Go Green and Organic For Your New Years’s Resolution
It’s time to go green and organic and make a positive impact on our world. One important way we can do this is by learning to control the pollution of our world from the toxic pesticides. I sincerely believe that many of our health issues and diseases are linked to the continuing use of many types of pesticides in the U.S. They are in our foods, our homes, we are breathing, and eating them daily. If we want to start the New Year for 2013 with a resolution that is feasible and could save the life’s of you and your family–just say no more pesticides.
Some Important Facts about pesticides:
The Blacksmith Institute (BI), an international non-profit environmental health organization devoted to solving pollution problems around the world, in conjunction with Green Cross Switzerland (GCS), a group that helps clean up pollution, recently co-released a comprehensive report entitled The World’s Worst Toxic Pollution Problems. In it, researchers explain how agricultural pesticides represent the number three worst pollution problem on the planet.
The EPA released report of pesticide use in February of 2011 showed—Approximately 857 million pounds of conventional pesticide active ingredient were applied in 2007. About 33 million pounds of organophosphate insecticides were applied in 2007. Eighty percent of all U.S. pesticide use was in agriculture.
More information from the EPA report—- Among the top 10 pesticides used in terms of pounds applied in the agricultural market were the herbicides glyphosate, atrazine, metolachlor-s, acetochlor, 2,4-D, and pendimethalin, and the fumigants metam sodium, dichloropropene, methyl bromide, and chloropicrin. Herbicides were also the most widely used type of pesticide in the home and garden and industrial, commercial, and governmental market sectors, and the herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate were the most widely used active ingredients.
If the report had been calculated on a global scale in all areas where pesticides are used, the number of those affected by them in one way or another would likely have calculated in the billions. Not only are farmers who use pesticides and those who live around their farms exposed, but so are those who incur contaminated runoff downstream. Then, there are the millions of people globally that consume pesticide-tainted produce.
A report from Dr. Charles Benbrook, director of the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center, Idaho, concludes that the 550 million acres of GM corn, soybeans and cotton planted in the US since 1996 has increased pesticide use (herbicides and insecticides) by about 50 million pounds. Benbrook is a respected agricultural economist and was Executive Director of the US National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture from 1984 to 1990.
Pesticides are designed to withstand rain, often don’t wash off with plain water or only wash off partially, and fruits and vegetables are sometimes waxed over pesticides. Fruit and vegetables should be washed with a dilute solution of vinegar, a non-toxic dishwashing soap, or hydrogen peroxide which will remove most of the residues. Other pesticides go into the plant itself and can’t be washed away, especially on very small or thin skinned fruit. The best solution is buying organic foods or even local harvest.
The USDA and USFWS estimate that over 67 million birds are killed by pesticides each year in the US. How many people are they also Killing!
Harmful effects of pesticides can occur from short-term or long-term exposure or from low-level or high level exposure. These exposures can happen when pesticides come in contact with the skin, they are inhaled or ingested. Some pesticides are more toxic than others and just a few drops can cause extremely harmful effects. The pesticides that are less toxic can also cause harmful effects if a person is exposed to them for longer durations.
If these pesticides are killing bugs they are also killing all other living things & Yes Humans! Just ask yourself if this true what are they doing to our bodies, whether used in agriculture or in your home? Read more to find out what they are doing to us and our kids!
Most pesticides kill bugs by affecting their nervous system. The pesticides interrupt the information being sent by neurotransmitters in the synapses. A chemical is produced by the bug’s body which is used to send information through the synapses. This chemical is known as acetycholine. An enzyme called cholinesterase binds with acetycholine, and does not allow the muscles to get over-stimulated and the muscles are allowed to rest. Under normal circumstances, acetycholine in the bug’s body sends messages to the muscles through the synapses. Cholinesterase ensures that the levels of acetycholine stay at acceptable levels. When we spray the bugs with pesticides, cholinesterase is affected and keeps it from binding with acetycholine. This leads to the muscles getting over-stimulated and ultimately leads to paralysis and death of the bug.
Some of the Health Concerns:
Researchers found an association between asthma and use of pesticides by male farmer. Pesticides used in the home or residues brought home on parents’ clothes or equipment. Pesticides can be potent neurotoxins. When people are exposed to neurotoxins they may feel dizzy, light-headed, confused and may have reduced coördination and ability to think. These are the short-term effects, while long-term exposure can result in reduced IQ and learning disability, associated with permanent brain damage.
National trends indicate that rates of childhood cancer have increased. Researchers at MDH concluded that these increases were also evident in Minnesota. (A. Swenson and S. Bushhouse, “Childhood Cancer Incidence and Trends in Minnesota, 1988-1994″. Minnesota Medicine, vol. 81, December 1998.) Between 1973 and 1991, all cancers combined increased an average of 1% per year and brain cancer increased 2% per year. Below are the results of the many astonishing rise of many types of cancer linked to pesticides.
- Lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) rose 27.4% between 1973 and 1990, from 2.8 cases per 100,000 children to 3.5 cases per 100,000 children.
- From 1973 to 1994, incidence of childhood brain cancer increased 39.6%.
- Wilms tumor incidence in the same years rose 45.6%.
- In teens aged 15-19 between 1973 and 1995, cancer incidence rose for the following: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 128%, testicular cancer 65%, ovarian cancer 78% and all cancers combined 24%.
Now that I have given you some of the facts of pesticides, all the pollution that surrounds us, their many danger, health risks, and statistics –Don’t you think it time we stopped killing our children, our families, and ourselves? We all need to do our part in helping the pollution to our world, but we have to do it together and stop ignoring the facts that are starring us in the face.
In my own personal life I have seen the devastating effects of our toxic world. I was once healthy and young, but slowly became very sick until I could not longer could live a normal life. I will not bore you with all the details, only that I know that all this is real and we need to change what we are doing to our bodies, children, and the world.
We need to read labels before we purchase foods and eat as much organic foods as possible, clean our air, stop using pesticides in our homes or any where, and let our government know that we have had enough of the big corporations polluting our world. Let this be the year that will change our world and make it safer for you, your family and all of us!
To reduce the devastating affects of allergies and to help keep the air clean in my home I use a Alpine Air Cleaner that has been of great benefit to me. Click below to check this out!
I have also found a safe bug control that actually does work and can rid your home of those pesty bug without harm to our bodies —that is AlwaysEco Safe Natural Pest Control.
We all need to make it our New Years resolution to “Go Green” “Organic” and do our part by “Living A Healthier Lifestyle” to “Save Our Planet!
Quote of the Day: “The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!” ~Edward Payson Powell
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