A super-toxic type of rodenticide, or rat poison, has flooded the market in recent decades. It’s a concoction more toxic than traditional rat poisons and more persistent in the environment. The brand names include Havoc, Talon, Contrac, Maki, Ratimus and d-CON Mouse Pruf II.

Because it isn’t just rats that come into contact with rodenticides, these very potent chemicals have serious consequences for children, pets and for wildlife. These super potent variants have a longer half-life before they break down, which means they can stay in the environment longer and work their way up the food chain.

Amazingly, between 12,000 and 15,000 children under age six are exposed to dangerous levels of rat poison every year, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. From 1999 to 2003, 25,549 children under age six had symptoms of poisoning after exposure to nine rodenticides.

EPA says that rat poisons are the leading cause of pesticide-related visits to health care providers for children under age six. Low-income minority children are disproportionately at risk, one New York study found.

Children Uniquely at Risk

Children are uniquely vulnerable to pesticides. In terms of their biology and health, they are not just miniature adults. Their internal organs are developing and their enzymatic, metabolic and immune systems may provide less protection than those of adults.

Young children are at risk also because they may innocently handle the products, play on the floor and put objects in their mouths. EPA’s website says, “Adverse effects of pesticide exposure range from mild symptoms of dizziness and nausea to serious, long-term neurological, developmental and reproductive disorders.”

Under EPA Administrator Carol Browner, EPA announced a policy stating that regulatory standards would take into account children’s susceptibility or explain why that was not necessary and President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order in 1997 making this a government-wide policy, both good starts.

Wildlife Harmed and Killed

An American Bald Eagle perched on a tree in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Because they are persistent, the products can stay in an animal’s body for six months or longer and work their way up the food chain. They are anti-coagulants and once in an animal’s system, they prevent blood from clotting. Rats that have eaten the poison might hemorrhage and bleed to death. They can stagger around dazed for days, making them easy prey for predators.

EPA biologist Bill Ericks in 2006 wrote that hundreds of wildlife poisoning deaths had occurred and that the pesticides had been found in hundreds of animals. “We’re finding this stuff all over the place,” said John Elliott, an Environment Canada scientist who co-authored an owl study published last year. “There’s a lot more rodenticides in the food chain than we would have ever thought. We’re surprised that there’s that much of the stuff kicking around.”

What Is EPA Doing?

In 2011 EPA issued new rules, but they did not go as far as some wildlife advocates would want.

Reporting for Investigate West, Robert McClure wrote in December 2010 that the Clinton EPA required reformulation of the products to taste bitter, making them unpalatable when eaten and required the addition of a bright dye to better determine if children had put the substances in their mouths. But then the Bush EPA, after meetings with the industry, “reversed course,” according to McClure.

Manufacturers are still fighting, balking at responsible action.

What You Can Do

While it’s been years without systemic government action, and it could be years longer, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself, loved ones and wildlife. Keep in mind the biggest risk comes from using these indoors, where kids are most apt to find them. But outdoor contact can happen too.

• If you see multiple cases dead wildlife, alert local animal control authorities.
• Teach your kids not to play with dead animals and to recognize rat poison.
• Educate yourself about the products. Visit the National Pesticide Information Center, 800-858-7378 or http://npic.orst.edu/.
• Use non-chemical methods of rodent control such as rat traps. We discourage glue boards since they can be inhumane.
• Practice prevention. Don’t attract rodents with trash, pet food and bird seed. Seal openings to your home.
• Use safer products. Visit http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/reregistration/rodenticides/rodent-bait-station.html to find a list of products.
• Make sure pest control companies that you hire are licensed and do not use unsafe products.
• Never dispose of a pesticide in the toilet, storm drains, sewer systems or waterways.
• Check out these resources about protecting children: http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/Publications/catalog/subpage3.htm#children

Acknowledgement:  Thanks to NWF senior scientist Doug Inkley for editing this post.

