BPA

It’s Bisphenol A, or, you know, BPA for those of us who need more acronyms in our lives. That is the chemical leaching from the inside of the #7 plastic eco-groovy Nalgene water bottle you bought to help save planet earth. Remember? So you could drink tap water? It’s healthy and refreshing.
The Nalgene “Lexan” is the water bottle I owned up until a few days ago when I attacked mine with a hammer for poisoning me. It creatively obeyed the laws of physics and struck me in the head. I returned it to REI. The green-vested sales associate was not explicitly judgmental about the return. But I could tell that she noticed that our dishwasher has not been performing impressively of late. I think it’s the hard water. Or maybe I am not using the correct amount of soap. But everything is coming out with this nice milky film and a coarse grainy texture. It is perfect for impressing dinner guests. Anyway, the water bottle had seen better days, but REI Lady took it off my hands and I went shopping for something that would carry my water without causing neurological damage (I have had quite enough, thank you). I bought a stainless steel “Kleen Kanteen” and a cheap-looking #2 plastic Nalgene. Now I am safe from ever getting cancer.
I would be, anyway, if I could avoid the other kajillions of polycarbonate plastics BPA is used to produce. According to the National Institute of Health, BPA is present in food and drink packaging, coatings of food cans, bottle tops, water supply lines, and even dental sealants and tooth coatings. Yes, it is in my pipes, and on my number 2 maxillary molar. Grand.
Thankfully, the National Institute of Health, National Toxicology Program loves me and cares about whether or not I can fall asleep without fixating on the BPA dripping from my teeth. The NIH convened an expert panel in the first week of August to “review and assess scientific studies on the potential reproductive and developmental hazards” of BPA. This panel of 12 independent scientists (which included Gandalf the Gray and Yoda) looked at a whole bunch of data with lots of charts and graphs and statistical formulas. Then, it released its conclusions on the effects of BPA on pregnant women and fetuses, infants, children and boring old adults.
The American Chemistry Council (which “represents the companies that make modern life possible”) was extremely happy with the study’s results. In a reassuring press release, Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council’s Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group is quoted as saying, “The safety of our products is our top priority. The conclusions reported today provide strong reassurance to consumers that they are not at risk from use of products made from Bisphenol A.” Yay!
But before you go and start eating packaged food or getting dental work done, read the Draft Meeting Summary. It is available online at (big long web address alert) http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/chemicals/bisphenol/draftBPA_MtgSumm080807.pdf.. It is true that in the report the 12 scientists express “minimal” or “negligible” concern about BPA affecting the prostate, accelerating puberty, or causing birth defects and malformations, which is pretty good news. But then, the panel goes and expresses “some concern” that exposure to BPA causes neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children. I wonder, how did the panel of experts express that concern? Maybe with a collective low volume, slightly agitated, “oh no?” Or maybe a “good gracious?”
Hard to say. Perhaps that information will be included in the final expert panel report, which will be available this fall. When it arrives you (and every environmental group and chemical corporation under the sun) will be able to submit comments before the NIH releases its final word on whether current BPA exposure levels are a risk to human development and reproduction. Then we’ll all know for sure for sure for sure. Meanwhile, I am drinking filtered rain water from my stainless steel water bottle. And, I am getting wooden teeth.

