A panel of the National Academies of Science (NAS) has concluded that low doses of dioxin might not be as carcinogenic as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed in a 2003 draft risk assessment. When EPA first published an assessment of dioxin, in 1985, it labeled the chemical a “probable human carcinogen.” EPA upgraded the... Read more

Exposure to air pollution before birth can cause developmental delay in children, according to a study performed by Columbia University’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health and published by

Environmental Health Perspectives in April 2006. The study measured the exposure of pregnant women living in the Washington Heights, Central... Read more

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 7), in July 2006 SierraPine, Ltd., added a new medium-density fiberboard (MDF) to its no-added-formaldehyde MDF product family. Arreis™ (“Sierra” backwards), like Medex® and Medite® II,... Read more

Building materials giant USG Corporation has joined the Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments, a group launched in 2003 to educate the marketplace and top management on the benefits of reducing the impact of facilities on the environment and building occupants. “By joining the Alliance, USG can work with like-minded companies to help... Read more

A study published in the journal

Cancer Research in June 2006 links bisphenol-A (BPA)—used to make the hard, clear plastic polycarbonate as well as most epoxies—to cancer. BPA, which mimics the human hormone estrogen, altered the structure of genes in rats’ prostate cells when they were exposed to low doses of the chemical, the study... Read more

Lead was discovered in Washington, D.C., drinking water in 2004 in alarming concentrations following the district’s switch from chlorine to chloramine for drinking water disinfection. Municipalities around the country took note when U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chemist Mike Schock hypothesized that the switch, made in response to new... Read more

Charles Kibert, Ph.D., of the University of Florida’s Rinker School of Construction, has assembled an impressive collection of speakers from around the world for a sequel to the seminal Sustainable Construction conference he hosted in November 1994. Based on its draft agenda, the four-day affair looks to be a hybrid of Greenbuild’s practice-... Read more

The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) was created in 2002 to help the industry meet the carpet recycling and reuse goals set forth by the Memorandum of Understanding for Carpet Stewardship (MOU), a voluntary agreement signed by members of the carpet industry, government entities, and nongovernmental organizations. How successful is CARE?... Read more

The U.S. Army has announced that, beginning in 2008, all of its new buildings will achieve Silver or higher ratings in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Rating System. LEED will supplant the Army’s own Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT), which was modeled after LEED. The Army has also committed to certifying all of its housing once... Read more

ED+C) magazine has announced the winners of its annual Excellence in Design Awards. This year’s jury included

ED+C staff members as well as Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC); Jim Nicolow, AIA, head of the sustainability initiative at Lord, Aeck &... Read more

In a May 2006 announcement before the New York League of Conservation Voters, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new Division of Sustainability that will operate within the Mayor’s Office of Operations. Bloomberg’s announcement, in which he called sustainability “a philosophy of realistic optimism,” follows his 2004 creation of a... Read more

My Office is Killing Me!: The Sick Building Survival Guideby Jeffrey C. May. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2006. Paperback, 317 pages, $18.95.