TYLER IRVING: Last Friday, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced that Canada will put into place new regulations banning six types of phthalates in products for children. Phthalates are chemicals commonly used as softening agents in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics. The products that fall under the ban will include inflatable toys, dolls, animal figures, school supplies and vinyl bibs. The concern is that small children can become exposed to the chemicals by sucking or chewing on the products. Recent studies have suggested that early exposure to certain phthalates may be linked to liver or kidney damage. In response, the American Chemistry Council issued a statement saying that the move has no scientific basis. Unlike bisphenol-A, which is commonly used in hard plastics, phthalates do not accumulate in the body and quickly break down once they are ingested. Nevertheless, the chemicals in question have already been banned in products for children in the US and the European Union. There will be a period of public consultation before the new Canadian regulations will come into effect. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: The Premier of Saskatchewan announced the provinces intentions to pursue producing medical isotopes. While a plan has not yet been worked out, Premier Brad Wall is eager to let Saskatchewan fill the void that is left by the shutdown of the Chalk River reactor. The old Chalk River facility was shut down due to failing safety systems and was previously responsible for the production of the majority of the world’s medical isotopes. With this facility shut down, Mr. Wall is hoping that Saskatchewan will be able to step in and fill the gap within three years if it can get money from the federal government and the private sector to help finance the project. The three year timeline would also rely on expedited federal regulatory approval that would reduce the lengthy consultation and review process that is normally in place nuclear projects. Another key part of Mr. Wall’s plan would be for his reactor, and potentially several more would be for the facility to be much smaller than the previous Chalk River facility, so as to be able to diversify the production of such isotopes to avoid future stoppages such as this one. One such proposed other plan has been to provide another such facility near the tar sands in Alberta to help generate the massive amounts of power and steam that the bitumen extraction process requires. Saskatchewan provides more than a quarter of the world’s uranium supplies, but has so far not done anything but mine the ore. Mr. Wall says this fact helps to encourage voters to be more accepting of nuclear technology. The premier has apparently already had several meetings with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has yet to comment on the government’s position on funding part of the project. A decision from Mr. Wall to formally pursue the facility is due in August after a public comment period, adding that public reaction to the proposal would be taken into strong consideration when making his decision. The ultimate goal says Mr. Wall is to shift Saskatchewan from a mining, to a knowledge industry based province with respect to nuclear technology. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, the Nature Conservancy of Canada announced that it had obtained 60 hectares of shoreline at Johnson’s Mills, near Dorchester, New Brunswick. The new land joins 128 hectares already protected by the non-profit organization. 66 percent of the shoreline near Johnson’s Mills is now protected. The purchase is part of the NCC’s eighth annual “Gifts to Canada” campaign, which this year resulted in 10 new purchases across the country, with a total land area slightly bigger than the island of Montreal. Johnson’s Mills is located along the Bay of Fundy, and is a crucial resting place for thousands of migratory shorebirds on their way from their summer breeding grounds in the Arctic to their wintering grounds in South America. During their two-week stay, the mostly sparrow-sized birds must double their weight in order to survive a trip over the open ocean, which will amount to two or three days of non-stop flying. The Conservancy began buying land in the area in 1994 and now runs the Johnson’s Mills Shorebird Interpretation Centre during the peak migration season. The new land was purchased with funds from the federal and provincial governments, as well as local corporations and many individual donors. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Federal funding for Toronto’s $1.2 billion dollar transit plan has likely fallen through. The federal government says that the request for funding was inappropriate in this case after last week’s infamous expletive from Transportation Minister John Baird, partially because the project would not be completed within the desired 2 years to apply for federal stimulus money. However, Toronto Mayor David Miller called an emergency meeting to give the Toronto Transit Commission permission to sign the contract anyways. The failure of the federal stimulus funding proposal for the project means that the city of Toronto will have to pay for two thirds or about $834 million dollars to go ahead with the project. Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the province would be putting up the rest of the costs earlier this week. The special meeting that was called by Mr. Miller was necessary because Toronto city councillors have suspended council meetings while Toronto municipal workers are on strike, and will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre instead. While the new location is far from secret, the Mayor did not want to ask councillors to cross the picket line, and it seems unlikely that the unions will protest this meeting as the successful completion of the deal would bring an additional $1.2 billion worth of contracts to the unionized workers at the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Bombardier gave city hall and the TTC until June 27th to sign the deal that is currently on the table or, they say that the price tag will increase for the project and that they may experience deployment delays from the current project proposals. While there is still a vague possibility that the federal government will reverse their position before the deadline, it seems unlikely at this point despite the amount of publicity that the story received, and a project the mayor referred to as to important to fail. The $1.2 billion would be part of a larger long-term plan for Toronto called Transit City that is considered to be the largest public transit infrastructure project in North America. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Much has been made this week of an invasive species of fire ant that is starting to become a real problem for homeowners in Nova Scotia. The species (Myrmica rubra) is native to central Europe, but has been found in North America since 1908. Although it has been relatively slow to spread, it vigorously defends the areas it has colonized. The fire ant delivers a bite that is compared to a hornet sting and afterward causes an itching similar to poison ivy. Localized infestations can render back yards almost unusable and lower property values. Such infestations have recently undergone a dramatic increase in places like Halifax. Last Monday night, over 100 people turned up to a local meeting to discuss the problem. Getting rid of the ants is more difficult than one might expect. Non-cosmetic pesticides are still allowed under the city’s bylaws, but the ants seem to be savvy enough to avoid them. Residents have fallen back to more traditional cures such as boric acid and diatomaceous earth, although it remains to be seen if these are effective. At the meeting, residents were asked to bring in captured ants in labelled vials so that biologists can track the spread of the species. Myrmica rubra has been identified in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. It is a different species than the Red Imported Fire Ant, which is native to South America and is currently causing problems in the southern American States. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Vancouver city is almost ready for a new series of bicycle lane tests. Starting on July 13th, one of the lanes of the six lane Burrard Bridge will be temporarily converted into bike lanes for three months to test the viability of leaving the separation permanently. The lanes will be separated from car traffic by a protective barrier and pedestrian traffic is to use the other side of the bridge. Unsurprisingly there has been quite a controversy in Vancouver over the loss of busy driving space for cars on clogged downtown streets and downtown access. Toronto has been experiencing a much similar response to its proposed cross city bike lanes. One of the reasons for the project was a report issued by the University of British Colombia showing that the number of cycling/traffic accidents was at an unacceptable level. Between Toronto, and Vancouver there were more than 1,100 adult’s hospitalizations due to cyclist and car collisions. Since 1996, bike daily ridership in Vancouver has tripled to 60,000. A similar proposal was tabled in 1996 in Vancouver, but at the time it was met with huge public resistance and resulted in the project being cancelled after one week. Councilor Heather Deal said the 96’ plan had many flaws inherent in its execution, and that this time they were prepared for the project, and some amount of public resistance to the idea. The city will closely monitor the number of cars, bikes and pedestrians using the bridge and measure trip distances to get some idea of average ridership. The city has also said that it will have an online forum dedicated to public comments about the bike lane which it will compile with the collected data to decide the fate of the dedicated lanes. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: As the city of Halifax gears up for its Tall Ships festival in July, citizens are raising concerns about the smelly state of the harbour. Due to a treatment plant malfunction last January, about 80 million litres of raw sewage have been pouring into the harbour daily. This week, the municipal water commission installed carbon filters and deodorant blocks in an effort to mitigate the smell. The stench of sewage in the harbour is not unfamiliar to Haligonians. In fact, for most of its history the city has dumped its waste directly into the ocean, relying on strong currents and deep water to take it away. It wasn’t until February 2008 that wastewater treatment plants funded by the $333 million dollar Halifax Harbour Solutions Project came online and citizens finally began to breathe easy. However, last winter, after slightly less than a year of operation, a series of power failures triggered a malfunction that caused severe flooding and damage to Halifax’s main wastewater treatment plant. A $400,000 forensic investigation was completed, but the results have not been made public, much to the chagrin of taxpayers. Officials estimate that it will take until the spring of 2010 to get the plant back online. In the meantime, the harbour is still served by a treatment plant in Dartmouth, and another is meant to come online in Herring Cove later this year. Organizers of the Tall Ships festival point out that the situation in the harbour is no worse than it was during previous festivals, which have taken place at regular intervals since 1984. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A new study predicts that proposed waste to energy projects in Vancouver will waste taxpayer money. The study was performed by an American firm Sound Resource Management Group on the impacts of waste to energy options in Cache Creek, Vancouver. The study found that overall, the waste to energy options would largely cost far more than spending funds on reduction and recycling programs. The report was an independent follow up to a review hired by Cache Creek from AECOM Canada outlining the pro’s and con’s of various waste to energy technologies including biological treatment systems, incendiary heat recovery and gas recovery landfills. AECOM told Vancouver that their best options would cost in and around $470 million dollars based on a 500,000 tonne per year facility. However part of the report from Sound Resource Management Group predicts that not only will composting, recycling and waste reduction plans produce greater benefit at a lower cost, but that the waste to energy facilities operators would have to receive volume guarantees as part of a standard contract. This means that if the amount of waste were to steadily reduce, the operators would be able to collect increasing fees from the city for the lost productivity increasing long-term cost. It would also incentivize the continued level of waste being sent to the facility thereby conflicting with other initiatives for waste reduction. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Leaked chemicals from an unconfirmed facility kill 1000 salmon n Hyde Creek, BC. Hyde Creek which is in Port Coquitlam east of Vancouver is currently investigating the cause but has yet to confirm a sure source of the toxic waste. A city spokesman said that the spill may have originated from a development side near Burke Mountain, and that the toxins may have come from a concrete-aggregate washing facility and may have been washed there by storm sewer systems. The provincial Environment Ministry and the federal Fisheries Department are involved in the investigation, and the city has said it may press charges is the source of the spill can be confirmed. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN:  A new study has unearthed two very interesting findings. The report was released by Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA)—it found that the growth of CO2 emissions was reduced by half in 2008. The slowdown in emissions growth was caused mainly by the first decline in global demand for oil since 1992– a 0.6% reduction in consumption of oil. This has been directly linked with the economic slowdown because it has meant less demand for new products—and less demand for oil to make them. So this first finding confirms that the economic recession has indeed been something of a blessing for the environment. But the second finding of the report will likely have serious implications for policymakers. In 2008, for the first time ever, developing nations accounted for 50.3% of carbon dioxide emissions. This means that their emissions exceeded those of developed nations and international travel combined. This particular finding becomes especially significant considering the nearing talks on climate change to take place in Copenhagen this December—the newest data will hopefully provide some useful leverage for those arguing for binding emission targets for all nations. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: So we all know that trees are fantastic at absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But apparently we can make a tree that’s even better at doing the job? A prototype for a synthetic tree has been developed, and is now being tested—and the perk of this newly engineered tree is that it absorbs carbon dioxide 1,000 times faster than a real tree. The tree uses plastic leaves that capture carbon dioxide in a chamber where it’s then compressed into liquid form. The trapped carbon apparently has potential to be quite useful as well— it can be used in agriculture or even as fuel for jet planes and cars. Each synthetic tree has the capacity to collect around 90,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. There is however a trade off—in that collecting carbon dioxide does require energy, which in turn emits some carbon. But this is a relatively small amount— around 200 kilograms of carbon is released back into the atmosphere for every 1000 kilograms collected. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: A recent study has found that 98% of supposedly ‘environmentally friendly’ products found in American supermarkets make misleading or false claims. In a study of around 4,000 consumer products, “green washing” was found in just about every product category. One problem pinpointed by the study was the sheer quantity of new products claiming to be green, along with the growing number of new and competing certification programs. But the real problem arises because both the product and the certification programs are not regulated by any government agency. This has led to serious ambiguity in the labeling of products—making deciphering how ‘eco-friendly’ a product actually is extremely difficult. Especially when words like “natural”, “non-toxic”, and even “fragrance free” do not correspond with any set standard. So on the one hand- it’s promising to see that there is growing support for environmentally-friendly products. But without regulation, consumer support. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: Microsoft has released a new tool for managing energy use—a program called ‘Hohm’. It will allow customers to monitor and manage their own energy consumption online. The program is relatively simple—customers can log into the Hohm website, and enter their zip code. By providing their location, the program begins to estimate home energy consumption. It then asks more detailed questions about house size, specific appliances in the house, and so on, to produce are a more accurate summary of home energy use. Microsoft has also partnered with utilities around America— it connects the systems to look back on historical energy use data for the specific home. For now, the service is only available to Americans—but Microsoft plans to extend the program to residents in Germany, France, the U.K. and Canada in the near future. [ index ]