Portable Water

In last week’s column I lectured you about bottled water. I waved my hands all around and tried to convince you that it is way less eco-friendly and no healthier or safer than tap water. In fact, I informed you, much of the bottled water we drink (including Aquafina and Dasani) is nothing more than enthusiastically marketed tap water. I encouraged you to drink the water from our pipes. Remember?
At the risk of sounding egotistical, but in the interest of full and honest disclosure, I need to admit that I am aware of the far-reaching influence I possess. I do see the power this weekly column affords me. Please know that I do not wield this power lightly. I know, for example, that when I suggested that you stop drinking bottled water, you did. Right then. You poured whatever was left in your # 1 plastic bottle onto a thirsty looking plant, dropped the bottle into a recycling bin and you haven’t looked back.
Ummm… but here’s the thing. I may have left out a few pieces of information that were important. I may have poisoned you. Sorry about that. It’s not the tap water. It’s what you put it in.
As soon as you finished reading this column last week, you rode your bike or carpooled straight to REI and bought a Nalgene “Lexan” water bottle, didn’t you? You thought, “Well, shoot, now that I am drinking tap water and saving the environment, I need a water bottle that will broadcast my eco-grooviness to the world.” And because you are perceptive and kind of hip, you knew that the official water bottle of the eco-groovy is the Nalgene (wrapped, for some unknown reason in a single strip of duct tape and clipped prominently with a $12 rock-climbing caribiner). So that’s what you bought, (along with a red handkerchief to tie around your dog’s neck and a topographical map of your neighborhood) and you have been drinking from your Nalgene ever since. At all meals. Even in restaurants.
I have bad news. According to the Green Guide (www.greenguide.com – it’s handy!), your eco-groovy water bottle is poisonous. It is made out of #7 polycarbonate plastics (Look in the little recycling symbol on the bottom. See the number?), which according to frightening new studies can cause obesity and breast cancer even in low doses. The effects can even skip a generation. Pregnant lab mice that were exposed to the chemicals that leach from #7 plastics apparently developed chromosome abnormalities that caused birth defects and miscarriages in their grandchildren.
OK, now, you know me. I am not one to be alarmist or melodramatic. But… run for your lives! When I discovered this information about the water bottle I have been drinking from for years, the water bottle that defines me as a tree-hugger, I pulled it down from the shelf and attacked it with a hammer. Betrayer! Back Stabber! Contaminator of generations of lab mice! It bounced up and hit me in the head. I wonder if the chemicals cause problems with hand-eye coordination, too? Or maybe with impulse control?
Even if you didn’t rush out and buy a Nalgene, you are still in for it. Maybe you thought you could get away with just reusing that one Aquafina water bottle. That would solve the problem of portable potable water, right? Sorry. Those bottles are made from #1 plastics, polyethylene terephthalates (try saying that without spraying crackers everywhere). When these bottles are re-used they leach carcinogenic and hormone disrupting chemicals and a heavy metal – antimony - that is a lung, skin and eye irritant in large doses.
So what are you supposed to do (besides live off of Dr. Pepper)? Start by returning your Nalgene. REI will take anything back (even your nasty 3 year-old Teva sandals). And, there are safer plastics available. Buy those. Plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are supposed to be OK based on what smart people know at this point. Or, you can use stainless steel canteens, or your ten-gallon hat. Or, have your heard of these special cups they have at Crate and Barrel? They are made of glass. You could use those. Finally, you can take heart in the fact that there are so many other potential causes of cancer out there that there is no way that the tiny amounts of chemicals leaching from your water bottles will get you first. Hey, you might not even die of cancer. You could die in a car wreck, or of a heart attack, or from a dumb Nalgene bashing you in the head.

Tap Water

Poor bottled water. Banned in city buildings by the San Francisco Mayor, prohibited from use at public events by the city council of Ann Arbor, slated for elimination by department heads in Salt Lake City; it’s under attack from all sides. The non-profit, Food and Water Watch has launched a “Take Back the Tap” campaign. Think Outside the Bottle and The Bottled Water Blues.com are also working to convince consumers to stop buying the stuff. What is with that? What’s to hate about the handy little ridged cylindrical containers wrapped in pictures of jagged mountain ranges and filled with cool refreshing goodness?
Fear not, dear reader, I have done several minutes of internet research and I am here to inform you that there are at least two good reasons to “ban the bottle.” Are you ready for them?

