A new study out of Baylor University finds our pharmaceuticals are getting into fish and other aquatic life (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
There’s something fishy with pharmaceuticals. Lester Graham reports researchers find the drugs we take end up in some fish:
Transcript
There’s something fishy with pharmaceuticals. Lester Graham reports researchers find the drugs we take end up in some fish:
If you’re a fish living anywhere near a wastewater treatment plant, you’re swimming in drugs.
A new study out of Baylor University finds our pharmaceuticals are getting into fish and other aquatic life.
Bryan Brooks is one of the researchers.
“In many cases we really don’t know the full potential effects of these kind of drugs on aquatic life.”
This is just the latest research that shows the stuff we take passes through us, and ends up in the water.
There’s not a lot you can do about that, but Brooks says at least don’t flush unused medications down the toilet.
“Perhaps the most appropriate way to dispose of unused medications is directly to landfill when it’s properly packaged.”
The FDA says, mix the drugs with something nasty like kitty litter or old coffee grounds so kids won’t be interested. Then put it all in a sealed bag or can with a lid so it doesn’t leak out of a garbage bag.
Some consumers choose alternative treatments, like acupuncture, because they want a smaller environmental footprint from their medical care. (Photo courtesy of the National Institutes of Health)
Acupuncture has been used as a medical treatment in Asia for thousands of years. It’s catching on in this country, but it can be pricey. Now a new kind of low-cost acupuncture clinic is springing up with a goal of bringing acupuncture to the masses. As Ann Dornfeld reports, this new type of clinic might just be healthy for the planet, too:
Transcript
Acupuncture has been used as a medical treatment in Asia for thousands of years. It’s catching on in this country, but it can be pricey. Now a new kind of low-cost acupuncture clinic is springing up with a goal of bringing acupuncture to the masses. As Ann Dornfeld reports, this new type of clinic might just be healthy for the planet, too:
Esther “Little Dove” John is lying on a treatment table with the same blissful smile as someone who’s just had a massage. Except she’s about to get stuck with a couple dozen needles.
“Anything in particular you want to focus on today?”
“I have tingling in my fingers and numbness in the toes.”
Acupuncturist Jordan Van Voast taps fine steel needles into John’s hands; then her stomach, her legs, and her ears.
“All of a sudden, my body just relaxed.”
This would be a typical scene from an acupuncture clinic. Except the recliner that serves as John’s treatment table is just one in a circle of ten. It’s a treatment model called “community acupuncture.”
Jacque Larrainzar is getting treated in a chair across from John. She used to go to a standard acupuncture clinic with private rooms. But she prefers the communal style of this Seattle clinic, called – wait for it – “CommuniChi.”
“The feeling is very different. Seeing other people relax and just giving themselves the opportunity to heal is, in itself– I think it helps you to focus on yourself and heal.”
Community acupuncture clinics are designed to make acupuncture affordable to people at all income levels, regardless of insurance. Patients pay a sliding scale fee – as little as 15 dollars per treatment. It’s 60 dollars or more at a standard acupuncture clinic. Community acupuncture keeps costs down through low overhead: using one treatment room and recliners cuts down on electricity and laundry costs. And CommuniChi co-owner Serena Sundaram says that also means a smaller environmental footprint.
“All of those things are really different even than a regular acupuncture clinic, which is already a smaller footprint than a Western practice.”
You don’t need big, high-tech equipment for acupuncture or even electricity — just a place to lie down and a handful of tiny needles.
Patient Esther “Little Dove” John says she’s glad that acupuncture doesn’t involve pharmaceuticals.
“If I were using the mainstream treatment for my condition, I’d be expelling those chemicals into the environment and the fish would be taking it and the birds would be drinking it.”
Scientists have found high levels of pharmaceuticals in the water downstream from water treatment plants. They’re worried about the effect on fish.
