Indoor Radon Gas Exposure Is the Leading Cause of Lung Cancer Second Only to Smoking

Graphic courtesy of the World Health Organization.

Several federal agencies are planning to meet sometime by the end of this month to discuss measures for reducing radon risk in housing and buildings that they either operate or regulate.

Last November, agencies that included the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) met for a Federal Radon Summit to address growing concern over potentially high levels of radon.

Right now, homes and buildings operated and regulated by government agencies are not required to undergo mandatory testing for radon, and HUD doesn’t require radon testing of homes that are being insured under the U.S. Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance program.

The concerns come because the EPA now calculates that, “Nearly one out of every 15 homes in the United States is estimated to have elevated radon levels,” in its Citizens Guide to Radon.

Radon is a colorless and odorless radioactive gas. It comes from naturally decaying uranium, which is found in most soil. The way that radon gets into a home or building space is that it travels up through the ground to the air above and enters through cracks or holes in the foundation.

When trapped indoors, radon builds up and the problems begin. The EPA estimates that about 21,000 annual lung cancer deaths are radon related. The agency also found that indoor radon increases the risk of a smoker developing lung cancer.

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Bald Eagle Egg Hatches After Rescued From Orioles’ Florida Spring Training Camp

The bald eaglet at just minutes old. Photo courtesy of the American Eagle Foundation.

One eaglet has survived and hatched at the American Eagle Foundation’s Tennessee center after being rescued from the Boston Orioles’ spring training ground in Florida.

The hatched egg was one of two taken from the Ed Smith Stadium. The second egg never hatched - despite being given extra time in the incubator.

The players are scheduled to arrive at the stadium early next month. Fears were that flying balls, people, and commuter traffic would endanger both the nesting parents and the newly hatched eaglets.

The bald eagle nesting pair had built their nest on top of a 135-foot lighting pole located in the right outfield of the stadium. After removing the eggs, all of the lighting poles in the stadium were modified with tarps to discourage any new nest from being built on them.

The newly hatched eaglet is being fed by an eagle puppet to prevent human-imprinting. The conservation group plans to release the eaglet into the wild sometime in mid-March, when it will be about 13-weeks old. The eaglet will be placed in an artificial nesting tower located at Douglas Lake in Tennessee.

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Bottled Water: Do Brands Have Something To Hide When It Comes To Purity?

Mostly gone are the images of pristine mountain lakes from advertisers trying to get health-conscious consumers (usually moms) to believe that their water is the purest. Today, the push is more toward showing bottled water as a rejuvenating sports drink promoted by athletes.

Despite all the hype, questions still remains, including how clean and healthy are bottled water products compared to tap water, and are they worth the money?

Image courtesy of CartoonStock.com.A survey over the last few years by Food and Water Watch “documented bottled water prices ranging from $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon,” compared to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that tap water costs about $0.002 per gallon, on average, nationwide.”

So is all bottled water the same and worth the money?

To find out the answers to these questions, the Environmental Working Group ran its second ever annual survey to see how forthcoming bottled water companies are about the quality of their products.

The EWG surveyed the labels of 173 different bottled water products to see if they disclosed information about their water sources; purification methods; and purity testing results – not much to ask if you’re not hiding anything.

Overall, over half the brands failed the EWG’s transparency test. The worst offender was Whole Foods’ Italian Still Mineral Water, which found its way to the bottom of the heap. The company doesn’t provide any of the basic information about the water on the labels or the website.

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Health Risks Push Regulators to Propose Lower Fluoride Levels in United States Drinking Water

Stock photo.

We’ve always been told that fluoride is good for us. We’ve heard praise about how it fights cavities, but nothing about its dangers.

While it’s true that small amounts of fluoride do fight against tooth decay and strengthen bones, the opposite is also true in high amounts.

This week, new national guidelines to lower fluoride levels in drinking water were proposed by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Everyone is giving their own spin on the reasons for the changes. The agencies say that Americans have more access to fluoride than they did when it was first introduced in the 1940s. Water is now is just one of the ways we get our fluoride. Other ways include toothpaste, mouth rinses, prescription fluoride supplements, and fluoride applied by dental professionals.

The EPA said that:

Adults exposed to excessive consumption of fluoride over a lifetime may have increased likelihood of bone fractures, and may result in effects on bones leading to pain and tenderness. For effects to teeth, children are most likely to be affected by excessive exposure to fluoride because it impacts teeth while they are still in formative phases.

Children aged eight and younger exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride have an increased chance of developing pits in tooth enamel, along with a range of cosmetic effects to teeth. 

The HHS also looked at findings on current levels of tooth decay, dental fluorosis (uneven spots and loss of tooth enamel), and water consumption across the United States. The HHS wants to lower fluoride in tap water from 1.2 to 0.7 parts per million, which is a 42 percent decrease.

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Just Like People, Bald Eagles Now Need A Permit For Where They Can Build Their Homes

Just like every other American, there are limits to what bald eagles are free to do - including build their nests where they want. In all seriousness, no one can really object to the actions taken by officals this time.

Rescue workers approaching a lighting pole located in the right outfield of the Ed Smith Stadium in Florida to remove two eagle eggs. Photo courtesy of the American Eagle Foundation.

Late last year, a pair of bald eagles built a new nest on top of a 135- foot lighting pole located in the right outfield of the Ed Smith Stadium (the Florida spring training ground of the Boston Orioles). The ball players are scheduled to arrive early next month. With eggs already in the nest, the concerns were obvious.

Being in the way of flying balls, lots of noise, and commuter traffic isn’t the most ideal place for eagles, or anyone else for that matter to raise a family.

Officials contacted the American Eagle Foundation to come remove the eggs, cover the nest site with a tarp, and thereby evict the eagles from the stadium. AEF staffers went down to the stadium from Tennessee last month with incubators to safely transport the eggs back to foundation’s Eagle Center at Dollywood.

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