Environmental Health
High Lead Found in City-Sourced Eggs
A study suggests eggs from neighborhood gardens show elevated levels of lead, but whether the amounts are alarming is not clear.
Can a Product be Carcinogen-Free?
Want to avoid applying known carcinogens to your skin and hair?
Raising Concerns About Chemicals in Recycled Carpet Padding
Every week, it seems, a new study identifies potentially harmful chemicals in common items. Next up: the recycled foam padding installed under wall-to-wall carpeting.
Flame Retardants Found in Butter
For about a decade, scientists have known that most Americans have minute quantities of flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PBDEs, in their bodies, but they were not sure how they got there.
Appliance Anxiety: Replace It or Fix It?
Thanks to the recession, many consumers are choosing not to buy new appliances to replace broken ones, calling the repairman instead.
Looking Beyond the E.P.A.’s Seal of Approval
The president of Seventh Generation, which has been making nontoxic cleaners for decades, discusses what makes the company tick.
New I.R.S. Incentives, From Cold to Hot
Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, offers tips on ways to lower your taxes by greening your home.
In honor of spring and the continuing quest for the perfect lawn, here are some tips on achieving an attractive yard without wreaking environmental havoc.
Coming Clean on Household Cleaners
Though it wasn’t named in a recent lawsuit seeking to force makers of household cleaning products to disclose their ingredients, S.C. Johnson & Son, the maker of Windex, Glade and other products, announced that it would do just that.
Jeffrey L. Carrier, who heads the sustainability effort for the Carpet and Rug Institute, discusses the environmental impact of carpeting.
Five Beginners’ Steps to a Greener Home
The author of “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies” distilled a vast amount of green advice into five must-do steps.
Recycling Gadgets When They Go Pffft…
Jason Linnell, the executive director of the National Center for Electronics Recycling, discusses how to dispose of old electronics.
Lawsuit Seeks to Force Disclosure of Cleaning Product Ingredients
Several companies, the complaint argues, Earthjustice have ignored a New York State law passed in the early 1970s that governs the disclosure of household cleaning product ingredients.
When It Comes to Detergents, What’s the Least Irresponsible Choice?
Investigating whethe
The Stuffing Dreams Are Made Of?
As mattresses labeled “organic” and “natural” have become increasingly common, it has become harder for consumers to sort through manufacturers’ claims.
Currently, there are no industry standards for what terms like ”organic,” ”natural” or ”eco-friendly” mean when used to describe a mattress, and while some companies disclose all the contents of their products, others identify only some. The…
F.D.A. to Reconsider Plastic Bottle Risk
The agency was accused of failing to adequately consider research about the dangers of a substance known as bisphenol-A.
Compact fluorescents are efficient, but many people have not embraced their glow.
Making Small Sacrifices for What They Believe Is Right
AFTER seeing ”An Inconvenient Truth” two years ago, Daniel Heuser, a second-grade teacher who is now 43, put compact fluorescent bulbs in nearly every light fixture in his two-story house in Chapel Hill, N.C., to the dismay of his wife, Jane. When…
READERS of DotEarth (dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com), a blog written by Andrew C. Revkin, an environmental reporter for The Times, were asked to share their experiences with compact fluorescent bulbs. More than 100 people responded by e-mail or in…
The Incandescent Holdouts, Plagued by Guilt
AN ornithologist who carries her own canvas bags to the grocery store, telecommutes to save fuel, keeps her home thermostat set at 60 degrees and calculates her carbon emissions when she travels overseas to go birding, Ellen Paul of Chevy Chase, Md.,…
Worrying About the Impact Of Mercury in Fluorescents
IN the late 1980s, when Cynthia DuBose considered herself a fanatical environmentalist, she switched to compact fluorescent bulbs, buying them through the Real Goods catalog, the only place she could find them. ”I was really amazed to find out how…
The Best Bulb for Each Spot, Found by Experimenting
HAVING only recently retired from more than two decades working for the United Nations’ division for sustainable development, where he focused in part on issues of personal energy consumption, Ralph Chipman, 62, knows the stakes involved in cutting…
Must Flatter, Work Nights and Last Forever
Incandescent bulbs function by running electricity through a tungsten filament, which glows when it gets hot, producing what many people consider a pleasingly warm light. They are inefficient; around 90 percent of that energy is emitted in the form of heat rather than light.
What To Do With An Auto Graveyard
Six months after they were crushed, burned or covered with debris, New York City is ready to dispose of more than 1,000 vehicles recovered from the World Trade Center attacks. The city had planned to hand the cars and trucks over to insurance companies or owners as early as Monday.