Environmental, Health and Safety News

Rossi Energy Cold Fusion Catalyzer, Defkalion and other LENR Updates

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:59:00 +0000

Ecat World reports that the most recent issue of the American Chemical Society’s Chemical and Engineering News magazine includes an article entitled, “Reviving Cold Fusion.” written by Steven K. Ritter. The brief summary reads, “After 20-plus years of outcast status, unconventional heat-producing nuclear reactions still seem plausible”.

The article is really a review of the history and current state of LENR, much of its content is what people following recent developments in LENR research already know. Ritter contacted a number of people involved in the field, including Dennis Bushnell of NASA, Robert Duncan of the University of Missouri, Steven B. Krivit of New Energy Times, and Andrea Rossi. Quite a bit of the article is devoted to describing Rossi’s E-Cat, and emphasizes that as yet it is unproven.
Bushnell maintains that, “From more than two decades of experiments producing heat and transmutations, ‘something’ is real and happening.”
Krivit says of the E-Cat, ““Rossi has no credible evidence for his extraordinary claims, I have stopped paying attention to him.”
Duncan states, ” “I don’t need to have an opinion about the E-Cat. Nobody does. Rossi is claiming to be going commercial with it. If he does deliver to the marketplace, then the marketplace will decide the efficacy of the technology.

PESN has an update on the LENR to Market for May 17.

Ecat.com has the main Rossi ecat update

ECAT Licensees to be revealed October, 2012

Leonardo Corp have a number of Licensees for its products for various regions around the world including its northern Europe Licensee Hydro Fusion Ltd, which also attended the E-Cat 1MW October test. All E-Cat Licensees have attended demos of operating E-Cat units.
A convention will be held for all E-Cat Licensees and is set for October. An official list of all licensees will then be published online at ECAT.com.

ECAT 1 MW Updates

One ECAT 1 MW plant has been delivered and is working in a military facility. Andrea Rossi recently made the following statement:
“The 1 MW plant has been delivered and is working in a military concern. It has been made in the USA, after the October test of the prototype made in Italy; such prototype will be delivered, with the modifications which we will complete based on what we learnt from the model at work, to a European Customer in July. ”
The ECAT 1 MW plant in USA is now stable at very high temperatures.
The industrial plants will get the necessary certification within weeks.
The price for an E-Cat 1 MW plant is still $1.5M; orders can be made from the inquiry form on the right side at this website.

Home ECAT-units will not be available until 2012-2013 due to rigid testing, certification and regulation procedures.

Rossi has stated that the ecat (Energy Catalyzer) works at 600 degrees celsius which is a high enough temperature to power generation of electricity

WWII chemical exposure spurs obesity, autism, researcher says.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:14:00 +0000

The World War II generation may have passed down to their grandchildren the effects of chemical exposure in the 1940s, possibly explaining current rates of obesity, autism and mental illness, according to one researcher.

Please continue reading at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/21/bloomberg_articlesM4DRCL6KLVR401-M4E16.DTL

Leaked memo: Afghan ‘burn pit’ could wreck veterans’ hearts, lungs.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:20:00 +0000

For years, U.S. government agencies have told the public, veterans and Congress that they couldn’t draw any connections between the so-called “burn pits” disposing of trash at the military’s biggest bases and veterans’ respiratory or cardiopulmonary problems. Now a leaked memo contradicts that claim.

Please continue reading at:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/bagram-health-risk

Head of US nuclear safety agency to step down.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The embattled chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission resigned Monday after a tumultuous three-year tenure in which he pushed for sweeping safety reforms but came under fire for an unyielding management style that fellow commissioners and agency employees described as bullying.

Please read more from source:

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Head-of-US-nuclear-safety-agency-to-step-down-3573857.php

Safer Flame retardant now being tested for health risks

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:31:00 +0000

From: The Chicago Tribune

By the early 2000s, the flame retardant known as penta had become a villain. Packed by the pound into couches and other furniture, the chemical was turning up in the blood of babies and in breast milk around the world. The European Union voted to ban penta after researchers linked it to developmental and neurological problems in children, and manufacturers pulled it from the market.

