Daniela Ginta, Freelance Writer

Gratitude makes the journey better and so does kindness

Tag: health

The Undeniable Truth About Our Environment

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On November 26, 2013

In Environment

?A documentary aptly titled “Toxic Hot Seat” aired yesterday on HBO Channel. While I have yet to watch it, I have researched the topic (flame retardants) extensively for a feature article a while ago. They are a vile bunch of chemicals.

Just like so many other environmental toxic substances, flame retardants are so pervasive in today’s world that it comes down to this: If you are alive, you have them in your body. And if you do, then you may, at some point in your life, experience the plethora of health problems that come with them. Flame retardants accumulate in your body and unless you move to Mars, and soon, there’s no escaping building your own supply of them.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

Here are some required facts about flame retardants:

  • Flame retardants are used, well, to retard the onset of a fire. Chemically speaking, these substances are called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs.) The people who come most in contact with them are firefighters of course, but more and more studies point to all of us being exposed to them because of their ubiquitous presence around us.
  • PBDEs are found in mattresses, electronics, carpets, curtains, and sadly, even in children’s pajamas. They are found in the dust you have in your home (unless you live to vacuum, which you should not because life is too short for that.)  Regardless of your vacuuming habits though, gone are the days when dust bunnies were just a sign of a bohemian lifestyle or a rushed one. Now they’re the harbingers of health problems because of the chemicals they house within their fluffiness.
  • Chemicals used as flame retardants affect the reproductive system and the brain (they affect learning, memory, behavior and cause deficits in motor skills,) and they increase the risk of various types of cancer. In short, bad news.

I’ve written about these chemicals a while ago. I said then that the ones who get it bad are children. It’s true. Due to their growing bodies and propensity to jump on couches, crawl on the floors and take in more breaths than us adults, more chemicals per body weight enter their bodies and that is a sad reality. Not only flame retardants but many others.

Though many companies do plan to phase out flame retardants in some of their products, one has to wonder about history repeating itself. Many chemicals that were phased out due to their ill effects on human health, wildlife and the environment  (think DDT, PCBs,) have yet to disappear from our surroundings. In other words, a 30-year-old ban may have prevented more chemicals from being dumped upon us, but the ones already here are here to stay for a few more decades. Present-day chemicals such as flame retardants and others such as plasticizers are no different.

Some could argue that such is the price of comfortable, practical and safe goods. “Safe” according to the industry promoting and encouraging the use of these chemicals, not safe from an unbiased, evidence-based and responsible perspective. A terrible and sad case of abusing a concept, you’d have to agree.

It should not be this way. In a considerate world, people’s health and well-being should come before money.

Flame retardants and many invisible yet powerful chemicals we all breathe and eat today should be assessed at face value and given proper consideration.

The environment changes slowly and subtly, yet the manifestations of those changes are displayed dramatically, some more than others.

  • The number of children suffering from environmental allergies as well as asthma are increasing year after year; same for asthma. There are more and more people suffering from what it’s called multiple chemical sensitivity, a disease that is somewhat controversial due to a difficulty in establishing a clear connection between symptoms and causes. While the debate goes on, some people are affected by the same environment that leaves many of us unscathed (for now.) In the meantime, more public buildings adopt a fragrance-free policy in order to reduce the effects of exposure to fragrances and similar substances that many people are sensitive to.
  • More children than ever display signs of what is slowly becoming “yesterday news,” such as hyperactivity and ADHD, learning disabilities, and autism. Again, easy to overlook if you’re not in the thick of it. Not to say that all causes of above-mentioned issues are caused by the collective chemicals that keep adding to the environmental burden, but if multiple studies point to a clear link in some cases, or a putative connection, in others, perhaps it is wise and responsible to look at it objectively and take the appropriate measures.
  • Endocrine imbalances translate in infertility and other hormone-related health issues including breast cancer, a chronic affection that was deemed environmental in many cases.
  • Cancer attacks indiscriminately nowadays and that’s both sad and scary. Cancer used to be a disease of old age, but that is no longer the case. Also, cancer used to be associated with doing this or that (fill in with various “bad for you” activities such as smoking) but nowadays living seems to be associated with a moderate to high risk of cancer. It should not be like that.

