Updates Dec 05

• 12/23/05 -- Rochester and Lead Poisoning: I don't know if the new lead paint ordinance that has been hammer out by City Council is the best in the country or if its the fairest to be had, balancing the needs of a healthy city population and placing the proper financial burden on landlords.  But Rochester (including groups like Metro Justice and city council, the out-going Mayor Johnson and in-coming Mayor elect Robert Duffy and even our media) must be commended on addressing this thorny environmental health issue.  It's been a major topic ever since I began RochesterEnvironment.com seven year ago.  All communities, as we move into the future, are going to have environmental problems--it's inevitable given the price we are going to pay for 'progress.'   But, I believe it is those communities that address their environmental problems, instead of ignoring them, are those who will sustain themselves.  Anti-lead paint plan saluted - Supporters call city's program 'one of the smartest' in U.S. -— Rochester's new lead paint ordinance may not be the strictest in the nation, but it's "one of the smartest," supporters of the policy said Thursday. Tuesday night, City Council members unanimously approved the new slate of regulations designed to help residents detect lead paint before children are exposed, making the city lead-free by 2010. The ordinance, like those in New York City and Baltimore, requires that apartments be inspected before they are rented to ensure that neither peeling paint nor invisible lead dust are present. What makes Rochester's approach unique is that the effort is targeted at a 7.5-mile swath of neighborhoods known as The Crescent, where income levels are among the county's lowest, and 90 percent of homes pose a lead hazard.  (December 23, 2005) Democrat and Chronicle
•  12/14/05 -- Get theLatest Monroe County Environmental Health Report Card at Health Action: Report Cards
•  12/07/05 -- Monitor the heath of our environment. Health Action: Priorities for Monroe County HEALTH ACTION, Priorities for Monroe County, began in 1995 when the Director of the Monroe County Health Department convened a group of community partners to develop a plan to improve the health of Monroe County residents. The HEALTH ACTION Steering Committee is composed of individuals from community organizations representing business, education and health care The overall goal of HEALTH ACTION is to improve the health of the citizens of Monroe County by aligning community resources to focus on selected priorities for action. HEALTH ACTION facilitates collaboration and cooperation among providers, agencies and businesses to benefit the community by concentrating resources where they are most likely to impact health status. A healthy community is one in which the objective measures of health status are at optimal levels and there exists a commitment to health at all levels of the community.  You can view health Report Cards for Monroe County in these five areas: Health "report cards" are available for five focus areas: Maternal/Child Health, Adolescent Health, Adult Health, Older Adult Health and Environmental Health.
•  12/07/05 -- **ACTION** Here's a good online action you can take to get our leaders to keep the dialog on Global Warming alive:  How Many More Hurricanes Will it Take to Wake Up Washington? Tell leaders at all levels of government to take immediate action to combat the threat of climate change. We need to reduce global warming pollution NOW. --from Friends of the Earth
  •  You can also accomplish the same thing with WorkingForChange by going here: ActForChange : Act Now
•  12/05/05 -- Because of its possible connection to a world pandemic, learn more about the Avian Flu: CDC - Influenza (Flu) |Avian Flu "The risk from avian influenza is generally low to most people because the viruses occur mainly among birds and do not usually infect humans. However, more than 100 human cases of avian influenza infection have been reported since 1997. Most cases of avian influenza infection in humans have resulted from contact with infected poultry (e.g., domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from infected birds. The spread of avian influenza viruses from one ill person to another has been reported very rarely, and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond one person."
•  12/05/05 -- Global Warming, the environmental threat we all face, is not going away merely because it is not on some government's agenda: Thousands march in Montreal to urge climate action - Yahoo! News MONTREAL (Reuters) - Thousands of environmentalists, some banging drums or dressed as polar bears, marched in Montreal on Saturday to urge the United States and other nations at a U.N. climate conference to do more to curb global warming. Time is running out," banners proclaimed in a carnival-like rally in freezing temperatures through central Montreal, where many protesters accused the White House of blocking progress on climate change and threatening the world's future. (December 3, 2005) The top news headlines on current events from Yahoo! News **ACTION**One way you can help fight Global Warming, is join EANY's CARBON CAP CAMPAIGN --from Environmental Advocates of New York  New York should take responsibility for its share of the problem. Like all Americans, New Yorkers produce a larger share of global warming pollution than the great majority of the world’s citizens. In fact, the Empire State produces more than all of Central America and Mexico combined. New York has a responsibility to clean up its share of the problem. As the world’s 9th largest economy, action to control emissions here will make a difference.
