We live in an uncertain age when raising children, among other things, has become a particular challenge. We are constantly reminded to be vigilant around our children at home, at school, and in the wider world. Yet, we often fail to realize that the dangers to our children begin on the day of their birth and increase through childhood.
What we are alluding to are the internal dangers of harmful chemicals that our children ingest through their skin, their mouths, and their noses. It has been calculated that babies are born pre-polluted with up to 300 (yes, 300) industrial chemicals in their little bodies when they enter our world. And some researchers suggest that there may be a silent pandemic of brain development disorders that actually begin in the womb. Reports indicate that one in every six children will experience a developmental disability, mostly affecting the nervous system, before they leave elementary school. Frightening, isn’t it?
Yet, we frequently encounter young parents who seem to be immune to the significance of this information. “Of course, we want the best for our children,” they say, “and the government protects us from the effects of these chemicals by putting consumer-information labels on the products that use such chemicals.” Not so, unfortunately. In 1976, when the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed, the act declared about 62,000 (yes, 62,000) chemicals already on the market to be safe despite the fact that most had never been tested. We didn’t know then, and for the most part don’t know now, how chemicals affect the very young. Only when we observe immediate effects such as birth defects or early learning problems, or we know about definitely toxic substances such as lead or arsenic are we made aware of the harmful effects of some chemicals on early childhood development.
During the past 30 years, at least 20,000 additional chemicals have been put into commercial use in the U.S. (the European Union now lists 100,000 registered chemicals). Less than half of them have been tested in any form for their impact on human beings. And the 1976 act has never been amended to take stock of our increasing knowledge about industrial chemicals and their effects on our health. “Toxic Brew”, a documentary made by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and hosted by Bill Moyers, highlights the problem dramatically. See if your local library has a copy of this DVD. We now know that industrial chemicals are associated with an increasing range of childhood-related diseases such as childhood cancer, autism, ADHD, and asthma, among others.
Federal and state governments still have little authority to regulate the use of hazardous chemicals. Neither the EPA nor manufacturers are required to prove the safety of chemicals currently in commercial use. That, however, may be about to change.
The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act is currently making its way through Congress. Among other improvements, it will require that industrial chemicals be safe for children and other vulnerable groups; that new chemicals as well as the 62,000 “old” chemicals be safety tested before being included in marketable products; that the EPA be given authority to review key chemicals that are known to be found in people; that regular bio-monitoring by the EPA be used to update information on health and safety issues; and that the EPA be required to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal testing.
We can only hope for the rapid passage of this important act. Meanwhile, we can all become more informed about the chemicals included in products we use everyday. Our next article in this series will do just that.
These are difficult and challenging times for many of us. We all know relatives, friends, or acquaintances who have had their work hours reduced, lost their jobs, had trouble paying their basic monthly bills, or even had their homes go into foreclosure. None of us wants to be in such a position.
The first action to take is to find another job or second job that will pay the basic monthly bills. No doubt this position will not be commensurate with your training and skills, but you do need to acquire additional income immediately. Whether it is a salaried position or one that pays just above minimum wage, it will be transactional income that helps you to get through each month. You contract to do a particular activity or service for which you are paid a particular income. Reduced activity or service means reduced income; no activity or service means no income.
No one is certain how long the current depressed economic situation will last. Many of us have had to make significant adjustments in our daily lives both economically and psychologically. This is not the time, however, to blame ourselves for our condition, or feel resentment that we have been let down, or play the role of victim. We need to make the tough decisions necessary to survive in the present and to realize that in such behavior lies our sense of rebirth. Re-examining our values to create a positive and discerning attitude towards our spouses, our families, and the future can lead to a new attitude towards our lives.
A critical part of this new attitude is taking stock of our circumstances and planning for the future. Thinking about a RELIABLE renewal income, as well as our regular transactional income, is one way to shape a more positive outcome. A true residual income is dependable income that turns up month after month. It is income that you receive regularly for an activity or service that you perform only once.
There are different types of residual income, however. Successful authors, for example, receive royalties on their book every time a copy is sold. But these royalties don’t come in indefinitely because the number of books sold tends to diminish with time. So do the royalties. When people are no longer buying the book the royalties end. On the other hand, extremely wealthy people can have a steady stream of income if they have millions of dollars to invest in bonds, or stocks. As long as the bond and stock markets are doing well, these people will receive significant residual income. But we all know what’s been happening to bonds and stocks in our current global recession. For ordinary investors, the real estate, bond and stock markets are simply not viable options for making significant long term RELAIBLE residual income.
