EARTH HEALTHY BLOG

Energy Saving Light Bulbs

2009-09-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

Compact Fluroescent light bulbs can dramatically reduce youe electricity bills. While the cost is typically higher than for incandescent bulbs, the savings in electricity is outstanding. The bulbs generally pay for themselves within six months.

They also help lessen global warming by reducing the electrical demands and therefore reduce the need to use excessive electricity. They use 75 percent less electricity than standard light bulbs and last approximately 10 times as long are regular bulbs. The bulbs are usually guaranteed for a minimum of 5 years, so be sure to keep the UPC bar code on the package along with the receipt.

Do your part to help conserve energy and protect the environment by investing in and installing compact fluoresent light bulbs today. Keep the earth healthy by switching to the new compact fluorescent lighting today. Karen

Winter Survival Blankets

2009-09-28T00:46:00.000-07:00

Living in a cold region in winter has it's hazards. Being stranded during winter storms in the past, numberous people have suffered hypothermia and even death. It is totally unnecessary to be at risk. Keep in your vehicle multiple emergency survival blankets. They can be purchased at any sporting goods store, or sporting goods department and are typically under 5 dollars. They are currently available online from Marathon for $3.60 each.
http://www.marathonhousewares.com/site/catalog.php?pid=hw030011&gclid=CIbpovXik50CFR9N5QodVjHR7w

These survival blankets conserve up to 9% body heat and can be a real life saver. Do not be without them in winter. You may want to keep a few extra in your vehicle for fellow travelers who may also be stranded on roads closed due to blizzards or ice storms.

An alternative use for these mylar blankets is to cut them to fit your home windows and tape them in place. They will block the solar radiation (sunlight) will still allowing you to view the outdoors. They typically drop the temperature in a room by ten degress by blocking the heat of the sunlight coming through the glass. When you put them in place, you can feel the drop in indoor temperature immediately.

The only downside to putting this mylar on your windows is that from the exterior, it appears that you have aluminum foil on your windows. Many people put aluminum foil on their windows in summer to block the heat, but this is futile as the foil heats up when the sunlight hits it. Use the survival blankets instead. They can easily be removed in winter to allow the sun to warm the interior of your home and can be reusable.

By blocking the sun from entering your home in summer using mylar on your windows you will gain immediate energy savings. As well as the immediate cooling effect. And by blocking the sunlight from entering through your windows, you will protect your furnishings from sunlight exposure and damage from the UV light. Keep healthy, be safe.
Karen

How To Have Healthy Children

2009-09-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

Turn off the TV and read a book. In fact, if you haven't finished your education why don't you just register for classes at your local school. You can get a GED quite easily if you didn't graduate. Then you can go to college or a trade school. Or you can study online and get your education via the internet. It is a proven fact that educated people have healthier lives and therefore healthier children.

Turn off the television and read a book to your children. Or better yet, if your children can read, have them read a book to you to enhance their reading skills. You might be surprised at the number of children who can read, but cannot read aloud. It's appalling.

Educate yourself and educate your children. It follows the saying, "you can feed a man a fish, or you can teach a man to fish and he can feed himself."

Feed youself and your children with knowledge and you will have healthier, happier children. And the children who enjoy learning will enjoy going to school. When you ask them about their day at school, truly listen. Look at them and interact with them. That is how they will know that you are listening. Stop and listen to them actively. If you are doing something else while you are listening, then you aren't listening 100%. And they will know this. We all do. If you want their attention, you have to give them yours.

Having healthy children is easy. Feed them well. Take good care of them and spend good quality time with them. And that is not sitting in front of the TV watching some stupid show. Granted, there are some truly good channels for learning on TV these days, but when all you do day after day is sit in front of the "Boob Tube" as it was called in the early days, you will become nothing but a 'boob'.

Do you really need all that mindless chatter? Try educating yourself and your children for a change. Educated
children do not have children before being married. Educated children finish their education first. Educated children grow up to be well informed, responsible adults. Don't have an education? Get one. Do it today. Do it for yourself and your children. That way your children won't end up in the statistical list of winter babies found on the following website.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125356566517528879.html?mod=yhoofront

And while you're at it, educate them in healthy environmental ways. If you don't, who will? The Earth belongs to all of us and we all need to become better at taking care of what sustains our lives.

Be safe, be healthy,

Karen

some of my plants

2009-09-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

Light Pollution

2009-09-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

There are many different types of light pollution, which is sometimes called luminous pollution or photopollution. But all of it is excessive and unnecessary light. Lighting consumes one quarter of all energy worldwide. Just in the U.S. alone, over-illumination consumes 2 million barrels of oil per day in absolutely wasted energy. Total commercial consumption for lighting alone in the U.S. is more than 5 million barrels per day. Public lighting in Australia is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, possibly up to fifty percent, which increases global warming.

