COST OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME TO U.S. ECONOMY: $433,982,548

That’s right; according to Chmura Economics & Analytics, the abrupt leap forward cost us just under half a billion dollars in 2010.

Chmura researchers used data cited from the sources listed below to assess the impact of daylight saving time (DST) on the incidence of heart attacks, construction-related work injuries and on “cyber loafing,” the tendency of employees and others to engage in aimlessly surfing the internet.

The information was then broken down by region to create the Lost-Hour Economic Index, a measure of the financial loss suffered by 360 major cities in the US.  The average loss was $1.70 per capita.

Chris Chmura, President and Chief Economist for Chmura Economics & Analytics said, “The markets that see the largest per capita economic loss in this index are heavily concentrated in West Virginia and Florida where it appears higher heart attack rates and the impacts of workplace injury due to mining and construction are most acute.”

While the main point of losing an hour of sleep was to save energy, research from Indiana, in which until recently only 15 of the state’s 92 counties observed DST, suggests DST fails to deliver that benefit.

University of California-Santa Barbara researchers compared the electric meter readings registered during the time period before springing forward to the overall usage after the time change.  They found that residents had paid $8.6 million more than they would have had they stayed on Standard time.

These findings point to the extent to which the US has become an indoor society, squandering that extra hour of sunlight on using lights, TVs, air conditioners, computers and other electronic gadgets that are as much a part of our way of life as are the clothes we wear.

Source:   Smart Planet Daily, March 13, 2013               Study based on data from articles published in The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of Applied Psychology

MENTOR MARSH: PLEASE HELP PROTECT THIS GEM OF LAKE COUNTY

The .74 wetlands acre filled in (stories high) at Diamond Center by Shamrock Business Center (SBC) without a permit and for which SBC asks permission to maintain and fill in more acres of wetlands.  Photo (c) Carole Clement.

The Mentor Marsh is a designated Important Birding Area, a designated National Natural Landmark, portions of which are dedicated State of Ohio Nature Preserve, and a City of Mentor Nature Preserve and Marina.

Development is an important component of a community’s long-term health and growth.  Development can exist side by side with healthy ecosystems if planning enacts options that have little or no negative impact on adjacent areas.

As proposed, Phase II of the development of Diamond Center upstream from the Marsh could have deleterious impacts on the Lake Erie/Mentor Marsh watershed. 

There are options, presently not under consideration, that could mitigate impacts of Phase II.

Studies (Rand Corp, 1969; Jones, 1975; Whipple, 1997) document the sensitivity of the Mentor Marsh to activities upstream of the Marsh watershed. 

Shamrock Business Center, Ltd. (SBC), applied to the US Army Engineer Corps (USACE) on April 15, 2013, regarding further development of land adjacent to Diamond Centre Dr and Brookstone Blvd, an area which is the headwaters of Blackbrook Creek and upstream of the Mentor Marsh.

For the sake of the Marsh’s fragile ecosystem, residents and persons concerned about the area need more time to review, understand and comment on the work proposed by SBC’s Application #1997-5010004.

Here are some of SBC’s proposals that can have an impact on areas upstream from Blackbrook Creek, the Mentor Marsh and the entire Lake Erie/Mentor Marsh Watershed:

!.)  SBC seeks authorization to maintain .74 acres of on-site fill (filled between 2004-09 within Wetland 14 without proper Department of the Army authorization).   

2.) SBC seeks permission to fill an additional 14.9 acres of on-site wetlands; to fill 8486 linear feet of the remaining 14, 809 feet of on-site streams; to create a 7501 linear feet long channel along south, east and north sides of the SBC site for stream mitigation,

THE PROBLEM:  Changing the natural drainage system of the area increases the volume and velocity of upstream water flow, Increasing the potential for flooding and adverse alterations in stream form and function.   In the storm of 2006, the modified area of Blackbrook Creek and overflowed into the south end of Headlands State Park, flooding the parking lots.  When the fast-moving waters hit the sandy beach, they ripped a wide, deep channel down to the lake.