The report debunks industry claims that the regulations will wreak havoc on the utility sector.

image courtesy lex18.com

The technology to comply with the new regulations is readily available, and  60% of US power plants have already installed the technology necessary to comply with the rules.

Though a few coal-heavy utilities have asked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to push back the deadline, claiming that the rules do not give them enough time to install all the required pollution controls, the EPA representative said it would not make sense to delay the rules across the board for those utilities who failed to heed notice that these pollution reductions would soon be required.

As the utility representative noted, there are leaders and followers among utilities. He echoed that the EPA should not delay important health benefits for those few utilities that were not proactive in updating pollution controls.

After all, installing technology to make sure power plants operate more safely is part of the evolution of a plant, just like getting your grandmother’s thirty-year-old car inspected and fixed is part of owning and operating a car.

In this case, the stakes are much higher than having a noisy muffler. The EPA found that the proposed pollution reductions will have annual benefits that include:

… [up to] 17,000 fewer premature mortalities, 4,300 fewer cases of chronic bronchitis, 10,000 fewer non-fatal heart attacks, 12,000 fewer hospitalizations (for respiratory and cardiovascular disease combined), 4.9 million fewer days of restricted activity due to respiratory illness and approximately 830,000 fewer lost work days.

We also estimate substantial health improvements for children in the form of 110,000 fewer asthma attacks, 6,700 fewer hospital admissions due to asthma, 10,000 fewer cases of acute bronchitis, and approximately 210,000 fewer cases of upper and lower respiratory illness.[2]

When 17,000 lives can be saved each year by reducing the amount of mercury, arsenic, and toxic air pollution spewing out of power plants, there is no excuse to continue with business as usual. As one panelist  said “the health of our families can no longer be a hotbed partisan issue.” I couldn’t agree more.

Take action here and tell the EPA that you want the strongest protections possible against dangerous air.

I’m not ashamed to admit it: when I was a child, I ate paint chips.  Something about the sweetness of the lead and the crunchiness of the chip proved irresistible as I worked to unsheathe my molars from my gums.

(via Flickr, Harpersbizarre)

Now before you go on to presume what this has done to my IQ, I want to say that I wasn’t the only one in Generation X to fall victim to the toxic (yet tasty) snack. After all, the majority of paint contained lead until the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lead as a paint additive in 1977. While lead improved drying time and increased sheen and durability, it also introduced a potent neurotoxin into households, causing nervous system damage, stunted growth, and delayed development.

This is what regulation is for. When a known toxic substance is threatening the lives of children in their own homes, we need to demand that our government do something to stop it. Just as the Consumer Product Safety banned lead in paint to protect public health, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally working to develop similar common-sense regulations to limit the amount of arsenic, lead, and mercury billowing out of smokestacks, 20 years after such regulations were first proposed.

You don’t need me to tell you that mercury isn’t exactly something you want to inhale—we’ve all known that for decades.

But, for the record, mercury is a highly potent neurotoxin that adversely affects the function and development of the central nervous system. I’m talking problems with language, memory, attention, and visual skills, not to mention aggravated asthma, heart attacks, chronic bronchitis and premature death.

The 600 coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury contamination in the U.S., responsible for approximately 50% of human-caused mercury emissions.  Other sources include waste incinerators that burn mercury-containing products and chlorine manufacturers. However, unlike these sources, power plants are not currently required to limit their mercury pollution.

The EPA’s proposed mercury and air pollution standards would reduce mercury and toxic air emissions from power plants by more than 90%. This will help prevent thousands of cases of premature death, asthma attacks and emergency room visits, especially in our most vulnerable communities.

It is crucial that the EPA enforce the law and fulfill its obligation to protect public health from these dangerous pollutants. The pollution control technology is readily available, and the EPA estimates that for every dollar spent to reduce toxic pollutants, we will receive $5-$13 in health benefits.

