Environmental Articles

The World Environment Day is on 5 June and the theme of this WED is “Many Species. One Planet. One Future”, this year’s pageant will celebrate the fabulous diversity of life on Earth as part of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.

This year’s global host, Rwanda – a country of exceptional biodiversity that has made much progress on environmental protection – will lead the celebrations with three days of theme events.

Thousands of activities will also be held worldwide, with beach clean-ups, concerts, exhibits, film festivals, community events and many more.
But what should we do to make the planet we live in a better place?

Firstly, cherish and protect the surrounding environment we live around. For example, carry out some meaningful and voluntary activity by helping the gate cleaners or sanitation worker in the street. Perhaps you will realize how important it is to keep the earth clean by experiencing the cleaning works personally. And you will surely be aware that love the environment is to love ourselves.

Secondly, you can try to act as a organizer for making a speech publicly, which aims to share knowledge on environmental protection. This kind deed will not only be praised by your community, but also be supported by the whole society. So let us join the event of improving environmental protection awareness and make it global.

Lastly, do something symbolic. For instance, plant a tree, although it is not Arbor Day. Make a tour to the chemical plant and think out some suggestions for reducing or even eliminating pollution emission.

In a word, knock yourself out to live up to the theme of this WED and you will feel proud of what you have done.

Environmental Medicine and the four categories that toxins are found in our environments food, water, and air:

1. The toxic microbes that can put a severe stress on our health.

• Yeast or Candia
• Fungus or Mold
• Yeast like Candida
• Parasites like Trichinella Spiralis, Helicobacter Pylori, Toxoplasma, Clostridium Difficile, and Giardia.
• Pathogenic Bacteria
• Viruses

2. The heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic have been found to be extremely toxic when residing in the body.

3. The plethora of chemical toxins constantly bombarding our body:

• In our foods like, 13000 solvents, preservatives, and other additives used to process our foods.
• Pesticides, chlorine and other toxins in our water.
• The synthetic drugs.
• The 2.4 billion tons of chemical pollution that goes into our air in the U.S. every year.
• The 188 million pounds discharged into our lakes, rivers, and streams each year.

4. Exposure to allergens like pollens and dander in the air, and sensitivities with ingredients in different foods like gluten in wheat and lactose in milk can be toxic with certain individuals resulting in significant health issues.

The condition of Toxic Syndrome occurs when toxins accumulate in your body:

This condition of Toxic Syndrome occurs when your body accumulates toxins faster than it can rid of them resulting in extreme stress to the systems of your body. This syndrome is a commonly undetected condition that can rapidly deteriorate your health and the way you feel. Toxic Syndrome can be recognized through physiological and physical conditions such as:

Health issues associated to psychological conditions:

• Anxieties
• Sleep problems
• Faulty memory
• Moody
• ADD
• Hyperactivity
• Agitation
• Panic attacks

Health issues associated to physical conditions:

• Fatigue
• Pre-mature Aging
• Headaches
• Weight Gain
• High Blood Pressure
• Palpitations
• Aches, Pain, Arthritis
• Allergies
• Digestive problems
• Chronic fatigue
• Chronic infections
• Obesity
• Fluid retention
• Rashes or itchy skin
• cold hands or feet
• burning sensation on tongue
• muscle or facial twitching
• Metallic taste in mouth

Environmental medicine offers four steps in discovering, cleansing, and promoting healing from trapped toxin in the body:

First, proper diagnosis through advanced testing in order to discover if any types of toxins are accumulating in your body. These tests may include blood, urine, stool, saliva, and Applied Kinesiology.

Second, if finding you have a toxic syndrome, avoid any further exposure to the toxins found.

Third, you should receive appropriate detoxification or cleanses to eliminate these toxins. This may include:

• Home care remedies to help detoxify
• Appropriate cleanses for the elimination of specific chemical toxins residing in your body.
• The eradication of microbes like yeast, molds, viruses, parasites, etc…
• Chelation therapy to remove the toxic metals from your body, such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, etc…
• Homeopathic for elimination and balance with all toxins.

Fourth, follow an appropriate diet and recommended vital nutrient supplements for promoting healing from toxic damage.

Conclusion:

Discovering if you or a loved ones health condition are related to exposure of environmental toxins, can be crucial in restoring health. When toxic syndrome is involved, the natural health care of environmental medicine is warranted to restore wellness.