3) In keeping with the law, SBC seeks permission to mitigate their wetland destruction at Diamond Center by creating equal acreage of wetlands off-site in Leroy Township.

THE PROBLEM:  Additional wetlands in Leroy are a net gain for the Grand River watershed but do nothing to mitigate the potential for flooding or erosion in areas downstream of Diamond Center in the Lake Erie/Mentor Marsh watershed. 

To be effective, mitigation should occur on-site, preferably at the north end of SBC’s proposed expansion.  Instead, SBC filled in .74 acre of wetland and seeks permission to fill in an additional 14.9 wetland acres of the area.

Please lend your voice to protect the voiceless, fragile ecosystem of the Mentor Marsh.

Contact the US Army Corps of Engineers at the address below by May 14, 2013, with your comments on SBC’s proposed development plans.

Shamrock Business Center’s application + pertinent maps are at  http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Portals/45/docs/regulatory/publicnotices/April2013/PN1997-5010004Oh.pdf

USACE CONTACT INFORMATION:

Michael W. Smith, (716) 879-4262     OR     michael.w.smith@usace.army.mil

OR

Michael W. Smith

US Army Corps of Engineers,                                                           

Buffalo District, Regulatory Branch                                                                

1776 Niagara Street

Buffalo NY 14207-3199

 MUST INCLUDE:  Re. Application #1997-5010004

SUGGESTED INCLUSIONS:

Because a public hearing isn’t a given, please request a public hearing re. the above Application #.

Because the deadline for submitting comments is May 14, 2013, please request an extension of that deadline.

Because some comments slip through the cracks, please state that you want your comments to become part of the public record re. the above Application #.

Neither honey nor vinegar will gain your argument any points, so please talk nicely but firmly and keep your commentary brief and to the point.

 Please direct questions to the Mentor Marsh at 440 257-0777.      

SLEEP TIGHT–BED BUGS HOOKED ON BEAN LEAVES

Bedbug on leaf and enlargement of bedbug impaled by leaf  Photo credit Megan Szyndler and Catherine Loudon, University of California-Irvine

Though bedbugs don’t transmit diseases, bedbugs’ bites cause burning, itching, swelling as well as psychological distress.  The parasite’s ability to breed rapidly, hide anywhere and to “hitchhike” to new places makes them difficult to control and detect.

They’re extreme survivors, being able to live for up to a year without feeding on blood.

Current extinction methods—heating, freezing, pesticides and vacuuming–are costly and unreliable.

Rather than relying on professionals, many persons employ dangerous and ineffective assaults on the bugs, such as spraying themselves and their surroundings with nonapproved insecticides.

Here’s the kicker–no pesticide can touch a bedbug because they’re programmed to detoxify all pesticides and prevent them from penetrating.

Given the above control problems, researchers at the University of California-Irvine and the University of Kentucky investigated a Balkan folk remedy that calls for strewing kidney bean leaves on the floor area surrounding beds and then burning the leaves the next day.

Historically, when philosopher John Locke traveled across Europe in the 17^th Century, he carried a supply of the leaves with him for protection.  So did the Royal Austro-Hungarian Army.

What the team of scientists discovered is that the Serbs, Bulgarians and others living in southeast Europe indeed had an effective cure for the bedbug problem:  Within seconds of stepping on the bean leaf, bedbugs are impaled and trapped by microscopic hooked hairs known as trichomes.

Effective as they are, the leaves dry out quickly and can’t be placed in areas other than the floor.

So the researchers fabricated synthetic materials that temporarily snag the bedbugs but as of yet, don’t do away with the bugs as effectively as do the natural leaves.

Lead author of the study, Catherine Loudon of UC Irvine, says the failure suggests the crucial mechanics of the trichomes still need to be discovered.

She adds, “Nature is a hard act to follow, but the benefits could be enormous.  Imagine if every bedbug inadvertently brought into a dwelling was captured before it had a chance to bite and multiply.”

