Workers on prison farms in the United States commonly grow produce and row crops and raise livestock. Teaching good agricultural practices to prisoners and prison staff increases the safety of the food produced and reduces the likelihood of an illness outbreak. We developed a food safety curriculum for use on prison farms in Iowa. In developing…

Health concerns from 3D printing were first documented by Stephens, Azimi, Orch, and Ramos (2013), who found that commercially available 3D printers were producing hazardous levels of ultrafine particles (UFPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when plastic materials were melted through the extruder. UFPs are particles less than 100 nanometers…

For the last seven years, an interdisciplinary course known as "Greener Solutions", offered by the University of California, Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, has brought together graduate students in chemistry, environmental health, and engineering to understand each other's disciplines, and to work together to develop safer…

Saudi Arabian Petrochemical Company (SAPCO), a petrochemicals manufacturer, has decided to make some major internal changes to gain increased market share and continue its success. It has been easy going for some time now, and business has been very good, but in order to take that next step, SAPCO needs to attain the Responsible Care…

The chemistry behind practical special effects in the film and television industry is discussed, along with examples of commonly used chemical demonstrations that simulate them in the laboratory. (Contains 3 figures.)

During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe ran a maximum security prisoner of war (POW) camp called "Stalag Luft III," which imprisoned captured Allied air force servicemen. The story of the 1944 escape from Stalag Luft III is one of the most famous stories of the Second World War as described in the firsthand written account and…

As U.S. infant mortality remains relatively unchanged and maternal mortality is rising, it is increasingly clear that service providers need to address many of the modifiable risks that determine birth outcomes prior to pregnancy. Health professionals have promoted preconception care for decades as a way to improve women's and infant's health. Yet…

In the first part of this series, which appeared in the February 2013 issue of "Techniques" (see EJ1015189), the authors discussed the need for providing a safe and healthy learning environment in career and technical programs, and introduced a model for ensuring that this type of environment exists. The critical core component of…

The mass media has an important role in informing the general public about emerging health risks. Content-based studies of risk communication in the media have revealed a tendency to exaggerate risks or simplify science, but linguistic studies in this area are still scarce. This paper outlines a corpus based investigation of media reporting on the…

Biological materials oversight in life sciences research in the United States is a challenging endeavor for institutions and the scientific, regulatory compliance, and federal communities. In order to assess biological materials oversight at Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs) registered with the United States National Institutes of Health,…

Two graphic holistic metrics for assessing the greenness of synthesis, the "green star" and the "green circle", have been presented previously. These metrics assess the greenness by the degree of accomplishment of each of the 12 principles of green chemistry that apply to the case under evaluation. The criteria for assessment…

Appropriate reactions to potentially hazardous situations may help prevent children from incurring injury or abduction. However, children with autism and other developmental disorders may not develop safety skills without explicit intervention. This study used a simple behavioral skills training package for teaching children with autism to respond…

Green cleaning plays a significant and supportive role in helping education institutions meet their sustainability goals. However, identifying cleaning products, supplies and equipment that truly are environmentally preferable can be daunting. The marketplace is inundated with products and services purporting to be "green" or environmentally…

As sensors and computers become smaller and smaller, it becomes possible to add intelligence or smartness to common items. This is already seen in smart appliances, cars that diagnose their own maintenance problems, and military hardware that is something straight out of a science fiction book. In this article, the author looks at a design…

Chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment, and human exposure to them is inevitable. A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides in umbilical cord blood indicated that humans are born with an average of 200 pollutants already present in their bodies. The study found a total of 287 chemicals, of which, 180 are…