There is so much talk in the developed nations about recycling and reducing the filling of landfills, and even ceasing to use landfills as in the philosophy of “zero waste”, that it is easy for us in the west to forget what is happening elsewhere. It is a fact that with rising global affluence, landfills are being built ever faster around the world as whole, and ever bigger, to take the still rising tide of man’s waste.

In the industrializing nations there is far less regulation of landfills than in the developed countries, and although in nations such as the US, and throughout the European Union, the law in the form of each nation’s Waste Regulations requires all landfills to be lined and capped as “containment” landfills, the same does not apply in most less developed countries.

Those people that are choosing landfill site locations in the developing nations have more freedom to either damage, or protect the environment, and that is why it is so important that they consider landfills and the environment from the start of their landfill project.

The main impacts that a landfill can potentially have on the environment come under the following headings:

• landfill gas emissions and dust to the air as a local problem with odours etc
• landfill gas seeping out sideways from a landfill – which could get into houses etc
• landfill gas getting out into the atmosphere where scientists believe it will add to the greenhouse effect that is causing global warming
• landfill “garbage juice” or “leachate” – dirty rainwater which seeps through the waste – and can badly pollute groundwater when it seeps into the ground
• leachate which can break-out of landfill sides and pollute nearby rivers and streams
• dust, which can possibly contain infectious agents
• noise from the landfilling activity
• birds which can spread disease and move between suburban gardens and open tip faces.

Now, that’s a pretty big list of possible negative effects of landfills on the environment. You would think that it would be best to just completely contain them seal them up (at huge cost) like a huge garbage big, with a lined floor and a sealed cap on top.

But it isn’t necessarily. You could just let the rainwater that falls, run through them and out of the bottom, and if the bottom was build like a big biological filter the environment around the landfill would never be harmed.

These are often called “dilute and disperse” landfills, and such landfills have the great advantage that they are cheap to build and the rain flowing through them flows out of the bottom, removing the need for expensive leachate tankerage off-site or a leachate treatment plant.

These “dilute and disperse” landfills will also eventually have been flushed clean by the rain falling on them and then soaking through them in a way that is not possible for a containment landfill site.

Global warming, unsafe drinking water, poor air quality inside and outside and contaminated food supplies, those are just some of the big environmental health problems we are currently experiencing. These problems may seem very overwhelming, it may seem inevitable and unavoidable, but it is us who have all the power to prevent or fix these problems. It is us who have all the power to decrease pollution, limit our exposure, and most importantly, strengthen our bodies and environmental systems in order to resist contamination.

Decrease pollution: Try to improve your quality of life by decreasing your contribution to pollution. A good example would be to turn down the thermostat during winter time; doing so will decrease carbon dioxide emissions and also improve the quality of indoor air.

Using HVAC (Heating Ventilating & Air Conditioning ) on high levels will redistribute contaminants inside a building. To avoid using HVACs try and wear appropriate clothing for the temperature. For example, instead of turning up the heater during cold days, just wear a thick jacket in order to save electricity; you won’t just save electricity, but your body’s immune system will be strengthened and it will be trained to live in rhythm with nature.

Safe pesticides and cleaners: While it is recommended to avoid pesticides completely, if you should use them, use biodegradable and safe pesticides. When it comes to cleaning agents, you should also use biodegradable and safe cleaning agents. In cleaning your house, it is best to limit the use of chemicals to prevent contaminants from getting inside. Biodegradable products will also keep your water supplies safe for drinking.

Exposure to contaminants: If possible, try and limit your exposure to contaminants. The human body was designed to process at a specific level of contamination. Environmental health problems are the result of exposure to levels that are too high for the body to process. As it is always important to decrease levels, if there already are some contaminants present, precautions should be taken in order to limit exposure. A good method to avoid exposure to lung illness is ventilating your home. The use of a HEPA-filtered vacuum in your home will get rid of any paint led chips which will make your children safe from lead poisoning. Another way to limit your exposure to chemicals is insuring that your building materials, clothes, furniture and other products you use on a daily basis are only made of materials which do not emit chemicals. Perfume and smoke are also contaminants. A perfume-free and also smoke-free environments are protections against exposure.

Organic foods: It is always best to eat natural, organic foods, and also drink clean water and exercise in clean environments; you should always know that you are eating. There are types of fish that are caught from certain areas that have pollutants such as mercury in their tissue; this can cause some developmental problems in fetuses and children. While pesticides increase crop yields, they also increase the presence of contaminants in our water and soil. Installing a water filter system will insure that the drinking water will be clean.

Always remember that eating naturally will decrease exposure to contaminants.

