Water Fluoridation Impacts the Environment

Fluoride pollution from aluminum smelters has long been known to cause problems such as damage to plants and risk to livestock grazing grasses exposed to the chemical. But there are not many highly publicized studies that look at the ecological impact of fluoridating municipal water supplies. Past research, however, shows that the practice hailed by the CDC as one of the greatest public health advances of the 20th century for humans may be causing damage to the environment.

An excerpt from a research review by Edward Groth III, a former staff member of the Environmental Studies Board of the National Research Council, sets the stage:

Although courageous diners sink their teeth into a variety of sea creatures, most sushi menus in the U.S. are limited: crispy eel, tuna nigiri, salmon sashimi – but what about the Moby Dick roll? Earlier this year, investigators discovered a Santa Monica Japanese restaurant, the Hump, was serving an endangered whale, Sei, as sushi after agents and environmentalists pocketed the meat for testing, says an article in The New York Times. And due to discord among members of the International Whaling Commission, some people wonder if these mammals will continue to make it to the plates of sushi lovers.

The International Whaling Commission, the 88-member government agency responsible for conserving whale stocks, met this week in Morocco. The agency considered lifting a nearly 25-year ban on commercial whaling – a compromise that some proponents argued would save the lives of whales.

Communications Management Units (CMUs), nicknamed “Little Gitmo” by the inmates for the resemblance to the Guantanamo Bay prison, are coming under criticism for their controversial policies, constitutionality, and secrecy. Prisoners assigned to these units cover a broad interpretation of the “War on Terror,” from Muslim men thought to have extreme leanings to radical environmental and animal rights activists.  

Opened under the Bush administration, CMUs are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication for inmates. Under the proposed  new rules, which are even more restrictive than those currently in place, prisoners would be limited in communication to: one three-page, double sided letter per week to one recipient; one 15-minute phone call per month to immediate family only; and a single one-hour visit per month with immediate family only which must be non-contact in nature.

Earlier this month, the California State Assembly passed a bill that attempts to scale back the enormous quantity of plastic carryout bags that are provided to customers every year. In an effort to reduce waste and encourage customers to bring their own reusable shopping bags, Assembly Bill 1998 prohibits supermarkets and pharmacies from providing single-use carryout bags effective January 1, 2012. It extends the ban to convenience stores and other outlets where groceries are sold a year and a half later. Stores may offer recyclable paper bags for a minimum fee of five cents. AB 1998 is now awaiting consideration in the state Senate.

With 1100 miles of coastline, California experiences its share of marine debris. Last year during Ocean Conservancy's 25th annual International Coastal Cleanup, volunteers in California collected more than 71,000 plastic bags in a single day. The conservancy's marine debris index reports that plastic bags are the second most common marine debris item, following cigarette filters.

In our hurried activities, most of us don’t look up at the sky like we used to as children, back when we might have tried to decipher what animal each fluffy white cloud resembled. But most of us have a clear memory of what the sky looked like: sometimes piercingly white cumulus clouds against a crystal blue backdrop or thin, wispy cirrus clouds of ice crystals whisked across the sky haphazardly or the rounded mounds of altocumulus, a staccato of light and shade with only peek-a-boo blue.

A set of individuals, activists, filmmakers and members of groups like Hands Off Mother Earth, California Skywatch and Canada Skywatch say: Look up at the sky today and you will see a starkly different sight, a crisscross of persistent contrails. Visible jet exhaust can produce a white haze over the skies as the long thick trails spread out and join together as they hang in the sky for many hours.

Although the level of activity of jets leaving persistent contrails differs from location to location, according to activists, if you spend a week looking up at the sky in any city across the United States, you are bound to notice this phenomenon – one very different from the experience of the sky 25 years ago.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month reached an out-of-court settlement with the Waterkeeper Alliance, National Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club regarding the regulation of pollution discharge from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, into water that is protected by the Clean Water Act.

CAFOs are industrial operations that confine a large number of animals – for example, at least 1000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, or 30,000 chickens – in facilities where vegetation is not sustained.

The facilities generate large amounts of waste that must be properly managed. A Government Accountability Office report estimates that a single dairy farm that meets EPA’s minimum large CAFO threshold of 700 dairy cows produces around 17,800 tons of manure a year, compared to the 16,000 tons of sanitary waste that it takes a city of 24,000 residents to annually generate.

Chemicals make up a small percentage of the fluids used in the controversial oil and gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. But when well operators blast millions of gallons of water into wells to free natural gas, that one to five-percent chemical makeup can turn lethal.

To many outside the energy industry, the environmental and health risks posed by these proprietary blends are unknown. The withdrawal last week of an amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) only prolongs the uncertainties. The amendment would have required the oil and gas companies to disclose materials used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. The withdrawal has angered environmentalists and reinforced their belief that the oil and gas industry still gets its way with Congress and has something to hide.

“I don’t even see what there is to negotiate,” says Natural Resources Defense Council senior policy analyst, Amy Mall. “The companies should just be supporting this amendment.”