Green Buckeye RN

Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Time: 3pm to 4:30pm Eastern Time
Please sign up and register at this link by January 23rd.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/369808505
Speakers
Dr. Wayne Cascio, MD, FACC, FAHA, US EPA , Office of Research and Development
Sara Dubowsky Adar, Sc.D., M.H.S., U of Michigan, School of Public Health
Susan Stone, US EPA, Office of Air and Radiation
Background: Heart Disease is the number one killer for women, as well as for men. Unfortunately many women think of a heart attack as a problem for men, not them. Each year, approximately 400,000 American women die from Heart disease and more than 42 million women are currently living with some form of cardiovascular disease (heart disease). As a matter of fact, heart disease kills more women than the next seven causes of death combined.
You probably already know about healthy behaviors for the heart, such as, not smoking, being active, maintaining a healthy weight and diet.
Other important factors are your cholesterol levels, blood pressure and glucose levels. But are you familiar with the risk factor of unhealthy air and the invisible particle pollution that can harm your heart? Do you know where to find information about out the air quality in your community or zip code?
This webinar will discuss the importance of being aware of the environmental hazard of air pollution and its potential health impacts on the heart. If you are a healthcare provider, this webinar is for you. We also want to you to help us spread the word about heart disease and air quality by wearing a green heart this coming February when we wear red to raise awareness of heart disease in women and a green heart to remember to check the air quality index.
Copies of the powerpoint presentations will be sent out on Monday, January 23rd.
Fact Sheet: Environmental Hazards Weigh Heavy on the Heart:
http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/ehwhh/index.htm

Click here Air Quality Webinar to get all the details. 

Presented by the Nurses Environmental Team of Ohio (NEATO) and the Ohio Asthma Coalition (OAC) on February 9th  and February 24th.

EPA is closer than ever to completing their study on dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to science that is building up in our bodies and food supply.  EPA is poised to finalize the release of the noncancer portion of their dioxin study the end of this month.  The chemical industry is doing all they can to pressure EPA to delay the release of this report once again, as they’ve been doing for over 20 years.  We can’t let them get away with this!
CHEJ is coordinating a national campaign to urge EPA to finalize this study once and for all.  Last week Rep. Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee and senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent EPA a fantastic letter urging EPA to finalize this dioxin study.  You can read Markey’s letter and press release at http://markey.house.gov/press-release/markey-epa-no-more-delays-dioxin-health-assessment. This comes at a time when dioxin releases increased by 18% from 2009-2010, and dioxin air releases increased by 10%.

Since March 2011, 11 earthquakes have shaken the Youngstown, Ohio area – which never had a recorded earthquake before. Seismologists have conclusively linked the earthquakes to a well used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling. Ohio ordered the well shut down on December 30.
The next day – New Year’s Eve – the largest earthquake yet struck Youngstown. “I heard like a big ba-boom, and the building just shook,” one resident said.
Neither Ohio Governor Rob Kasich nor the oil and gas industry see the earthquakes as cause for concern. The Ohio Oil and Gas Association called the earthquakes “a rare and isolated event.” A spokesperson for Governor Kasich compared the earthquakes to “a scrap-tire dump [catching] fire.”
But similar wells have been suspected of causing  earthquakes in another part of the state and in Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. A Columbia University seismologist who is investigating the Youngstown quakes says he expects more during the next year even with the well closed.
Hydrofracking pollutes drinking water, consumes enormous amounts of clean water and rips open landscapes. And now we know it causes earthquakes. The only way to stop even worse disasters is to stop hydrofracking.

Posted on: January 11, 2012 12:00 PM, by Celeste Monforton

Washington State becomes the first in the nation to adopt specific workplace safety rules to protect healthcare workers who are potentially exposed to anti-neoplastic drugs and other hazardous medications. The new rule, issued earlier this month by the State’s Department of Labor & Industries, stems from legislation passed in April 2011 and signed into law by Governor Chris Gregoire. The rule applies to healthcare facilities in which employees are “reasonably anticipated” to have “occupational exposure to one or more hazardous drugs.” The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a list of about 150 agents that meet their hazardous drug definition. This list, which is referenced in the new Washington State rule, includes well-known chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin, fluorouracil (5FU), methotrexate, etoposide, temozolomide, and dacarbazine. NIOSH estimates that about 5.5 million healthcare workers—-from nurses and pharmacists to housekeepers and veterninary care staff—are potentially exposed to these hazardous agents.

