GoGreenNation News

‘It’s only been six weeks since they found lead in applesauce’

Lead still plagues American’s water and homes 40 years after the first federal bans

In the United States, despite a decades-long ban, millions of people still face the invisible threat of lead poisoning in their homes and water systems. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that impairs brain development in children and causes an array of health issues in adults, including high blood pressure and kidney damage, according to a U.S. National Institute of Health study and almost every other journal on the issue.The threat of lead is silent. Those affected often show no apparent symptoms, yet the damage can be lifelong and irreversible. Children exposed to lead can experience far-reaching societal consequences, according to various studies, including lower IQ and a host of behavioral problems. They earn less throughout their lives and work fewer years.More than 50% of all children in the United States under six years old have detectable lead in their blood, according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).Removal of the source is the only way to reduce harm. Nevertheless, startling federal data reveals that 22 million Americans still get their drinking water through lead pipes, and around 38 million homes still contain lead-based paint.The issue predominantly plagues urban centers like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Detroit, with some overlap for lead pipes and paint. Chicago tops the list on both fronts, with an alarming 400,000 lead pipelines—contaminating the water of 75% of city blocks. A recent study published in March 2024 in JAMA highlights a troubling statistic: nearly 70% of Chicago’s children under six live in these neighborhoods. Black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately affected, with less frequent testing yet higher exposure rates. While the paint is more challenging to track, it’s estimated that 99% of homes built in Chicago before 1978 have some level of paint toxicity. That constitutes a vast majority of the city’s housing stock.Despite the known risks, efforts to remove lead from our homes and water have been slow, hindered by decades of political inertia and lobbying in Congress. In late 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule that seeks to rid the country of lead pipes in 10 years.Reckon spoke to Dr. Mary Jean Brown, adjunct professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, about why lead persists and what you can do about it.Reckon:The country seems awash with various toxic harms that advocacy groups and state and federal governments are trying to address. Many of these threats are seemingly new. Yet the ban on lead pipes was introduced 40 years ago. Why do we still see them in so many municipalities?Dr. Mary Jean Brown:Lead is a very useful metal that we’ve had since Pompeii, the Roman Empire, and in most places where water was being transported from one place to another. It was well into the 1980s that the city of Chicago still required all water pipes to be lead. In Alabama, one of the problems is that the only way you can really know if it’s a lead pipe is if you dig it up, take a key, and scratch it. It scratches easily because it’s soft. Most places don’t have a really good inventory of where their lead pipes are.I have some idea of what kinds of housing are most likely to have lead pipes. And certainly, the Gulf Coast of Alabama will have some of this housing. It’s not going to be like the high rises in New York City. Because you can’t run 100 housing units on two-inch water pipe. In the south, it’s pretty common as it will be in housing that was built before 1986, for the most part, because that’s when the federal ban went into effect for the use of lead water pipes.We’re building all kinds of beautiful things in cities, like parks, civic centers and theaters. Why are we not replacing the pipes when we build or pull up roads? This seems like a public health crisis. One reason is that we have a tendency in this business to put one source of lead in competition with another. Our focus until maybe 10 to 15 years ago, was lead paint and lead paint contaminated house dust and soil. We were worried about children who had blood levels that were considered very high, about 15 to 25 micrograms per deciliter. Now we worry about blood levels of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. So, as we got better at lowering blood lead levels, we began to realize there are other sources that certainly are not as concentrated as what we were looking at in the 80s and the 90s, but they are still contributing to children’s blood lead levels.That’s combined with our inability to find a safe blood level for children. If a child has a blood level of five micrograms per deciliter, most places will go in and look at the house and try to figure out where the exposure is coming from to stop the exposure. That can keep the blood level from going up, but any damage that may have been done in the process of getting to five is probably irreversible. We need to prevent children from being exposed before they have a lead level that triggers an intervention. It’s a very tiny amount—3.5 micrograms per deciliter is 35 parts per billion. But you don’t have to have very much to get you up there, but that can do a very big amount of damage.We need to be proactive and remove lead from its sources, including pipes, paints, contaminated soil, and dust, especially around houses built before 1978. This includes industrial emissions, including putting lead in cinnamon for applesauce pouches.Applesauce! Is that thing?It’s only been six weeks since they found lead in applesauce. They found lead in cinnamon in the dollar stores as well. There’s always these new products that are coming to market. The customs people are pretty good about testing things, but things slip through. And there’s lead in spices and traditional teas and other things that people bring with them when they move to the States.Is there a ban on lead paint across the board?There’s a ban on lead in residential house paints, but there’s no ban on lead in the paint that goes on the line on roads or the paint that goes on your boat. It’s unfortunate that these other sources of lead paints tend to bleed into the residential market. You mentioned the effects that lead can have on children in small doses. What does exposure actually do to a child’s health and their development?Small children under the age of six have brains that are developing very quickly, making them vulnerable. The target organ of lead for those children is the brain, but it also interferes with every enzyme system in the body. What happens with these children with regard to blood levels is that it’s a risk factor, not a diagnosis. It shows that these children are at risk and struggling in school. They’re at risk of having poor impulse control, which affects their judgment and their ability to control emotions. Those two factors can put them on a really bad life course. Children who have blood levels above five or six micrograms per deciliter are more likely not to make the transition in school when academic performance standards change.What signs should families look for?In the third grade, children move from learning to read to reading to learn. In the eighth grade, you move from memorizing arithmetic facts to using math concepts. Children with lead in their blood can have trouble making those transitions. They’re also four times more likely to be involved with the juvenile justice system because they can’t control their impulses and they have poor judgment. They are also more likely to repeat a grade in school and less likely to graduate from high school.But I want to be very clear that this is a risk factor. If you give me a kindergarten class where everybody had a lead level of five or higher when they were two years old and another class where nobody had lead levels, I can tell you that the second kindergarten kids are, on average, doing better than the first. But that doesn’t mean that Susan, who was in the first kindergarten, is not going to MIT. There are just too many other factors that influence IQ.The thing about lead is it’s one factor we can do something about.It seems, generally speaking, that underperforming schools exist in low-income areas where lead could be present. It seems like a double blow, alongside other societal issues. Is that something you’ve seen in your research?Yeah, sure. First off, low-income rental properties are not as well maintained. It’s not in the nature of paint to remain intact. There’s peeling and the person who’s living in that unit doesn’t control the condition of the paint the way the person who owns it does. That’s number one.Number two, there certainly has been redlining and housing discrimination over years and years, which also adds to this picture. These various impacts are cumulative. If you have a disorganized family, a family where education is not a priority or a lousy school, then you add lead-in. It’s bad.There is an endpoint to how resilient a person can be.How can people protect themselves? Is there anything they can look out for in their water or on their walls that might help them identify lead?That’s a very good point. You can get a lead paint inspection. You hire somebody, and they come in with a machine and it tells you how much lead is in the paint on the wall. You can also buy test kits, usually at Home Depot or Amazon. That changes color. You just rub it and you can see that if it turns dark pink or dark blue, it’s lead paint. This is really important for people to do if they’re going to do any kind of renovation in a house because that really liberates a lot of lead.They need to know the EPA has a wonderful book, Renovate Right. That will tell people exactly how to do it or have their contractor do it.

