electricity. With the increasing environmental costs of fossil fuels
and rapid technological advances in photovoltaics, the future of solar power
looks bright.
Drinking Raises Breast Cancer Risk
Drinking two alcoholic beverages a day raises the estrogen levels in
women, leading to greater risk of breast cancer, according to a recent study
by researchers at the National Cancer Institute.
"This is the first study to suggest that the mechanism by which
alcohol affects breast cancer risk may be the increase in hormones caused
by alcohol," said Marsha E. Reichman, one of the researchers who conducted
the study.
During the last 10 years, diet and disease research has shown that women
who drink moderately have a breast cancer risk 40 to 100% higher than women
who do not drink. Other studies have shown an association between breast
cancer and estrogen. The NCI study is the first to provide a link between
these findings.
In the study, 34 women were tested for the effects of alcohol through
six menstrual cycles. For half of the study, one group of women drank 30
grams of pure grain alcohol mixed with orange juice each night. The other
group drank only orange juice. During the second half of the study, the
groups reversed their alcohol intake. Tests showed that estrogen increased
up to 31.9% during the middle and final phases of the menstrual cycle in
women who drank alcohol.
(The grain alcohol used in the study was pure [200 proof]. Thirty grams
of grain alcohol is approximately equal to the amount of alcohol in two
strong martinis.)
Results of the study came just days after Boston researchers reported
that three drinks a day may reduce the risk of heart attack by as much as
50%. In the face of such conflicting information, experts say that each
woman should consider her lifestyle and individual risk factors such as
heredity in deciding whether to modify alcohol intake.
Biotech for Wildlife
The University of Florida has implemented a program called Biotechnologies
for the Ecological, Evolutionary and Conservation Sciences (BEECS) to apply
the latest techniques in biotechnology to environmental and wildlife preservation.
"Most biotechnologies--everything from DNA synthesis to protein
sequencing--being used today are benefiting agriculture and medicine,"
said Louis Guilette, Jr., professor of zoology and director of BEECS's reproductive
analysis laboratory. "Unfortunately, these methods have not generally
been available in ecology, or in conservation biology. The BEECS program
is able to bridge that gap."
Endangered and threatened species such as the Florida manatee, panther,
and alligator may benefit from the program. Twenty zoos and several environmental
organizations are already using BEECS' consulting services to obtain information
on topics such as assessing and controlling diseases. Five core BEECS laboratories
provide expertise in molecular genetics, reproductive and immunological
analysis, molecular biomarkers, and education. The primary purpose of the
program is to foster exchange of research findings on endangered wildlife
and plants and the diseases and factors that threaten their survival, but
researchers have hopes that BEECS will have even wider implications.
"BEECS scientists also hope their studies will shed light on the
biologcial effects of global climate change, habitat loss, and other complex
issues involving sustainable ecosystems," said Paul Klein, director
of the program's immunological analysis laboratory.
Contracts to provide consultative and fee-based services to EPA and National
Marine Fisheries have been signed, and proposals are pending with other
key organizations.
Big Green Business
Though environmental challenges abound, the atmosphere in corporate America
is growing greener. The EPA now uses a business-friendly approach, and environmental
responsibility may become a common corporate value.
Such was the consensus at a June 30 conference on Business and the Environment:
A Partnership for Profit and Sustainability. About 350 participants from
corporations, advertising and marketing agencies, and federal, state, and
municipal regulatory organizations attended the meeting, sponsored by the
United Nations Environmental Programme, the Environmental Marketing and
Advertising Conference, and the Center for Resource Management.
Perhaps the most positive view of the day came from Joseph Carra, deputy
director of the EPA, who said, "We don't need to tell business how
to solve environmental problems. Problem-solving and innovation are industry's
specialties. Government should identify problems, set goals, monitor progress,
and publish the results, working in partnership with industry."
Confrontational regulation is time-consuming, burdensome, and can still
be challenged in court, said Carra. "Given latitude to fix things,
industry can at least break even and often emerge as the good guys,"
Carra told EHP.
EPA's emphasis has moved from pollution control to pollution prevention;
frugal processes create minimal waste and avoid crises of waste disposal.
This emphasis has been implemented through the voluntary 33/50 Program (instituted
in 1991 by former EPA Director William Reilly) in which industries pledge
to reduce emissions of 17 toxic substances by 33% in two years and by 50%
in five years. Some participating companies are ahead of schedule.
