Greenversations

Hey Pick 5’ers, it’s time again for you to share what you’ve done, how you did it, etc.  If you haven’t done it yet, Pick 5 for the Environment and then come back to comment. Today we cover action #5: Test your home for radon! Please share your stories as comments below.

I never really thought that radon would ever become an issue in my home. Radon is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and chemically inert. Unless you test for it, there is no way of telling how much is present in your home. According to EPA estimates, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. I’m a non-smoker and I needed to know if radon is present in my home.

So on my day off, I decided to visit my county health department to get a free radon test. I received the test. It was easy to set up. So I did the testing for three days. I then sent the kit back to the manufacturer for my results. Later I went on line and used my serial number from my test and got my results. I was really happy to know that my home was radon-free.

EPA has designated January as National Radon Action Month.  Please get your home tested; radon is serious.

Now it’s your turn: how do you test your home for radon? If you’re not sure what you can do, learn more on our site.

You can also still share how you save water, commute without polluting, save electricity, and reduce, reuse, recycle.

Note: to ward off advertisers using our blog as a platform, we don’t allow specific product endorsements.  But feel free to suggest Web sites that review products, suggest types of products, and share your experiences using them!

About the author: Denise Owens has worked at EPA for over twenty years. She is currently working in the Office of Public Affairs in Washington, DC.

While this photo may appear to be that of a lush meadow in the foreground of a big city, it is actually a vegetated rooftop on a 9-story building in downtown Denver. When EPA Region 8’s office moved to a new “green” office building in Lower Downtown Denver, I did not know what to expect. I had never worked in a green building before. I really did not think it would be that different from a regular building. Was I wrong… Not only was the building very beautiful, it was the most comfortable building I have ever been in. From the lighting to the indoor air quality, I knew we were in a top quality and healthy working environment.

Our building is environmentally friendly and provides daily opportunities for us to practice environmental stewardship. Some features of 1595 Wynkoop Street our building that help us decrease our environmental impact include:

• Extensive use of daylight to reduce need for artificial light
• A vegetated green roof to control storm water and decrease urban heat island effect
• Waterless urinals and low-flow plumbing fixtures to decrease water use
• High recycled content materials throughout the building help preserve resources
• A daytime cleaning crew that uses less toxic cleaning products and allows our building to shut down at time???
• Proximity to public transit reduces the impact of employee’s commute
• Redeveloping a site that was an eyesore and underutilized???

But however, it is not enough to simply build a green building; a big part of the equation is how the building is operated and the behavior of the occupants. Region 8’s Environmental Management System helps us improve our environmental performance by quantifying and managing the impacts of our operations (e.g., electricity and water use, waste generation and transportation, to name a few) and taking actions to reduce those impacts.

As a newly constructed building, 1595 received a Gold rating in the Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Now, Region 8 is working toward a Gold rating in LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) to ensure that our building is performing to the standards it was designed to meet (though this was put on the back burner for a while so need to check with Kate).

The green design, construction, operation and maintenance of 1595 Wynkoop, combined with close attention to our collective actions, help EPA Region 8 EPA in our efforts to practice what we preach.

I feel very lucky to be able to work in a green building. We have a lovely green roof we can sit near and have our lunch or conduct a meeting. We have convenient recycling and bike storage. Our building sits right on the 16th Street mall which has a free shuttle we can ride to numerous public transportation options and great lunch spots!

I also enjoy seeing all the tour groups that come through our building. Almost 10,000 people have visited us since we opened. I especially love to see the kids viewing a green building for the very first time, teaching them how a plastic bottle gets recycled into fiber and then turned into products like carpet (??) then challenged to make their school as green as possible when they leave.

Working in a green building is the only way to work in my mind. I can see better with natural day lighting. I have clean air to breathe. I have more energy throughout the day which I attribute to the environmentally healthy aspects of our building. I have the pleasure of knowing my work day has also been less of an impact to the environment. You can find out more, hear an audio tour and see lots of pictures of our green building.

About the author: Wendy Dew has been with EPA for 11 years and is the Environmental Education and Outreach Coordinator for Region 8.