But the only U.S. company that made penta soon introduced a replacement, hailing it as the beginning of an eco-friendly era for flame retardants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to safeguard America’s health and environment, praised the withdrawal of penta as a “responsible action” and promised that the new flame retardant had none of the problems of the old one. Unlike penta, Firemaster 550 would neither stick around in the environment nor build up in people and wildlife, a top EPA official declared in a 2003 news release.

Today, in sharp contrast to the promises of industry and government, chemicals in the flame retardant are being found everywhere from house dust in Boston to the air in Chicago. There also are signs the chemicals are building up in wildlife, prompting concern that Firemaster 550 or its byproducts could be accumulating in people.

At a time when consumers clamor for more information about their exposure to toxic substances, the chemical safety law allows manufacturers to sell products without proving they are safe and to treat the formulas as trade secrets. Once health effects are documented, the law makes it almost impossible for the EPA to ban chemicals. EPA officials acknowledge they know little, if anything, about the safety of not only Firemaster 550 but most of the other 84,000 industrial compounds in commercial use in the U.S.

Unlike Europe, where companies generally are required to prove the safety of their chemicals before use, U.S. law requires manufacturers to submit safety data only if they have it. Most don’t, records show, which forces the EPA to predict whether chemicals will pose health problems by using computer models that the agency admits can fail to identify adverse effects.

For the full article please see the above link.

Link Source

nexreg.com

Natural cancer drug available from soaking soybeans- #health # cancer

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:25:00 +0000

A group of plant scientists at the University of Missouri have discovered a new, inexpensive approach to extracting an powerful anticancer chemical from soybeans. The incidence of a number of common cancers (breast, colorectal, prostate, bladder, lymphoma, and oral cancers) is lower in Japan by a factor of two to ten times than in North America or Western Europe. The medical profession is edging toward a conclusion that a significant portion of the reduction in alimentary system cancers and breast cancer is associated with the importance of the humble soybean to Japanese diets. .. Continue Reading Natural cancer drug available from soaking soybeans

A cool 1956 sterling waste heat fan | Modern Mechanix

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:20:00 +0000

HOW DOES IT WORK?

In the base of tlie fan is an oil lamp which heats a cylinder containing two pistons. Light the lamp and the blades slowly pick up speed. The fans were part of a shipment made up for a long forgotten African hunting expedition.

Please read more from source:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/how-does-it-work-oil-lamp-fan/

Interview: Taking Green Chemistry Out Of the Lab and into Public Policy

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:41:00 +0000

Paul Anastas is credited with coining the term “green chemistry,” the movement to make chemicals and industrial processes more environmentally friendly, and during two stints in Washington, D.C., he has worked to

Michael Marsland/
Yale University

Paul Anastas

promote those principles at the U.S. Environmental Protection. Anastas, 49, recently left his post as EPA assistant administrator and science advisor to return to teaching at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about his role in EPA’s decision to approve the use of chemical dispersants after the BP oil spill, why a chemical-by-chemical approach to toxicity testing is not the best model for protecting the environment or human health, and why companies are increasingly applying the concepts of green chemistry to the design of materials and products. “For every one process or product that’s being reinvented using green chemistry and green engineering,” he says, “there may be a hundred or a thousand that have yet to be rethought under these terms.”
Read the interview

Alternative Energy low-cost, large-area piezoelectric nanogenerator

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:35:00 +0000

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a new piezoelectric nanogenerator that promises to overcome the restrictions found in previous attempts to build a simple, low-cost, large scale self-powered energy system... Continue Reading KAIST develops low-cost, large-area piezoelectric nanogenerator

Diesel-Like Engine Could Boost Fuel Economy 50%

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:40:00 +0000

Slashdot
"Autoparts manufacturer Delphi has developed a diesel-like ignition engine running on gasoline, providing a potential 50 percent efficiency improvement over existing gas-powered engines. Engineers have long sought to run diesel-like engines on gasoline for its higher efficiency and low emissions. Delphi's engine, using a technique called gasoline-direct-injection compression ignition, could rival the performance of hybrid automobiles at a cheaper cost."

Please read full and follow at:

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/05/18/1538252/diesel-like-engine-could-boost-fuel-economy-by-50?

