Too Soft for the Environment

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:37:05 +0000

In the late 1980s I went to China with a group of chiropractors. We were on a tour and back then, China for tourists was not the same China for the Chinese (and it still may not be). The money was different and so was the food that were served. The accommodations, not just in the hotel, but in restaurants and tourist attractions, especially when it came to restroom facilities. I didn’t realize how very different the restrooms were until I inadvertently went into restroom for employees at the jade factory we were visiting. As I entered, a Chinese woman in full view was urinating into a communal trough-like unit. She didn’t look up and when she was finished, she proceeded to “dry off” with a towel (the one and only towel in the room). I am a female, so my quick exit had nothing to do with being the wrong gender. When I went back downstairs I found the ladies room for tourists with all of the familiar amenities. Now, you may be wondering why I’m retelling that moment after all these years. Well, the fact of the matter is that I was just now reminded of it when I read an article in The Washington Post about environmentalists wanting to “wipe out plush toilet paper.”

“It’s a menace, environmental groups say — and a dark-comedy example of American excess.” I would have to agree with that assessment. While some of us, myself included, may purchase recycled paper goods, like most Europeans do, there is apparently a “demand” in the U.S. for not just plush toilet paper, but three-ply “ultra plush.” And, plush toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that may be decades or even a century old.

Let’s face it, anatomically, we humans are all alike head to toe and all parts in between. In order to help save the trees, we may not need to go as far as sharing one towel among many users, but certainly single-ply, recycled paper is good enough for any of us when it comes to the environmental bottom line.

Full article and sources at washingtonpost.com

Technorati Tags: cutting trees, environment, environmental issues, plush toilet paper

Aaah, The Sweet Smell of…Pesticides?!

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:20:11 +0000

According to entomologist, Murray Isman, of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, the next generation of pesticides might smell as sweet as rosemary, cinnamon and thyme because these spices, among others, are proving to be potent insect-fighters that are gentle on the environment and safe for humans. As a Seattle chiropractor, I have been concerned for years, like all chiropractors and I’m sure many of you as well, about the dangers of pesticides to human beings and the environment. However, it’s no surprise that, just as there seems to be so many “natural” solutions to health problems if we are willing to look for and give alternative solutions a try, now there appears to be a natural solution to pest control, as well.

Scientists are finally figuring out how pungent plants and their essential oils, used by people for centuries to protect their foods, might be harnessed by modern man for pest control. “There was some magic in how nature has gone about doing this,” said Isman, speaking yesterday at a meeting, held in Washington, D.C., of the American Chemical Society. “Our research is trying to figure out which essential oils work best for which applications.”

The strong odors from spice plants consist, chemically, of small molecules that evaporate easily. Their chemical structure allows spice extracts to easily penetrate cell membranes in places like the brains of bugs. People, pets and other animals don’t have the same messenger molecules in their brains, making extracts that harm insects safe for us. In addition, over time insects are less likely to develop resistance to spice extracts than conventional chemicals, Isman said.

Hopefully, the research will continue on this “natural” path and not detour (as usual) down that all-too-familiar road toward the artificial synthesis of these organic potentialities. As Isman pointed out, “There is some internal magic to that mixture of compounds that defies trying to tease them apart. There is some benefit to using the natural mixtures as they come out of the plant.”

So, for we organically-minded folks, the future of pest control is not only looking more natural, but it’s smelling a whole lot sweeter, too!

Full article at: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/17/killer-spices-02.html

Technorati Tags: chiropractor, environment, pesticides, spices

Oblogatory Anecdotes » environment

Too Soft for the Environment

Aaah, The Sweet Smell of…Pesticides?!