Canada Leads the Way - Again

Never boring, another amazing summer day with a substantial breeze.


Bravo Canada. Our friends to the north have once again stood up to big business and have stopped the manufacturing of a dangerous flame retardant called DECA, a PBDE, and limited its use to certain products. DECA is from a chemical called polybrominated diphenyl ethers and is used in everything from mattresses to baby strollers, upholstery and car seats, to children's pajamas and many other fabrics.

PBDE is so prevalent in our fabricated world that it has filtered down to wildlife prompting the Canadian government to take action. ( I think we are part of the wildlife chain but we weren't mentioned.) PBDE's , and there are several of which DECA is one, cause major thyroid dysfunction. Canada banned the others in 2006 and has taken this step to reduce DECA to the use of television sets and cars. (the powerful car lobby won this one)

If you want reassurance that this chemical is actually safe, just ask the makers of DECA and they will tell you it is just hunky dory. This is the all too common line from other similar makers of precarious chemicals like plastics.

Some say Canada didn't go far enough and coward to big business by not instituting a full ban.

Meanwhile, south of the border, we Americans continue to sleep on flame retardant chemical laden mattresses, sit with our pets on toxic sofas and envelop our babies in all sorts of car seats and strollers with known dangerous chemicals such as the DECA, stain resistant chemicals, PVC plastic, chlorine and more.

Anyone have a bamboo stroller with a hemp seat?

CFL's and Fox News

Early morning fog is nestled in the valleys and slowly disappearing.

Fox news did another one of their silly rants and picked on CFL's (compact fluorescent light bulbs). The woman reporter introduced those evil funny looking light bulbs as "really expensive" which right off the bat tells you a couple of things - either she never goes shopping (not!), is using last century's information (so much for "news") or they accidentally lie to add fuel to the fire. They sell for only one dollar each at most stores.

Yes CFL's contain mercury and they always have. Those long office ones (FOX probably has them all over their studio) have always contained mercury, for decades, and no one jumped up and down before. It was common practice to smash them in order for them to fit into the garbage. Perish the thought and now illegal.

Fox was right in that there was not enough good information on the package telling the consumer how to clean up a broken bulb or how to dispose of them properly. They also explained how to properly clean it up even though they did it back handedly as they made fun of it. You know how they jump up and down and yell at you? (Some times I think they are satirical and wonder if all this drama isn't planned sarcasm as they snicker in the back room because they can't possibly think of themselves as professionals.)

What they did leave out was the fact that leaving in your old incandescent light bulb spews out more mercury than what is in a CFL. And since I am personally a receiver of bad air and acid rain funneling from the country's coal burning plants over my house, I would appreciate it everyone would change their light bulbs.

So for the environment's sake, each light bulb uses 75% less energy. If every household in the entire USA changed only one light bulb, that would save the amount of energy to power the entire State of New Hampshire. That's how important changing your light bulbs is. The idea is to save energy so the electricity producing plants spew out less CO2.

Now for the pocket part. You guessed it. For each light bulb you change, you save 75% of your hard earned cash. And, the light bulb will last a lot longer than regular ones (there is a 1-10% failure rate so take it back to the store if it burns out too early). Your return on your investment is pretty darn quick.

How many Fox news reporters does it take to change a light bulb? You tell me.

BPA - In My WIne?

My flowers are beginning to droop and they look like beautiful badminton birdies. A very hazy day.

While BPA, toxic bisphenol-A, has been making top news for a couple for months now, new sources continue to surface. The most obvious source that came to light was the hard clear polycarbonate bottles that Nalgene capitalized on. Add to it baby bottles, cups, bowls etc, and then canned foods. I always did wonder why the tin didn't react to foods. How about that? Most canned foods leach BPA. That's a lot of food sources. That was half my pantry.

Make no mistake, there is no question that BPA leaches, even the high powered money flushed plastics industry (remember plastic comes from oil) admits to it. The question is whether it is safe. And you guessed it, the plastic industry claims safety.

A recent review of BPA studies showed that all, 11 out of 11, of the studies funded by the plastic companies concluded the levels of BPA were safe. Not surprising. While out of the government funded studies, 104 of them, over 90, deemed the leached levels as unsafe for a variety of reasons including cell damage, cancer, and genitalia alterations. BPA and other hormone disrupting chemicals are affectionately called gender benders. I know where my bet is.

