Wednesday, 25 Jun 2003

Stow It

The U.S. famously declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but yesterday it jumped on the bandwagon of another effort to control global warming: a research program dedicated to exploring technologies for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. Such technologies, collectively known as carbon sequestration, seek to keep CO2 out of the atmosphere through storage innovations, rather than through limiting emissions. At a three-day conference convened by the Bush administration in McLean, Va., the U.S. signed on to the research program along with representatives of other industrialized and developing countries, including the E.U. nations, Canada, Australia, Russia, Japan, China, and India. Environmentalists attending the conference applauded the commitment to investigating carbon sequestration but said that technological innovations must go hand-in-hand with mandatory emissions limits.

The Maine Event

Meanwhile, Maine is several steps ahead of the federal government when it comes to combating climate change: Today, the state will become the first in the nation to enact a law establishing specific goals and deadlines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Other New England states have addressed carbon dioxide emissions through different means -- such as executive orders, action plans, and a region-wide emissions-control agreement -- but the Maine initiative marks the first binding legislation enacted by a state. By passing it, the state has committed itself to developing ways to reduce CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and eventually to as much as 80 percent below those levels. All four of Maine's congressional representatives support national climate change legislation, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) expressed the hope that the Maine law would set an example for the federal government.

Under the Wire

Electromagnetic fields from home wiring, appliances, and power lines do not appear to cause breast cancer, according to a $2.5 million study of more than 1,100 women living in Long Island, N.Y. The study, published today in the online edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was part of the much larger Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project, a 10-year, $30 million effort to investigate the environmental causes of breast cancer. After looking at everything from proximity to transformers and high-tension power lines to how often home appliances were used, the researchers were unable to find a connection between electromagnetic fields and breast cancer; other tests conducted as part of the larger study failed to turn up links between breast cancer and exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals. The findings, while reassuring to some, were a disappointment to the determined group of local women whose activism convinced the U.S. Congress to fund the research project in 1993 and whose questions about the causes of breast cancer still remain unanswered.

Channeling Evil

A controversial plan to deepen the main channel of the Columbia River by dredging has gotten the green light from key agencies in Oregon and Washington, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The $134 million project would deepen from 40 to 43 feet more than 100 miles of the Columbia, from Vancouver, Wash., to the river's mouth near Astoria, Ore. That would entail dredging 14.5 million cubic yards of sand and other material from the river bottom, a move environmentalists say would destroy the habitats of crab, salmon, and other wildlife. That didn't stop key agencies in Oregon and Washington, including the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, and the Washington Department of Ecology, from approving the project. Their decision was hailed by business interests, who say deepening the channel will attract global shipping and maintain the region's economic competitiveness.

Classrooms Dismissed

Some California classrooms may be contaminated, and not with the cooties. According to a new state study, portable classrooms are more likely than their conventional counterparts to contain dangerous levels of toxic chemicals. Half of the portable classrooms studied exceeded air-quality guidelines for eight-hour indoor exposure to formaldehyde, and one-hour exposure levels were 10 times more likely to exceed federal guidelines than regular classrooms. Formaldehyde, which is found in pressed-wood furniture, wallboard, and carpeting, is a carcinogen and can cause respiratory and immune-system problems. Because of growing enrollment levels and shrinking budgets, portable classrooms are becoming increasingly common in California; they account for one-third of state classrooms, and some 2 million students spend at least part of their day in them. A lawsuit filed in 2000 convinced manufacturers of prefab classrooms to switch to a less toxic form of formaldehyde and increase ventilation, but the improvements only apply to the most recently purchased portables.