Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
http://www.tnonline.com/node/115874
Stay hydrated without draining your wallet
Reported on Wednesday, July 14, 2010
By STACEY SOLT stacey.solt@gmail.com
Unless you’re reading this in Alaska, you know that our area suffered through a brutal heat wave this month. It’s important to stay hydrated during the heat but buying bottled water and fancy drinks can get expensive. Read on for tips to keep cool and save money on beverages this summer.
Water
Don’t pay for bottled water. Period.
Yes, there will be times when you’re away from home and a source of free tap water. I’m talking about the cases of bottled water that you buy to bring to work, or to sip around the house. Why would you spend your hard-earned dollars on bottled water when you’re going to drink it standing next to the kitchen sink?
Water bottles are also bad for the environment. You can recycle plastic bottles, but each bottle must be cleaned and melted down before it can become a “new” bottle, wasting energy and water. Why not buy a reusable, BPA-free water bottle for work and play, and save the store-bottled stuff for special trips?
I know that some homes have “bad” water. Our home’s water has sulfur during droughts so we’re changing our carbon filter pretty frequently right now. Purchasing a filter system has been an inexpensive way to improve our water quality, and it’s saved us hundreds of dollars each summer by making our tap water more palatable.
Caffeine and energy drinks
I love iced coffee, and I could drink it by the gallon during the summer! Fortunately, we brew our own coffee and chill it, which means that my favorite drink doesn’t cost too much money. But keep in mind that caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea can actually dehydrate some people. Don’t rely too heavily on these beverages during the summer.
Sports drinks are also popular during the summer, and they can be a great source of sodium and potassium (the minerals that we “sweat out”) on a hot day. Manufacturers have done a great job advertising these drinks as a cure-all for hot days and athletes.
Of course, be honest with yourself are you really active enough to need a sports drink, or does it just taste good? Don’t waste your money on high-performance drinks when the most activity you’ll do is swinging on the front porch. If you can’t stand the taste of water and drink a lot of sports drinks during the summer, try diluting these sugary drinks with water. You won’t miss the sweetness, and you’ll save a bit of money.
Other water sources
While it’s important to drink fluids regularly, foods can also be a great source of water! There’s a reason that ripe, juicy watermelon is so popular during the summer.
Adding seasonal fruits and vegetables can be a good way to keep yourself hydrated without spending extra money. You have to eat, right? Choose thirst-quenching foods over dryer foods to keep dehydration at bay add an apple to your lunch, or eat a small bowl of peaches or pears for dessert. These foods are great for staying hydrated, and they’re much healthier than eating a bag of chips. Many water-filled foods are also low in calories!
Weed Killers and Your Garden
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5244
EARTHTALK
Week of 07/11/10
Dear EarthTalk: Within my lawn I have over 100 citrus, mango and avocado trees. When I use Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed, am I feeding my new fruit any poison? Will the weed killer be taken up by the fruit?— Richard Weissman, Miami, FL
In short, yes and yes: You will jeopardize the health of your fruit trees and your yard in general if you use such products. Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed, as well as many other “weed-and-feed” fertilizers (Vigero, Sam’s, etc.), contain the harsh chemical herbicide atrazine, which excels at terminating fast-growing weeds like dandelions and crabgrass but can also kill other desirable plants and trees and damage your entire yard as toxin-carrying root systems stretch underground in every corner and beyond.
Howard Garrett, a landscape architect who founded the DirtDoctor.com website and is an evangelist for natural organic gardening and landscaping, points out that anyone who reads the label on such products will learn that even manufacturers don’t take their health and environmental effects lightly. Some of the warnings right there in black and white on the Scott’s Bonus S Weed and Feed packaging include precautions against using it “under trees, shrubs, bedding plants or garden plants” or in the general vicinity of any such plants’ branch spreads or root zones.
Scott’s also recommends not applying it by hand or with hand-held rotary devices or applying “in a way that will contact any person either directly or through drift.” And just in case you were thinking it was okay for the environment, Scott’s adds that “runoff and drift from treated areas may be hazardous to aquatic organisms in neighboring areas” and that the product is “toxic to aquatic invertebrates.”
Of course, homeowners aren’t the only ones who want lush plant or grass growth without weeds. Farmers have been using atrazine for decades all over the country, although not surprisingly concentrations are highest along the Midwest’s so-called Corn Belt. The herbicide consistently delivers slightly increased agricultural yields, but environmentalists wonder at what cost. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental research and advocacy non-profit, reports that atrazine exposure has been shown to impair the reproductive systems of amphibians and mammals, and has been linked to cancer in both laboratory animals and humans. Male frogs exposed to minute doses of the herbicide can develop female sex characteristics, including hermaphroditism and the presence of eggs in the testes. Researchers believe such effects are amplified when atrazine and other chemicals are used together.