Emily Wong is a physician at the University of Washington Medical Center. She practices Western medicine, but also studied acupuncture. Wong says there’s extensive evidence that acupuncture helps with a lot of health problems where Western medicine falls short, like headaches, back aches, and nausea.
But, she says acupuncture is no panacea. She says some acupuncturists claim to be able to treat conditions like kidney stones without scientific evidence to support their claims.
“I see it as being more similar to, for example, physical therapy as a modality that treats many conditions quite well, and as an alternative to a surgical approach or perhaps a pharmacological approach to some conditions.”
If acupuncture works as well or better than a stay at the hospital or a prescription of drugs, it could have a lot lower impact on the environment. And if the new community clinics bring more people to acupuncture, it’s possible the earth will get a little relief too.
This commonly-prescribed albuterol asthma inhaler will
soon be a relic of America's medical past. The federal
government fears the device's chlorofluorocarbon-based
(CFC) propellent harms the ozone layer. (Photo by Shawn Allee)
We usually expect environmental
regulations to make us healthier in the
long run. Well, there’s one coming down
that some people aren’t so sure about.
Reporter Shawn Allee says it has to do
with propellants in asthma medicine:
Transcript
We usually expect environmental
regulations to make us healthier in the
long run. Well, there’s one coming down
that some people aren’t so sure about.
Reporter Shawn Allee says it has to do
with propellants in asthma medicine:
Maureen Damitz struggles with asthma.
She’s got it and two of her kids do, too.
But fighting it is also a career.
Damitz is with the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago – it’s the
nerve center for asthma issues in her area.
She says recently, pharmacies have been running out of a familiar asthma inhaler.
“Our phones started ringing off the walls months ago. All of a sudden patients
started getting these new inhalers, and no one was prepared for that.”
The old-standby has been the albuterol inhaler – it’s for quick relief.
Damitz says there is a cheap generic, but it’s got a propellant with Chloro-fluoro-carbons
or CFCs.
And, the government’s banning CFC albuterol inhalers.
Damitz says some patients will miss them.
“When you’re spraying it, it comes out with quite a blast.”
(puff, puff)
“People mistake that as, ‘it forces it into my lungs’; it doesn’t, it’s just the type of
propellant.”
Three new inhalers have the same medicine but a different propellant, known as HFA.
“The new HFA comes out much softer and its warmer when it comes out. They
mistake that as, ‘Oh, my medication doesn’t work.’”
Damitz says studies show the new inhalers work just as well or better than old ones, but
some patients report just the opposite.
Regardless, no one will have a choice soon. By January, no pharmacy can sell albuterol
inhalers with CFC propellents.
Why?
“Originally it arose from the concern that CFC’s were damaging the atmosphere.”
Dr. Nicholas Gross is an asthma specialist.
He says CFCs used to be in many things – refrigerators, air conditioners, and asthma
inhalers.
But CFCs deplete the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. That lets more solar radiation
through and causes skin cancer.
The government banned CFCs in most products.
But drug companies got exemptions and were slow to develop alternative propellants.
In 2005, the government asked a medical panel to speed things up.
“They were concerned nothing much was changing. It looked like companies were
going to keep claiming exemptions indefinitely, so they asked what we would
recommend they should do about that.”
Gross and other panelists found three competing albuterol inhalers with new propellents.
So, they recommended a ban start next year. Now, Dr. Gross regrets that ban.
“One thing I don’t think anybody paid enough attention to was the fact that it was
going to be much more expensive in the HFA version than the CFC version.”
CFC-based albuterol inhalers cost about thirteen bucks a pop.
New HFA ones cost three times that.
There won’t be a generic inhaler with the new propellant until 2010.
Dr. Gross worries some patients will go without.
“I think it’s very difficult for the FDA to turn around and rescind itself. It means
somebody made a mistake and in government that’s not something you’re allowed
to admit.”
But, the FDA is sticking with the ban.
One asthma expert is more at ease with the transition.