Now I learn that wine has been found to have BPA. Is nothing sacred? So how did it get there? Apparently two sources - the plastic stoppers (it's true) and vats lined with plastic that store the wine. Apparently the concrete vats have the most potential because they are lined with epoxy. Wow. This has ruined my day, especially since I am not a fan of oak.

It seems plastic linings, or epoxy, are everywhere. Aren't aluminum SIGG bottles lined with an epoxy? They sure are. I wonder what's in their bottle?

But don't give up. Be a wise consumer and fight for your right to know and health safety. Get involved. Spread the word. Tell your friends and neighbors. Meanwhile, if you find a good organic red wine processed NOT in plastic, please let me know.

Nano Particles - Buyer Beware

Very hazy today as I can only see the third row of trees - very still and peaceful.

You won't find nano particles in your list of ingredients because there are no regulations for them in the US or EU. They've been around awhile too under positive disguises such a wrinkle-free and anti-bacterial. Heck, who wouldn't want something like that?

So what is a nano anyway? It describes the size of a particle in relation to a meter ( a little over a yard). One nano particle is one billionth of a meter. It takes 80,000 nano particles to equal the size of a hair. If a particle gets up to the size of 200-1000 nanometers, then it can be classified as micronized. That's important for later.

What's the big deal? Like so many things racing past us before safety regulations are established, we have no idea of the long term health effects of nanoparticles. Minerals are nanosized for make up and passed off as Mineral Make up which sounds earthy and organic. Sunscreens have nanoed (new verb) the old favorite of titanium oxide so we don't have white smeary skin. What scientist do know is that these particles are absorbed by the skin and can penetrate even cells because of their small size. Remember a nano particle can be smaller than the human cell and almost the size of a virus. That's scary stuff.

Silver is used for its antibacterial properties and is showing up every where including ladies underwear. Not only are scientists concerned about what it does when it enters our bodies, but silver going into our environment, water (by washing) has potential to reek real havoc. Not all bacteria are bad. We need bacteria in our septic tanks, in the ground, in the oceans. They do a lot of good depending upon what it is. So to think that a new anti bacteria cleaning solution is going to disinfected my kitchen counters, go into my skin, on my food, and into my septic and mess with my bacteria, really winds me up. Lets be really clear here, scientists know nanos can go into our cells. The question is - then what? We need time to answer that question.

Inhaled nano particles are showing a similar response as inhaled asbestos. Makes sense really. Micronized particles are bigger and seem to be less likely to be absorbed by the skin and are often used in safer sunscreen products. Where is the line drawn between nano and micronized and safety? Are they really safer? Again, we don't really know yet. And what about those wrinkle free pants? What IS in those any way? Buyer beware.

Independence Day - Or Was It?

The 3 H's are brewing, hazy, hot and humid. Nice big red tail hawk over head.

The weekend in New England was perfect for the 4th of July, our celebration of Independence from England. Our young country wanted to be on its own, to govern itself with no strings attached.
So what the heck happened?

Talk about strings attached. China now owns us financially along with many other countries because of the debt we have created. Our oil dependence has seeped into every aspect of our life. Plastic (made from oil) is just about everywhere and seems impossible to live without. Prices of just about everything are increasing because of oil, mostly due to everything needing to be transported by trucks. (silly us gave up railways)

The perfect storm is brewing - scientists say we have reached peak oil so supplies will be harder to come by and very expensive, India and China are creating a huge middle class that wants what everyone else has, (so share the oil) and our foreign oil sources keep us begging for stability. Drilling and supplying our own oil is the ultimate "drop in the bucket" and offers no short term or long term solution. So much for being independent.

And then, there's that climate change issue which slaps the icing on the cake. The writing on the wall is clear for me. Time to convert to renewable, sustainable energy ASAP. We can do it. We have more geek brain power than any place in the world. Take all that money wasted on considering new drilling for oil and let these guys and gals have a crack at this. Then we can have a new kind of celebration on Independence Day.

Collecting Rain

Early morning mist rose from little pockets and valleys. Just mystical.