Business

Education

New major crosses disciplines to address climate change

Combining engineering, earth system science, and the social sciences, Course 1-12 prepares students to develop climate solutions.

Lauren Aguilar knew she wanted to study energy systems at MIT, but before Course 1-12 (Climate System Science and Engineering) became a new undergraduate major, she didn't see an obvious path to study the systems aspects of energy, policy, and climate associated with the energy transition. Aguilar was drawn to the new major that was jointly launched by the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) in 2023. She could take engineering systems classes and gain knowledge in climate. “Having climate knowledge enriches my understanding of how to build reliable and resilient energy systems for climate change mitigation. Understanding upon what scale we can forecast and predict climate change is crucial to build the appropriate level of energy infrastructure,” says Aguilar. The interdisciplinary structure of the 1-12 major has students engaging with and learning from professors in different disciplines across the Institute. The blended major was designed to provide a foundational understanding of the Earth system and engineering principles — as well as an understanding of human and institutional behavior as it relates to the climate challenge. Students learn the fundamental sciences through subjects like an atmospheric chemistry class focused on the global carbon cycle or a physics class on low-carbon energy systems. The major also covers topics in data science and machine learning as they relate to forecasting climate risks and building resilience, in addition to policy, economics, and environmental justice studies. Junior Ananda Figueiredo was one of the first students to declare the 1-12 major. Her decision to change majors stemmed from a motivation to improve people’s lives, especially when it comes to equality. “I like to look at things from a systems perspective, and climate change is such a complicated issue connected to many different pieces of our society,” says Figueiredo. A multifaceted field of study The 1-12 major prepares students with the necessary foundational expertise across disciplines to confront climate change. Andrew Babbin, an academic advisor in the new degree program and the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Associate Professor in EAPS, says the new major harnesses rigorous training encompassing science, engineering, and policy to design and execute a way forward for society. Within its first year, Course 1-12 has attracted students with a diverse set of interests, ranging from machine learning for sustainability to nature-based solutions for carbon management to developing the next renewable energy technology and integrating it into the power system. Academic advisor Michael Howland, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says the best part of this degree is the students, and the enthusiasm and optimism they bring to the climate challenge. “We have students seeking to impact policy and students double-majoring in computer science. For this generation, climate change is a challenge for today, not for the future. Their actions inside and outside the classroom speak to the urgency of the challenge and the promise that we can solve it,” Howland says. The degree program also leaves plenty of space for students to develop and follow their interests. Sophomore Katherine Kempff began this spring semester as a 1-12 major interested in sustainability and renewable energy. Kempff was worried she wouldn’t be able to finish 1-12 once she made the switch to a different set of classes, but Howland assured her there would be no problems, based on the structure of 1-12. “I really like how flexible 1-12 is. There's a lot of classes that satisfy the requirements, and you are not pigeonholed. I feel like I'm going to be able to do what I'm interested in, rather than just following a set path of a major,” says Kempff. Kempff is leveraging her skills she developed this semester and exploring different career interests. She is interviewing for sustainability and energy-sector internships in Boston and MIT this summer, and is particularly interested in assisting MIT in meeting its new sustainability goals. Engineering a sustainable future The new major dovetail’s MIT’s commitment to address climate change with its steps in prioritizing and enhancing climate education. As the Institute continues making strides to accelerate solutions, students can play a leading role in changing the future. “Climate awareness is critical to all MIT students, most of whom will face the consequences of the projection models for the end of the century,” says Babbin. “One-12 will be a focal point of the climate education mission to train the brightest and most creative students to engineer a better world and understand the complex science necessary to design and verify any solutions they invent." Justin Cole, who transferred to MIT in January from the University of Colorado, served in the U.S. Air Force for nine years. Over the course of his service, he had a front row seat to the changing climate. From helping with the wildfire cleanup in Black Forest, Colorado — after the state's most destructive fire at the time — to witnessing two category 5 typhoons in Japan in 2018, Cole's experiences of these natural disasters impressed upon him that climate security was a prerequisite to international security. Cole was recently accepted into the MIT Energy and Climate Club Launchpad initiative where he will work to solve real-world climate and energy problems with professionals in industry. “All of the dots are connecting so far in my classes, and all the hopes that I have for studying the climate crisis and the solutions to it at MIT are coming true,” says Cole. With a career path that is increasingly growing, there is a rising demand for scientists and engineers who have both deep knowledge of environmental and climate systems and expertise in methods for climate change mitigation. “Climate science must be coupled with climate solutions. As we experience worsening climate change, the environmental system will increasingly behave in new ways that we haven’t seen in the past,” says Howland. “Solutions to climate change must go beyond good engineering of small-scale components. We need to ensure that our system-scale solutions are maximally effective in reducing climate change, but are also resilient to climate change. And there is no time to waste,” he says.

Science

Education

California sets nation-leading limit for carcinogenic chromium-6 in drinking water

California has set a limit for the toxic heavy metal hexavalent chromium in drinking water. Advocates have called for a stricter limit, warning of health risks.

