Europe’s Nuclear Plants Threaten Millions with ‘New Era of Risk’: Report | Common Dreams

– Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer

Greenpeace anti-nuclear activists project animation of stress cracks and crumbling onto the Borselle plant in the Netherlands (Greenpeace / Jeroen Staats)Many nuclear power plants in Europe have passed their expiration date and pose a threat to millions of people, yet they continue to be heavily integrated into energy programs across the continent, a new studycommissioned by Greenpeace warns.

Most nuclear power plants are built to last roughly 30 years. The average European plant is now reaching that age, and many others have long surpassed it.

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The Safety Of Plastics, Beyond B.P.A.

March 6, 2014 at 10:00 AM    The Safety Of Plastics, Beyond B.P.A.
More scrutiny of plastics. Evidence of potential danger now, even in the kinds that were supposed to be safe. We’ll get the latest.

 

This Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012 file photo shows a sculpture made of empty water bottles in Burlington, Vt. New research presented by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 suggests that high levels of BPA, a chemical in many plastics and canned food linings, might raise the risk of miscarriage in women prone to that problem or having trouble getting pregnant. (AP)

The Food and Drug Administration says the chemical bisphenol-A, or B.P.A., is safe – but bans it in baby bottles, baby cups, the packaging for baby formula. The American Medical Association has deemed B.P.A. an “endocrine disrupting agent.” Studies have found it mimics estrogen. Have linked it to cancer, asthma, diabetes, obesity, infertility, heart disease. Households across the country have cleared their shelves of B.P.A. plastic. But what if the “B.P.A.-free” plastics – substitutes – are dangerous too? There’s a huge fight over that right now. This hour On Point: the safety of plastics.

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Cyprus International Institute (CII) (Harvard School of Public Health) http://Cyprus-Institute.us
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Collaborative on Health and the Environment :: Dr. Frederica Perera on the Effects of Prenatal Exposures to EDCs on Childhood Development

http://www.healthandenvironment.org/partnership_calls/14035

Dr. Frederica Perera on the Effects of Prenatal Exposures to EDCs on Childhood Development

Mar 19, 2014

• Background Information/Resources
• CHE Blog
• RSVP for this Call

The next call in this ongoing series addressing endocrine disrupting chemicals will take place on Wednesday March 19, 2014 at 10:00 am Pacific/1:00 pm Eastern and will feature Dr. Frederica Perera. Dr. Perera’s presentation will review data from a longitudinal cohort study following mothers and children from pregnancy into adolescence. In this study, prenatal exposure to the combustion related air pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes as well as other disease endpoints. Prevention strategies will be discussed.

These calls will be limited to 30 minutes, each featuring a 15 minute presentation by a leading EDC scientist, followed by 15 minutes of discussion.

Previous calls in this series include (MP3 recordings are available):

1/8/14: Endocrine Disruption and Immune Dysfunction

2/19/13: Endocrine Disruption of the Immune-neuro Interface

Featured speaker:  Dr. Perera is a Professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, where she serves as Director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. Dr. Perera is internationally recognized for pioneering the field of molecular epidemiology, utilizing biomarkers to understand links between environmental exposures and disease. Currently, she and her colleagues are applying advanced molecular and imaging techniques within longitudinal cohort studies of pregnant women and their children, with the goal of identifying preventable risk factors for developmental disorders, asthma, obesity and cancer in childhood. Her areas of specialization include prevention of environmental risks to children, molecular epidemiology, disease prevention, environment-susceptibility interactions, and risk assessment. She is the author of more than 300 publications, including 260 peer reviewed articles, and has received numerous honors, including First Irving J. Selikoff Cancer Research Award, The Ramazzini Institute (1995); The Century Club Award Newsweek (1997); First Children’s Environmental Health Award, The Pew Center for Children’s Health and the Environment (1999); Distinguished Lecturer, Occupational and Environmental Cancer, National Cancer Institute (2002); Doctoris Honoris Causa, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (2004); Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2005); and the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) Award (2008).

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Cyprus International Institute (CII) (Harvard School of Public Health) http://Cyprus-Institute.us
Food-Matters

A Climate Analyst Clarifies the Science Behind California’s Water Woes

Climate Change March 6, 2014, 7:56 am
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Pool photo by Wally Skalij A secret service agent in Los Banos, Calif., as President Obama spoke on February 14. Mr. Obama suggested climate change as an explanation for the area’s drought.

There’s no question that residents of California and much of the West face a collision between high water demands driven by growth and outdated policies and a limited and highly variable water supply.

But that reality hasn’t stopped heated arguments from springing up in recent days over the cause or causes of California’s continuing epic drought. Is one of the drivers the growing human influence on the climate? Or is this drought something we’ve seen before, the result of natural variability?

In the wake of an unusual public debate on this issue between President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, and Roger Pielke, Jr., a longtime analyst of climate-related disaster losses at the University of Colorado, I received a helpful note from Martin Hoerling, who studies climate extremes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hoerling’s conclusions echo those of another longtime student of western drought, Richard Seager of Columbia University, as reported in Justin Gillis’s recent news report on the issue. “I’m pretty sure the severity of this thing is due to natural variability,” Seager told Gillis.

….(read more).

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Growing Food Resilience

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Henriet DeBruin: Farming Ontario’s North

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Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria | FRONTLINE | PBS

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Cyprus International Institute (CII) (Harvard School of Public Health) http://Cyprus-Institute.us
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Rape in the Fields | FRONTLINE | PBS

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Ideas @Davos | Gemma Bulos | Affordable Water Management

World Economic Forum

Published on Mar 6, 2014

http://www.weforum.org/
Gemma Bulos, Director of the Global Women’s water initiatives tells us how to bring water to the neediest communities in practical and affordable ways.

Global Climate Change
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Food-Matters

Van Jones on Crossfire: No more guacamole?

rebuildthedream

Published on Mar 6, 2014

3/5/14: Van Jones on Crossfire warns of avocado shortage due to global warming. If you want to keep eating green stuff, you need to start using green energy.

Global Climate Change
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Food-Matters