Water, Air, and Your Health: What’s Fracking Got to Do With It?

in Environmental
May 21, 2014

What’s “fracking” anyway? Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a well stimulation process used in oil and gas production that involves blasting huge amounts of water mixed with sand and dozens of chemical components deep into the earth, breaking up underground rock formations to facilitate oil and gas extraction.  In California, fracking is mostly used to…

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Informational Briefing on Pesticides and Children’s Health

in Environmental
April 23, 2014

On March 13, Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) and the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) organized an informational briefing on pesticides and children’s health in Sacramento. The room was packed with legislative aides and representatives of community organizations involved with efforts to reduce the use of pesticides and protect children’s health. Senator Bill Monning gave the…

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Renewable Energy, Not Fracking!

in Environmental
January 15, 2014

At the December 19th state Public Utilities Commission hearing, SF Bay Area PSR joined the Sierra Club and a caravan of residents from Southern California to voice concerns about proposals to replace the energy generated from the San Onofre Nuclear Plant, through the use of natural gas permits, that would facilitate hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”…

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Couches With Lower Toxicity Available Beginning in 2014!

in Environmental
December 19, 2013

Consumers in California will soon be able to choose couches and other home furnishings with lower toxicity. Last spring we asked our members to sign an action alert supporting a new furniture flammability standard, which was finalized in late November and will go into effect January 1, 2014. The new standard eliminates the requirement that upholstered…

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Tell California DOGGR What You Think About Fracking!

in Environmental
December 19, 2013

On September 20, 2013, Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 4. The new law requires the Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) in the California Department of Conservation Division to prepare regulations to ensure that well stimulation, including hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” is done safely. DOGGR oversees the drilling, operation, maintenance, and…

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Health Professionals in Action: My Life in Environmental Health

in Environmental
September 25, 2013

By Dr. Sarah Janssen, SF Bay Area PSR Board of Directors I have been involved with PSR for nearly 2 decades, first in the student chapter at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign which started with a group of friends from medical school who were interested in social justice issues and a faculty mentor, Dr. Anne…

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Summer Heat Richmond

in Climate Change, Environmental
August 29, 2013

By Dr. Jeff Ritterman, Vice President, SF Bay Area PSR On August 3rd, an upbeat crowd of more than 2,000 people marched to the Chevron refinery in Richmond for “Summer Heat,” the Bay Area’s largest climate action this summer.  Dr. Robert Gould, SF Bay Area PSR President, and I led a delegation of members under…

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Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline Rally and March

in Environmental, Events
June 18, 2013

June 20 – 12noon Rally at Battery East, below Golden Gate Bridge Visitor Center in San Francisco Join SF Bay Area PSR in opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline by rallying at Crissy Field and then marching across the Golden Gate Bridge. We will join with National Nurses United, Bill McKibben, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, CREDO,…

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Health Professionals in Action: Dr. Julia Quint

in Environmental, Policy Work, Social Justice
June 18, 2013

Dr. Julia Quint is a public health scientist and toxicologist with an emphasis on occupational health. She is retired from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) where she was Research Scientist and Chief of the Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service (HESIS), an occupational health program. She joined SF Bay Area PSR two years…

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CleanMed 2013: Creating Healing Environments

in Environmental, Events, Food Sustainability
May 13, 2013

SF Bay Area PSR wowed its audiences at this year’s CleanMed conference April 24-26 in Boston. Jointly hosted by Health Care Without Harm and Practice Green Health, CleanMed connected and educated more than 900 health care professionals, food service employees, and hospital suppliers from across the nation on sustainability strategies in health care. Healthy Food…

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