After years of analysis and debate, California regulators have adopted a nation-leading drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen found in water supplies across the state.The dangers of the toxic heavy metal, also known as chromium-6, became widely known in the 1990s after a court case that then-legal clerk Erin Brockovich helped develop against Pacific Gas & Electric for contaminating water in the town of Hinkley in the Mojave Desert. The story of tainted water in that case, which led to a $330-million settlement, inspired the Oscar-winning movie “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science. The California Legislature in 2001 called for the state to develop a drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium. But the path to finalizing a standard involved years of debates over the health hazards and the costs of treating water to remove the carcinogen.The State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously Wednesday to set the maximum level for chromium-6 in drinking water at 10 parts per billion, a limit that state officials determined will significantly reduce health risks.“The standard adopted today improves health protections for communities with impacted drinking water supplies,” said E. Joaquin Esquivel, the board’s chair.Chromium-6 is found naturally in groundwater in parts of California, dissolving from certain types of rock into aquifers. The heavy metal is also an industrial pollutant and has been discharged from chemical plants, cooling towers and gas compressor stations. Long-term exposure to chromium-6, which is odorless and tasteless, in drinking water has been linked to gastrointestinal cancer, reproductive harm and damage to the liver and kidneys.Clean water advocates had urged the state water board to adopt a more stringent limit, but also said they supported setting the new standard because it was long overdue.“This is a historic step forward,” said Nataly Escobedo Garcia, water policy coordinator for the group Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. “However, the board has failed to detail why a lower number is not achievable, which would only further protect the health of Californians.”The state adopted a limit of 10 parts per billion once before, in 2014. But in 2017, a judge tossed out that standard, ruling the state hadn’t adequately studied whether the regulation was economically feasible for suppliers to implement.That left the state without a specific standard for hexavalent chromium.California has for years had a drinking water limit of 50 parts per billion in effect for all chromium compounds, including both chromium-6 as well as the significantly less toxic chromium-3.Following the 2017 court decision, the state water board started over and conducted an analysis of economic feasibility to help develop a new limit. State officials studied various treatment methods and prepared cost estimates.The board proposed the new standard in 2022. It said in a report that at the 10-parts-per-billion limit, a majority of Californians would see increases in their water bills of less than $20 a month, but that some small water systems would need to raise rates by closer to $40 a month.Members of the water board said they are concerned about water affordability, and they plan to work with small water suppliers to provide funds and assistance to help them meet the standard.“It is going to impact affordability for many small systems,” board member Sean Maguire said. “The economic analysis shows that. And that’s what makes this decision so difficult, in part.”The board decided on an implementation timeline that allows small water systems more time to comply with the regulation, which is expected to take effect by Oct. 1.Under the timeline, large water systems with more than 10,000 service connections will have two years to meet the standard, while smaller water systems will have three or four years to comply, depending on how many customers they have.Representatives of several water districts told the board that the new standard will require them to make large investments in costly treatment systems. Because the well at their home in Exeter, Calif., is contaminated with chromium and arsenic, Maria Olivera’s family drinks and cooks with bottled water provided by the state. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) Managers of the Coachella Valley Water District said they estimate that installing treatment systems for 34 wells that now have chromium-6 levels above the limit will cost about $510 million, which would drive up rates dramatically for 270,000 residents in the Coachella Valley.Joanne Le, the district’s director of environmental services, said that “significant state funding will be required” to implement the standard. She urged the state water board to make “a firm commitment to working with water systems to fund this effort.”Representatives of small water providers also called for extra time and funding help, saying many communities will need to spend millions of dollars to come into compliance.But several residents who live with contaminated tap water said during Wednesday’s meeting that the state should put greater weight on protecting public health.“I want to ask the board, what is the real cost when you have to say to someone, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, your child has cancer.’ Cancer caused by water that was polluted. What does that cost?” said Robert Chacanaca, who lives in Monterey County. “I would encourage you to do the right thing and give us clean, safe drinking water, regardless of what the economic cost is, because the human cost is far more greater.”Chacanaca and others from his Central Coast community said their wells are contaminated with harmful levels of chromium-6, arsenic and nitrate. Some said they have neighbors who have been diagnosed with cancer.“I’m here because the state water board has let us down,” Ana María Pérez said in Spanish. “Since 2017, we’ve been waiting for a chromium-6 level that will protect our health. And after all this time, they’ve left it the same. It’s not fair that many people have to get sick and even die.”According to the state water board, there is an estimated 1-in-2,000 risk of developing cancer for a person who drinks water containing 10 parts per billion of chromium-6. That estimate is for a person who drinks two liters of water daily for 70 years.Environmental justice advocates pointed out that the limit set by the state is still 500 times higher than the public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion, a target set in 2011 by the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.They argued the state should set a stricter limit. They noted that since 2012, California has formally recognized the human right to safe, clean and affordable drinking water.“Public health and human rights are not something to be balanced in a cost-benefit analysis,” said Kala Babu, a legal fellow with the nonprofit Community Water Center.“A cancer risk for 500 out of every 1 million people doesn’t sound very safe,” Babu said. “It’s low-income communities and communities of color that are carrying the weight of contaminated drinking water.”Researchers with the Environmental Working Group have called for a target of 0.02 parts per billion to guard against cancer risks and have estimated that more than 35 million people in the state have drinking water with levels of chromium-6 higher than that level.“The water board has failed the people of California,” said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist for the group. “Chromium-6 is a known carcinogen — even at exceptionally low levels. It has no place in drinking water.”Esquivel, the board’s chair, described the decision as striking a balance.“There is opportunity and consideration to continue to do better, to be more protective,” he said. “But I’m comfortable with where we are currently.”Board member Laurel Firestone said she would like to see the limit be lower, and thinks that should be done as part of a five-year review.“There’s a number of technologies that I think could help really lower the costs, and could help make sure that more people could be protected,” she said.

