Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 23:13.
06/26/2010 - 00:00
06/26/2010 - 23:59
Etc/GMT-4
Air Quality Advisory Issuedfor Northeast Ohio
Saturday, June 26, 2010 due to Ozone Concentratio
Northeast Ohio- There is potential for high ozone pollution levels Saturday, June 26, due to high-temperature conditions. Pollution may reach levels considered "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" during the afternoon or early evening hours in areas not subject to rain.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 04:44.
08/10/2010 - 16:30
08/10/2010 - 18:45
Etc/GMT-4
Thanks to the timely, effective intervention of the Sierra Club, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to hold a public hearing for citizens to discuss their concerns about the renewal of the permit for the Medical Center Company (MCCO) to burn coal in their powerplant in University Circle (above), harming residents and workers in the densely populated and economically distressed surrounding neighborhood.
Location
Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Cleveland Public Library
Depending on how you read the tea leaves, support for some sort of marijuana legalization might be at an all-time high among Americans.
The results of an Associated Press/CNBC poll released in April showed 55 percent of Americans opposed an end to prohibition. But when those polled were asked to compare the hypothetical regulation of marijuana to that of alcohol, 56 percent said marijuana regulation should be the same or less strict than the regulation of alcohol.
In Ohio, Democrat State Rep. Kenny Yuko of Richmond Heights, a Cleveland suburb, recently introduced House Bill 478, which would legalize the use, growth and dispensing of medical marijuana for persons suffering from debilitating conditions including cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.
“This is a very easy remedy for therapeutic relief,” Yuko says.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 14:41.
Tip of the Hat and Props to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Michael McIntyre, and his Tipoff column today - First Reporter to Recognize "A new cash crop" for Ohio.
Some Northeast Ohio boosters are pushing for a new product to revive the local economy: Marijuana. And, no, stoners, they're not talking about boosting sales of Doritos.
Norm Roulet of the RealNEO blog announced last week that a political action committee, Real Green NEO PAC, was formed to push for a November ballot issue for "enlightened legalization of cannabis crops."
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 06/19/2010 - 10:00.
The people of Northeast Ohio should be highly concerned about our air pollution, for many reasons. A most recent reason for concern: the May 2010 study "The Effect of Power Plants on Local Housing Values and Rents" finds "3-7 percent decreases in housing values and rents within two miles of plants with the semiparametric estimates suggesting somewhat larger decreases within one mile. In addition, there is evidence of taste-based sorting with neighborhoods near plants experiencing statistically significant decreases in mean household income, educational attainment, and the proportion of homes that is owner occupied". That is a strong analytic foundation for finding much of Cleveland is statistically worth significantly less than cleaner areas of Northeast Ohio and cities in America (as also reflected in our low property values here).
When United States leaders speak of developing our "homeland security" by drilling and stripmining our way to "energy independence", I must question their scientific integrity and intellectual competency.
It is well understood worldwide that our Federal government has made impossible the development of an industrial hemp economy in America, which offers citizens a greater degree of energy independence here, because past corporate tycoons were able to force corrupt and ignorant politicians to incorrectly associated "hemp" with "marijuana", and "marijuana" has incorrectly been branded as dangerous and addictive by many ignorant and corrupt American scientists, and the corporate tycoons who pay their salaries.
Long story short, because of the ignorant 1936 low-grade American exploitation film called "Reefer Madness", the tuly mad leadership of America has long outlawed developing industrial hemp resources, intellectual property, and technologies in America.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 06/07/2010 - 11:00.
As a result of old science, politics and industry dominating energy, health and environmental planning and development of Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Ohio and America, citizens here must confront the realities of too much pollution in our air today, with certainty of growing air pollution worldwide in the years ahead. As such, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter finds our pollution causes cardiovascular and respiratory problems and death... topping a long list of cumulative harm pollution causes people and society. Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter forms the scientific foundation for the review of the primary (health-based) and secondary (welfare-based) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter (PM) in America, and "accurately reflects “the latest scientific knowledge useful in indicating the kind and extent of identifiable effects on public health which may be expected from the presence of [a] pollutant in ambient air”".
As I've long written on realNEO, Northeast Ohio has a pollution crisis and does a poor job or monitoring our pollution, putting citizens' lives in danger. How much in danger is the subject of this lengthy EPA analysis. In short, you are certainly being harmed greatly by the high levels of PM clearly released into the air in Northeast Ohio, especially near major roadways and coal burning facilities that are source points, like Mittal and MCCO. For example: "Epidemiologic studies that examined the effect of PM 2.5 on cardiovascular emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions reported consistent positive associations (predominantly for ischemic heart disease [IHD] and congestive heart failure [CHF]), with the majority of studies reporting increases ranging from 0.5 to 3.4% per 10 μg/m3 increase in PM 2.5".
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 13:54.
Why do I hate the leadership of OHIO?!?!?!
Why the hell was air quality in Cleveland and so Northeast Ohio, the region, the state and the world so "UNHEALTHY" last night, while we slept, and why is it so unhealthy RIGHT NOW - and HOW UNHEALTHY really, where, as indicated above?
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 09:46.
05/27/2010 - 00:00
05/27/2010 - 23:59
Etc/GMT-4
Northeast Ohio - Today's high temperatures and lack of wind may result in exceedances today for both ground-level ozone and fine particles. An Air Quality Advisory is in effect for today, May 27, only. Fine particle concentrations will be highest in urban areas, while ozone may be more widespread.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 05/20/2010 - 01:45.
