Environmental & Public Health

From The Wall Street Journal: West Virginia lawmakers approved a measure on Saturday to roll back strict water-protection rules enacted last year after a chemical spill contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people in West Virginia’s capital. ... Environmental groups fought the measure. "It reduces the regulation of tens of thousands of above-ground storage tanks, some of which have the potential to contaminate drinking water," said Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, an environmental consulting company based in Morgantown, W.Va.

The Honest Company, a leading lifestyle brand whose mission is to empower people to live a healthy life, today [February 12, 2015] revealed its new social goodness platform and committed $3 million in 2015 to build healthy, safe families. The multi-faceted effort focuses on critical life stages for families, including the whole child development of children ages 0-3 and educational support to help young people pursue their dreams.

Nail salons offering “manis” and “pedis” have become a booming business in the United States, setting up shop on seemingly every corner and approaching $8 billion in annual sales. “You have numerous chemicals being mixed, new products coming out all the time, limited available data on health effects and weak accountability for the manufacturers,” says 2008 Fellow Thu Quach, who is a research scientist with the Cancer Prevention Institute of California and research director for Asian Health Services. “That would make it difficult for the workers to protect themselves even if there weren’t language barriers.” She is part of a grassroots effort that empowers low-wage, Vietnamese immigrant-dominated nail salon workers to fight for healthier conditions.

Africa needs more food. And to get more food, you need more farmland. There's a relatively simple solution — it's called "land conversion," and it can mean creating new fields to grow crops next to fragments of forest. Only there's a catch. The rats of the forest are drawn to the crops of the farmland — and to the grains that farmers often store outside their homes. And those rats can carry the bacteria that causes plague — the very same plague responsible for claiming millions of lives during the Middle Ages.

Under the new bill, the number of tanks regulated by the act would shrink considerably, said Evan Hansen, president of West Virginia think tank Downstream Strategies. The bill exempts storage tanks that store oil or any other liquid associated with the oil or natural gas industry, and it also exempts tanks that hold less than 10,000 gallons.

Before routine childhood vaccinations large numbers of people used to contract diseases like TB and polio with often devastating consequences. Now vaccinations are standardized and have virtually eradicated many of the health problems that used to run rife through populations. However, there is one problem. Despite a concerted effort on the part of health workers and decent supply of vaccinations, power issues in emerging regions often means these vaccinations - which require refrigeration - get spoiled. This is where ColdTrace from Nexleaf Analytics offers a solution.

A coalition of environmental and social justice groups has come together to declare collective disgust with the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars on unnecessary subsidies for the oil and gas industries when that same money could be used to improve the lives of millions if spent on social services, renewable energy investments, healthcare, and education. ...

Earlier this week, the DEP revealed that its work so far in implementing the above-ground storage tank safety provisions of the landmark legislation have led to the discovery of 1,100 tanks that are “not fit for service” and need to be replaced or eliminated. “This is a great illustration of the above-ground storage tank act working,” said Evan Hansen, of Downstream Strategies. “It’s encouraging to see [the] DEP taking action on the tanks that present the highest risk to the state’s drinking water supply.”

Biology professors and graduate students at University of Massachusetts Boston are working to prevent future outbreaks of a foodborne illness like the one that caused oyster beds in Edgartown's Katama Bay to close last week. The Department of Public Health closed the beds Sept. 3 because of environmental conditions conducive to the growth of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters harvested from the area.