Last week I wrote about the legislative hearing in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee of the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011. At the hearing, Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) said that he would be calling for a committee vote in the near future. Read more »
2 comment(s)

We are really making progress on toxics policy. This week, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee held a legislative hearing on the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 847), introduced last spring by Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ). Read more »
2 comment(s)

The PSR community has lost a pioneer, a champion, and an outstanding colleague in the field of climate change and public health. Paul Epstein, MD MPH, co-founder and co-director of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, died early this week. Read more »
1 comment(s)

Apologies to all readers for the longish hiatus of this blog. Many things have occurred since we last posted: Read more »
1 comment(s)

One last thought on last Sunday’s White House demonstration against the Keystone XL pipeline. It has to do with the missing generation. Read more »

Yesterday I wrote about the speakers who addressed the Keystone protesters at the White House. Today I’d like to talk about the protesters – specifically, the young people and the growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Read more »
1 comment(s)

As I wrote yesterday, Sunday’s rally to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline was a powerful experience. Part of the impact came from the array of speakers. Read more »
1 comment(s)

A multi-state delegation of PSR representatives joined 12,000 other like-minded people on Sunday to link arms around the White House and send President Obama an urgent message: Don’t build the Keystone XL pipeline. Read more »
9 comment(s)

A nuclear disaster in a plant near Chicago would force the evacuation of 7 million people and could deliver fatal doses of radiation to 20,000 people, said a speaker at an APHA session on "In the Wake of Fukushima: Is Nuclear Energy Healthy for Communities?" this afternoon. Read more »

Yesterday was my first day at the 2011 American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference. This conference hosts over 12,000 public health professionals and is always a bit overwhelming at first. Read more »
1 comment(s)

Before the end of the year the Super Committee will be required to submit plans to cut at least $1.5 trillion in deficit-reduction measures over the next 10 years. What we decide to cut will speak to our priorities as a country. Read more »
8 comment(s)

Today the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future (BRC) will convene in Denver the first of its public meetings since releasing its draft report on US nuclear waste management. The BRC was created in the wake of the Obama Administration’s wise decision to shutter the Yucca Mountain project as a way to hopefully (finally?) figure out what to do with spent fuel in this country. In case you didn’t know, after 60 years of nuclear power, the U.S. still has no permanent storage for the over 65,000 tons of spent fuel sitting around at 70 sites all over the country. Read more »
3 comment(s)

Today, 10 years later, I remember the fear, the uncertainty, and those who lost their lives on September 11th. I wish I could say the fear and the uncertainty has disappeared. On Thursday, after President Obama’s address to Congress, information of a “specific, credible, but unconfirmed” threat were made public. Living in Washington DC, I am worried about what someone may do on the anniversary of September 11th. Mixed in that worry is no longer simply the fear of an attack but, also, how our country may change in the shadow of another act of terrorism. Read more »

Should the U.S. government be building more nuclear weapons? Residents of Kansas City, Missouri don’t appear to think so, for they are engaged in a bitter fight against the construction of a new nuclear weapons plant in their community. Read more »
3 comment(s)

The Associated Press has done some more great work on the safety risks of nuclear reactors. According to its recent analysis of an 11,000 page record request from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the risk that an earthquake would cause a severe accident at a U.S. nuclear reactor is much greater than previously thought. Read more »

Yesterday, McClatchy reported on a cable from the recent WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables. In the cable is evidence that disputes the United States official story. U.S. trained Iraqi police, neighbors, and a doctor’s inspection of the 10 civilians present a very different picture. Read more »

On March 15, 2006, American troops approached a house around 2:30 AM in Ishaqi to apprehend a potential Al Qaida in Iraq suspect. Read more »

The Aug. 29th Washington Post article “Syrian unrest raises fears about chemical arsenal” by Pulitzer Prize winning author Joby Warrick raises a key national security question for the United States. Will we pursue an arms control or arms proliferation foreign policy in the 21st century? Read more »
1 comment(s)

Just days after an earthquake that shook Toronto to South Carolina, we are once again gearing up for a dangerous scenario. The earthquake caused ‘unusual events’ at a dozen reactors along the East Coast, demonstrating, particularly in the wake of the Fukushima disaster earlier this year that more emergency preparedness is desperately needed at reactor sites. This upcoming weekend, the East Coast is expecting a Category 3 hurricane, Irene, which poses yet another threat to the reactor safety. Read more »

Yesterday afternoon, like many people in DC (and up and down the East Coast), I experienced the jarring reality of a moderate earthquake. It was a scary moment up high in our office tower. Sadly, at that same moment, many people feared that instead of a natural disaster, we were facing a man-made tragedy. Read more »
2 comment(s)