Reason Number One: Environmental Impacts
According to the Pacific Institute, the process of making the plastic for water bottles consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per year. 20 million barrels of oil is a lot of oil. Eyes glazing. Statistics being employed. Systems shutting down. Nap time eminent. Wait! Wait! Don’t go to sleep yet. Here is another way to think about it. The energy cost required to make a bottle, transport it, and deal with its disposal (also according to the Pacific Institute) would be like filling ¼ of each bottle with oil (eww).
It also takes a whole lot of water to make a plastic bottle for you to inflate and deflate with your mouth, making loud cracking noises and irritating your cubicle-mates to no end. For every one liter bottle, five liters of water are required to make the thing. So, if we use the Pacific Institute metaphor as a model, that would be like filling up every bottle with five more bottles of itself!... umm never mind. Anyway, what other environmental impacts are there? Oh, just the usual: aquifer depletion, saltwater intrusion, habitat destruction, melting ice caps, tsunamis, incontinence, and restless leg syndrome. Plus the kajillions of empty bottles that end up in the trash. Many of them are floating around in your oceans right now. Maybe they will be occupied by hermit crabs who are looking for new digs with a better view.

Reason Number Two: Health
Bottled water is not, by definition, healthier than tap water. In fact, it may be less so. OK, OK granted there have been no recent stories about horrible bacterial contamination in bottled water. And, true enough, not all public water sources are completely trustworthy. Nevertheless, the idea that bottled water is more healthy or safer than the water from domestic sources is a scam perpetrated by people who want your money. In fact, up to 30 percent of bottled water is tap water (as opposed to, like, “natural spring water,” which comes from some specific, supposedly cleaner/ better top secret location). You may have heard that Aquafina (tap water, bottled by Pepsi… Coca Cola owns Dasani , also tap water), will begin printing the words “public water source” on its labels thanks to pressure from advocacy groups and politicians.
Federal regulations require only that bottled water be as good as tap water, not better, safer, or healthier. And, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, bottled water is “subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water.” Additionally, there are many requirements for municipal tap water that are more stringent than those imposed on bottled water. For example, tap water can have no (zero, none, zilch) confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria levels. Whereas, the US Food and Drug Administration rules for bottled water allow for some E. coli and human poop contamination. Drink up!
Also, cities are required to send annual drinking water quality reports to residents. These reports (you get them in your bill) provide sample dates and detection ranges and explanations of the various contaminants cities are required to monitor. They tell you exactly how many parts per million there are of lead and nitrates and perchlorate in your water. Has Pepsi ever sent you that information? And apart from the contaminants in the water, there are the chemicals that can leach from the water bottles themselves, especially when they are re-used.
So, good citizens of the San Gabriel Mountain foothills, be healthy, save energy, conserve water, stop global warming - drink the water from your pipes. It comes from wells and natural springs. It is filtered and monitored and tested. It is good enough to bottle. Better even.

