Tag: information

Epa Takes Heat on New Chemical Exposure Study

  • The Environmental Protection Agency is getting some criticism from environmental groups for their partnership with the American Chemistry Council. (Photo courtesy of epa.gov)

The Environmental Protection Agency is drawing fire from some environmental groups for accepting money from the chemical industry for a study on children’s exposure to pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

The Environmental Protection Agency is drawing fire from some environmental
groups for accepting money from the chemical industry for a study on
children’s exposure to pesticides. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Rebecca Williams has more:


The EPA has accepted a two million dollar contribution from the American
Chemistry Council to help fund the exposure study.


Some environmental groups are saying the partnership is a conflict of
interest for the agency. Tim Kropp is a senior scientist with the
Environmental Working Group.


“It doesn’t make sense for them to say that there’s no influence, and that it’s
all right for the regulated industries to be involved in a study that’s
going to affect policy, or may affect policy.”


EPA officials counter that the study design has been independently reviewed.
And that the American Chemistry Council won’t be able to affect the outcome
of the study. Linda Sheldon is with the EPA’s human exposure and
atmospheric sciences division.


“The American Chemistry Council is independent of the individual companies
that produced these particular chemicals. We feel that we have complete
control over the study and control over the research findings.”


Sheldon says the information from the study will be used for future EPA risk
assessments of chemicals.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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New Law Requires Seafood Labeling

  • A new law states that labels on the majority of seafood will need to list the country of origin. Some are worried about the amount of time and money this will cost. (Photo by Ivan Pok)

Seafood lovers will soon know where their dinner was caught. A new U.S. law requires most seafood to have a label that names the country it came from. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette reports:

Transcript

Seafood lovers will now know where their dinner was caught. A new U.S. law requires most seafood to have a label that names the country it came from. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette reports:


The label will tell the country of origin and whether the seafood was farmed or wild. Processed foods like canned tuna or fishsticks will be exempt and smaller stores won’t be required to label their food.


The new law is supported by some in the fishing industry who think shoppers would rather buy seafood caught in U.S. waters. But other suppliers and retailers complain the law is forced marketing and has nothing to do with food safety.


Linda Candler is with the National Fisheries Institute. She says it will cost billions of dollars for the industry to keep track of all the necessary information.


“We’ve already heard from several retailers that, in order to keep their record keeping to a manageable level, they will cut the number of their suppliers. Meaning, they’ll have less flexibility in price.”


The law is now in effect. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture won’t enforce it for six months. They say that will give the industry some time to adjust to new requirements.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Peter Payette.

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Study Finds Website Info Not a Threat

Federal officials began taking information off government websites after the September 11th attacks. They feared terrorists would use the information to plan future attacks. Now, a new study says much of that information wouldn’t be useful to terrorists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush explains:

Transcript

Federal officials began taking information off government websites after the
September 11th attacks. They feared terrorists would use the information to
plan future attacks. Now a new study says much of that information wouldn’t
be useful to terrorists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush has
explains:


Researchers at the Rand Corporation spent a year analyzing 629 federal
websites. They looked at sites that had information about things such as
bridges, power plants, transit systems, and chemical factories. They found
that less than one percent of the websites they analyzed had information that
would be useful for a terrorist to mount an attack.


Beth Lachman co-authored the study. She says agencies need to develop
better methods before pulling information off of their websites:


“Stuff that we think may be very sensitive may not be quite as sensitive as
you thought. Just because you have to really analyze, ‘Well how useful is
this? How unique is it? Is it out there in a lot of different sources? What
are the cost and benefits associated with putting it out there and
potentially restricting it from being out there.'”


Lachman and the other researchers say if the information isn’t useful to a
terrorist, it should be made available to the public. They say people have
the right to know about information such as what chemicals are stored
in their neighborhoods.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Brush.

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Critics Say Homeland Security Bill Goes Too Far

Some environmentalists believe President Bush’s Homeland Security Act could have some harmful effects on the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Some environmentalists believe President Bush’s Homeland Security Act could have some harmful effects on the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The National Strategy for Homeland Security is the White House plan to deal with threats of terrorism. Among a number of proposals, the Bush Administration wants to limit access to information about hazardous chemicals at company plants. Alys Campaigne is with the environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDC notes that industry has long wanted to get rid of laws that required disclosing to the public what chemicals they might handle…


“We’re concerned that the Bush Administration is using the guise of Homeland Security to legislate very sweeping exemptions to corporations under public disclosure laws and to give them unprecedented immunity from laws that are on the books now.”


The NRDC says instead of letting companies keep secrets about chemicals at their sites, the government should conduct vulnerability assessments and work with companies to reduce the hazards at a site. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Farming With Computers

You probably have a computer in your car, on your desk and maybe even in your stove. It seems like there are computers everywhere these days helping with everything from our checking accounts to our turkey roasts. Now researchers want to install computers in another place, where most of us would least expect it – in Old MacDonald’s tractor. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Daniel Grossman has this story:

Mercury Emissions Hit the ‘Net’

The U-S Environmental Protection Agency will soon require some coal-burning power plants to report how much mercury their smokestacks are emitting. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports that the E-P-A will post the information on the Internet: