Sayre Quevedo, Turnstyle News

State and federal governments are implementing new policies requiring schools to provide free drinking water in cafeterias at lunchtime, to promote health and fight obesity. Ideally, schools install “hydration stations” where students fill up reusable bottles with chilled, filtered water. But plenty of schools have to make due with old-fashioned water fountains.

That's definitely the case at my old high school (I graduated in the spring). A few months before California's law took effect, I spoke with my principal, Carmelo Sgarlato. He hadn't heard of it. But even after I told him, Sgarlato said that if it were up to him, there'd be lots of other upgrades that would come before water at our school. “Ventilation," he said, "way more important in this building because we have no windows that really open. Repairing leaks to cut down mold buildup. Those are two major areas that I would put money into before water.”

Plus, according to both state and federal law, my school is in compliance with the new water policies.The lunchroom water fountain counts. But in the eyes of most students I spoke to, like my friend Jessie Chen, water fountains are just nasty.

By Sayre Quevedo, Turnstyle News

It sounds so simple. We know kids get thirsty at school. Why not make fresh tap water readily available in the cafeteria? It's free and a whole lot healthier than sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages.

Alas, like so many issues in public education, it turns out the reality is a lot more complicated than that. California Food Policy Advocates reports that more than 40% of school districts responding to a survey in 2009 said they did not have access to free drinking water. A new law aims to change all that. It says by July 2011, schools will be required to offer free, fresh water to students during mealtimes.

To find out why access to water's so important, and what the research says about student attitudes, reporter Sayre Quevedo interviewed UCSF Professor Anisha Patel.

Patel: "Another thing that has been studied is improving cognition. There have been studies where they’ve provided students with water and looked at cognitive function and found an association. Schools anecdotally a lot of times do provide water for testing, which we find interesting. So maybe they’ve also noticed this association… That’s one thing that policy-makers and school officials could be excited about, improving performance of students in their schools."

For the full interview, listen here.

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By: Brett Myers

An array of software and interactive tools have been released in the wake of the 8.9 earthquake in Japan last week.

Google’s Person Finder was launched within hours of the disaster, and Google has steadily been adding resources to the page including maps, message boards, and updates about blackouts, transportation and shelters. But another company has revealed itself as a major player in the world of analytics – ESRI.

The mapping company has just released an extraordinary interactive map organizing multiple layers of information including recent You Tube videos, Tweets, and Flickr posts from areas devastated by the quake (screen shot above).

What is ESRI? As best I can tell, the company based in Redlands, California with 2700 employees throughout the country, is the man behind the man. Simon Thompson, a member of the team that designed the earthquake map, says ESRI’s clients run the gamut from disaster relief NGO’s and federal agencies like FEMA, to utility companies, insurers, and municipal governments.

I love the rain. The distant raindrops that are almost forgotten in the summer are close to a relief to me. I guess you can say that I like feeling the individual cold raindrops all at once against the warmness of my skin. But at the same time, I always carry an umbrella around and always wear a jacket and good rain shoes. I like the fact that it’s so cold outside and inside is always warm. Not like in the summer when it gets too hot and sometimes not even a fan can help you cool down. This is the only season that is perfectly balanced with the temperatures.

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Andrea Hill

In the middle of the ocean there is a swarm of plastic the size of Texas. I know it may seem like there’s nothing we can do about it but there is a solution, and it starts at my High School.

The other day, a speaker came to my classroom, talking about the plastic gyres he witnessed around the world. He showed us a picture of a fish that consumed plastic and when they cut the fish open, the plastic was all over its insides. It takes a passionate person to ignite people, and the speaker ignited me. Now I’m trying to do the same to my classmates about their trashy habits.

Some days my school looks likes like a plastic tornado hit it, and a lot of that litter ends up in the ocean.

A lot of my peers seem to overlook the consequences of using so many disposable water bottles. So, I make the message clearer by explaining that the plastic they’re drinking from today, might end up in the belly of a sea otter in a month or decade from now.

Even though I’m called a flower child or eco lover, which is really bothersome sometimes, I’m committed to being an environmentalist.

