By now we’ve all heard that everything from hair serum to sunscreen can be teeming with troublesome toxins and crazy chemicals, and many concerned consumers already steer clear of products made with parabens, phthalates, and synthetic scents and colors. But there are hundreds of lesser-known ingredients hidden in many favorite products–some with the potential to wreak havoc on the environment and others that have been linked to breast cancer. Without a universal and enforceable natural or organic standard to regulate the beauty industry, even companies claiming to be natural often produce products laced with not-so-clean stuff.  

For their 2nd Annual Beauty with a Conscience Awards, Natural Solutions magazine put its stamp of approval on 101 of the purest and best personal care products using guidelines developed in collaboration with Whole Foods Market, here is their list of the toxic ingredients that you don’t want in your products.  

http://Care2.com/15-toxic-ingredients-in-personal-care-products.html

How to forage a first aid kit

Andy Hamilton

Natural remedies don't have to be bought from a shop. Whether for stings, cuts or colds there's likely to be a medicinal plant growing somewhere nearby...

If you get bitten by an insect, fall over and bruise your knee, get a cold or cut yourself, then the first place you go to is a medicine cabinet right?

Well not if you are a forager like myself. Many people who come on my courses are shocked to find that they can rush to their local park, wood or even out to their front lawn in search of a decent first aid kit. 

http://TheEcologist.org/how_to_forage_a_first_aid_kit

Anthropologist Helen Fisher studies gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. She's best known as an expert on romantic love, and her beautifully penned books -- including… Full bio and more links

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong -- a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and… Full bio and more links

Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg heads the Copenhagen Consensus, which has prioritized the world's greatest problems -- global warming, world poverty, disease -- based on how effective… Full bio and more links

David Keith studies our climate, and the many ideas we've come up with to fix it. A wildly original thinker, he challenges us to look at climate solutions that may seem daring, sometimes even… Full bio and more links

David Keith, Environmental Scientist, works at the intersection of climate science, way-new energy, and public power. His research has taken him into some far-out realms of geoengineering -- dramatic, cheap, sometimes shocking solutions to a warming atmosphere, such as blowing a Mt. Pinatubo-size cloud of sulfur into the sky to bring the global temperature down.

His other areas of study include the capture and storage of CO2 , the economics and climatic impacts of large-scale wind power , and the use of hydrogen as a transportation fuel. Another interest: How we make decisions when we don't have reliable scholarly data.

He teaches at the University of Calgary, and was named Environmental Scientist of the Year by Canadian Geographic in 2006.

Video footage of chem-trail application:

http://www.facebook.com/#/video/video.php?v=1144230848717&ref=mf

Chemtrails in the "News"...

top photo: healthy Elkhorn coral

bottom photo: typical Elkhorn coral today (2009)

Many divers will not recognize the exact same photo
in the following video at "22" seconds...

LINK to recent "video" of beautiful coral reefs:
http://Facebook.com/video/video.php?v=101658670847

press "pause" at "22 sec"... and observe the lost Elkhorn coral...

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The Blue Planet

Although it's a beautiful thought... it's actually an unfortunate distortion to call Earth the blue planet... although i do love the thought and beautiful images of the "blue planet"... and our Oceans are far more important for life here on Earth than most people realize... however...  it makes people think there is more water here than Earth... 70%... so people actually think nothing can possibly harm that much water... did you know that LESS than 0.03% of Earth is water! ref: http://OpenDoorWorld.com

Maybe we should have protected the Only Living Oceans in the entire universe, instead of permitting the governments to collect user fees for allowing industrial profiteers to dump the most toxic chemicals known to science directly through pipelines into public water ways and into the Oceans. http://EcoDelMar.org/Nautilus

Global Sunscreen Won't Save Our Coral Reefs

ScienceDaily (June 26, 2009) — Emergency plans to counteract global warming by artificially shading the Earth from incoming sunlight might lower the planet's temperature a few degrees, but such "geo-engineering" solutions would do little to stop the acidification of the world oceans that threatens coral reefs and other marine life, report the authors of a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The culprit is atmospheric carbon dioxide, which even in a cooler globe will continue to be absorbed by seawater, creating acidic conditions.

http://www.ScienceDaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616133938.htm

Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels Threaten Marine Life

ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2007) — Like a piece of chalk dissolving in vinegar, marine life with hard shells is in danger of being dissolved by increasing acidity in the oceans.

Ocean acidity is rising as sea water absorbs more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from power plants and automobiles. The higher acidity threatens marine life, including corals and shellfish, which may become extinct later this century from the chemical effects of carbon dioxide, even if the planet warms less than expected.