In the face of mounting industry pressure to weaken these limitations, the EPA needs to know that they have the support of US citizens as they move forward to set stringent standards that will protect public health from preventable mercury pollution.

So act now— tell the EPA that you support tighter limits on toxic air pollutants like mercury, arsenic, and dioxin released from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

After all, isn’t it about time?

UPDATE! On May 16, Scholastic removed their biased coal-industry funded curriculum from their website!

Thank Scholastic by clicking here to sign this twitter petition: Thank @Scholastic for removing their coal-industry backed, unbalanced curriculum from their website http://act.ly/3o6 RT to sign

The coal industry wants Americans to know that the majority of their electricity comes from coal-burning and it apparently feels this awareness needs be instilled at a young age: nine years old to be exact.  Witness a new coal industry education program aimed at 4th graders.  It is called The United States of Energy! and it comes from the American Coal Foundation and Scholastic. It purports to educate kids on where our energy “comes from, how it is used, and what part it plays in communities today.”

photo via Seth Anderson, Flickr

In our view, there is nothing wrong with letting kids know that electricity is produced by coal-burning and is used for many beneficial purposes.  But, when describing the role it plays in communities, there is much more to the story than the coal industry and Scholastic seem willing to share with our children.

• The role that coal-burning plays in escalating the global warming crisis is omitted even though this is well-established in science. The unfairness of this omission is profound.  The nine-year-olds who are being “sold” on the value of coal as a fuel source through this curriculum will live long enough to see dangerous rises in sea level, longer droughts, more intense wind storms and flooding, massive wildfires, spreading disease vectors and less breathable air.   This will be our legacy to them and will be due to more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  To be fair to our kids, a complete look at community implications must cover this subject fairly and accurately
• In addition to adverse environmental effects of coal-burning, there are serious childhood health implications that can have a particularly hard impact on low-income urban communities. The American Public Health Association points out that, in parts of some major U.S. cities, one-third to one-half of pediatric hospital admissions are for children with asthma who struggle to breathe when exposed to more pollution in the air.
• The coal industry and Scholastic have once again ignored the advice and policies of the professional environmental education (EE) community as embodied in its Guidelines for Excellence to provide materials and lesson plans that are of proper depth and are fair and accurate.  The EE field has great skill and offers solid guidance in developing education materials on complex environmental subjects requiring a fair look.

Our bottom line is that our kids have a right to know the full story on electricity production via coal-burning and not just the see the smiling face that the coal industry might want to put on it. We think that for-profit businesses using the classroom as a forum to propagandize kids on behalf of their product is a bad idea ethically and educationally.   We also think that Scholastic should not be aiding and abetting the coal industry in developing one-side lessons that smack a bit too much of brainwashing.  Too much influence on classroom lessons from business interests almost invariably lacks the thoughtful and well-reasoned balance that our kids deserve.

As adults and educators, we must be more mindful than ever that environment and energy-based lesson plans and curricula should help our children to be prepared for a complex and possibly perilous set future environmental realities.  We should not be encouraging ignorance of these subjects or keeping our kids in the dark.

Call or write to express your views or let @Scholastic know how you feel on Twitter.

Earth Tomorrow Student Leaders with GA Governor Nathan Deal

While at the Capitol, the teen leaders attended an environmental policy workshop conducted by Atlanta-based NWF Fair Climate Leaders Imran Battla and James King to learn about the most urgent environmental and public health issues currently being debated in the Georgia Legislature. Then, the young leaders brushed up on their communications skills as they prepared to meet with Georgia Governor, Nathan Deal and legislators from their home and school districts about their most pressing environmental, public health, and education concerns.

The Earth Tomorrow leaders posed many tough questions to their legislators about alternative energy, the licensing of new nuclear and biomass plants in Georgia, the need for funding of the GA Solid Waste Trust Fund, water conservation, and the HOPE Scholarship. In addition to asking questions about the legislators’ viewpoints on these issues, the teen leaders challenged their lawmakers to act on solutions that will not only protect and improve our environment, but the health and welfare of all Georgians.

