TRAINED HONEYBEES SNIFF OUT LAND MINES

It's not just the honey that makes bees so attractive. A University of Montana researcher has discovered these ubiquitous buzzing insects have capabilities far sweeter.

After 30 years of study, Jerry Bromenshenk of the University Faculty Association/MEA-MFT, the merged AFT-NEA affiliate in Montana, has trained bees to sniff out land mines. After teaching the bees to associate the scent of explosives with food, he set them loose to swarm over known mine sites. He tracks them with lidar, a radar-like laser, mapping mined areas from a safe distance.

The Red Cross estimates that 80 million to 120 million land mines remain unexploded in about 70 countries, killing or maiming thousands of people annually. “If dogs were to sniff out all of the existing land mines known today, it would take 500 years,” says fellow union member Steve Rice. “If we were to use bees ... we could do it in under 50.”

Bromenshenk began his research recording the environmental impact of coal plants on bees. He discovered that bees, which he calls “flying dust mops,” collect pollutants and other particles on their statically charged hairs, bringing them back to the hive where they can be analyzed. The little critters have since been used to sample SuperFund sites, record fallout from Chernobyl and investigate carcinogens at military landfills.

For land-mined countries, bees fly in with an additional advantage: They help restore land to agriculture by pollinating newly planted crops. Local “bee wranglers” can use existing colonies—every country has bees—and local materials for the hives.

INDIANA MEMBERS SAVE 2-YEAR-OLD CHILD

Quick thinking by Indiana toll attendants Marlene Hemrick and Joseph Rauen helped save the life of a 2-year-old child who stopped breathing.

Hemrick and Rauen, both members of the Indiana Unity Team, were working at the Angola Toll Plaza in northeast Indiana when a car pulled into a lane—heading the wrong direction—around 6:45 p.m. Dec. 20.

“I was going to wave the car back,” says Hemrick, “[until] I saw a lady with a baby in her arms saying, ‘Help me, help me.’”

“The mother was screaming that the child was not breathing,” recalls Rauen.

Hemrick took the boy into her booth and called 911. Meanwhile, Rauen closed his traffic lane and rushed to the boy’s side. “The child was in and out of consciousness,” says Rauen, a Red Cross-trained CPR instructor.

As the pair waited for emergency services to arrive, Rauen assessed the boy’s condition—checking his airways and his pupils, among other things. Then the boy stopped breathing. “He started turning blue, and his eyes rolled back into his head,” says Rauen, who then performed CPR until emergency crews arrived.

ALABAMA LOCAL HELPS DISTRICT WIN EPA AWARD

thanks to the efforts of the jefferson County (Ala.) American Federation of Teachers (JCAFT), the county’s public school district was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December with a Tools for Schools Excellence Award. The award recognizes schools that have shown an extraordinary commitment to improving indoor air quality.

JCAFT president Vi Parramore notes that the award would not have been possible without the work of the AFT local, which encouraged the school district to adopt the EPA’s Tools for Schools program.

The Tools for Schools program teaches schools how to identify, resolve and prevent indoor air-quality problems using low- or no-cost measures. Participants learn about indoor air-quality management as well as facility planning, maintenance and emergency response.

The union began working with the school system on indoor air-quality problems after some students and staff at Rudd Middle School in Pinson, Ala., became sick as the result of a renovation and construction project two years ago. Since that incident, the local and school district have established an indoor air-quality committee to address problems at other schools. In addition, the Indoor Air-Quality Tools for Schools program has been implemented in every school in the county.