By John DeFore

Everyone knows by now that habitually buying bottled water introduces a staggering amount of wasted plastic into the world. Even if you conscientiously recycle every bottle, that recycling process uses energy and would be unnecessary if you used a non-disposable drinking vessel instead.

For those who have ditched the bottled water habit but don’t trust what comes from their tap, water filters are an appealing solution. Filter-makers have seized upon environmental concerns, and Brita even teamed with Nalgene for an ad campaign disguised as a green awareness effort that asks readers to “take the pledge” to buy filters and reusable bottles. [Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler

The news on bisphenol A or BPA just doesn’t get better. The chemical, used to make plastic baby bottles and food can liners, could deliver a double-whammy to women, paving the way for breast cancer, and then boomeranging back to interfere with the treatment for cancer recovery.

A study by University of Cincinnati scientists released this week found that BPA exposure may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer patients.

Researchers found that this man-made chemical - already implicated as a potential trigger in breast cancer because it is structurally similar to the estrogenic DES - induced a group of proteins in the body to protect breast cancer cells from the chemotherapy.

Resistance to chemotherapy is already a “major problem for cancer patients, especially those with advanced metastatic disease,” said UC’s Nira Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cell biology who’s been studying BPA for more than a decade.

Dr. Ben-Jonathan’s team discovered the BPA-chemotherapy problem by exposing human breast cancer cells to low levels of BPA, similar to those found in the blood of humans. The BPA mimicked estrogen, inducing the protein cells to protect the cancer cells.

Estrogen has been known to block chemotherapy treatment, but this new finding could help explain why some post-menopausal women, with lower levels of estrogen, suffer from chemotherapy resistance, Dr. Ben Jonathan said. Her study was underwritten by the U.S, Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and is discussed in Science Daily.

BPA has been suspected of playing a role in a variety of health issues, acting as a hormone disruptor in children and adults and possibly inducing neurological changes in kids. Studies with rats and mice have shown changes in tissue that some believe presage breast or prostate cancer development.

Last month, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, added another concern. It found that a group of adults with the highest levels of BPA detected in their urine were nearly three times as likely to develop heart disease and had twice the risk of diabetes compared with those who had the lowest levels of BPA.

In recent months, many medical and environmental science groups, notably the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, have been cautioning parents of infants to forego baby bottles made of polycarbonate plastic, and manufacturers began offering alternatives in glass or other types of plastic (look for the BPA-free label).

The problem with food cans, in which BPA is used within the epoxy liners to keep food from chemically eroding the metal casing, has been less publicized and there’s been little public response from manufacturers.

The EWG advises lowering exposure to BPA by simply avoiding products containing the chemical. Among those:

• Hard, clear plastic polycarbonate baby bottles or sport water bottles. They can sometimes be identified by their plastic notation on the bottom of the bottle showing they’re made with #7 plastic.

• Food sold in cans, and watching particularly acidic foods, like tomatoes, which may cause leaching from the BPA liner. Look for food in glass jars, or seek refuge in the produce section.

• Soda in cans (The levels of BPA may be lower here, but the volume of consumption could be higher.)

• Pre-mixed liquid baby formula sold in cans

The U.S. Federal Drug Administration has green lighted the current use of BPA in food cans, for instance, saying that the amount of the chemical ingested by humans is very small. But critics say the agency has relied on plastics industry-backed studies.

As cause for concern, scientists point to a 2004 Centers for Disease Control study showing that 95 percent of people tested had traces of BPA in their urine.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By Catherine Colbert

Aging wind turbines - some installed more than 20 years ago - are getting a second wind. Towering gracefully among California wind farms, an estimated 10,000 machines are slated to be replaced by more modern and much larger wind turbines.

Instead of laying these wind soldiers to rest, a Massachusetts company is focused on breathing new life into them through what it has coined “The Ultimate Recycling Project.”

Aeronautica Windpower, as part of its business as a wind turbine and tower manufacturer, harvests the better machines from the field and refurbishes them to give them a second life. The firm likens the modern windmills to aircraft, as they’re stripped down to their frames and rebuilt with newer technologies and reporting capabilities to fly for another 20 years.

Plucking the better machines from wind farms and putting them to use after an upgrade helps to save the power equivalent of a couple nuclear power plants, the company says.

Farmers are a target customer for the company’s used wind products. For a wind turbine to work effectively, it requires up to 18 acres and a prevailing wind. And with 2.6 million farms in the U.S., Aeronautica Windpower hopes to find enough homes for each recycled wind turbine.

The company specializes in generating green power. Founded by a group of engineers and businesspeople, Aeronautica Windpower makes and markets both new and used mid-scale wind turbines and towers. Its products offer clean power to industrial parks, ranches, commercial complexes, and small neighborhoods. Rather than selling the utility-scale models that can reach 350 feet tall, Aeronautica Windpower concentrates on selling smaller wind turbines in the 65- to 500-kilowatt size. Its older wind turbines have been rebuilt in the 65- and 108-kilowatt sizes.

The recycled version of the wind turbines are sold at up to half the price of newer models, as well, so there’s an economic incentive to buy them second-hand. Wind turbines include a tower, blade set, nacelle, and rotor. They run from $120,000 for the lowest-end version to $260,000 for the most expensive. The company boasts about 10 dealers to help service its products and it’s looking for more dealers as its customer base extends its reach nationwide.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media