So what other options are there? Some people have sought long-term wealth through multi-level marketing companies (MLM’s). Yet few such companies last more than a few years and many clients have been severely affected financially by buying excessive inventories and by diminishing numbers of disappointed distributors and/or customers. Some of you reading this article are probably in this category.
We know of only two instances in which true residual income exists. One is the insurance industry. Some companies provide residual income for their agents through commissions earned on the initial sale of a policy. As long as the agent continues to service that account successfully year after year, he or she will continue to receive a residual income. Most insurance agents, however, only receive their income from the business their own agency sells or services. Agents who refer other customers to their companies but are not servicing their accounts receive no commission from these referrals. So the insurance industry provides residual income to its agents through commissions paid only on their own accounts as long as they continue to service them satisfactorily. Referrals on other accounts are not rewarded.
The other industry that provides true residual income does so not only in terms of commissions but also on all customers’ referrals. It is the direct marketing industry in which marketing executives may be paid on both their own personal customers, and a business referred to them by these customers.
In 1999, facing the rest of her life through the lens of her patients at a hospital oncology unit, my wife, Cynthia, had an awakening that changed the direction of her career. Now she has financial security that answers many of the questions we are asking at challenging times like today. What would I do if I were challenged with an inability to work and earn money? What would I do if I was left alone – who would take care of me and where would the funds come from to assure exceptional care? How will my family be cared for if my financial position changes? “I am so grateful to those clients whose courage and attitude prompted me to leap out of my comfort zone as a counseling center owner and therapist for more than 25 years into a reliable renewal- income business owner that transferred my skills to create real financial and time freedom”. Where would we all be now in this economy if we relied only on transactional counseling income?
Affiliating with a green manufacturing company that advocates wellness — financial, personal, and planetary—is the best career decision I’ve made in my life. We will examine the consequences of that decision in our next article.
“Today’s children inhabit a fundamentally different planet from the one we experienced as children. In the past 40 years, at least 70,000 chemicals have been introduced into their world…many through consumer products.” (CHILDREN”S Health Environmental Coalition) Childhood asthma has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, and asthma deaths among children and young people increased by 118% between 1980 and 1993. Asthma is now the leading cause of hospital admissions for children. (EPA September 1996)
Likewise, according to the National Cancer Institute, children’s cancer has risen 10.8% in the past decade, with an estimated 80% TO 90% linked to exposure to carcinogens found in the environment. (Landigan, M.D. and Needleman, M.D., Raising Toxic Free Children, 1996)
MANY CHEMICALS WIDELY USED AND COMMONLY FOUND AT HOME ARE TOXIC TO CHILDREN. It is no coincidence that at the same time, “an epidemic of developmental, learning, and behavioral disabilities has become evident among children.” Animal and human studies demonstrate that many of these chemicals are developmental neurotoxins that contribute to these problems. Neurotoxins pose a health threat that those of us who want to live longer and healthier lives need to be about.
Early in my childhood, I remember as a baby boomer, my mother’s high priority on two things: doing homework and keeping a spotless home. I remember every Saturday as being cleaning day with all of us participating in cleaning everything from the dust on the furniture to the dirt on the stairs leading to our 3rd floor tenement home. My grandparents owned the home where I spent my first16 years. Their hard-work ethic made quite an impression in my life. There are many aspects of that life that I will always respect and value, but the disease of asthma isn’t one of them. Anyone who has ever had trouble breathing, even for a moment, can begin to imagine what the trauma of this disease is like.
In those days, we thought that products such as Tide, Lysol and Clorox were simply the hallmark of a clean home. We knew that we needed to exercise caution when using certain products, like Draino, which had a picture of the skull and crossbones on it meaning “warning”. What we didn’t know was that years later, the use of products like these would be the subject of much controversy and scrutiny, especially by the very baby boomers like me for whom these “convenience” products were manufactured.
