Toxic World Blog – Detoxify and Heal Your Body

Carnivals – Places to Share Ideas

By Mark Schauss | April 3, 2008

Carnivals are blogs that link to other blogs on writers with thoughts on related subjects. One such carnival linked to on of my blogs recently that I thought my readers might be interested in. Take a jog over to the Carnival of Improving Life.

Topics: Opinion, Our World, Websites | No Comments »

Ignoring the Supreme Court Ruling – Bush Administration Flaunts the Law On the Environment

By Mark Schauss | April 2, 2008

In a stunning, yet common place occurance, the EPA under Steven Johnson, has refused to abide by a Supreme Court ruling over a year ago that stated that they had the authority and that it had to control green house gas emissions. The total lack of care for our environment and the amazing audacity of this completely out-of-control administration is hideously mind boggling. Never before has an Administration so flaunted their lack of respect for the American people and their brazen denial of science.

This editorial done by the Washington Post and comment done by the Environmental Defense Fund, should outrage every citizen not just of America (we should be infuriated) but every citizen of the planet Earth. Write to your Congressman and demand that they force the Government to abide by the law of the land. Bush can not use laws that he likes and ignore laws that he doesn’t. This is not what our country stands for.

Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Health, Opinion, Our World, Politics | 3 Comments »

Blood Pressure Vaccine – Breakthrough or Another Reason to Drop Responsibility?

By Mark Schauss | March 31, 2008

A new vaccine which helps bind angiotensin (a cause of hypertension) and reduce it to a harmless compound has supposedly shown benefits in reducing hypertension a major cause of stroke and coronary heart disease. Co-author of a study on the vaccine, Martin Bachmann from Cytos Biotechnology in Schlieren, Switzerland say that the vaccine stimulates the immune system to attack angiotensin like it would a virus and take it out of cirulation.

When we look at the data which was published in the March 8th issue of The Lancet the vaccine group had a 5 point greater drop in their diastolic (lower number) versus placebo but in the mornings the drop was pretty significant, 25 points for systolic and 13 for diastolic. Pretty impressive in the morning but less so overall. Thing is, there are tons of things people can do to lower their blood pressure that does not require drugs or vaccines. It takes personal responsibility.

In today’s medical world, the move in the pharmaceutical as well as with some in the alternative world is to find shots, pills, potions and such to compensate for people’s lack of care for their personal health. Simple things like exercise, proper diet, lowering alcohol and caffeine intake are vastly superior in short- and long-term effects at reducing both systolic (upper number) and diastolic without the side effects.

In my years working for Life Balances with the late John Kitkoski, we used one tablespoon of vinegar (I prefer organic apple cider vinegar) in 8 ounces of water once or twice a day to lower systolic blood pressure and increasing the intake of potassium rich foods or balanced electrolytes with a higher propoertion of potassium.

Topics: Health, Healthcare, Research | 4 Comments »

Chemicals to Avoid in Cleaning Products

By Mark Schauss | March 28, 2008

Which ones should you stay away from? This question comes up a lot when I lecture on environmental health issues. Here are a few.

Ammonia
Chlorine
Monoethanolamine (MEA)
Glycol ethers
Alkyphenol ethoxylates
Phthalates
Triclosan

Bottom line is you need to switch to the product lines that are greener. Even the people who made Clorox have come up with a green line of products called Green Works (wish they would just dump the others but it is a good start). Other products that are safer cleaners include Simple Green and Method. There are many more, you just have to look around. If more of us did that, industry would follow and drop their old toxic lines and make better and safer products.

Topics: Environment, Health, Opinion, Petrochemicals, Solvents | No Comments »

Making Your World Greener – Easy Steps

By Mark Schauss | March 27, 2008

I know I harp on this a lot, and have blogged on it as well, but the bottom line is you can make small changes that add up to a big improvement in your life and the life of our planet. Here are a few tips that may save you money as well as being better for the environment.