#Apple Commits To 100% #Renewable #Energy Sources for Data Center

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:25:00 +0000

"Stung by continued criticism from Greenpeace and protests at Apple's headquarters over its use of electricity from non-renewable sources, Apple has promised that its data center in Maiden, North Carolina will use 100 percent renewable electricity,, 60 percent of it generated by Apple itself. The update is possible because it is building a second giant solar array, and because its data center only needs 20MW at full capacity, instead of the 100MW which Greenpeace had estimated."

Please read full and follow at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/05/19/145259/apple-commits-to-100-renewabl...

Now the majority of chronic, costly, deadly disease in America is "self induced"

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:17:00 +0000

Classic Varvel: No fat future - what's wrong with this picture?

Please read classic Varvel at

http://blogs.indystar.com/varvelblog/2012/05/19/caption-this-winners-119

Economy 'your fired' warns Donald Trump - Massive Inflation Coming

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:05:00 +0000

Billionaire Donald Trump says the U.S. economy is poised for “massive inflation” and is warning investors to take steps now to protect themselves.

In the gripping CNBC interview, Trump also told investors they should not trust official government statistics.

He even questioned the “official unemployment” numbers. “It’s over 20 percent. It’s not 8.3 percent,” Trump said.

Trump also thinks skyrocketing oil prices will cripple the U.S. economy. “Right now, [oil] is at an all-time record for this time of the year, in the summer they predict $5 gasoline, maybe $6.”

But Trump isn’t the only expert warning the U.S. economy may go off the cliff. Robert Wiedemer, author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock, stated in a recent interview, “The data is clear, 50% unemployment, a 90% stock market drop, and 100% annual inflation . . . starting in 2012.”

EPA Announces NAS’ Review of IRIS Assessment Development Process

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Release Date: 05/16/2012
Contact Information: Latisha Petteway (News Media Only), petteway.latisha@epa.gov, 202-564-3191, 202-564-0455

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will conduct a comprehensive review of the agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program’s assessment development process. The IRIS program helps EPA protect Americans’ health and the environment by conducting health assessments of over 550 chemicals that may be present in our environment.

“EPA is committed to a strong and robust IRIS program,” said Lek Kadeli, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This program plays a significant role in protecting the health of our country’s citizens and the environment in which they live. We welcome the NAS’ review of the IRIS assessment development process and look forward to working with them to continue to strengthen the program.”

NAS will conduct a review of the IRIS assessment development process and the changes that are currently being made or planned by EPA in response to NAS’ April 2011 recommendations. NAS will also review current methods for weight of evidence analyses and recommend approaches for weighing scientific evidence for chemical hazard identification.

More information about IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/iris

Please read more from source:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/1CE2A7875DAF093485257A000054DF54

Robert Reich of Berkley, New College Graduates: ‘You’re F*cked’

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:53:00 +0000

So much of what was once considered “knowledge work” – the kind that college graduates specialize in – can now be done more cheaply by software. Or by workers with college degrees in India or East Asia, linked up by Internet

Please read more from source:

http://robertreich.org/post/23301640941

Cap-and-trade to generate billion$ for rich on California tax payer energy cost increases

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:36:00 +0000

I am a huge advocate of clean energy programs... But this is NOT what they look like.

California is slowing become a model of how "not to do clean energy" and will slowly kill market with these kinds on miss guided programs.

Another "Billion dollar Disaster in California" as Big, green energy firms take billions of tax payers dollars for carbon trading ponzi scheme.... If you thought selling bottled water was a genius scam, these guys are selling "hot air"
sfgate The auction of emission permits, known as allowances, could generate $1.8 billion next year by one estimate, growing to $5.8 billion in 2015. The amount Californians pay for electricity and gasoline could rise as a result, unless some of the money is returned to them as rebates or dividends.

"That's part of the intent of cap and trade - it's to embed a carbon price signal throughout the economy, and that includes electricity rates," said Jordan Parrillo, a regulatory analyst with the utilities commission's consumer affairs branch - the Division of Ratepayer Advocates.
"These decisions are now upon the state," said F. Noel Perry, founder of Next 10. "They're upon the Legislature and the governor and the people of California. I'm not really sure if people realize it, but yeah, it's here."
For example, the California Air Resources Board, which is in charge of developing the system, estimated two years ago that gas prices could climb 6 percent by 2020 because of cap and trade. At today's prices, that would equal an increase of 26 cents per gallon. Under one of the commission's less rosy scenarios, the increase could be as much as $1.61.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/16/BUPQ1OIGTI.DTL#ixzz1vJBwi4YC

NOTE- I know California has VAST resources of unlimited clean energy sources and I fully support those programs. But, this program is about the monopoly and control of energy programs by traders and elitists. Any GOOD sustainable energy program LOWERS long and short term rates and GIVES back to taxpayers.

