The iconic Michigan steamship, the SS Badger, may lose its permit to dump spent coal into Lake Michigan.

When it came to environmental issues, 2012 ended on a positive note. We will work to continue that trend in 2013.

MEC Development Director Andy Draheim's recent letter to his friends and family encapsulated his reasons for supporting Proposal 3, the 25x25 renewable energy standard on Michigan's ballot. We provide it here as an educational and outreach tool to YOUR friends and family who are interested in cutting through the confusing fog of television advertising and overwrought hyperbole.

The Michigan Environmental Council today applauded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to cut in half the reference value for lead in children’s blood. There is no safe level of lead, and the CDC action is a step in the right direction.

As clean air standards are debated in Congress this year, a Michigan environmental group has hired two dynamic residents to help ensure our children will be guaranteed clean and safe air.

New campaign will make Michigan a healthy place for kids to grow and thrive.

A Michigan Environmental Council report that drew more than 120 legislators and policymakers to a State Capitol briefing in June shows the state’s oldest coal-fired electricity plants cost Michiganders $1.5 billion annually in health care expenses. “Public Health Impacts of Old Coal-Fired Power Plants in Michigan” examines pollution from small particulate matter – the main component in soot.

The Michigan Environmental Council called on the State Legislature to provide greater oversight of Michigan utilities today following the release of a report showing that the state’s oldest coal-fired electricity plants cost Michiganders $1.5 billion annually in health care costs.

This report quantifies the economic burden and health toll that the state’s oldest coal-fired power plants create. It examines pollution from small particulate matter – the main component in smog. The report found that the state’s nine oldest coal plants cost a family of four an average of over $500 per year in expenses and damages associated with increased hospital admissions, premature deaths and treatments for asthma, respiratory ailments, and cardiovascular problems, among others. The study also estimated national impacts of Michigan’s old coal power plants, finding that they are responsible for $5.4 billion in health care costs – mostly in the Great Lakes region where much of the pollution falls out. Those plants began operation between 1949 and 1968 and are among the most polluting and least efficient in the state.

Michigan parents would have new tools to help keep their kids safe from toxic chemicals in toys under legislation expected soon in the State Senate. The bill would require large toy manufacturers and importers to disclose their use of hazardous chemicals in children’s products.

Michigan parents would have new tools to help keep their kids safe from toxic chemicals in toys under legislation expected soon in the State Senate. The bill would require large toy manufacturers and importers to disclose their use of hazardous chemicals in children's products.

A new initiative by MEC member group LocalMotionGreen aims to reduce the use of toxic pesticides on lawns and gardens in Grosse Pointe and all of Southeast Michigan.

Below is a partial list of chemicals used by hydraulic fracturing companies in Pennsylvania, according to research by that state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Companies are not required to disclose the amounts or types of chemicals used in their fracking fluids.

A coalition dedicated to protecting children from toxic exposure is asking Michigan candidates to take a stand this election season

Phosphorus in automatic dishwasher detergents became a thing of the past in Michigan when a statewide ban took effect on July 1.

The Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) today requested the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigate deficiencies in Michigan’s implementation of the Clean Air Act. Those deficiencies stem from underfunding of the state’s air program.

A new Michigan law banning smoking at bars, restaurants, and all other worksites, with the exception of the gaming floors of the three Detroit casinos and existing cigar bars and tobacco specialty stores, will become effective on May 1 of this year. The Michigan Environmental Council preferred a ban without the exceptions, but supported the final legislation, which was passed by the Michigan Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Dec. 18, 2009. Some frequently asked questions about the ban are reprinted below.

A dangerous fire retardant would be phased out in favor of less toxic alternatives in Michigan under legislation passed overwhelmingly in the State House of Representatives in January.

Politics and constant transition in Detroit’s leadership this year has frustrated Detroiters working to establish cleaner, cheaper alternatives to the Detroit incinerator for disposal of the city’s garbage. But MEC Community Outreach Director Sandra Turner-Handy has been at the forefront of the effort, meeting with mayoral staffers and key allies in Detroit in an effort to keep the politics of confusion from undermining good policy decisions.

Pesticides are chemicals used to kill plants, insects, rodents, and other pests. Pesticide exposure in children is linked to increases in cancer, hyperactivity, developmental delays, behavior problems including ADHD, and physical limitations. Learn simple steps to protect your family from exposure to pesticides.

The Great Lakes Health Banner—a powerful documentary of the work of Great Lakes and Michigan organizations concerned about the health effects of toxins and the lack of effective action by elected officials—is making a comeback.

A blueprint for a cleaner, healthier, cheaper way of handling Detroit’s waste is being considered by Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. in the wake of the city’s decision to stop burning garbage at the expensive, polluting Detroit incinerator.

Last year my son Bryan, now 13, and I participated in a seven-state project called “Is It In Us?” intended to find out whether toxic chemicals used in everyday products have found their way into the bodies of average people. The answer, for us and the 33 participants in six other states, was a frightening and absolute “yes.”

Lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals do not belong in toys or children’s products. Unfortunately, as the recall of nearly five million toys and children’s products containing lead in the U.S. in 2008 demonstrates, our federal system has failed to protect Michigan’s children from toxic toys.

The Michigan Environmental Council supported member group Ecology Center in defending itself from a frivolous lawsuit filed by Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals. The company’s suit was designed, in MEC’s opinion, to thwart efforts by the Center and others, including MEC, from pursuing legislation to restrict the dangerous chemical’s use on children.

When Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region IV Administrator Mary Gade was forced from office in early May, it ignited a firestorm of controversy. Gade had aggressively tried to force Dow Chemical Co. to clean up waterways that have for decades been laced with toxic dioxin from the company’s Midland, MI plant.

The Michigan Environmental Council and its allies from the public health community scored an important victory in late 2007 with the passage of state laws protecting children from lead poisoning.

The first consumer action guide to toxic chemicals in children’s toys was launched by the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center on the eve of the holiday shopping season—creating a crescendo of national publicity and awareness

In each issue of the Michigan Environmental Report, we celebrate accomplishments by MEC and member groups.

The Greater Grand Rapids Children’s Environmental Health Initiative recently earned recognition from federal agencies as one of four national models of community collaboration projects.

Artificial Christmas trees are not the only holiday decoration containing lead—a potent neurotoxin that is especially dangerous to the developing brains and bodies of young children.

Michigan’s only oil refinery wants to get bigger, potentially adding to air pollution in a southwest Detroit neighborhood that already is bordered by two expressways, a steel mill, a salt mine, and dozens of other heavy-duty industrial facilities.

Particulate matter pollution - more commonly known as smog - from industrial sources, including oil refineries, can trigger heart attacks, respiratory illness and asthma attacks in children.

Toys should be safe. It is just common sense that the things we give to young children—and that almost certainly end up in their mouths—should not contain lead and other hazards.

Huge factory farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), need to be more accountable to the environment and public health, contends a coalition including the Michigan Environmental Council, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan and many others.

After six years enduring intense smells and numerous discharges of maraschino cherry wastewater from the Williamsburg Receiving & Storage Co. (WRS), a group of neighbors, supported by the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC), reached a settlement in Grand Traverse County Circuit Court earlier this year.

Machine gun training spewing unregulated amounts of toxic lead into Great Lakes sediment was halted—then shelved indefinitely—by the U.S. Coast Guard after a chorus of objections from across the region.

An MEC-led coalition helped stop a controversial proposal to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to acquire the grounds of the former Big Rock Point nuclear power plant near Charlevoix.