I changed my friend’s habits from using many water bottles a week to just one. That’s a start, and it’s also what keeps me going.

Previously:

• Acting Gay
• Quitting Football and Falling In Love
• When Is Ambition Dangerous

By: Michael Jones and Susana Vuong

There’s a risk in drinking too much water?! IMPOSSIBLE! Water is supposed to be healthy for you no matter what! How can you drink too much of it? GUESS WHAT? Although it is true that it’s really hard to overdose on water, it’s not impossible to be harmed from drinking large amounts of water.

So I’m sure people have heard of the term dehydration right? It’s when the body does not have enough fluids. In simple terms, it literally means your body is being drained of water. That’s when you become thirsty, your body is craving water. Check this out, there is such a thing call hyponatremia. Drinking too much water causes low sodium in the blood. Sodium is important to the body because it helps regulate the amounts of water in the body that flows to the nerves and muscles.

So next time you hear people tell you it’s impossible to drink too much water, you can. It’s also hard to drink 8 glasses of water a day if you don’t exercise which most people don’t tend to do on a daily basis. In order to lead a healthy life, drinking at least 2 to 6 glasses of water is recommended. Dr. Heinz Valtin, who was interviewed in the June 2008 issue of the Nutrition Action Health Letter stated that none of the statements: “drinking eight classes of water a day” or “it’s impossible to drink too much water” have ever been proven.

There are some reasons however, why some people tend to drink more water than others. One reason being, when you exercise you sweat; sweating is losing water so naturally the body would want that liquid back, causing people to drink more water. Another reason being is that larger people need to drink more fluids than smaller people (and here I thought there was something wrong with me). Also, people who eat meat will get less water in their foods. In other words, vegetable lovers will tend to drink less water because they already get some of it from eating their veggies.

People are now drinking more calories rather than getting it from their foods, which makes it hard to lose weight and have a healthy diet. Even juice now isn’t so healthy because of all the excess sugar that has been added. Although juice and soda might give you a boost of energy for a while, you will crash later. The less energy you have, the harder you have to fight. So the best choice to drink is water.
 

Stories like this can be found on Youth Radio Eats

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Anna Pieri and Megan Maerz

Our San Francisco Bay is known across the globe for its iconic beauty, but it may not be so for long. Bay monitoring shows that contaminants are slowly increasing.

The first time I volunteered at the annual Coastal Cleanup, I was shocked by the amount of trash that ends up in our bay. Combing through the grass, we found plastic bags, bottle caps, and beer cans as far as 10 feet off the road.

I wondered how anyone could be thoughtless enough to litter and put marine animals in danger. I found out that even in “green” Marin, water pollutants can be found everywhere.

Fertilizers cause algae blooms that suffocate fish. Shampoo and other cleaning products can contain neurotoxic ingredients. Dumping car oil down the sewer can cause the same kind of problems as an oil tanker spill, since a single gallon of oil can spread to contaminate a million gallons of water.

But oil isn’t the only thing that spreads – since finding out about these pollution problems, my friends and I have been spreading the word about our everyday impact on the Bay.

Here are ten tips worth sharing about how to reduce water pollution in the bay.

1. Use household products that are all-natural and non-toxic.

2. Don’t overuse pesticides and fertilizers on your lawn or garden. Plain apple vinegar can be used as an effective weed killer in your home garden!

3. Check your car regularly for oil or antifreeze leaks.

4. Dispose of motor oil properly. The Jiffy Lube in San Rafael recycles used motor oil into lubricating oil!

5. Don’t litter.

6. Participate in the annual Coastal Cleanup at Rodeo Beach to pick up litter before it harms ocean wildlife.

7. Wash your car at commercial car washes. They use less water than is typically used at home, and the soapy water is treated.

8. Dispose of hazardous waste like paint and appliances correctly.

9. Do not overwater lawns and gardens. Overwatering can flush large quantities of pesticides and fertilizer directly into storm drains.

10. Compost garden and kitchen waste. Compost can be used as a fertilizer, reducing nitrate runoff from artificial fertilizers.

Previously:

• The Oceans Are Dying
• Toxic Schools: The Video
• Toxic Schooling: The Story Behind the Scoop

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