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EPA Press Advisory: (1) Earth Week: Your Chance to Recycle Old Electronics; (2) Grants Awarded to Study Effects of Environmental Contaminants on Tribal Populations; (3) Funding Now Available for Projects Focused on Protecting Older AdultsFollowing are some Agency developments which may interest you. If you need News for release: (Washington, D.C. -- April 21, 2004) (1) Earth Week: Your Chance to Recycle Old Electronics Dave Ryan 202-564-7827 / ryan.dave@epa.gov EPA's "Plug-In To eCycling" campaign encourages Americans to reuse or recycle their old electronics at special collection events nationwide in celebration of Earth Week this week (Earth Day is Thursday, April 22). The campaign is a key component of EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge, a national effort to find flexible, yet more protective ways to conserve our valuable resources through waste reduction and energy recovery activities. Plug-In To eCycling, launched in January 2003, is a consumer electronics campaign that aims to increase the availability of safe electronic recycling. Through year-round partnerships with the private and public sectors, EPA hopes to focus greater national attention on electronics recycling options and give Americans more opportunities to safely, conveniently, and affordably recycle their old electronics. Plug-In To eCycling partners are hosting several upcoming Earth Week events: AT&T Wireless and Dell will co-sponsor a large collection event for electronics recycling Saturday, April 24 at the Rock Creek National Park in Washington, D.C.; Staples will host in-store collections of electronics at 31 locations in Portland, Ore. and Seattle from April 21-May 8; Lexmark is partnering with Envirocycle to host a free household electronics collection event at its Lexington, Ky. headquarters facility on April 22; and Sharp will host, in cooperation with Clark County, an electronics collection event at its site in Camas, Washington. Intel will co-sponsor collection events on April 24 in Phoenix; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Hudson, Mass. Partners in local governments and community-based organizations will also host collection events where computers will be recycled or, in some cases, refurbished and donated to needy recipients. More information on the Plug- In To eCycling campaign and eCycling events is available at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/plugin/earthday.htm . (2) $2.2 Million in Research Grants Awarded to Better Protect Health of Native Americans Suzanne Ackerman 202-564-7819 / ackerman.suzanne@epa.gov To study the health effects of environmental contaminants on tribal populations, EPA announced $2.2 million in research partnership grants. These tribal-academic partnerships will focus on strategies to reduce the risk of exposure to mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, and other chemicals. Tribes may be at high risk for diseases because of environmental releases impacting their lands or due to their subsistence lifestyles or customs. Grants were awarded to: 1) Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Anchorage, Alaska for $449,000 to examine the content and preparation of traditional foods (seal, whale, walrus, sea bird eggs, berries) of the Siberian Yu'pik people, who show high serum levels of PCBs and pesticides; 2) Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Fla. for $437,399 to develop outreach tools and informational messages to reduce Alaskan Inupiats’ risk of hydrocarbon exposure from eating bowhead whales and bearded seals; 3) Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment, Inc., Hogansburg, N.Y. for $450,000 to examine the impacts of toxic substances on traditional cultural practices of the Haudenosaunee Nations; 4) Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore. for $449, 970 to prepare regional scenarios that illustrate where tribes are exposed to environmental contaminants; and 5) Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, Wis. for $445,830 to reduce risks of exposure to methylmercury from subsistence fishing by the Wisconsin Anishinaabe tribe. The projects were funded through EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) competitive grants program in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. More information about these grants is available at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipients.display/rfa_id/335 . For more information on EPA’s STAR program, see: http://es.epa.gov/ncer/ . (3) Funding Now Available for Projects Focused on Protecting Older Adults Enesta Jones 202-564-7873 / jones.enesta@epa.gov EPA is currently accepting applications for projects that help protect older adults from environmental hazards such as air and water pollution. Projects must address one or more of the following goals: 1) train older adults, retirees and semi-retirees to be environmental leaders in their communities; 2) demonstrate new or experimental technologies, methods or approaches that reduce exposure to environmental health hazards; 3) build state, local and tribal capacity to protect the health of older adults from environmental hazards; 4) develop and implement intergenerational strategies that reduce exposure to environmental health hazards, and 5) demonstrate how smart growth activities can improve the quality of life for older adults while improving environmental quality. State, local, tribal governments, including environmental, health and aging departments, as well as academic institutions and non-profit organizations, are eligible to apply by the pre-application deadline of June 28. A total of approximately $200,000 is available in funding for grants and cooperative agreements. More information is available at: http://www.epa.gov/aging/grants . These grants and cooperative agreements are part of EPA’s larger effort to protect the health of older adults, who may be more susceptible to environmental hazards, through its Aging Initiative. For more information, go to: http://www.epa.gov/aging . R073 # # # Release date:04/21/2004 Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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