On This Week's Show: Saturday, February 19

Children in Multi-Unit Housing at Greater Risk of Tobacco Smoke Exposure

Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director for the Public Health Advocacy Institute, will discuss how children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke are at greater risk for a variety of illnesses, even at very low levels of exposure. A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Julius B. Richmond Center, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and MassGeneral Hospital for Children is the first to show significant evidence of increased tobacco smoke exposure in the blood of children who live in multi-unit housing, even if no one smokes in their unit. Key findings include:

• Children living in multi-unit homes had a 45 percent increase in cotinine levels compared with children who live in detached homes.
• From the lowest detectable to the highest levels of cotinine tested, a greater proportion of children in multi-unit housing were found positive for smoke exposure than children in other housing types. This increase could be caused by smoke seeping through walls or shared ventilation systems.
• Smoking bans in multi-unit housing may reduce children’s exposure to tobacco smoke.

Fracking + GASLAND the movie

Josh Fox, the documentary director, joins us to discuss what is fracking and how is it a threat to drinking water? This remarkable film is about the largest domestic natural gas-drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

On This Week's Show: February 5, 2011

Scott Brusaw, Founder and Inventor of Solar Roadways

Imagine streets paved with solar panels. This is the dream of Scott Brusaw. He has discovered an efficient method of restoring and covering up damaged roads with an innovative surface material that could even adapt to changing traffic patterns and conditions. Plus, the system is environmental: clean electricity, eliminates runoff and the need to burn oil.

Dr. G will talk to Scott about his plan to blanket our streets with electric roads, which could lead to the end of our dependency on fossil fuels of any kind.

Eventually, Scott believes electric roads infused by the sun will deliver power — and broadband — to our homes, charge the batteries on our electric cars and eliminate all need for coal and gas. If every street, driveway and parking lot were replaced with Solar Roadways, it would supply three times more energy as the entire country needs and create 2.5 million jobs in assembly alone.

Visit Scott’s website: SolarRoadways.com

About Scott:

Scott is an electrical engineer (MSEE) with over 20 years of industry experience. This includes serving as the Director of Research and Development at a manufacturing facility in Ohio (developing their line of products for over 12 years), a voting member of NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association), and developing several networked control systems from the ground up. Scott has multiple patents and his hardware and software have been sold internationally. Scott is also an ex-Marine Corps sergeant, a former Cub Scout Cubmaster, a former Boy Scout Scoutmaster, Chairman of the Board of Directors of his church, has been active in home schooling, 4-H, children's sports coaching, and teaching Sunday School. His interests include religious studies, the Civil War, NFL football, spending time in the woods, and playing on his John Deere tractor.

Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives

Dr. G welcomes Paul Steely White from Transportation Alternatives to discuss President Obama’s State of Union and the debate over trains.

Transportation Alternatives is involved in every aspect of traveling around New York City. From bike routes and bus lanes to pedestrian crossings and car parking, we’re fighting for safer, smarter transportation and a healthier city. When Transportation Alternatives was founded in 1973, New York City’s cycling population was a fifth of what it is now and the number of pedestrians killed each year by cars was more than twice as high. Since then, Transportation Alternatives has been laying the paving stones of a safer city – pedestrian plazas, parking-protected bike lanes, the very philosophy of the livable street – and pushing city agencies and elected officials to introduce this innovation into the urban landscape. Transportation Alternatives sees New York City as a web of streets and green spaces that viewed as a whole, are the foundation of a city with a greater quality of life. The goal of Transportation Alternatives is to make the streets of New York City better, and mile by mile, acre upon acre, we are shaping an unsurpassed urban landscape and envisioning a brighter way to travel.

Visit Transportation Alternatives website: www.transalt.org

Photo credits:

http://www.switched.com/2010/09/26/citizen-scientist-designs-self-sustaining-solar-street-sheets/

http://www.envirowarrior.com/roads-paved-with-gold/

http://www.observer.com/node/36665