I recently traveled to a large city and while there I tried to take it all in – the food, sightseeing attractions, and the people. Unfortunately another thing I took in while visiting was all of the secondhand smoke on the crowded streets. At first, I didn’t realize the number of people smoking until I got back to my room and still smelled smoke. My clothes and hair had utterly absorbed it! Now you’re probably thinking that because I’m from Indiana and a smaller city than most, I wouldn’t really have a clue what big cities and people smoking all the time would be like. And while that has been true, I also find that here in Washington, D.C., I don’t really have a problem breathing fresh air either. So it truly was a surprise to me to experience such a ‘smoky’ city. I also grew up in a household where my parents did not smoke. I think that this is one of the greatest gifts I have been given by my parents and in doing so, they raised me not to smoke either. Not that I would have had any say in the matter as a child, but growing up in a smoke free household was a gift to my health and overall well-being. For this reason, smoke free homes are essential for children today. While you can’t really avoid secondhand smoke walking on the street in public, it makes it even more essential to have a house that children can go home to where they can easily breathe. Children spend the majority of their time at home and therefore it is extremely important to have a smoke free home. Children’s bodies aren’t as developed and their lungs can be brutally affected by exposure to second hand smoke. They have higher breathing rates than adults and have little control over their indoor environments. Choosing not to smoke in your house will reduce the risk of children getting sick with coughs, breathing problems like asthma, and developing ear infections. In honor of Children’s Health Month, you can take a pledge to make your home and your car smoke-free and get your very own pledge certificate. You can also read helpful information and read more about health effects. By making your home smoke free your children will thank you for it later! And you can be proud of yourself as well!

About the Author: Emily Bruckmann is an intern at the Office of Children’s Health Protection. She is a senior attending Indiana University who will graduate with a degree in public health this spring.

I’m a mom of four kids living in a house built in 1948 that was way too small for us until we expanded it three years ago. That’s around the time I became involved in outreach on lead poisoning prevention, and drafting outreach materials on EPA’s new rule requiring contractors who renovate pre-1978 housing and schools to be trained in lead-safe work practices and certified by EPA or a state (the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule).

We decided to stay in our house during construction – who has the money to rent a place and pay for the big renovation? Not us! At the time, I teased my contractor, Erik, about the upcoming requirements for renovators. He just laughed and lamented more money he’d have to pay the government. Then he put up big plywood sheets to block the rooms off and to keep dust out. But the plywood didn’t keep the dust out – it was everywhere. At the time, I thought, the new rule says to use plastic sheeting and tape off the rooms to keep dust out. But I didn’t say anything; all I was concerned about was how much longer we’d have to all live cramped in three rooms. I told myself, well, Jack is 10 and the triplets are 7, so their brains are pretty much already developed. But who knows how much exposure they have experienced because of the renovation. Recent studies show that renovation and repair activities are a major source of lead poisoning – from the dust!

Now that I’ve been steeped in the rule and working to get the word out to contractors to get lead-safe trained and certified, I realize that I should have insisted that my own contractor get himself educated about lead. It’s kind of an after-the-fact “aha moment” that leaves you with a real regret. The developmental effects of lead are real and they are irreversible – behavior problems, IQ deficiencies, learning deficits; scary stuff!

National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is October 18-24, 2009. Take this opportunity to ask your plumber, electrician, repairman, or renovation contractor five words: Do you work lead-safe? If they stare back at you blankly, point them to our website. I recently found out that Erik is doing another renovation in the neighborhood. I’m going to work on him!

About the author: Sheila Canavan has more than 24 years of federal service, and has worked at EPA for 14 years. She coordinates web content and communications materials on OPPT’s efforts to address lead, mercury, PCBs and asbestos.

I’ve never questioned that good indoor air quality in schools is critical to the success and health of our students and teachers. In addition to the health effects, students and staff that are exposed to poor indoor air quality (IAQ) experience decreased performance and diminished concentration levels. That’s why, as part of the Jicarilla Apache Nation Environmental Protection Office, I’ve been working with schools to improve their indoor air since 1995. Truthfully, we initially had mixed success. It was difficult to communicate to every school group why indoor air quality was important – from custodians to teachers to principals, everyone valued something different. So in 2000, when we heard about the Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program and that it offered a framework for schools to do just that, we were on board. We didn’t know if the guidance would help us, but thankfully it did.