The Earth Tomorrow Day at the State Capitol and Georgia Legislative Field Study affords teen leaders the opportunity to interact with their elected officials and become more acquainted with the legislative process. The field experience also provides a forum for the students to voice their concerns about state and local environmental and public health issues and propose possible solutions to address those challenges.

Earth Tomorrow student leaders talk to State Representative Horacena Tate about lack of enforcement of illegal dumping laws in northwest Atlanta neighborhoods.

Earth Tomorrow leaders left the state capitol hopeful and inspired because they were able to realize a forum through which they can raise their voice even before they are of voting age. In the words of one participant, “This was a great experience because we got a chance to speak to our legislators about things that we care about, and they listened. I realize now that the youth of today have the power to make our voices heard and make a difference for our environment and our communities.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The Atlanta Earth Tomorrow Program is a high school and community club-based program that creates opportunities for teens (ages 14-18) to become environmental stewards through a year-long cycle of leadership training, issues exploration, civic engagement, career development, community outreach and education, and student-led community action projects.  NWF works with select high schools in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, but is expanding the Earth Tomorrow Program to additional schools. For more information about the program or getting one started in your neighborhood school, please contact the program manager, Na’Taki Osborne Jelks at Osborne@nwf.org or 404-876-8733.

Flickr's Library of Congress photostream

As a kid, I spent every possible minute of my free time outside.   I grew up in a heavily polluted city in Poland, and my parents took me to the countryside nearly every weekend to escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.   But even I remember the “no swimming or fishing” signs posted at many of the lakes and rivers I frequented as a child.  Poland is heavily dependent on coal for power (over 90 percent of generated electricity comes from coal-burning power plants), and as a result, it was among the most polluted countries in the world when I was growing up there.   Back then it didn’t occur to me to stop and ask WHY I couldn’t go swimming in those lakes and rivers.  I didn’t think about the unbelievably high levels of mercury contamination affecting fish throughout the country and causing developmental disorders in children exposed to it.  Pollution was simply a fact of everyday life. 

In the US we generate about 50 percent of our electricity from coal-fired power plants.  Coal is not only the dirtiest form of fossil fuel, but the emissions released when it is burned are currently unrestricted.  That’s why the rules proposed by the EPA are so critical.  For the first time, we actually have the chance to put in place strong rules to take charge of the emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic pollutants from coal-burning power plants that harm our health and wildlife.  According to the EPA, these proposed rules would:

• Avoid 6,800 – 17,000 premature deaths
• Result in savings of $59 – 160 billion per year
• Result in a 78 percent reduction of mercury emissions

Right now we have the opportunity, through the EPA’s proposed rules, to save thousands of lives and ensure a cleaner and healthier future for our kids – something I couldn’t imagine having the chance to attempt in Poland. 

TAKE ACTION TODAY
Tell the EPA why clean air is important to you and why they should enact and enforce strong air toxic rules. You can quickly send your comments by:

1. E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, Attn: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR- 2009-0234.
2. Regulations.gov website (http://www.regulations.gov/). Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
3. EPA Air and Radiation Docket Web Site ( http://www.epa.gov/oar/docket.html). Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

If you’re having trouble coming up with the right words then take a look at some sample language below and feel free to use them as your own!

I strongly support the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that would limit mercury, arsenic, dioxin, and other toxic emissions from power plants.

Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury contamination in the U.S, amounting to about 50 percent of emissions affecting humans and wildlife. The pollution settles on lakes, rivers and forests where it exposes fish and other wildlife and makes its way into the food chain. In many places, mercury warnings are increasingly common.

A highly potent neurotoxin, mercury adversely affects the function and development of the central nervous system in both people and wildlife. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to mercury exposure.

For too long, mercury and other toxic pollution has gone unchecked in America. It is time that we require power plants to clean up the pollution that is inflicting such devastating damage to our health and environment.