Read further at http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2012/01/washington_state_adopts_first.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link

 By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK | Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:20pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Nurses who worked with chemotherapy drugs or sterilizing chemicals were twice as likely to have a miscarriage as their colleagues who didn’t handle these materials, in a new study.

Lead author Christina Lawson, a researcher at the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), said she was not too surprised that exposure to certain chemicals would be tied to lost pregnancies.

“What surprised me the most was that (chemotherapy) drugs are something we’ve been trying to educate nurses on, about the hazards, and we’re still finding exposures during the first trimester,” Lawson told Reuters Health.

Because chemotherapy drugs typically target rapidly dividing cells, such as those in a tumor — or a fetus, they have been a concern for pregnant women who come into contact with them, Lawson said.

Not all previous research has agreed on whether nurses’ exposures at work are tied to more miscarriages, though.

Read further at http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/13/us-nurses-miscarriages-idUSTRE80C1N720120113

Awards Commemorate Nurses’ Role in Environmentally Sustainable Health Care
 
(Reston, VA) — The Health Care Without Harm Nurses Workgroup, in conjunction with The Luminary Project, is accepting  nominees for its 2012 Nursing Awards. The prestigious Charlotte Brody Award is given to a nurse whose story of environmental activism and accomplishment reflects a significant contribution to environmental health. The Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest recognizes the best essay on how nursing students can encourage the “greening of health care.”
“Nurses play a key role in the current environmental health movement, through activities in professional associations, and through facilitating changes in their communities and places of work that help improve and sustain human health through maintaining a healthy environment,” said Karen A. Ballard, MA, RN, FAAN, HCWH Consultant.  “These awards both recognize their important role in the public’s health, and also, we hope they encourage more nursing students and nurses to consider sustainable health care to be a part of their careers.”
The Charlotte Brody Award honors Charlotte Brody, a registered nurse and activist, and a founder of HCWH, who has dedicated her career to making a safer, healthier environment through sustainability.  The Charlotte Brady Award seeks to recognize Nurse Luminaries who go beyond everyday nursing endeavors to proactively promote and protect environmental health, and who generate significant outcomes from their efforts.  Nominations are due by 5 pm Eastern on February 27, 2012.
The Hollie Shaner-McRae Nursing Student Essay Contest recognizes the pioneering environmental work of Hollie Shaner-McRae, DNP, RN, FAAN, coordinator for professional nursing practice at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT.  Entrants are asked to discuss how nursing students can encourage the “greening of health care.” The successful essay should be specific to an activity that a nursing student could potentially do or is currently involved in doing and must answer the question, “How Can Nursing Students Foster Environmentally Sustainable Practices in Their Schools of Nursing, Health Care Facilities or Communities”.  The contest is open to all undergraduate nursing students presently enrolled and in good standing in a beginning nursing program in the United States and Canada.  The winner will receive a stipend for airfare and complimentary registration to CleanMed 2012.  Essay contest submissions are due on February 20, 2012.
The awards will be presented at CleanMed 2012, the international conference for health care sustainability, in Denver, CO, in April 2012.
For more information about the 2012 HCWH Nursing Awards, and for complete rules and applications, visit http://theluminaryproject.org/article.php?id=56.

