The older I get, the more I like to play. Did you know that May is Older Americans Month and that this year’s theme is “Never Too Old to Play.” The theme encourages Older Americans to stay engaged, active and involved in their communities.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of a book, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, that changed the lives for many people who love nature and the out-of-doors.

I hadn’t read Silent Spring until I was an adult. As a child, I remember running down nearby railroad tracks where trains passed by daily around noon transporting large logs heading to the paper mills and lumber yards. My little sister and I used to pick bouquets of flowers that bloomed in abundance near the tracks, white and purple violets, daisies, lilies- of- the-valley for my mother to place on the dining room table.

But those tracks were also sprayed with DDT. We were just kids and had no idea how dangerous it was as we ran down the tracks through the cloud of chemicals. We assumed if the cloud of chemicals was bad for mosquitoes it must be good for us. But I have learned now that the metabolites of DDT are one of those persistent toxicants that are forever a part of me.

Fifty years later we are still thinking about Rachel Carson’s message about the dangers of chemicals and pesticides in our world. The train tracks have been converted into a bike path and trails that weave through the back yards of my childhood neighborhood. DDT is no longer sprayed and the wild flowers are still there. My mom has been active in caring for community gardens and volunteering at the local botanical gardens. She has encouraged all my nieces and nephews to garden and appreciate the out of doors. Mother’s day is around the corner and I am planning to play in a garden and maybe submit an entry with my mom for the Rachel Carson contest.

About the author: Kathy Sykes is a Senior Advisor for Aging and Sustainability in the Office or Research and Development at the U.S. EPA.

Looking for ways to demonstrate your commitment to protecting the environment this Earth Day? There are plenty of ways you can help save energy, reduce the pollution in our air, and protect our climate for decades to come. Here are some of my favorite tips that my EPA colleagues recommend for making a difference at home, school, or work.

• Change a Light! The average home has approximately 30 light fixtures. By replacing your home’s five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with models that have earned the ENERGY STAR, you can save $70 each year. If every American home did this, we would save $8 billion each year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from about 10 million cars!
• Reduce your carbon footprint! Leaving your car at home twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1,600 pounds per year. Save up errands and shopping trips so you need to drive fewer times. If you commute to work, ask if you can work from home at least some days, and you’ll reduce air pollution and traffic congestion – and save money.
• It’s electric! You can check how much of your electricity comes from clean, renewable sources, such as wind or solar. Green power produces less carbon emissions, reduces air pollution, and helps protect against future costs or scarcity of fossil fuels. If green power is a consumer option, check price differences from suppliers before you buy.
• Breathe easy! On unhealthy air pollution “action alert” days, wait to mow your lawn until it’s cooler in the evening or early the next morning. You help reduce air pollution for everyone near you if you run gas-powered equipment, like lawn mowers, when it’s cooler. You also protect your health by avoiding ground-level ozone during the warmest part of the day. Check your air quality now.

You can find more suggestions at Environmental Tips, but don’t limit yourself to these suggestions. If you have a unique way to celebrate Earth Day, share your tip with us!

About the author: Shanshan Lin is an intern for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation communications team. She is also a graduate student at George Washington University.

Solar PV array at Brockton Brightfields installation in MA

As a solar person, I am always on the look-out for prime sites for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. In addition to solar resources, I look for a few simple things: clear southern exposures, flat or gentle grades, and close proximity to power lines. In general, I am looking for space, whether it is an open rooftop or an abandoned rail yard.

With over 13,000 sites and nearly 22 million acres of EPA-tracked potentially contaminated and underutilized properties nationwide, I see an untapped potential for large-scale deployment of renewable energy. That acreage receives a whole lot of sunshine and, in some cases, gets its fair share of wind. For communities interested in renewables, these sites offer a unique value proposition.

In many cases, these properties have blighted the community for years. From the perspective of a renewable energy developer, these sites are attractive due to their proximity to existing distribution or transmission lines, favorable zoning, and potentially lower land costs.  With this redevelopment approach, I see the potential to turn these liabilities into community assets by remediating the site and deploying pollution-free energy facilities.

Wind-Turbines-at-Steel-Winds-facility-in-NY

Partnering with DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and remediation experts here at EPA, the RE-Powering team converted our collective knowledge into new tools to guide state and local governments, site owners, clean-up project managers, and other stakeholders through a process for screening potentially contaminated sites and landfills for their suitability for future redevelopment with PV or wind energy.

This knowledge is now bundled in a simple decision-tree format to enable communities to screen sites without needing renewable energy expertise. We built the screening tools to provide quick feedback on whether or not a site could be viable based on technical or economic criteria. The tools provide a thorough check than my quick check during a site walk. Throughout the process, we provide context for each of the criteria and point to additional tools and references to work through the evaluation process. Our goal is to empower communities to bring their vision of a solar array or wind farm one step closer.