Don’t use plastic or waxed paper bags. They aren’t good for you or the environment. They both use petrochemicals, they aren’t easily recyclable, and they aren’t economical. Use reusable containers and stop filling our waste dumps unnecessarily.
Stop using chlorine bleach. This stuff is nasty and releases carcinogenic dioxins into the atmosphere eventually getting into our food and water then into us. Use chlorine free products like Bi-O-Kleen Oxygen Bleach Plus, Ecover Non-Chlorine Laundry Bleach, OxiClean, Oxy-Boost, or Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Bleach.
Don’t use air fresheners. They contain harmful phthalates and they do nothing more than cover up bad smells.
Drop fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Use baking soda in the rinse cycle instead and it soften fabrics and eliminate static cling.
Don’t use paper napkins, switch to cloth only.
Lower your thermostat in cold weather to 62 degrees when you aren’t at home and/or at night (at least to 65 at night).
Stop wasting food. The average family throws away 14% of their food. Yikes.
Think about what you can do driving wise to save 1 gallon of gas a week. At $3.25 per gallon that adds up to $169 a year. Not bad when you think about it.
- Accelerate slower
- Drive at 65 mph max. Some say 55 other 60, but the speed limit set at 65 is smart. For every 5 mph over 60, you lose 5-10% gas efficiency.
- Plan your trips so you travel shorter distances and don’t track back and forth.
- Make sure you aren’t carrying extra unnecessary weight in your vehicle. Every 100 pounds of unneeded weight cuts you fuel efficiency by 1-2%.
Go one day a week minimum without eating meat. It takes a lot of energy to produce meat. Also, you’ll save money in the mean time.

Topics: Environment, Health, Solvents, Toxicity | No Comments »

Want to Build a Greener House? Here are Some Resources for You.

By Mark Schauss | March 26, 2008

While stumbling about the internet, I came upon this website – Green Building. While not fancy by any stretch, it has good information about choosing the greenest materials, and what to do in each room of your house to improve your environment.

Then there is the United States Green Building Council a “501(c)(3) non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings accessible to everyone within a generation.” It has some excellent PowerPoint presentations on green building.

And finally, here is a “Sourcebook” for finding sustainable building supplies.

While this only scratches the surface regarding green building, you get the idea. Think about these resources the next time you start building a home or doing rennovations.

Topics: Environment, Websites | No Comments »

Federal Deception Agency???

By Mark Schauss | March 24, 2008

I should be immune to being stunned by the actions of the FDA and how they fail to protect who they are supposed to, namely us. Instead, they consistantly protect industry at the cost of our health and a fine example is that they used industry sponsored research to determine the safety of the chemical Bisphenol A.

Here is the first line from a great article written by Suzanne Rust at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies showing a chemical commonly found in plastic can be harmful to lab animals at low doses, the Food and Drug Administration determined the chemical was safe based on just two industry-funded studies that didn’t find harm. ”

Does this dumbfound you as much as it did me? This mentality must change and change soon otherwise this country will be known as the one which enriches corporations as it poisons its citizens. When I lecture about these issues around the world, many health care practitioners refuse to believe me when I give them information such as the revelations bought out by Ms. Rust. These companies have no conscious and will do whatever it takes to make money, even lie if necessary. Shame on the industry especially given that there are so many non-toxic alternatives that are not much more expensive.

What is most frustrating is how the FDA only used two studies to say that bisphenol A is safe; one of them was never published and never peer-reviewed and the other was roundly criticized for being replete with “flawed experimental methods”. This is just one more example of political interference with science.

Topics: Health, Petrochemicals, Toxicity | No Comments »

Which Plastics are Safe – Which are Not?

By Mark Schauss | March 24, 2008

Here is the list, thanks to the magazine Green Guide (get it today, it’s well worth it). The numbers are those you see within the triangle on bottles and other plastic containers.

PET 1 (polyethylene terephthalate)- Safe and Recyclable unless you have high phthalates (my addition)
HDPE 2 (high-density polyethylene) – Safe and Recyclable
Vinyl or PVC 3 (polyvinyl chloride) – Bad and Not Recyclable
LDPE 4 (low-density polyethylene) – Safe but only Recyclable at plastic bag recycling places such as Wal-Mart
PP 5 (polypropylene) – Safe but may not be Recyclable, check with your community program
PS 6 (polystyrene) – Bad but may be recyclable
PC 7 – Avoid and Not Recyclable
PLA 7 (polyactide) – Safe and Can be Composted but not Recyclable

Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Health | 5 Comments »

Wal-Mart Does Something Right – No More Phony Hormones in Their Milk

By Mark Schauss | March 23, 2008

In another victory for our side, retail giant Wal-Mart said it will no longer sell milk from cows given artificial growth hormone. While the FDA which is supposed to protect us, claims there are no problems with growth hormone, common sense and unbiased research says otherwise. Why are young girls maturing at the age of 9? It is not because of a genetic epidemic, it’s because of the overuse of hormones in our food supply.

While I am not a fan of Wal-Mart, I applaud their actions and reiterate my ascertion that we as individuals can make a difference by voting with our wallets (or purses). The reason they gave for making the change? Consumer demand. No million person march, no protests, consumer demand can move this world toward a better place.

Topics: Health, Opinion, Our World | No Comments »

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