Little Swing Set in the Foothills

Did you ever read Little House on the Prairie? It’s a classic. Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams, it is an autobiographical account of the Ingalls family move from Wisconsin to Kansas in the late 1800s. First published in 1935, it was made into a popular TV show not long after that. It provided the raw material required to make Michael Landon a household name before he tragically succumbed to brain cancer and was memorialized in a moving Boys II Men music video.
This is exactly the book I want to have with me if I am ever stranded on the Kansas prairie in 1870 with nothing more than a covered wagon, a bulldog, a breech loading rifle, 2 panes of glass wrapped in cloth, a barrel of molasses, a bag of corn meal, a team of oxen, and a wife and three daughters. Disguised as a book about a loving family working together to overcome obstacles, it is really a how-to guide on crossing the Missouri River, choosing the best homestead site, and constructing a log cabin with a “good oak door, solid and strong” (this involves lots of hewing and pegging and whittling).
As you read this book you come to pretty much hate Pa Ingalls. And it’s not because he illegally settles his family on Native American land (which he does) or because he snorts cocaine and gambles away the nest egg (which he doesn’t). You hate him because he is better than you. At everything. He always knows just exactly what to do and just exactly how to do it. The foundation he lays is perfectly level and square. His dog obeys him immediately. His roof doesn’t leak. He whistles when he is afraid. He never cheats or gets cheated. He hangs all of his clothes from one peg on the wall.
Showoff. So you made all of your furniture, Pa. Big wup. So did I. I shop at IKEA. Who cares if I used the hex wrench that came in the box instead of pegs and leather straps?
But what does Pa Ingalls have to do with anything, oh weekly columnist in one of my eight small town newspapers? you may be about to ask. Well, certain recent events in my life have got me thinking a lot about construction and tool use and what it means to be a man. Plus, I’m insecure.
Last week, delivered directly to my backyard by two men wearing those black Velcro back braces that don’t actually do anything for your back, were two large and heavy boxes filled with pre-cut, pre-drilled, pre-stained pieces of lumber, 42 baggies filled with all manner of nut, bolt, screw and washer, and a Tolstoy-sized owner’s manual and instruction booklet for the Durango Wooden Playcenter – 2007 (Model 1APO16-07). It’s a swing set.
There’s a fort and a slide and two ladders. There are monkey bars and three different kinds of swings… at least according to the bucolic, festive scene featuring a sturdy-looking swing set on the outside of the box. The structure that I have achieved varies somewhat from the one photographed.
I just spent 12 hours in my backyard wielding a tape measure, cordless drill, level, and rubber mallet (optional). I swear to you that I attached the Fort Rails (R) to the Uprights (C) and that they were even with the previously placed Floor Joists (G)… But then I suppose it is possible that I mistakenly used The Middle Floor Brace (T) or the Tarp Cross Brace (E). None of the pieces of wood are actually labeled with the numbers used to designate them. This may be why I have assembled a structure that my daughter has begun using to launch river rocks at the neighbors’ houses. I have built a trebuchet. And, I am still not quite sure where the wavy slide is supposed to go. I think I am going to nail it to the pepper tree.
So, fine, Pa Ingalls, you win. You are more of a man than I. You built a cabin on the prairie and I can’t even assemble a swing set in my backyard. But don’t you start talking smack, or I’ll let loose this boulder at your head.

No Mercury in Your LEDs

What’s the big deal about mercury, anyway? Thanks to broken thermometers, I have wiled away at least several hours of my life rolling little balls of multiplying and dividing quicksilver around in my hands, chasing them around the bed covers, losing them on the floor, breathing their fumes deep into my lungs. And I’ve suffered no ill efablucratnts. I mean, zablanz ramacrans. Umm, help? Doctor, how many brain cells have I sacrificed to liquid mercury? Whatever. It was worth it because slippery shiny mercury is fun! Drkhdlkh!
So apparently, even though the epically heroic (handsome, winsome, fetching and kind) compact fluorescent light bulb contains an amount of mercury that is only equal to the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, there are certain sayers of nay out there who claim that this small amount is still too large. Mercury will poison our homes (they say) and our planet and will bring us all to ruin. But is anybody listening to them? Not really. This is what is fun about environmentalists; they make histrionic predictions of doom - based on scientific fact - that everyone ignores until Al Gore makes a documentary.
Maybe you can see the point of these marginalized anti-CFC militants when you consider that the entire continent of Australia is banning incandescents by the year 2010, and Canada and California will be incandescentless 2012. The European Union is considering a ban on the incandescent light bulb, and a US Senate Committee is working on a bill that would ban them in all of the states by 2017.
That adds up to a whole lot of people who will soon be legally required to put little ballpoint pen sized pieces of mercury in various outlets in their houses (or to stop reading after sundown). After 8,000 or so hours, most of these light bulbs will go straight into the trash. How many people do you think will actually go out of their ways to recycle the bulbs correctly? How many will make that extra trip to IKEA with the single bulb riding in the back of their Suburbans? And what will the environmental impacts of all of those extra trips to IKEA be? And why are all of the people who work there so aloof and intimidating with their purple hair and tattoos?
But wait! I have a solution to the environmental disaster caused by the first solution to the original environmental disaster. It will cost you even more money. Are you surprised? It’s the Light Emitting Diode bulb. (yay applause hooray)
An LED light bulb will last 50,000 hours (which is basically the life expectancy of a cat) and will save you $100 in electricity costs over the life of the bulb.
Now, if you do a little bit of math, you will realize that an LED that takes 14 years to realize a $100 savings is probably not going to be what anyone could really call “cheap.” In fact, the 1-watt LED (meant to replace a 40-watt normal bulb) will run you $40. The “premium” 10-watt bulb (to take the place of your 100-watt normal one) is only $99. You can buy these at ecoleds.com.
There is only one small drawback (other than the fact that it costs 50 times more than the bulbs you are currently using). The LED bulb is a “directional light” – a spotlight, which according to Mike Adams, founder of ecoleds.com, makes it “very useful for dynamic lighting, accent lighting or projecting light on a certain part of the room.” You can’t really stick it in a lamp. Unless you happen to be very fond of that one part of your ceiling and you want to show it off.
You might, though, consider shining your environmentally friendly eco LED onto the signed “Certificate of CO2 Emission Reductions” (suitable for framing) issued by Mike Adams and company when you make a purchase. The certificate “allows you to publicly display the number of tons of CO2 you are preventing from being introduced into the environment.”
Sadly, it doesn’t say a thing about mg of mercury not used. But you know that it’s not in there. And, at least when your LED burns out (around the time your three-year-old graduates high school) you can smash it on the floor or burn it in the back yard along with your bald tires or just toss it in the trash. Just like in the good old days.

