Trying to figure out the air quality in your coverage area? The EPA may not be much help. But this week's TipSheet suggests some effective work-arounds for your reporting. Get the backstory on ozone standards, tips on how to track ozone "nonattainment" for your area and learn why smog matters so much to public health.
"In public health circles, New York City is known for its long war on lead poisoning. ... A 2004 housing law targeted 'elimination' of childhood lead poisoning within six years.... Yet inspectors didn’t visit the Brooklyn apartment where Barbara Ellis lived until after her twin daughters tested high for lead three years in a row, she said."
"Besides lead, no contaminant in drinking water has provoked as loud a public outcry in the last two years in the United States as a class of chemicals known as perfluorinated compounds. New Jersey regulators are taking the strongest action to date on the man-made chemicals that are used in scores of household and industrial products."
An EPA program that helps pay for municipal water infrastructure is facing Congressional appropriations scrutiny. But with the program looking like it may escape big cuts, it remains a reservoir of reportable local projects. Find out more in the latest TipSheet, plus get state-by-state resources.
"This growing Brooklyn neighborhood, flooded during Superstorm Sandy, is now confronting the threat of future storms and sea level rise."
Halloween may remind many of the spookier side of bats. But these unique flying mammals provide important ecosystem services — and that's just one of the many reasons why environmental reporters might want to write about them. This week's TipSheet looks at covering bats, the habitat loss that's leaving many species threatened and the growing fungal plague that's wiping out many colonies. Resources and more.
"Senate Democrats from New Hampshire have sent a letter to the regional Environmental Protection Agency office raising questions about its determination that a controversial landfill did not pose an 'unacceptable human health risk.'"
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tapping a New York State lawmaker to lead its regional office based in New York City."
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