Sources:  Smart Planet Daily, April 10, 2013       UCIrvine News, April 9, 2013   Sierra Club, Northeast Ohio Group, April 24, 2013           Study published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, April 9, 2013   Study funded by the National Science Foundation.

EXPERTS WARN BPA-ALTERNATIVE PLASTICS JUST AS HARMFUL

In the brief span of one week, three studies drew attention to potential health hazards in newly introduced non-BPA plastics.  The worse news is that without more testing and laws to safeguard against unknown/unlabled toxins, it’s impossible to buy a verifiably safe plastic product.

As an endocrine disruptor, even minute amounts of BPA imitate the hormone estrogen, which potentially causes a variety of health concerns.

After exposing rat cells to bisphenol S (BSP), researchers found that low levels acted on the cells as had BPA.

“We didn’t think (BPS) would have those effects, but it’s essentially the same as BPA,” said Rene Vinas, one of the researchers who conducted the BPS study at the University of Texas.

Taiwanese researchers found melamine in the urine of study participants who ate soup out of bowls made of melamine, the shatterproof plastic used in tableware marketed for children.  While the amount was small, 8 parts per billion, the plastic is a known carcinogen.

Consumers have no way of knowing if the register receipt in their hands or the BPA-free water bottle you bought for your child is laced with BPS.

“While in many cases, the contents of food and personal care products list ingredients, rarely do they list ingredients for containers they are in,” said Cheryl Watson, co-author of the BPS study.

“Even if you try to go by the recycling label on the container,” she continued, “it just lists the primary plastic, and not the other ones that may be mixed in.  We know BPS is found in thermal paper (fax paper, receipt paper from ATMs and registers)—but who knows what else?”

Deputy director of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, Lindsay Dahl says of the situation, “As someone who works on this every single day, it’s still hard for me to navigate the marketplace.”

Source:  Discovery News, January 28, 2013      Study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, January, 2013

 

MENTOR MARSH BALD EAGLE FESTIVAL, MAY 5, 2013

Mentor Marsh Bald Eagle, 2012  © Carole Clement

Mentor, OH–All are invited to celebrate the magnificent bald eagle with activities at the Mentor Marsh Nature Center at 5185 Corduroy Road on Sunday, May 5 from 12-5 p.m. Visit mini-stations to learn more about eagles and take part in hands-on and interactive activities –build a mock-eagle nest, hold a replica skull and talons in your hands, learn more about bald eagles and bird biology. Special guests include Smokey Bear and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s live animal ambassadors! No registration is required to attend open house activities at the Nature Center.

Register for one of three guided hikes to overlook the bald eagle nest from our trails at 12:30, 2 and 3:30 p.m. This two mile hike is on a rustic and sometimes muddy trail and is not recommended for young children. Spotting scopes will be provided. Bring your own binoculars or we will also have binoculars to lend. Meet for the hike at the Mentor Marsh Nature Center before your reserved hike time. Registration for hikes is required. Space is limited for hikes, so register soon! For questions or to make a reservation for a bald eagle viewing hike, please contact the Mentor Marsh Nature Center at 440-257-0777 or rdonalds@cmnh.org or on the Mentor Marsh Facebook page.

The Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve’s mission promotes stewardship of Mentor Marsh for its environmental and aesthetic value and provides educational, scientific and recreational opportunities for visitors to the unique ecosystem and interactive nature preserve. Visit the Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve web site at www.cmnh.org, search for Mentor Marsh.

–Becky Donaldson

Mentor Marsh Naturalist

Mentor Marsh Carol H. Sweet Nature Center

5185 Corduroy Road

Mentor, Ohio 44060

(440) 257-0777 Direct

 

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History

1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle

Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1767

www.cmnh.org

216-231-4600 x3505 Lv. mssg.

800-317-9155 x3505 Lv. mssg.

Check us out on Facebook!

