Worldchanging covered an important conference on an often-neglected concept:

An international conference on Ecological Safety, held earlier this month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, called attention to a dangerous sanitation issue by offering an inspiring and feasible solution.

The problem: international donors are still promoting pit latrines... but most families can't afford to pay for safe emptying of the pits... the latrines can become dangerous as a result, often leaking and polluting puddles in nearby streets and gardens, leaking into streams or even leaching into groundwater. Contamination ruins an already-limited clean drinking water supply, and puts the local community, particularly children, at risk for bacterial disease.

A new and more sustainable sanitation system promises to change the game, if advocates can generate the resources and policy action necessary to support it. According to Sascha Gabizon, executive director of WCEF, dry or low-flush urine diverting toilets, combined with natural filtration ponds to purify grey water from sinks and showers, is a much safer sanitation system that can be implemented at a cost similar to that of the latrines.

With toilets accounting for something like 30% of U.S. residential indoor water consumption and over a billion people lacking access to clean drinking water, toilet issues start to become well worth discussing.

Here are some resources to learn a lot more about how we might help build better toilets to save the world (all 3 big, slow pdf's):
1. Smart Sanitation Solutions: Examples of innovative, low-cost technologies for toilets, collection, transportation, treatment and use of sanitation products.

2. Sustainable Sanitation: Bulgarian project referenced in the article cited above. And, with some of the best cover art I've seen:

3. From the Global Dry Toilet Club of Finland (really): A Guide to Sanitation and Hygiene For Those Working In Developing Countries.

Happy (aggressive) composting!

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So I am a Blackberry addict, had a Blackberry for 4 years already and I realized last year that I can no longer use the bathroom unless I have my Blackberry available. I can easily urine, but #2 will need to come out by force if I dont have my Blackberry on me. pa href=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/hXwxGEsynIgt9gphgiD7MA0LwR0/aimg src=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/hXwxGEsynIgt9gphgiD7MA0LwR0/i border=0 ismap=true //a/pimg src=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~4/iwc6sEwsUWg height=1 width=1 /br[a href=http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqBGfHcmOM5rGOcbtNjAvUm5QAx.;_ylv=3?qid=20081126192658AAWwt1m title=linklink/a] [a href=http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~3/iwc6sEwsUWg/I_am_a_Blackberry_addict_and_have_a_problem_Y_Answers title=moremore/a]

iInternational journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, Vol. 16, No. 2. (2003), pp. 113-124./ibr /br /Breast cancer is responsible for considerable morbidity and the majority of female deaths in industrialized countries. In the etiology of breast cancer many endogenous and exogenous risk factors have been discussed. It is estimated that about 40% of all cancers in women are hormonally mediated. Both estrogens and androgens play critical roles in the development of breast cancer, which has been confirmed by numerous epidemiologic data on the levels of serum and urine hormons in populations at low and high risk, as well as by case-control and cohort studies. Estrogen carcinogenesis is attributed to receptor-mediated growth and proliferation of breast epithelial cells and to DNA impairment caused by activated estrogen metabolites, e.g., catechol estrogens and free radicals. In the last decade, the organochlorine chemicals, which include pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyl congeners and other representatives of the dioxin family, have been regarded as xenoestrogens. These chemicals are capable of modulating hormonally regulated processes and inducing changes in growth factors that may be responsible for carcinogenic effect. Many case-control studies have shown the distinct association between breast adipose tissue concentrations of several organochlorine xenoestrogens and breast cancer risk. Also in some studies, the women with breast cancer had higher organochlorine levels in serum as compared with controls.br /iA Starek/i