Over the past nine years, we’ve had a lot of successes. We were able to get everyone in our schools advocating for healthy indoor air quality and convinced them that by using a systematic approach, and ready-made checklists and resources, they could lead this effort. I’d like to share a couple of our stories that show just how much a comprehensive program can make a difference.

The first story is short, but it packs a lot of punch. Not long after we met with teachers for a formal IAQ training, we received a report from a teacher who was concerned that her classroom was making her and her students sick. When we investigated the room, we discovered a major mold problem. Following remediation guidance, we were able to clean up the mold and the teacher and students were able to enjoy a safe and healthy learning environment once again.

The second story revolves around radon, another important component of an IAQ management program. As part of our comprehensive IAQ effort, we conducted radon testing in all of our schools. At the Dulce Middle School, we discovered levels well above EPA’s action level of 4 pCi/L and undertook five distinct mitigation projects to guarantee low levels of radon. In the end, our mitigation effort was successful, but it took a lot of work, time and money.

I encourage anyone who works with schools, in schools, or for schools to take these stories to heart and advocate for an IAQ management program. You will make a difference. Start with the EPA guidance and if you can, attend the Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Symposium - a premier event that helps brings this guidance to life.

About the Author: Pauline Electric-Warrior is a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation. She works in the Environmental Protection Office of the Jicarilla Apache Nation in Dulce, New Mexico.

Since people know I work for EPA I sometimes get asked, “What can I change in my life so that I’ll be living in a way that’s more environmentally friendly?” Or, sometimes people ask more specific questions like, “Here’s what I do when I …. Is that the best thing?” They often just want a simple answer like — do this, but don’t do that.

But the environment is not black and white but a full spectrum of colors and choices. Often, there’s not a best answer, and sometimes the answer you might think is best really isn’t when you look at the situation more closely.

Here’s an example. A local environmental non-profit put out a short quiz on how to live green. One question was, what would be the best way to commute to work in Philadelphia? The possible choices were:

1. Ride your bike
2. Walk to a train station and then take the train in
3. Drive a hybrid car

They said the right choice was 1) Ride your bike. I disagreed and here’s why. The area I live in is a first tier suburb of Philadelphia. It would be impossible and probably illegal to ride your bike on the Schuylkill Expressway. Instead you’d need to ride on the 1 or 2 -lanes-in-each-direction streets. There is hardly ever a designated bike lane since the roads are so narrow. That means during rush hour a person riding their bike on say, Montgomery Avenue in Lower Merion Township, would back up traffic in a major way, causing those vehicles to use more gasoline and spew out more fumes. Plus, you would put wear and tear on the bike and resources would need to be used to keep it in good working condition.

My best choice instead was 2). Walking and then riding the train into the city wouldn’t use any additional fuel and the money paid for tickets would help support public transit. You may disagree, but for my area I think that’s the best choice.

When making environmental choices it is important to look at the “life-cycle costs” of what you do. Cradle to grave, what are the impacts? One of my favorite books on this topic is, Stuff, the Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning. They walk you through what it takes to make things like a cotton-polyester blend t-shirt down to the pesticides used on the soil to grow the cotton and the transportation costs involved in getting the raw materials to the factory and getting the finished product to you. Even if a t-shirt sports an environmental message, buying it is probably not the right answer if you already have enough t-shirts.

To get you started, here are some helpful questions to ask yourself before making a purchase, even a purchase of something that’s already been used.

• Do I need it?
• How many do I already have?
• How much will I use it?
• Is there anything that I already own that I could substitute for it?
• How long will it last?
• Could I borrow it from a friend or family member? Could I rent it?
• Am I able to clean, maintain and/or repair it myself? Am I willing to?
• Have I researched it to get the best quality for the best price?
• How will I dispose of it when I’m done using it?
• Are the resources that went into it renewable or nonrenewable?
• Is there excess packaging?
• Is it made of recycled materials, and is it recyclable?
• If it uses energy, is it energy-efficient?

For other tips on going green, please visit our mid-Atlantic “Go Green” website.

