Revealing the relationship between the natural world and the everyday lives of people
The US Department of Veterans
Affairs is offering new help to
Vietnam-era vets. The VA says
it can now assist vets who have
ailments related to Agent Orange
exposure. Mark Brush has more:
During the Vietnam War, the herbicide known as Agent Orange was sprayed over jungles and forests. It was used to strip the leaves from the trees and expose enemy soldiers.
Some US soldiers who were exposed to the herbicide have long complained about health problems.
Now, the Department of Veterans Affairs says it will help these veterans with disability benefits.
Exposure to Agent Orange has been tied to health problems like parkinson’s disease, cancer, and heart problems.
Allan Oates is with the US Military Veterans with Parkinson’s. He served in Vietnam. And was exposed to Agent Orange. He says his group was thrilled by the VA’s decision.
“It was just an exhilarating feeling to have these people knowing that they were going to get the help that they deserved.”
Oates says many Vietnam era veterans don’t know yet that help is available to them.
The VA estimates that 2.6 million military personnel were potentially exposed to sprayed Agent Orange.
For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.
Most people probably don’t enjoy
cleaning. But we’ve all got to do it.
And if you’ve ever looked at the household
cleaner aisle in the grocery store, you
know there can be some pretty strong
chemicals involved. Karen Kelly reports
on a cheaper, chemical-free alternative:
(sound of store)
I’ve just arrived at my neighborhood grocery store with a plan: to find what I
need to make my own household cleaners.
I head over to the cleaning aisle and pull out a list of ingredients I got off the
internet.
I see borax and
washing soda on the shelf.
They`re both made from naturally-occuring minerals and cost about five bucks
each for a 4 to 5 pound box.
I look around for soap flakes – to make my own dish soap – and find a big bar I
can grate myself.
The only thing missing is castile soap. It’s a biodegradable soap used in a lot of
these recipes.
I’ll grab that next at the natural foods store.
To be honest, I never paid that much attention to the ingredients in household
cleaner – until I used something with dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride on
my bathtub. It comes with warnings.
I rinsed it and took a bath. My 4-year-old also took a bath.
And we both ended up with a very itchy skin rash.
That convinced me. I had to find a safer way to clean the tub that, number one,
worked. And number two, wasn’t too expensive.
Which pretty much meant I’d have to make it myself.
We decided to start with the all-purpose cleaner.
Karen Kelly: “Okay. We need borax, which we have, castile soap, hot water.”
Child: “We have that! We can just turn on the sink and make hot water!”
Kelly: “And vinegar.”
Child: “We have, do we have vinegar?”
Kelly: “Yes.”
Child: “And Mom, we have hot water.”
We mix up a recipe I found on the David Suzuki Foundation’s website.
(sound of stirring and banging)
They’ve got a whole bunch of do-it-yourself recipes for bathtub scrubbers,
laundry soap, furniture polish, you name it.
Lindsay Coulter is the person who devised these concoctions.
She says a lot of people forget that you don’t need fancy products to get your
house clean.
“You know, if you talk to your grandmothers or your great-aunts, you’ll find that
they too used things like washing soda, baking soda, white vinegar, and a basic
castile soap. Things like vinegar – it’s acidic and helps lift grease and
deodorizes. A lot of the things you’re cooking with anyways, so you probably
already have it in your kitchen. And the benefit? Just peace of mind that you
know what goes into it.”
But does it work? It’s time to find out.
(sound of spraying)
We spray. We wipe. The bathroom sink shines.
Next, we try the bath tub scrubber. It’s a mix of castile soap, vinegar – which is
a natural disinfectant – baking soda, and water.
(sound of cleaning the tub)
The tub looks great, actually. And you know what? This is a lot cheaper.
Brand name all-purpose cleaning sprays are about 4 bucks a bottle where I live.
It cost me just a dollar – and about 5 minutes – to fill that same bottle with my
own mix.
So it’s cheap, it’s easy to make, and, best of all, I don’t have to worry about chemical reaction after a soak
in the tub.
