Health | Grist

Plastics, the Silent Obesogens

Can plastics make us fat? 8
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago Despite rampant skepticism, the data continue to pour in -- chemicals in some of the most common plastics and household products, things that surround us every minute of the day, are major culprits in the obesity epidemic.
The toxic assault on our children

Can we protect kids from the toxic trappings of modern life? 1
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Philip and Alice Shabecoff's Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children casts environmental contamination in the context of kids, connecting the dots between the toxification of the young and a slew of once rare, now devastatingly commonplace childhood diseases.
no more playing hooky

Will a greener White House complex mean a more productive president? 0
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
A study released this week says employees in greener buildings are more productive, just as news spreads that the White House complex is seeking LEED certification. What does this bode for Obama? And will he have to sneak smokes under the portico?
Bubble Trouble

The soda wars heat up—and the possibilities are thrilling 9
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Feel free to believe a soda tax won't solve obesity. But don't deny that its revenue will create all sorts of opportunities.
Paging Dr. Pepper

Pollan says health-care reform will fail unless we change the way we eat 11
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
First in The New York Times last week and then on NPR this weekend, Michael Pollan made that point that if we want to fix our health-care system, we have to fix our food system.
Just Beak Ahhs

Ask Umbra on sex ... chicken sex, that is 14
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
If you eat eggs, are you a chicken babykiller? How does that whole thing work, anyway? Umbra cracks the case.
Climate change policy as prescription for British health care? 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Britain's National Health Service could be getting a climate-change makeover. New studies suggest that greening the NHS would save money, jobs, and lives.
Clean (energy) bill of health

Health-care reform through green-colored glasses 1
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Strong climate legislation could save the U.S. $450 billion in environment-related health-care costs. Shouldn’t climate change be front and center in the health-care debate?
A Label Too Far

Big Food’s ‘Smart Choices’ label raises eyebrows at the FDA 4
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
You don't need to be a nutritionist with an advanced degree to know that Froot Loops only qualifies as a "Smart Choice" on Planet Kelloggs. Even the FDA can see the bowlful of holes in this logic.
EPA’s failure to publicize drinking water data prompts rethinking in agency, Congress 1
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
There is some evidence that Congress -- and the Environmental Protection Agency -- are rethinking their policies on a commonly used weed-killer after disclosures that the EPA failed to notify the public about high levels of the herbicide in drinking water.
Pane in the Glass

Should I suck it up and buy vinyl windows? 30
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
The more estimates I get, the more despondent I am about being able to afford windows I feel good about. And the more I realize why people think greens operate in another sphere.
Ad Nauseum

NYC warns residents: “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat” 6
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago
New York City has decided that if they can't tax your soda, they'll go after your appetite instead.
ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Study details health risks from TVA’s spilled coal ash 0
Posted 3 months ago
Exposure to dust and river sediment in the area of the massive coal ash spill from the TVA's Kingston power plant could present a health risk to local communities, found a new study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Gulp!

EPA fails to inform public about weed-killer in drinking water 1
Posted 3 months ago
One of the nation's most widely used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results.
'TIME' for Change

Sustainable ag meets the MSM—and wins! 14
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
TIME Magazine's current cover story wants you to know that our fossil-fueled, chemically intensive industrial food system is destined to fail. The second part of that sentence isn't news to Grist readers. But the first part of that sentence is news, but I wouldn't have expected to read such a strong critique of Big Ag in a bastion of the MSM.
to market, to market

Obama wants to set up White House farmers market 8
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
President Obama says he and the First Lady are looking into setting up a farmers market just outside the White House, which might sell food from the White House garden or from local farmers.
Heat in August

Hotter summers will pose public health challenges 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
The real threat of more intense heat waves tied to climate change isn't higher power bills and sweaty armpits; it's the cascading set of health impacts they would inflict upon the vulnerable populations of American cities.
Change we should avoid

Global warming set to intensify August heat, Climate Central study finds 8
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Hot enough for you? Maybe not. Climate Central crunched the numbers, and your Augusts are going to get hotter and hotter. By the 2050s, Houston, Sacramento, Tampa Bay, and Orlando could have as many August days over 95 degrees F as Phoenix and Dallas experience today. Northern cities won't escape either.
Are you with Don Blankenship or against him?

We are all from Wise County 2
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Want to get really angry about health care and global warming? Not the ginned-up rage of the Obama-was-really-born-in-Kenya crowd, but an anger that fires you up to take action in the name of justice? Anger like the rage felt by so many white Northerners and Southerners in 1963 when they saw Birmingham's fire hoses turned on patriotic African-Americans, a rage so profound that they too joined the civil rights revolution?

Well I invite you, in a brief audio and video tour, to bear witness to what's happening in Wise County, Virginia.
Nitrogen bomb

The obvious advantage of organic food over conventional 16
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
A recent UK report found that organic foods offer no nutritional advantages over conventional. That conclusion is probably flawed, reports Tom Philpott. And moreover, the UK study acknowledges that conventional food has significantly higher levels of nitrogen--a known health menace.