Thank you for moving forward with the proposed Mercury and Air Toxics standards. I urge you to move forward and finalize strong rules that reduce these harmful emissions. These pollution limits will be one of the largest steps forward in protecting our nation from toxic air pollution in a generation.

Today I’m attending the Healthy Parks, Healthy People conference at the Institute for the Golden Gate outside of San Francisco.  It is a gathering of a surprisingly diverse mix of 100 public health, park and recreation, community outreach and education organizations.  The Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Health and Human Services, National Recreation and Parks Association, leading medical schools, the YMCA of the USA, the NAACP (and NWF) are here with others to offer the National Park Service (NPS) their best advice. 

Attendees got to hear from NPS Director Jon Jarvis about the priority the Service intends to place on addressing childhood obesity and other adverse health conditions such as early onset of diabetes.

The basic idea is to make units of the NPS and their state and local outreach programs more effective at improving public health across America.

The conference is about how to achieve this in practical ways.  We heard from Robin Schepper from the Office of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, who discussed the White House’s Let’s Move Outside campaign.  She summed up its importance with the simple statement that “we have no choice but to take this critical public issue head on.”

Several panels and discussions covered specific ways to link parks with the health care delivery system, including enabling doctors to prescribe park visits as a way to treat health conditions.  An insurance company is designing a plan to provide lower rates for subscribers who make regular and frequent use of parks and trails.

There is a growing body of hard evidence that health interventions that enable people to drop weight and improve their cardio-vascular health will prolong life and reduce health care costs by millions of dollars every year.  One study of a program by the YMCA of the USA showed that people who lost 5 to 7 percent of their body weight had improved health that persisted for more than a decade.

For the Healthy Parks, Healthy People conference of 2011, the bottom line is NPS and other outdoor recreation providers are quickly becoming more integrated with preventative health care and a series of visits to parks could soon become a legitimate and respected Rx for lowering health care costs and raising happier, healthier children.

A Nightmare that will haunt us all

For those who do not live close enough to the tar sands to see the immediate impacts, the tar sands still have an effect on you. How? The tar sands present a major source of pollution that will only further exacerbate global warming. Being such an ‘unconventional’ and ‘unique’ oil (aka: dirty oil), the tar sands emit three to five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil. A recent study by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center revealed that the tar sands project has higher emissions than 97 nations combined.

This is not a sustainable project and the Canadian government is merely turning a blind eye to the consequences its actions. Sadly, the US is the largest consumer of the tar sands oil as 60% of tar sands oil is sent to the US.
The U.S. Department of State is currently going through the permitting process for the latest and largest tar sands pipeline. TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would move up to 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily from Alberta, Canada to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, traversing 2,000 miles through rivers, farmland and forests from Montana to Texas. Unless we stop it, this pipeline would effectively open the entire U.S. market and international markets to this environmentally damaging and costly high-carbon fuel.

Hard-hitting impacts on local communities

What has this done to the local communities? With all boom & bust situations like this, local communities are hit hard with social ills from the sudden influx of miners and workers inundating the area. The tar sands are no different. Alberta has the highest school dropout and divorce rates in Canada. Sadly, Alberta women suffer the highest level of spousal abuse in Canada. Drug use has also risen exponentially since before the project began. Approximately $7 million worth of cocaine now travels up Highway 63 to the tar sands region every week. In fact, roughly 40% of all tar sands workers test positive for cocaine and marijuana use. Local drug stores can’t keep enough urine cleansing products on their shelves due to workers fearing a random drug test. As a result, a black market for clean urine has developed.

The social ills, cultural consequences and environmental impacts are having an irreparable effect on the land and the indigenous way of life. The tar sands project is a living curse that grows larger and larger every day.

Monstrous Machinery

Such a monstrous project requires monstrous machinery. Being so grand in scale, the project requires massive machines like those that are seen in the movie Avatar. In fact, the trucks from the tar sands have to be specifically designed for the project. They are the largest power shovels and dump trucks in the world, capable of hauling 400 ton loads. Each truck burns roughly 50 gallons of diesel fuel an hour.