Healthy Food Action Webinar: Driven to Distraction: Food, Chemicals and Child Behavior 
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
12:00 noon eastern / 11:00 a.m. central
 
Compelling science now suggests synthetic food dyes and caramel colorings often added to candy–as well as junk food and other kids’ foods–can affect their learning and behavior, and may increase cancer risk. This science forced the adoption of safer alternatives to food dyes in the UK; the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been petitioned to do the same. An FDA science advisory committee reviewed the new science in April 2011. Developmental brain toxins are also found as additives to other children’s products, like toys and lunch boxes. Child advocates are pushing for policy reforms addressing these risks as well. Join speakers Karen Bowman, MN, RN, COHN-S, Michael Jacobson, PhD, Lawrence Rosen, MD, and David Wallinga, MD, for a discussion of the latest science and the policy reforms now being debated.
Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/739194874

AARP has just launched a blog on Healthy Aging and the Environment, which can be found on the AARP website. This inaugural piece links to a number of resources that can help educate AARP’s 35 million members on environmental influences on health including the report Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging

You can help ensure this becomes a regular weekly AARP blog. Visit the site, post a comment to the blog, “like” it on Facebook, Twitter it, etc. to show widespread support for this pivotal new initiative by AARP. If this is successful and AARP continues to reach out to their members with critical information on environmental influences on healthy aging, then many more highly influential people will have the science they need to promote healthy environments across generations.

Visit the blog at http://blog.aarp.org/2012/01/10/a-healthy-environment-and-healthy-aging/

Begins Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The host of the series is Dr. Richard Jackson, pediatrician, former CDC head of environmental science, top public health official in California, and current UCLA Department Chair and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health.

Go to http://designinghealthycommunities.org/ to preview or view series.

Health Advocates Urge State Ban On Toxic Tris Flame Retardants

 Popular baby products, including nursing pillows and car seats, contain toxic flame retardants linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and other health effects, according to a new report released today by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States. Children and families are exposed to the compounds, called Tris chemicals, when they escape from household items and contaminate house dust and indoor air.

“Parents shouldn’t have to worry about hidden toxic chemicals in their child’s nursing pillow or car seat. Unfortunately, our testing shows many items contain toxic flame retardants that aren’t good for children’s health,” said Erika Schreder, author of the report and science director for the Washington Toxics Coalition.

The report, Hidden Hazards In the Nursery, found toxic flame retardants in 85% (17 of 20) of new baby and children’s products tested, including bassinet pads, nursing pillows, changing pads, and car seats. The most prevalent flame retardant found was chlorinated Tris (TDCPP), a chemical voluntarily removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s when it was found to cause adverse health effects. Chlorinated Tris was present in 80% of the products (16 of 20). California recently classified chlorinated Tris as a carcinogen, and evidence links the chemical to neurotoxicity as well as hormone disruption.

Several children’s products did not contain Tris flame retardants, demonstrating it is possible to make products without Tris chemicals. Products that tested negative for Tris flame retardants were: Eddie Bauer Pop-up Booster Seat, Balboa Nursing Pillow, and First Years Co-Sleeper.  Other companies that are known to not use Tris flame retardants include Boppy, Orbit Baby, and Baby Bjorn.

Children’s health advocates are calling on the Washington State Legislature to pass the Toxic-Free Kids Act, which would ban the use of toxic Tris flame retardants in children’s products beginning July 1, 2014. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Sharon Nelson (D-Maury Island) and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), also addresses the problem of substituting one harmful chemical for another by requiring makers of children’s products that contain Tris chemicals to conduct thorough health and safety assessments of potential alternatives. The Toxic-Free Kids Act is one of three priorities of Washington state’s Environmental Priorities Coalition.

As nurses, we know that toxic flame retardants have no business being in products we bring into our homes, especially in items for kids who are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of chemical exposures. Makers of children’s products need to ensure their products do not contain chemicals that harm children’s health.

A copy of the study is available online at www.watoxics.org/publications/hidden-hazards.
Tips for avoiding toxic flame retardants are available online at www.watoxics.org/toxicswatch/tips-to-avoid-toxic-tris.

January 10, 2012   
By Tim Walker and Cindy Long

An estimated 14 million American children attend public schools that are in urgent need of  extensive repair or replacement and have unhealthy environmental conditions, including poor air quality, unsafe drinking water and inadequate safety systems. This weekend, CNN will spotlight the dire condition of schools and the health hazards posed by poor indoor air quality.

