Using Living Cells as Nanotechnology Factories

In the tiny realm of nanotechnology, scientists have used a wide variety of materials to build atomic scale structures. But just as in the construction business, nanotechnology researchers can often be limited by the amount of raw materials. Now, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Hao Yan has avoided these pitfalls by using cells as factories to make DNA based nanostructures inside a living cell. (More....)

EPA awards $271,278 in grants to 11 Midwest environmental education projects

(Chicago, Ill. - Nov. 21, 2008) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has awarded $271,278 in grants to fund 11 projects that enhance environmental education in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The annual grants are given to community groups, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, schools and universities for projects that increase knowledge and awareness of science and the environment. The funding will promote and advance environmental literacy and sustainable practices.

"These grants support projects that help students and teachers learn more about ecosystems, climate change, safe chemicals and how to be good stewards of the environment," said Megan Gavin, environmental education grants coordinator in EPA's Region 5 office. "We are impressed year after year with how much the recipients are able to accomplish with these grants."
The 2008 environmental education grant recipients are:

Illinois
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Wheaton, $11,054. For its Earth Partnership for Schools curriculum, a nationally recognized model for restoration-based educational programming. The program will train teachers in methods for active engagement of their students in an inquiry-based process for restoring native plant landscapes. Contact: David Guritz, 630-462-5654.

Chicago Horticultural Society, Glencoe, $14,000. For its Fairchild Challenge Chicago, a series of multidisciplinary educational challenges that increase student knowledge of local environmental issues and facilitate informed decision-making and problem-solving skills that enable students to address those concerns. Contact: Melissa Matterson, 847-835-8257.

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, $26,689. For training teachers on integrating the concept of "no child left inside" within the No Child Left Behind framework through design, development and delivery of innovative workshops on environmental education. Contact: Sabiha Daubi, 815-754-0723.

Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield, $40,589. For its Safe Chemicals in Schools workshop, a successful environmental education program for teachers to learn about proper chemical storage and handling. Contact: Ken Runkle, 217-785-1666.

Indiana
Ball State University, Muncie, $36,630. For its Envirotech Project designed to initiate, enable and facilitate a critical examination of a contemporary issue which ultimately enhances environmental literacy of technology teachers and their students. Contact: Annette Rose, 765-285-5648.

Michigan
Dickinson Conservation District, Kingsford, $23,508. For its Energized for the Future program that takes curriculum lessons on energy, fossil fuels and sustainable resources and makes those lessons come alive for students. Contact: Ann Hruska, 906-774-8441.
Inland Seas Education Association, Suttons Bay, $29,770. For its Invasive Species Education Initiative whose objective is to increase awareness and knowledge of invasive species and provide educational materials for integration of invasive species research into classrooms and local communities and to form networks to increase access to resources concerning invasive species. Contact: Tom Kelly, 231-271-3077.

Minnesota
Proctor Public Schools, Proctor, $44,446. For hosting a Lake Superior youth symposium for middle and high school students. The goal of the symposium is to enhance the ability and motivation of middle and high school students and teachers to understand and act on the environmental issues facing Lake Superior both now and in the future. Contact: Diane Podgornik, 218-628-4926.

Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, St. Paul, $15,000. For a two-week immersion course for undergraduate students called Environment and Agriculture. The program offered in the spring focuses on connections among agriculture, sustainability and global environmental justice. Contact: Julia Frost Nerbonne, 651-646-8831.

Ohio
Ohio River Foundation, Cincinnati, $19,592. To provide hands-on learning about watersheds and storm water management to students in grades 6-12 participating in a school rain garden program. Students will design and develop rain gardens that serve as a model for the community at large. Contact: Erin Crowley, 513-460-3365.

Wisconsin
Wisconsin Children's Museum, Madison, $10,000. For its Leap into Lakes, an inquiry-based, hands-on experience that immerses preschool children in the underwater world of lake critters and plants, and plays on their innate connection to living creatures while connecting them to larger ecological concepts such as stewardship. Contact: Allison Hildebrandt, 608-256-6445.
The grants are awarded yearly under the National Environmental Education Act, which was passed in 1990 to stimulate environmental education through design, demonstration and communications projects conceived by local organizations.