He’s Paul Greenberger – head of the Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
He says if patients puff through new, expensive albuterol inhalers quickly – there might
be something wrong with how they’re using them.
“We don’t want people using them everyday if they can help it. We have to take a
look at their overall asthma control – do they need better therapy, frankly than
these albuterol inhalers?”
Of course, that might mean a doctor’s visit and new meds.
Dr. Greenberger says all of this is expensive, but he still supports a ban on CFC albuterol
inhalers.
He says if patients get treatment that’s also better for the atmosphere, well, that’s
priceless.
Faith learned about the use of many herbs for home remedies from her father in Louisiana when she was a small girl. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
Hot pepper tea is one of the herbal remedies handed down generation to generation. Some scholars are worried knowledge of the use of many herbs is being lost. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
Nature’s Products is one of the few stores where people can buy the herbs they need for traditional home remedies. The owner says his customers are his best teachers. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
When most of us get sick we go to the doctor and get medicine. But
some people are holding onto the old ways of healing. And many
people think we could learn a lot from the old ways. Kyle Norris has
this story:
Transcript
When most of us get sick we go to the doctor and get medicine. But
some people are holding onto the old ways of healing. And many
people think we could learn a lot from the old ways. Kyle Norris has
this story:
The small store is called Nature’s Products. It’s in a neighborhood with
a lot of abandoned buildings and store-front churches. When you walk
inside the store, the smell of incense clings to your clothes.
Green plants hang in the windows, and there are jars and jars of bulk herbs lining
the shelves.
Gary Wanttaga opened the store thirty years ago. He’s always been
interested in natural healing techniques and herbal medicine. That all
might sound new-agey, but this place is not new-agey at all. The
reason Wanttaga opened the store in his hometown of Detroit was
because he wanted to help the people who lived here:
“In lot of urban areas people are very limited on resources. They’re limited
with money. They’re limited with shopping resources. And this is one way
that I try to give back to the community”
Wanttaga says one of the main reasons he’s stayed in Detroit is because of
his customers. They’re some of his biggest teachers. Many of his
customers are older African-Americans. They came from the South to work
in the factories during World War II. When they came they brought with
them a cultural knowledge of herbs and natural healing techniques.
One of his customers is 72-year-old Faith. That’s her legal name – just
“Faith.” She grew up in a segregated farming community in Louisiana. Her
father was a farmer, and he taught her all about the herbs:
“I’m the youngest child of all, so I’m the baby. And he would often let me
ride on his shoulder. And sometime I’d be saying ‘Papa, what is this?’ and he
would tell me what that was, we’d be walking through the fields and he
would tell me what was, and he would tell me different things, what you use this for
what you use that for. I had 100 questions. Boy, I was a kid I had a 100
questions.”
She says back then, everyone knew about the herbs, and everyone used
them. At that time, people who were poor or black or who lived in rural
areas did not often have the option of going to a doctor. And so they turned
to the plants and trees around them for medicine, and they developed a great
knowledge about what did and didn’t work to keep people healthy:
“The pine tree was used for many things. Because it’s one of things where
you get turpentine from. It was definitely used for healing. And we used
turpentine for sores. And it works today! If you get a cut and you put
turpentine on it immediately as soon after you hit it, it will never be sore.”
Herbs were out first form of medicine. That’s what Suzanna Zick says.
She’s a naturopathic physician who teaches at the University of
Michigan. She says we have a collective knowledge about herbs that’s
thousands of years old. She says when you compare that to what
modern-day science knows about herbs, it’s not much of a comparison:
“In a sense we have just a tiny little window that science shows us, as
compared to the long use.”
Zick says we could learn a lot from these folks and the knowledge they
have, but not many researchers are studying people like the customers
here in Detroit:
“I think that we can actually learn what herbs they’re using a lot of and
what for. Because I think those are probably the ones that would be of
most interest. In particular, it’s a good question too if they’re using
them with conventional medications, it’s for safety issues. But also if
this is their primary health care for some of them, if it’s working, then
this is a very inexpensive way of providing health care for people who
might otherwise get none.”
