Month: April 2012

Just looking at this picture makes my lungs seize up; I am SO allergic to cats. On this episode of Distillations, we examine the science of allergies. First we look at the development of hypoallergenic pets. Then producer Gretchen Kuda Croen visits the first ever dust library – a collection of individual dust particles that could help health experts determine what components in the air are likely to make us sick.

Image courtesy of Flickr user admiller.

On this episode of Distillations, we examine asbestos. Once heralded as an ideal building material — light, cheap, and heat resistant — asbestos is now recognized as a major health hazard. Remediating asbestos-laden buildings is a time consuming and costly venture, so thousands of buildings sit vacant in abandoned lots throughout the country. Bob Kenworthy tells us about one of these waste sites in Ambler, PA. Then producer Larkin Page-Jacobs brings us to Pittsburgh, PA, where an architectural wonder of a school building sits crumbling.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.