More information on EPA's environmental education grants is at http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html.

Pharmaceuticals

The EPA is proposing to add hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to the Universal Waste Rule in order to provide a system for disposing hazardous pharmaceutical wastes that is protective of public health and the environment. The proposed addition will make it easier for generators to collect and properly dispose of these items as hazardous wastes, resulting in a simpler and more streamlined waste management system.

This proposed rule applies to:
pharmacies,
hospitals,
physicians’ offices,
dentists’ offices,
outpatient care centers,
ambulatory health care services,
residential care facilities,
veterinary clinics, and
other facilities that generate hazardous pharmaceutical wastes.

The rule encourages generators to dispose of non-hazardous pharmaceutical waste as universal waste, thereby removing this unregulated waste from wastewater treatment plants and municipal solid waste landfills. The addition of hazardous pharmaceutical waste to the Universal Waste Rule will facilitate the collection of personal medications from the public at various facilities so that they can be more properly managed.
Currently the federal Universal Waste Rule includes batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, and lamps. Universal wastes are typically generated in a wide variety of settings including industrial settings and households, by many sectors of society, and may be present in significant volumes in non-hazardous waste management systems. (More.....)

Three new guidelines from AIHA

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) just released three new publications:

• Guideline for Implementing an Integrated Health, Safety, and Wellness Program for Small Businesses
• Guideline on Occupational Exposure Reconstruction
• Storage Rack Safety Guideline

Link: http://www.aiha.org/Content/AccessInfo/press/AIHA+Press+Release-+AIHA+Releases+Three+New+Guidelines.htm

Control of Hazardous Energy Standard

The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) recently announced that the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved the reaffirmation of the American National Standard ANSI Z244.1-2003 (R2008) ‘Control of Hazardous Energy – Lockout/Tagout and Alternative Methods,’ which aims to protect workers from hazardous energy associated with machines, equipment or processes that could cause injury.

Link
http://www.asse.org/newsroom/release.php?pressRelease=1147

Entrapment risk in public swimming pools

On December 19, 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission rules for the elimination of suction and hair entrapment risk in public swimming pools will go into effect. State of Wisconsin plan review is necessary when modifying swimming pools and water attractions to comply with the December 2008 federal Virginia Graeme Baker suction regulation. [read more of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce bulletin]

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff has also prepared a guidance
document that spells out the technical requirements of the regulation.

There are many resources made available by the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals, including pages on:
Summary analysis of the legislation
Entrapment prevention in pools and spas

Additional notes--
December 10, 2008: Link to Wisconsin Department of Commerce S&B Public Swimming Pools Program
December 16, 2008: Link to CPSC news release (12/15/2008)

Links:
http://www.commerce.wi.gov/SB/SB-SwimmingPoolsWisGraemeBaker.html
http://www.cpsc.gov/BUSINFO/vgpsa.pdf
http://apsp.org/clientresources/documents/Siddiqui_EntrapmentPools,Spas_reprint.pdf
http://apsp.org/clientresources/documents/Summary_PSSafetyAct07-08.pdf
http://commerce.wi.gov/SB/SB-SwimmingPoolsProgram.html
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09065.html

How does bleach kill bacteria?

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Developed more than 200 years ago and found in households around the world, chlorine bleach is among the most widely used disinfectants, yet scientists never have understood exactly how the familiar product kills bacteria.

New research from the University of Michigan, however, reveals key details in the process by which bleach works its antimicrobial magic.

In a study published in the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Cell, a team led by molecular biologist Ursula Jakob describes a mechanism by which hypochlorite, the active ingredient of household bleach, attacks essential bacterial proteins, ultimately killing the bugs.

Read more of the University of Michigan press release.

Hear Dr. Jakob discuss her research on NPR's Talk of the Nation.