Everyone we heard from in this story said the same thing. For us to
have good health, the old-school ways of healing can work hand-in-
hand with modern-day doctors and science. But the people who know
about the herbs are growing older and dying, and their knowledge is dying with them.
There’s more evidence that small amounts of pharmaceuticals are finding their way into the environment and potentially causing harm. So, some communities are collecting unused drugs and destroying them. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
There’s more evidence that small amounts of pharmaceuticals are finding their way into
the environment and potentially causing harm . So, some communities are collecting
unused drugs and destroying them. Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Sewage treatment plants can’t screen out all the medicines that either pass through the
body, or if unused, are flushed down the drain. Some studies have shown the
pharmaceuticals affect fish, or end up in fertilizer that’s put on lawns and gardens. So
some cities have started pharmaceutical collection days. Jean Zyla brought a grocery
bag full of old medicine to a site in Milwaukee:
“I believe very strongly in the environment, and preserving it, and
I wanna protect the citizens and the animal population and everything. I believe very
strongly in that!”
Pharmacists were on hand to examine the medicines and make sure that controlled
substances were taken in by police. The rest of the drugs are to go to an incinerator in
Texas.
Sometimes tackling environmental problems is not as simple as rounding up volunteers and getting to work. Obstacles get in the way. In one big city, bird lovers face heavy traffic while getting injured birds to the vet. So, they’re bringing the vet a little closer to them. The GLRC’s Shawn Allee has the story:
Transcript
Sometimes tackling environmental problems is not as simple as rounding up volunteers
and getting to work. Obstacles get in the way. In one big city, bird lovers face heavy
traffic while getting injured birds to the vet, so they’re bringing the vet a little closer to
them. The GLRC’s Shawn Allee has the story:
It’s early morning and Annette Prince is scouring bushes beneath high rise office towers. She’s dodged downtown traffic for several hours now, hunting for birds; specifically,
ones that have flown into windows. Prince pulls her latest find out of a paper sack.
“This is a woodcock.”
“What do you see with the head trauma there?”
“He’s bleeding from his mouth. This bird impacted a building when we were
watching it a few minutes ago. He flew right into the glass and he died
instantaneously.”
There are survivors, though. Prince stowed some in her green mini van.
Paper sacks hold another woodcock and a tiny, grey-feathered bird called a junco.
“Both were found after they hit a building this morning. They’re resting in the bags
and they’re going to rehab where they’ll receive an evaluation by a wildlife
rehabilitator to decide what kind of treatment they need and what they’re potential
is to be released.”
Injuries such as skull fractures need quick treatment, but when Prince and others find injured birds, their options are limited. The nearest wildlife rehab center is twenty-five miles away from downtown Chicago. In heavy traffic, the drive takes a while.
“People have indicated a great desire to step up and help whenever they can. Up
until now, we’ve had to tell them there wasn’t any place they could take the birds
they found, short of having to drive for more than an hour. And many city residents
can’t. They either don’t have cars or that’s too far a distance.”
But if you can’t get birds to the vets at the rehab center maybe you can bring the vets
closer to the birds. A new bird hospital’s opening near downtown, where people can
reach it by bus or a short cab ride.
Dawn Keller runs a rehab center in a Chicago suburb, and soon she’ll oversee the new
downtown hospital. She says when she’s finished the city will have its own miniature avian ER for immediate
treatment.
“We’ll be moving in things such as scales, so we can weigh the birds when they come
in, so we can properly dose the medicine. We’ll be bringing in cages, refrigerator,
food supplies, all of the things that we’ll need to properly care for the birds.”