The segment, which will air on Saturday and Sunday, follows CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta as he visits schools in Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut to examine the impact of indoor air quality on students and school employees. During his travels, Dr. Gupta spoke to NEA members and leaders, including National Education Association Vice President Lily Eskelsen, who called the poor condition of schools a “national crisis” and emphasized how the ability of many students to learn depends on a safe and healthy school environment.

NEA and its members are urging Congress to pass President Obama’s Fix America’s Schools Today Act, which would provide $25 billion for modernizing and repairing public schools, with half of the funds funneled to schools that need it most.

Read further at http://neatoday.org/2012/01/10/cnn-indoor-air-quality/

Health Care Without Harm Praises EPA for Mercury and Toxins Standard
Calls MATS  “A Major Step Toward Protecting the Environment and Public Health.”
 
(Washington, D.C.)   Today, Health Care Without Harm praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for handing down new standards that would greatly reduce mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel, acid gases and other toxins from our atmosphere.  The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants will, for the first time ever, place limits on these pollutants  power plants, keeping 90 percent of the mercury in coal burned in power  plants from being emitted to the air, reduce 88 percent of acid gas emissions from power plants,  and cut 41 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants beyond the reductions  expected from other new EPA regulations.   Currently, there are no national limits on the amount of mercury and other toxic air pollution released from power plant smokestacks.
 “This is a major step forward for mercury elimination in the environment,” stated Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm.  “Considering the setbacks this year for protections to our health, we congratulate the EPA for moving forward on this important, live-saving standard.”
                                                                                       
Chronic illnesses, many of which are related to or exacerbated by air pollution, such as asthma, heart diseases, and respiratory illness, consume approximately three-quarters of all US health care expenditures, more than $1.3 trillion annually.  EPA estimates that the new standards will prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.  Together, MATS and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule are estimated to provide annual benefits of $150-$380 billion when fully implemented.
 
“Power plants are notorious polluters, and while we are disappointed that greenhouse gases from power plants did not get regulated this year, mercury and other pollutants are of deep concern,” said Eric Lerner, director of the US Health Care Without Harm Climate and Health Program.  “This new standard is a major step toward protecting the environment and public health.”
 
In the United States, approximately one-third of the nation’s lakes and a quarter of all rivers and streams are so polluted by mercury that warnings have been issued to consumers, especially pregnant women and children, to avoid eating fish from the waters. Mercury interferes with the developing brain, including effects on memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills. Most of the mercury in streams comes from coal-burning power plants or incinerators.
 
Other toxic metals such as arsenic, chromium and nickel will also be reduced, along with fine particle pollution, which is linked to asthma and respiratory illness.  These toxins are suspected to cause cancer, and other serious health ailments.
 
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 500 organizations in 53 countries, working to transform the health care industry worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH, seewww.noharm.org.

Registration for the TRI Winter Webinar : January 26, 2012 from 2-4 pm ET
You can now register to attend the TRI Winter Webinar. All are welcome to participate! To register for the webinar see https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/202935064.
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency invite you to attend the 2012 TRI Webinar on January 26, 2012, from 2-4 pm ET. This Webinar titled “The 25th Anniversary of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986″ will celebrate the 25th anniversary of EPCRA, and more specifically, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI was created in large part to increase the public’s knowledge and access to information on toxic chemicals at individual facilities and releases of the chemicals into the environment.
The focus of the Webinar will be background on EPCRA, an overview of the TRI program, a history of enforcement and compliance efforts, a look at future directions of the TRI program, and how TRI has impacted regulatory programs in many countries around the world.
Featured speakers include Mike Walker, Director of the National Enforcement Training Institute and Steve Devito, a Senior Scientist with EPA’s TRI Program Division. We look forward to your participation!

Please join Keith Dimoff and other members of the Ohio Environmental Council on February 10 as the OEC partners with the Wexner Center and the Puffin Foundation West LLC to present the film “Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie.”

This documentary focuses on David Suzuki (photo), a Canadian environmentalist, as he reveals what events in his life caused him to become perhaps the most eloquent and passionate voice for environmental sanity in the world.