From PHD Graduate School to Welfare - highly educated not insulated them from financial hardship.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:23:00 +0000

Laura Segall For The Chronicle

Melissa Bruninga-Matteau, a medieval-history Ph.D. and adjunct professor who gets food stamps: "I've been able to make enough to live on. Until now."

By Stacey Patton

"I am not a welfare queen," says Melissa Bruninga-Matteau.

That's how she feels compelled to start a conversation about how she, a white woman with a Ph.D. in medieval history and an adjunct professor, came to rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Ms. Bruninga-Matteau, a 43-year-old single mother who teaches two humanities courses at Yavapai College, in Prescott, Ariz., says the stereotype of the people receiving such aid does not reflect reality. Recipients include growing numbers of people like her, the highly educated, whose advanced degrees have not insulated them from financial hardship.

"I find it horrifying that someone who stands in front of college classes and teaches is on welfare," she says.

Please read more from source:

http://chronicle.com/article/From-Graduate-School-to/131795/#comment-521363098

China takes aim at rampant antibiotic resistance.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:20:00 +0000

A young man in China has so little confidence in the hygiene of his company's cafeteria that he supplements each meal with antibiotics. That is his undoing. When the man later falls ill, drugs fail to save him. An autopsy reveals why: His body is riddled with multiple strains of drug-resistant bacteria.

Please continue reading at:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6083/795.full

100-Foot Subsea Turbine Successfully Installed at World’s First Tidal Farm Off the Coast of Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:04:00 +0000

Tidal farms, which use underwater turbines to harness the power of the planet’s oceans and convert it into electricity, are something that we frequently mention here at Inhabitat. While there are plans to build them all over the world, Scotland achieved a major milestone this week by successfully installing a 10MW tidal power array in the Sound of Islay, off the coast of Orkney.

Read the rest of 100-Foot Subsea Turbine Successfully Installed at World’s First Tidal Farm Off the Coast of Scotland

Mega-lawsuit alleging death, cancer and other illnesses from radioactive emissions from two defunct fuels plants

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:02:00 +0000

The nearly 100 plaintiffs alleging death, cancer and other illnesses from radioactive emissions from two defunct Armstrong County nuclear fuels plants are awaiting a trial date for what is likely to be a second set of a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit.

Please read more from source:

http://triblive.com/news/1811236-74/apollo-nuclear-baron-cancer-lawsuit-court-filed-motley-rice-claims

Apple’s Main Data Center Will Use Only #Green Power by 2013

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:11:00 +0000

Apple Inc. has received approval to build two solar power installations at its main data center in North Carolina, allowing the technology giant to run the center entirely with renewable energy by next year. The two solar farms, which will cover 250 acres near its core data center in Maiden, N.C., will utilize high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar-tracking system provided by SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy. The solar arrays will generate 84 million kWh of electricity per year. Apple, which produces the popular iPhone and iPad, says that all three of its main data centers ultimately will be powered by coal-free electricity. “I’m not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters. The company is also developing a 5-megawatt fuel cell facility on the Maiden site. A recent Greenpeace report cited Apple, whose data centers require an ever-expanding amount of power, for lagging behind in efforts to use clean energy

Please continue reading at:

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/apples_main_data_center_will_use_only_green_power_by_2013/3472/

U.S. cutting back on Evacs and drills around nuke plants

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:55:00 +0000

The Associated Press reports:

Without fanfare, the nation's nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away.

The revamp, the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979, also eliminates a requirement that local responders always practice for a release of radiation.

The widespread contamination in Japan from last year's Fukushima nuclear accident screams out for stronger planning in the United States, not weaker rules.At least four years in the works, the changes appear to clash with more recent lessons of last year's reactor crisis in Japan. [...]