The only big problem with all of these issues is that there are no big bad monsters with clearly defined contours for us to point at. Invisible chemicals used extensively and in high amounts to the financial benefit of industrial giants are not an easy enemy to defeat. Books have been written and environmental scientists are working hard at gathering evidence that the environment suffers and we will suffer with it but somehow we are a bunch of die-hards who are playing hard to get.

The environment is changing slowly and that gives us reason to say “maybe it’s not that bad after all…” Hardly a good thing. It makes it easier for naysayers to persist in denial, and it makes it easier for many to turn a blind eye. But it also makes it difficult to make changes down the road when we’ll realize the ill effects but by then we’ll be too far in the game and, from many an industry point of view, too costly to change anything.

So what are we to do? For one, become aware of what’s around us. Documentaries, independent studies and talks by people who put human health and the environment before anything else are a great starting point in becoming aware.

Imagine a world with a motto like: Proceed if safe for humans and all forms of life on Earth and the environment.

We come into this world with nothing and we leave like that too. We are thinking, empathetic beings who know right from wrong. I choose to believe that deep down most of us are like that.

Assessing and reassessing our priorities, our needs and wants and also, taking into consideration the needs of others is a matter of maturity. From sharing a home to inhabiting the (only) planet, everyone’s actions will becomes collective consequences. Today’s actions will shape everyone’s tomorrow. I think a good tomorrow would suit everyone.

What do you think?

Clean Is As Clean Does

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On October 27, 2013

In Kamloops

On October 17 the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, has declared outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans. It is a monumental decision that is bound to affect the future in a positive way. About time, you’d have to agree.

Outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer and increases the risk of bladder cancer, the report said.

Particulate matter, while a major component of air pollution, was analyzed separately and declared a carcinogenic substance by itself. Nothing new there.
Where is it all coming from? From transportation, stationary power generation, industrial and agricultural emissions, and residential heating and cooking. In other words, we’re surrounded.

I have been decrying the dreadful reality of air pollution for a while now, not losing hope that things can be changed, but realizing that tweaking the minds of fellow humans is a gargantuan task.

As the cold weather approaches, idling cars make their appearance. Not significant, some might say, compared to industrial pollution. But, here’s the thing: everything adds up.

A few years ago I wrote a feature article for a health publication in Calgary on the topic of environmental allergies, asthma and diesel exhaust as a trigger for both. A new study had come out pointing to fine particulate matter such as the one derived from diesel exhaust – the new and improved diesel fuel that is – as a serious threat to human health and a cause for respiratory problems.

Scientists agonize over far-reaching air pollution that travels in all corners of the world. It’s sobering to think that polar bears walk around carrying the shortest stick of all, healthwise. Various pollutants have been found in high concentrations in their bodies; a dirty inside in stark contrast to their snow white coats.

Yet closer to home, the reality – and threat – of air pollution is impossible to ignore.
There’s countless debates over the proposed Ajax mine. Pro and cons arguments are being tossed on all sides, dressed with stinging words and put on the table again. And, to be fair, there are pro and con arguments.

But if the proposed mine becomes reality and increases the levels of air pollution in Kamloops we will all pay the price. The first ones to pay the price will be people with chronic respiratory diseases, those with a genetic predisposition to cancer, and children. The rest of us will follow swiftly.

Too apocalyptic? Not at all. Real, if anything. If A causes B and B causes C, then establishing the connection between A and C is a matter of logic and social responsibility.

Debates aside, I think we’re drawing near – on a global scale – to the point where any new industrial development should only be allowed to happen if it is vital to a community. The decision should be made based on industry and independent panel reviews, and also based on the objectively-assessed needs of the community where the project is about to be developed.

Wants versus needs has been played to death, some would say. And it is bad enough when wants take precedent over needs and affect our emotional well-being, empathy levels and general health (cheap, chemical-laden conventionally produced food.)

But when it’s about a real threat that will materialize in chronic diseases with the grimmest outcome, then we should seriously reconsider priorities.
From idling cars to big industrial projects, we have choices and responsibilities. We owe it to ourselves and our children to exercise them.