Following the film, I will moderate a panel of local environmental advocates who will share their own stories of what has motivated them to get involved. The panel will feature:
• Kai Landis, who leads sustainability projects through Ohio State’s Office of Student Life
• Mike Minnix, owner and president of Eartha Limited, which promotes and facilitates food service sustainability
• Doug Morgan, attorney and bicycling advocate
• Shelly Casto, director of education at the Wexner Center and environmental education advocate.

Force of Nature, The David Suzuki Movie
February 10, 2012
7 p.m., followed by panel discussion

Wexner Center for the Arts
1871 North High Street, Columbus
Visit the Wexner Center website for ticket information at http://www.wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=6035.

For more information about the OEC, Wexner, and Puffin West Foundation partnership, please contact us at (614) 487-7506 or OEC@theOEC.org.

Hope to see you there!

 By Dina ElBoghdady, Published: January 4
The Food and Drug Administration plans to restrict a family of antibiotics commonly used to treat livestock, citing concerns that overuse might promote the development of drug-resistant bacteria that can infect people.
On Wednesday, the FDA said it would limit the use of cephalosporin in cattle, swine, chicken and turkey. The antibiotics can no longer be used to prevent diseases in livestock starting April 5, though they can still be used to treat illnesses, the FDA said.
Consumer advocates support the FDA’s decision. But they say the move is long overdue and deals with only one small part of a much larger public health issue tied to the overuse of antibiotics in animals. They want the FDA to also curtail the use of antibiotics in animal feed, an issue the agency has been grappling with since 1977.
The problem, public health advocates say, is that some antibiotics given to treat illnesses in people are widely used on animals to promote disease prevention and weight gain, as well as compensate for crowded conditions on ranches and farms. The prevalence of those antibiotics in livestock has been linked in several studies to the creation of drug-resistant “superbugs” that can spread to humans who work with or eat the animals.
Resistance to cephalosporin can be especially devastating because the antibiotics are regularly prescribed to humans. The antibiotics, which include brands such as Keflex and the generic cephalexin, are used to treat many illnesses, including pneumonia and salmonella infections in children.
“It’s one of the big guns,” said David Wallinga, a physician with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy who also works with the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition. “When someone comes into an emergency room and you don’t know what they’re sick with, you try to treat them with one of the big guns. When your big guns start being ineffective, . . . you’re really in trouble.”
In 2008, the FDA issued an outright ban of cephalosporin for livestock. But the agency withdrew the plan after strong opposition from industry groups that wanted to preserve some uses of the antibiotics.
On Wednesday, the FDA responded by carving out some exceptions. For example, veterinarians will still be able to use or prescribe cephalosporins for limited use in livestock, if they follow approved doses.
The industry has long said the FDA does not have the science to back the ban. But Wednesday, the National Pork Producers Council said the agency’s more narrowly focused ban makes better sense. “We don’t support the need for [a ban], but we do believe that our pigs will not suffer endlessly because of it” because disease-treatment will be permitted, said Liz Wagstrom, the group’s chief veterinarian.
Others who have been tracking the issue are less pleased with the FDA. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) described the FDA’s actions as a “modest” step in the fight to avert a massive public health threat.
“We’re really just looking at the tip of the iceberg,” said Slaughter, who has written legislation since 2007 that would restrict the use of certain antibiotics.
She also criticized the FDA for not taking action sooner. In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 3 percent of salmonella tested was cephalosporin-resistant. “How many Americans have needlessly been sickened in the meantime?” she said.
In 2010, the FDA issued voluntarily guidelines urging the judicious use of these drugs. But those have yet to be finalized. Last year, several environmental and public health groups sued the FDA to force it to stop the industry from adding certain antibiotics to the feed of healthy animals.
“We don’t believe the voluntary guidelines will make a dent in this problem,” said Avinash Kar, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs. “For the last 30 years or so, we’ve been working on a voluntary system and that hasn’t done much.”

