Tag Archives: video

“Homesick” Update … MCS/ES Safe Housing

Here’s the new trailer for the film Homesick!

I am really looking forward to seeing this important film. So many of us are in need of safe, non-toxic housing in areas with clean, non-toxic outdoor air. When we are unable to function “as designed” in “normal” or moldy housing or when neighbors do things like use pesticides, conventional laundry products, smoke and burn things, or when there are wireless devices nearby, because of the disabling effects these harmful and toxic pollutants have on us, then safe housing can make such a great difference, allowing us to be more fully human again…

From Dual Power Productions: “Homesick was originally filmed in 1995. Director Susan Abod was so sick that she couldn’t finish the film. In 2011, we came on board to help. We’re excited to bring Homesick to you on September 15, a film that is even more relevant now than when it started in ’95.”

“Homesick”

“Imagine your house is making you dangerously sick. Common products like paint, carpeting, new building materials and insecticides are now your worst enemies. Your bones ache, you’re feverish, you suffer from extreme headaches, disabling fatigue, mental confusion, asthma and nausea. The longer you stay in your house, the sicker you get but you can’t imagine how or where you’re going to find a safe home. You are one of the millions suffering from the silent epidemic of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS).

In Homesick, Susan Abod hits the road to learn whether other people with MCS are finding safe housing. On her journey to the Southwestern United States, Susan meets people from all walks of life. Their living quarters range from a house on stilts to tents and a teepee.

Join Susan as she explores a little known world and discovers how people are coping with this growing epidemic.”

More MCS Housing Resources:

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How to Get Toxic Products Out of Stores

Would you like stores to stop selling everyday things that are full of harmful toxic chemicals?

What if you could feel better not only because you could be assured that the things you brought home were safe and healthy, but also because they were no longer full of the harmful chemicals that have been making you feel like crap?

In the absence of (and obstruction of) health protective regulations, we need to find other ways to get the changes happening that will allow ourselves and our grandchildren to live healthier lives.

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All Fracked Up…

Fracking… It’s not all it’s cracked up to be… It’s a lot more!

I recently discovered that the Ontario government is exploring opportunities to frack us here too. Russell Ontario sits on black shale, twenty minutes from Ottawa! I’ve seen it mentioned that this is happening in other Ontario communities, as well as elsewhere across Canada.

The CBC article is short and says little, so please watch the video there if you are interested … (it won’t embed and the link to just that also doesn’t work)  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/05/29/ottawa-russell-shale-gas-exploration.html

NO fracking

Why is the government, which is supposed to be looking after the best interests of people, exploring and allowing a technology that will destroy us all if it isn’t stopped?

?

To understand what some of the problems with fracking are, watch (or listen) to Sandra Steingraber, scientist, mother, writer, poet, cancer survivor, wisdom woman in this 5 part video series.

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Who Needs A Healthy Home?

We All Do! But for Children and People With MCS/ES, it is Crucial!

Healthy Homes and Healthy Environments Sustain Life

Love is always a good thing too!

So, what’s the problem? Check out this great short video:

A Wake-Up Story

See some great tips for creating healthy housing here:

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Sand, Tar, Oil, Gas, Frack, Health, Life, Fail ?

clean-up-your-mess-love-mother

This is not only an environmental crisis, although that is bad enough since we all depend on clean air and water for basic survival, this is also a health and human crisis.

The quest for and extraction of fossil fuels has reached a level that is threatening us all.

Reality Check: Canada’s Oil Sands

“Each fact included in Oil Sands Reality check is carefully researched, referenced and reviewed by a scientific advisory committee. This website was created as a resource for citizens, media, investors and decision makers who wish to participate in a more informed debate about the impacts of oil sands development.”

http://oilsandsrealitycheck.org/ and  http://tarsandssolutions.org/

  ♦

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Food and Personal Power

We are what we eat

So what does this have to do with personal power?

Or health?

And whose health are we talking about?

Our health? Farmer health? Land health? Industry and economic health?

Are these the same things or are they different?

Sometimes it’s hard to know. There is so much conflicting information out there. Even when we get an idea that what we are eating isn’t the healthiest choice for us, it can be overwhelming to sift through all the information out there to figure out where to start making changes (even without any allergies or sensitivities).

Plus, those packaged foods are so convenient when we are tired…

And that is where we start to lose personal power… even when we read the labels on those packages, there is so much crucial information that does not get put on any labels.

Knowledge is power.

We are what we eat.

Alice Walker power

We can have a lot more power when we know how to eat.

Eating healthy is a lot easier when we know what the issues are, why we need to make changes, and where to start. Not all of us have had good role models in the kitchen, we might be comfortable with the status quo, and changing our habits can seem daunting. So what to do?

Where do we start when we want to make a change?

eat food

Hey, what is wrong with those products anyway?

