November 9, 2008

As the temperatures cool and the "foliage season" draws to a close, it's likely that the colorful leaves that once decorated your trees are now crumpled, brown, and blanketing your yard. There are many paths you can take to deal with this: using a rake, chopping them to "mulch" with a lawn mower, or using a leaf blower.

Using a rake is a good way to get exercise and clean up your yard with no adverse environmental effects. If anything, it will help you get moving and stay active in the colder months. Raking up the leaves, however, creates the problem of disposing of them. If you have a compost pile, you may want to consider putting your leaves there.

Mowing the fallen leaves with a lawn mower, especially one with a "mulching" attachment, is another good choice. Decomposing leaves can form a "protective" layer over your lawn during snowy months, and will return nutrients to the soil as they break down. This can actually lead to a better lawn in the spring. If creating hydrocarbon emissions from a gas-powered lawn mower is a problem for you, you may want to consider the rake. Another common option is the leaf-blower - but you might want to think twice about using one after reading this information, provided by an e-newsletter from Greener Hopkinton.

• "Consider first a typical hand-held or backpack-type leaf blower, which uses a 2-stroke engine that is powered by an oil/gasoline mixture to create a stream of air that travels between 150 and 280 miles per hour."
• "The leaf blower engine generates noise of up to 105 decibels, sufficient to cause permanent hearing loss in the user. As far as 50 feet away, the noise from a single leafblower can exceed 70 decibels, and is of such high frequency that it is neither matched nor masked by other ambient sound."
• "The World Health Organization recommends a maximum ambient outdoor noise level of 55 dBA, and 45 dBA if people are sleeping. Thus, a single leaf blower at 50 feet would be a hundred times too loud for healthful sleep. In addition, noise pollution can interrupt communication and cause annoyance and stress among non-consenting bystanders."
• "The gas/oil mixture used to power the leaf-blower does not fully combust, and the engine emissions include carbon monoxide (a poison) hydrocarbons, (including precursors of ozone, which can exacerbate respiratory diseases), benzene, 1.3-butadiene, acetaldehyde and formaldehyde (all known or probable carcinogens)."
• "An estimate based on 1999 models: hydrocarbon emissions from a leaf blower used for one half hour are equivalent emissions from a car drive 7,700 miles at 30 m.p.h.. And while the smog from the cars is spread out, the leaf-blower emissions remain concentrated in the neighborhood."
• "The leaf blower's high-velocity air jet does not discriminate between leaves and everything else on the ground. The dust cloud it creates includes pesticides, fungi, chemicals, fertilizers, fecal matter, street dirt (including lead and carbon), and other allergens."
• "Some of this particulate matter is tiny and easily assimilated to the lungs. It can take hours to settle, and there is nothing to stop it from drifting from the user's yard into the rest of the neighborhood. Most vulnerable to asthma and other ailments associated with inhalation of particulate matter: children and the elderly."

October 26, 2008

Are you concerned about the harsh, usually toxic chemicals found right in your own home – in the products you use to clean it? If irritating and corrosive sodium ortho-phenylphenol, neurotoxic 2-butoxy-1-ethanol, or carcinogenic trisodium nitrilotriacetate don't sound like chemicals you want to use in your household, you're not alone. Companies like Seventh Generation [link: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/], Mrs. Meyer's [link: http://www.mrsmeyers.com/], Earth Friendly Products [link: http://www.ecos.com/], and more already sell full lines of home cleaning products from glass cleaners to all-purpose 409-like kitchen sprays. Another option, however, if you want to go even more basic, is to create your own cleaning products from ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. You may have heard of some of these recipes, but I have collected several from online sources and compiled them here for your use. Links to the pages I got them from are after the titles, so you can feel free to poke around their websites further for other information you might like.

Air Freshener: http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/take-action/greentips/basic-recipes

• Use baking soda in your garbage or refrigerator to help reduce odours at their source.
• Dissolve 1 tsp (5 ml) of baking soda in 2 cups (500 ml) of hot water, add 1 tsp (5 ml) lemon juice. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray as you would an air freshener.
• Place a few slices of a citrus fruit, cloves or cinnamon in a pot with enough water to simmer gently for an hour or two.