 (CHICAGO – Jan. 3, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced four environmental justice grants totaling $100,000 to non-profit and tribal organizations in the Great Lakes region.
These grants for projects in Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin will help to conduct research, provide education and develop solutions to health and environmental issues in communities overburdened by pollution. Environmental justice is the principle of achieving the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards for all people, regardless of race, color, national origin or income.
Below is more information about the four environmental justice grants of $25,000 each awarded in the Great Lakes region in 2011.
- Red Lake Band of Ojibwe Indians, Beltrami, Minnesota: Improve wells and septic systems on the Red Lake Reservation by assisting in repairs of failing systems and educating tribal members about proper maintenance.  Failing septic systems are a public health threat due to nitrogen, phosphorous and bacteria affecting surface water, ground water and well water. Partners in this project include the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Indian Health Service, Red Lake Housing Authority and the University of Minnesota.
- Improving Kids Environment, Indianapolis, Indiana: Analyze lead levels in soil in the Martindale-Brightwood community, identify airborne particulate hot spots in the Near Westside community and use the combined data to educate people and protect children from lead poisoning. Partners include the Martindale-Brightwood Environmental Justice Collaborative, Indiana University Center for Urban Health and Earth Sciences Department, and Westside Cooperative Organization.
- Cleveland Tenants Organization, Cleveland, Ohio: Prevent and treat issues with bed bug infestations. CTO will educate landlords, property managers and tenants in subsidized multi-unit family housing developments about how to prevent bed bug infestations and reduce the misuse of pesticides. Partners include Environmental Health Watch, Cleveland Department of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Cleveland Office.
- Social Development Commission, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Reduce the risks to children of lead exposure through education and by helping low-income families assess their homes and abate lead dangers.  Partners include the city of Milwaukee Health Department, Sixteenth Street Community Health Center and Wisconsin Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.
EPA also announced it is seeking applicants for $1 million in environmental justice small grants expected to be awarded in 2012. Nationwide, EPA awarded more than $1 million in grants in 2011 to 46 non-profit and tribal organizations working on environmental justice issues.
More information on the Environmental Justice Small Grants program and a list of grantees: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/grants/ej-smgrants.html
Note: If a link above doesn’t work, please copy and paste the URL into a browser.
 

OSU researcher hopes ultrasound can destroy pharmaceuticals, compounds we flush into rivers and lakesMore science stories

By  Spencer Hunt 
December 11, 2011 8:18 AM

Every time we flush the toilet, some of the compounds and medicines we take every day end up in our streams, rivers and lakes.

These “emerging contaminants” include antibiotics, birth-control drugs, antidepressants and caffeine.

As scientists better understand the threat these pollutants pose to wildlife and people, Ohio State University researchers are developing a method to destroy them before they cause harm.

 Read further at http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2011/12/11/tiny-bubbles.html

National Radon Action Month is this January and EPA encourages your to take simple and affordable steps to Test, Fix, and Save a Life from radon, the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. As many as 21,000 people die from lung cancer each year in the United States from exposure to indoor radon but this health hazard can be prevented. For more information on how to Test, Fix, Save a Life, obtain a text kit, or contact your state radon office, visit http://www.epa.gov/radon or call 1-800-SOS-RADON. http://www.epa.gov/radon/nram/

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has scheduled another National Prescription Drug Take Back Day which will take place on Saturday, April 28, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for those who missed the previous events, or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of those medications.
Americans that participated in the DEA’s third National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on October 29, 2011, turned in more than 377,086 pounds (188.5 tons) of unwanted or expired medications for safe and proper disposal at the 5,327 take-back sites that were available in all 50 states and U.S. territories. When the results of the three prior Take Back Days are combined, the DEA, and its state, local, and tribal law-enforcement and community partners have removed 995,185 pounds (498.5 tons) of medication from circulation in the past 13 months.
“The amount of prescription drugs turned in by the American public during the past three Take-Back Day events speaks volumes about the need to develop a convenient way to rid homes of unwanted or expired prescription drugs,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “DEA remains hard at work to establish just such a drug disposal process, and will continue to offer take-back opportunities until the proper regulations are in place.”
“With the continued support and hard work of our more than 3,945 state, local, and tribal law enforcement and community partners, these three events have dramatically reduced the risk of prescription drug diversion and abuse, and increased awareness of this critical public health issue,” said Leonhart.
Please check back in March to locate collection sites near you. 
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_disposal/takeback/index.html