#EarthdayTips 1: Donate your unwanted used items to local charities instead of throwing them out.

#EarthDayTips 2: Replace paper napkins and towels with cloth napkins and towels

#EarthdayTips 3: 30% of waste in the U.S. is due to yard & food waste. Use this waste to add nutrients to your soil through composting!

#EarthDayTips 4: Try using a push reel lawnmower. They make ur lawn beautiful w/o the costly gasoline or an engine that needs servicing.

#EarthDayTips 5: Allow grass clippings to stay on your lawn to decompose & return to the soil naturally.

#EarthDayTips 6: Rain barrels help cut back on the H20 bill by storing H2O for the garden, car washes, & window cleaning.

#EarthDayTips 7: Save $15-$20/mo. w/cloth diapers compared to disposable diapers. They prevent diaper rash & keep waste out of landfills

#EarthDayTips 8: Bamboo is a naturally sustainable resource that grows rapidly & makes for durable, beautiful furniture.

#EarthDayTips 9: Use Solar LED lights; they’re brighter, cooler, & much more energy efficient w/o the use of electricity/batteries.

#EarthDayTips 10: Eco patio furniture made w/eucalyptus wood meets the FSC standards, which protects the envrnmnt & forest-dependent areas

#EarthDayTips 12: Relax in a beautiful hammock that’s made of hand-woven recycled polyester derived from old soda bottles. Who knew?!

#EarthDayTips 13: Look for kitchen islands made from birch, theyre self sustaining, non-endangered N. American hardwood

#EarthDayTips 16: Outdoor chairs that’re made from strong recycled plastic polymers won’t crack, warp, or rot

#EarthDayTips 18: When purchasing outdoor decor try biodegradable planters Theyre made of plant fibers thatll return to the earth w/in 3 yrs

#EarthDayTips 19: Teak wood is gr8 for outdoor furniture b/c it is naturally resistant to moisture, rot, warping, insects & fungus

#EarthDayTips 20: LED string lights add the perfect accent to any outdoor/indoor celebration & cut back on the electric bill

#EarthDayTips 21: Skip the shopping bag. Bring your own reusable bags to the mall & grocery store.

#EarthDayTips 22: Use electronic billing to cut back on paper & mail.

#EarthDayTips 23: Bring your lunch to work/school to cut back on fast food paper waste, spending, & fuel use.

#EarthDayTips 24: Make coffee at home & use a travel mug to take to work. If you grab coffee on the go take a travel mug to min. ppr waste

For more Earth Day tips and other information please follow @hayneedle and tell her thank you!

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“EPA’s Advisory Committee has raised concerns about whether the agency has continued to maintain its earlier focus on protecting children or capitalized on opportunities to tackle some significant and emerging environmental health challenges. For example, the Advisory Committee wrote to the Administrator in April 2007 to reflect on EPA’s achievements in the 10 years since the Executive Order was signed. The committee cited successes, such as increased margins of safety for pesticides mandated under the Food Quality Protection Act and the creation of the National Children’s Study. However, the Advisory Committee also expressed serious concerns about EPA’s continued lack of focus on children’s environmental health issues and the lack of progress in addressing the committee’s many recommendations. In the intervening years, children’s environmental health has become no less pressing. In fact, 66 percent of children lived in counties where air exceeded one or more of the six principal pollutants. Two of them—ozone and particulate matter—are known to cause or aggravate respiratory diseases such as asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is the third most common cause of hospitalizations for children, resulting in $3.2 billion for treatment and 14 million days of school lost annually.”

The questions is what can we do to help?  Answer – Get involved.  The EPA has embraced the idea of social media and Web 2.0 as they tout on their website…so give them some feedback.  Tell them what they can do to protection our children.

Click here for the full text of this testimony

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So here are my commitments to you.

• Fresh content daily Monday through Friday (I need the weekends to spend time with my family, do research, write articles, and film videos)
• Videos! Yes, next week I will start posting videos.  My goal is to ask the question of the week, do product reviews, tell stories, and hopefully conduct interviews all through video.  I’d really rather just talk than write…
• Ideas, insights, and stories you can use, steal, whatever – I love to tell stories from my life and give them practical applications in our large group safety meetings – I cannot wait to share these stories here.  I think I will start with the peeing in the pool story.
• No annoying banner ads

What I need from you.