QMIEnvironmental.com promotes best practices, turning environmental problems into beneficial solutions. It also supports the use of eco-friendly products and green technology in the preservation on green environment. You, as an individual can also extend help in solving this environmental health issues that our world is facing today.

“I can do small things every day that will make an impact on water pollution.”

It’s such a simple statement, and it’s true. So why is it so hard to send a message — over the airwaves, online, or in print — that actually evokes that reaction? Unfortunately, many environmental messages accidentally evoke an entirely different reaction, instead:

“It is hard to believe that the actions of one person can really contribute to lessening water pollution.”

I pulled those quotes from test audiences that reviewed a pair of environmental public service announcements. It’s my job to help environmental organizations pre-test their commercials and other marketing materials before they are released to the public. The two spots had a lot in common. Both of them urged everyday citizens to do their part in their daily lives to stop water pollution before it starts. But here’s the key difference — the producers of more successful advertisement crafted their message to encouraging. The producers of the less successful advertisement crafted their message to be educational.

Tennessee Water Works produced the “Heroes” advertisement, which prompted that confident “I can do small things every day” response. Who are the “heroes” this ad is about? People like you and me, who plant trees, recycle their motor oil (instead of dumping it in the drain), and care for their lawns responsibly. This advertisement holds up the example of ordinary people doing ordinary things and tells the viewer how great it is. In just 30 seconds, the advertisements repeatedly send the message that these people are heroes and their small actions add up to something important. According to the test panel, this message eventually sinks in.

The government of Honolulu produced the “Water for Life” commercial that prompted the second, doubt-filled reaction. This spot is educational. It shows images that reveal how trash and pollution find their way into storm drains and out into the ocean that Hawaiians love. Sure, it’s true. But it’s grim — bumming the viewers out with shots of murky, polluted water, garbage, and choking wildlife. According to the test audience feedback, viewers see reason to believe that solutions are within reach, or that they have a part to play in bringing it about.

Environmental experts are often dismayed at how little the average citizen understands about their work. It’s easy to find yourself falling into the “if only they knew” trap — “If only they knew they lived in a watershed,” “if only they knew the stormdrain went to the creek.” It is our natural tendency to produce commercials, web pages, brochures, and other materials that try to cram a whole of science into a tiny amount of attention. But the test panel reactions to these commercials underscore the shortcomings of these line of thinking. When it comes to raising environmental awareness, it turns out encouragement is even more important than education.

DVDs, blank CDs, blu-ray discs, and other recordable media are great. Unfortunately, no matter how useful and efficient they are, they still pose an environmental risk since they’re made of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials. The same can be said for disc equipment and disc packaging materials. Amaray DVD cases and jewel cases will never decompose. So, every time you turn to DVD duplication, you are adding to the environmental pollution.

There are many ways on how to be responsible and eco-friendly when purchasing CDs, DVDs, disc equipment and disc packaging materials. Here are a few suggestions.

· Opt for thinner discs – There are manufacturers today that press DVDs and blank CDs thinner than the regular ones. These eco-friendly products are only half the normal weight and the thickness. Therefore, they use less energy to melt them and less plastic to produce them. You don’t have to worry about their quality, though. They stay as durable as regular CDs and DVDs.

· Find slimmer Amaray cases – Thinner Amaray cases are lighter and use less plastic as well. Shipping them in bulk also becomes less costly. You can use a lesser amount of smaller boxes, less packaging tape to pack them. Shipping also costs you less postage. In the long run, these little changes will have a large effect.

· Thinner CD jewel cases are great – Jewel cases for burned CDs and blank CDs come in slim or slightly thicker versions. The slimmer kind does not have an extra tray. You can consider using the slimmer cases instead of the standard kind. In fact, these slimmer use 40% less plastic than the normal type. Now that’s a huge difference.

· No more colored cases – There are DVD amaray cases that come in different colors, such as orange, yellow, blue, pink, white, and blue. Pretty as they might be, they aren’t very eco-friendly. These colored cases come from “virgin plastics”, since they need to undergo coloring. This is why they cost two to three times more than black cases, which are made from recycled plastics.

· Turn to recycled paper products – If you can do away with the plastics, do it. Stick to paper sleeves or envelopes for your CDs. Be creative with these materials; sketch designs, splash some watercolor paint on them, or even put cool stickers on the front. Release your artistic side!

We cannot NOT completely do away with recordable media and duplication; a lot of businesses and daily processes rely on these compact materials The best thing we can do is to minimize the damages. These easy ideas will be helpful.