Published as a column under the same title in the Saturday edition of the Kamloops Daily News on October 26, 2013

Why I Go To The Farmer’s Market

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On July 23, 2013

In Kamloops

(Originally published as a column in the Saturday edition of the Kamloops Daily News on July 20, 2013)

20130618_190401It is cloudy today and we’re having a late start. Lazy Saturday mornings happen to everyone. They’d better. Another edition Saturday pancakes and a talk about why judgment makes you doubt yourself, then we leave for the farmer’s market. Sometimes it is all of us, this time just me and my youngest.

We stop at the bank then run to the market, literally. It’s silly fun and the giggles my youngest leaves behind won’t last for long. Time is merciless that way, a good reason to make it happen often, laughing with your children that is…

Music greets us. It makes our feet dance and our faces smile. The air smells sweet and fresh. A good day indeed.

The wood spirits are our first stop. You must’ve seen them, the wooden faces and the castles Kelly carves out of cottonwood bark… He makes imagination fly high, almost a lost art in today’s rushed world where computer games abound and patience is underestimated. “You almost see the face in a piece of wood,” he tells us. I’ve heard people say that before. Art is fascinating.

Every face has a different expression and tells a different story. My youngest has one of these wood masks hanging next to his bed. He wants to learn to make them too. He often carves at home and this kind of exposure inspires him, like it should.

We talk about where to find cottonwood bark, how to age a sculpture, how to carve castles and why some of the ones Kelly sells have jasper eyes. How long does it take to carve that? My little guy is fascinated by the faces, by their long wooden beards, and by how tree bark becomes alive once more…

Market is almost closing… We go and buy eggs, strawberry and rhubarb pie. We buy a whole box of fragrant strawberries and talk about South America with the lady who sells them. We buy greens, a farm-raised chicken and honey. Herbs too.

Guilt-free coffee to from Anita, cookies for the boys and quick browsing of the potted plants; we look at colors and leaf shapes; we talk about ferns and how they’ve been around since dinosaur time. What’s the Earth going to look like in fifty years or so? How about five hundred?

Then it’s back to the wooden spirits. For just a tiny bit, my youngest says. I thought he might ask… It’s the end of the day and the magic wooden faces are carefully put away until next week wrapped in soft towels.

Next door to the wooden spirits is Meagan from Heffley Creek, she’s a soap and natural cosmetics maker. Another kind of beautiful magic that we often overlook in favor of commercially-made long-lingering fragrances. I delight in meeting a like-minded person and the old and oh so played “we speak the same language” is as real as it is needed. And we speak it, with the promise of future conversations.

We meet friends, neighbors and people we know from around town. We create routines that make our Saturday morning sunnier no matter how cloudy the sky. We pick knowledge, freshness and develop gratefulness for the place we’re in. Smiles, stories and wonders abound.

When I needed advice on how to deal with the wasp nest in the backyard fort, someone pointed to the bee guy; he knows, I was told without an ounce of doubt. He did. A conversation about the sad fate of bees ensued. People need to know more, we both agreed. Perhaps we can visit the beehives in Barnhartvale? Sure thing; it makes sense that one of my favorite road cycling routes is also a bee paradise.

I could say go to the market to get fresh food and support local farmers. That’s a big part of it. But there is something else you can get there. You get stories and smiles on any given market day. Everyone needs that, they add some more color and texture to your food. Appreciation in every bite.

The city comes alive here and so do seasons. We learn that in early spring chickens make small eggs, just as they shake the winter chills off. There’s baby lettuce, tender green onion and garlic, small bouquets of fragrant herbs and seedlings in the spring.

Berries and greens abound as summer bursts through the sky mid-June or so. Fall is when we first visited the market here in Kamloops for the first time. It’s a time of abundance and flavours. Every season is. Don’t miss it. I won’t either.

The trouble with good looks…

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On June 1, 2013

Every time I see those little plaques advising about pesticide use on lawns, I cringe. If something comes with a warning, it should be used sparingly and only if there’s no other way. More so when it affects children. Bees and other helpful critters too. And we need them all.

