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

An upscale Tahoe Vista, California, restaurant, Wild Goose, recently became the first restaurant to receive certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® rating system for commercial interiors (LEED-CI). CCS Architecture, of San Francisco, remodeled the 10,000 ft2 (930 m2) restaurant for East West Partners. Among Wild Goose’s... 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

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

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

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

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

Outside the window a phoebe was bringing food to her nest under the eaves. I had positioned myself next to the window in the small lecture room as I always try to do at meetings—when I am fortunate enough to be in a meeting facility with windows. Being able to glance out the window from time to time helps me relax and, I think, even focus on... Read more

Ten states, two cities, and three environmental organizations have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not regulating carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. While the Clean Air Act requires EPA to regulate air pollutants, the Bush administration claims carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses do not qualify as... Read more

Jane Jacobs, an advocate for dense and lively cities best known for her 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, died April 25, 2006, at age 89. While Jacobs did not have formal architectural training, she had an inside view of urban renewal projects from an editorial post at Architectural Forum magazine and a keen appreciation of... Read more

A $1 billion rush order for the Indonesian tropical hardwood merbau is designated for construction of the 2008 Beijing Olympic sports venues, according to an April 2006

New York Times report. The deal is part of $7 billion China invested in Indonesia last year—much of the investment is going toward replacing valuable ecosystems with... Read more

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) dominate the plenum-rated electrical and data cable market (see

EBN

Vol. 13, No. 3), but a newcomer from GE Plastics could offer an intriguing alternative. In December 2005, Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) listed GE’s Flexible Noryl® resin for wire coating... Read more

In April 2006, Maine became the first state to offer a financial incentive for recycling building thermostats that contain mercury and the first state to mandate thermostat recycling for homeowners. Previous laws banned the sale of new mercury thermostats and required recycling by wholesalers. A minimum $5 incentive will be offered for each... Read more