Our World and Everything in It

 

 

The sun is getting brighter and hotter. We’ll feel it again on Friday when the temperature is supposed to hit 89. To stand with bare skin in the sun really burns hot regardless of a breeze. So we’re told to wear sunscreen, lots of sunscreen, and try to stay out of it.   

I do use it, but wondered why my face felt like I have gravel under my skin whenever I applied sunscreen, especially the really good stuff. And I get darker and darker anyway. I’ve got a pretty good tan considering I wear 45 SPF, a big hat, and long sleeve men’s shirts for yard work. I’ve been telling my doctor for years that I do apply sunscreen, lots of it, but I tan anyway. Now I read this article that the FDA was warned to provide more information about sunscreen.

 According to the article on World Wire:

Sunscreens pose scientifically well-documented risks. While well known for over a decade, they remain unregulated by the FDA, and ignored by the industry.

Sunscreens are based on six ingredients, some of which actively penetrate the skin, accumulate in the body, and have been identified in urine and breast milk. More ominously, these ingredients have toxic hormonal effects, known technically as “endocrine disruptive.” Evidence for these effects has been well documented over the last decade. This includes stimulation of human breast cancer cells in test tube experiments, and increased uterine growth in immature female rats following skin painting or feeding.

Of major concern, and still ignored by the FDA, is the increasing addition to sunscreens of unlabeled atom or molecule size zinc oxide or titanium dioxide particles. Technically known as nanoparticles, they increase the durability and effectiveness of these products. However, as reported in over two dozen scientific publications since 2003, including those by an Environmental Protection Agency research team and the International Center for Technology Assessment, nanoparticles can penetrate the skin, invade blood vessels, and produce devastating distant toxic effects.

I think I’ll stick to just the big and big shirt until this mess gets straightened out.

 

Read more: http://world-wire.com/news/0808070001.html

Here is a link to a list of organic body care products found to contain 1,4-Dioxane, a carcinogen linked to breast cancer.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/DioxaneResults08.cfm

 Finding the list, I found this really good website for people who go organic even sometimes. It is Organic Consumers Association website. This is the largest organization of organic consumers in the country. They have been campaigning for the USDA and organic companies to preserve strict organic standards. I don’t think a responsible company should have to be pressured to do this but considering the warning list above…help by joining the campaign. Look around the OCA website. It covers all types of topics even children’s health.

 

The basic premise of the Organic Consumers Association as it relates to food is that change for pure food is in the consumer’s hands. Buying locally grown and harvested organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible assures better quality control in a product. And many times this means buying from a smaller farm market. I do this all of the time, always have. It’s cheaper and much of the produce, even chicken, is from Michigan, and raised naturally. I grow my own fruits and vegetables too.

By supporting smaller local farms we help spread the wealth around and show congress that we’re serious about eating healthy foods so that the next time the Farm Bill comes around maybe we can change it for the better. The Farm Bill needs to address the needs of local farmers who want to be good stewards of their land, and despite a big farm lobby.

                           

 On Christmas Eve I think it’s important to remember where the Christ Child was born, AMONG THE ANIMALS in a manger. Every nativity scene is one with animals. A manger in those days was: “a feed trough found in a stable. In Bible times mangers were made from clay mixed with straw or from stones held together with mud; sometimes they were carved in natural outcroppings of rock,” http://www.padfield.com/1999/manger.html. There is an actual picture taken of a manger at Megiddo used in the stables of King Ahab on the linked website.

So the King of Kings was placed in the feed trough of the animals of a stable. This is a quite a statement about the beasts of the earth, that they were worthy of such an event. This Christmas take the time to reflect not only on mankind, but peace for the earth and all of the living things that are in jeopardy of extinction. The “beasts” as in animals of the earth are written about in the old and new testament over 200 times. Their importance is undeniable. We weren’t meant to live in a world without animals, especially those that have been here for centuries that are now in danger.

PEACE

Just yesterday I watched on ABC News as chimpanzees outmaneuvered college students in a test for short-term memory. A touch screen displayed boxed numbers up to 10–I think.  I can’t remember, LOL, so the monkeys have bested me already. Touching the numbers in sequence erased them one by one. I’ve got to tell you, the monkeys were fast. The numbers appeared over and over. Mind you, I thought it was fantastic that the monkeys could push the numbers in sequence so quickly. That’s only the beginning of the test though. After pushing the numbers in sequence a few times the last 4 or five numbers would disappear.  Whoever, monkey or student, had to remember where those numbers were positioned on the screen, and still push them in sequence. The students failed, but the chimps just kept pushing the darn numbers like they were still there! The humans who thought up this test want to try the same thing on very young children. Oh that says a lot!