The good people at Healthy Child Healthy World have put together an amazingly comprehensive booklet, one that introduces the issues with our current food supply, and offers easy to understand tips on what we can do to choose smart, even on a budget. Don’t get turned off if you don’t have children, this book is a valuable resource for everyone!

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RoundUp: You, the Kids, Pets, Neighbors, Food, Air and Water too

In my post about GMO labeling, I saw the need for a post dedicated to RoundUp aka Glyphosate, but it’s hard to separate the two (GMOs and glyphosate) since most GMOs are designed to be grown with the use of RoundUp aka Glyphosate.

As I was writing, this post kept growing and growing (unlike anything sprayed with glyphosate) and contains something like 42 external links, just in case anyone wants to go nuts exploring the research… There’s probably enough info here without following any of the links (but please do sign the petitions at least) and you can bookmark the post in case you ever need to go deeper.

I’ve tried to break up some of the links with a few photos and a video, so hopefully it doesn’t look too busy, but it got to the point I really don’t know how to edit it without just saying something like

“GMOs and RoundUp aka glyphosate = REALLY REALLY BAD for everyone
and everything except company profits”

and deleting the rest, but after all the work I did, I just can’t do that. Someone else might be capable of turning this into several posts, but I’m not that someone else. Yet… Who knows who I will be when I regain all my brain functions? Anyway, consider this fair warning!

There is so much evidence of harm (REALLY BIG LONG TERM HARM) caused by eating foods that have RoundUp aka Glyphosate used on them (which would be most  processed and packaged foods that are not certified organic), but we are also breathing it in, drinking it, and tracking it into our homes from lawns that it gets sprayed on, pissing it out of our bodies, and making people, pets and farm animals sick (or dead) as well as killing unintended plants with pesticide drift drift drift and more drift, since it easily blows off the property it is applied to, and then affects the plants, critters and people next door too (toxic trespass).

This stuff is designed to KILL, and it isn’t selective. It will kill some things quickly, and some things slowly (and we are composed of some things it can kill slowly).

“Each year in the United States more than 1 billion pounds of synthetic pesticides – insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides and fungicides – are applied in agriculture, homes, schools, parks, playgrounds and daycare centers. The National Toxicology Program has found in animal bioassays that a number of widely used pesticides are carcinogenic. Case-control epidemiologic studies have found consistent, modest associations between pesticide exposures in utero and in early childhood and acute lymphocytic leukemia, childhood brain cancer and childhood non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Rates of childhood leukemia are consistently elevated among children who grow up on farms, among children whose parents used pesticides in the home or garden, and among children of pesticide applicators.” ~ Philip J. Landrigan, MD, chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine and professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City

This may be one of the most insidious everyday poisons we are exposed to.

GMO Baby

Baby Formula Manufacturers Seek To Avoid GMO Labeling With Last-Minute Amendment (Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners)

“The herbicide sprayed on most of the world’s genetically engineered crops—and gets soaked into the food portion—is now linked to “autism … gastrointestinal issues such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic diarrhea, colitis and Crohn’s disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, cachexia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and ALS, among others.”

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You Are A Guinea Pig: Part 2

guinea pig

David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz who wrote the first article in Part One appear on Bill Moyers

Understanding what we are up against

Full Show: The Toxic Politics of Science

Full Transcript

And if you want to do something about it (and please do), here’s more:

Put Sensible Limits on Chemicals

Take Action

Full link: http://billmoyers.com/content/put-sensible-limits-on-chemicals/

Thank you Bill Moyers!

This was just posted to their website:

Blinding Us From Science

Science is under attack. With corporations manufacturing uncertainty to undermine studies that hurt their bottom lines and the sequester cutting billions in funding for scientific research, you’d think the American science community would be hunkered down in their labs avoiding outside interference at all costs.  … continued at:

Blinding Us From Science

GMO Food Labels

I see a little poster being shared all over facebook all the time telling people to look for a sticker starting with an 8 to warn us that the produce has been genetically modified.

Guess what?

We do not have laws to label GMO foods in North America, so you won’t see a sticker that starts with an 8 here! Not until we get laws to mandate them!

The original poster gives people such a false sense of reassurance.

So  I  modified it…

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Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Speaks about MCS: Video

Dr. L. Christine Oliver is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

This is an excellent half hour presentation.

Dr Oliver packs so much about the issues faced by people with MCS into the first 16 minutes of this video. If you can’t watch the whole video, at least watch this much.  Alison Johnson finishes off by reading from her important book Amputated Lives.

Alison Johnson is the author/producer/director of books and documentaries on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Visit http://www.alisonjohnsonmcs.com to download a transcript or to purchase her books or DVDs.

amputated-lives-chemical-sensitivity