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Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty Now Includes PFOS and Brominated Flame Retardants

Leave a Comment / Flame retardant, Lindane, Pentabromodiphenyl ether, Persistent organic pollutant, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, United Nations / By

Cheryl Hogue, a senior editor at C&EN, published the following note (Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition – May 18, 2009): PERSISTANT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS: Treaty now includes PFOS and brominated flame retardants. Nine chemicals, including the widely used chemicals in perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and brominated flame retardants, have been added to the Stockholm Convention on …

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Children Accused of Witchcraft

Leave a Comment / Child abuse, Child Advocacy Groups, Court Appointed Special Advocate, National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association - CASA, orphan / By

Image via Wikipedia Image via WikipediaAccording to ABC News, yesterday, throughout the Congo children are being accused of practicing witchcraft (click the title to see the news video). To me, as a parent and as a former court appointed special advocate for abused and neglected children, this is serious child abuse which leads to the …

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11th Annual Workshop on Brominated Flame Retardants

Leave a Comment / Arlene Blum, Brominated Flame Retardant, environment, Executive Branch, Fire retardant, Flame retardant, Government, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, United States / By

Image via Wikipedia Dr. Arlene Blum (Executive Director, Green Science Policy Institute) provided this report from the 11th Annual Workshop on Brominated Flame Retardants. This is a topic that that deserves more of our attention than it currently gets. Dear All, I am just back from an informative and fun Brominated Flame Retardant meeting in …

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China Marks First Anniversary of Deadly Earthquake | Online NewsHour | PBS

Leave a Comment / China, Earthquake, Melissa Block, National Public Radio, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting Service, Sichuan / By

Image via Wikipedia This is a great segment from the NewsHour on PBS. I recommend both the Streaming Video segment (8 minutes) and the two related links which include a slide show with commentary (3 minutes). Some 90,000 people died in this earthquake, and countless others remain in cramped, makeshift conditions as reconstruction progresses. Check …

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Living With Limits – Catastrophe Awaits

Leave a Comment / American Chemical Society, Chemical and Engineering News, Chemical Engineering, chemistry, Education, Juno and the Paycock, technology / By

Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) is excellent the weekly glossy news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society in the world. Rudy Baum, the editor-in-chief, is outspoken on many issues that affect all of us broadly, not just the chemical enterprise. His recent editorial, Living With Limits, elicited the following Catastrophe Awaits …

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Cash Flows from China’s Water

Leave a Comment / Business, Chemists Without Borders, China, environment, Health, Hong Kong, Rural, Society and Culture / By

Jean-Francois Tremblay, C&EN Hong Kong (Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition – May 11, 2009) writes: “In this highly populated, rapidly industrializing country, water purification is becoming big business. ……. Between 200 million and 300 million people throughout the Chinese Countryside do not have access to a safe source of water.” In this picture, do-it-yourself …

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Taxing Carbon – Part 4 | Mother Jones

Leave a Comment / Carbon, Columbia University, environment, Jeffrey Sachs, Kevin Drum, Mother Jones, The Earth Institute / By

There’s an interesting dialog on taxing carbon between Kevin Drum at Mother Jones and Jeffrey Sachs (Sachs is, among other things, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time). You can read the latest episode here: Taxing Carbon – Part 4 | Mother …

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Conversation with Sarah Chayes, former NPR correspondent about life in Afghanistan

Leave a Comment / Afghanistan, Aga Khan Foundation, Charlie Rose, chemistry, Chemists Without Borders, Health, Occupational safety and health, Sarah Chayes / By

Image via Wikipedia Once again, Sarah Chayes impresses with her down-to-earth understanding of life in Afghanistan and its relevance to the rest of the world (Charlie Rose, May 8, 2009). She emphasizes the current need for expertise and training to accelerate improvements in daily life and governance. There are many opporunities, therefore, for people to …

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Congratulations to AIDSfreeAFRICA

Leave a Comment / Africa, AIDS, AIDSfreeAFRICA, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Business, Education, Manufacturing, pharma, Pharmaceuticals, Rolande Hodel, Society and Culture / By

Image via Wikipedia AIDSfreeAFRICA celebrated its third birthday on April 19, 2009. AIDSfreeAFRICA was founded by Dr. Rolande Hodel and is developing pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities in Africa, to be owned and operated by local people. See Rolande’s amazing story here. This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness …

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