And some view as downright bizarre the idea that communities will now periodically run emergency scenarios without practicing for any significant release of radiation.

These changes, while documented in obscure federal publications, went into effect in December with hardly any notice by the general public.

An Associated Press investigative series in June exposed weaknesses in the U.S. emergency planning program. The stories detailed how many nuclear reactors are now operating beyond their design life under rules that have been relaxed to account for deteriorating safety margins. The series also documented considerable population growth around nuclear power plants and limitations in the scope of exercises. For example, local authorities assemble at command centers where they test communications, but they do not deploy around the community, reroute traffic or evacuate anyone as in a real emergency.

The latest changes, especially relaxed exercise plans for 50-mile emergency zones, are being flayed by some local planners and activists who say the widespread contamination in Japan from last year's Fukushima nuclear accident screams out for stronger planning in the United States, not weaker rules. [...]

None of the revisions has been questioned more than the new requirement that some planning exercises incorporate a reassuring premise: that no harmful radiation is released. Federal regulators say that conducting a wider variety of accident scenarios makes the exercises less predictable.

More than 20 million people live and work within a 50-mile radius of the Indian Point nuclear reactors, located just 24 miles north of New York City. The peak injury zone includes portions of New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.However, many state and local emergency officials say such exercises make no sense in a program designed to protect the population from radiation released by a nuclear accident.

"We have the real business of protecting public health to do if we're not needed at an exercise," Texas radiation-monitoring specialist Robert Free wrote bluntly to federal regulators when they broached the idea. "Not to mention the waste of public monies."

Environmental and anti-nuclear activists also scoffed. "You need to be practicing for a worst case, rather than a nonevent," said nuclear policy analyst Jim Riccio of the group Greenpeace.[...]

Please continue reading at:

http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/AP-IMPACT-Evacs-and-drills-pared-near-nuke-plants-3561560.php

CDC Lowers 'Lead Poisoning' levels to 5 mcg/dL now considered hazards

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:54:00 +0000

The CDC has lowered by half the danger threshold for lead levels in children's blood, one of more than a dozen advisory committee recommendations that the agency has accepted in principle.

From now on, blood levels of lead exceeding 5 mcg/dL will identify children "living or staying for long periods in environments that expose them to lead hazards," according to a CDC statement released Wednesday.

And the CDC now flatly states that any level of lead in the blood is a potential health hazard.

Starting in 1991, the agency had set 10 mcg/dL as the "level of concern" for children's lead exposure. The lower value represents the 97.5th percentile of blood lead levels in children, which the Advisory Committee for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention recommended as the reference value.

The CDC also accepted the panel's recommendation to stop using the term "level of concern" to indicate a specific threshold for action, insofar as it may imply that lower levels are safe.

Read more By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/32737

Fighting a Billion dollar #renewable army.

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:25:00 +0000

The Defense Department wants to run the military on more renewables and less oil, but some members of Congress don’t think it’s worth one billion dollars. House Republicans complain that the Department of Defense is advancing a political agenda instead of a military one.

Please continue reading at:
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=12-P13-00009&segmentID=2

@jimleape, EARTH is not enough, Soon we'll need 3 Earths to support our lifestyles #ECO #CHOICE #sustainable

noreply@blogger.com (EHS Director) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:56:00 +0000

If we all lived like the average person in America we would need four planets, the report spells out.
Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at WWF Scotland, said: “We are continuing to consume resources faster than the planet can provide, with our current path demanding potentially double those the planet can sustain by 2030.

“Unless we act now, our economic security and livelihoods will be threatened as resources become more scarce and natural systems further degraded, dramatically pushing up the price of food, raw materials and other key commodities.”

...The report, compiled every two years, also highlights that wildlife populations around the world have declined by almost a third (30 per cent) in the past four decades, as they are put under pressure from human demand for resources.

Tropical species have suffered the most, seeing populations tumble by 60 per cent since 1970, according to the study, produced in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Global Footprint Network.

Jim Leape, director general of WWF International, said: “We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal.
“We are using 50 per cent more resources than the Earth can provide, and unless we change course that number will grow very fast – by 2030, even two planets will not be enough.”

Please read on at:
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/environment/the-world-is-not-enough-soon-we-ll-need-three-planet-earths-1-2294500