Category Archives: Pollution

Everyday Toxic Trespass

Women’s Voices for the Earth has a great page about toxic ingredients commonly found  in products women, men and children are exposed to on a regular basis, usually everyday, even when we try not to be. Check it out, get informed, and take action to protect you, your family and the planet that supports our lives.

 Skin Deep

Take Action via WVE

Mind the Store

 Sadly, our current regulatory systems do more to protect those who are polluting us, than to protect our health. I don’t know how we are going to change this without a massive outcry, but we CAN stop buying the products we learn are harmful to us and to future generations.

The Skin Deep website has information about thousands of personal care products and ingredients, WVE has recipes to make your own, and then some, and Mind the Store is successfully calling on retailers to stop selling toxic products. We have more power than we know, but only when we use it!

There’s Petrochemicals in What?

We now breathe, drink, eat and wear petrochemicals every where, every moment, every day! There’s no getting away from them!

Where are they coming from?

“The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing petroleum products… Petroleum (oil) is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry)

So many of the things we use (and consume) are being made from petrochemicals.

eau de petrochemical pollutants

Check out these two charts:

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That fragrance? It’s not fresh!

eau de not fresh

That fragrance?  It’s not fresh!

Secret Scents How Hidden Fragrance Allergens Harm Public Health (WVE)

Toxic Chemicals in Fragranced Laundry Products and Health Effects

Toxic Chemicals in Air “Fresheners” and Health Effects

Fragrance Decision Undermines EPA’s DfE Program

Allergic to a World Full of Cats

(check the sidebar and tags for additional links)

If We’re Not Careful

This could happen here too…

We share the air on this little planet. Out appetite for disposable stuff is spewing a lot of toxic waste into the air, and most of it is oil, gas, coal, and petrochemical based.

Beijing  Picture: Austral Source: Supplied

Picture: Austral Source: Supplied

MOST brides are keen to look their best on their big day — but this lovestruck couple took their matrimonial garb to a new extreme in Beijing.

Chinese scientists have warned the country’s toxic air pollution is now so bad that it’s slowing photosynthesis in plants — and potentially wreaking havoc on the country’s food supply.

See the rest of the photos here:

Chinese couple pose for wedding photos wearing gas masks during Beijing’s big smog

Ω

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s madness to allow corporations to continue polluting this planet and threatening our very existence just to have piles of stuff we end up dumping in the trash.

What can we do to sustain life instead?

Wearing a Mask / Day 31 In the Pursuit of Love

Many of us (too many now) have to wear a mask to filter some of the pollutants out of the air we have to breathe. I guess I am lucky that I have not cared about what people think when I wear mine to protect my health.

Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution

Seriously “Sensitive” to Pollution

For others, it’s not an easy decision, for a variety of reasons, and sadly, most of them have to do with a lack of understanding and acceptance in our communities.

In January, three bloggers that I am aware of have written about their mask wearing experience.

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Your Brain Breathes Too

Pollution affects our brains!
Glad some neuroscientists are finally taking this more seriously!

knowingneurons's avatarKnowing Neurons

I live in Los Angeles and it’s unfortunate, but true, that the brown cloud of smog hanging over our city is as much an icon of LA as the Hollywood hills.  My morning bike commute is spent sucking on the tailpipes of my fellow Angelenos, and it turns out this doesn’t just make me cranky.  A recent article published in Neurotoxicology suggests that those of us who live in urban environments are much more likely to experience cognitive decline with age.  The culprit?  Air pollution.

Your Brain Breathes Too by Knowing Neurons

While air pollution is generally thought of as a modern problem, humans have evolved to handle polluted air from sources such as forest fires and volcanic eruptions.  Coughing removes large particles from the lung, while macrophages, a type of immune cell, are responsible for engulfing and degrading small particles.  However, some particles are so small that they can penetrate the lung wall, and gaseous…

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The Trouble With Soot

Soot (and ‘by’products) from burning wood, diesel, coal or other fossil fuels are bad enough for the planet, but did you know that those particles attract harmful chemicals (secondary organic molecules) from the air so when we breathe them in, their adverse health effects can be multiplied?

smokestack earth

Here’s a must see two and a half minute video from The Allegheny Front, a radio program covering environmental issues in Pennsylvania.

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Monsters In Our Closets!

Greenpeace reveals more details about toxic chemicals in clothing:

A new investigation by Greenpeace has found a broad range of hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing and footwear across a number of major clothing brands, including fast fashion, sportswear and luxury brands.

The study follows on from several previous investigations published by Greenpeace as part of its Detox campaign, which identified that hazardous chemicals are present in textile and leather products as a result of their use during manufacture. It confirms that the use of hazardous chemicals is still widespread – even during the manufacture of clothes for children and infants.

greenpeace-monsters-guide

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Climate More Sensitive Than Previously Thought!

“the combustion of fossil fuel is the largest source” (EPA)

sensitive climate

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A Canary’s Cry

When it’s hard to think in words, it’s sometimes easier to do pictures…

No More

Take Action:

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