TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2006
Wednesday Edition: Heat Stories
Everybody, it seems, needs new angles on how to cover the
heat wave(s) across the country.
Here are some of my own thoughts about stories you might pursue:
Electric bills are hitting the needy so hard this summer, the Salvation Army is overwhelmed.
It normally helps 75-80 families with their summer power bills, but more than 750 households are requesting help.
- How do utility companies
decide who to cut
off for non-payment of bills during the extreme-weather months? At what
point do companies make that decision? How far behind on your bills do
you have to be to get cut off? Does the utility company cut
anybody any slack?
The SEER rating system works much in the same way as miles per
gallon -- the higher the SEER value, the higher the efficiency. The old standard was 10 SEER. A 13 SEER unit is 30 percent
more efficient than the old standard, if it is installed correctly. These high-efficiency
units are obviously more expensive to buy than the kind you
could have bought last year, but they will, in theory, pay for
themselves in savings over time. One air-conditioning company explained:
(Equipment installed before 1980 generally has a SEER rating
of 7 to 8. SEER ratings also decrease over the life of a unit. To get
the exact energy-efficiency rating of your existing unit, you
may wish to contact an air-conditioning contractor with the
model numbers of your indoor and outdoor equipment, or look at
the energy-efficient label on equipment installed after 1988.)
For example, if your existing system's SEER is 7, and you
replace it with a system that has a SEER of 11.5, you'll save $507 a year on your electric bill.
Here is a bulletin that helps to explain why [PDF] sometimes, even when a higher SEER system is installed, it does not perform up to expectations.
- I also learned that, beginning in 2010
(just three years away), newly installed air-conditioning units will not use Freon (R-22) anymore. Some sellers are recommending that if you are
installing a new air-conditioning unit now to install one that
uses the more expensive Puron (R-410A) refrigerant.
At least a dozen manufacturers have already switched over to the new coolant. There is a common belief that,
after 2010, when manufacturers will not be allowed to produce Freon
units, older air conditioners that use Freon may be more difficult to maintain -- and Freon may get a lot more
expensive in a decade or so. The EPA disagrees,
and sees no major price change on the horizon. The guy who is
selling me my new air conditioner says there should be plenty of Freon around for the life of a unit that is installed now. A number of reputable HVAC sites confirms that. The EPA explains the timetable for the transition away from R-22:
January 1, 2004:
In accordance with the terms of the Montreal Protocol, the amount of
all HCFCs that can be produced nationwide must be reduced by 35 percent by
2004. In order to achieve this goal, the U.S. is ceasing production of
HCFC-141b, the most ozone-damaging of this class of chemicals, on
January 1, 2003. This production ban will greatly reduce nationwide use
of HCFCs as a group, making it likely that the 2004 deadline will have
a minimal effect on R-22 supplies.
January 1, 2010:
After 2010, chemical manufacturers may still produce R-22 to service
existing equipment, but not for use in new equipment. As a result,
heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system manufacturers
will only be able to use pre-existing supplies of R-22 to produce new
air conditioners and heat pumps. These existing supplies would include
R-22 recovered from existing equipment and recycled.
January 1, 2020:
Use of existing refrigerant, including refrigerant that has been
recovered and recycled, will be allowed beyond 2020 to service existing
systems, but chemical manufacturers will no longer be able to produce
R-22 to service existing air conditioners and heat pumps.
- What does "tons" mean when purchasing an air conditioner? When
describing how big an air conditioner/heating unit a home needs, one
would describe it in tons. A rough rule of thumb is that you need a ton for
every 500 square feet of space you are cooling/heating.
Here is a page that
explains how air conditioners work and how to calculate a unit size to
fit your needs. Here is an interesting tidbit: The word "ton" has
nothing to do with the weight of the unit. It is based on the old
measure of how much heat is absorbed by one ton of ice. Here is more about all of that, plus an explanation about BTUs, if you care.
Below are some more resources you might find useful while covering the heat wave:
Plan B Fast Track
In
seven states -- Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington and Vermont -- a woman may go
directly to a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist to begin emergency
contraception drug therapy or
Plan B. (We've covered this story before on Al's Morning Meeting.
Click here for our earlier coverage.)
It now appears that, within a few months, women
nationwide will be able to get the pill without a
prescription.
The Food and Drug Administraton surprised everyone this week by saying it wanted to meet with
Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. to
work out details about how Plan B can be made available to adults over
the counter, but would require a prescription for anyone younger than
18. Barr wanted girls 16
and older to be able to get the drug without a prescription.
Getthepill.com makes it easy for anybody to get the Plan B pill now. It is all done online.
This is a big deal, with lots of lingering controversy.
Still to be decided is
whether or not pharmacists in many states can opt out of dispensing Plan B by citing their own moral and religious beliefs. This issue is
an emerging one, as healthcare professionals around the country are asserting legal protections in so-called "right to life" cases.