While I was watching this one-up-man-ship, monkey vs. human, college students no less, I was reminded of endangered primates, and all endangered animals throughout the world. The news that showed this test flashed back to the remarkable predecessors of these monkeys like KoKo and Lucy who learned language to communicate with humans. If we’re smarter, why aren’t we learning their languages? Anyway, something this close to us in intelligence being threatened in the wild for a trophy or meat is a sad statement about humanity. They already have the environment to contend with. Intelligence doesn’t seem to mean a hill of beans in this instance. Then again, look what we do to animals in circuses, road side zoos, and research. But hopefully we’re progressing.

PETA announced in its November 07 newsletter that the “National Academy of Sciences, NAS, the U.S. government’s chief scientific advisory body released a long awaited report that explodes the myth of the usefulness of animals in toxicity testing, one of the cruelest and painful types of experiments, in which animals are poisoned to death. The report concludes that these tests are ineffective and wasteful and that they should largely be replaced by better, faster non-animal tests.” Yay. Finally, after all the petitions, contributions, arguments…a break is happening for lab animals.

The newsletter also related that for the first time the National Institutes of Health, NIH, requested the University of Washington return grant money after Albert Fuchs used unauthorized procedures on monkeys. He implanted metal chambers in their heads and metal coils in the eyeballs. Lovely. Taking back funds for heinous acts of unnecessary cruelty on animals, and violating the animal welfare act hits em where it hurts, in the pocket. It’s a good attention getter anyway.  

Recently, the American Medical Student Assoc. sent PETA a letter of support to stop the military’s use of animals in trauma and surgical training and chemical casualties. There is also a big battle over sonar use in the ocean. Imagine what that sonar does to dolphins, whales, and other things that have a rightful claim to a home in the ocean. We protest the seal hunts, dolphin hunts, and bushmeat trade from other parts of the world and look what we do to animals. 

Research is a very big lobby, and most of us have been fed trite little explanations like “We have to do incredibly cruel research on intelligent animals, and/or someone’s lost pet that got sold to the system or some little kid will die.” That seems a little outmoded. I hope the latest discovery in stem cell research stops animal research altogether. Besides there have been recalls of drugs that tested OK on animals but caused serious problems, even death for humans taking a much lesser dose. There are also risks for viruses jumping species and becoming more virulent. Hopefully, this new awareness for endangered animals will lead to a renewed appreciation for all living things in the world, maybe for each other. 

I had a big revelation in the body lotion, potion aisle in the grocery store about how even the smallest things are affected by politics, the environment, big business, etc. I couldn’t find any body lotion that didn’t have mineral oil or petrolatum in it. I stood staring at a huge section of lotions and nary a one in that selection was free of the stuff. There were a lot of brands, smells, types, but all pretty much the same. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago.  

For most cosmetics, the first 3 ingredients listed are the bulk of what’s in that container. I found mineral oil way down the list on some items but it was there. After reading all the labels, I remembered not that long ago, mineral oil in cosmetics was taboo. Water is the liquid that is readily absorbed by the body. The example was to “dunk a dried up piece of leather in water and one in oil and see what is absorbed fastest.” Good point. Plus all of our faces look best when rinsing.  Look in the mirror and it’s all plumped out but sopping wet. Can’t go around like that. So the next best thing is to follow up with some sort of natural oil, they say olive is most like the skin, to lock in that water. Another good point.

There used to be all kinds of lotions without mineral oil or petrolatum, but in this government of big oil, we’re seeing this by-product back in cosmetics. I suppose I could look at it as environmentally sound that big business has found a way to recycle the by-product from the production of gasoline by putting it in stuff that goes on our bodies and faces, but the stuff is nasty. Besides if I wanted mineral oil, I’d just buy a cheap bottle of the stuff, add some sort of essence and call it a day. 

My experience with gasoline, even if it is only a by-product of the production of gasoline, is not something I want to spread all over. I don’t know about you, but when I get gas on my hands, at first it feels oily. If I don’t get it washed off right away, my skin looks ashy later on. That ashy color is dried up skin. I know.  I looked at it under a magnifying glass once to find out what was going on. I can see a whole bunch of problems down the line using this stuff. I can certainly see that it cyclic. Put lotion on, feel good for awhile, dry up. Apply lotion, dry up. Apply lotion, dry up. Good racket.  

So this is what I thought about while standing in the lotion, potion aisle thinking of yet another good reason to get away from oil and oil by-products. For an informative view of why it’s not natural to use mineral oil read: http://www.dld123.com/q&a/qandatemp.php?id=Q77.