Keller says, birds with the most serious injuries will recover out in her suburban rehab
center. The bird urgent care center isn’t just good for birds, it’s good for volunteers. Keller says area bird watchers bring in about nine hundred birds a year, and sometimes
the volunteers are overwhelmed especially during peak migration times.
“Our peak day, I think was about 127 in one day. We put in a lot of hours on those
days; those are pretty much sleepless nights.”
Keller says, the sleepless nights and long drives through traffic out to the rehab center
add up to volunteer fatigue.
She hopes the convenience of a closer hospital will keep more volunteers on board. Wildlife rehab experts say the Chicago hospital’s part of a trend; professionals are getting
help closer to the problem and making it easier on volunteers. Elaine Thrune directs the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association. She says most wildlife care centers are small and heavily rely on volunteers.
“Even at a center you have some staff, but the actual hands-on care of feeding the
birds or assisting the veterinarian is done by volunteers.”
Thrune says rehab centers face a location conundrum. Volunteers rescue wildlife in cities or suburbs, but rehab centers and professional staff
are often in far away, rural areas. That’s because injured animals recover best when they’re away from noise and people,
but Thrune says rehab centers are experimenting. They’re opening intake centers in popular spots, like shopping malls.
“It’s a convenient place for people to bring things and to drop them off. And it’s a
good place for a veterinarian or a trained rehabilitator to examine them
immediately and then do what’s necessary.”
Thrune says the drop-off centers are like hospital triages; staff patch up the easy cases
quickly. Then, animals with more serious injuries recover out in the country. The
Chicago bird watchers and wildlife rehabbers are betting on this strategy. They say they’ll need to if they’re to keep the current stable of helpers, and they hope
with the convenience of the nearby downtown center more people will scour near
downtown Chicago for injured birds.
Across the country, nursing homes destroy thousands of dollars in medicine at each facility every day. The medicine is still good. But destroying the drugs has been the traditional way to keep prescription medication out of the wrong hands. A new federal directive might encourage more nursing homes to recycle unused medicines for the use of the poor. The GLRC’s Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports:
Transcript
Across the country, nursing homes destroy thousands of dollars in
medicine at each facility every day. The medicine is still good. But
destroying the drugs has been the traditional way to keep prescription
medication out of the wrong hands. A new federal directive might
encourage more nursing homes to recycle unused medicines for the use
of the poor. The GLRC’s Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports:
In her nursing home room, Genevieve Barns gazes out the window. A
black rosary is draped over her lap. She’s 94 and an oxygen
concentrator, bubbles behind her to help her breathe. She says even this
late in life she’s still abiding by her mother’s lessons.
“It’s a matter of how we were raised, you never wasted anything.”
Barns was on a common medication called Mucinex, to keep her
throat clear, but her doctor took her off of it. Normally, her unused
Mucinex would be sent back to the pharmacy for destruction, but Barns’
nursing home contributes it to a so-called ‘drug repository.’ Barns says it
was a simple choice to give medicine she can’t use to needy seniors.
“Well, everything is so expensive, and when you waste… you’re just
squandering things that should be used by someone.”
Four years ago, Ohio became the first state to recycle sealed, unused
medicine to seniors in need. Ever since, its two drug repositories have
struggled to get more participation. The drugs can’t be redistributed until
there’s enough of any one drug to make a 30 day supply. Then it’s made
available to seniors who otherwise couldn’t afford it.
At Genevieve Barns’ nursing home, the administrator, Denise Day,
collects the drugs in a blue plastic tote…
“We don’t have a huge cliental in this building at this time, but the
amount of medications that get sent back is still quite incredible.”
The bin in Day’s office is filled with pills and bottles sealed in their
packaging. She says what’s here comes from patients covered by
Medicaid; unused medicines covered by Medicare or private insurance
must to go back to the pharmacy for incineration before patients can get
their refund. Day says still, about 2-thousand dollars worth a month,
from just 34 patients, are recycled by the group called Serving Our
Seniors.
