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03 Apr 03 - school supplies; mercury dog; EPA; phone books; Oregon ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------- Forum archive: http://www.reuses.com/nwpcarchive -------------------- From Jeff Tumarkin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Information Access Division, Washington, DC, responding to the 3/27/03 posting seeking ideas for good waste reduction service-learning projects for 6th-12th graders: I am involved in a really neat effort in Montgomery County, Maryland, called Drive for Supplies. For information, see the website at: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/sga/saodrive.html (In this program, Montgomery County Public Schools students donate used, but usable, school supplies at the end of the school year. Last year 5,321 pounds of materials were collected.) E-mail: Tumarkin (DOT) Jeff (AT) epamail (DOT) epa (DOT) gov -------------------- Excerpted from an article by Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy in the 3/26/03 Spring Valley Tribune, Spring Valley, Minnesota, and from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) website: SNIFFING OUT THAT DOGGONE MERCURY Many states have mercury reduction programs, but Minnesota is the only state that has Clancy, the Mercury-Sniffing Dog. Clancy detects mercury as a part of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) "Mercury-Free Zone" program. Clancy, a "black/chocolate Labrador retriever with a touch of hound" who is about four years old, is trained to find hidden sources of mercury in schools and industrial facilities. The goals of the Mercury-Free Zone program, which began in 2001, are: Reduce the risk of potential mercury exposure to students and staff in schools; prevent releases of mercury to the environment by eliminating mercury from schools; and educate students and staff about the dangers of mercury. Mercury pollution in schools comes mostly from broken lab and fever thermometers. Broken fluorescent tubes are another source. And "forgotten" mercury in drawers and cabinets can give off vapor into the air or get into the waste stream. According to the MPCA, there is no longer any reason to have mercury (other than energy-saving fluorescent lights) in schools. Effective alternatives exist for all mercury-bearing laboratory and health-care equipment. Clancy is believed to be the only mercury-detecting dog in the United States. He was chosen from the Ramsey County (MN) Humane Society by members of the St. Paul Police Department Canine Unit in December, 2000. The department "interviewed" more than 200 dogs before choosing Clancy. The MPCA website notes, "The Mercury-Free Zone program is modeled after a successful Swedish program. In 1999, two specially-trained dogs checked 1,100 schools in Sweden. As a result, about 1.4 tons of mercury were removed from these schools." Carol Hubbard, Clancy's trainer and handler, trained Clancy to detect mercury by playing hide-and-seek for hours each week - she hid mercury, he found it, and when he succeeded and sat down to indicate his discovery, she rewarded him with a tennis ball. He can smell the vapor from as little as half a gram of mercury, the amount a fever thermometer spills when broken. Clancy is also popular with students at the schools he visits, and he helps bring attention to the hazards of mercury. There have been questions about whether Clancy's health is at risk from being exposed to mercury. So far, Clancy has found relatively little mercury in the schools and industrial facilities he's checked. However, a veterinarian does analyze a sample of Clancy's blood for mercury every three months. Each time his blood has been tested, the results have been below the detection limit. This is similar to the experience in Sweden, where no health problems or increased mercury contamination have been found in mercury-detecting dogs. MPCA scientists think the concentrations of mercury that Clancy will be exposed to are far too low to affect him during his lifetime. For more information on the Mercury-Free Zone program, and photos of Clancy in action, see: http://www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/mercury-free -------------------- Link to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft Strategic Plan for 2003-2008 (forwarded by Marcia Rutan): http://www.epa.gov/ocfo/plan/plan.htm EPA is seeking comments on this draft plan. Comments are due by April 25, 2003, and can by submitted from this same website. Waste reduction and product stewardship strategies are described in the plan on pages 61-63. Pollution prevention strategies are discussed on pages 124-127. -------------------- Excerpted from a message from Kinley Deller, King County Solid Waste Division, Seattle, WA, responding to the 3/27/03 posting from Michelle Portman about unwanted phone books being left in the yard: When this is a problem, I would suggest looking into the state littering laws. I have heard that in some states the "drop and run" method used by most phone book distributors can legally be defined as littering. When this is the case (and maybe even when it isn't), it would be good to file a complaint with the state environmental agency, and cc the phone book company. E-mail: kinley (DOT) deller (AT) metrokc (DOT) gov -------------------- Links to information on upcoming conferences in Oregon (forwarded by Charlotte Becker and Marcia Rutan): - The Association of Oregon Recyclers (AOR) will hold its annual conference June 20-21 in Eugene. AOR will also hold an education conference June 19 in Eugene. Both of these events will have a strong emphasis on waste prevention. For more information, contact AOR at mail [A T] aorr [D O T] org or see the AOR website at: http://www.aorr.org - The Sustainability Forum, a project of Sustainable Northwest, will be held May 29-31 in Portland. For more information, see: http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/soc/sfindex.htm - end -