I’ll never forget the day I read my first MSDS sheet, material safety data sheets as they are called. I had been challenged by the vice president of our counseling enters to consider the value of detoxifying our home and office as a way to reduce my need for my inhalants. She was persistent that the evidence was astounding. I merely had to take a look at the hazardous ingredients present in the products I used everyday and the symptoms they could cause and suddenly, as if it were yesterday, began to make a possible link…to the world of asthma and allergies. A link that neither my wellness nor my medical practitioners had ever mentioned. I wondered….what if she is right?
I thought about all the children I had worked with when I was an elementary guidance counselor. How many children were on Ritalin, how many had EAP’s (educational treatment programs) because they couldn’t concentrate? How many had behavioral disorders? We used to point the finger at genetics, or diet, or family dynamics. We never even considered the harmfulness of out gassing of chemicals used in their homes and even in their schools. We never even though about it…although some people have.
Bill Moyer, a well respected reports on PBS, recently featured a television special entitled “Kids and Chemicals”. This sequel to Trade Secrets”, aired two years ago was just as explicit and compelling. The program was an attempt to educate parents about the seriousness of the problem and prompt them to seek alternative action. Moyer interviewed Dr. Phillip Landrigan, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, who works with scientists around the world to understand how kids are affected by their exposure to chemicals. According to Landrigan, of the 3000 high production volume chemicals in use in this country today, only 43% have been even minimally tested. Further, he stated that children are potentially more vulnerable to chemicals than adults. “They play on the ground, they live low, they breathe more air, they eat more food, they put their hands in their mouth and so they transfer more toxic chemicals into their body than we do’? (Transcript from PBS broadcast, Kids and Chemicals)
Dr. Sandra Stienberger, a biologist at Cornell University, joins Dr. Landrigan in asserting that exposure during pregnancy doesn’t by itself mean that a child will get ill. “What matters is the intensity of the exposure during pregnancy and when it occurs in fetal development. A chemical exposure occurring early in pregnancy might cause miscarriage,” argue the researchers. If it occurs later on, it might cause birth defects. Later still, it might damage brain cells. Says Dr. Stienberger, “Maybe certain problems that we understand…as attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, the inability to pay attention aggressive and violent behaviors might have their origins during these windows of vulnerability.” (Transcript from PBS broadcast)
Moyer’s’ reports on a newly proposed project called, “The National Children’s Study” that will track 100,000 children from the womb to age 18 and provide definitive answers necessary for new regulations and laws protecting children from exposure to toxins.
In the meantime, what are some steps that we can take to make our home and office safer for us? We can begin by replacing everyday mass-produced consumer products. Take action now. “The very nature of change is gradual. It begins with a decision to change, a commitment to change.” (Debra Lynn Dadd, Nontoxic Home and Office) Finding safe products easy and rewarding. Even the smallest steps can make an enormous difference.
This article was written by Cynthia V.Mitchell, M.Ed, wellness consultant and owner of Time for What Matters, the company with “an eye on your health”
When I first heard the news about John Travolta’s and Kelly Preston’s son tragically passing, I felt such a sorrow for them. I remembered how years ago Kelly Preston was one of the first moms responsible for bringing to the attention of other parents how serious an issue it is to be exposed to dangerous chemicals. Her son Josh, you see, developed his disorder as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals. Now some 14 years later we are just scratching the surface in our ability to educate all people as to the danger of chemicals in the products we bring into our home every day!
This article will begin to connect the exposure to chemicals to the dreaded free radical disease of cancer. The intention is not to frighten you but rather to awaken those people who are open to creating safer indoor air environments about the importance of doing so now.
A few years ago, Bill Moyers with the help of Dr. Phil Landrigan, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, created a PBS special which shocked those of us who were amazed to learn about the harmfulness of chemical exposures in utero. Subsequently, many of us ordered a film produced in Canada entitled, Toxic Brew, which focused upon chemical exposures in our homes and their effects upon our health. Armed with conviction, a group of us were exhorted to research and share information like this with every woman and man that we were fortunate enough to reach. I direct you to my previously written articles on body burden found on www.greenforwhatmatters.com We encourage those of you who have a connection to our vision of creating healthier greener lives to share this information freely with others and when they ask the question: “how can I create a safer home?”, we ask you to refer them back to us .We have a proven solution.