Its director, Susan Daugherty, says if every nursing home in her county
donated from just half their patients, the results would be astounding.
“Honestly we could meet and probably exceed the need of older adults
who’ve needed access to drugs that are common to the aging
populations. It could do a whole lot of good with a whole lot of waste.”
The drugs in this region are taken to Buderer Pharmacy. It’s become the
local drug repository. In the backroom shelves of medication go all the
way to the ceiling.
Matt Buderer is the pharmacist. He says the drugs are checked for their
expiration dates and whether they’re eligible for donation.
“And then what we want to do is take these drugs and poke them out of
this thing into a bottle. Making sure that what goes on the bottle is the
lot and expiration date.”
Seniors who’ve signed a waiver and received a card from Serving Our
Seniors can then buy any medication for a flat fee of 7 dollars and 40
cents.
“You can dispense one tablet. You can dispense 15. You can dispense a
billion for $7.40.”
Ohio’s not the only state with a drug repository program. At least
nineteen other states have mimicked the idea. Some states have had
more success than others.
In North Carolina the Board of Pharmacy says it recycles 5 to 6 million
dollars of drugs paid by tax payers every year. That’s a lot more than
Ohio’s program.
Buderer says his state could be matching those numbers, if only there
were more participation.
“There’s good public knowledge out there that large quantities are picked
up daily and incinerated that could be used. So I’m sure that a large
institutional pharmacy knowing that… certainly isn’t saying ‘well, we
don’t care.'”
Buderer says liability is often the reason given for not participating in
the drug repositories. The state’s largest nursing home corporation and
wholesale pharmacy. Both declined to comment for this story.
But now, there might be a bigger incentive. In April, the federal government
announced it will hold nursing home facilities financially accountable for
medicines going unused by patients. The states can still redistribute medicines,
as long as documents show the federal government isn’t paying for the same item
twice, and this acknowledgement of waste with in the system, might just be the
national push drug repositories need to move into the mainstream.
David Peterson is president of NaturNorth Technologies. The business is a spinoff from the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute. It has a patent on a process to extract large quantities of pure betulin, a component of birch bark. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
When extracted and purified, betulin is a crystalline powder. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
Skip Sandman is a traditional healer for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. He says it's getting harder and harder to find mature birch trees for his medicines. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)
A start-up company is banking on birch bark. The papery bark can be used for more than baskets and canoes. It’s used in skin creams, and scientists are studying it for use in treating skin rashes and even cancer. But Native American healers have been using birch bark for years, and some of them are worried about the supply. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
A start-up company is banking on birch bark. The papery bark can be used for more than baskets and canoes. It’s used in skin creams, and scientists are studying it for use in treating skin rashes and even cancer. But Native American healers have been using birch bark for years, and some of them are worried about the supply. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Have you ever noticed – walking in the woods – those cylinders of bright white bark, lying on the forest floor? Those are the remains of a birch tree. The inside of the tree rots away quickly, but the bark lasts much longer.
“The birch tree has some incredible defense mechanisms that protect the tree from weather, from rain, from sun, keep the moisture in, keep moisture out.”
David Peterson knows birch trees pretty well. He was a top manager at the Potlatch Paper Mill near Duluth, Minnesota. The plant processes thousands of trees every day, and burns the bark to make steam.
“I always was interested in trying to come with a way of using some of these low value waste streams generated from pulp paper mills and other places, it seemed like such a horrible waste, to take these really interesting compounds and put them in a boiler for boiler fuel.”
Peterson’s new company, NaturNorth Technologies, plans to make something worth a lot more than boiler fuel. The company has patented a process to extract large quantities of a chemical, betulin, that gives birch bark its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal qualities.
Mill workers remove bark from a tree that’s harvested for lumber or paper-making. It’s shredded into pellets, and put through a chemical process that extracts the betulin. It ends up looking something like salt.
“Here’s a sample of betulin, and you can see how bright and white it is. It’s got a chalky feel when you touch it.”