While site walks at brownfields and landfills don’t always offer inspiring views, they are the next step in an inspired approach to expanding our American-made, renewable energy generation. Screen your sites. Take a walk. RE-Power America’s Land.

About the author: Katie Brown is the AAAS Science & Technology fellow hosted in the Center for Program Analysis in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. Prior to her fellowship, Katie worked in the solar industry in product development and at NREL on device design and government-industry partnerships.

The answer is a guy named Tim.

I’ve been in the pollution prevention game for quite awhile now and I and others in the field can regale you with P2 success stories well into the night. But every once in a while a story crosses my desk that just grabs me and this is one of them. A few years ago, the word sustainability crept into our lexicon and has set the world on fire. It is a cool word that many refer to as the triple bottom line; People, Planet, Profit and so forth. Well, like our brethren in other federal agencies and those with whom we partner in the manufacturing world, we have learned to speak P2 within this new concept of sustainability. We have also learned new and interesting ways to quantitatively measure our results especially as they relate to environmental improvement (Planet) and business profitability (Profit). But how do we measure the third element? – The people element? I think we do that through stories and that brings me back to Tim.

Under the Pollution Prevention Program, we issue grants through our regions to organizations which then use those dollars to put P2 activities in motion. Tim was a beneficiary of one of those grants through the 2011 Southwest Ohio Intern Program funded by our EPA Chicago office. To me, Tim’s story represents the People part of sustainability because he made the best of this opportunity. Tim, who is graduating from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio in June, was assigned as an intern to a manufacturing facility in Southwest Ohio. This facility had recently undergone assessments which created for them many opportunities that when implemented would increase their profitability. Tim was asked by the facilities engineering manager at this company to help him implement these key P2 opportunities. In the short time that Tim was there, he helped save the company over $140,000.00 annually – that’s money saved every year, folks. And, his efforts helped set the stage for further improvements by this company as it waved Tim farewell and looked ahead for further environmental and business improvements on its personal sustainability journey.
But here’s what grabbed me. Tim’s efforts caught the attention of many in the engineering field including senior engineers and sustainability professionals at Honda.Motor Company. Tim announced recently that he has been hired by Honda R&D as a Transmission Design Engineer starting June 2012. Pollution Prevention, business profitability and a new job for a young person with green skills and a great attitude–that’s sustainability and that’s cool. Congratulations, Tim!

About the author: Tom Murray is a senior scientist with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is currently chief of the Prevention Analysis Branch in the Agency’s Pollution Prevention Division.  Tom has 40 years in government service.  Tom and his staff are the architects of several environmental partnership programs including the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment program, the Green Suppliers Network and the new E3 (Economy, Energy and Environment) initiative, a cross-agency collaboration with industry focused on manufacturing growth, energy efficiency and environmental performance

Recently I was reading the weekly community paper and a front page story caught my attention. “CO detector saves local family.” According to the article, the local fire department station responded to a carbon monoxide (CO) detector going off in the early morning hours. The homeowners were awakened by the CO detector that detected the presence of carbon monoxide in the home. When the firefighters arrived, they found unhealthy levels of the poisonous gas in the home as a result of a broken furnace exhaust pipe which was discharging the exhaust directly into the home. Had the family not had a CO detector, the outcome of this incident would have been very different.

Unfortunately, carbon monoxide poisonings often occur as a result of people using generators in closed areas or using gas burning appliances improperly in the home. Using these appliances properly can prevent carbon monoxide poisonings. As we saw in this case, a CO detector quickly indicated unhealthy CO levels early, thus protecting the family.

Why are carbon monoxide detectors important? Well, carbon monoxide is an odorless toxic gas which you can’t see, taste or smell. Exposure to these toxic fumes at low levels can easily be mistaken for flu-like symptoms. Yet, at a higher concentration or a lengthier exposure, CO will be deadly. Detectors will quickly register unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide, thus setting an alarm. It is recommended to place these CO detectors just outside of sleeping areas so that they will alert families even while sleeping and help save them as we saw in this instance.

• What other steps can you take to prevent carbon monoxide from entering your home?
• Well, first and foremost, never use generators inside the home or enclosed areas
• Keep your gas appliances properly adjusted
• Install and use exhaust fans vented to the outdoors over gas stoves
• If you are going to burn wood in your home, do so properly.

By taking these simple steps, you’ll have a healthier indoor environment and protect your family. Stay safe.

About the author: Lina Younes is the Multilingual Outreach and Communications Liaison for EPA. Among her duties, she’s responsible for outreach to Hispanic organizations and media. She spearheaded the team that recently launched EPA’s new Spanish website, www.epa.gov/espanol . She manages EPA’s social media efforts in Spanish. She’s currently the editor of EPA’s new Spanish blog, Conversando acerca de nuestro medio ambiente. Prior to joining the agency, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and an international radio broadcaster. She has held other positions in and out of the Federal Government.