A new study by University of Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain, graduate student Long Cao and Carnegie Institution scientist Ken Caldeira suggests that future changes in ocean acidification are largely independent of climate change. The researchers report their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and posted on its Web site.

http://ScienceDaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308220426.htm


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Almost a Beginning: Hud Water Cleanup
by Brian Mann ... May 15, 2009

"All Things Considered"

One of Earth's most damaging environmental
cleanups is almost getting started. 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and General Electric (GE)
have begun dredging TONS of TOXIC, PCB-contamination dumped into
waterways that lead to Oceans worldwide, contaminating the entire planet
____________________________________________________________
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104196366

Join our cause... force manufactures to "Take It Back" ... tell them YOU made YOUR Chemicals, and YOU know best how to RECYCLE them... not us!... so STOP dumping YOUR byproducts into OUR Oceans NOW! and take back what you have already dumped when it is returned to you by the EPA or the Army Corp Of Engineers or whatever salvage company has enough skills to safely transport it back to it's origin... http://EcoDelMar.org/TakeItBack

If this sounds impossible... think about it this way... if you painted antique cars in your garage... could you legally dump the old paint thinner/cleaners down the drain?... of course not! So why are manufacturers allowed to do this on a massive mega-tonnage scale... They are killing our Oceans and Planet Earth and this has to stop. Please sign the petition to tell the US Congress to stop allowing profiteers to destroy our planet for their profit. This is the cause of widespread cancer and children with autism... if you truly want to fight cancer... stop industrial pollution... http://EcoDelMar.org/TakeItBack

General Electric Company and the American Forest and Paper Association (a trade group representing the paper industry), joined forces to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block new PCB water quality criteria designed to protect human health. 

The EPA settled with industrial giants and yet another corporate action accomplished it's profitable goal:

 Hazardous PCB rulings were delayed once again so that highly profitable American Industries were allowed to continue dumping known Toxic PCBs into American Public Waterways leading to the only living Oceans in the entire universe.

http://FoxRiverWatch.com/industry_sues_to_block_safety_standards

 Insurance and public health costs are expected to skyrocket as the ocean's food chain is contaminated, more children are diagnosed with ADD and autism, and more adults are diagnosed with cancer. Immune system suppression is expected to result in incurable infections, again severely impacting corporate insurance investments and dividends.   

Mafia Also Solves Age Old Nuclear Waste Problem

---

Giant US Industries sue their own EPA to continue

dumping Toxic leftovers into Earth's Oceans

The OCEANS are Collapsing: Mr. President It's Time To Sign

The fossil fuels industry is trampling our
climate and legislation... just to make
more profits... while we the people
are experiencing the effects of their toxic
by-products dumped into Our Environment...
and now Our Oceans are collapsing...

Go here to sign petition online:
-------------------------------------------------------
http://EcoDelMar.org/Copenhagen
-------------------------------------------------------

Recycling old electronics keeps toxic
components from contaminating the environment.

Recycled improperly, however, they could end up
polluting not only your area but also our Oceans.

E-waste is routinely exported by developed countries to developing ones, often in violation of the international law. Inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005 found as much as 47 percent of waste destined for export, including e-waste, was illegal. In the UK alone, at least 23,000 metric tonnes of undeclared or 'grey' market electronic waste was illegally shipped in 2003 to the Far East, India, Africa and China. In the US, it is estimated that 50-80 percent of the waste collected for recycling is being exported in this way. This practice is legal because the US has not ratified the Basel Convention.
 
Mainland China tried to prevent this trade by banning the import of e-waste in 2000. However, we have discovered that the laws are not working; e-waste is still arriving in Guiya of Guangdong Province, the main centre of e-waste scrapping in China.

We have also found a growing e-waste trade problem in India. 25,000 workers are employed at scrap yards in Delhi alone, where 10-20000 tonnes of e-waste is handled each year, 25 percent of this being computers. Other e-waste scrap yards have been found in Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai.



How did the trade evolve?

In the 1990s, governments in the EU, Japan and some US states set up e-waste 'recycling' systems. But many countries did not have the capacity to deal with the sheer quantity of e-waste they generated or with its hazardous nature.

Therefore, they began exporting the problem to developing countries where laws to protect workers and the environment are inadequate or not enforced. It is also cheaper to 'recycle' waste in developing countries; the cost of glass-to-glass recycling of computer monitors in the US is ten times more than in China.

© UNEP diagram.  Notice the locations are always next to rivers...
because that's where the most toxic waste is going... into the only
living Oceans in the entire universe... http://EcoDelMar.org/why

Greenpeace.org/electronics/where-does-e-waste-end-up

The real cost of not going Green...