All-Purpose Cleaner: http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/take-action/greentips/basic-recipes

• 1/2 cup (125 ml) pure soap
• 1 gallon (4 litres) hot water
• For a clean scent and to help cut grease add 1/4 cup (60 ml) of lemon juice.

This solution is safe for all surfaces, should be rinsed with water, and is very effective for most jobs. For a stronger cleaner, double the amounts of soap and lemon juice.

Mold Killer: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html

"Nothing natural works for mold and mildew as well as this spray. I've used it successfully on a moldy ceiling from a leaking roof, on a musty bureau, a musty rug, and a moldy shower curtain. Tea tree oil is expensive, but a little goes a very long way. Note that the smell of tea tree oil is very strong, but it will dissipate in a few days."

• 2 teaspoons tea tree oil
• 2 cups water
• Combine in a spray bottle, shake to blend, and spray on problem areas. Do not rinse. Makes two cups.

Furniture Polish: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html

• 1/2 teaspoon oil, such as olive (or jojoba, a liquid wax)
• 1/4 cup vinegar or fresh lemon juice
• Mix the ingredients in a glass jar. Dab a soft rag into the solution and wipe onto wood surfaces. Cover the glass jar and store indefinitely.

Laundry Suggestions: http://www.grist.org/advice/possessions/2003/03/18/possessions-cleaning/index.html

"To remove stains from clothing, try soaking fabrics in water mixed with borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, washing soda, or white vinegar. Or, look for "non-chlorine bleach" made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate, available from Bio Pac, Ecover, Naturally Yours, Shaklee, or Seventh Generation."

Window Cleaners: http://www.grist.org/advice/possessions/2003/03/18/possessions-cleaning/index.html

For cleaning windows, fill your own spray bottle with water and either one-quarter cup white vinegar or one tablespoon lemon juice to cut grease.

October 23, 2008

On September 30th this year, a new law went into effect that you may not have even noticed. This law, the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law, requires "retailers to notify their customers of the country of origin of" various fresh products, including beef, lamb, pork, chicken, goat, fish and shellfish, peanuts, pecans, ginseng, macadamia nuts, and "perishable agricultural commodities". Perishable Agricultural Commodities are defined as "fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables". While this law seems straightforward, there are some tricky exemptions included, as well. Overall, however, the point is that our government has finally passed a law that helps consumers to see where their food is coming from.

Why is it so important to be able to make informed grocery purchases? For some people, it's not - many people may not be interested in the country their apples or peas were grown in. But for others, there are many reasons to be interested. If you are concerned about your carbon footprint, purchasing only goods from the United States may be more preferable. Or, more recently, if you have become suspicious about foreign agricultural practices, you may be more comfortable avoiding imported food goods altogether.

Many pet owners got a scare when certain types of pet food were found to be the cause of kidney failures in their animals, a failure mostly caused by the addition of melamine, an industrial chemical. Melamine tricks some simple tests into reading a higher-than-actual protein content in the food being tested, and this can be used to manufacturers' advantage when producing truly below-par products. Then, we heard about counterfeit medications, even prescription varieties, and imitation toothpastes tainted with other dangerous, toxic components. Most recently, the widely publicized milk scandal in China has drawn attention to the issue of melamine contamination. In this case, over 94,000 people, mostly children, have been sickened by watered-down milk contaminated with melamine. The companies responsible for this type of contamination try to maximize their profit by putting out the least-acceptable-product while maintaining its price - and in this case, the companies have crossed the line.

As these Chinese corporations try to reconcile with the people and gain back their citizens' trust, we have to stop and wonder how it got to this point. When did "agri-business" become the new farm? Since when has your dinner traveled through more countries than you have? Whether these are points that concern you or not, being fully informed is your best bet while making good, healthy choices for yourself and your family. The COOL law is one step closer to citizens having knowledge about the food they buy, and through research and a little bit of effort, you can make decisions that work for you when it comes to the food you eat.