I was flabbergasted to read an article in the Cleveland Plain Deal titled "Organic food benefits debated in wake of president's report on cancer, environment", about the 2008–2009 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel - REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK... What We Can Do Now, that has nothing to do with ORGANIC FOOD, is misleading, and seems intended to further dumb-down local citizens to the health hazards caused by excessive polluting and medical interventions here, preventing citizens from following one of the core Recommendations:
SELF-ADVOCACY
7. Each person can become an active voice in his or her community. To a greater extent than many realize, individuals have the power to affect public policy by letting policymakers know that they strongly support environmental cancer research and measures that will reduce or remove from the environment toxics that are known or suspected carcinogens or endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Individuals also can influence industry by selecting non-toxic products and, where these do not exist, communicating with manufacturers and trade organizations about their desire for safer products.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 14:02.
On April 29, 2010, EPA proposed a set of regulatory proposals under the Clean Air Act that address emissions from boilers, process heaters, and certain solid waste incinerators. These rules would significantly cut emissions of pollutants that are of particular concern for children. Mercury and lead can cause adverse affects on children's developing brains -- including effects on IQ, learning, and memory. The rules would also reduce emissions of other pollutants including cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. These pollutants can cause cancer or other adverse health effects in adults and children. Together, these rules would cut mercury and other air toxics emissions from nearly 200,000 units across the U.S.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 05/01/2010 - 15:05.
ICEarth Bigbang computers, our Linux distro, and our optimal open source data and application configurations are designed to handle the most processor (CPU and GPU), memory and transaction intensive challenges in the world, to save Earth. Doing that requires an integration of our regional and global geographic information systems with layers of valuable insight not yet integrated, like environmental, atmospheric and topographic data, to drive analyses of life impacting factors in our neighborhoods like environmental fallout from all sources of pollution, to the home and child, for free to them. A good explanation of the type of data and analyses included in such capabilities is described below, helping you make sense of what just doesn't make sense, by doing things like growing GRASS...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 14:24.
Whether you care about childhood lead poisoning or not, I think you'll be interested by important insight on Lead, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Renal Function that everyone in the world should understand. Think of the cost of this on society - the suffering, reduced quality of life, and lost years for so many people, caused by lead harming kidney function. Here's the intro and abstract - you'll need to set up an account on WebMD to read the rest (apparently free - this is not an endorsement of WebMD... I am not a member... I will join to read the rest of this and let you know my thoughts)...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 10:38.
I've been asked what our traffic looks like over time, so I pulled a few quick charts of the number of visitors to realneo since we started using Google Analytics, and what they have visited, to measure performance of this site - and we've grown by pretty much all counts I've considered important by 30-100% since then - in some cases by 1,000s% - in less than a year-and-a-half.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 04/26/2010 - 05:00.
2008 Lead Poisonings of children in Cuyahoga County, Ohio - do not move here
The Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council has released data on children in the neighborhoods of Cleveland and surrounding suburbs who were tested and documented as lead poisoned in Cuyahoga County in 2008 - about 3,200 of our Cleveland children were KNOWN to be lost to lead poisoning - about 4,000 children poisoned in Cuyahoga County overall. As only a small percentage of our children are actually tested for lead poisoning, the numbers of children in the County lost to lead poisoning is much higher... 1,000s of victims higher.
Cleveland's worst known mass-murderer, Anthony Sowell, is only known to have killed 11 people.... yet that has captured 1000s of inches of pointless newsprint... hours of pointless news coverage... to help nobody.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 15:11.
I have lived in Northeast Ohio most of my life... have founded the amazing realNEO... have done lots of other important work here and worldwide... have proposed the most innovative economic development platform in the region...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 20:41.
Home Depot uses Ohio U.S. Senator George Victor Voinovich in a failed attempt
to delay EPA rules protecting children and pregnant women from lead poisoning?!?!
Despite the foolish, incompetent, worst efforts of our disgraceful Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio, Genocidal-George Voinovich, who attempted to derail life-protecting lead poisoning prevention measures for America's children and pregnant women - supposedly as a favor to Home Depot, which we should all now boycott for life - I'm pleased to announce:
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that renovations and repairs of pre-1978 housing must now be conducted using safe practices to protect children and pregnant women from exposure to lead-based paint. Almost a million children have elevated blood lead levels as a result of exposure to lead hazards, which can lead to lower intelligence, learning disabilities, and behavior issues. Adults exposed to lead hazards can suffer from high blood pressure and headaches. Children under six years old are most at risk.
“Our lead-safe program will protect children and families from lead-based paint hazards associated with renovation and repair activities in houses built before 1978,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “This rule requires contractors to follow some simple and effective lead-safe work practices to prevent children’s exposure to dangerous levels of lead. Lead poisoning is completely preventable.”
Submitted by Kevin Cronin on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 12:28.
A quick note about the census -- By now, we've all seen the cute advertising to encourage censis compliance...it's about accuracy, it's about getting our fair share of federal money, it's about maintaining appropriate representation in Congress. Here's an online tool to see how we're doing. With nation-wide and state-wide compliance in the 34-35% rate, Cleveland response rates average in the 10-20% category. Well, to be fair, Cleveland, like many other areas, has a lot of factors that suggest low compliance r
Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 02:19.
Would any Realneo members like to participate in a seed and plant swap? I would be happy to host. Please post your thoughts on possible dates and times. We could also include garden tools and other gardeing related items if people are interested.