About the Author: Nancy Grundahl has worked for the Philadelphia office of EPA since the mid-80’s. She currently manages the web for the Environmental Assessment and Innovation Division. Before getting involved with the web, she worked as an environmental scientist. Nancy believes in looking at environmental problems in a holistic, multi-media way and is a strong advocate of preventing pollution instead of dealing with it after it has been created.

Although I have been surrounded by radiation my entire life, it wasn’t until 2003, when I began my doctorate work, that I entered the “radiation world.” Since that time I have learned so much about radiation and realize there is much more to learn. I have also come to recognize a variety of challenges that exist in the radiation world.

Despite being surrounded by naturally occurring radiation, very few people really understand it. This is just one challenge we, radiation professionals, need to address. Other challenges include understanding the unique behavior of each radioactive element (or radionuclide), the various areas of study within the field of radiation, the multiple uses of radiation in our society, the fear of radiation, and the decreasing workforce knowledgeable in the field of radiation.

Some areas of radiation work include understanding: the fate and transport of radionuclides (how they behave in water, soil, air); biological effects of radiation (effects on human health); how to prepare, prevent and respond to radiation emergencies; how to set protective regulatory limits; and how to use radiation as a benefit to society (medicine, energy…).

Each radionuclide exhibits unique biological, chemical, and physical properties. What does this mean? It means that different radionuclides behave differently in various media (soil, water, air) as well as in the human body. Radionuclides also have unique radiological properties, such as the type of radioactive decay (alpha, beta, gamma) or the length of time they will be around before being transformed into a stable (non radioactive) element. Fully understanding the world of radiation means understanding all of these things for multiple radionuclides; what a challenge!

Another challenge is addressing the fear of radiation while improving the public’s general knowledge of radiation. EPA is meeting this challenge through various radiation education products like RadTown USA.

It will be increasingly difficult to increase public knowledge without the right staff. The number of radiation professionals is not growing at the rate it should be. More students need to be encouraged to not only study STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas, but also to specialize in one of the diverse fields of radiation.

As an Engineer at EPA, I look forward to meeting all of these challenges head on, learning more about radiation and working to get the word out about radiation, educating people about the role of radiation in their daily lives, and encouraging them to join the “radiation world.”

About the Author: Dr. Angelique D. Diaz joined EPA in June of 2008 after completing her Ph.D., where she studied the behavior of plutonium in the environment. Dr. Diaz is an Environmental Engineer working at EPA’s Region 8 office in Denver, CO, where she works on a variety of radiological-related activities, including regulating radon emissions from uranium mines and mills.

Have you had a friend or colleague describe himself as a “locavore” and not grasped what was meant? According to Merriam-Webster’s On-line Dictionary, a locavore is someone “who eats locally grown food whenever possible.”

Recently, I visited the Red Stick Farmers Market, one of the weekly agricultural sales in Baton Rouge organized by Big River Economic & Agricultural Development Alliance (www.breada.org). Local growers and food preparers bring vegetables, meats, grains, pastries, honeys, jams, jellies, eggs & cheeses as well as herbs and flowering plants to the open air market near the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s office in downtown Baton Rouge. The market is held every Saturday morning at this location and at other designated spots on other days of the week.

There are a number of reasons for consumers to support and frequent these local markets. You are obtaining fresh foods for your family that in most cases were harvested and prepared within days of your purchases. By operating on a smaller scale than corporate operations, a number of the farms are “organic” or use less chemicals since the crops do not need to be shipped great distances and be subjected to multiple handlings and pests. Many of the farmers are small business operations in the community so your food dollars stay in the local area.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the organization created by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to assess climate change, 13.5 of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to agricultural practices, not including transportation and shipping. By taking part in the locally grown food market that does not need extended transportation from across the country or from around the world, you are reducing your family’s carbon footprint.

And as I overheard two shoppers say, “The fruits and vegetables just test better than what comes from large scale farms.”

So next week, line up with your neighbors and support the environment by buying locally grown farm products.

About the author: Rob Lawrence joined EPA in 1990 and is Senior Policy Advisor on Energy Issues in the Dallas, TX regional office. As an economist, he works to insure that both supply and demand components are addressed as the Region develops its Clean Energy and Climate Change Strategy.

