The Eco-Builder

Bill Callahan is so cool. He provides some easy, common sense ideas on repairing and reusing used lumber. Here's a video with some of his suggestions on ways to enhance sustainability.

Nurses' Children, Cancer, & Birth Defects

The EWG (Environmental Working Group), has published a survey regarding substances that nurses' are exposed to, and how they may be asociated to health problems in their children. Here's a small portion of the article, but you can read the whole thing by clicking here.

Part of article:
Analysis of survey data shows that nurses' reported exposures during pregnancy to hazardous drugs, housekeeping chemicals, anesthetic gases, and disinfecting and sterilizing agents are associated with increased incidence of birth defects among their children.

Children born to nurses reporting high exposures to these chemicals (at least once a week for nine months) were up to two times more likely to be born with a congenital defect than children born to nurses with low or no exposures to these agents, and up to nine times more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal defects at birth. Of the hundreds of compounds in these exposure categories, for only one has the government set standards specifically to restrict nurses' exposures (the sterilizing agent ethylene oxide).