 

THIRD-HAND SMOKE (THS): AN EFFICIENT DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR #CARCINOGENS IN CARS AND HOMES

Health dangers don’t dissipate with the smoke.

Health experts say secondhand smoke is 6 to 12 times more toxic than the smoke directly inhaled by a smoker.  And now the experts are warning that third-hand smoke (THS), the invisible, toxic gases and particles that hang around on thinss like clothes, furniture, hair and skin long after a cigarette or cigar has been put out, may be even more harmful.

The longer nicotine toxins linger on persons or objects, the more time they have to react with common indoor pollutants, such as nitrous acid, to create new and dangerous carcinogenic chemicals that can be inhaled or ingested.

Hugo Destaillats, a chemist with the Indoor Environment Department of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, had this to say about the resulting carcinogenic chemicals:  “The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs (gas molecules accumulating) strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture.  Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months.

“Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid, it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs.

“TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke.”

 Using a fan or opening a window while smoking doesn’t diminish the adsorption of TSNAs.

Destaillats and the 5 co-authors of the Berkeley Lab study based tests on cellulose as a model indoor material exposed to smoke and found that TSNAs increase rapidly in short periods of time.  Levels of newly formed TSNAs on the cellulose surfaces were 10 times higher after only 3 hours than when they’d been originally deposited.

The team also collected measurements of TSNAs on the interior of a smoker’s truck.  In addition to the TSNAs, the measurements showed substantial levels of the nitrosamine known as NNA along with 2 other potent carcinogens:  NNN and NNK.

In another study regarding smoking in a vehicle, Dr Jonathan Winickoff, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, told Best Health Magazine,  “And don’t even think about allowing smoking in the car, even with a window open.  The smaller the space, the more intense the exposure to toxins.”

Dr Winickoff believes that children are more vulnerable to the effects of THS, pointing out that though children may be only one-tenth the size of adults, they ingest twice the amount of toxic air particles that adults do, thus giving them 20 times the dose.

Dr Vinayak Jha, Associate Pulmonologist at George Washington Medical Faculty, concurs with Winickoff.  He says, “(Children are) crawling along floors, they’re ingesting dust and they’re putting other objects in their mouths which could be contaminated with third-hand smoke.”

Smoking outdoors is not much of an improvement to smoking indoors.  Lara Gundel of Berkeley labs says, “Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker’s skin and clothing.  Those residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere.

“The biggest risk is to young children.  Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child’s skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns, and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, then TSNAs will be forming.”

Berkeley lab’s James Pankow said the results of the study should raise concerns about the supposed safety of “e-cigarettes.”   Because no flame or ignition or tobacco or combustion is involved, these electronic cigarettes are not restricted by anti-smoking laws.

Packow says, “Nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco smoke, has until now been considered to be non-toxic in the strictest sense of the term.  What we see in this study is that the reactions of residual nicotine with nitrous acid at surface interfaces are a potential cancer hazard, and these results may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

SOURCES:  Mayo Clinic     Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, February 8, 2010    Global Advisors Smoke-free Policy (GASP), September 2012    WJLA ABC News transcript, March 2013     Best Health Magazine (Canada)    About.com Lung Cancer, September 01, 2012

Berkeley Lab study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Berkeley Lab study funded by University of California’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program

Coming up:  Avoiding and removing Third-hand Smoke

#CLIMATE CHANGE: WARM WINTERS FOLLOWED BY SEVERE #FLU SEASONS

A new study led by Sherry Towers, PhD (Physics), MS (Applied Statistics), of Purdue University finds a causative relationship to explain why warm winters have been followed by early and severe flu seasons from 1977-78 to the present.  The conclusion is that fewer persons are infected with the flue virus during warm winters, thereby leaving an unnaturally large fraction of individuals who’ve developed no recent immunity and are unusually susceptible during the next flu season.

During an interview with Science Daily, Towers said, “It appears that fewer people contract influenza during warm winters, and this causes a major portion of the population to remain vulnerable into the next season, causing an early and strong emergence.