Did you know that more than half of young children are exposed to secondhand smoke and most of this exposure occurs at home? Now that the weather is warming up, this is a good time to talk with loved ones who smoke about the benefits of taking smoking outside.

My secondhand smoke “aha” moment came a number of years ago at a colleague’s going away party. I picked up my son at his pre-school near work, cautiously entered the restaurant (sniffing for smoke along the way), then dashed my son to the private back room where the event was being held. Relieved there was a door and the air smelled free of smoke, (and giving no thought to ventilation), I foolishly concluded that it was safe for my son to stay. During our drive home, I kissed my son’s head and ruffled his hair and quickly discovered he reeked of cigarette smoke.

There’s good reason for my instinctive reaction I experienced and that I still so clearly recall. There is no risk-free exposure, no safe level of secondhand smoke, and no safe tobacco product, either for the smoker or the nonsmoker exposed. Cigarettes are a toxic mix of more than 7,000 chemicals and breathing in even a little smoke can be dangerous, resulting in temporary and sometimes permanent health consequences. We know secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in adults and children who do not smoke.

Choose to smoke outside, until you can quit, and share that message with others you care about or who care for your kids in their homes or cars.

To learn more about the dangers of secondhand smoke, visit EPA’s website.

To get help with quitting, visit Smokefree.gov or contact the national quitline at 1-800-QUITNOW.

Lastly, the Surgeon General and CDC websites host a number of helpful consumer publications, posters, and tips.

About the author: Alison Freeman is the secondhand smoke policy specialist in EPA’s Indoor Environments Division, which addresses indoor air topics, including smoke-free homes, asthma, mold, radon, Indoor airPLUS and schools.

It’s a simple question. How far do you have to go to get healthy food?

I’m lucky. I can walk eight blocks to get to a full service grocery store. If I bike in the other direction, I have even more options: a Latino food market and a grocery store full of organic vegetables, fruits, and other healthy options. In a pinch, Swiss chard from my garden becomes a meal of fresh greens.

While many people associate environmental justice with reducing pollution problems, access to healthy food is just as essential for public health as well. In many urban and rural areas, families may have a long journey to get healthy, fresh foods. The ‘Food Desert’ as it is now called, is an area where residents don’t have easy access to fresh food. While the definitions and distances vary in a city or rural area, the idea is the same: Getting healthy food is hard work in a food desert.

Many brownfields communities also are ‘food deserts’ where options for getting healthy foods are difficult. Brownfields are abandoned properties or vacant lots where the presence or potential presence of environmental contamination prevents reuse.

In the last few years, the EPA, our state and tribal partners and community leaders have highlighted how brownfield communities can change their ‘food environment’ as part of site. They are putting brownfields to new healthy uses that improve food access in underserved areas, contributing to public health and economic development.

You can learn how former brownfields are becoming supermarkets, farmer’s markets, urban farms, community gardens, and even food banks. Take a look at the resources we’ve developed from projects or those of our Superfund colleagues.

Do you live in a food desert? These maps from the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) can help connect you to your food environment.

You can help your community see that vacant building or abandoned gas station in a new way. It may be a brownfield now, but it can improve food access in your community. You can work with local officials to pick safe garden sites and learn what vacant lots to avoid due to likely environmental contamination. Talk to your city or town about whether a brownfield grant can fund assessing or cleaning lots or structures to become the supermarket, greenhouse, garden, urban farm, farmers market or a healthier grocery store you need.

About the author: Ann Carroll has a science and public health background and has worked on environmental health issues in the US and internationally for close to 30 years and with the EPA’s Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization for the last ten years. She helps communities assess and clean brownfields and plan for their safe reuse. Ann is working on a doctorate in environmental health and is a Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for a Livable Future.

It’s spring. How can I tell? Mailings about air duct cleaning. It makes sense that they come now, while us home dwellers prep for the warmer months by cleaning and doing home repairs. But do I need to get the air ducts in my home cleaned? Can this affect the air I breathe indoors? Does that impact my health?

Lucky for me, I work with experts who happily helped me navigate this question. Don’t you fret, though — all of their words of wisdom are on EPA’s Web page on air ducts for you to view anytime, so you’ll be able to make the best decision for you.

Things I learned:

• First, be familiar with general indoor air quality tips to reduce risk: control pollution sources in the home, change filters regularly and adjust humidity.
• Air duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems. Scientific studies are inconclusive on whether dust levels in homes increase because of dirty air ducts.
• Indoor pollutants that enter from outdoors or come from indoor activities — like cooking, cleaning or smoking — may cause greater exposure to contaminants than dirty air ducts.
• You need to inspect your air ducts to determine whether or not they need to be cleaned.

