Linda’s comment:  Many of us today are learning to make our own products, so that we know what is in them….there are way to many harmful ingredients that are carcinogenic and causing series health problems.  Make your own products and share with us…

Link: http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/homemade-fabric-softener-the-non-toxic-solution/1HTH2MT1RO2C9O3JK2WW7RYB28PY

Excerpt:

Making your own fabric softener will lessen your exposure to harmful neurotoxins.

Did you know that some of the most harmful ingredients in many of the commercial liquid fabric softeners and dryer sheets include benzyl acetate (pancreatic cancer), benzyl alcohol (upper respiratory tract irritant), ethanol (central nervous system disorders), limonene (carcinogen) and chloroform (neurotoxin and carcinogen)?

Linda’s comments:  Dr Martha Grout is a friend of mine…she has a great newsletter….this is an excellent read….I suggest to all to subscribe to her greatnewsletter…

Excerpt:

Iodine – the Great Detoxifier

March 23, 2011

The family of halides is part of your family. What are the halides? Molecules of iodine, fluoride, bromine, and chlorine that silently reside in your body – in all of us. One of the halides is a good guy, but the other three wear the black hat of toxic polluters. When you have enough of the good halide on board, it pushes out (detoxes) the bad ones. 

Linda’s comment:  Environmental Toxins in our homes are deadly and especially for those who are chronically ill.  Lyme critters feed off these environmental toxins….Clean up your homes…it doesn’t take much….remove all the chemicals out of your home to begin your heavy journey to wellness….

Link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1976909,00.html

Excerpt:

On the first Earth Day, celebrated 40 years ago this month, the U.S. was a poisoned nation. Dense air pollution blanketed cities like Los Angeles, where smog alerts were a fact of life. Dangerous pesticides like DDT were still in use, and water pollution was rampant — symbolized by raging fires on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, captured in a famous 1969 story for TIME. But the green movement that was energized by Earth Day — and the landmark federal actions that followed it — changed much of that. Today air pollution is down significantly in most urban areas, the water is cleaner, and even the Cuyahoga is home to fish again. Though climate change looms as a long-term threat, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day will see a much cleaner country.

Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=21114956&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Artificial baits constitute important tools for the detection and sampling
of blood-sucking arthropods, in particular those that are vectors of
parasites affecting human health. At present, many different devices have
been proposed to attract blood-sucking arthropods, mostly based on the
attractiveness of particular chemicals or blends. However, most of them
revealed themselves as unpractical (e.g. they require an electrical supply),
expensive (e.g. gas
bottles) or not efficient enough. On the other hand, the use of living baits
is as effective but it has practical constraints and/or raises ethical
questions.
We present here a multimodal lure to attract blood-sucking arthropods
designed taking into account both practical constraints and costs. The main
characteristics of our bait are: 1) artificiality (no living-host); 2)
multimodality (it associates heat, carbon dioxide and chemical attractants);
3) independency from any energy source; 4) no need for gas bottles; 5) easy
to prepare and use in the field; 6) low cost. We tested the ability of the
bait to attract blood-sucking arthropods in the laboratory and in the field,
using capture sticky-traps. Our bait evinced to be almost as efficient as
live hosts
(mice) for the capture of Chagas disease and Borrelia vectors in Bolivia.
The multimodal lure here presented is a generalist bait, i.e., effective for
attracting different haematophagous species. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier
B.V.

Genetics also influences our ability to withstand the chemicals we are exposed to, as in this research on Parkinson’s disease. Remember some can eat fish and the mercury they consume clears in as little as 40 days whereas others take nearly 6 months to clear the same dose of mercury.

We have proof from Harvard that the lower level of lead in bones reduces dramatically the incidence of death from heart disease (i.e. high levels have 6 times the death rate) so this is a life time challenge we all face now that we have polluted our earth.

From the aDepartment of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA; bDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, CA; cDepartment of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; dDepartment of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA; and eDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA.

BACKGROUND:: Human, animal and cell models support a role for pesticides in the etiology of Parkinson disease. Susceptibility to pesticides may be modified by genetic variants of xenobiotic enzymes, such as paraoxonase, that play a role in metabolizing some organophosphates. 

METHODS:: We examined associations between Parkinson disease and the organophosphates diazinon, chlorpyrifos, and parathion, and the influence of a functional polymorphism at position 55 in the coding region of the PON1 gene (PON1-55). From 1 January 2001 through 1 January 2008, we recruited 351 incident cases and 363 controls from 3 rural California counties in a population-based case-control study. Participants provided a DNA sample, and residential exposure to organophosphates was determined from pesticide usage reports and a geographic information system (GIS) approach. We assessed the main effects of both genes and pesticides in unconditional logistic regression analyses, and evaluated the effect of carrying a PON1-55 MM variant on estimates of effects for diazinon, chlorpyrifos, and parathion exposures. 