• If something interests you, leave a comment, please.
• If you have an insight or idea into something in the EHS world, send it to me and I will post it.  My personal goal in building this site is to improve as an EHS Professional so I want to steal as many ideas from others as I can!
• If you know someone who wrote an interesting blog post or article, have them get in touch with me and I will post it here.
• If you like this site, tell another EHS Professional about Today in EHS.

So if you are wondering how to get in touch with me, here you go.

Email – sam@todayinehs.com

Twitter – @TodayinEHS

I’m also on safetycommunity.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

I look forward to the conversation.

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Consider this a public service for EHS Professionals.  I know we all NEED iPhones to do our jobs, and now you will have the documentation to prove it to your boss.

Today I start a 3 Part series on the Top iPhone Apps for the EHS Professional.  I want to give proper detail for Apps in the Environmental, Health, and Safety areas so, since E is first in EHS we will kick it off with the…drum roll please…Top 8 iPhone Environmental Apps for the EHS Professional.  Please note that I do not make any money off the links, this is just my unbiased opinion based on my research and testing.

Here they are in Alphabetically Order

1.  Title: AQMD

Price: FREE

The Scoop: If you live in the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties or in the OC this App is for you.  It covers Air Quality, Clean Air Tips, News, Events, Alternate Fuel Locations, Carbon Footprint Details, and Smoking Vehicle Reporting.

iTunes Rating: 4.5

Reviewers Feedback: Positive feedback – impressed with information available in the App.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aqmd/id358859718?mt=8&uo=6

2.  Title: EPA and CEQ Regulations (Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations – Protection of Environment)

Price: $19.99

The Scoop: Have the complete text of Title 40 CFR at your fingertips

iTunes Rating: 4.5

Reviewers Feedback: Reviewers love having the info on the go.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epa-ceq-regulations-title/id325701983?mt=8&uo=6

3.  Title: Green Meter

Price: $5.99

The Scoop: Computes vehicle’s power and fuel usage; evaluates driving to increase efficiency.  Use this to evaluate drivers in your company vehicle fleet giving real time feedback on driving efficiency.

iTunes Rating: 3.5

Reviewers Feedback: People love it and one person claims an increase of 1.5 mpg.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/greenmeter/id289973918?mt=8&uo=6

4.  Title: iRecycle

Price: FREE

The Scoop: Find recycling locations and provides green news

iTunes Rating: 3

Reviewers Feedback: People love being able to find recycling locations close to them.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irecycle/id312708176?mt=8&uo=6

5.  Title: LEED® Green Associate Flashcards

Price: $4.99

The Scoop: 352 LEED Exam Prep Flashcards

iTunes Rating: 3

Reviewers Feedback: Great information and access to an instructor to answer questions from the flashcards.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id336473499?mt=8&uo=6

6.  Title: MeterRead

Price: $.99

The Scoop: Tracks energy consumption.

iTunes Rating: 2.5

Reviewers Feedback: An app that has potential by bringing awareness to energy usage, but needs a few tweaks including an updated user interface.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id294158423?mt=8&uo=6

7.  Title: MyAirQuality

Price: FREE

The Scoop: Detailed tracking of air quality conditions for locations throughout the U.S.

iTunes Rating: 2.5

Reviewers Feedback: Recommended for tracking multiple locations.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myairquality/id319886165?mt=8&uo=6

8.  Title: St. John Ambulance First Aid

Price: $3.99

The Scoop: The best First Aid app

iTunes Rating: 5

Reviewers Feedback: Very helpful and well done first aid app, includes illustrations as well.

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/st-john-ambulance-first-aid/id347574230?mt=8&uo=6

Did I miss any?  What’s your favorite Environmental App?

Next week I will post Part 2 with the Top 8 iPhone Health Apps for EHS Professionals.  Click here to read Part 2 and Part 3

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