Carra insists that EPA will keep its traditional regulatory authority.
"Regulation brought about a tremendous health benefit when lead was
phased out of gasoline 10 years ago, before the attitude of business began
to change," he said, noting that even in the greener 1990s, a firm
regulatory hand may sometimes be appropriate.
EPA's new director, Carol Browner, wants business as a partner in problem
solving. Collaborating with hotel and motel chains has resulted in new water
saving procedures. EPA prompted the Coopers and Lybrand accounting firm
to develop a new accounting system with built-in incentives for good environmental
practices. In conjuction with the National Science Foundation, EPA has granted
research funds to universities to devise alternative processes for industry
to use in synthesizing industrial chemicals, dyes, and printing inks, thereby
producing less toxic byproducts.
Carol Browner. Business should be partner in environmental problem solving. |
If EPA is beginning to see business as less of an adversary and more
of an ally, that may be due in part to the way businesses are beginning
to see themselves--as guardians of the environment, rather than exploiters.
"Sometimes, we've changed our ways at the boot of regulators,"
admitted Graham Spurling, president of GNB Battery Technologies. "But
when you're dealing with noxious materials like lead and sulfuric acid,
you generally tend to be careful."
Spurling's company makes automotive and industrial batteries almost entirely
from recycled materials. Spurling advocates "robust design," a
procedure whereby not only the finished product but every process involved
in making it are planned at the drawing board. Environmental concerns, worker
safety, and regulatory constraints are addressed from the beginning. Spurling
says, "We want the process, as well as the product, to be foolproof,
not just profitable. To be better than our competition we have to build
added value into our batteries. We do it by being cleaner than our competitors."
Much of the conference centered on how and whether corporations can boost
profits by stressing their ecological awareness in advertising and marketing.
Surveys show that though consumers are slow to change their behavior, 96%
say they favor environmentally sound practices and many would pay a premium
for greener goods and services.
Bob Garfield, media critic and columnist for Advertising Age,
gave mixed reviews to eco-friendly advertising and was particularly critical
of ads and commercials he called "glaringly disingenuous and self-serving."
Consumers respond better to messages about modest but environmentally
meaningful contributions, Garfield argued, praising a commercial for Coors
beer, which mentioned the brewer's effort to improve water quality. "The
consumer is not an idiot," said Garfield. "Nobody's fooled when
companies determine what the public dislikes about them and try to neutralize
those perceptions with pictures of fuzzy wildlife."
In his address, Bruce Hutton, dean of the School of Business at the University
of Denver, reminded the audience that concern for the environment should
be a core business value, tied to every activity. Companies should design
products that are safe for employees, consumers, and the environment. The
approach should actually be "cradle to cradle," said Hutton, "because
safety is important for the unborn generation, too. If we get our own house
in order and stop defining success only in terms of quarterly earnings,
we can play a major leadership role."
Summarizing the conference, Hutton concluded, "Business doesn't
just reflect the values of society, business helps shape those values. Advertising
and marketing should proclaim that the environment is a value that the business
community cherishes as much as the bottom line."
Ecofriendly Economics
- -- Wal-Mart's Lawrence, Kansas "Eco-Store," was built as
a showplace for energy-saving strategies useful in commercial spaces. The
store is illuminated entirely with natural light, softened to eliminate
glare and show merchandise in its true colors. The light comes from specially
designed skylights, manufactured from recycled materials by Andersen Windows,
who expects to produce them for the general market.
-
- -- Coca-Cola, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and the State of Texas, among others,
tout recycling because it reduces energy consumption and therefore cuts
emissions as well as waste. These companies emphasize their use of recycled
paper for office purposes and packaging; the waste-free "closed loop"
brings the used product back to the manufacturer to be turned into new
product.
-
- -- Advertising Age, the influential trade journal of the advertising
and marketing industry, has introduced a special environmental marketing
issue and announced that henceforth the journal will be printed on recycled
paper.
-
- -- Good Housekeeping Magazine refuses to print advertisements promoting
a product's environmental virtues until the claims are confirmed in the
labs of the magazine's new, in-house department of chemical and environmental
studies. "We may one day consider giving a 'green seal of approval'
to products that qualify," said publisher John Mack Carter.
-
- -- Eastman Kodak can boast that it was one of the first big-time recyclers:
Since 1900, Kodak has been reusing the silver used in photography.
