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AIRNow for iOS Now Available (Real-Time Air Quality From the EPA)
Note: At the present time the app listed below is only available for iOS devices. However, a web version of the resource is also available. Via INFOdocket From the iTunes App Store:
The AIRNow iPhone application will provide an increasingly mobile public with real-time air quality information that people can use to protect their health when planning their daily activities The app will allow users to get location-specific reports on current air quality and air quality forecasts for both ozone and fine particle pollution (PM2.5). Air quality maps from the AIRNow website provide visual depictions of current and forecast air quality nationwide, and a page on air quality-related health effects explains what actions people can take to protect their health at different AQI levels, such as “code orange.”The AIRNow app is free. Direct to App Store See Also: AIRNow is Also Available on the Web See Also: U.S. Air Quality Summary (text) See Also: EnviroFlash (Air Quality Alerts)
Air quality affects how you live and breathe. Like the weather, it can change from day to day, or even hour to hour. Up-to-date information allows you to make decisions based on air quality forecasts. EnviroFlash comes to you through a partnership between the US EPA and your state or local air quality agency - notifying you about air quality so you don't have to go searching for it!Continue reading
EPA Launches Green Products Web Portal for Pollution Prevention Week
From EPA HQ: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is observing Pollution Prevention (P2) Week (September 19-25, 2011) by launching a new tool designed to provide Americans easy access to information about everyday products like home appliances, electronics and cleaning products that can save money, prevent pollution and protect people’s health. The new green products web portal is available at www.epa.gov/greenerproducts. [Clip] Using the new tool, consumers can find electronics and appliances that have earned EPA’s Energy Star label and can browse WaterSense products that help save energy and water. Additionally, consumers can find information about cleaning products that are safer for the environment and people’s health. These products bear the EPA Design for the Environment (DfE) label. The website will also help manufacturers and institutional purchasers with information on greener products. via INFOdocket.com Continue reading
EPA Makes More Chemical Databases Available to the Public
From an EPA Announcement: ToxCastDB users can search and download data from over 500 rapid chemical tests conducted on more than 300 environmental chemicals. ToxCast uses advanced scientific tools to predict the potential toxicity of chemicals and to provide a cost-effective approach to prioritizing which chemicals of the thousands in use require further testing. ToxCast is currently screening 700 additional chemicals, and the data will be available in 2012. ExpoCastDB consolidates human exposure data from studies that have collected chemical measurements from homes and child care centers. Data include the amounts of chemicals found in food, drinking water, air, dust, indoor surfaces and urine. ExpoCastDB users can obtain summary statistics of exposure data and download datasets. EPA will continue to add internal and external chemical exposure data and advanced user interface features to ExpoCastDB. The new databases link together two important pieces of chemical research — exposure and toxicity data — both of which are required when considering potential risks posed by chemicals. The databases are connected through EPA’s Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR), an online data warehouse that collects data on over 500,000 chemicals from over 500 public sources. See Also: “EPA Removes Confidentiality Claims for More Than 150 Chemicals” (via INFOdocket) Continue reading
Leaked EPA document shows it knowingly approved pesticide toxic to honeybees
I'm quite partial to honeybees since I was a hobbyist beekeeper (got my first bees from the inimitable Richard Taylor on whom David Foster Wallace wrote his undergraduate honors thesis). And so I was particularly bummed about the news of a leaked EPA document (PDF) in which, despite warnings by EPA Scientists about the pesticide clothianidin being toxic to honeybees, EPA approved its use anyway. "Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia for its toxic effects. So why won't the EPA follow? The answer probably has something to do with the American affinity for corn products. But without honey bees, our entire food supply is in trouble." For more on honeybee colony collapse disorder, I'd highly recommend seeing the documentary Queen of the Sun HOUSE HEARING, 110TH CONGRESS - HEARING TO REVIEW THE STATUS OF POLLINATOR HEALTH INCLUDING COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
EPA’s model for rulemaking in the digital age
The Environmental Protection Agency's Rulemaking Gateway, which "provides information to the public on the status of EPA's priority rulemakings" could be a model for tracking rulemaking, according to an article in NextGov:
- EPA Web site paving the way to transparency, by Aliya Sternstein, NextGov (02/19/2010). EPA has committed to releasing rulemaking plans earlier than in the past. As soon as an agency regulatory policy officer determines it is appropriate to start developing a rule, information will be posted on the gateway, officials said. A regulation could appear on the site months or even years before a file is created on the governmentwide rule-tracking site Regulations.gov.
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