Essentials of Healthy Living: Environmental Health

A toxic substance is any compound that has an unhealthy effect on cellular structure or function. We encounter toxic chemicals on a daily basis, often without even knowing it. Exposure may come from the food we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, or how we clean our homes and care for our yards. Toxins are everywhere. Even our own bodies produce toxic substances that need disposal. It is important to become aware of common toxins in your environment, take steps to limit exposure, and to increase your body’s natural defenses.

Here are 5 easy ways to reduce tour toxic load:

1. Buy and use a high-quality air purifier and water filter for your home and work.

2. Cut down on all plastic use; avoid non-stick cookware, microwaving using plastic wrap or in plastic containers, and switch to drinking only out of glass bottles.

3. Eat fresh, non-processed, whole, and organic foods whenever possible.

4. Use only safe, non-toxic household cleaners and yard care products.

5. Choose natural and non-toxic personal products, such as chemical-free shampoo and conditioner, cosmetics, and deodorants.

Examples of common toxins include mercury from silver fillings, chemicals used to make non-stick cookware, and pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. Continue reading “Essentials of Healthy Living: Environmental Health”

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Living Green and Healthy: 5 Health Benefits from Going Green

I spend a fair amount of time on Living Green and Saving Energy describing how to go green and save money as a result. But as important as saving money is for most people, perhaps it is not the most important benefit of a greener lifestyle. Green living can improve your health as well.

Here are five health benefits you can realize from creating a greener lifestyle.

1. A healthier heart: Regular exercise has obvious health benefits. By walking or riding a bike to replace your car for short trips, you get some cardio exercise and save gas and reduce carbon emissions all at once. Even taking the bus or train will help, since you can walk or bike to and from the bus stop or train station.

2. A healthier diet: Buying locally-produced food saves on fuel for transporting that food to the market, and smaller local growers are more likely to offer organically-grown produce that is fresher as well. Shopping at farmer’s markets is a good way to find these items, making sure your food is pesticide-free. In addition, reducing consumption of meat lowers your carbon footprint due to the greater amounts of energy, water, and resources used to produce meat compared to vegetables. And eating less red meat is good for almost everyone’s health. Continue reading “Living Green and Healthy: 5 Health Benefits from Going Green”

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Why I Don’t Buy Carbon Offsets and Why You Shouldn’t Either

How to go green in the best way is a question many serious-minded people ask themselves. Green living habits and environmentally friendly practices are worthwhile and should be encouraged.

Finding ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle are the cornerstones of a greener lifestyle, as is attempting to repair any damage done to the environment by our lifestyles. It is the latter goal that has given rise to the proliferation of carbon offsets.

Carbon offsets have become part of the current green lingo. In broadest terms, a carbon offset is a payment made to compensate for carbon emissions. In principle, this payment is directed toward an action or technology that precisely reverses the carbon emissions caused by something done by an individual. For example, a 500-mile flight on a Boeing 737 airplane produces a relatively well-defined  amount of emissions. Divide that amount by the number of passengers, and you can calculate the greenhouse gas contribution by each individual on that plane. Continue reading “Why I Don’t Buy Carbon Offsets and Why You Shouldn’t Either”

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How to Reduce Your Chemical Exposure

I just finished reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health, by Rick Smith. It is a great read, especially if you have kids. The book shows that we are accumulating toxic chemicals in our bodies and in our children’s bodies by using everyday household products that we consider harmless.

The chemicals most discussed in the book are endocrine disruptors. According to the authors, “If toxic chemicals mimic hormones, the chemicals will actually alter what genes get turned on or off at different times.” These toxic chemicals can cross a pregnant woman’s placenta and affect the neurological development, reproductive development, and organ development of her fetus.

Some very positive things have came out of this book, however. Canada banned bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, and many other companies followed suit by voluntarily taking BPA out of their plastics. Plus, new legislation regarding chemical safety has been changed. In the past, chemicals had to be proven toxic to be removed from use with food products; now, until a chemical can be proven safe, it won’t be allowed. In the United States, it is still a work in progress, but there is promise as states like Massachusetts have banned BPA in baby bottles.

Another endocrine disruptor is a group of chemicals called phthalates, used to make plastics soft and flexible. Continue reading “How to Reduce Your Chemical Exposure”

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Solving the World’s Energy Problem – Part 3

In Part 1 of this series on “Solving the World’s Energy Problem,” I made the case that fossil fuels are finite and must ultimately be replaced. Biofuels are a suitable substitute for fossil fuels, as both fossil fuels such as coal and oil, and biofuels such as alcohols and biodiesel, are essentially equivalent: both are energy from sunlight stored in a concentrated form. However, since our capacity to produce biofuels is unlikely to ever be at the level to replace more than a fraction of the fossil fuels now in use around the world, the development of alternative energy technologies is essential to enable human civilization to replace fossil fuels at some point in the future. Part 2 focused on possible alternative energy technologies that were based on converting energy from the sun into usable energy. Included on the list were solar heating technology, solar photovoltaic power, and wind energy.

But in addition to energy from the sun, there is another source of energy that could help fill the energy gap created by the reduced availability of fossil fuels. This other possible source for sustainable, renewable energy is energy derived from the earth itself.

There are three earth-generated technologies that, I believe, can serve as large-scale energy sources. Continue reading “Solving the World’s Energy Problem – Part 3”

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