According to the research done at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production,” the single greatest factor for cancer is age, but today, cancer rates are “age adjusted.” Simply put, in each age group from children to seniors, cancer rates show a significant increase over the past three decades”. To quote their findings: “in 1950, about one in four Americans could expect a cancer diagnosis. Today, nearly one in two men and more than one in three women can be challenged by a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.”
As for kinds of cancers that have increased: “melanoma by 690%,female lung and bronchial by 685%, prostate by 258%, non Hodgkin’s lymphoma by 249%.brain cancer by 136% and breast cancer by 90%.
“The growing burden of cancer on children may provide some of the most convincing evidence of the role of environmental and occupational exposures in causing cancers.”(1)
Epidemiologic studies have consistently linked higher risks of free radical disease for children to parental and childhood exposure to particular toxic chemicals, including solvents, pesticides, petrochemicals, dioxins and certain industrial by-products. Recently, research has also identified the risks found in personal care products including skin care and cosmetic products.
When Rachael Carson‘s book, “Silent Spring” was published in 1962, many people read for the first time about the seriousness of the consequences of contaminating our food chain from the increase of pesticide use. The Lowell Report quotes Carson as asking, “how could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and even death to its own kind?”
What is your response to those words spoken almost two generations ago?
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists probable, possible, and known toxins found in personal care products. IARC lists chemicals known as parabens and phthalats, in those products that have been linked to breast cancer. Yet parabens and phthalates continue to be found in consumer personal care products and in the shopping carts of uninformed people.
I have travel in many circles and I have heard people often say, “I don’t need to be concerned with this issue because I think positive and no toxic product will ever impact my immune system and cause disease.” While I am all in favor of thinking positively and affirming the positive, I question how this approach is any different than the perspective that says, “There are chemicals all around us, what good would it do to change my habits in my home if I am surrounded by chemicals everywhere else?”
Ours is a call towards personal and generational responsibility.
As Sandra Steingraber, author of Living Downstream, an ecologist looks at Cancer and the Environment writes: “it’s not whether the dangers are found in dump sites, or the workplace or the water, food or air, but I am more concerned that the uncertainty over details is being used to call into doubt the fact that profound connections do exist between human health and the environment. And I am more concerned that uncertainty is too often parlayed into an excuse to do nothing until more research can be conducted.”
According to Greenpeace, since 1992, the number of corporations claiming to embrace” sustainable” practices has risen sharply; however, the irony here is that many of these businesses manufacture greener products while adding “insult to injury” by actively lobbying behind the scenes against regulations that would have reduced pollution. Greenpeace believes that such “double speak” companies warrant a “greenwashing” tag.
It’s important when choosing green products to support those companies that are completely embracing green practices from manufacturing to marketing.
As for the connection between Cosmetics and Breast cancer, IARC and NTP (National Toxicology Program of the National Institutes of Health) have delineated carcinogens into known, probable or possible categories.
Their reports identify toxic chemicals in nail-polish,or nail polish remover,fragrances,creams,lotions, shampoos, and conditioners,lipsticks,sunscreens,mineral makeup, soaps, toothpaste, mouthwash, haircare, mascara, and foundations.
Imagine what good we accomplish when we seek to inform men and women about the value of replacing toxic products with non toxic ones?
In closing I leave you with this thought taken from the Lowell Report for Environmental & Occupational Causes of Cancer:
“Certainly, more research is called for – and it should be funded by those who produce or emit synthetic chemicals. In the meantime, the least toxic alternative should always be used. The right of the people to know what they are exposed to must be protected.”(3)
“It is TIME for what matters”.
Each and every day millions of consumers go shopping for everything from personal care to homecare products without thinking twice about the ingredients. They make no connection between the products they use in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room and the adverse health of their families in such forms as asthma, skin rashes, and even heart disease and cancer.
And yet these days you can’t even open the New York Times without seeing a full-page warning that “toxic chemicals in everyday products are dangerous to your health and the health of those you care about”. (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) If you are like me, you ask at least two thought-provoking questions. First, why do companies that manufacture these products continue to do so even though they know how harmful certain ingredients are to human beings? Second, who do people take such chances with the most valuable gift we have, namely our health?
