Phosphates, banned in Chicago, but still in the stores.

Quite a surprise to me. I thought they were banned everywhere. But I can't get a can of spray paint within the city limits.

Banned in Chicago. . . but available in stores
Phosphates were outlawed in '71, but Daley isn't enforcing dad's law with dish detergents

By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter
April 4, 2007

More than three decades after Chicago banned phosphate-laden detergents to prevent foul-smelling algae from choking lakes and rivers, dishwasher soap made with the chemicals still dominates supermarket shelves.

The anti-phosphates ordinance Mayor Richard J. Daley signed in 1971 became the model for similar efforts that helped revive the Great Lakes. But though the city's current mayor, Daley's son, promotes Chicago as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly cities, his administration rarely enforces the ban. Few phosphate-free dishwasher detergents are available at Jewel and Dominick's, which account for about two-thirds of the city's chain grocery stores. Most major labels and store brands still have phosphate levels ranging from 3.3 percent to 8.7 percent. The levels in some specialty detergents are as high as 20 percent.

Water Pollution - Drugs and Household Products in the Water Supply - Does It Matter? - New York Times

"Residues of birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and a host of other compounds are finding their way into the nation’s waterways, and they have public health and environmental officials in a regulatory quandary.

On the one hand, there is no evidence the traces of the chemicals found so far are harmful to human beings. On the other hand, it would seem cavalier to ignore them.
...
In a survey begun in 1999, the agency surveyed 139 streams around the country and found that 80 percent of samples contained residues of drugs like painkillers, hormones, blood pressure medicines or antibiotics. The agency said the findings suggested that the compounds were more prevalent and more persistent than had been thought."

Fewer Marshes + More Man-Made Ponds = Increased Wetlands - New York Times

"WASHINGTON, March 30 — In the bog of the federal regulatory code, a wetland is defined as a marshy area of saturated soils and plants whose roots spend part of their lives immersed in water. In the Interior Department's periodic national surveys, a wetland is defined, more or less, as wet.

Traditional tidal, coastal and upland marshes count, but so do golf course water hazards and other man-made ponds whose surface is less than 20 acres.
...
A net total of 523,500 acres of swamps and tidal marshes had been lost, but the Fish and Wildlife Service measured gains of 715,300 acres of shallow-water wetlands, or ponds. According to the report's author, Tom Dahl, those can be 20 to 30 feet deep."

Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms - New York Times

"The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas.

But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions — most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor."

OK, now I get it

I will upload any of the sites I find.

Vigin blogger

As long as I have been around computers I have never done any blogging. What's the concept here, sharing information? I have seen people blog their daily lives, sort of a diary.