by Renee Kjartan and Environment News Service

OVER 100 MILLION PARTICIPATE IN EUROPE CAR-FREE DAY

(ENS)-On Saturday, September 22, a thousand cities across Europe participated in the Car-Free Day initiative by closing part of their territory to car traffic. Pedestrians, roller-skaters, cyclists and public transit took over. In order to participate, cities had to commit to permanent measures to reduce congestion and car pollution. Eighty percent of Europeans live in urban areas, and they are increasingly discussing the negative impact that the dominant position of cars has on the quality of urban life. More information is available at www.22september.org

The Organic Consumers Association is aiming to build a national consumers network powerful enough to reverse US government food and agriculture priorities. The national network wants to “stop serving junk food to students and make a transition to organic school lunches.” It wants to “start teaching young people about sustainable agriculture, humane treatment of animals, and healthy living.” The OCA also wants to “stop feeding cheap and unhealthy food to patients in hospitals, to our elders in nursing homes and to the economically disadvantaged.” The OCA, comprised of many national and local groups, is calling for more people to join its Food Agenda 2000-2010. They want two million members by the end of 2003. “We must build grassroots networks all over the US, so our tax money will start going toward sustainable and healthy food and ag practices. We must transform the consciousness of the public, change the dynamics of the marketplace and reform government policies and laws.” For more information: www.organicconsumers.org.

DEFYING NATURE’S END COULD COST $30 BILLION

(ENS)-An international team of leading conservationists calculates that protecting enough biological diversity to sustain a healthy planet will cost some $30 billion. A recent issue of the journal Science, titled “Can We Defy Nature’s End?” states: “When biodiversity goes, it’s gone forever, and the unraveling of nature means an impoverished future for us all.” To save nature, one suggestion calls for ending economic subsidies that degrade the environment. Another is to compete with loggers using free market mechanisms to protect forests. For more information visit ens-news.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-31-06.html.

The Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC, buffalo@wildrockies.org) reports that the state of Montana and other agencies are targeting bull bison for “lethal management,” and recently captured four bulls. Agents using ATVs, snowmobiles and horses haze animals and force them into traps where they are tested for brucellosis, the excuse that agents use to harass and kill these animals. “The operations not only reflect flagrant intolerance for the bison and disrespect for the entire ecosystem, but a tremendous waste of resources,” said a BFC volunteer. The BFC works to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone’s wild buffalo, and has video footage and interviews available. Send an email showing your concern for the buffalo to public officials at www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo/politico00/sendmail.html.

Meanwhile, Environment News Service (ENS) reports that an alliance of Yellowstone bison advocates is criticizing the US Forest Service for keeping the public in the dark on their plans to renew grazing on National Forest land that traditionally has been habitat for the park’s wild bison herd. “For more than a decade the Forest Service has been complicit in the destruction of Yellowstone bison for the sole benefit of ranchers and a handful of cattle,” said a spokesman.

BLOOD BAG INGREDIENT'S HARMFUL

A chemical found in blood bags, medical tubing, and other plastic medical products could harm young children, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The chemical, called di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, is used to soften certain plastic items, and is known to leach from the plastic into fluids. The toxic and carcinogenic effects of DEHP have been well established in laboratory studies. The National Toxicology Program found that DEHP harms experimental animals, including affecting development of the testicles and the production of normal sperm in young animals. DEHP is also found in nutrition feeding bags, nasogastric tubes, peritoneal dialysis bags and tubing, and tubing used in devices for cardiopulmonary bypass, hemodialysis and other procedures. The FDA investigated the effects of phthlates due to a petition filed by the Health Care Without Harm campaign which requested that the FDA expedite the development and use of substitutes. For more information visit the Health Care Without Harm website at www.noharm.org. The FDA safety assessment is available online at www.fda.gov/cdrh/ocd/dehp.html.

COMPANIES SHOULD COPY XEROX

(ENS)-Xerox Corporation is saving millions of dollars each year by going green. The company says it has substantially reduced emissions from its products and factories, cut back on waste sent to landfills and has made gains in remanufacturing, recycling and energy conservation. Last year the company kept almost 160 million pounds of materials out of landfills through remanufacturing, recycling and reuse, and helped customers save more than 800 million kilowatt hours of electricity by using Xerox’s “Energy Star” qualified products. The company now cleans machines returned for remanufacturing with a blast of tiny dry ice pellets instead of volatile organic solvents or washing compounds, thus reducing cleaning time by 40 percent and lowering cleaning costs by 35 percent. Dust emissions are down 55 percent and ozone by 70 percent from office and production products from 1990. Last year, customers returned more than seven million cartridges and toner containers to be remanufactured or recycled. The company report is at www.xerox.com/environment.html.

THANKS, TGI FRIDAYS

The restaurant chain TGI Fridays recently announced it will no longer buy or serve beef containing the antibiotics that are routinely fed to cattle. This is important, says the Union of Concerned Scientists, “to curb the spread of antibiotic resistance and protect public health.” For more on the campaign to get US agriculture to stop the routine use of antibiotics, go to the UCS website at www.ucsusa.org.