Health

Biden administration issues final rule to allow local agencies to lease some federal lands

The Biden administration has issued its final rule on maintenance of public lands, finalizing a 2023 proposal to allow leases of those lands for conservation purposes. The rule, issued Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), would finalize the bureau’s proposal for “conservation leases.” It outlines which people and entities would qualify, including tribal governments, state fish and wildlife agencies and conservation districts. It would not be an option for any usages that contradict existing ones. The rule also clarifies the process by which BLM designates Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs), or areas within federal lands that need special upkeep considerations. It clarifies and streamlines the previous process, which was “described partially in regulation and partially in agency policy,” according to the final rule. “As stewards of America’s public lands, the Interior Department takes seriously our role in helping bolster landscape resilience in the face of worsening climate impacts. Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement accompanying the final rule. “This rule honors our obligation to current and future generations to help ensure our public lands and waters remain healthy amid growing pressures and change,” BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said. The final rule comes the week after the Interior Department issued a separate rule raising fees for oil and gas drilling on public lands, much of it codifying provisions passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. That rule raises the royalty rate from 12.5 percent to 16.67 percent, as well as increasing annual rent rates from $1.50 for the first five years and $3 thereafter to $5 for the first five years and $15 after.

Health

Land Under BLM Management to Get New Protections

The measure elevates conservation in a number of ways, including by creating new leases for the restoration of degraded areas.

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a new federal rule for the nation’s sprawling public lands that puts conservation on par with activities like grazing, energy development and mining.The new rule relates to areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, some 245 million acres that make up a 10th of the country’s land, mainly in the West. It elevates conservation in a number of ways, including by creating two new kinds of leases for the restoration of degraded lands and for offsetting environmental damage.These lands have long been managed for “multiple uses,” including cattle ranching, drilling and recreation. But some of those activities, combined with new pressures from wildfires and drought, both fueled by climate change, have taken a toll.“As stewards of America’s public lands, the Interior Department takes seriously our role in helping bolster landscape resilience in the face of worsening climate impacts,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come.”Last year, congressional Republicans and other opponents reacted with outrage to an earlier version of the lease idea, accusing the Biden administration of a land-grab and of putting national security in jeopardy by allowing foreign entities to tie up land that could have critical economic and geopolitical uses like mineral extraction. The final rule clarifies that leases will be issued only to qualified groups, will not be issued to foreigners and will not be issued when incompatible with existing uses.The move is the latest in a flurry of environmental announcements and decisions from the Biden Administration, including denying permission for a road through Alaskan wilderness and restoring endangered species protections.Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

Science

For actor Matthew Modine, biking is a "tool for consciousness" and facing life's uphill battles

From “Oppenheimer” to “Stranger Things” and “Hard Miles,” Modine shares how his acting career reflects his values