Recently, I interviewed a woman who was pregnant. She had researched thoroughly the materials used in building their new home. In fact, given her history, she would be considered an expert on building a sound home. She was impressed to learn about the harmfulness of products she bought on a regular basis, and delighted to know that safer ones were available. I showed her the website, nottoopretty.org which delineates those products that can harm the baby in utero. She was amazed indeed. What world you do if you were in her shoes? Would you make some different choices in your purchases? Would designing a room with the right space and furniture be as important as providing a toxic-free environment for the family and baby to be?
The Center for Children’s Health and Environment is our nation’s first academic research and policy center to examine the links between chemicals and a slew of problems like learning disabilities, infertility, asthma, allergies, and cancer. At risk are many people, pregnant women, couples who want to have children, school-aged children, senior citizens…women who work from home…and the list goes on. A PBS special, Chemicals and Children, with Bill Moyer, highlighted the depth of the problem both for the child in utero and the adult whose mother may have been exposed to toxins. The documentary even went as far as to link the implications of a person whose DNA would reflect such exposures. In other words, the long-term effects of toxins can be expressed in our genes. What will it take, therefore, to create a more conscious consumer?
In a word…PATIENCE…one customer at a time…one household at a time…one generation at a time. I have spent my career helping people define the level of wellness they wanted to experience in their lives. Likewise, I have spent many days on the sidelines asking such questions as, “Exactly what will it take?”
Some people criticize the American medical establishment because it would appear to be committed to treating disease rather than preventing it. The same might apply to the parent who, finding a child asthmatic, seeks only medical attention without thinking about the environmental exposures n the home that contribute to the unhealthy condition. What if there was something you cold do to change the quality of your life…would you do it? What if that one solution was to change the products you purchase to safer, healthier ones? Women’s asthma has recently been documented as having increased 65%…could that be a result of unconsciously buying the very products that lead you to your inhalant? Ask anyone who has ever been threatened with an inability to breathe…what would they do to breathe again? Would they be willing to become more conscious consumers?
What is the result if we pay no heed? The Mount Sinai School of Medicine ran an add recently that startled many of us…with a picture of an infant it read, “Our most precious resource is being threatened, WHY?” Whether you are of childbearing age or in the second half of your life…the question begs your answer now. What would e the price of remaining unconscious? What would be the value of changing your habits today?
In our previous article we encouraged you to move ahead wit your plans to create and grow a home-based business. And we provide you with some thoughts on how to create a firm foundation for your business. Now we present the value of renewal income.
What is Renewal Income?
Renewal income is getting paid many times over for something you did one time only. It has several advantages over transactional income. Transactional income is what you get paid when you work. For example, our wedding business (A Beautiful Florida Wedding) is lucrative as long as we are planning or performing ceremonies. The more ceremonies we perform, the more money we earn. When we are not presenting ceremonies we don’t bring in income.
Renewal income, on the other hand, can take several forms. Insurance and financial planners, for example, are paid directly on the sale of new policies (transactional income), and then continue to receive commissions on the renewal of policies annually (renewal income). J.K. Rowling, the incredibly successful author of the Harry Potter series, not only received a financial advancement on each book (transactional) but continues to receive royalties as long as the books sell (renewal) and has been collecting additional royalties from the movies and souvenirs based on the books. We can attract wealth from our efforts. In this case, Rowling, a single mom who is now the richest person in Britain. We can attract great wealth in many forms but a renewal income can bridge the years we have spent in a career or profession that generated only transactional income.
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What are the benefits of Renewal Income?
Long-term financial security is the most important result of renewal income. Being able to leverage income allowed us to leverage time and talent so that we could indeed make “time for what matters”: family, church, social and business relationships, leisure time, and charity work.
Let Cynthia tell you briefly about her earnings experience before she realized the value of renewal income. She owned two wellness centers that focused on individual, couples and family therapy from a body-mind perspective. As the client base grew and income increased (transactional), she hired and trained an increasing number of therapists and holistic practitioners to serve her client base. She had been taught that hard work and a good education would provide her with financial security. She discovered otherwise.
About every 18 months, one of the therapists she had welcomed and trained would announce their departure to begin their own “private practice”. She lost an investment (time and therapist) and part of her market (those clients who went with her) and had to begin all over again to maintain her client base and income. This was not renewal income but “redoable income”. Here she had to do it all again just to keep up let alone move ahead with new growth.