“And when a flu season begins exceptionally early, much of the population has not had a chance to get vaccinated, potentially making that flu season even worse.

Vaccinations remain the best tool for combating the flu.

Sources:  Think Positive, January 29, 2013     Study published in Epidemiology, January 28, 2013   Study funded by Multinational Influenza Seasonal Mortality Study, led by the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health

JAPAN TO MINE JAMAICAN RARE EARTH ELEMENTS (REEs)

Rare earth ore shown with American penny for scale  Photo Credit US Government

China has a near-monopoly on rare earth elements, also known as rare earth metals, controlling 95% of the production of the product.

But REEs aren’t rare.  We have a sizable amount in the US west.  The difficulty in extracting and processing usable quantities of the minerals in an economically and environmentally friendly way gives China the edge.  They pay their workers little and pay little attention to the environmental impact of their process.

REEs are essential components of high-tech products, such as missiles, mobile phones and hybrid engines in cars.

Additionally, rare metals are valuable because they occur in minerals that contain thorium and uranium, nuclear fuels that could help shift the world from CO2-emitting hydrocarbons.

Many manufacturers, such as Toyota and Philips are doing an end run around China by redesigning their products to decrease the amount of REEs required for operation.

Other companies and countries are buying into REE operations in countries other than China.   Last year a Japanese company bought into a Canadian REE corporation

More recently the Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd., assayed the red mud, or bauxite residue in Jamaica.  The company believes it to be a source of high concentrations of REEs that “can be efficiently extracted in Jamaica, where a once flourishing bauxite industry has fallen on hard times.”

The success of the extraction would be a boon to the Jamaican economy as much as to the Japanese manufacturers.

Sources:   SmartPlanet, January 9 and January 17, 2013  And others

#CLIMATE CHANGE: PENSION FUNDS, ENDOWMENTS PROPOSE DIVESTING SELVES OF #FOSSIL #FUELS

Seattle

Currently, Seattle has $17,600,000 dollars invested in Chevron and ExxonMobil and smaller investments in other gas and oil companies.

On Friday, December 21, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn sent a letter to the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System Board urging them to “refrain from future investments in fossil fuel companies and begin the process of divesting our pension portfolio from those companies.”

The mayor references data from Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, that states “fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide in their reserves, five times the amount considered safe to avoid catastrophic climate change.”

McGinn also quotes the city’s finance director:  “The City of Seattle’s finance director informs me that two of the(Deferred Compensation Plan Committee’s) top 10 investments are with ExxonMobil and Chevron. . . , representing 0.9% of the system’s $1,900,000,000 in assets.”

Why is the mayor so keen on divestment?  He continues, “There is a clear economic argument for divestment.  While fossil fuel companies do generate a return on our investment, Seattle will suffer greater economic and financial losses from the impact of unchecked climate change.

“Our infrastructure, our businesses and our communities would face greater risk of damages and losses due to turbulent weather that climate change causes.

“As a waterfront city, several of our neighborhoods and industrial districts are at risk if climate change causes a significant rise in sea level.”

Leaving the northwest coast to look at matters on the nation’s northeast coast, divestment news comes from Maine’s Unity College.  Unity offers undergraduate education emphasizing the environment and natural resources.

Founded in 1965, in 2007 it was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Colleges.   In 2010, it was named to the Princeton Review list of the eighteen leading “green” colleges.

On Monday, November 5, the Unity College Board of Trustees unanimously voted to divest the College endowment from fossil fuels, citing the College’s commitment to sustainability.  In conjunction with the 350.org program of divestment, Unity College is now

the first to take this action.

In an editorial, Unity’s President Mulkey wrote:  “We are running out of time.  While our public policy makers equivocate and avoid the topic of climate change, the window of opportunity for salvaging a livable planet for our children and grandchildren is rapidly closing.

“The way forward is clear, though for many confrontation-averse academics the path seems impassable.  It requires action that is unnatural to the scientifically initiated:  to fight to regain the territory illegitimately occupied by the climate change deniers.

