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Going Down in Flames
California Bans Flame Retardants Linked to Serious Health Problems |
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11 Aug 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Going Down in Flames California Bans Flame Retardants Linked to Serious Health Problems In a precedent-setting move, California has become the first state in the nation to ban two flame-retardant chemicals that have been shown to accumulate in the blood of mothers and nursing infants. The chemicals, known as PBDEs, are widely used to coat furniture, electronics, plastics, and foams. The California ban will go into effect in 2008, giving ... |
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| Topics: California, health (all these topics) |
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Working on the Chain Gang
California Cancels Use of Prison Labor to Recycle Electronics |
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07 Aug 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Working on the Chain Gang California Cancels Use of Prison Labor to Recycle Electronics California will no longer use underpaid federal prisoners to recycle the tons of potentially dangerous electronics discarded by state workers. The decision to stop shipping e-waste to prisons came in response to pressure from environmental and labor activists, who also successfully protested ... |
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| Topics: business, California, green living, health, pollution and waste, recycling (all these topics) |
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He Issa Dud
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29 Jul 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| He Issa Dud Environmentalists unleashed a barrage of criticism yesterday against Rep. Darrell Issa (R), who bankrolled much of the campaign to recall California Gov. Gray Davis (D) and is now running for the gubernatorial spot himself. "His voting record in Congress is absolutely abysmal," said Rico Mastrodonato, executive director of the California League of Conservation Voters. Mastrodonato's group, along with t ... |
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| Topics: California, elections, politics (all these topics) |
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So Much for 'Go West, Young Man'
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25 Jul 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| So Much for "Go West, Young Man" The U.S. has long imported French cuisine, Italian fashion, and German cars; now, California wants to import Old World environmental regulations. The Golden State has historically been on the cutting edge of environmental politics here in the U.S., but the European Union, with its strict controls on food, water, and chemicals, boasts even more eco-friendly policies. Calif ... |
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| Topics: California, European Union, San Francisco (all these topics) |
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Classrooms Dismissed
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25 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| 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 ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, toxics (all these topics) |
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Chef's Salud
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23 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Chef's Salud Across the Atlantic, another fracas is brewing over genetically modified foods. Yesterday protesters hit the streets in Sacramento, Calif., to rally against GM technology, one day before the start of a large international agricultural conference that is bringing together agriculture ministers from more than 100 countries and reps from biotechnology and agribusiness corporations. Family farmers, chefs, an ... |
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| Topics: California, food and agriculture, GMOs (all these topics) |
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Air Heads
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20 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Air Heads California's San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Board unanimously approved a plan yesterday intended to improve some of the worst air quality in the nation -- but critics say the plan makes too many concessions to industry to be effective. Enviros, doctors, and residents who have suffered from respiratory ailments allege that efforts to reduce dust and diesel smoke will be fa ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, pollution and waste, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Light on Their Fleet
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10 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Light on Their Fleet The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case about whether the Los Angeles area can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose strict anti-pollution rules on buses, taxis, garbage trucks, airport shuttles, and other vehicle fleets. Oil companies and engine manufacturers challenged a rule issued in 2000 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that requires owne ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, placemaking, toxics (all these topics) |
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Owl Play
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06 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Owl Play Logging in the Sierra Nevadas could nearly triple if the U.S. Forest Service manages the forests there according to the new plan it released yesterday. That plan would reduce habitat for the California spotted owl in favor of aggressive forest thinning in the name of wildfire prevention. The Forest Service says the plan, which would radically revise the ... |
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| Topics: California, deforestation, endangered species, logging, news, US Forest Service, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Air Care
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03 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Air Care With the feds having fallen down on the job, the California state Senate stepped in yesterday to keep up the fight against air pollution. The state Senate voted to add New Source Review rules to the state's clean-air regulations -- the same type of rules that the Bush administration did away with on a national level in December 2002. The federal rules had required older power plants and fact ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, California, energy, politics (all these topics) |
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The Price Pump Is Right
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02 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Price Pump Is Right A growing number of California businesses are taking steps to become more eco-friendly, and are saving money in the process, according to a new survey conducted by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. One example is the Price Pump Co. in Sonoma, which has switched to more environmentally conscious packaging, using brown boxes instead of bleached-white ones and eliminating use of nonbiodeg ... |
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| Topics: business, California, green living (all these topics) |
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Take This Job and SUV It
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29 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Take This Job and SUV It Golden State senators will no longer be allowed to use SUVs to tool around their districts, if the president pro tem of the California senate gets his way. Most lawmakers in California lease their vehicles at the state's expense; now, Sen. John Burton (D) wants to ban the lease of SUVs to protect the environment and save the state money on fuel. The rule would apply only to senators, and only to those about ... |
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| Topics: California, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Bottleneck
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28 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Bottleneck Evian, Perrier, Poland Spring -- bottled water has become ubiquitous in the U.S., and the resultant plastic containers are posing an increasingly serious problem by clogging landfills and contributing to air pollution. In California, where bottled water is particularly popular, the state Department of Conservation is unveiling a campaign this week to convince consumers to recycle rather ... |