As to safer alternatives, Garrett recommends organic fertilizers. “Synthetic fertilizers are unbalanced, often contain contaminants, have no carbon energy, contain far too much nitrogen and have few trace minerals,” he says. “Organic fertilizers, on the other hand, contain naturally buffered blends of major nutrients, trace minerals, organic matter and carbon. They have lots of beneficial life and, most important, they contain nothing that will damage the roots of your trees and other plants.” Some of Garret’s top choices include corn gluten meal (a natural way to prevent the growth of new weeds), THRIVE by AlphaBio, Garrett Juice, Ladybug, Medina, and Soil Mender. More and more choices are coming on the market all the time thanks to the growing popularity of organic gardening.
CONTACTS: Scotts; The Dirt Doctor; NRDC.
Consuming Chemicals : Rethinking What We Heat, Serve and Eat (By Sarah (Steve) Mosko, Ph.D.)
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5180
What do breast milk, food cans, microwave popcorn, and fast-food French fry boxes have in common with meat, fish and dairy products? They’re all avenues of human ingestion of potentially harmful chemicals associated with everyday plastics.
Although the jury is still out on what levels of exposure are unsafe, it is indisputable that we all consume chemicals from plastics on a daily basis.
Biomonitoring projects like Environmental Working Group’s 2005 BodyBurden study of cord blood in neonates and the Mind, Disrupted investigation of blood and urine in adults representing the learning and developmental disabilities community published in February 2010—consistently find neurotoxic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in common plastics among the substances routinely tainting human tissues. Although diet is not the only route of exposure, it is a major one. Read more
Prenatal PBDE exposure may result in adverse neurodevelopmental
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widely used flame retardant compounds that are persistent and bioaccumulative. Animal studies suggest that prenatal PBDE exposure may result in adverse neurodevelopmental effects. Herbstman et al. (p. 712) initiated a longitudinal cohort following the World Trade Center attack on 11 September 2001 to evaluate associations between concentrations of individual PBDE congeners and neurodevelopmental indices. Outcomes were evaluated in approximately 100 children with PBDE concentrations measured in cord blood samples. After adjustment for potential confounders, higher concentrations of BDEs 47, 99, or 100 were associated with lower scores on tests of mental and physical development at 12–48 and 72 months. The authors conclude that developmental exposure to flame retardants following the World Trade Center disaster was associated with altered neurodevelopment of children up to 72 months of age.
Read more.
BPA in 98% of the U.S. population
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5176
Bad News BPA
May 24, 2010
Reported by Brita Belli
More bad news is emerging about the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), found in canned food linings and much plastic food and beverage packaging. A study just published in Environmental Health Perspectives finds a significant relationship between mice exposed to BPA during pregnancy and pre-diabetes. The study finds, specifically, that exposure to BPA during pregnancy leads to increased insulin resistance and alterations in glucose tolerance in the mothers during pregnancy and later in life.
And BPA appears to affect male babies in utero, too—exposure was significantly associated with a pre-diabetic state in male offspring. These changes occurred with BPA does that were five times lower than those recommended as safe for humans.
BPA is so widespread that it’s been detected in urine samples of 98% of the U.S. population. The chemical, prone to leaching, has been associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, moderate obesity, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
A New Project is Underway to Draw the Connections between Toxins and Children’s Health
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5172
Protecting Children’s Health
A New Project is Underway to Draw the Connections between Toxins and Children’s Health
By Brita Belli
The relationship between children’s health and environmental toxins is finally getting the long-term look it deserves. A recent fundraiser at the Greenwich Country Club in Connecticut featured Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mt. Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, who despite the celebrities in attendance (including Laurie David and Mary Richardson Kennedy) took to the podium with all the fanfare of a rock star. In health circles, he is. By connecting lead exposure with lowered IQ in children, Landrigan’s work helped end lead components in gasoline and paint—and resulted in an 88% drop in lead levels in American kids by 2005. Now Landrigan is behind The Autism and Learning Disabilities Discovery and Prevention Project just launched at Mt. Sinai which will take a comprehensive look at how environmental toxins affect children’s health up to adulthood. “If there are a few chemicals we can prove cause autism,” said Landrigan, “it opens the possibility that there are others.”
He listed some of the known chemical causes of autism—including Thalidomide (used during the ‘50s and ‘60s to combat morning sickness), Misoprostol (used to induce labor) and Valproic acid (an anticonvulsant, mood-stabilizing drug). As part of their new project, the Mt. Sinai team will be building a “biobank,” so that babies’ cord blood—collected with permission at the hospital—will be analyzed for some 200 chemicals of concern, and will undergo genetic and epigenetic analyses.