We don't think much of collecting rain here in New England, especially after an above average rainy June. But perhaps we should since the weather pattern is unpredictable and is taking on more extreme up and down patterns. I can't help but think this could be the last good rain we have for months. It has happened before. After all we were in a drought phase for several years.

We also don't cherish water as much as other parts of the country because we have these spectacular clear rivers and streams that we take for granted. A quick step outside of New England and the rivers become silted with brown or red. However our clear rivers and lakes now have levels of mercury in them, mostly from coal burning Midwest plants, high enough to require warnings to people wanting to eat fish. Try only once a month for pregnant women and once a week otherwise. Given our governments loose levels of concern, it makes me wonder just how toxic our fish really are. So don't eat the fish.

Other parts of our country literally die for our kind of water. The southwest is fighting over water as is Georgia and Florida. The escalating heat due to climate change in the southwest is going to have very serious water issues soon. The answer seems to be water collection. but it isn't that simple.

In Australia, particularly Victoria, water collection is a really big deal. Almost every house has at least one cistern. My sister has a small vegetable farm and she has eight large cistern. People also collect water by having a little damn on the lowest level of their property. This way they are able to go long periods of time without rain and be okay, just barely. The problem with all this collection is so little is going into the ground. There are no more rivers and streams in Victoria. They have recently dried up and are filed with weeds. Their wells are drying up and Australia is in for serious water problems.

So why bother to collect rain? Because it gets back to "every little bit helps". Whether we pay for city water (more reason to collect, save money) or get water from our wells, collecting rain is one step in water conservation. Whether you live in lush New England or not, it helps for us to be less wasteful and use water that collects instead of using other sources that require treatment or use electricity. Why run your water pump when it can flow from a rain barrel? Makes sense to me.

Toxic Midwest Flood Waters

Behind my beautiful blooming corn flowers are the hazy hills. A bright red cardinal decorates the air. Another perfectly humid summer New England day.

Watching the current flooding in the Midwest is sometimes just too overwhelming. The videos look like regular lakes where a roof top got lost. It is not uncommon for the flooding to be more than two miles away from the Mississippi. That's a lot of flood waters, that's just plain huge if you think about it.

If you're having trouble with that volume, try this: take every house, farm, barn, and shed and imagine the standard chemicals laying around in basements, under sinks, on shelves and in equipment. Imagine things like chlorine, ammonia, cleaners, ant killer, gasoline, oil, pesticides, herbicides and all the bottles, bags and containers dissolving into the waters. Now add farm animal and human waste into the mix and... my mind swims in one major toxic brew. To further add to the nightmare, all the chemicals that are on most fields are being consumed by the flood waters and the new toxins are finding their resting place on the very fields we may be consuming food from. A contamination horror story.

This is the same epiphany I had when I was in New Orleans working for Habitat. The shear volume is so overwhelming. We had the opportunity to visit the side of a levee and the amount of trash, plastic and demolished materials in the waters made me loose my appetite for fish. Ugh.

So the Midwest flood waters are probably the most toxic brew in human history. And where does that water go? I can only think of two places: into the ground or down stream. Now it's a toss up which is worse: our farm land for our food supply including both animals and agriculture, or contaminating everything in its downstream path leading to the mouth of the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico where it can potentially mix in with our entire ocean.

The mouth of the Mississippi is already the largest water dead zone in the world. It was predicted to be the size of the State of Massachusetts earlier this spring. A dead zone is where there is not enough oxygen in the water support life. This is caused by the fertilizers from upstream farms feeding happy algae who multiply beyond the rate of rabbits, then die and the feeding bacteria gobble up all the oxygen. Now we'll have more happy toxic laden algae and who knows how big the dead zone will become.

Sometimes it's hard for me to get my head wrapped around what's happening regarding these toxic flood waters because the volume is beyond huge and the impact is beyond words. I shudder at the irreversible damage that has been done. How we grow our food and manage our waters must change. After all, those are our two basic needs for survival.

We need to talk about this, not cover it up. We need to not accept that the toxins are "within safe levels"; what ever that means. We need to demand change in how we manage our food and water supplies. Have conversations, show your concern or outrage, email your representatives at all levels and take action. Remember, they work for us.

The magnitude of what we are doing to our earth can really ruin your day, and maybe your life. After all, we all live downstream.