Medical research suggests that a wide range of adverse health effects may be caused by light pollution. These include breast cancer, anxiety, increased headache incidence, stress, fatigue and decreased sexual function. Even low level light used when sleeping at night can interfere with melatonin production resulting in continuous chronic sleep & hormonal disruption which can have long-term health risks.

Light pollution is a serious threat to wildlife, impacting both plants and animals, disrupting ecosystems. It prevents zooplankton from eating algae resulting in algal blooms that can kill off other plants and decrease water quality. Considering that most people get their water from reservoirs, this is yet another reason to prevent lightpollution. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimate that a minimum of 4-5 million migrating birds are killed each year because they fly into tall buildings which of course have lights on the tops to prevent aircraft from hitting them.

Amphibians & reptiles become disoriented because of disrupted melatonin levels which affects their breeding, physiology and behavior. It can also cause developmental disturbances such as retinal damage, decreased sperm count and genetic mutation.

Pilots get confused by all the light and sometimes mistake streets for runways. As a pilot myself, I can tell you that at night, it is impossible to tell the sky from the ground because of all the lights. This is the reason pilots have to fly with instruments at night.

Astronomers have trouble filtering out all the background light (from earth) in order to see into space. And some cities near large telescopes have had to change their lighting and lighting practices to accommodate them. Obviously it is necessary to have some light at night for our safety. But if we were all home in bed where we should be, we wouldn't need night lights for navigation.

The Hunza tribe of Pakistan have the longest lives of any group of people on the planet, frequently live 120-140 years and are in perfect health. They have no stress, no illness and no disease. They live without electricity, without lights. They go to bed when the sun goes down and do not arise until the sun comes up. They have no chickens or dogs to disrupt their sleep and are the most calm, peaceful people alive. Perhaps we should take after their example to be healthier. Save the earth, turn off the lights. Karen

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

2009-09-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Carbon monoxide poisoning is a health hazard resulting from using generators which run on kerosene or diesel during electricity outages. Should you need to use a generator, be cautious and make sure your
unit is in a well ventilated area. Read the safety precautions that come with it.

Never run kerosene or diesel powered equipment indoors.
Never cook or heat your home with charcoal in an indoor environment like your home.
Never let your auto idle in a garage even if the door is open as the vapors can build up quickly.
Never use a gas oven to heat your home, even for short periods of time.
Never us a charcoal grill indoors, not even in a fireplace.
Don't sleep in a room with an unvented gas or kerosene space heater.
Don't use gasoline-powered eqauipment such as mowers, weed trimmers, chain saws, blowers, small engines or generators in enclosed places.

Common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headaches, nausea, fatigue and a general feeling of malaise, or not feeling good. Often times when someone is overly exposed to carbon monoxide they may fall asleep and it will be very difficult to awaken them.

Don't ignore systems, you could lose consciousness and die quickly. Even if you are revived, you could suffer permanent brain damage.

Be healthy, be safe.

Karen

Contaminated Drinking Water

2009-09-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Atrazine, the most common weed killer for crops, lawns & golf courses has now shown up in water supplies as a contaminant of reservoirs and aquifers. Newest research indicates it is dangerous at much lower levels than previously thought.

According to the Hazardous Substances Database, Atrazine is the second most common pesticide found in private wells and in community wells.

As early as 1990, the EPA's National Survey of Pesticieds in Drinking Water Wells indicated trace amounts
had been found in drinking water samples and in groundwater samples in numerous states across the nation.

Each year more than 60,000 tons of Atrazie are applied in America. It can take weeks to several months for the chemical to degrade in the soil. However, if it migrates to the groundwater degradation is virtually nil. In surface waters, Atrazine can persist more than 2/3 of a year.

Only recently has the EPA restricted use of Atrizine to certified applicators. But the chemical is already in our soils and water. In the atmosphere, Atrazine adheres to particulate matter and has been known to travel great distances in winds. Studies have shown detection levels greater than 180 miles from it's nearest application site.

Atrazine readily absorbs through the gastrointestinal tract and causes irreversible damage to the human liver, kidney & heart. Animal studies have shown that it causes irregular ovarian cycling and alters plasma hormone levels. Other studies showed that these changes were attributed to disruptions in the gonadal-hypothalamic-
pituitary axis resulting in high estrogen levels and therefore a lack of ovulation. Yet other studies with different strains of rats indicated elevated progesterone levels resulting in false-pregnancies and lengthened ovulation times. Studies in higher mammals, pigs, resulted in a brief delay prior to ovulation.

Clearly, while different species of animals and even different strains of the same animal showed varying symptoms of disturbance, the majority of the animals studied still indicated adverse effects to the reproductive cycle. The problem with equating the animal data to humans is that the estrus cycle in animals
involves different consequences of the hormone levels that that which occurs in humans.

Adverse developmental effects have been demonstrated in both rats and rabbits resulting in failure to conceive, failure to carry to term, and both decreased litter size and live birth. Also indicated were
increased prenatal loss & decreased birth weight which may be due to maternal toxicity.