The project is a perfect complement to the National Children’s Study already underway across the U.S. That study—with a consortium of partners that includes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—was launched in January 2010 and has set out to enroll 100,000 pregnant women in 105 counties and track the babies’ development until age 21. They’re collecting hair, blood and urine samples from pregnant women, testing household dust, water and carpeting and analyzing the samples for chemicals, for genetic makeup and for infections.
It’s a mammoth undertaking, but one that researchers hope can begin to answer questions about multiple chemical impacts happening across a lifetime of exposure, rather than examining—and banning—such chemicals one by one.
“Banning chemicals can work,” Dr. Landrigan told the well-heeled attendees at the fundraiser (which netted $300,000 for his center), “but after they’re already in widespread use…it’s hugely disruptive.” What would work better, he said, was a complete overhaul—mandated testing of all old and new chemicals as has been proposed in New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg’s bill, The Kid-Safe Chemical Act. It’s a bill, that, according to Sen. Lautenberg’s website: “would ensure for the first time that all the chemicals used in baby bottles, children’s toys and other products are proven to be safe before they are put on the market.” Added Dr. Landrigan: “New science is needed, too.”
Research links pesticides with ADHD in children
May 17, 12:02 AM EDT
Research links pesticides with ADHD in children
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — A new analysis of U.S. health data links children’s attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables.
While the study couldn’t prove that pesticides used in agriculture contribute to childhood learning problems, experts said the research is persuasive.
“I would take it quite seriously,” said Virginia Rauh of Columbia University, who has studied prenatal exposure to pesticides and wasn’t involved in the new study.
More research will be needed to confirm the tie, she said.
Children may be especially prone to the health risks of pesticides because they’re still growing and they may consume more pesticide residue than adults relative to their body weight.
In the body, pesticides break down into compounds that can be measured in urine. Almost universally, the study found detectable levels: The compounds turned up in the urine of 94 percent of the children.
The kids with higher levels had increased chances of having ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a common problem that causes students to have trouble in school. The findings were published Monday in Pediatrics.
The children may have eaten food treated with pesticides, breathed it in the air or swallowed it in their drinking water. The study didn’t determine how they were exposed. Experts said it’s likely children who don’t live near farms are exposed through what they eat.
“Exposure is practically ubiquitous. We’re all exposed,” said lead author Maryse Bouchard of the University of Montreal.
She said people can limit their exposure by eating organic produce. Frozen blueberries, strawberries and celery had more pesticide residue than other foods in one government report.
A 2008 Emory University study found that in children who switched to organically grown fruits and vegetables, urine levels of pesticide compounds dropped to undetectable or close to undetectable levels.
Because of known dangers of pesticides in humans, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits how much residue can stay on food. But the new study shows it’s possible even tiny, allowable amounts of pesticide may affect brain chemistry, Rauh said.
The exact causes behind the children’s reported ADHD though are unclear. Any number of factors could have caused the symptoms and the link with pesticides could be by chance.
The new findings are based on one-time urine samples in 1,139 children and interviews with their parents to determine which children had ADHD. The children, ages 8 to 15, took part in a government health survey in 2000-2004.
As reported by their parents, about 150 children in the study either showed the severe inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity characteristic of ADHD, or were taking drugs to treat it.
The study dealt with one common type of pesticide called organophosphates. Levels of six pesticide compounds were measured. For the most frequent compound detected, 20 percent of the children with above-average levels had ADHD. In children with no detectable amount in their urine, 10 percent had ADHD.
“This is a well conducted study,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a former EPA administrator.
Relying on one urine sample for each child, instead of multiple samples over time, wasn’t ideal, Goldman said.
The study provides more evidence that the government should encourage farmers to switch to organic methods, said Margaret Reeves, senior scientist with the Pesticide Action Network, an advocacy group that’s been working to end the use of many pesticides.
“It’s unpardonable to allow this exposure to continue,” Reeves said.
On the Net:
Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org/
EPA: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/food
Heightened Concern Over BPA
How safe is that plastic bottle?
When pregnant mice are exposed to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in everyday plastics, such as sunglasses, drink bottles, shatterproof baby-bottles, and some dental sealants and fillings, exposure may adversely affect the mother, but also, disturb development in the unborn fetuses. In a recently released report, USGS scientists say even low doses of the chemical may affect the reproductive systems of male and female mice, organizational development of the brain, and metabolic processes. Evidence suggests that when exposed female fetuses reach adulthood, there is a greater potential for abnormal eggs and embryos. Learn more here (PDF) or contact Catherine Richter at (573) 876-1841 or crichter@usgs.gov.
USGS Office of Communications
Health Effects of Endocrine Disruptor Bisphenol A