Why Everyone with Kids Should Care about Environmental Issues

This post originally appeared on Healthy Child Healthy World, a nonprofit devoted to improving children's environmental health. In honor of the publication of her new book, The Rise of the U.S. Environmental Health Movement, we asked author Kate Davies to answer the following questions from our community members interested in ecofriendly living and kids' health. Davies, core faculty at Antioch University Seattle's Center for Creative Change and clinical associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, has been working on environmental health issues for 35 years. Who is considered the godfather (mother?) of the environmental health movement? What did he/she do and how did it get the ball rolling? I consider Lois Gibbs the "mother" of the movement. In 1978, she organized her neighbors to protest the health effects of a toxic waste dump in Love Canal, New York. Gibbs and her neighbors faced the scary realization that their children were seriously ill just because of where they lived. They fought the government and won. The disaster at Love Canal marks the birth of the environmental health movement. Although Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the public to the health effects of toxics some 16 year earlier, it wasn't until 1978 that local activists began to express their concerns and organize collective action. From these humble beginnings, environmental health has grown into the national and international movement it is today. What do you think are the top three "outdoors" environmental factors (air pollution, water pollution, soil, etc.) that parents should be concerned about with regard to their children's health? It is important to minimize children's exposure to pesticides in gardens, parks, and playgrounds. Many municipalities now post warning signs when they spray public areas so it's easy for parents and children to avoid them. Ingesting contaminated soil is a related issue, especially for toddlers and young children who want to put everything in their mouths. Soil is more likely to be contaminated in areas that are close to hazardous facilities or major transportation corridors. Other significant "outdoor" exposures are smog and air pollution, so parents should follow all health advisories, especially if your child has asthma or other respiratory problems. It can be difficult to separate the "outdoor" environment from what's "indoors" because almost everything "indoors" comes from somewhere outdoors. Just think about food: It's grown outdoors, but most of us eat indoors. Similarly, outdoor pesticides can easily be tracked indoors on shoes or clothing. So are they "outdoor" or "indoor" factors? Clearly, they're both. What is the single most important area in which folks need to make changes in order to support a healthier environment?  In addition to buying safer products, we need stronger policies and legislation to protect environmental health. Many low-income parents cannot afford to buy organic food or less-toxic products, so laws that protect everyone's health are necessary. That's why joining and supporting environmental health groups is so important. These groups have been lobbying for better policies and legislation for almost 35 years, and they are very good at it. For example, over 900 toxics policies were proposed or enacted in the U.S. between 1990 and 2009, and between 2003 and 2011, 18 states passed 71 chemical safety laws. In addition to passing state and local legislation, we need better federal legislation. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is seriously ineffective and out of date. In fact, this act is the only piece of 1970s federal environmental legislation that hasn't been overhauled. On May 22, a new bipartisan bill to reform TSCA was introduced in the Senate, however, many in the environmental health movement are concerned that it contains too many compromises and giveaways to the chemical industry. If you care about environmental health, I urge you to support Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, the national coalition that is lobbying for stronger legislation, and contact your state senators and ask them to strengthen the bill. Why aren't more doctors taught about environmental health? None of mine ever mention it, and they look at me funny when I ask questions. Why? This is a great question. Unlike the nursing profession, physicians have been reluctant to embrace environmental health. I think this is because of the medical profession's views about how to improve people's health. With its belief in curative approaches to health, the medical profession devotes its energies to treating people after they've gotten sick. In fact, it could be said that the United States has a system for sickness care, not health care. This approach ignores the importance of preventing diseases and disabilities before people get sick. And because of this, it overlooks the fact that improvements in environmental quality would reduce the rates of many environmentally related diseases. Even today, many physicians are skeptical about the influence of the environment on health and well-being. Having said that, there are many physicians who care about environmental health. For example, Physicians for Social Responsibility has several publications on children's environmental health and offers training programs. More from Healthy Child Healthy World • 5 Questions on Environmental Health with Dr. Trasande • The AAP Supports Safer Chemicals, Dr. Green Rejoices • U.S. Senate Faces Chemical Safety…Again via Rodale News http://www.rodale.com/environmental-issues-kids

