Every single aspect of our lives has in it artificial components of plastic, out-gassing (fumes) or toxins of some sort. The sad part about this is that the entire population of this world had no say - and is totally unaware that manufacturers, food producers, agribusiness and technology has contributed to it every day.
Chemicals surround us. Our computers are made from plastics which release chemicals into our environment. If we’ve sworn off caffeine, and drink decaf instead, chances are we’re getting a good dose of chemicals from the decaffeination process. Got that suit back from the cleaners? Guess what it’s been cleaned with? Dry cleaning fluid=chemicals.
If your kids play sports like football or soccer they’re probably rolling around on turf treated with herbicides, pesticides and other toxic lawn chemicals. Additionally, children are especially at risk for health-related illness from pesticide residues.
Think you’re safe at work? Your company probably has a contract with an extermination service and sometimes you’re even sitting at your desk when the guy comes through with the little sprayer tank! Millions of Americans go to work in environments chocked full of chemicals: manufacturing facilities with dust and fumes from chemicals, heavy metals, plastic compounds, cleaning solutions, paints, glues and pesticides. Even if your job does not put you in direct or daily contact, you are still at risk.
WHAT TO DO?
DETOX and eat the cleanest diet that you can. Make every meal a high quailty one of fresh (organic) foods, filtered water. Replace the toxins you introduce into your body in your own home with organic personal care products.
Make every day count!
American consumers use millions of tons of chemical lawn and garden products a year.
As an employee in a garden center at a home improvement store for many years, I personally witnessed a frightening aspect of American life: a staggering amount of sales of toxic chemicals - thousands of pounds of the stuff went out the door every week - in just this one store!
People thought absolutely nothing of spreading and spraying toxic chemicals all over their lawns. Their concern wasn’t what it was doing to their environment -or- the potential toxicity to their children, pets and other wildlife. In what I would call their ‘fanatical desire’ to eradicate e v e r y pest and e v e r y weed, they didn’t realize they were increasing their risk to cancer & poisoning themselves, their children and the planet!
Most of them probably never read the back of the bags where it gave warnings about the product and said:
WARNING: poison!
Many of them didn’t know that these chemicals were in fact, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors which have been proven in many studies worldwide to cause cancer.
In her her highighly acclaimed book, Living Downstream - An Ecologist Looks at Cancer & the Environment, author, biologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph. D presents a frightening time line of the rise in cancer over the past 50 years.
Chemical preparations actually do more harm than good. They stress the plants out with a BIG dose of food. This creates dependency on chemicals by the plant (think drug addict!) in which they do not naturally build up their own defenses. Roots come to the surface to get the food instead of growing down into the soil. Physical damage also occurs due to infrequent or over-dosing. Granular or dust applications only deliver about 40% of the nutrients to the plant instead of over 95% with natural applications.
Then, of course, there is the environmental damage of groundwater pollution, runoff, introduction into far reaching water sources, to marine life; all of this eventually returns to us in our food!
Using organic and natural yard care products and remedies helps to protect you and the Earth for further damage caused by pesticides. Every choice YOU MAKE affects Mother Earth every day.
In the book, Anti Cancer - A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, Phd, the author tells of two different studies on the prevalence of pesticides in children.
A researcher in Washington state conducted a series of tests on 42 children, ages 2 to 5. As families were leaving either a conventional grocery store or an organic co-op, they asked the parents if they would write down everything their children ate or drank for three days. Their diets were determined to be ‘organic’ if more than 75% of the food consumed was from organic sources; and ‘conventional’ if it wasn’t.
After measuring the amount of pesticides present in the children’s urine, she found that the amount of pesticides in the ‘organic’ children’s urine was one sixth that of the ‘conventional’ children’s levels and far below the EPA’s level of minimum exposure rate. The children on the ‘conventional’ diet had levels more than four times above the safe exposure limit set by the EPA.
The second study was done over a period of 15 days on 23 children. Their urine was tested after eating a ‘conventional’ diet for several days, and it showed the presence of pesticides. Then their diet was switched to completely organic foods. Within days, all traces of pesticides were gone from the urine samples. Upon starting on the conventional diet again, their levels quickly resumed.
Since 1940 the production of pesticides and synthetic chemicals has increased to over 150 MILLION TONS a YEAR. Much of the chemicals go into food production, personal care products, household cleaners, manufacture of common construction materials, clothing and every day items. Due to increased exposure of pesticides & synthetic chemicals, cancer rates have increased.
For more information, read the above mentioned book. It is a true eye-opener.
http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/447
http://www.organicconsumers.org/
http://www.cdc.gov/ExposureReport/pdf/factsheet_organochlorine.pdf
Do you go to your local garden center and
BUY DIRT?
Why?
You can make your own compost very easily and save yourself a lot of money & won’t have to lug heavy bags by using a composter.
You have all the makings for good compost right there at home. Use grass from mowing your lawn, leaves from the fall, (which are even better if you’ve mulched them) branches and twigs cut from trees & shrubs. Add vegetable trimmings, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags and peels from the kitchen. Don’t forget those refrigerator experiments with the hair on them! The only exceptions that don’t go in are meat (including bones) and any dairy products. Everything else makes great compost! All you need to do is put it in a composter and the rest is done for you.
The breakdown of these materials turns into ‘brown gold’: light, fluffy and nutritious compost. Good nutrition is vital for your garden. It helps plants ward off pests and disease without using dangerous toxic chemicals and pesticides. Another benefit is you are getting FREE DIRT!
Sun-Mar has been making composters for about 30 years. They’ve used the proven technology from their best-selling composting toilets; a rotating drum. This ensures a good mixture and quick decomposition of organic materials.
Instead of using your garbage disposal, which wastes water and electricity, a composter is an earth-friendly, pest-free alternative. Outdoor rascals like dogs, cats, racoons, possums and skunks can’t get into the sealed drum.
Compost is easy to make. You’re half way there every time you make a meal. Why not start today?