As the son of a drive-in theater manager, actor Matthew Modine grew up watching movies. “I always enjoyed films that were about problem-solving,” he told me on "Salon Talks." “And I never wanted to play bad guys. I didn't want to be the person who was causing problems . . . I wanted to be a person who was providing a solution.” Ideologically, Modine believes that actors have a personal responsibility for impacting people’s lives. And he lives it. Citing Native American sensibility, he notes, “What we have to do all the time in our lives is think and to try to look at [the] totality of our decisions, the things that we do.” That sensibility is at play in every role he takes. Nearly 40 years ago, he passed on the lead role of Maverick in "Top Gun," which eventually went to Tom Cruise and was the highest-grossing domestic film of that year. He found the story’s focus on “war pornography” disturbing, he said. “I didn't want to be in a movie that perpetuated this idea that 'those people are bad and we are good.' And 'We're right, you're wrong.' I just thought the whole movie was silly.” Modine's more recent roles, like Vannevar Bush (the scientist and creator of the Manhattan Project) in "Oppenheimer," can be hard to square with his stance on nuclear power. While he was honored to portray Bush for director Christopher Nolan as an important part of history, he balanced it by executive producing a documentary called “Downwind,” about the lethal effects of nuclear testing on American soil. Modine has been living what he advocates for many years as an environmentalist and also riding bicycles since he arrived in New York City as a struggling actor (he relied on a beach cruiser to get to auditions). So when his latest film "Hard Miles" (in theaters April 19) came along it had strong appeal: overcoming adversity, solving problems and cycling as a metaphor for freedom. Modine plays cycling coach Greg Townsend on a 760-mile bike trip that he rides with incarcerated students from Colorado’s Rite of Passage’s Ridge View Academy (a medium-security correctional school). Cycling from Denver to the Grand Canyon, the characters — based on real people — struggle mentally and physically, learning many life lessons. "It's always about how much you're willing to push yourself," Modine said of the journey. Watch my "Salon Talks" here on YouTube or read our conversation below to hear more about why Modine believes so strongly in building a career that reflects his personal values and politics and why he thinks his "Stranger Things" co-star Millie Bobby Brown and her fiancé Jake Bongiovi (the son of Jon Bon Jovi) asked him to officiate their upcoming wedding. The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Did you ride here on your bike? I didn't. No, I just finished work, so it was a short walk from the New York Public Library over here. Tell me a little bit about your character Greg Townsend in "Hard Miles." It’s based on a true story. Greg Townsend worked at this academy. He's a bicyclist. And he got the idea that what if I was able to teach these young people how to build bicycles so that they would create something that they would be proud of, that they would have their input and their life put into the building of a bicycle, that they'd be proud of the thing that they created. And then what if I took them on an arduous ride so that they could see that the world is bigger than the troubled home that they came from, that they could see that the world's bigger than the gang that they were a part of before they ended up in this facility? "I never wanted to play bad guys." If you're looking for a visual, imagine the horse that has the blinders on, and he's not able to have any peripheral vision. He's just able to see this part of the world. And so what Greg was able to do was to take them out into the world and help them expand their vision, to help give them peripheral vision, and see that there's much more to life than the little problems that are consuming them in their actual lives. And the real Greg Townsend, tell us about him. Greg was there for most of the filming. He always rode his bike to work. And there were some extraordinary . . . When we were in Northern California up near Mount McKinley, not only did he ride about 30 miles to get to the location, but he did a vertical mile to get up the mountain to the location. And he'd get up there and not even breathing hard. How old is he now? He's about 60. I'm so impressed. Yeah, me too. “Hard Miles” is a journey film and a triumph over adversity film — physical and mental. This is the story of these real hard-luck kids. They are juvenile offenders sort of given a second chance, but not valued or validated except by your character, and perhaps the social worker who's along for the ride. She's a great balance for you in the film. She really is, yeah. You needed her. Cynthia [Kay McWilliams] is a wonderful actor. And she grounds the story. Without her, I don't know how the story would've worked. It'd be very different. We need social workers to help level the field of some of these emotional reactions. Absolutely. You've been a cyclist since you were 18, coming here to New York as an impoverished actor. I've read the story about you getting a beach cruiser to ride around New York to your auditions. “Hard Miles” is set in Grand Canyon Village, 6,000-something feet above sea level, and these roads are no joke. What was your training like for the film? The training was on-the-job training because there wasn't a lot of time from the time that the boys, the younger kids in the film were cast to going on location and filming. They were sort of training on the job. And doing hard miles. The movie is appropriately titled. And you do a take and they say, "OK, let's do it again," and you have to ride back and do it again. So, we did a lot of miles in riding up and down the mountains and, "Let's do it again." And then I think the hardest thing was when we rode through the Navajo Nation, and just at the rim of the Grand Canyon it was 115 [degrees], and the heat coming up off the blacktop made it even hotter. The agony that you see as we're pedaling through that long, long road through the desert, there was no acting involved. You just had to put your head down and go and push. That's crazy. I did a road trip Arizona through Diné, actually, territory, and Navajo in August. It's brutal out there. Yeah, it is brutal. There are a lot of metaphors in this film, among them that life can be uphill and feel like a challenge for anyone. What does cycling represent for you in real life? Well, bicycling is one of the most tangible ways of explaining democracy. When the suffragettes were fighting for the right to vote, the women were not really allowed to drive carriages. They weren't allowed to ride horses, but there were no rules about the bicycles, so the bicycle became a symbol of freedom for women's rights and women's equality. I think that's amazing. But I think that for young people today who are so caught up in their phones and social media, the thing about a bicycle is that if you want to be present and in the moment, ride a bicycle, because if you're looking at your phone when you're riding a bicycle, particularly around a place like New York City, you're just asking for trouble, you're asking to get hurt. "That's what film and television and theater has the potential to do — to help make the monsters go away, to illuminate." The bicycle is a tool for consciousness and awareness and also a kind of meditation that, especially on a hard ride where you're going through the desert . . . And we show that in the film the kind of nightmares and memories that people start to go through as they're suffering. And it's a sort of way of sweating those things out of your body. I made a movie a long time ago called "Vision Quest," and there I think are similarities in the journey that Louden Swain goes on in "Vision Quest" that echo the journey that these kids go on. In wrestling, you're always wrestling against yourself. You're seeing how far you're willing to push yourself. And I think when you're part of a Peloton, riding bicycles, that it's always about how much you're willing to push yourself to be able to discover your personal strength and vulnerabilities. Well, those who know me know I couldn't agree with you more, that cycling is therapy for me and it really is a way to sort of get everything out. And it's meditation, if you understand it. You have a very long history in TV and film. What draws you to these kinds of triumphant stories? I suppose my father was a drive-in theater manager, and I grew up watching movies. And I always enjoyed films that were about problem solving. And I never wanted to play bad guys. I didn't want to be the person who was causing problems. I wanted to be a person who was providing a solution. There's so much suffering in the world that why wouldn't we want to go and learn about people that are reducing that suffering and finding solutions to problems that make our lives better? I'm attracted to those kinds of stories. I know because of that background of the drive-in theater and seeing how movies and television affect people's lives, that when you come into people's homes on a television, when you're projected onto a motion picture screen larger than life, when you stand on a stage and do a play, the things that you do and the things that you say will have an impact on people's lives. I absolutely respect that, that people are going to be impacted. And so it can be a tool of propaganda that is detrimental to society, or it can be something that . . . My