Only a little arsenic

There's a big feature in the NYT comparing tap water safety all around the country. It seems that San Francisco County is doing pretty good, with the worst of it being just 3 chemicals that are within the legal limit, but above what's considered healthy. However, those 3 are doozies: arsenic, lead, and radon (although how bad can radon be for you? It's inert, right?).

Calling out East Bay Exress

I was reading the free weekly East Bay Express while riding BART today, and came across this:

Down at Cal State Fullerton, a new study has determined the economic cost of smog in California. According to the report, California loses $28 billion a year in medical bills and lost work time due to the health consequences of breathing disgusting particulate matter from car and industrial emissions. We sure could use that cash right about now, because a new report from the state's Legislative Analyst's Office has concluded that the state will face an annual $22 billion budget deficit until at least 2014.

Well, sure, smog costs us $28 billion a year--but this figure is meaningless unless you compare it with the costs of reducing or eliminating that smog. It could be the case that getting rid of that smog will cost more than $28 billion a year.

So take that East Bay Express reporter Chris Thompson! I'm keeping you honest!

The truth about Larry Summers

Via Ezra Klein, it turns out that a story going around about potential Treasury Secretary Larry Summers--that in a memo he advocated increasing pollution in "under-polluted" third-world countries--is false:

So when Max Blumenthal writes that “Summers authored a private memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries,” he’s lying. Either that, or he is guilty of gross journalistic incompetence for not researching the subject enough to know that Summers didn’t write the memo and that it didn’t earnestly argue for increased waste dumping.

Just for the record, I personally haven't formed an opinion of Summers--but I thought I might as well repost this here as a good internet Samaritan.