Starfish are mysterious creatures. Some people and articles I have read say they should be called sea stars because of their shape and their lack of relationship to fish. I had never taken an interest in them until recently when I visited Alaska and kayaked on the Tatoosh Islands. The Tatoosh are located north of Ketchikan and are part of the Tongass National Forest,  U.S largest national forest.  While kayaking along the coast, I spotted an incredible array of these colorful creatures. Bright orange and pale lavender, spiny and fat, each one more different than the other, they nestled into the dark rocks along the shore.

The starfish on Alaska are extremely different from the giant ones I have seen before on Vieques, Puerto Rico. While their Caribbean relatives are larger and rounder, the ones in the north Pacific cold waters are smaller in size. After kayaking around the Tatoosh, I began my research on these particular sea habitants. Starfish are echinoderms or marine invertebrates with a five-radial symmetry that radiates from a central disc, hence their resemblance to a star. They move by using small water-filled sacs that protrude from their body. This hydraulic vascular system, aside from helping them move, aids them with feeding. Speaking of which, they have two stomachs: one for engulfing their prey and the other one for digestion!  They have a microscopic eye at the end of each arm which helps them move and distinguish between light and dark. While they have a complex nervous system, they lack a centralized brain. I was also very surprised to learn that they are able to regenerate lost arms and that they can travel considerable distances and migrate to breed and search for food.

Starfish have been around five hundred million years and there are around 1,800 species. This region of the North Pacific is among three areas of the world that yields the greatest variety of these echinoderms. Starfish are vital to marine ecosystems because they are calcifiers. Marine calcifiers play important roles in the food chains of nearly all oceanic ecosystems, help regulate ocean chemistry, and are an important source of biodiversity and productivity.

In order to celebrate my new found love for these unique and mysterious creatures, I acquired during my trip a beautiful ring with a silver starfish adhered to a blue stone resembling the ocean.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

“Are glaciers melting at alarming rates?” “Is climate change really happening?” I have been asked these questions by people and students outside the environmental field. Changes in glaciers seem to be the gold standard for measuring climate change. However, living in the Caribbean, to me glaciers seem like a distant world.

A recent vacation to Alaska on a cruise ship provided me some insight on climate change and its consequences. While in Juneau I visited Mendenhall Glacier and could notice the retreating of this glacier upon my hike in the adjoining rain forest. An old building deep inside the forest revealed the former visitor’s center more than 10 miles from the glacier’s current location as well as a stone marking from 1916 of the ice limit.

Managed by the U.S. Forest Service and part of the Tongass National Forest (the nation’s largest forest), Mendenhall, which is 12 miles long, has been rapidly retreating since 1750. From 1951–1958, the glacier, which flows into suburban Juneau, has retreated 1,900 feet (580 m). The glacier has also receded 1.75 miles (2.82 km) since 1958, when Mendenhall Lake was created. In 2004 the glacier retreated 600 feet and in 2007 another 500 ft..

Glaciers form in areas with large amounts of rain and extremely low temperatures. When snow accumulates, it compacts underlying snow layers from previous years into solid ice. Glaciers cover 10% of our world’s total area. This is the same amount of land used worldwide for agriculture. Glacier and polar ice store more water than all the world’s lakes, rivers and the atmosphere combined. When they melt, sea level rises thus consequences for coastal communities and islands are serious. Rising sea levels inundate wetlands and other low-lying lands In Juneau, I could not help noticing that the Gastineau Channel turns into a wetland at some point during the day. There was a low tide early in the morning. Our forest interpreter told us it is becoming increasingly unavigable as there has been a marked increase in silt build up. Some research into this showed that it has been argued that this a consequence of melting and retreating of Mendenhall Glacier. If current trends continue, it is possible the channel may be entirely blocked and filled with dry land.

Yes indeed, climate change is happening and it is tangible. EPA is working on many programs geared to reduce the harmful effects on human health and the environment of green house gases. While most are voluntary, states and industries are actively engaged. I invite you to take a closer look at your daily activities and try to cut down on your carbon footprint.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.