Most work-from-home business models follow this “redo-able” income pattern. Indeed, the pattern she experienced in her counseling centers paralleled the “breakaway” phenomenon characteristic of most multi-level marketing companies (MLMs). Breakaway occurs when a business-builder you recruited becomes as successful or more successful that you then “breaks way” taking their organization with them to create a new business. You are faced with rebuilding that hole in your business fast or face a significant loss of income. The effect on the original business builder can be wuite disillusioning and despairing. You believed that you were building a team with a “team spirit” and that you could all grow together, only to discover that competition rather than collaboration was the spirit of the business. The result is a feeling that “my business owns me” rather than I own my own business (see www.timeforwhatmatters.com video). How can you avoid such a “high risk venture” that has such a stressful outcome?
In the financial arena, a renewal income is like a dividend that one receives over and over again for a good initial investment. In the past, many investment products came with a high level of risk and, like ourselves, many people paid the consequences of that high risk. Today, however, there are investment vehicles that insure one’s principle and are therefore less risky and more likely to generate a reliable renewal income. If you expect to be in business for yourself for the long term, it’s also important that you plan for the long term.
Let us share with you in our next article how we discovered a reliable renewable income source when we established a plan to retire and live in Florida.
One of the notable movements of the young 21st century has been the “green movement”. It pervades every aspect of our public consciousness from climate change/global warming to recycling to our grocery shopping habits. One of the most exciting trends now is building green. The construction of houses, offices, and commercial –industrial buildings has begun to be affect4d by the profitable desire to create environmentally-friendly homes and work places.
In this next series of articles we intend to explore the value of “going green” in our most important environment, our homes. In our first article we will examine the meaning of going green in general terms. There are three levels of activity that seem most relevant to us: a) sustainable construction of homes and offices; b) interior furnishings and indoor environmental quality; and c) personal health and wellness.
Green buildings not only make for healthier living environments but also for reducing building and upkeep costs. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (established in 1993), green buildings, on average, reduce energy use by 30-50%, carbon emissions by 35%, water use by 40%, and solid waste disposal by 70%. Green buildings save $58 billion of sick time from work annually and add $180 billion in increased worker productivity annually.
It makes both financial and environmental sense to build green. Green is indeed the color of money. The construction of the 11-story Banner Bank Building in downtown Boise, Idaho is a case in point. Completed a couple of years ago, the building site was chosen because of its proximity to public transit and downtown facilities. Commuters pay parking fees commensurate with their vehicles’ fuel efficiency, thus encouraging the use of more efficient cars. The building uses 60-80% less water than conventional buildings through capturing storm water from streets and parking lots, water that is also recycled to flush the toilet system. Because of several energy efficiency measures, including “smart” heating and lighting systems and under floor air ventilation, the building uses 65% less electricity and overall 50% less energy than comparable-sized downtown buildings.
Occupant comfort is also a goal of the green building movement. Home buyers increasingly are focusing their attention on environmentally-friendly homes because they are safer and will save them money. And the housing market at present is definitely a buyer’s market. Building new homes or renovating existing homes and marketing them successfully means offering something special, something “green”. Indeed, pride in purchasing in a designated green community has become a growing phenomenon in SW Florida.
Homes in such communities have been created or re-created using the most efficient and effective indoor design techniques. Builders and contractors can receive tax credits for many of the home improvements that they make. By 2010, residential green building is expected to grow to a $20-$38 billion industry; some analysts have suggested a $60 billion growth within the next five years. Many homes have been constructed or renovated using simple passive design elements such as recycled, environmentally=friendly building material, improved cross ventilation, solar lighting, overhangs and porches to reduce sunlight, tinted windows, and low-flow fixtures and water-saving appliances. Newer innovations include the use of no or low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) paints, finishes, and carpets, as well as bamboo and cork flooring. Home owners themselves can make simple “green” adjustments by shifting from incandescent to compact fluorescent bulbs and replacing ordinary air filters with high energy-score filters that last longer.
The one category of “green living” that has not yet received the attention it deserves is the health and wellness of the domestic and work environments that have been created. What is the point of moving into an environmentally-friendly home or workplace if we do not crate a safer, non-toxic environment?
