BERKELEY, Calif. -- Literally and metaphorically, Arlene Blum has climbed virtually every mountain she has set out to conquer – except one.
It's probably only a matter of time before she scales that one, too, given her ferocious tenacity and never-say-die attitude.
Blum, a biophysical chemist by profession with a doctoral degree from U.C. Berkeley, has taught at Stanford University, Wellesley College, and U. C. Berkeley. She is currently a visiting scholar at Berkeley's Department of Chemistry and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute.
"I want to use my knowledge and love of chemistry to inform people about these potentially toxic chemicals in their homes," the 63-year-old research scientist said recently, just days after she returned from a trip to China and Japan to try to help prevent those countries from suffering the same fate as the United States when it comes to toxins in household products.
read the entire article here
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
NBC News Video
I just found this NBC news video from years ago talking about all the toxic chemicals that are accumulating inside people. It seems like we've been going in the wrong direction since this broadcast and still people largely are uninformed about these kinds of issues or don't care. Meanwhile we're all getting cancer, but people just accept it because "everything causes cancer". Its too much work to try to care about cancer.
Chemically sensitive people being ignored from "green" computer strategies
http://www.macopinion.com/index.php/site/more/the_road_warrior_mailbag_june_18_2007/
Here's an excellent discussion about chemical sensitivities and computers.
Chemical Sensitivity Evidently Being Ignored In "Green Computing" Strategies
From AC
Well, as a chemistry/philo lecturer who suffers from asthma and sensitivity to various chemicals, I feel qualified to ask some questions.
1) Can we determine what the correlation level is between outgassing of specific chemicals and your reaction to them?
2) What would be the economic effect of ensuring that 99% of all computing machines have no significant effect on people like us?
I'm afraid that the problem is insurmountable, except for the rich, and I'm not rich enough.
___
Hi AC;
1) It would be a challenge. I know empirically, that at some point the level of off-gassing diminishes to the point where I no longer have physical reactions. I presume that using gas chromatography in a controlled environment over a long period of sporadic sampling, it would be possible to establish the "threshold" safe level - for one individual. Not very practiacl though.
A more useful approach would be to determine which circuit board and other plastic materials are more or less problematical for the chemically-sensitive. For example, while the original WallStreet PowerBooks, which were built in Cork, Ireland, did have an odor when they were new, I didn't react to them. I used a demo 233 MHz "MainStreet" for production for a couple of months in late 1998, and experienced no problems, However, the Taiwan-built 233 MHz WallStreet "PDQ" machine that I purchased in January, 1999 had a completely different circuit board odor, that make me quite ill upon even short exposures. My deduction is that a different chemical formulation was used in the circuit boards of the Taiwanese units. It was 3 1/2 years before I could use the WallStreet as a proper laptop without wearing a charcoal respirator....
read the rest here
Here's an excellent discussion about chemical sensitivities and computers.
Chemical Sensitivity Evidently Being Ignored In "Green Computing" Strategies
From AC
Well, as a chemistry/philo lecturer who suffers from asthma and sensitivity to various chemicals, I feel qualified to ask some questions.
1) Can we determine what the correlation level is between outgassing of specific chemicals and your reaction to them?
2) What would be the economic effect of ensuring that 99% of all computing machines have no significant effect on people like us?
I'm afraid that the problem is insurmountable, except for the rich, and I'm not rich enough.
___
Hi AC;
1) It would be a challenge. I know empirically, that at some point the level of off-gassing diminishes to the point where I no longer have physical reactions. I presume that using gas chromatography in a controlled environment over a long period of sporadic sampling, it would be possible to establish the "threshold" safe level - for one individual. Not very practiacl though.
A more useful approach would be to determine which circuit board and other plastic materials are more or less problematical for the chemically-sensitive. For example, while the original WallStreet PowerBooks, which were built in Cork, Ireland, did have an odor when they were new, I didn't react to them. I used a demo 233 MHz "MainStreet" for production for a couple of months in late 1998, and experienced no problems, However, the Taiwan-built 233 MHz WallStreet "PDQ" machine that I purchased in January, 1999 had a completely different circuit board odor, that make me quite ill upon even short exposures. My deduction is that a different chemical formulation was used in the circuit boards of the Taiwanese units. It was 3 1/2 years before I could use the WallStreet as a proper laptop without wearing a charcoal respirator....
read the rest here
Woman ordered to tear down bubble house
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/wireStory?id=6073143
Ten hours a day, every day, Elizabeth Feudale-Bowes confines herself to a galvanized-steel-and-porcelain shed outside her house. Inside are a toilet, a metal cabinet, a box spring with the metal coils exposed, and a pile of organic cotton blankets. Aluminum foil covers the window. The place is as austere as a prison cell — but it's also her sanctuary from an outside world that she says makes her violently ill.