grandmother used to say that, "The room is full of monsters when it's dark." And she said, "It only takes turning on the light to make the monsters go away.” That's what film and television and theater has the potential to do — to help make the monsters go away, to illuminate. In 2020, you told Salon's Chauncey DeVega that you have chosen, "in my personal life to be on the right side of history." Can you explain what that means to you today? I'm reading a book right now called “The Pursuit of Happiness.” And Benjamin Franklin was someone who kept slaves, George Washington was someone who kept slaves, and they all recognized that it was a cruel and inhuman thing to do, but they all appreciated the luxury and the convenience that came with owning another human being to do things that you didn't want to do. Now, I think that Benjamin Franklin is one of the brightest, most moral people in our nation's history and the fact that he recognized, the fact that he was doing something that was wrong and cruel, but so he did get on the right side of it. Abraham Lincoln was for slavery until he was against it. "What are the repercussions of the decisions I make today? What will they have on people that are not yet born?" What we have to do all the time in our lives is think and to try to look at the circumstances in its totality of our decisions, the things that we do. So, I'm an environmentalist, and I do everything that I can to be on the right side of that history, to leave the world a better place for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. They say that we don't plant trees for ourselves, we plant them for our great-grandchildren because we will never enjoy the shade of those trees. So that kind of Native American wisdom that that story comes from, the planting trees for our great-grandchildren, that's where that seventh generation comes in. I actually have a production company called Seventh Generation Stories. It’s the same concept, which stems from the conservation philosophy from the Iroquois Confederacy, the First Governance. It says that you should always leave things in a way that will be better for seven generations living afterward. And it's why in indigenous culture it's auspicious to have a centenarian and an infant alive at the same time because it doesn't happen that often. So, it's a beautiful way to live. I try to live that way. Sounds like you do as well. I try. What are the repercussions of the decisions I make today? What will they have on people that are not yet born? We live unfortunately in the United States that I don't know that we're even a democracy anymore, we're a corporatocracy and we're making decisions that are based on financial gain. And with eight billion people on the planet, it's unsustainable. We can't make decisions that are just based on finance and profit. It won't work. We're consuming the Earth's resources at an unsustainable pace. You have shown in your film choices over the years that the personal is political by turning down roles that became huge blockbusters. Examples include Maverick in “Top Gun,” Marty McFly in “Back to the Future,” and Charlie Sheen's character in “Wall Street.” I did, yeah. Are you sorry about any of those choices? Marty McFly I would've loved to have done. But Eric Stoltz is a dear friend of mine, and they had let Eric go. He was playing the part, and then they said, "You have 24 hours to make a decision about replacing him." And I wanted to know, "Why did you fire Eric Stoltz?" That didn't make sense. But in fact, I can't imagine a better actor than Michael J. Fox playing that part. I'm 6’3. Can you fit in a DeLorean? [Laughs]. And this is not to make Michael J. Fox small, but there's something about . . . If you think of a Jack Russell and a Labrador, let's say that it needed a Jack Russell. And Marty McFly and Michael J. Fox, he was that Jack Russell. Michael J. Fox in that movie is always on the front of his foot, leaning in, ready to fight. He was relentlessly attentive and determined. So, I didn't turn that down for political or philosophical reasons. I just didn't see myself playing the role. But “Top Gun,” absolutely. I didn't want to be in a movie that perpetuated this idea that those people are bad and we are good. And we're right, you're wrong. I'm right. I'm smart, you're stupid. I just didn't want to be a part of something like that. I just thought the whole movie was silly. It was what I would call war pornography. There's plenty of it. People like war pornography. There's a big market for it. You mentioned your environmentalism. You executive produced a documentary called “Downwind,” released last year and narrated by Martin Sheen, that chronicles the lethal effects that nuclear testing has had on American soil, and specifically on U.S. citizens who are downwind from toxic chemicals. Many of them are indigenous people in the Southwestern states. So, tell us how you square our own politics with playing roles like the brilliant nuclear scientist that you just played in “Oppenheimer,” Vannevar Bush, creator of the Manhattan Project. Well, to be invited to be part of the ensemble of Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” was a great honor. And it's the second time I've worked with Christopher and his wife Emma. They're incredibly talented, gifted storytellers, and so it was an obvious honor to do it. And then a bunch of actors that I hadn't worked with that I really admire, including Matt Damon. Robert Downey [Jr.] and I started out in the business at the same time, so it was nice to reconnect with Robert. I'm really pleased for him and all of the success that the film brought him. Cillian Murphy, I'm just a great admirer of him, and he lived up to everything that I hoped that he might. He was extraordinary, and such a gentleman, so Irish in all the best qualities of being Irish. A poet. He really is a poet. But that's an important story to tell about . . . When I started kindergarten in San Diego, Imperial Beach, California, we were still crawling under our desk, doing duck and cover drills, and it was frightening. I remember very vividly, there was a song that came out, "The End of the World." And of course it's a love song, but to me . . . I remember asking my older brothers, "Does this mean, because crawling under the desk, that the end of the world is near?" And they terrified me and said, "Yes, of course." And then the Vietnam War happened, and all the instability that comes to a child through those kind of horrors. Death and destruction seems so imminent. Always. And even more so. It continues. So my brother Maury, he's the one that got me really involved mentally about the Downwinders. I was watching the news and he was being arrested on CNN, handcuffed. And the microphone came pushed into his face, and they said, "Why are you protesting?" And my brother said, "They know they work. Why do they have to test them?" And I think it was the most important simple statement ever made, that since the Trinity Test that Oppenheimer covers, why did they need to keep testing them — especially after dropping them on human beings twice in Japan, in Nagasaki and Hiroshima that caused the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of people? So, why do we need to keep testing them? And there's no logical explanation for why they need to keep testing them. And they're talking about starting it up again, and testing them in our near future. I have memories of not being able to drink the milk when Three Mile Island had leaks here in New York when I was a kid. I think most of the past few generations have had some experience, unfortunately, with this awareness, this fear of being poisoned to death. I was in England when Chernobyl happened. My wife was nursing and they said, "It's not a problem unless you're a nursing mother," which my wife was. Because the radiation gets in the breast milk. And yeah, it's a real nightmare. It's a real nightmare. Last question, I'm going to throw one away for the Gen Z-ers. It’s been widely publicized that you're going to officiate "Stranger Things" castmate Millie Bobby Brown's wedding. Yes? How did this come about? She asked me. She must have talked to Jake, and they had a conversation. And I honestly don't know how it happened, but it's a great honor. I had married a dear friend of mine during COVID. It was an outdoor wedding. It was extraordinary when you think that people are coming together that when you say, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here," it's "we" – it becomes a kind of beautiful spiritual gathering of people . . . because this is not an arranged marriage, this is a marriage of choice, and there's something that's beautiful about that. To be the person who gets to officiate, and to join those two people, and give them some, I don't want to say advice, but share some thoughts about the journey that we can make together as human beings, I'm really chuffed that they asked me to be the guy that does it. And where can everyone see "Hard Miles"? It opens on April 19th at 600 theaters across the United States, so I encourage you to go see it in a movie theater because it's really beautiful. The photography is stunning. And it's just fun to go be in a room with a bunch of people and experience a movie together. Quite different than watching a movie sitting on your couch and being disrupted by your phone. Going to a movie theater, having grown up with my father's drive-in movie theaters and movie theaters in Utah, there's nothing like it. It's better to go to movies with people and watch it together. Watch more "Salon Talks" with actors