It is sobering to think of the impact of household chemicals, for example, on indoor air pollution. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), homes have up to five times the concentration of hazardous chemicals in the air compared with the outdoors. As a consequence, women who remain at the home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside the home. Many cleaning products and personal care products release toxic gasses into the air not only when they’re opened but also when they are stored away. These gasses have been connect4ed to increased rates of disease, including not only cancer but also chronic asthma, birth defects, diabetes, and heart problems. And toxic waters can harm the environment through air, water, and solid waste pollution.
The California department of Fish and Game has reported that the greatest dangers to aquatic life actually come from household bleach, all-purpose cleaners, laundry and dish detergents. By “going green”, we can eliminate this insidious indoor problem and truly make our lives healthier and more long-lasting.
What does it mean to “go green” and why is it necessary to create a safer indoor environment? The word green has many meanings. Going green refers to the Green Movement, being environmentally friendly. There is also green fundraising and green finances. Green, as it applies to indoor air environments means non-toxic, safer, prevention of disease, especially childhood diseases, like asthma, allergies, and ADHD. Since 1980, asthma has increased by 600% in the U.S., and the Canadian Lung Association and the Asthma Society of Canada identify common household cleaners and cosmetics as principal triggers. There are more than 3 million poisonings a year and household cleaners are the number one cause of poisoning in children. Chemicals are attracted to and stored in fatty tissue. The brain is a prime target for these neurotoxins because of its high fat content and very rich blood supply. An EPA survey concluded that indoor air was 3 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air. Houses today can be so energy efficient that “out-gassing” of chemicals is common because chemicals have no where to go so they build up inside our homes. We spend 90% of our time indoors at work or at home. Moms, infants, and the elderly spend 90% of their time in the home.
Because chemicals have the ability to attach to dust particles, the air or water, they can travel far from where they were used. Toxic chemicals often get into the body because we inhale them, swallow them or absorb them through our skin. Some chemicals or their by-products lodge in our bodies for a short time, while others can remain there for years. Arsenic, for example, is mostly expelled within 72 hours of exposure while chlorinated pesticides can remain in the body for 50 years! By simply replacing everyday toxic consumer products with safer greener options we an contribute to the well being of our families and our planet.
Another way of reducing our exposure to chemicals is to make structural changes in our homes.. As an example: install chlorine filters on showerheads, install activated carbon filters to remove lead, chlorine by-products, install water distillers to kill microbe and remove arsenic, install operable windows for natural ventilation. In fact, it is recommended that we exchange the air in our homes three to four times a day! We can also use formaldehyde-free materials to replace cabinets and countertops, use rapidly renewable floor materials, like bamboo and cork, replace vinyl flooring with natural linoleum that is made from renewable material such linseed oil, pine resins, and cork. Use low or no VOC and formaldehyde free paint and use solvent-free adhesives, to name a few money-saving and health-preserving options.
Going green is affordable and is a way to reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals. Eliminating the causes of environmental illness is much more cost-effective than treating the symptoms. Simple changes in the home can prevent some exposure, but the best course is to eliminate persistent chemicals that accumulate in our body and replace them with safer non-toxic options. We will discuss how you can find replacement products in a later article.
Cynthia Mitchell, M. Ed is an award winning business mentor, and a professional speaker who specializes in educating consumers and professionals connected to the real estate and healthcare industries on the value of non-toxic living.
“For thousands of years the native Aborigines of Australia have used the leaves of the Tea Tree to cure various ailments. Early in this century, doctors and scientists began to realize that the natural oil contained in the leaves had incredible halting properties. Over the last 75 years, considerable research has been done, and Tea Tree is finally being recognized as an extremely effective curative for a wide range of medical conditions.” (Mackenzie, That Amazing Tea Tree Oil)
Tea Tree oil, an essential healing oil, takes its name from the botanical Melaleuca Alternifolia, (not Melaleuca Quinquinerva, the species brought into the Everglades her in Florida.) We can thank Captain James Cook and his botanist, Joseph Banks, in the late 18th century, for using the leaves for brewing a tea, and drinking the essence. It was not until the 1920’s however that the Chief Chemist at the Museum of Applied Technology in Australia, Arthur Penfold, extracted the oil and recognized its antibacterial and antifungal, hence healing, properties.
