October 2008

            By Kerry Fleisher

Slow Food Nation Tests Patience, In a Healthy Way

    Slow Food Nation’s “Come to the Table,” held last month at Fort Mason, drew foodies, epicureans, and novice eaters together to taste organically and sustainably grown foods.  The slow food movement, founded in the 1980’s by Italian Carlo Petrini, exhorts the most impatient eaters to slow down and re-conceive food as an art form, social responsibility, and culinary science.  Slogans such as ‘cook from scratch,’ ‘eat together,’ and ‘drink from the tap’ capture a movement that’s simple in theory, but a little tougher in practice, particularly when the only thing slower than the food at the event were the lines to get to it... (more...)

January 10, 2008
By Kerry Fleisher

San Francisco General Hospital’s Emergency Room: Long Lines In Exchange for High-Quality Care

The line at San Francisco General Hospital’s (SFGH) Emergency Care waiting room can be so long that, not infrequently, lower priority patients watch the sun rise and then set.  It can be so long that patients like Nahid Brohead have watched entire seasons of “Who’s the Boss” on the 20-inch television stationed in the corner, from episode one to the finale... (more...)

July 30, 2007
By Lorraine Sanders

Trashing Toxic Cosmetics

Ask any woman about her daily beauty rituals and she’ll be able to tell you exactly what products she uses, in what order and for what purpose. Most of us begin and end our day with personal care products, like shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste and soap. But those are just the basics... (more...)

July 30, 2007
By Kristin Abkemeier

Streamline Graphix Raises a Biodegradable Banner for Sustainability

Starting this summer, outdoor advertising banners and signs in San Francisco will turn over a new green leaf. Dogpatch-based Streamline Graphix will be the first Bay Area printer to print their large-scale outdoor banners on BIOflex, the only biodegradable vinyl sign material currently available... (more...)

May 28, 2007
By Alison Fromme

Autism Affects Bay Area Latinos

At the Perez household in San Mateo, skinny six-year-old Joshua momentarily stops playing among his sea of toys — a playhouse, a bouncy ball, a bike, an easel, and countless others — to hug a visitor. “Wanna meet my friend Zoe? Wanna meet my friend Zoe? Wanna meet my friend Zoe?” he asks eagerly, eyes darting around the room... (more...)

May 25, 2007
By Heather World

Toxic Lunch Box

When Isabel Samaras read that some vinyl lunch boxes contained lead, she ignored federal reassurances that the health risks were low, threw away her son’s Darth Vader model and posted signs at his preschool, Buen Dia, warning other parents of the danger... (more...)

April 25, 2007
By Steven J. Moss

Southeast San Francisco Home to a Number of Illegal Animal Boarding Facilities

Several San Francisco kennels have been especially noisy of late, and the ruckus hasn’t been coming from the dogs. The owners of two animal boarding facilities, Pet Camp and Reigning Dogs and Cats, say some of their competitors are operating illegally, and that the City should do more to enforce its permit requirements... (more...)

February 28, 2007
By Lorraine Sanders

Local Group Wants Israeli Goods of Rainbow Shelves

Reviving an effort that was defeated by pro-Israel activists four years ago, a group of Bay Area residents under the umbrella organization the Rainbow Boycott Israeli Goods (RBIG) hopes to convince worker-owned Rainbow Grocery, the longtime San Francisco purveyor of organic and health foods, to remove Israeli products from its shelves... (more...)

January 2, 2007
By Lorraine Sanders

Nail Salons May Cause Health Risks to Workers

Over the past half-decade intermittent outbreaks of dangerous mycobacterial infections from unsanitary foot spas at nail salons have left many consumers worried about the health risks of one their favorite pampering rituals... (more...)

November 16, 2006
By Gina Poggi

Trauma Recovery Center in it for the Long Term

When a patient doesn’t show up for a counseling session at the Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) it’s not unusual for staff members to search them out at a Tenderloin hotel, homeless camp or other non-traditional home. This assertive approach has helped the Center identify and treat more than 4,800 mostly low-income victims of violent crime since it opened in 2001... (more...)

November 16, 2006
By Hallie Gardner

Air Quality Data Suggests that for Some Bay Area Residents It's Not Safe to Inhale

Data recently released by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) reaffirms what many low-income Bay Area residents have observed first hand: growing up poor means that you’re far more likely to be raised in an unhealthy environment... (more...)

October 7, 2006
By Liz Fox

Organics Increase Demand for "Mano de Obra"

One morning in 1979 Phil Coturri needed an extra hand at his fledgling vineyard management company. He did the usual, and hired a worker's uncle who'd recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (more...)

October 7, 2006
By Liz Fox

Organic Wave By-passes the Mission’s Poor

A couple of years ago grocer Josue Ramirez bought a box of organic tomatoes to sell at his Mission store. Then he watched them sit, without a single sale. He lowered the price...(more...)

March 20, 2006
By Clifford Aggocs

Three Decades of Free Health Care for the Needy at the Potrero Hill Health Center

Thirty years of sunlight has faded the wooden façade behind the brassy letters that read “Caleb G. Clark Memorial Health Center.” (more...)

August 29, 2005
By Daniel Porras

Urban Racket and the Quest for Quiet

To walk around San Francisco is to swim through torrents of sound waves... (more...)

July 21, 2005
By Alison Fromme

Linking Human Health with Environmental Health

“Do you experience chronic nausea?” “Have you been diagnosed with asthma?” (more...)

June 28, 2005
By Daniel Porras

Local Greens Give New Life to Old Movement

Oil-covered birds; satellite images of burning rainforests; a big-budget Hollywood climate change action movie: we’ve seen it all... (more...)

March 26, 2005
By Daniel Porras

Candy is Dandy, But Hold the Poison

Imagine sweet watermelon mixed with guajillo chili powder, or a sugary paste of tamarind, citrus, and milled pepper... (more...)

February 17, 2005
By Lorraine Sanders

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning used to mean weeks of slogging away with horse-hair brushes and boiled-fat soaps... (more...)

February 22, 2005
By Lorraine Sanders

A Trend to Watch for Spring Faces: Safer Cosmetics

With San Francisco’s temperate climes, spring's arrival may not bring the same blessed relief it does to those unfortunate folks who've lived through winter’s frost... (more...)

January 14 2005
By Lorraine Sanders

Nail Salons May Contain Hidden Health Risks

Amid bottles labeled Pink Champagne Dreams and Dewey Fawn, many Bay Area women -- and an increasing number of men -- treat themselves to a weekly manicure/pedicure... (more...)