Environmental & Public Health

The Port of Los Angeles paid a Chinese government-owned shipping company $5 million in 2005 to equip cargo vessels to plug into electric shore power while at dock to keep their massive diesel engines from polluting neighborhoods near the harbor. The company, China Shipping, used the money to upgrade 17 ships, but the city didn't get all the promised environmental benefits. Most of the vessels stopped traveling to Los Angeles in 2010, a Times review of shipping industry data showed.

Fellow H. Bruce Rinker provides some individual and community actions to reduce the pernicious global problem of marine plastics pollution.

Editor's note: The profile was written by Friends of the Earth, the organization Kendra works for. Next up is Staff Scientist Kendra Klein who supports our agroecology work. She has over 14 years of experience as a writer, researcher and environmental advocate. Her areas of expertise are environmental sustainability, environmental health and food and agriculture. She talks with us today about why she joined Friends of the Earth and the role of women in the environmental movement.

Since the crisis in Flint hit the national headlines, the problem of lead exposure from drinking water has come under greater scrutiny. And for good reason. Seven to ten million American homes have water delivered through service lines made of lead pipe – the primary source of lead in drinking water.

For one week, 92 preschool-aged children in Oregon sported colorful silicone wristbands provided by researchers from Oregon State University. The children’s parents then returned the bands, which the researchers analyzed to determine whether the youngsters had been exposed to flame retardants. The scientists were surprised to find that the kids were exposed to many polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chemicals that are no longer produced in the U.S., as well as to organophosphate flame retardants, which are widely used as substitutes for PBDEs.

Fellow Shaye Wolf asks why California regulators are letting oil companies increase quake risks by drilling injection wells near faults across the state?

Did you know every time you step on your car’s brake – whether at a stoplight, an intersection or while parking– small amounts of copper debris are released onto the streets and into the air, eventually making it into California’s waterways? Considering the millions of drivers in the state, and the number of times we all hit our brakes, the cumulative impact of copper debris takes a toll on California’s environment.