In 1930, the Medical Journal of Australia published findings of Dr. E.M. Humphrey who was encouraged by the way that the oil dissolved pus and left surrounding areas clean (Humphrey, E.M. Medical Journal of Australia I 417-418, 1930) He urged the dental industry “to take seriously the antiseptic properties for gums and the mouth”. He also noted that when added to soap it would make the soap up to 60 times more effective against Typhoid bacilli than the so called disinfectant soaps. These findings excited both the scientific and medical communities and further research was funded. Subsequent articles were published in the Journal of National Medicine and the British Medical Journal.
From diabetic gangrene in man to other diseases, Tea Tree Oil was known as a “safe, effective, non-toxic, non-irritant, antiseptic disinfectant.” (Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 18, 274-275, 1937)
By the start of World War II, Melaleuca Alternifolia had earned its reputation as a miracle healer — one that was medically recognized world-wide for the successful treatment of conditions including:
- Ear, nose and throat infections
- Gynecological infections, like Candida
- Nail infections
- Skin infections
- Dental nerve capping
- Hemorrhages, wounds, and first aid
- Many and varied veterinary applications
Why was such an incredible discovery put aside? The answer is simple; the discovery and popularity of penicillin. Science rejoiced that it had finally triumphed over nature – or so it seemed. Modern medicine, built on synthetic chemicals, reigned over natural medicine…for a while.
A heightened awareness of over-exposure to synthetic chemicals has consumers demanding options. With a 75 year history as a safe effective antiseptic, tea tree oil stands unparalleled as a natural alternative. Among its properties are its antibacterial, antifungal nature, its ability to soothe as it heals and of course, its ability to clean as a solvent.
For over 17 years, an INC 500 company has built its business around versatile, cutting-edge wellness products; many which utilize a standard of tea tree oil unavailable anywhere else. Customers simply order, by phone or internet, replacements for those everyday products which may contain toxic chemicals. The company manufactures everything in the U.S. and offers 300 non-toxic product replacements in 5 divisions: personal care, nutrition, designer skin care, pharmaceuticals and ecosense home care.
If the prospect of a non-toxic lifestyle is attractive to you and if preventing disease is a focus of your life, consider simply switching stores. Here’s to your health!
This article was written by Cynthia Villari Mitchell, M.Ed. in 2002. She is currently the owner of Time for What Matters, and consultants with individuals and businesses on a local and national level with “an eye on your health” – physical, financial, personal and environmental.
Recently I sat down with a financial planner. It was not the first time I had done so, but this time I reflected upon an appointment that I had 10 years ago when I gathered with my resource manager and a pension planner. The question I posed then was: what did I need to do to provide the income necessary for my vision of retiring comfortably in Florida? I was stunned to learn how much it would cost to maintain my lifestyle into my late 80s or early 90s (given good health and present lifestyle expenses).
I credit my planning oriented parents with thinking ahead about how to finance their future, but also knew that what worked for them would not work for me. Recently, another “boomer” colleague conveyed to me a discussion some boomer academics had about their parents who had lived relatively long lives and been cared for through the safety net of Social Security and Medicare. Current evidence indicates that we can’t expect to receive such generous support and, if not left exactly on our own, we’ll need to plan for most of our own retirement. Remember, next year (2008) the first baby boomers will be eligible to receive early retirement checks from Social Security at age 62; data suggests that 50% of those eligible will do so.
Retirement was considered a relatively new experimental life stage expected to last perhaps three to five years when President Roosevelt introduced Social Security for Americans reaching 65 in 1935. Life expectancy was only 63 years then. Parents of early baby boomers, who were born during the 1920s, retired during the 1980s with the expectancy of living another 10 to 15 years. Many of them had only a high-school education and faced limited leisure options after retirement. One survey has reported that these retirees watched an average of 43 hours of T.V. per week. As one boomer said of his father, “He retired at 65 and died at 95. Can you afford a 30-year vacation?”
Boomers are now in the process of rethinking the life-work balance and clearly have no desire to be “put out to pasture”. “Phased retirement” is the order of the day, in which boomers are beginning to balance the time between new work and real-time leisure. This process is creating a new career stage where the need-to-work mode is shifting to a passion to live mode focused on activities that boomers really enjoy. What we are about to witness is a true “re-generation” in which the opportunities for both new kinds of work and extended forms of leisure are being crafted by the pioneer wave of self-propelled boomers now reaching their early sixties and looking forward to another 20 to 30 years of active life. What opportunities for extended renewal income might exist for those who still want to be productive and earn substantial additional income?