DIY: How to Save Heirloom Tomato Seeds for Annual Growing

So you've grown that perfect heirloom tomato in your garden, or you've bought a tomato at the farmer's market that you absolutely must grow.  Why not save tomato seeds from those perfect tomatoes, so you can  grow them again next year? It's a simple process, and you'll have plenty  of seeds for your garden, as well as to share with your gardening friends. Read the rest of DIY: How to Save Heirloom Tomato Seeds for Annual Growing via INHABITAT

Mushrooms

Mushrooms via Daily Nature Photo -- The Nature Conservancy http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DailyNature/~3/P2mrSYRpHcU/mushrooms.html

Economists Debate Whether the McDonald’s Hamburger is the Most Nutritious and Inexpensive Food in Human History

Fast food offers a cheap and calorie-rich option to fill your stomach,  but can it be considered the "most bountiful food" of all time? The Freakonomics authors and radio broadcasters are asking just that question after receiving a comment from a reader named Ralph Thomas. He asserts that a McDonald's double burger is, "at 390 Calories, 23g (half a daily serving) of protein, 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and iron, etc., is the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history." The statement so intrigued the Freakonomics team, that they put the subject up for debate on their website. Read the rest of Economists Debate Whether the McDonald's Hamburger is the Most Nutritious and Inexpensive Food in Human History via INHABITAT http://inhabitat.feedsportal.com/c/34923/f/648037/s/3044f92d/sc/14/l/0Linhabitat0N0Ceconomists0Edebate0Ewhether0Ethe0Emcdonalds0Ehamburger0Eis0Ethe0Emost0Enutritious0Eand0Einexpensive0Efood0Ein0Ehuman0Ehistory0C/story01.htm

FDA study: Do added nutrients sell products? (Of course they do)

The FDA has announced that it will be studying the effects of nutrient-content claims on consumers attitudes about food products. FDA does not encourage the addition of nutrients to certain food products (including sugars or snack foods such as [cookies] candies, and carbonated beverages). FDA is interested in studying whether fortification of these foods could cause consumers to believe that substituting fortified snack foods for more nutritious foods would ensure a nutritionally sound diet. Here's one of my favorite examples of what the FDA is talking about. I'm guessing the FDA's new research project is a response to increasing pressure from food companies to be allowed to add nutrients to cookies, candies, and soft drinks. Food marketers know perfectly well that nutrients sell food products.  The whole point of doing so is to be able to make nutrient-content claims on package labels. The FDA has never been happy about the practice of adding nutrients to junk foods just to make them seem healthy.   Its guidance includes what is commonly known as the "jelly bean rule."   You may not add nutrients to jelly beans to make them eligible to be used in school lunches. But this does not stop food manufacturers—especially soft drink manufacturers—from trying.  Hence: Vitamin Water (now owned by Coca-Cola). Plenty of research demonstrates that nutrients sell food products.  Any health or health-like claim on a food product—vitamins added, no trans fats, organic—makes people believe that the product has fewer calories and is a health food. As I keep saying, added vitamins are about marketing, not health. via Food Politics http://www.foodpolitics.com/2013/08/fda-study-do-added-nutrients-sell-products-of-course-they-do/

EcoSmart World’s Refillable Markers Won’t Make Your Kid Funny in the Head on Art Days

Remember when you were a kid and the worst thing about art day was those  terrible Magic Markers. They gave you all those crappy off colors, smelled  funny, and scratched terribly against paper when they were dry. Worst yet  you had to toss out all that plastic once you were done with them.  EcoSmart World has something better in mind with their eco-friendly markers that you can even refill. via INHABITAT

10 Brilliant Green ‘Designs to Improve Life’ Shortlisted for the 2013 INDEX: Award!

Read the rest of 10 Brilliant Green 'Designs to Improve Life' Shortlisted for the 2013 INDEX: Award!