Business

Chemicals

Genetic Puzzles Solved: Why European Colonization Drove the Blue Antelope to Extinction

An international team of researchers led by the University of Potsdam has generated and analyzed the first high-coverage nuclear genome of the extinct blue antelope...

The specimen from which the high-coverage blue antelope nuclear genome was extracted: a young male from the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Source: Hempel et al. 2021. Identifying the true number of specimens of the extinct blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus). Credit: Swedish Museum of Natural HistoryAn international team of researchers led by the University of Potsdam has generated and analyzed the first high-coverage nuclear genome of the extinct blue antelope in cooperation with Colossal Biosciences and the Museum of Natural History Berlin. This genomic information provides insights into the evolutionary trajectory and the reasons behind the extinction of this species. The blue antelope holds the distinction of being the only large African mammal to have gone extinct in recent history.The results of the study, which have now been published in Current Biology, show that the species was probably adapted to a small population size and survived like this for thousands of years. However, this also made them susceptible to sudden impacts like hunting, which increased after European colonization of southern Africa.The blue antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus) was an African antelope with a bluish-gray pelt, related to the sable and the roan antelope. The last blue antelope was shot around 1800, just 34 years after it was first described scientifically. The research team, which included Potsdam evolutionary biologists led by Prof. Dr. Michael Hofreiter, has now succeeded in obtaining a 40-fold high-coverage genome from a specimen at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. This is one of only five DNA-validated historical museum specimens of the blue antelope.Low genomic diversity and population size is often considered a disadvantage, as they can lead to a reduction in the fitness and adaptability of a species. “However, the blue antelope had a small population size for many millennia before it became extinct around 1800,” Michael Hofreiter explains. “The fact that no inbreeding and only a few detrimental mutations were detected indicates that the species was adapted to long-term low population size,” adds Elisabeth Hempel, who studied the blue antelope as part of her doctoral thesis at the University of Potsdam and the Museum of Natural History Berlin.Impact of Environmental ChangesThe analysis of the long-term population size also shows that it was not influenced by ice-age climate fluctuations. This is unexpected for a large herbivorous mammal, as these cycles should have led to changes in habitat availability. This result suggests that current models of long-term ecosystem dynamics in the region may need to be refined.Drawing of a blue antelope. Source: P. L., Thomas, O. The Book of Antelopes, vol. 4. – London: 1899–1900. Pl. LXXVI Credit: Biodiversity Heritage LibraryThe researchers concluded from their results that species can survive for a long time with a small population size as long as they are not exposed to fast-acting disturbances. Consequently, the sudden human influence during European colonization of southern Africa in the 17th century likely played a central role in the extinction of the species.In the course of the DNA analyses, two genes were also identified in the genome that could be responsible for the species’ blue pelt color to which the blue antelope owes its name. This was made possible with the help of state-of-the-art computational analysis software from the biotechnology company Colossal Bioscience, with which the researchers collaborated. “As part of Colossal’s ongoing focus on ancient DNA, genotype to phenotype relationships, and ecosystem restoration, we were honored to collaborate on the groundbreaking work of Professor Hofreiter and his team,” said Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Bioscience. “The research objectives for the project allowed our teams to work together applying some of the latest Colossal ancient DNA and comparative genomic algorithms to learn what truly made the blue antelope the unique species it was.”Reference: “Colonial-driven extinction of the blue antelope despite genomic adaptation to low population size” by Elisabeth Hempel, J. Tyler Faith, Michaela Preick, Deon de Jager, Scott Barish, Stefanie Hartmann, José H. Grau, Yoshan Moodley, Gregory Gedman, Kathleen Morrill Pirovich, Faysal Bibi, Daniela C. Kalthoff, Sven Bocklandt, Ben Lamm, Love Dalén, Michael V. Westbury and Michael Hofreiter, 12 April 2024, Current Biology.DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.051

Extinction

Technology

Owner Of New York City’s Defunct Nuclear Plant Sues The State

Holtec International says a state statute blocking routine water releases from Indian Point violates federal law.