“In our zeal to be collegial, we engage with those who are paid by vested interests to argue that our Earth is not in crisis.

“When these individuals demonize public investment in alternative energy, we fail to point out how the oil industry benefited from significant taxpayer support in its infancy and continues to receive government subsidies today.

“We also sidestep the thorny issue of how oil and coal, in particular, fund large-scale organized opposition efforts to deny legitimate science, winning the battle for climate change public opinion with slogans, junk science, and money.”

At Harvard, 74% of students urge their administration to divest the college of fossil fuel investments, but to date, no action has been taken.

The City of Seattle and Unity College are among the first reported outcomes of a divestment education campaign organized by 350.org and promoted by numerous other environmental groups.  It’s modeled after a campaign in the 1980s that pressured South Africa into abandoning apartheid, thus forcing an end to the country’s racial segregation policies.

My Take on the issue of divestment:  I salute the courage and forward-thinking of McKibben, McGinn and Mulkey.

Sources:  Think Positive, December 23, 2012    Wikipedia    Unity College press release             

#CLIMATE CHANGE: WEST #ANTARCTICA ICE SHEET (WAIS) WARMING AT 3x RATE OF REST OF PLANET

 

Researchers’ analysis focuses on the temperature record from Byrd Station (indicated by star), the only source of long-term temperature observations in the area.  Black circles indicate locations of the continent’s other permanent recording stations.  The map uses color intensity to indicate the extent of warming on the ice sheet itself.    Image credit:  Julien Nicolas, courtesy of OSU

A new study by Ohio State University researchers, based on 50 years of temperature recording at Byrd Station, determines that the West Antarctica ice sheet (WAIS) is melting nearly twice as much as scientists had estimated and at triple the rate the rest of the planet is warming.

Byrd Station temperature records show an increase of 4.3 degrees F in annual temperature since 1958.

Graphic representation of ice shelf thickness changes in meters per year   Image credit NASA

“Our record suggests that continued summer warming in West Antarctica could upset the surface mass balance of the ice sheet, so that the region could make an even bigger contribution to sea level rise than it already does,” said David Bromwich, professor of geography at Ohio State University and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center.

“Even without generating significant mass loss directly, surfaces melting on the WAIS could contribute to sea level indirectly, by weakening the West Antarctic ice shelves that restrain the region’s natural ice flow into the ocean.”

Added to melting caused by a rise in surface temperatures, a recent study using NASA satellite data shows the WAIS is, according to the AP, “being eaten away from below by warm water.”   What’s being eaten away are the ice shelves that hold back a lot of Antarctic glacial ice from reaching the sea.

A separate study published earlier in the year in Nature about the basal melting of ice shelves concluded “It is reduced buttressing from the thinning ice shelves that is driving glacier acceleration and dynamic thinning.

“This implies that the most profound contemporary changes to the ice sheets and their contribution to sea level rise can be attributed to ocean thermal forcing that is sustained over decades and may have already triggered a period of unstable glacier retreat. “

Bromwich concurs.  “Lots of melting can do lots of damage to the ice shelves, . . ” and that can ramp up Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise worldwide.  “We know that these melting events can happen today, and we are likely to see more melting events.”

He believes more and reliable data about the WAIS is needed.   Nearly one third of temperature observations was missing for the time period of the study, partly because the station hasn’t always been occupied.  An automated station installed in 1980 experiences frequent power outages, usually during the long polar nights, when its solar panels can’t recharge.

The scientist says, “West Antarctica is one of the most rapidly changing regions on Earth, but it is also one of the least known.  Our study underscores the need for a reliable network of meteorological observations through West Antarctica so that we can know what is happening—and why—with more certainty.”

Sources:  Science 2.0, December 26, 2012      SmartPlanet Daily, December 26, 2012      Think Positive, December 27 and April 27, 2012       Study published in Nature Geoscience, December 23, 2012