Floating Harvest Dome Made of 450 Umbrellas Returns to NYC!

New Yorkers who weren't able to catch the mysterious, floating Harvest Dome before it crashed into Riker's Island now have a second chance to view it. Harvest Dome 2.0 is a new, improved version of the delicate art installation made from 450 found umbrellas. Read on to find out where and when to see it. via INHABITAT

Fwd: Is Your Yard Killing Bees?

Bees are in serious trouble. The tiny little pollinators, that save U.S. farmers billions of dollars in pollination services, are dying off by the thousads—a travesty that has led many a home gardener to plant "bee-friendly" plants in their yards and gardens to provide a refuge for bees, far away from the toxic agricultural pesticides many scientists believe could be playing a role in their die-off. 

But a new report, titled Gardeners Beware: Bee-Toxic Pesticides Found in "Bee-Friendly" Plants Sold at Garden Centers Nationwide, from Friends of the Earth US, Pesticide Action Network and the Pesticide Research Institute finds that home gardens could be poisoning bees just as badly as large farms. The groups bought plants marketed as "bee friendly" at big-box home improvement stores in the Washington DC, San Francisco and Minneapolis metropolitan areas, and found that seven out of 13 tested positive for neonicotinoids, pesticides known to be deadly to bees.

 

The plants purchased for the report included a number of flowers and vegetables popular among home gardeners who want to attract bees and pollinators to their gardens: tomato and summer squash starts, herbs, pumpkins, gaillardia, daisies, zinnias and asters. Most samples tested positive for one neonicotinoid but the two gaillardia samples each tested positive for two types of the pesticide. 

"The pilot study confirms that many of the plants sold in nurseries and garden stores across the U.S. have been pre-treated with systemic neonicotinoid insecticides, making them potentially toxic to pollinators," said Timothy Brown, PhD, of the Pesticide Research Institute, in a statement. "Unfortunately, these pesticides don't break down quickly—they remain in the plants and the soil and can continue to affect pollinators for months to years after the treatment," Brown said. 

Agricultural researchers have been sounding the alarm on neonicotinoids for years. The pesticides are systemic, meaning they're absorbed by a plant's roots and then travel into the pollen and nectar on which bees feed.  Even if the pesticides exist in low enough levels as to not kill bees, the new report states, they can still compromise a bee's immune system, impair a bee's ability to forage and exacerbate the effects of any other infections or diseases a bee might contract. 

Because these pesticides are commonly used on large agricultural fields, they've been fingered as one of a complex set of factors that cause colony collapse disorder, the mysterious phenomenon that has decimated beehives since 2006. Yet, as this report shows, home gardens could be just as toxic to bees as massive monocrop fields, given that many home and garden centers treat plants with systemic pesticides to kill insects. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has just announced that they have developed new pesticide labels that will sound an alarm on any neonicotinoid pesticide, whether for use in homes or on large farms. The labels state that the use of those pesticides is prohibited anywhere bees are present. 

However, it's unlikely those labels will show up on plants. Your move? Go organic. 

1.  Seek out USDA Organic-certified seeds and plant starts. They're prohibited from being treated with pesticides of any sort. And that goes for flowers as well.
2. Evict pesticides. Even though the EPA's new labels will help protect bees, why risk killing any in the first place? The new report lists 55 pesticides sold to consumers that contain active neonicotinoid pesticides toxic to bees. In saving the bees, you'll be saving yourself: The inactive ingredients in pesticide formulations are often more harmful to human health than the active ingredient.
3. Plant WILDflowers. Attract and feed wild bees by growing lots of flowering plants from spring though fall, especially native wildflowers, which attract not only bees but also birds and other wildlife that thrives in your local climate.
4. Go au natural. Leave a part of your landscape uncultivated. Many native bee species are solitary, rather than social, meaning they don't build hives. Some nest in the ground, others, in shrubby, weedy areas.
5. Call your congressman! A bill currently floating through Congress, Saving America's Pollinators Act of 2013, would call for national measures to protect bees, beyond simply labeling pesticides.Tell your local reps to support the act here.