We want our lawns green and lush and pest-free and make it all happen fast if possible. Cosmetic pesticides can do that, but they have an ugly side that bothers enough people to make them an issue, yet not enough to ban them.

In Vancouver lawn lovers face excessive rain, stubborn moss and the occasional grubs that crows found so appetizing that they turn entire yards upside down looking for them.

Here in Kamloops we have hot summer days and no rain. We need lots of water to maintain decently green lawns, plus figure out the dandelion dilemma. Irony has it that dandelions are good health allies though…

The Canadian Cancer Society together with other health, environmental and animal welfare organizations are calling for a ban on cosmetic pesticides.

Used to improve the appearance of green spaces, public or residential, pesticides are known to affect human health and the environment. Unnecessarily so, because no degree of lawn perfection can motivate the use of substances that are potential causes of childhood cancers such as leukemia.

Cosmetic pesticides affect many critters that help our gardens, from visible ones, such as bees and earthworms, to invisible ones, like soil bacteria.

There truly is no decent reason for choosing perfect lawns over health.

The Canadian Lung Association advises against them too. As a parent of a child with environmental allergies and asthma, I find their position reassuring. Something is being done, or will be, because people care.

Children nowadays are exposed to more chemicals than ever before.

Indoors or outdoors, we all breathe, eat and absorb chemicals on a daily basis. Some substances are very harmful, others less so. With some we have no choice, with others, such as cosmetic pesticides, we do but don’t always exercise our options in a way that favors health. Children are most at risk because of their developing bodies and the time spent close to the ground.

Whether pesticide-treated or cared for with integrated pest management solutions, children find lawns equally appealing and inviting. Playtime is not conditioned by perfect lawns.

Children like soft grass as much as they like digging holes in the dirt and playing with muck. If we desire lawns for our children to play on, they should be free of chemicals. Just because we don’t see something it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Just because something is approved for use it doesn’t not mean that it’s harmless.

Chemicals like cosmetic pesticides that are associated with health risks such as cancer or endocrine problems and are not a need to improve but a want, shouldn’t be used. There are enough situations where chemicals are used to prevent diseases or save crops, or fight various pests. Be it so, we should use them on a “need to” basis.

Adults like their lawns green and lush and their gardens pest-free and there is nothing wrong with either if safe alternatives are used to achieve that. Some work better than others and some may take longer to work. But human health and the environment are not affected and that is what should always come first.

Many of the conveniences and nice-looking amenities that we surround ourselves with have a hefty price tag attached to them, often times less visible or not immediately anyway, and often we choose to skip checking it up close because then we might be forced to choose and assume the responsibility of having made that choice.

As I often tell the boys, if I only have to choose for myself, I consider pros and cons and choose accordingly. Whether short or long term, my choice will affect only me (though in all fairness, there are very few choices we can make that only affect one person.)

If I have to make a choice that will affect other people, whether they are my family, my friends or complete strangers, I put even more thought into it, and safety considerations come first. I expect others to do the same when they make choices for me and other people; it means having a civil conscience.

All we have to do is look back at the many examples of things gone wrong with chemicals used over the years. In many cases people had the luxury of saying “we did not know it was (this) harmful.” Nowadays we come across many deleterious substances but choose to ignore their ugly side because choosing the safer side it’s often inconvenient or it takes more time, money and energy.

The old “you can have your cake and eat it too” is a lie. Really. It’s high time we make safer choices. Greener too, in this case (pun thoroughly intended.)

(Originally published as a column in the Saturday edition of the Kamloops Daily News on June 1, 2013)

