June 22, 2011
Forest Service Going Green
posted by Steven Barrymore

If you live in Montana or Idaho, the U.S. Forest Service going green for you. In partnership with Honeywell International energy-saving measures will be made to Forest Service Sites. These Energy-Savings Project improvements are expected to save the Forest Service over $267,000 in energy costs in the first year. The energy-saving measures will use renewable energy technology including photovoltaic (PV) systems. This project is designed to conserve energy and water without adding to the national budget deficit. How would the U.S. Forest Service going green in your state be of benefit?

Read more about the Energy-Savings Project.

January 8, 2011
Fluorosis is the Pits
written by Steven Barrymore

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it has reevaluated the current science on fluoride. While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed an adjustment to the levels of fluoride in drinking water. The current enforceable standard for fluoride is 4.0 mg/L. This may be too much for children’s developing teeth and for adult health.

Excessive fluoride in children 8 years and younger have an increased possibility of developing staining and pits in the tooth enamel. If this damage is excessive it could require dental intervention.

Adults exposed to excessive consumption of fluoride over a lifetime may have increased likelihood of bone fractures, and may result in effects on bone leading to pain and tenderness. source: EPA 2011 Q & A on Fluoride

In 2006 the EPA requested the National Research Council (NRC) to review data on drinking water standards collected by the EPA in 2003. The NRC recommended in their published report to the EPA, ‘Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards’, that the EPA update its analysis with new data on health risks and fluoride exposure. The NRC panel also recommended that the EPA update its goal to the public health in the areas of tooth enamel pitting, stage II & III skeletal fluorosis and bone fracture risk.

The EPA will be doing further risk assessment to determine if revised fluoride levels in public drinking water are needed.

The best way to find the fluoride level of your local public water system is to contact your water utility provider for more information, according to the EPA.

Additional sources of fluoride can include toothpaste and mouthwash. You and your children should not swallow these products during their use as they can add to an over-all fluoride intake.

Bottled water products labeled as purified, distilled or de-ionized contain no or trace amounts of fluoride unless they are labeled to contain fluoride. Spring water can contain added or naturally present fluoride (from the original source of the water). The FDA limits the amount of fluoride in bottled water to a range of 0.8 to 2.4 mg/L.

The 1960′s became the era of fluoridation as a widely used practice in public drinking water.


Link: EPA

August 20, 2010
EPA Wants Your Dirty Water Comments
written by Steven Barrymore

EPA steps outside the box. Or in this case, the watering hole. The EPA has launched a discussion forum blog to solicit comments on how best to protect America’s drinking water supply. The blog contains 4 separate topics for comments.

1. Addressing contaminants as a groups [sic] and better enhance drinking water protection in a cost-effective manner.
2. Fostering development of new drinking water technologies to address health risks posed by a broad array of contaminants.
3. Using the authority of multiple statutes to help protect drinking water.
4. Collaborating with states to share more complete data from monitoring at public water systems (PWS).

If you are an interested water expert, advocate or just part of the general water-drinking public, you can chime in on any of these topics. But do so before these discussion topics are closed. The EPA is leaving these topics open for about one month – they did not mention if the one month deadline is from the Aug 17 EPA website news release or one month from when the blog topics were posted (July 29). So, get comfy with a nice big glass of (filtered) water and blog away — your government needs you.


Link: EPA