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| Topics: California, green living, pollution and waste, recycling (all these topics) |
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Greener Curry
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23 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
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| Topics: California, education, food and agriculture, green living, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
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Famous Last Birds
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23 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Famous Last Birds The population of California condors is soaring back to relatively healthy numbers. Biologists have counted 222 of the birds, a tenfold increase from 1982, when the species hit its nadir with just 22 condors remaining. "This is the greatest the population has been probably since the 1950s," said Bruce Palmer, coordinator of the California condor recovery program. The $40 million federal pr ... |
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| Topics: British Columbia, California, wildlife (all these topics) |
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They Can't Strongarm Armstrong
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22 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| They Can't Strongarm Armstrong A federal judge has issued an excoriating dismissal of a lawsuit filed by 22 Southern California inland cities that challenged rules requiring them to help prevent trash from reaching the ocean. The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong, is significant because it dismisses the first of 13 legal challenges to new state and feder ... |
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| Topics: California, pollution and waste, water bodies and marine life, water pollution (all these topics) |
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40 Acres and a Tax Break
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16 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| 40 Acres and a Tax Break California environmentalists and farmers rejoiced yesterday when Gov. Gray Davis (D) restored $40 million in funding for farmland and open-space protection under the Williamson Act. Together, farmers and enviros had lobbied heavily against the proposed elimination of the act, under which the state pays back counties for property taxes lost when landowners are ... |
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| Topics: business, California, food and agriculture, news, placemaking, sprawl (all these topics) |
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Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary
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12 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary Two businessmen want to build a massive cow town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, providing a home for 90,000 cattle and 600 dairy farmers and their families. Sounds like a recipe for environmental disaster, right? Maybe not: In this case, the plan is to make the development a model of eco-friendly large-scale farming. Meth ... |
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| Topics: California, health, ranching, solid waste treatment and disposal, toxics, water pollution (all these topics) |
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Tidal Wave of the Future
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09 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Tidal Wave of the Future The San Francisco Bay could soon become more than just a beautiful backdrop to Fog Town: It could become the engine that powers the city itself. This week, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to investigate commercial tidal power, when it signed on to a $2 million pilot project to generate electricity using the tides in the bay. Every day, almost 400 billion gallons of water rush ... |
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| Topics: California, hydropower, water pollution (all these topics) |
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The Secondhand Ticks Us Off
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07 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Secondhand Ticks Us Off The dangers of secondhand smoke are well documented -- but what about secondhand pesticide? A new report by the same name contends that pesticides and herbicides drifting off of agricultural lands endanger the health of hundreds of thousands of Californians. The report, issued today by Pesticide Action Network North America, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and Pesticide Education Center, criticiz ... |
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| Topics: California, toxics (all these topics) |
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Mexi-can't
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06 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Mexi-can't The U.S. Department of Energy acted illegally when it found that two Mexican power plants would not have a significant impact on the air and water quality in the border region between northwestern Mexico and Southern California, a federal judge in San Diego ruled yesterday. That ruling calls into question the legitimacy of U.S. permits granted to the power companies ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, Department of Energy, Mexico, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
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Golden Brown
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01 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Golden Brown California is home to six of the 10 most polluted metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to national smog rankings released today by the American Lung Association. In fact, the top four areas were all in the Golden(Brown) State: Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Visalia-Tulare-Porterfield. Those rankings mask the fact that California's air quality has actually improved on the whole, but ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California (all these topics) |
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Otter Destruction
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30 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Otter Destruction In true whodunit style, there are many suspects in the puzzling deaths of sea otters up and down the California coast, but, as yet, no clear solution to the mystery. By yesterday, 44 dead sea otters had washed ashore from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, well above the 10-year high for the month of April of 29 deaths, and the high for any month of 34. This month's deceased sea otters brought to 91 the total death to ... |
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| Topics: California, marine life (all these topics) |
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Urinetown
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29 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Urinetown Speaking of water conservation, a waterless urinal designed by a Los Angeles company could save some 40,000 gallons per year for each model installed -- but plans for expanding use of the urinals are plugged up in the L.A. bureaucracy. The device resembles a conventional urinal except that atop the drain is a plastic cartridge with an oil-like liquid seal that prevents unsavory odors from escaping while urine flows to ... |
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| Topics: California, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Beverly Hills Flop
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29 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Beverly Hills Flop Erin Brockovich, the tenacious eco-crusader made famous by Hollywood, is back in the news: She says that many former Beverly Hills High School students have been stricken with cancer because of exposure to toxic fumes from an active oil field on school property. Brockovich and her boss, attorney Ed Masry, yesterday filed 25 personal injury claims for damages against the city of Beverly Hills an ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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