1. National Take Back Day. April 27 is national drug take back day. April 27, 2019 – 10AM to 2PM
The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.
To find out where you can take your old or expired drugs, go to to https://takebackday.dea.gov
Go to the “Site Locator‘ seen above and enter in your zip code, or county, city and State. Remember you can dispose of pills, capsules and caplets. NO LIQUID MEDICINE. IT’s FREE
2. The State of the Air Is Worsening as Climate Impacts Multiply.
Many US cities have poor air, according to the American Lung Association. ew aspects of day-to-day life are easier to take for granted than the air we breathe. Yet for residents in many cities across the United States, dirty air is becoming a new normal as climate change exacerbates poor air quality, with dire consequences for the most vulnerable residents, according to the American Lung Association’s 20th-annual State of the Air report
The report, is a comprehensive examination of air pollution data, including ozone and particle pollution levels, collected at air monitoring sites across the United States. Each year the American Lung Association (ALA) processes that data into three scorecards that rank pollution from year-round particles, short-term particles, and ozone in communities nationwide.
While many communities experienced an improvement in air quality between 2000 and 2019—thanks in part to the Clean Air Act—this year’s report paints a grim picture for many other locales. The number of people breathing dirty air nationwide increased to 141 million (compared with 125 million and 133 million in the 2017 and 2018 reports, respectively). More than four in 10 Americans live in a county that has unhealthy ozone and/or particle pollution. Approximately 20 million people live in counties that ranked poorly on all three of the ALA’s scorecards.
The biggest difference between this year’s report and its predecessors? “What we’re seeing in this year’s report more acutely is impacts on air quality from climate change,” Paul Billings, the national senior vice president for advocacy at the American Lung Association, told Sierra. “Eight of our cities suffered the most short-term particular pollution we’ve ever seen, and we attributed those spikes largely to wildfires.
” The years covered in the current report, 2015 to 2017, were the hottest on record globally and featured some of the most devastating wildfires ever recorded in the United States. Warmer temperatures create conditions that are more conducive for the formation of ozone, while hotter weather and changes in rainfall patterns fuel more intense wildfires, a major source of air pollution. Twenty of the 26 most polluted cities had spikes in particle pollution, many of those attributable to wildfires. “High ozone days and spikes in particle pollution zoomed, putting millions more people at risk and adding challenges to the work cities are doing across the nation to clean up,” according to the report.
“Because of climate change, we’re seeing an erosion in the progress we’ve been making to reduce the burden of air pollution,” Billings said. “We’re also seeing an uptick in ozone levels as well. Climate change is making it harder to clean up air pollution, and there are higher levels of it that harm health.
” Los Angeles held on to its rank as the number one most ozone-polluted city in the United States—a ranking it has held in all but one of the ALA’s 20 reports. Overall, ozone pollution worsened across the United States, including in some of the country’s biggest metropolitan areas, such as San Diego (#6 for ozone pollution), New York (#10), and Denver (#12).
Three cities in California rank in the top five most polluted for short-term particle pollution: Bakersfield (#1), Fresno-Madera-Hanford (#2), and San Jose–San Francisco– Oakland (#4).
Eight cities had the most pollution ever recorded there: Fairbanks, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Yakima, Washington; Spokane–Spokane Valley–Coeur d’Alene, Washington and Idaho; Santa Maria–Santa Barbara, California; Salinas, California; Bend-Prineville, Oregon; and Bismarck, North Dakota.
Ozone and particle pollution pose a serious risk for children under the age of 18 and seniors over 65 and those living in low-income communities. The report cites a 2006 study linking exposure to high ozone levels to a type of cardiac arrhythmia that can increase the risk for premature death or stroke; a French study found that exposure to elevated levels of ozone for just one or two days can increase the risk of heart attack for middle-aged adults without heart disease.