Obviously we must Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

see: http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/rrr/

however these are very serious global "real world" problems,

like the industrial dumping of millions of tons of toxins into rivers and ocean acidification must be addressed with tougher legislation...

and here is the key... too many people still "think" the ocean can't be damaged... and too many people still question the reality of global warming... so how will these mainstream jet setters vote... case in point... here is a great interview with Sigourney Weaver ... notice the Fox news team tries their very best to steer Sigourney "off topic"... and how well she stays "on target"... Sigourney ROCKS! <3 http://ecodelmar.org/Sigourney/ ... and definitely see the new NRDC.org movie: http://nrdc.org/acidtest/ also, please see the info on my homepage: http://ecodelmar.org

Education and awareness are step one... science is just now discovering why whales and dolphins are beaching in mass: http://ecodelmar.org/why and while we are facing into the public opinion that thinks global warming is not even real... a great deal of effort has gone into the toxic effects of PCBs in the environment: http://ecodelmar.org/pcb and it's deadly relationship with plastic: http://ecodelmar.org/gyre

At the moment... no one has a step by step guide to solving these problems... we all wish it were that easy... and now with the new information hitting the press: http://ecodelmar.org/deep_blue_nuc add that to global warming... autism and cancers rising... i still suggest that self education and grass roots causes are essential to take on the current industrial giants that have caused these problems for everyone on Earth... please see: http://ecodelmar.org/paul and http://ecodelmar.org/everything

and sign petitions requesting that NASA lend us Earthlings a hand
with some actual and all too real, "down to Earth" problems...  

http://EcoDelMar.org/NASA

http://EcoDelMar.org/TakeItBack

---


Recycling Reality... i succeed when you succeed...

Larry Lawhorn, --Flagler Beach

Facebook photo

... nature is such an amazing artist...

the Nautilus thrived in the Earth's Oceans for 500 million years...

usually at the protective depths of 500 meters...

only surfacing in the safety of the moon light to feed on plankton...

for 500 million years... until now...

because of industrial toxins cheaply dumped

into the only living Oceans in the entire universe...

marine life today will confuse plankton....

with todays' plastic confetti...

laiden with toxic PCBs 

http://EcoDelMar.org/gyre

... they survived for 500 millions years without a name...

then along came industrial strength chemical profiteers...

dumping their by-products into the rivers and Oceans...

now the whales and dolphins are dying....

and scientists tell us the Oceans will only have

jellyfish and algae...

http://EcoDelMar.org/pcb

Acid Ocean Will Dissolve

Sea Creatures' Shells

Researchers uncover another
devastating impact of civilization

By 2018 the Arctic Ocean will be so corrosive, spelling disaster for the food chain as tiny crustaceans begin to die off... reports the Telegraph. "We knew the seas were getting more acidic and this would disrupt shellfish ability to grow shells. Now we realize the situation is much worse," said lead scientist Prof. Jean-Pierre Gattuso. The world's seas are turning acidic as carbon dioxide from industrial pollution converted to carbonic acid in all of Earth's Oceans... The situation is more dire than our computer models had predicted...

Industrial PCBs dumped into Earth's environment will threaten whale survival for many decades, at least - UPIA Canadian study suggests Orca whales, may continue to suffer the effects of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, contamination for many decades.

The study by Brendan Hickie, Peter Ross and colleagues at Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences determined Orcas, also known as killer whales, are the most PCB-contaminated creatures on Earth.

Scientists are now trying to discover how current declines in environmental PCBs might affect Orcas throughout an exceptionally long life expectancy, which ranges up to 90 years for females and 50 years for males.

The researchers used mathematical models and measurements of PCBs in SALMON -- an Orcas' favorite food source -- and ocean floor cores to recreate a PCB exposure history to estimate PCB concentrations in killer whales. It concluded the threatened northern population of 230 animals will likely face health risks until at least 2030, while the endangered southern population of 85 Orcas might face such risks until at least 2063.

PCBs slowly impair immune systems, making all whales vulnerable to infectious disease, impair reproduction, and impede normal growth and development, the researchers said.

The report is to be detailed in the Sept. 15 issue of the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology.

http://whales.net/whale_watch/news.html

More Well Known Mysterious Marine Life Deaths

linked to food chain industrial toxins - Cape Cod Times

   
It's a great irony of the modern world that attempts to make us safer for material profit sometimes make us humans less safe. Fire causes great insurance fortune losses and other damages as well.