You should consider air duct cleaning if:

• There’s substantial, visible mold growth inside the ducts or on parts of your HVAC system. (If there’s mold, there’s likely a moisture problem. A professional should find the cause of the water problem and fix it.) If you consult a professional, make sure they SHOW you the mold before moving forward.
• The ducts are infested with rodents or insects. Not okay.
• The ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris that are actually released into the home from vents.

If you find any of those problems, identify the underlying cause before cleaning, retrofitting or replacing your ducts. If you don’t, the problem will likely happen again.

There’s little evidence that cleaning your air ducts will improve health or, alone, will increase efficiency. To learn about HVAC maintenance and efficiency, see our Heating and Cooling Efficiently page.

Decision, decisions. If I decide to get my air ducts cleaned, I’ll make sure to follow the advice of EPA experts. I’ll also carefully check the service provider’s track record before doing anything. And I’ll remember to SEE, with my own eyes, mold growth or other problems before making a final decision.

About the author: Kelly Hunt, is a communications specialist with EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. Her career in public affairs began in 2001 and she now focuses on emergency response, outreach and engagement for radiation and indoor air issues.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.

Did you know that poisonings continue to be a significant cause of illness and death in the United States? Did you also know that the majority of these poisonings are 100% preventable? That’s why EPA and its federal partners are joining forces to increase awareness of the dangers of poisoning during National Poison Prevention Week, March 18-24. More than 150,000 calls to poison centers involved pesticides. More than 50% of these exposures involve children 5 years old or younger.

EPA has taken special steps to prevent accidental exposures among young children because they are especially vulnerable for several reasons. Since their body and organs are in full development mode, any exposure increases poisoning dangers. Also, since children are frequently crawling and putting things in their mouth, these behaviors put them at a greater risk. In fact, last year, EPA took regulatory steps to prevent poisonings from rodent control products in the home. Now EPA is requiring that all manufacturers of rat poison products only sell them to consumers in bait stations that are tamper-resistant for children and pets.

So what can you do to protect your family from accidental poisonings? Here are some simple tips:

• First of all, keep pest control products, household cleaners, and medication up high, out of children’s reach, in a locked cabinet or garden shed.
• Read the label before using a pest control or household cleaning product.
• Using more than indicated on the label does not kill more pests or clean better. In fact, misuse of the product only increases the risk of poisonings.
• Keep pesticides and household chemicals in their original bottles.
• Don’t use illegal pesticides. They are extremely toxic and dangerous.
• Go through your home room by room to see where there are potential poisoning hazards and correct accordingly.
• Program the Poison Help Line (800-222-1222) into your phone and post the poison help line number near your phone. In the event of an accidental poisoning, call the toll free Poison Help line which is staffed around the clock. Help is available in English, Spanish and other languages.

Help us spread the word during National Poison Prevention Week! Together we may prevent accidental poisonings in the home. Have you taken any steps to prevent poisonings lately? We would love to hear from you.

If you want additional information on the safe use of pest control products, visit our new Website.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and currently serves as acting associate director for environmental education. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.

My youngest daughter loves to buy air fresheners for the house. She prefers those with strong fruity scents. Personally, I’m not very fond of these chemical fresheners. I’ve always felt that they don’t really “freshen” the air. While they might have a nice smell momentarily, they are really only masking other odors that might be present in your indoor environment. After seeing how an office colleague reacted to an air freshener several offices away, I decided to look further into these household products.

The fact is that most of us spend a lot of our time indoors whether at home, at work, or in school. On average, people spend about 90% of their time indoors. In these confined spaces, there are several sources of air pollution that may cause health problems, allergies, or serious illnesses. These problems can be compounded if there is poor ventilation or you are an asthmatic or suffer from other upper respiratory conditions. In fact, paints and some of these air fresheners have volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde and petroleum distillates which can be very irritating to eyes, skin and throat. Even unscented air fresheners can produce an allergic reaction in certain individuals. So, make sure if you use air fresheners in your home or office, please read the label first to use properly and safely.  Also, keep them out of reach of children and pets.

So, what can you do to improve the air quality in your home, school or office? Understanding some of these common pollutants found inside buildings is the first step to protecting yourself and your family. Furthermore, look for more natural options or non-toxic approaches like baking soda. Hope these tips have been helpful. Your thoughts are always welcomed.

About the author: Lina Younes has been working for EPA since 2002 and currently serves as EPA’s Multilingual Outreach and Communications Liaison in the Office of External Affairs and Environmental Education. Prior to joining EPA, she was the Washington bureau chief for two Puerto Rican newspapers and she has worked for several government agencies.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.