Thursday, January 26, 2012

Monsanto's Roundup Linked to Infertility-how to protect yourself

From the Activist Post:

A recent study conducted by a German university found very high concentrations of glyphosate, a carcinogenic chemical found in herbicides like Monsanto’s Roundup, in all urine samples tested.

The amount of glyphosate found in the urine was staggering, with each sample containing concentrations at 5- to 20-fold the limit established for drinking water.

This is just one more piece of evidence that herbicides are, at the very least, being sprayed out of control. 

Glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup Impacting Global Health

This news comes only one month after it was found that glyphosate, contained in Monsanto’s Roundup, is contaminating the groundwater in the areas in which it is used. What does this mean?



read more here


----------------------------


First, obviously, don't use roundup.  Eat organic and encourage others to do so--only demand for pesticide-free products will make farmers stop using pesticides.


At home, we use not only a reverse-osmosis filter for our drinking water, we have a WHOLE-HOUSE filter so that our shower water, laundry water, and the water the comes out the garden hose are all clean, or as clean as possible.  It's also been documented that there are SSRIs and other pharmaceuticals in drinking water--why take a chance on your health and fertility?

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mercury in CFLs


There are many reasons not to use CFLs (compact fluorescent lights).  You've probably already heard that they have mercury in them, so if broken, they can contaminate your house, and they will most certainly contaminate landfills.  But it also appear that while INTACT, they might still be able to give off mercury vapors, which is not good for anyone.  From Activist Post:


Another everyday product you may want to avoid is compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Only months after it was found that energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs release carcinogenic chemicals into the air, a new study has found that these harmful chemicals are continually released from the bulbs over a period of weeks to months. Furthermore, the study also found that the levels of mercury released exceed those that are considered safe for humans.

read more: here

Flourescent light is also a source of "dirty" energy, it's rapid cycling makes you feel stressed.  As the parent of an autistic child, I can tell you that fluorescents make him crazy.  Read more: here

In our house we use LEDs, which have a nice clean light.  They are more expensive than incandescent or CFLs, but they last longer, too.  We also like the VU, nice, soft lighting, energy efficient, and long lasting.  This one is not an LED, but a ESL (Electron Stimulated Luminescence):

Saturday, January 21, 2012

My Mother-in-Law and Marijuana

Sorry I've been away from the blog for a while; been knocked out by pneumonia, but happy to say I've dug my way out of it without antibiotics.  Olive Leaf Extract and Mullein tea have been great.

In December, in response to the Obama administration's cracking down on state-sanctioned medical marijuana, I wrote this op-ed for the New York Times about how my mother-in-law, with pancreatic cancer, was helped by cannabis but was too scared to use it, which was a terrible shame.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/opinion/medical-marijuana-and-the-memory-of-one-high-day.html