Health Concerns and Ailments

LeeAnne Walters: An Everyday Hero

Posted by: Rhona Reid On May 1, 2018 7:00 am

The Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded to a small handful of people from around the world in recognition of their grassroots environmental activism.  

Heroes are not born, they are made…

Selected by an international jury, this year’s seven winners came from places as diverse as Vietnam, Colombia, South Africa…and Flint, Michigan.  

A Short History of Environmental Heroism

Just after Flint officials notoriously switched the city water source in April 2014 to save money, LeeAnne Walters started to become concerned that the water she and her four children were drinking was harmful.

She was, of course, right, but proving it was a struggle.  State authorities didn’t want to listen and LeeAnne worked tirelessly with the EPA and Marc Edwards, a …

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The Sins of Saint-Gobain?  

Posted by: Rhona Reid On April 10, 2018 7:00 am

Back in 2016, French multinational corporation Saint-Gobain ‘fessed up to releasing carcinogenic chemicals from its premises in Merrimack, New Hampshire, causing private wells in the area to become contaminated though the local groundwater.  

Industrial waste: Leaking into the landscape
Bottled Water Hand-Out

Following the spill, bottled water was provided to residents with a private well within a one-mile radius of the plant, which meant supplying around 400 properties with bottled water.  

The state gave Saint-Gobain strict deadlines to fix the problem, requiring the 350-year old corporation to conceive, design and install a water treatment solution to clean up the contamination.

A Satisfactory Solution?

Flash forward to March 2018, and state officials have reached “a monumental agreement” to ensure that …

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Antioxidants and Free Radicals: What You Need to Know

Posted by: Rhona Reid On March 29, 2018 12:00 pm

Free Radicals might sound like the kind of band name you and your buddy, that guy with the keyboard and the bad perm, might have chosen back in the 80’s.  

Wanted: Easy-going electron with calming influence to tame unstable Free Radical.

It’s true to say that free radicals sound a lot cooler than they really are. Existing virtually everywhere in the modern world, free radicals are impossible to avoid.  To labor the 80’s band theme again, like an aging rock star who has lived a wild and toxic life on the road: free radicals are unstable, slightly unhinged molecules trying to hook up with a nice, calming electron to stabilize them and settle down with.

Oxidative Damage

But it doesn’t …

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Dehydration: Which Type Might Affect You?  

Posted by: Rhona Reid On March 27, 2018 7:00 am

Most of us know how it feels to become temporarily thirsty, and then slaking that thirst with a long, cool drink that restores our bodies to a healthily hydrated state again.  This common type of dehydration is known as temporary dehydration.

No one can function properly when they’re dehydrated.
Thirst Doesn’t Come First

It’s worth noting that although we’re sometimes guilty of waiting until we feel thirsty to drink, thirst isn’t one of the early warning signs of dehydration.  By the time we feel thirsty, our bodies are already experiencing other signs of dehydration, such as needing to urinate less and having a dry or sticky mouth.  

Chronic Dehydration

Chronic dehydration is more serious.  Known to occur as a result …

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Coal Ash Ponds – Are They Contaminating Your Water?  

Posted by: Rhona Reid On March 22, 2018 12:00 pm

Look, don’t shoot the messenger, but there’s something else to worry about in America’s water.  

Is there coal ash contamination near your town?

Bosses at coal-burning power plants country-wide are required to file reports with the Environmental Protection Agency this month, looking into the toxins that are being released into groundwater from vast, unlined “ponds” containing coal ash and debris.

“Coal ash ponds need to be addressed as potential environmental and human health issues.”

~ Avner Vengosh, Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University

Coal Ash Court Cases

130 million tons of coal ash is produced each year.  Arsenic, Chromium-6, mercury and radium are just a few of the dangerous substances potentially leaching into the water supply.  And …

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Will Air and Water Borne BPA Change the FDA’s Tune?

Posted by: Rhona Reid On March 20, 2018 7:00 am

It’s almost funny.  The FDA is militant about not allowing perfectly edible and delicious unpasteurized Camembert and many other legendary cheeses into the country, but it is far more laid back when it comes to the controversial chemical BPA – linked to low birth weight and certain types of cancer.

More dangerous than carcinogens in your bottled water?

According to the FDA, unlike a decent wheel of Brie de Meaux, BPA is “probably alright in very small doses.”  We’re paraphrasing here, by the way, but you get the gist.

Narrow Sighted?

“Probably alright in very small doses” is fine when you’re talking about certain things.  Cleaning your teeth with the kids’ toothpaste for a day because you’ve run out? …

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Bottled Water – The Biggest Con of All?  Part II

Posted by: Rhona Reid On March 15, 2018 12:00 pm

So, we’ve laid bare the extortionate cost of bottled water and highlighted the practice of selling tap water in bottles at a hugely inflated profit.  Persuading people to buy filtered tap water in a bottle with a slick label is quite a coup for the drinks industry.  

Ingredients: Tap Water
BPA is Here to Stay?

But it’s not just the ever-rising cost to both your pocket and to the environment.  Bottled water is problematic in other ways as well.

“Certain chemicals found in plastic bottles can have effects on every system in our bodies.  They can affect ovulation, and increase our risk of hormonally driven problems like PCOS, endometriosis and breast cancer, among other things.”

~ Dr Marilyn Glenville …

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Plastics – The Global Crisis That Won’t Go Away

Posted by: Rhona Reid On February 15, 2018 12:00 pm

Single use plastics take five minutes to produce, five minutes to use and 500 years to break down, the vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, told reporters recently.  

499 years to go.

In a move that highlights just how catastrophic the risk of choking the planet in plastic really is, the EU has announced a plan to ensure that by 2030, all packaging on the continent must be reusable or recyclable.

No More Plastic Imports to China

The move is partly in response to China announcing that it will no longer accept plastic waste imports.  For years, EU countries have met their own higher recycling targets and reduced landfill by shipping the excess to China.  Here, the large-scale manufacturing …

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Water, Water Everywhere…

Posted by: Rhona Reid On February 7, 2018 12:00 pm

It sounds obvious, but water is everywhere at the moment.  From Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water cleaning up during awards season; the reckless craze for so-called “Raw Water”; the fact that South Africa’s Cape Town is about to reach Day Zero when the water runs out, and closer to home, that America’s own water supply is barely out of the news these days.  

Water is making headlines every day.
What Do We Want From Water?

Water is big news.  Of course it is, it’s a massive part of our lives.  We depend on it for life itself and yet we’re all guilty of wasting it from time to time.  So how did we become so complacent about …

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Why Reverse Osmosis Is NOT the Answer to Chromium-6

Posted by: Rhona Reid On February 6, 2018 7:00 am

The cancer-causing contaminant Chromium-6, brought to the public gaze by Erin Brockovich, is at levels exceeding public health goals in 50 states.

Chromium-6 – Here to Stay?

Millions of people are trying to find a workable solution to protect themselves and their families and to avoid drinking contaminated water.  

What Reverse Osmosis Water Does to the Pipeline

A reverse osmosis water system is sometimes touted as a possible solution on both a domestic and municipal level.  After all, it removes contaminants and that’s the goal, right?

Unfortunately, reverse osmosis is not a solution on either front.  On a city-wide basis, aside from the prohibitive cost of building the plant, the stripped-back water – though admittedly free of contaminants – …

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