She and her husband call the structure "the bubble."
This bubble, though, may be about to burst: A judge has ordered it taken down by the end of the month.
Some of the couple's neighbors in suburban South Whitehall Township complained that the 160-square-foot building is unstable and so unsightly it could drag down their property values. The couple also hooked up electrical, water and sewer service without securing permits.
.... read the rest and watch the video at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/wireStory?id=6073143
Ten hours a day, every day, Elizabeth Feudale-Bowes confines herself to a galvanized-steel-and-porcelain shed outside her house. Inside are a toilet, a metal cabinet, a box spring with the metal coils exposed, and a pile of organic cotton blankets. Aluminum foil covers the window. The place is as austere as a prison cell — but it's also her sanctuary from an outside world that she says makes her violently ill.
She and her husband call the structure "the bubble."
This bubble, though, may be about to burst: A judge has ordered it taken down by the end of the month.
Some of the couple's neighbors in suburban South Whitehall Township complained that the 160-square-foot building is unstable and so unsightly it could drag down their property values. The couple also hooked up electrical, water and sewer service without securing permits.
.... read the rest and watch the video at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AllergiesNews/wireStory?id=6073143
New car smell makes my friend sick
http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/cartalk/posts/list/21/1617409.page
My friend purchased a 2007 Chevy Malibu last year but the toxic fumes that it is generating make her sick and she can't drive it. So far the car has 2,000 miles on it. She asked the dealer to take it back and give her a year older car with more miles but they want to give her the wholesale price for her car and sell her an older car with more miles for retail which will cost her more $. The dealer will come out ahead on this deal even if they made an even swap, yet they want more money for the older car with more miles than they will give her for her newer low milage car. Does anyone have any advise? Is there anything she can use as leverage to get them to make an even swap?
My friend purchased a 2007 Chevy Malibu last year but the toxic fumes that it is generating make her sick and she can't drive it. So far the car has 2,000 miles on it. She asked the dealer to take it back and give her a year older car with more miles but they want to give her the wholesale price for her car and sell her an older car with more miles for retail which will cost her more $. The dealer will come out ahead on this deal even if they made an even swap, yet they want more money for the older car with more miles than they will give her for her newer low milage car. Does anyone have any advise? Is there anything she can use as leverage to get them to make an even swap?
Mac user complains of chemical poisoning
from the Mac fix it forums
http://www.macfixitforums.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/455671/1
History:
Lost my voice at a wedding in May 2008 and was without voice for four to five weeks.
Do date, I have never regained 100% of my voice.
Around September 1, I first started to notice smoke smell in my office that I could not identify the source of. My wife could never smell it. As the weeks passed the smell started to cause sinus burning and eventually grew worse followed by other syptoms below.
Reaction:
Chest burning and pressure
Throat burning and Tightness
Nasal burning
Eye burning
Hoarseness
Sinus headaches
General fogginess
Extended exposure:
Lung spasming
sore throat
voice loss
It took me weeks to narrow down where the fumes were coming from. I isolated to to my new Imac that I have owned since August of 07.
Installation of over $1800 in purification systems has not helped and my condition is worsening.
I have contacted Apple about the problem, but no response.
I think I am suffering from toxic poisoning and am considering paying another few hundred dollars to a testing company to find out exactly what toxin I have been exposed too so that I know which toxin to detox for.
I understand the the detox procedure is expensive and lengthly if I don't already have cancer from the toxin.
Is anyone else noticing a smokey smell like wood burning around their Imac or other mac computers?
If so, do you also notice a metal taste in your mouth?
Anyone else had a similar problem?
http://www.macfixitforums.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/455671/1
History:
Lost my voice at a wedding in May 2008 and was without voice for four to five weeks.
Do date, I have never regained 100% of my voice.
Around September 1, I first started to notice smoke smell in my office that I could not identify the source of. My wife could never smell it. As the weeks passed the smell started to cause sinus burning and eventually grew worse followed by other syptoms below.
Reaction:
Chest burning and pressure
Throat burning and Tightness
Nasal burning
Eye burning
Hoarseness
Sinus headaches
General fogginess
Extended exposure:
Lung spasming
sore throat
voice loss
It took me weeks to narrow down where the fumes were coming from. I isolated to to my new Imac that I have owned since August of 07.
Installation of over $1800 in purification systems has not helped and my condition is worsening.
