Tag Archive
Drycleaning At Your Own Risk?
A year ago, Stephen Swift, a local Honolulu businessman ostensibly engaged in hazardous waste disposal, found himself jailed for two years for failing to dispose of quantities of perchloroethylene, commonly called Perc,. Instead of taking it to the local hazardous waste disposal site where it would have been safely disposed of for a fee,... Read More...
Toxic Chemicals Rampant in Common Laundry Products
The EPA isn't watching and the media aren't talking while the cleaning products industries continue to sell us products laced with toxic chemicals that we unwittingly absorb. Read More...
The Personal Environment III: The Stuff Around Us
In the spring of 2009, stories began to appear in the press about Chinese drywall that was so toxic that it corroded copper pipes and wiring, and made people and animals who lived in the houses where it had been installed chronically ill. Silver and brass tarnished. The air smelled like rotten eggs. Most... Read More...
Our Personal Environment II: What Gets Under Our Skin
We don’t only absorb what we eat. The skin that seems to shield us from the world is actually one big sponge, selectively absorbing almost everything with which it comes into contact. Most of us don’t take this into account. Maybe it’s just too much to think about, even though we put a lot... Read More...
Green Buildings: Greening the Air
“What do you put in the air?” the building superintendent at the Hearst Tower on 57th Street in New York City says he is frequently asked. What the people who work there sense as something added is actually something taken away: the off-gassing of toxic chemicals from flooring materials, wall paints and furniture, the... Read More...