Activist and Executive Director of Honor the Earth Winona LaDuke stands in front of one of the monstrous loads of machinery.

Tar sands machinery has been manufactured in Korea, shipped across the Ocean, shipped through the Columbia River (Washington & Oregon) and is now traveling from Port Lewiston, Idaho through Montana and eventually shipments will travel all the way to northern Alberta. Paid for by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Imperial Oil, these shipments will cross through some of America’s most beautiful and scenic highways, national historic trails, tribal reservations and other places with both historic and current value.

These are no ordinary shipments. These are behemoth-sized loads. To give you an idea, some of these loads will roughly be the size of the Statue of Liberty on its side. For Howard Hughes fans out there, the shipments will be 9 feet longer than the Spruce Goose airplane. They will weigh up to 300 tons and require 90 tires, 24 axles and two trucks attached to the rear to help push it along. American roads have never seen loads this big. There is no classification for shipments like this and it has forced agencies to look at ‘special permits.’ Roads have been modified, turnouts have been created and the loads are now traveling from 5 to 30 mph in the middle of the night to avoid affecting traffic. Traffic has been affected and cars have been stuck sitting behind these trucks for hours at a time. Traveling down these mountains and narrow roads, one of the loads even scraped up against the side of a mountain and skidded against the rocks. These loads are a disaster waiting to happen and Governor Otter of Idaho thinks so too. In fact, Otter is demanding $10 million in bonds from Imperial Oil in case an accident does occur.
Sign the petition at All Against the Haul protesting the shipments.

Stand up for the Nez Perce peoples

The Nez Perce peoples pray the $10 million is not necessary. Crossing over nearly 70 miles of the Nez Perce reservation, tribal members have been working to stop the loads. After seeing through a number of candy-coated lies presented by Imperial Oil, the tribe has passed a resolution against the shipments in July 2010. Unfortunately, Imperial Oil is pushing through anyway. Working to protect their land, health and safety, the Nez Perce are seeking a number of venues to safeguard its people from the hazards presented by these loads .

Beginning with tarry mud in Northern Alberta, the destruction of First Nations homelands, the contamination of the Boreal forest and the transportation of loads of unheard sizes, the tar sands are pure destruction. The First Nations of Alberta deserve better. The Nez Perce deserve better. We all deserve better.

Don’t stand by. Take action now.

People around the globe value the Boreal forest in Alberta, Canada for a number of reasons. For one, the forest represents ¼ of the earth’s remaining intact forest, and it makes up 11% of the planet’s terrestrial carbon storehouses. It’s known for its wildlife habitat, which is home to moose, bear, and endangered species such as the woodland caribou and the whooping crane. However, to indigenous peoples of the region, the Boreal forest is important because it is home. It has been their home for generations, the ancestral site of their hunting, fishing and gathering.

The Boreal Forest in Alberta Canada (Photo Credit: Flickr/Gord McKenna)

Unfortunately, nearly every big oil company in the world has targeted the Boreal forest as a hot spot for oil, even if it is some of the dirtiest and most difficult oil to extract. The oil derived from the Boreal Forest comes from tar sands, a claylike, tar-infested mud that spans an area roughly the size of Florida.

Oil companies start by clear-cutting the forest before beginning extraction through open pit mining and leaching, which requires that high temperatures and chemical solvents be applied beneath the earth’s crust. Because tar sands oil is not liquid like conventional oil, it requires tremendous upgrading before use. In fact, the tarry substance has to be dug up, sucked up, squeezed, heated, steamed, and processed through many other resource-intensive methods even to be retrieved from below the earth’s surface. The tar sands are so unique in their makeup that it requires special refineries to turn it into an ‘useful’ oil.