The company that owns the shuttered nuclear plant that once provided the bulk of New York City’s zero-carbon electricity is suing the state over a law passed last year specifically to block the Indian Point power station from carrying out routine releases of treated wastewater into the Hudson River, HuffPost has learned.Virtually every nuclear power plant all over the world releases tiny volumes of a radioactive isotope known as tritium from its cooling water into surrounding waterways. Unlike the long-lasting and dangerous radioisotopes that form during the atom-splitting process, tritium ― an isotope of hydrogen ― laces into water, making it almost impossible to extract. Luckily, tritium, which has never been linked to cancer in humans, is too weak to penetrate skin and decays quickly in 12-year half lives, so power plants spew small amounts into the environment at rates indistinguishable from what naturally occurs from cosmic rays from space or what ends up leaked into waterways via dump neon signage.When a nuclear reactor is generating electricity, these releases are a matter of routine operation. Once those plants shut down and the utility that runs them sells off the facility to a decommissioning company, the onus falls on firms, such as Florida-based Holtec International, to obtain new permits to resume releases of tritium. That means going through a regulatory process that includes public hearings, giving Americans who visualize all radioactive waste as the scientifically absurd caricatures of green glowing goop depicted on shows like “The Simpsons” fresh cause for panic.Last August, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed legislation “restricting discharges of any radiological substance into the Hudson River in connection with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant.”Holtec now says that statute violates the federal law that gave the government in Washington complete control over how radioactive materials are regulated.In litigation filed with the Southern District Court of New York on Thursday, Holtec said the Empire State’s law violates the federal statute giving the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “sole authority over radiological discharges from nuclear power plants whether online or decommissioning.”“The failure of New York State to respect Federal Law, and follow the facts and science of the issue, left us no other means for remedy,” the company said in a statement shared first with HuffPost. “The passage of the bill has already delayed the planned completion of the decommissioning of Indian Point an additional 8 years, which hurts the local community’s desire to see the project completed and the property returned as an asset for economic development in the region. We look forward to the legal process moving along on this important decision.”In a state press release announcing the passage of the legislation last year, Hochul and bipartisan New York lawmakers who praised the bill referred four times to the “economic” benefits of banning Indian Point from discharging wastewater. But Holtec accused the state of using the “guise of economic” issues to “hide” the real intent of regulating radiological materials, according to legal filings HuffPost reviewed.“They’re welcome to sue,” said state Sen. Pete Harckham (D), who authored the Senate version of the legislation.He pointed to a 1983 Supreme Court decision that ruled in favor of California regulators’ right to restrict nuclear power plants based on the economic toll that the facilities could take on the surrounding area. While he said locals only learned about the tritium discharges after Indian Point shut down, “once they found out there was enormous outcry.”Now, he said, communities along the Hudson are being “damaged with the knowledge that tritium is being released into the river.” Neither Hochul’s office nor the New York State Assembly lawmaker who introduced the statute ― Assembly member Dana Levenberg (D) ― responded to requests for comment Wednesday. The lawsuit is the first major challenge in years to the state’s efforts to single out Indian Point while attempting to revive the nuclear power industry that still supplies most of New York’s zero-carbon electricity. Indian Point Energy Center is seen on the Hudson River in Buchanan, New York, on April 26, 2021.The Biden administration has directed billions toward maintaining the U.S. nuclear fleet, which has lost more than a dozen reactors in the past decade.In January, the administration offered Pacific Gas & Electric almost $1.1 billion to relicense Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant and the source of as much as 10% of the state’s electricity. Just last month, the Department of Energy gave Holtec an unprecedented $1.5 billion loan to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, the most recent U.S. atomic energy station to close down amid growing competition with cheap natural gas. Billions more are going to researching and testing novel kinds of reactors and subsidizing the electricity they ultimately generate years from now. If its efforts to restart Palisades’ single reactor pan out, Holtec even plans to ultimately build two of its own small modular reactors to expand the Michigan plant. With billion-dollar costs and decade-long construction timelines, nuclear energy benefits from the kind of largesse the federal government can uniquely provide. Conveniently for the country’s most tightly regulated energy sector, the federal government agreed under the Atomic Energy Act to take full responsibility for managing the radioactive waste piling up at the roughly 93 remaining nuclear power plants. Compared to the amount of electricity fission produces, managing long-term nuclear waste is a relatively minor problem. But the federal government is currently hamstrung. Federal law stipulates that Nevada’s Yucca Mountain serve as the first permanent site for nuclear waste. Congress hasn’t amended the law since the Obama administration mothballed the project more than a decade ago, preventing federal regulators from considering alternative locations for a nuclear waste dump. The Biden administration, meanwhile, is directing more funding toward research into ways to recycle spent fuel. New York isn’t the only state to try to intervene in nuclear waste issues. In Massachusetts, where Holtec owns and is decommissioning the defunct Pilgrim nuclear power plant, lawmakers passed legislation in 2022 to block the company from releasing tritiated water ― but focused the statute on non-radioactive materials to avoid violating the federal law. In New Mexico, where Holtec proposed building a storage facility for highly radioactive spent fuel canisters, the state passed a law banning permitting of any nuclear waste sites until the federal government sorts out the Yucca Mountain situation. Federal regulators approved the project last year. While Holtec’s lobbyists have argued this law, too, violates the Atomic Energy Act, lawmakers in desert states where the U.S. government tested nuclear weapons have pointed to the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision holding Virginia’s ban on uranium mining. Holtec’s other options for disposing of the tritiated water filling the storage tanks at Indian Point or Pilgrim include trucking the liquid out of state or evaporating the wastewater on-site. Federal regulators said those options would cost more ― further prolonging the decommissioning work ― and carried greater risks than diluting the cooling water and pumping it into the Hudson River or Cape Cod Bay. Tritium became an international concern last year when the state-owned utility that owns the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant started releasing wastewater used to cool the melted-down reactor after the 2011 accident into the Pacific Ocean. Despite spewing tritium in far larger volumes from their own active nuclear plants, the Chinese, Russian and South Korean governments protested Japan’s decision to start pumping the wastewater into the ocean, in what was widely seen as a geopolitical gambit.While nearly a century of research has failed to link tritium exposure to cancer, experiments on mice forced to ingest enormous daily doses throughout their lifetimes tended to develop cancer and die younger than their counterparts who hadn’t, according to a 2021 paper in the Journal of Radiation Research. But large-scale epidemiological studies are challenging since tritium is difficult to detect in the environment.To play it safe, regulators across the planet have typically set limits for releasing tritium into waterways at levels far below what naturally occurs from cosmic rays, sewage treatment plants and leaked chemicals from scrapped self-illuminating exit signs. A turbine generator used to produce power is seen at Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, New York, on April 26, 2021.At a decommissioning hearing last year in the Hudson Valley suburb where Indian Point’s employees once lived, one anti-nuclear protester ― a Manhattan lawyer who left the city after the Sept. 11 terror attacks ― blamed errant radiation from the power plant for the cancer she developed a few years ago.Another demonstrator ― a lifelong resident and retired art teacher who said she grew up protesting against Indian Point ― worried that if Holtec began releasing tritium into the Hudson, she was at risk since she spent the whole summer wading into the river at a boating dock. Her life seemed like a testament to the company’s claims that there’s no reason to fear long-term exposure. Asked whether she’d seen health impacts, given decades of exposure to tritium released throughout the operating lives of the plant’s two reactors, she seemed surprised. She said she had not experienced the serious diseases groups like the one that organized the rally she attended insisted were linked to living near nuclear plants.Both women were attending a rally organized by Food and Water Watch, an environmental group that spent millions fighting to shut down Indian Point back in 2014. HuffPost is declining to name the women, who were not public figures, because the interviews were conducted in person a year ago, but published samplings of the conversations here for the first time to illustrate the range of views coming from the local opponents who claimed the law banning Indian Point’s tritium releases as a victory. Some questions remain about how tritium might accumulate at the mouth of pipes spewing tritiated wastewater into waterways for years on end. “‘The solution to pollution is dilution’ doesn’t work if it accumulates at the end of a pipe in seafloor sediment, for example, or if they bioaccumulate in fish that are caught and consumed by people,” Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, told HuffPost last year. “Another thing we should be considering is whether this release from a decommissioned reactor should be regulated the same way we regulate releases from power plants that [are] in operation,” he added. “At least then they’re creating a benefit. They’re creating electricity.”From Taiwan to Germany to California, fossil fuels have replaced the zero-carbon generation from atomic power plants that close prematurely. New York is no different. The nation’s largest city went from a roughly 75% fossil-fueled power grid prior to Indian Point’s shutdown to more than 95% overnight. Without Indian Point’s supply of steady, relatively cheap electricity in the face of surging demand for air conditioning, outages across the five boroughs worsened during the past two summers. Mounting evidence suggests that radiation is less deadly than previously believed. Studies on cattle left alive in the exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant in Japan have not shown the spikes in the rate of cancer that existing safety models indicated would happen. Some amounts of radiation exposure may even offer health benefits. By contrast, the tiny particles of air pollution spewing from automobile tailpipes and fuel-burning power plants are now linked to disease ranging from cancer and heart disease to erectile dysfunction and infertility. And that’s putting aside the destabilizing effect fossil fuel emissions are having on the planet’s weather patterns. “We’ve been studying radioactivity for more than 100 years, and we have a pretty darn good idea of what the effects of radiation are and what doses are needed to cause those impacts,” said Kathryn Higley, an Oregon State University professor who researches radiation and health.“The dose makes the poison,” she added. “It’s radioactivity, it’s how much of it is being released and where it’s going.”Support HuffPostOur 2024 Coverage Needs YouYour Loyalty Means The World To UsAt HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way.Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.Can't afford to donate? Support HuffPost by creating a free account and log in while you read.Dear HuffPost ReaderThank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?Dear HuffPost ReaderThank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.Support HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to hide these messages.