FEMA
lborkowski | October 31, 2012Things are mostly back to normal in DC today: Schools and government offices are open, trains and buses are running on their usual schedules, and there are few outward signs that Hurricane (or Superstorm) Sandy passed through here less than 48 hours ago. The situation is apparently far worse in New York and New Jersey, where flooding damaged millions of homes and hundreds of miles of subway tunnels. Millions of people from the Carolinas to Maine lost power, and many are still without it. The US death toll has reached 40.
With Election Day less than a week away, Hurricane Sandy reminds us how…
eklemetti | March 27, 2009
Back in a former life, I was really into radio and music. Such an existence calls for many lists of rankings: "Best albums of 2004", "All time greatest soul singers", "Worst album covers of the 1980s". And, although I love a list as much as the next person, I tend to find lists appalling. Why? Well, mostly because no "Top list" of anything is accurate, and even worse, most of the time they're put together to generate controversy. "Wait until they see I listed Wade Boggs as the best third basemen in history!" You know, that sort of thing.
Anyway, much to my surprise (chagrin?), I recently an…
eklemetti | March 20, 2009
So, as I am apt to do from time to time, I was wandering the interweb and stumbled across the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for Kids website. Naturally, I thought, what do they have to say about, oh, I don't know, volcanoes. Well, was I in for a doozy!
FEMA, in its infinite wisdom, has this to say about volcanoes (for kids, mind you):
[A] volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth.
Oh. My. Word ... but wait, there's more!
The ash can cause damage to the lungs of older people, babies and people with respiratory problems.
Yes…
angrytoxicologist | July 3, 2008The Good
Analysts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that the FEMA trailers had too much formaldehyde (well, yeah) but also that it was due to cheap materials, sloppy design, and drumroll please, lax or non-existing government standards. It's rare for a gov't report to directly say the standards need to be tighter.
The Bad
This is a terrible news story. Why? Just last week, the EPA said they wouldn't lower the formaldehyde standard to the CA level, but they did say that they would do some new exposure and risk assessments; a good sign of progress. This fact isn't mentioned…