I have contacted Apple about the problem, but no response.
I think I am suffering from toxic poisoning and am considering paying another few hundred dollars to a testing company to find out exactly what toxin I have been exposed too so that I know which toxin to detox for.
I understand the the detox procedure is expensive and lengthly if I don't already have cancer from the toxin.
Is anyone else noticing a smokey smell like wood burning around their Imac or other mac computers?
If so, do you also notice a metal taste in your mouth?
Anyone else had a similar problem?
Friday, November 14, 2008
European "Oeko-Tek" textile standard gets tough on flame retardants
http://www.ecotextile.com/news_details.php?id=889
eko-Tex gets tough on flame retardants
ZURICH – [14.11.08] New criteria announced by the Oeko-Tex 100 standard has banned the use of two common types of fabric flame retardants and also tightened up on the use of certain phthalates in interior textiles and outerwear.
Included for the first time in the new test parameters are the commonly used brominated flame retardants decaBDE (decabromodiphenyl ether) and HBCDD (hexabromocyclododecane), which will be inventoried as banned under new Oeko-Tex 100 criteria.
The new revisions to the existing criteria will also control more tightly the use of phthalates in textiles. Phthalates have been used in the T-shirt printing business as a plasticizer for many years and are required to make PVC printed images soft and bendy especially if there are lots of colours layered onto the garment. Typically, this means in children’s wear, for example, where bright, garish large character prints are very common.
However, some phthalates have been classified as toxic by the EU and have been banned in clothing where there could be prolonged contact with the skin, especially in kids clothing. These include the use of the phthalates DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate), BBP (butyl benzyl phthalate) and DBP (dibutyl phthalate). Now however, Oeko-Tex has restricted these same substances in outerwear and other textiles mainly because these are counted among the ‘Substances of Very High Concern’ (SVHC) on the official REACh-candidate list.
“In 2009 we will also restrict the use of these chemicals on product classes three and four which include textiles that do not come into direct contact with the skin as well as interior textiles,” Helmut Müller of Oeko-Tex confirmed to Ecotextile News.
Also new are the additional full disintegration of lead and cadmium within the framework of the Oeko-Tex heavy metals tests and the inclusion of perfluorooctane sulphonates (PFOS) and perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) in the criteria catalogue. This means that the Oeko-Tex 100 product standards go beyond the legal requirements for these substances.
Oeko-Tex is the largest product safety standard for textiles and this year alone it has issued 9,000 certificates. The International Oeko-Tex Association recently held its annual conference of directors of the Oeko-Tex member institutes from 41 countries in South Africa.
eko-Tex gets tough on flame retardants
ZURICH – [14.11.08] New criteria announced by the Oeko-Tex 100 standard has banned the use of two common types of fabric flame retardants and also tightened up on the use of certain phthalates in interior textiles and outerwear.
Included for the first time in the new test parameters are the commonly used brominated flame retardants decaBDE (decabromodiphenyl ether) and HBCDD (hexabromocyclododecane), which will be inventoried as banned under new Oeko-Tex 100 criteria.
The new revisions to the existing criteria will also control more tightly the use of phthalates in textiles. Phthalates have been used in the T-shirt printing business as a plasticizer for many years and are required to make PVC printed images soft and bendy especially if there are lots of colours layered onto the garment. Typically, this means in children’s wear, for example, where bright, garish large character prints are very common.
However, some phthalates have been classified as toxic by the EU and have been banned in clothing where there could be prolonged contact with the skin, especially in kids clothing. These include the use of the phthalates DEHP (di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate), BBP (butyl benzyl phthalate) and DBP (dibutyl phthalate). Now however, Oeko-Tex has restricted these same substances in outerwear and other textiles mainly because these are counted among the ‘Substances of Very High Concern’ (SVHC) on the official REACh-candidate list.
“In 2009 we will also restrict the use of these chemicals on product classes three and four which include textiles that do not come into direct contact with the skin as well as interior textiles,” Helmut Müller of Oeko-Tex confirmed to Ecotextile News.
Also new are the additional full disintegration of lead and cadmium within the framework of the Oeko-Tex heavy metals tests and the inclusion of perfluorooctane sulphonates (PFOS) and perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) in the criteria catalogue. This means that the Oeko-Tex 100 product standards go beyond the legal requirements for these substances.
Oeko-Tex is the largest product safety standard for textiles and this year alone it has issued 9,000 certificates. The International Oeko-Tex Association recently held its annual conference of directors of the Oeko-Tex member institutes from 41 countries in South Africa.
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