For The Environment Report, I’m Karen Kelly.
Child: “Is it recording? Okay.”
The recent housing crisis has taught us
home values don’t always rise. So, people just
want to make sure they get what they pay for in
a house. That’s especially true with green homes
that are supposed to provide extra value – like
healthier air and lower energy bills. But does
your real-estate agent know enough about green
homes to make sure that’s the case? Shawn Allee reports says many do not, but the
industry’s working on it:
When Nathan Kipnis showed me a green home he designed – I spotted some green
features all by myself.
For example, it was hard to miss the solar water heater.
But it turns out, I missed stuff.
The architect had to show me the living room tile.
“What you’re seeing here is the dark grey slate. This is set to take sun in the
winter, fall and spring that comes in here. As the sun gets lower in the sky,
more sun comes in here and it heats up the floor with that.”
“What’s striking about this is that you have these little placards that read,
‘floor absorbs sun, creating thermal surfaces’. These are green crib notes so
to speak?”
“Yes. We definitely needed these because there was the chance that of
course realtors would come through here unaccompanied.”
Kipnis sweated over this solar tile, but at first, real-estate agents were like me – they
missed it, or they didn’t get how it worked.
Kipnis says, it’s likely some potential buyers went home clueless.
Still, he doesn’t blame the agents.
“They’re just kind of used to here’s the crown molding and here’s the
fireplace trim and here’s the pantry. That’s what we call, their expert
knowledge base.”
Some realtors are expanding their knowledge base to include green homes.
There’s a certification program that gets agents up to speed on energy conservation,
water use, and other green home features.
It’s called EcoBroker.
John Beldock runs EcoBroker.
He says it trains agents to protect home buyers.
“Many people stay in their houses longer than five years. If you’re really
watching out to make sure a consumer is buying a house that she can afford
to buy but afford to operate, you’ve really provided a valuable service to
society.”
Four thousand people have EcoBroker certification.
That sounds like a lot, but there’re more than two million real-estate license-holders
in the US.
So, most home buyers will encounter agents who are not trained, or ones who
mostly trained themselves – like Celeste Karan in Chicago.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to the table with some high-level people in the
industry who’ve been kind enough to explain things to me over coffee.
They’ve become part of my network and through that I’ve learned more
than anything else.”
Karan says formal certification is great, but when it comes down to it, buyers should
press agents about a home’s green claims.
And when possible – ask for numbers.
“There are certain properties where I know it’s been computer modeled and
the claims are likely to be true because they’re based in performance
testing rather than somebody just coming up with a number that sounds
good.”
Karan says there’s a lot at stake in getting green housing claims right.
The trend’s young, and it’s vulnerable to realtors who over-sell green features.
“Building better quality buildings has to be the norm. In order or that to
happen, the claims about them have to be honest, and people have to
continue to buy them. If buyers want it and builders build it, the market will
expand and move forward.”
Karan says it’s not like realtors are trying to screw people over.
There’s room for trust.
It’s just that for now, it’s best to back up that trust with a bit of skepticism.
For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.
A new study finds that the air you breathe could be teeming with more than
1,800 types of bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports the research might help
protect against bioterrorist attacks:
A new study finds that the air you breathe could be teeming with
more than 1,800 types of bacteria. Rebecca Williams reports the
research might help protect against bioterrorist attacks:
This is the first time researchers have used DNA sequencing to study
bacteria in the air. They wanted to find out what’s normal and what’s
harmful.
Federal officials are hoping to improve on the way they test the air for
potential bioterrorism agents.
Gary Andersen is the lead author of the study… published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He says the
current monitoring system tests the air above most major U.S. cities
for specific pathogens. He says the new research will make that
system better.
“To see not just whether or not these specific handful of pathogens
were present but what actually was the microbial composition in the
air and that also may give some clue to as whether things are normal
or suspicious circumstances.”
Andersen says the research will make it clearer whether or not people
are actually in danger.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.