Mercury in Your Light Bulbs

Can it be that the diminutive, unassuming, intestine-like Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb is really going to be the single-most important piece of technology in saving ourselves from ourselves? Is the path to a greener, more eco-groovy future to be lit by the Al Gore, Leo DiCaprio (and my mother-in-law) endorsed CFL? This little greenhouse-gas-buster seems to have everything going for it.
One of those things it has is that it takes electricity and actually turns it into light, which is not something that can be said for the incandescent bulb, which turns 90 percent of the energy it consumes into heat. Another is that a CFL lasts, like, eight times longer than an incandescent bulb. And, even though you pay more for a CFL up front, all of the experts in white lab coats tell us that a CFL will save you 30 bucks in energy costs over the life of the bulb as compared to the old school Thomas Edison model. There is no denying (unless you are really bad at math and are very stubborn) that if everyone started using CFLs there would be a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (lighting accounts for about 10 percent of all household electricity usage), and that the polar bears would dance clumsy polar bear dances of joy on their non-melting icebergs. Also, if there were ever any doubts as to the mainstream viability of the CFL, let those be banished by Wal-Mart’s commitment to sell 100 million of them this year.
Thanks to the CFL, you can save money as you save the planet. So if you already happen to have a shopping cart filled with typical Wal-Mart fare (maybe a shotgun, toilet paper, Cinderella underpants, goldfish, hair dye, and a bocce ball set) throw in a pack of planet-saving light bulbs, too.
There is just one little hang-up. Mercury. Not the planet. The element – it’s used to make CFLs, and is somewhere in those twisty little white tubes doing something important. I don’t know what it’s doing… reacting with ultraviolet light? Exciting the white phosphor? Whatever it’s purpose, work hard to make sure that it keeps doing that thing and does not get spread all over the kitchen floor in a tragic accident involving gravity and clumsiness and dropped light bulbs. But even if a little mercury does end up on the kitchen floor, the US Environmental Protection Agency says not to freak out. Just sweep and ventilate. There is not enough mercury in a single bulb to warrant deployment of the Haz-Mat team.
The real problem is in the landfills where all of the 3.3 mg of mercury per old broken bulb could add up to potentially significant environmental problems (not global warming, though). So, when you are all finished with your CFLs, after they have flickered their last flicks, make sure that they do not end up in the trash with regular waste that you just throw into the landfill, like, you know, batteries and paint thinner. We don’t want lots of mercury floating around out there causing things like neurological disorders, speech impairment, muscle weakness, and decreasing cognitive function. That would be bad.
But listen, don’t get too agitated about a little mercury in your light bulbs. You can still save the planet. Make the trip to the city yard on that schedule hazardous materials disposal day. Or, even better, go to IKEA (the only retailer offering the service) to turn in your old CFLs for proper disposal and recycling. While you are there, you can hit the cafeteria and enjoy the kid’s Mac and Cheese for 95 cents among the brightly colored disposable furniture. Feel good. Be satisfied. The polar bears are dancing.