How We Kill Food and Why We (Should Not) Die With It

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On April 6, 2012

I am mad. As in angry. I am also quite tired of running through my own head like a crazed mouse chasing angry thoughts. So I’ll put them here. Ranting as they say. The reason, you see, is because I am scared of what the world has come to when it’s about food. Happy and joyful I am – I was often (jokingly) scolded for being too happy, never mind then – but it’s getting to me. Why you ask? It’s the hogs that got me. Ha, I know, but I am not joking. It’s because of the hogs that have to be defended like this and I can only hope they win, it’s because companies like Monsanto violate all that’s good and decent in agriculture and many of us happily munch away at corn-on-the-cob that’s been genetically modified and intoxicated with chemicals, it’s because kids eat too many pesticides on any given piece of fruit, it’s because kids eat blue icing cakes and nitrate-laden cancer-causing hotdogs, it’s because kids get type II diabetes way too early in life and many never get to know what real food is and where it’s coming from. It’s because we’ve come to accept gigantic dinner portions that might or might not contain a three-pound steak from a cow that’s lived half of its miserable life in a puddle of its own excrement eating foods that are cheap but not intended by nature (corn instead of grass), it’s because people wait for food recalls to be reminded that the food they eat is a disaster waiting to happen. It’s because food should not pollute the planet it grows out of or on it, but most of ours does. That’s fundamentally wrong.

When and how have we broken away from real food? And most important, why? Why do we want it all at all times and why do we want surplus? Food should not be cheap but it is. Real food has a real price. I am not rich, I really am not. But I do believe that real food is worth the extra money. Lots of low quality conventionally grown food versus smaller amounts of real food. Which one do you choose? Real food that grows at its own pace is rich in nutrients. In other words, satisfying. Satiating. That it is unhealthy to eat until seams burst we already know. How to break the habit? Eat less, move more, breathe deeper and drink enough water. We throw away food even when it’s not spoiled because it’s cheap. there’s more where that bruised apple came from. We throw away because we are not aware of the work that goes into growing an apple or a tomato. We throw away food because we’re not aware of what it means to raise healthy animals. I am not exactly a meat eater but the thought of crowded sick animals or birds awaiting death so food stores can have mountains of ribs and drumsticks, well, it sickens me.

I get eggs from someone who has chickens in his back yard. They roam free and enjoy the good chicken life all chickens should have. People have to pay for the luxury of having chickens like that. Four per lot here in Vancouver they say. And there’s concerns about noise, smell, avian flu and such. I wish there would be health concerns about caged chickens sold in a regular food store for example. After all they were shown to come with arsenic and antibiotics. Arsenic is a carcinogenic compound. Yet there is no warning. Meat is but one chapter of the food story.

We cannot allow ourselves to disconnected from real food, it’s a mighty expensive habit. Eat less but eat clean. Cicero said “Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat” and one could almost be fooled into thinking that we are doing just that, living to eat. But in fact we are killing ourselves with food. It’s too much with too little of what we need to nourish ourselves. We’re giving ownership of our food to a handful of big corporations, being pork, cattle, corn or soy ones, and stepping away graciously too preoccupied with other things or sincerely satisfied with what they have for us. We forgive the recall mishaps as soon as they happen and continue to sign up for “all you can eat” menus. Somehow I wish for us all to pause and think.Think of how we still have the luxury to make choices.

Today the boys and I took our two piglets (guinea pigs) out in the sun for a yummy snack of dandelion leaves. There’s so many of them in the front yard. I like them too. Yes, I just said that. I like the slight bitterness of early spring dandelion leaves. Aside from the earthy taste, I know they are a good liver cleanser and I need that. We all need a bit of cleansing, you’d most likely agree, but these days we need more than ever. Because you see, that’s a big part of why I’m angry. I may strive to eat clean real food but I happen to live on the same planet as the big boys who play God with food from growing it to processing it into scary stuff like the Grapple (apple that smells like grapes, yes, the horror!) and hotdog-stuffed pizza crust (not kidding, it exists). And because I do, some of the bad stuff they use ends up in my food too, ends up in the air I breathe and ends up in the birthday cake my kids are being served at their friends’ parties. There seems to be no escape, but there is. Still. It starts with saying NO to what’s not real and clean. I say that when people eat with their brain rather than just mouths they are healthier. When we eat with a conscience and leave the table when half-full we’re lighter and closer to where we should be. Choose local clean food, choose humanely raised animals and buy less processed foods. Make it count. Your choice that is.

PS: If you wonder whether I avoided using the term “organic” the answer is yes. The very term has been abused and overused lately, hence I choose to go with “real”. I hope bruising will clear soon and I’ll get to use it again. More about this in a near future post.

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