“The Most Destructive Project on the Planet”

The tar sands have become the world’s largest industrial project, dubbed as the most destructive project on the planet by the Environmental Defense Fund. Local First Nations feel the impact first and foremost because it is their homeland that is being destroyed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watch as Chief Francois Paulette of the Smith’s Landing Treat 8 First Nation in northern Alberta discusses the impacts of Tar Sands on Alberta natives and calls on lawmakers to put a stop on the pipeline and tar sands extraction.

The tailings (the leftover toxic waste) from the tar sands cover an area roughly 50 square miles and are growing by 80 Olympic Sized swimming pools every day. With every barrel of oil that is created from the tar sands, two barrels of toxic waste are also made. Over the course of a year, these tailings ponds leak over a billion gallons of toxic contaminated water into the environment.

It should come as no surprise that the local First Nations who survive on subsistence living are now experiencing overwhelming rates of rare cancers and various illnesses. This project has changed their entire way of life.

It is no wonder that they are standing up and taking action as part of the Dirty Oil Sands Action Network, an international network of citizen and indigenous groups that oppose the expansion of the Canadian tar sands and advocate for its cleanup. (Editor’s note: Honor the Earth and NWF are both active members of this important coalition. You can learn more about NWF’s campaign against tar sands here.)

The most destructive project on the planet is not cheap. Over $200 billion has been invested in the tar sands and American investors have forked over almost 60% of that. Instead of investing in solutions for a clean energy future, America is investing in one of the world’s dirties and most toxic fuel sources.

Unfortunately, it is the First Nations peoples who are being forced to pay the biggest price as their homelands are destroyed, contaminated and transformed into sacrifice zones for oil consumers in the US, Canada, and other oil-addicted countries across the world. The social ills, cultural consequences and environmental impacts are having an irreparable effect on the land and the indigenous way of life.

Don’t stand for it. Take action now.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this story next week.

courtesy urbanchristiannews.com

Mercury and other dangerous air pollutants have long been connected to extreme health problems such as brain damage, learning disabilities, birth defects, heart disease, cancer and even premature death.

As many as 1 in 6 American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk for mercury poisoning.

You may wonder, how can this be so?

We’ve known for decades that mercury is devastating to our health. However, coal plants spew mercury and other toxics (like arsenic) from their smokestacks every day and this is putting us all at risk—not only are the pollutants affecting our air quality, but mercury from these plants accumulates in local waterways and poses a direct risk to people when they eat contaminated fish.

We finally have a chance to end the cycle.

Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced the proposed rule on Mercury & Air Toxics Standards which is aimed at protecting public health.

The new rules will:

• Cut harmful emissions of mercury as well as arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases
• Prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year
• Benefit children’s health by preventing 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and 11,000 cases of acute bronchitis among children each year
• Avoid more than 12,000 emergency room and hospital visits and 850,000 missed work days due to illness

Our nation’s biggest polluters want to block these standards, but if enacted, the EPA’s safeguards could save hundreds of thousands of lives every year!

It has never been more important to make our voices heard. The EPA needs to hear from all of us telling them that we support life-saving protections that can keep mercury pollution out of our communities.

Here are all the ways to take action and tell the EPA to enact strong air toxics standards:

1. E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail) to a-and-r-docket@epa.gov, Attention Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR- 2009-0234.
2. Regulations.gov website (http://www.regulations.gov). Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
3. EPA Air and Radiation Docket Web Site ( http://www.epa.gov/oar/docket.html). Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
4. Fax: Fax your comments to: (202) 566-9744, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0234 .
5. Mail: Send your comments to: EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0234. Please include a total of two copies. In addition, please mail a copy of your comments on the information collection provisions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attn: Desk Officer for EPA, 725 17th St., NW, Washington, DC 20503.
6. Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460. (Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket’s normal hours of operation (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holiday), and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.)
7. Through this online Action Alert.

The EPA needs to hear from all of us telling them that we support life saving protections that can keep mercury pollution out of our communities.