Plastic items like all our electronic gear and building materials are petroleum-based and would be very flammable if not for chemicals constantly added during the manufacturing process known as brominated flame retardants, or BFRs, once outlawed as PCBs.

Researchers are finally reporting that industrial chemicals have already entered the food chain and have a strong role in the recent deaths of marine life worldwide, as well as harming the immune system of humans, although it will be a while longer before anyone realizes that while insurance companies will risk the coverage of a dead plastic cell phone, but not the living immune system cells harmed in order to protect that cell phone from catching fire.

When will it all end?

In the 1960s industrial giants sprayed the environment with DDT and PCBs; now after chemists rearranged the same molecules, BFR brominated flame retardants, or BFRs, are causing the same alarm bells to sound. 


All these chemical compounds are extremely resistant to breaking down in nature, and they are toxic in mass distribution. 

Younger chemists are looking for newer solutions, but have not found one to make their products non toxic.

"The highest levels (of BFRs) in the world are in the U.S.A., FORTY TIMES HIGHER than all of Europe," said Susan Shaw, an environmental toxicologist attempting to solve the mysteriously well known cause of deaths of thousands of marine mammals.

The National Marine Fisheries Service declared two "unusual mortality events" for seals, in 2004 and 2006. The declaration releases funding allowing a greater level of tissue sampling. Since 2006, researchers have sampled nearly 500 animals, most of which were dead or near death. 

Shaw said her analysis of harbor seal tissue samples from Maine, Cape Cod and New York showed alarmingly high toxic industrial chemical levels.

"They are LOADED with these chemicals," Shaw said.  BFRs disrupt thyroid hormones and cause psychological and other long-term disorders, including cancer and suppressed immune systems.


"The chair you're sitting in right now... contains BFRs," said Christopher Reddy, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. BFRs make up to 50 percent of the material in our household products. Their molecules mimic one of the essential molecules produced by our THYROID GLAND.

"Think of them as unique KEYS into the keyhole of a molecular process in the human body," Reddy said. "It throws a monkey wrench into the entire life system."

Unfortunately, BFRs do not stay put. They are constantly entering the environment as molecules sloughed off the material, or when BFR-containing items are broken up during disposal. They've been found everywhere, from remote Arctic regions to whales that stay far out to sea.

BFRs are extremely stable. They linger in dust, or travel with water, ultimately winding up in the ocean. There they latch on to microscopic plankton and start up the food chain, as bigger fish eat smaller fish with the chemicals stored in fatty tissue. At the top, are large predators, like seals, and us, eating cod, hake, pollock, and other large fish.

Canaries in the coal mine?

Shaw, the executive director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute in Blue Hill, Maine, is concerned that marine life may just be our canaries in the coal mine.

BFRs were first detected in human breast milk in the 1970s in Sweden, where levels TRIPLED over 20 years.

U.S. BREAST MILK SHOWS LEVELS 100 TIMES THAT IN SWEDEN.

Shaw and others believe high levels of chemicals in the body could destroy the immune system responses in marine life and in humans, making them easily  susceptible to many diseases including numerous cancers and the resent rise in neonatal brain damage in newborn children.

Alternatives chemicals do exist. There are three plastics that are self-extinguishing, but don't contain BFRs. Natural flame-resistant materials like leather, metal and glass could also be used, and design changes to products could make them less flammable. The BFR industry has already offered us  the two most toxic forms of the chemicals know to science, but is resisting a ban on the most abundant chemicals they have in stockpiles, known as deca-BDE.

Shaw said her research helped with Maine's recent decision to ban BFRs, possibly as soon as 2010 with 2020 in review.

Washington state has a similar ban proposals to fight against the giant chemical industry for the people's health, and nine other states, including Massachusetts, have legislation filed to enact one...  and a prayer circle for the insurance industry bonus plans. 

http://whales.net/whale_watch/

http://www.capecodonline.com/NEWS/710150327

With eco-friendly legislation looming on the horizon in the U.S., states are racing to roll out their green economic development plans. Crown champ California, solar-happy Arizona and the efficiency-conscious Northeast are all coming down the home stretch, and few would have predicted Iowa would break into their ranks. But it has — becoming the No. 2 wind power producer in the country behind Texas (an unbeatable foe, generating as much as its three top rivals combined). 

Read more. Source: Green Beat, 2009

Report Examines Hidden Health, Environmental Costs Of Energy Production In The U.S.

Oct 2009 by NAW Staff

A new report from the National Research Council examines and, when possible, estimates "hidden" costs of energy production and use, such as the damage air pollution imposes on human health, that are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. "Hidden Cost of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of [read more]