•  12/04/05 -- We want to applaud the Democrat and Chronicle for today's series of articles on Wind Energy (see indented articles below.  It is important that all citizens in the New York area understand the full scope of the proliferation of wind farms in our area.  There are certainly places where we should not place wind farms, but overall we should think seriously of the critical importance of this type of energy.  Global Warming is no joke.  New Yorkers have wind power potential and whatever negative effects (real not imagined) are, I believe, overruled by the not using wind power to augment our power grid at this time.  Of course, wind energy (until battery power is able to save this energy) is only a supplement to our present power supply--making it possible for the coal-fired power plants (now the largest suppliers of our power, with nuclear being a small percent) to use less carbon-based fuel (mostly coal) which releases tons of global warming gases and large amounts of mercury.  A great article by a great environmental author on the important of wind power in our area is here: Tilting at Windmills Local Environmentalism is Undermining One of Our Best Options for Slowing Global Warming - by Bill McKibben - "Finally, American environmentalists have a chance to get it right about wind power. News broke this week of plans for the first big wind energy installation in the Adirondack Park. Ten towering turbines would sprout on the site of an old garnet mine in this tiny town. They'd be visible from the ski slopes at nearby Gore Mountain, and they'd be visible too from the deep wild of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness, one of the loneliest and most beautiful parts of New York's "forever wild" Adirondack Forest Preserve, the model for a century of American conservation. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a place better suited to illustrate the controversy that wind power is causing in this country." --from Common Dreams | News & Views  
  •  'Whoosh' spells uneasy progress - Many say wind power is good for environment, economy; others say turbines are noisy, nuisance - — Richard Foringer gives an ironic little laugh when he talks about being accused of "NIMBYism" — shorthand for "not in my back yard," or a selfish aversion to development. Sitting at his kitchen table in Cazenovia, Madison County, he glances out the window to watch a 326-foot-high wind turbine's blades spin through the season's first snow. The behemoth, though not literally in Foringer's back yard, looms over his deck, just 1,000 feet from his house, on a neighbor's property. A slow, droning swish-thump is just barely audible through the walls and windows. (December 4, 2005) Democrat and Chronicle
  •  Turbines' giant footprints generate wariness - Wind turbines are a mixed bag environmentally. The global benefits are clear but hilltops must be cleared of trees and brush for safety's sake and access roads must be built. Habitat disruption can expand far beyond a turbine's actual footprint. Studies worldwide support developers' claims that modern turbines are far less harmful to birds than the old-style turbines with lattice-work towers — ideal for perching — that actually attracted birds. Today, smooth towers, slower-moving blades and red flashing lights that help repel birds have made turbines less problematic. (December 4, 2005) Democrat and Chronicle
  •  Towns struggle to set rules - Dolores Orman Staff Writer — As more private wind farm developers intensify efforts to find suitable sites for their projects, more communities are faced with the dilemma of what to do about them. At least 18 towns in the 10-county Rochester region — Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates counties — have been approached by such companies in recent years. And many communities — some that haven't even been contacted by developers — have imposed moratoriums to block wind farm proposals until they can get regulations on the books. (December 4, 2005) Democrat and Chronicle

• -- **ACTION** Stop whatever you are doing!  Please don't let this new EPA proposal go by without comment!  EPA Seeks to Cut Toxics Reporting — Move Endangers Public Health Analysis: Nearly 1,000 Communities Across U.S. Would Lose All Toxics Information  -from NET.org >> The National Environmental Trust  (please check this site and read it thoroughly) In all the years I have been following the Bush Administration's catering to business at the expense of our environment, this story is one of the most chilling I have yet come across.  This is a time when ordinary people should take a moment and let the EPA that we need more environmental information about toxic reporting, not less.  Scientists, our government, environmental organizations, and neighbors to industry, have no ability to mitigate the effects of environmental pollution if industry's are given a break on reporting what toxics they are releasing.  We have the right to know what toxic chemicals and in what quantity are entering our environment.  You have until January 13, 2006 to make comment. One of the things that really irks me about our present-day environmental problems is that the public, our government, and even scientists Do Not Get! the critical time we are in our environmental history.  Most people think that we have to balance political and economic considerations with a healthy environment, that there has to be a compromise with Nature so that we can have the lifestyle we want--fast polluting cars, sprawling out cities, less than toxic free land, air, and water.  But that is absurd.  Carl Sagan said it best: "Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet." Before the Reagan Administration, we did not have political party disputes over the importance of environmental matters. Now a large part of our population somehow thinks that our environment has to take a back seat to our desires for a upwardly mobile way of life.  It's the kind of wrong-headed thinking that is going to jeopardize our existence.  There's no arguing this point: Nature rules.  Ignore the warnings like the studies done on the inadequacies of for the preparation of New Orleans for a Force Five Hurricane and thousands die. The recent attempts by our government to strip the Endanger Species Act or water down the Clean Air Act are bad.  Really bad, because these laws (some passed by conservative Republican administrations) have been very successful laws that have help keep our environment from getting worse.  But, keeping critical information from the public, information we need to monitor the toxic pollutants in our environment is a fundamentally different threat to our existence to sustain our lives.  Blinding ourselves to what we are releasing into the environment won't make the effects go away.  You must let the EPA know that we need more, even independent, objective, and continual information about our environment if we are to monitor our environment adequately.  Don't sit this one out!
•  12/01/05 --  **EVENT** The Town of Kendall will host its meeting with the MCWA on December 1 at 7 p.m. at the town hall; the Hamlin meeting will be December 6 at 7 p.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, corner of Brick Schoolhouse Road and Lake Road West Fork.  Residents urged to attend water hearings  The Monroe County Water Authority (MCWA), which was invited to put together a proposal for the takeover of the Hamlin/Kendall Water Authority, will be presenting information at upcoming meetings in the two towns. "We were invited to come in and do a proposal for the towns," Ed Marianetti, executive director of the MCWA said. "We already supply the water to the towns wholesale and this would make the change to a 'retail' operation." (Dec. 01, 2005) Westside News Inc.
•  12/01/05 -- You know how important Recycling is.  So, here's a site that will help out.  It's got a locator for those hard to recycle items: Welcome to Call2Recycle Through our national program, Call2Recycle™, the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) can help you recycle your old cell phones and used portable rechargeable batteries. Rechargeable batteries are commonly found in cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote control toys. RBRC recycles the following battery chemistries: Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion) and Small Sealed Lead* (Pb).
•  12/01/05 - Flu Shots are important for our Environmental Health, get the Monroe County schedule and information: Public Health Department Flu Shot Update - The Monroe County Health Department received a shipment of vaccine last week. In conjunction with the Medical Society, the entire shipment was re-directed to local doctors who had not received any vaccine this season. We recommend re-contacting your doctor to determine if they now have vaccine or are expecting to receive some soon. It is possible that a couple more public clinics may be scheduled.