Apparently, what birch bark does for the birch tree, it can also do for human skin – protect it from the assaults of the physical world. Betulin is already used in some creams and cosmetics, but NaturNorth plans to be the first company in the world to market it on a large scale.
The idea of selling lots of betulin from birch bark makes Skip Sandman nervous. He’s a Native American traditional healer for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. He uses birch bark for medicine. He says it’s a pain-killer and blood-thinner and can be used for intestinal disorders.
“Fortunately, when people use it for medicines and stuff, one small tree does go a long way. But you might have to travel 15, 20 miles to find the right type of tree.”
Sandman says the bigger trees – ten to twelve inches in diameter – have a bigger supply of the properties he uses in medicine. And lately he’s had to go farther to find those big trees. He says that’s because timber companies have cut down so many of the big trees and now they’re working on smaller and smaller trees.
“But you see the logging trucks go by, and they’re just whacking down everything. Well they think it’s only a tree. But when the trees are gone, then what do we do?”
Sandman says in the Ojibwe creation story, each plant and animal promised to help people in some way, and birch trees offered their healing qualities. He says it’s important to use them respectfully, and not for profit, but only to help people. He says he approaches the tree with an offering of tobacco.
“I will put tobacco down and ask and talk to that tree, because it is alive.”
The folks at NaturNorth are hoping to make money from birch trees, but they’re also excited about helping people. David Peterson says he gets letters from people who want some betulin to treat a skin condition.
“When you get those letters, you can’t help but to feel that somebody out there that’s gonna benefit eventually from these compounds, I think it’s quite sobering and humbling.”
NaturNorth has started marketing betulin to cosmetics companies, and scientists are studying betulinic acid for its disease-fighting potential. Peterson says it’ll be several years before NaturNorth generates a profit.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon take a step that could help the ozone layer. Health officials say they might phase out certain types of asthma inhalers that use chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley has more:
Transcript
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon take a step that could
help the ozone layer. Health officials say they might phase-out certain
types of asthma inhalers that use chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley has more:
Since the early 1990’s, CFCs were banned from use in things such as car
air conditioners and aerosol cans. But they were still allowed to be used in
devices deemed medically necessary.
These include some types of asthma inhalers that contain very small
amounts of CFC gas to propel medicine into the lungs.
Now, health officials say there might be an alternative to the ozone-
depleting gas. They say hydrofluoroalkane, or HFA, gas works just as
well.
Doctor Robert Meyer evaluates drugs for the FDA. He says the new ban
may seem like a small step, but the overall picture matters most.
“We’re not really in the business of questioning whether this individual use
is in and of itself impacting much on the environment, we’re really looking
at the overall picture, and this action is a part of that picture.”
The FDA is asking the public for feedback on the possible phase-out.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Christina Shockley.
A new government report finds that twenty-four years after the federal government told the states to find ways to dispose of low-level radioactive waste, not a single site has been built. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A new government report finds that 24 years after the federal government told the states
to find ways to dispose of low-level radioactive waste, not a single site has been built.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
In 1980, the states became responsible for providing disposal sites for most of the low-
level radioactive waste. Low-level waste includes things such as clothing and tools
exposed to radiation in medicine, research and at nuclear power plants. But to date… not
one disposal facility has been built by a state. The investigative arm of Congress, the General
Accounting Office, reports that an older facility in South Carolina is the only
site still accepting waste… but it’s expected to restrict shipments by the middle of 2008.
The GAO’s Robin Nazzaro says it’s not a crisis situation yet…
“The bottom line fall back, though, is that sites can also store this waste at their facilities.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does allow for storage of waste as long as it’s safe
and secure.”
The GAO says a few states have plans to build facilities in the future… but nothing is
under construction right now.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
A new study out of Baylor University finds our pharmaceuticals are getting into fish and other aquatic life (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)