The health effects from long-term exposure can also be severe. Chronic exposure to ozone can increase the likelihood of childhood asthma and decreased lung function in newborns, with children from low-income families more likely to need hospitalization. Particle pollution of the kind that is emitted by dirty trucks and wildfires can also lead to severe health consequences for children, people with low incomes, and people who work or recreate outdoors, among others.
Residents in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Kahului–Wailuku–Lahaina, Hawaii; and Honolulu can literally breathe a sigh of relief after their cities tied for the #1 ranking for cleanest US cities for year-round particle pollution. For ozone pollution, La Paz, Arizona, and Kauai took the top slots of the 25 cleanest counties for year-round pollution.
The report also documents improvements in air quality since 1970 and finds that air pollution emissions have dropped during that time. Even so, the Trump administration, first under disgraced former EPA chief Scott Pruitt and now EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, has attempted to weaken the scientific review process under the Clean Air Act and roll back clean air protections. State of the Aircites seven threats to the nation’s air quality and includes among them the Trump administration’s effort to roll back the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s program for cleaning up carbon pollution from the nation’s power grid, as well as efforts to remove limits on methane and other emissions from oil and gas operations and a proposed rollback of clean car standards.
Billings said that people need to put pressure on their elected officials to support the Clean Air Act and require the cleanup of polluting sources. Individuals can reduce their exposure to elevated levels of air pollution by paying attention to the Air Quality Index and not exercise during days of higher air pollution.
“The stakes are literally the air that you breathe,” Billings said. “If we don’t continue to address criteria pollutants, people will suffer. If we don’t address climate change, people will suffer.”
3.
Upcoming Stakeholder Meeting
You are invited to this follow-up stakeholder meeting, discussing the re-issuance process for Arizona’s Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP). The purpose of this meeting is to discuss points the draft permit changes and collaborate on a path forward.
Date: Friday, April 26, 2019
Time: 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Join in Person: ADEQ Room 3175 1110 West Washington St. Phoenix, Arizona, 85007
Join by Phone: (240-454-0879); Access Code: 801 113 748
Join Online | Join WebEx Meeting >
ID: 801113748 Password: tfkxmFHt
4. Arsenic In The Foods We Consume.
Concern over arsenic in rice, apple juice and other foods continues to this day.
Inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen and while organic arsenic isn’t as toxic, it is also a concern. Arsenic is a compound that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. There are many manmade sources of exposure in our environment, such as car batteries, wood products and some carpet adhesives. Additionally, arsenic has been used as a food additive in chicken and pig fee, to promote growth. Chicken manure, used as a fertilizer is a potential source of arsenic in soil.
Arsenic has been found in a variety of crops but rice is especially good at absorbing it from the soil because of the flooding process involved in rice production. Some juices and conventially raised chickens also have tested high. There is no established upper limit for arsenic in foods, but the US Environmental Protection Service and the World Health Organization have established a safe limit of 10 parts per billion for water.
What you should do to stay on the safe side.
a. Rinse rice well before cooking it
b. Use a 6:1 water to rice ratio, and then drain and discard excess water to potentially remove more arsenic
c. Brown rice contains more nutrients, but consider using white rice some of the time.
d. Look for rice from California, India or Pakistan
e. Vary your grains; dry quinoa, couscous, or whole wheat pasta as an alternative
f. Consume less conventionally grown chicken
g. Eat mostly vegetables
Consumer Reports discovered that some infant rice cereals contain at least five times as much inorganic arsenic as alternatives such as oatmeal – and calculated that a baby who eats two to three servings of rice cereal a day could end up with a risk of cancer that’s twice what CR considers an acceptable level.
Consumer Reports determined that the following water bottles had non-detectable levels of arsenic, or below 3 ppb.
- Aquafina
- Glaceau Smart Water
- Poland Springs
- Arrowhead
- Ice Mountain
- Propel
- Dasani
- Kirkland (Costco)
- Niagra
- Deer Park
- Life WTR
- Fiji
- Essentia
- Market Pantry (Target)
- Evian
- Nestle Pure Life
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