There are plenty of people who oppose Plan B. The
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asserts that a fertilized egg, implanted or not, is human life:
But how deceptive to speak of a "fertilized egg" when it's a week-old
human embryo who's attempting to implant! Preventing implantation
causes the embryo to starve to death, a death that is just as final as
that produced by an abortion weeks later. There's no confusion among
scientists and doctors on this.
Groups that oppose Plan B sometimes call it "an abortion pill," which adds even more heat to the already convoluted discussion.
As Wired.com pointed out in 2005:
Scientists say the hubbub is hogwash because studies have shown that
the progestin hormone in Plan B prevents ovulation but does not affect
a fertilized egg, and therefore cannot be considered abortion.
"People mix up emergency contraception with abortion, and it is really
inaccurate," said Regine Sitruk-Ware, executive director of product
research and development at The Population Council,
a nonprofit that conducts research on reproductive science, including
birth control and abortion procedures. "Political opponents of abortion
want to prevent access to emergency contraception on the basis that it
may prevent implantation, and therefore would be a sort of early
abortive. This is not the case."
The Associated Press explains:
The pills, which do not work if a woman is already pregnant, prevent
ovulation or fertilization of an egg. They also may prevent the egg
from implanting into the uterus, considered the medical definition of
pregnancy, although recent research suggests that's not likely.
Laws in nine states allow pharmacists to dispense Plan B without a doctor's prescription under certain conditions.
Contraceptive advocates and doctors groups say easier access to Plan B
could halve the nation's 3 million annual unintended pregnancies.
Opponents say wider access to the pill could promote promiscuity.
The FDA's own scientists say the pills are safe, and in December 2003 a
panel of independent advisers overwhelmingly backed nonprescription
sales for all ages.
The FDA rejected that recommendation, citing concern that young teens
could use the pills without a doctor's supervision. Barr reapplied,
asking that women 16 and older be allowed to buy Plan B without a
prescription and setting up a program for pharmacists to enforce the
age rule -- just as stores now bar cigarette sales to minors.
Despite what so many media have reported, the approval is not a lock solid sure thing, but it appears close.
In its letter to Barr, the FDA made it clear it was still concerned about how the drug would be sold and how stores would keep it out of the hands of young girls:
Specifically, we would like to learn more about your proposal to
restrict distribution of Plan B to certain pharmacies, i.e., the OTC
version of Plan B would not be available at gas stations, convenience
stores, etc., but only to those pharmacies agreeing to (1) keep the OTC
version of the drug behind the pharmacy counter and (2) dispense the
drug only upon the production of a valid photo identification card
establishing the age of the consumer. In particular, we would
like to learn more about your plan to routinely monitor these
pharmacies to make sure they comply with the restricted distribution
plan. In addition, we are very interested in learning how you
plan on enforcing the restrictions if a pharmacy fails to comply with
them, e.g., whether the restrictions will be incorporated into the
terms of a formal contract and, if so, what the terms of that contract
(particularly those terms related to a breach) look like. If
after our discussions we conclude that the CARESM Program isn't
sufficiently rigorous to prevent the OTC version of Plan B from being
used by young girls who can't safely use the product without the
supervision of a practitioner licensed by law to administer the drug,
Plan B will remain Rx-only for women of all ages.
Summary of FDA information regarding Plan B tablets.
A Year After Katrina: The Faith Fallout
ReligionLink, the excellent resource from the Religion Newswriters Foundation provides this:
When Hurricane Katrina hit in late
August 2005, faith groups had a profound effect on rescue and recovery
efforts. A year later, people of faith say Hurricane Katrina
permanently changed much more than the Gulf Coast:
It changed the way religious groups help and heal in the wake of
disaster. Interviews with religious leaders revealed that they have
learned inspiring lessons about how to provide aid effectively. They've
committed to long-term recovery efforts and preparing for future
disasters. And they believe faith remains an untold story in the ways
it has touched the lives of survivors, caregivers and congregations.
ReligionLink offers topics for stories, linked to background articles
and reports. National and regional sources can address one or more of
these topics.
For other ideas and sources, see these past ReligionLink issues:
NPPA Opposed "Orphan Works Bill"
The National Press Photographers Association has taken a stand against the "orphan works bill" pending in Congress. NPPA says this legislation is vitally important to photojournalists:
Called "Orphan
Works," the bill supposedly aims at the issue of copyrighted work for
which the author cannot be found, either because of a missing credit
line or because the author is impossible to track down. If someone
claims that they can't find you, the bill would allow publication of
your photographs without your prior permission, without penalty, and in
some cases, without payment at all.
Read the actual language of the bill here.
The World's Biggest Man-Made Holes
OK, this has nothing to do with improving your journalism but it is nothing short of amazing. This is one of the world's largest man-made holes. It is a diamond mine in Siberia.
Make sure you locate the tiny arrow pointing to a huge truck inside the
mine as a matter of scale. The hole is so big that helicopters are not
allowed to fly over it, because the might get sucked in. Here it is on a Google map.
Here is a photo from AirLiners.net.
While I am at it, other notable holes include the Bingham Copper Mine in Utah and the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas,
edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites,
as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes
directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be
provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends
upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors
and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 11:41:14 PM
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