50 Simple Things You can Do to Save Earth

I found a book today. Apparently it’s a book I own because it was in my house, but I have no idea how it came to rest in the basket of children’s board books beneath my coffee table. But then, there are lots of things moving mysteriously around my house these days. Thanks to my one-year-old daughter, the TV remote is in the fridge and the yogurt is under my bed. So it is possible, I suppose, that she picked up this book from, like, a box in the attic and brought it downstairs and put it in this basket full of other books. Although, such straightforward classification of an object would be somewhat out of character for her.
The book is called “50 Simple Things You can Do to Save Earth.” It caught my eye because I very much enjoy (some might argue am only capable of) doing simple things, and it has long been my life’s ambition to save the earth (But usually in my fantasy I have an impressive combination of super powers that enable me to do this. Or I am a transformer).
However, when I opened the book and saw that it was older than dirt, I experienced disappointment. It was published in 1989 by the Earthworks Press (Berkeley, CA). This, I realized, was a list of things people could have done to save the earth back when computers stored data on cassette tapes and telephones were large and attached to the wall by squiggly cords. It was obsolete. A waste of time. What could such a book have to offer to us future-living folk?
Funny I should ask, because while yes there are a few obviously dated suggestions (snip your six pack rings, don’t use leaded gas), there are many that make me wonder just a little bit what the hell you grown-ups have been doing for the past two decades.
Like for example, the very first page of this book breaks down the greenhouse effect and explains the importance of carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons and methane and ozone. Here is a little quote: “For the first time in history, human activities are altering the climate of our entire planet.” Umm, hello? This was written back when Bon Jovi was popular. The first time. Robin Yount was playing outfield for the Milwaukee Brewers. Hawaii wasn’t even a state yet. It was the Sandwich Islands. You got there by steamer. Mark Twain was filing humorous dispatches about hula dancers.
Anyway, “50 Simple Things You can Do to Save Earth.” goes on to outline the problems of earth circa 1989 – air pollution, ozone depletion, acid rain, vanishing wildlife, groundwater pollution, inadequate citizen input into local planning decisions (Ha! Just kidding about the last one. Nobody ever cared about that). And because you didn’t seem to be paying attention way back when, here are a few of its suggestions:
- Stop Junk Mail (the average American, in 1989, spent 8 months of his life opening it). If a million people stopped their junk mail, 1.5 million trees would be saved per year (and 999,989 people would have no reason to check their mail boxes each day).
- Use a clean detergent, one that doesn’t have phosphates – they cause algae blooms, which aren’t pretty, smell-good “blooms” like the ones on your Mr. Lincoln roses. They stink. They kill fish. They bad.
- Set your water heater to 130 degrees – hot enough to kill Legionnaire’s Disease, cool enough to save the planet.
- Buy efficient appliances – stop wasting gas, electricity and water you lazy bums.
- Replace (get this!) incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (a suggestion from 1989? Really? Really? Really? Al Gore? Really?)

Boy, what a helpful list of suggestions. It’s a good thing we made all of these changes back before things got really bad. Thanks a lot baby boomers. Do you feel that? It’s called guilt. Or maybe it’s regret. Or maybe it’s that special irritation you get just before you crumple up a pain-in-the-neck newspaper column. Wait! Wait! Recycle it.