Other adverse developmental effects in animals include delayed vaginal opening, first estrus (menstruation) & delayed uterine growth in female rats. Male rats showed lower prostate weight, increased inflammation of the prostate and increased prostate hormone levels indicative of acute coronary syndrome.

Atrazine has been positively associated with adverse effects in the development of the nervous system of rats, incomplete development of the skull, teeth, and the equivalent of the fingers & toes in direct offspring.

Atrazine has been positively associated with developmental effects in humans, specifically, intrauterine growth retardation and urogenital, cardiac and limb reduction defects from just 2.2 micrograms per liter in drinking water. New studies have also indicated that very low levels of Atrizine in drinking water can cause adverse effects in humans & animals.

The Agency for Toxic Substances & Diseases Registry claims that not enough studies have been conducted to know if children are affected in the same way as adults. Since we do know that children have less developed immune systems and less developed organs than adults, how could anyone even think that they wouldn't be adversely affected and at an even greater risk than an adult. Simple common sense should indicate that.

Here again we are at risk because of animal rights activists that denounce animal testing. Our past mistakes with chemicals should be enough to indicate that all chemicals should be rigorously tested on animals and in a controlled environment before licensing for everyday use. Too few people read labels and follow directions to the letter, thereby endangering all. Please read your labels! It cannot be stressed enough.

National Agriculture Statistics indicate that the following states have potentially high levels of Atrazine:

State                                                Pounds applied in 2001
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Illinois                                                 12,409,000 - 14,158,000
Indiana & Iowa                                    7,162,000 - 8,911,000
Nebraska                                            5,413,000 - 7,162,000
Ohio & Kansas                                   3,664,000 - 5,413,000
Missouri, Minnosota, Michigan            1,915,000 - 3,664,000
Wisconsin, Texas,
South Dakota, Pennsylvania,
New York, North Dakota,
North Carolina, Kentucky,
Georgia & Colorado                            1,915,000 - 166,000
Several other states                         smaller to trace amounts
_________________________________________________
You can protect yourself from Atrizine in your drinking water.

Simply filter your water through activated charcoal like in a Britta filter or other such filtration system.

Stay happy, stay healthy!

Karen

Chemicals: Don't Make It Worse!

2009-09-08T10:59:00.001-07:00

When you accidentally get chemicals on your skin, don't use soap to remove it. We all come into contact daily with chemicals and some are worse than others however, some can seem virtually harmless--after all, they're sold at the local store, right? Just because a product is available to you as a consumer, does not in any way mean it is harmless. Just like 'all natural' does not necessarily mean 'healthy'. Please read the labels before using products. That is the only way you can be sure to use the proper precautions for that item. And when you do get a chemical on your skin, and we all do from time to time, just use water to wash it off for at least the first 5-10 minutes. Wash it with water until you can no longer see it, feel it or smell it. Then you can add soap to finish up the cleaning. If you add soap immediately to a chemical that is on your skin, you can actually make the chemical absorb faster into your skin, or make it bond to your skin more readily. That is why you should just use water at first. Be healthy, be safe. Karen

No More Electric Bills!

2009-09-04T00:30:00.000-07:00

You don't hear much about free electricity. But it's real. And I'm not talking about solar. Solar doesn't work for everyone. First of all you need your roof to be facing south and it can't have any shade trees. In the south, people have lots of shade trees over their homes to help with cooling so solar is not very useful for them. Wind power? The wind hardly ever blows on really hot days, and it rains alot along the coastal areas so cloudy days also eliminate solar power yet again. How about a different, unique, free form of renewable energy? Check it out here -> http://www.yougottaseethis.info/freeelectricity/

You'll love this free electricity as it is totally non-polluting!

Karen

Dangerous Lead in Your Lawn

2009-09-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

One of my neighbors put a garden in their front lawn right next to the road. (I live in the country) At first it didn't dawn on me of the danger of doing this. Years ago when leaded fuels were used in autos, the exhaust fumes released lead that went into the soils along our roads. Please don't ever plant your garden next to a road because the plants will take up the lead that was deposited there years ago and it will be in the crops produced. Likewise, do not allow your children to play in the soil near a road. Lead can be absorbed through their skin, or it can can get on their hands and then when they eat something they will absorb the lead that was on their hands. Be safe, be healthy! Karen

Granite Countertops Radiation Danger

2009-09-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

You've probably never heard of TENORM, which stands for technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material. Everything on earth emits some amount of radiation, even humans. Some rocks contain massive amounts of radiation, granite being one of the worst. The radiation can be released in larger amounts if rock is crushed, cut or otherwise altered by humans. Before you install granite countertops in your home, invest in an inexpensive handheld geiger counter and take it with you to the supplier you plan to purchase your new countertops from. Run the device over the countertops to determine the amount of radiation they release before purchasing your new tops. It's much better to be safe than sorry.
Karen