-
- -- Products of GNB Battery Technology, makers of Champion automotive
batteries, are made of 96% recycled material. Champion's president, Graham
Spurling, refuses to buy lead from a "cut-rate Southeast Asia lead
recycler who employed barefoot young women to dismantle old batteries to
feed an open-air smelter."
|
Sperm: Down for the Count
Falling sperm counts may signal rising male infertility, say researchers
in a report that suggest a link between increases in male reproductive abnormalities
and increased exposure to environmental estrogens.
According to Richard Sharpe of the British Medical Research Council and
Nihls Skakkebaek of Copenhagen University, sperm counts among men worldwide
have decreased by 50% in the last 30 to 50 years, while the incidence of
disorders of the male reproductive tract, including testicular cancer, has
more than doubled. Germ-cell-derived testicular cancer is the most common
malignancy of young males.
The report suggests these disorders are a result of fetal exposure to
environmental estrogens, based on the similar occurrence of such abnormalities
and decrease in sperm levels in the sons of pregnant women exposed to the
synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) between 1945 and 1971 and studies
which have induced similar results in animals by brief exposure to DES during
pregnancy.
Sperm shortage. Falling
sperm counts in humans and animals may be due to effect of environmental
chemicals on spermatogenesis. Bob Chapin |
According to the report, which cites another study, "humans now
live in an environment that can be viewed as a virtual sea of estrogens."
Women now take in estrogens from a wide array of sources and consequently
pass them to their developing sons, with the result being an increase in
male infertility.
Changes in diet have also been implicated. Increases in body fat, which
can convert certain steroids to estrogens, thereby increasing their bioavailability,
and the ingestion of phytoestrogens in plants and fungi may contribute to
the estrogen burden. Estrogen-rich soya, whose consumption as a substitute
for meat protein has increased dramatically in the last 20 years, may also
be a source.
As if that weren't enough, environmental contamination over the last
50 years has resulted in human exposure to chemicals that are resistant
to biodegradation, persistent in the food chain, and accumulate in human
and animal tissues over time. Some of these chemicals, such as PCBs and
DDT, are weakly estrogenic and have been associated with reproductive abnormalities
in animals.
Nonestrogenic chemicals, however, may also play a role in the drop in
sperm count, testicular cancer, and other male reproductive disorders. Such
chemicals, which include some pesticides, plasticizers, food colorings,
solvents, metals, dioxins, and alcohol, have been shown to disrupt testicular
development and function in exposures involving experimental and farm animals
and in occupational settings. All of the mechanisms by which these chemicals
affect male fertility are not known, but scientists believe some may directly
impair testicular function, whereas others may interfere with brain control
of sperm production and other hormonal pathways.
It is clear that further discussion and research into the effects, including
the alarming decrease in sperm counts, of both estrogenic and nonestrogenic
chemicals on male reproductive development is warranted considering the
widespread increase and impact of male infertility.
Rio Back Home
Technology "has magnified our ability to impact the earth,"
said Vice President Al Gore at a national follow-up conference to last year's
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Gore advised that "it is in our nation's
best interest," to explore and implement new technologies that are
both economically and environmentally sound.
Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones hosted "From Rio to the Capitols:
State Strategies for Sustainable Development," which brought together
more than 200 representatives of all levels of government, business and
industry, academia, and community action groups to discuss ways in which
long-term economic development projects can be implemented without negatively
affecting the environment or the health of future generations.
At the conference, held May 25-28, an audience of more than 1500 people
heard ideas and initiatives focusing on solutions to the environmental problems
raised by expansion of industry and innovations in technology. Activities
during the conference, including topic panel discussions and regional forums,
were designed to enable participants to hear case studies of successful
sustainable development projects and garner ideas to put into practice in
their own communities.
Reports from regional forums representing 49 of 50 states, released during
the conference, included recommendations for long-term sustainable development
planning, the creation of state sustainable development advisory councils,
community-based actions, and increased public education about the importance
of sustainable development.
Members of the national steering committee for the conference included
governmental organizations such as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National
Governors' Association, and the National Conference of State Legislatures;
industry representatives such as Procter and Gamble, CSX, and UPS; citizens'
groups such as the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development and the
United Nations Association; and individuals such as John Sawhill, president
of the Nature Conservancy, Chief Oren Lyons of the Iriquois Confederacy,
and Thomas Lovejoy, scientific advisor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Last Update: August 26, 1997