Read more at Rodale…

Your Child's Anxiety Trigger

In baseball, it's three strikes and you're out. That doesn't seem to be the case for bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical that acts like estrogen and tampers with the body's normal hormone functioning. In study after study, researchers have been implicating the common chemical in the growing prevalance of ailments like obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes, infertility, and behavioral problems. 

Despite all of the bad BPA news coming from non-industry-funded researchers, BPA's still "in play" when it comes to consumer products, with the Food and Drug Administration allowing it to coat the packaging of many of the foods we eat. Used in most canned food and drink liners and some No. 7 plastics, as well as thermal cash-register receipts, BPA is readily absorbed into the delicate blood vessels under the tongue, where it bypasses the gut and goes straight into the bloodstream. It can take up to a day to clear a dose of BPA from the body, but the real concern is that we're constantly being exposed—it's detected in 95 percent of Americans. 

The latest clue suggesting that BPA is messing with our bodies comes from the University of California–Berkeley, which found exposure to BPA while in the womb or during early childhood meant boys were more likely to have anxiety issues by age 7. Tracking exposure during childhood, scientists reported conduct problems in girls and hyperactivity and trouble focusing in boys.

In the study, researchers measured BPA in the body of nearly 300 pregnant women and then tested the children's BPA levels at age 5. Scientists used data collected on the kids' behavior at age 7 and they tested the children for ADHD at age 9. They found that little boys who experienced the higher BPA concentrations as a fetus were more likely to show signs of anxiety and depression by age 7. 

The authors of the study also noted that although many studies are linking BPA exposure to behavioral problems in kids, the science has been inconsistent. For example, this study found no problems in girls exposed in utero, while previous studies linked BPA exposure during early pregnancy to aggressive kids, particularly little girls. 

The idea is that BPA could be interfering with and damaging delicate hormonal systems and potentially throwing off normal neurotransmitter health, the scientists wrote, noting that more investigation into the timing of exposure and sex differences is still needed 

If you'd rather take all of these studies as a warning sign, you can cut back your BPA exposure by opting for fresh food instead of canned, saying no to trivial receipts (many thermal receipts are loaded with BPA), keeping receipts away from children who may want to put them into their mouths, and washing your hands after handling receipts. Some No. 7 plastics (polycarbonate) also contain BPA, so avoid plastic for food and drink containers and instead opt for glass or stainless steel. 

For more reasons to give BPA the boot, read 5 Weird Things BPA Is Doing to Your Body.

Read more at Rodale…

Clean Green Tip: Toilet Scrub

1 TB castille soap
1/2 cup baking soda
1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
8 drops eseential oil, lavender or rosemary

Mix into toilet let sit 3 minutes.

Oxygen Bleach

1 Tb castile
2 T oxygen bleach powder
2 T baking soda
8 drops lavender, lemongrass or rosemary essential oil

Mix into toilet and let stand 15 minutes

Adorable Dinosaur Nightlight Uses Algae To Glow In The Dark!

Is your little one afraid of the dark? Or are they just crazy about anything dinosaur-related? This adorable dinosaur-shaped nightlight from California-based company Yonder Biology might be the perfect friend to get them used to sleeping alone. Made from polyethylene plastic, the dinosaur-shaped container houses dinoflagellate algae. This is just one of many types of algae with bio-luminescent properties, which is a fancy way of saying it glows in the dark. Because the algae is a living organism, Dino Pets actually depend on their owners to survive. Daily sunlight is a must, and special dino food is added once every 1-3 months to keep the algae happy. The Dino Pet is currently gathering funding on Kickstarter. Keep reading to find out how you can nab one! READ MORE >> via INHABITAT http://inhabitat.feedsportal.com/c/34923/f/648037/s/300b2e1d/sc/38/l/0Linhabitat0N0Cadorable0Edinosaur0Enightlight0Euses0Ealgae0Eto0Eglow0Ein0Ethe0Edark0C/story01.htm