RESULTS:: Carriers of the variant MM PON1-55 genotype exposed to organophosphates exhibited a greater than 2-fold increase in Parkinson disease risk compared with persons who had the wildtype or heterozygous genotype and no exposure (for diazinon, odds ratio = 2.2 [95% confidence interval = 1.1-4.5]; for chlorpyrifos, 2.6 [1.3-5.4]). The effect estimate for chlorpyrifos, was more pronounced in younger-onset cases and controls (</=60 years) (5.3 [1.7-16]). No increase in risk was noted for parathion. 

CONCLUSION:: The increase in risk we observed among PON1-55 variant carriers for specific organophosphates metabolized by PON1 underscores the importance of considering susceptibility factors when studying environmental exposures in Parkinson disease.

Full article: a new report 

Excerpt:

Some carcinogens you already know and fear: cigarettes, asbestos, smoked meat.

But what about the ones you’ve never even heard of? That’s the crux of a new report from theAmerican Cancer Society (ACS), which rounds up 20 “suspected carcinogens” the organization would like to see studied more extensively.

Of course, that research, if it happens, will come after the chemicals, ingredients — and even lifestyle choices — are already embedded into the bedrock of our 24/7 economy.

“The objectives of this report are to identify research gaps and needs for 20 agents prioritized for review based on evidence of widespread human exposures and potential carcinogenicity in animals or humans,” Elizabeth Ward, the co-author of the report, said. 

So just what are these potential cancer causers lurking in our everyday environs? Surge Desk runs down five (not so awesome) favorites.

1. Styrene

Styrene, and its chemical compound colleague styrene-7,-8-oxide, threaten to be a stoner’s worst nightmare. Although only weakly linked to cancer in humans, there’s enough evidence in animal studies to earn the compounds a spot in the top 20.

Where will you find it? Cigarettes, marijuana and leeching into your midnight munchies via foam food packaging. 

How can you avoid it? If you eat, this is one urine test you’re doomed to fail. Styrene was detected in the urine of 87 percent of study participants during a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention trial last year.  

A mysterious shower of microscopic chemicals near a Fresno shopping center could be the first evidence of a broad, undetected assault on the lungs of San Joaquin Valley residents.
If confirmed in other Valley cities, it means many thousands of people are daily breathing these cocktails of chemicals – known as ultra-fine particles — that corrode and damage lungs.

The plume in Fresno probably spreads over many square miles, not just the Fashion Fair area where they were discovered, said UC Davis atmospheric scientist Anthony Wexler, who detected the pollution.

Sensitive, expensive equipment is needed to detect and study ultrafine pollution. Science is only now defining the possible problem.

Wexler revealed Fresno’s midday rise in microscopic pollution last month at an air-quality conference, saying he and others will continue studying them to determine the source and extent of the plume.

Researchers also must figure out what’s in the particles and more clearly define the possible health threat. It may be years before local, state and federal officials can develop a cleanup strategy.

The particles are so small that 1,000 of them would fit across the width of a human hair. For years, science has known that such particles exist, but they are thousands of times smaller than previously studied particles in dust, soot and diesel smoke.

Full article can be read on the IMVA site. Don’t miss the excellent videos!

Excerpt:

We have an increasingly dangerous and poisoned world exactly for the reason that the people at the top of the human heap make a lot of money poisoning our world and the people in it and they are not going to tell you about it. The whole idea of poison through the ages was to knock off adversaries without any clear trace back like an arrow in the back gives. What’s the point of an assassin advertizing his dirty deed?
 
Scientists Consensus Statement on the Use of Chemical Dispersants
in the Gulf of Mexico calling for the Obama Administration to
immediately halt chemical aerial spraying in the Gulf region.
 
They have not been warning people about living downwind of a coal-fired power plant or about the dangers of mercury in medicine and dentistry. They certainly have no intention of changing their tune so they will not be warning anyone about the true dangers of oil toxicity and the chemicals they are using to disperse the oil. It looks like certain communities along the Gulf are turning into overly large gas chambers and British Petroleum thinks they care about people. And the Obama administration is allowing it all to go on and history will remember that President Obama did not go down into the Gulf in the early days with the Army, Navy and Marines to stop BP from using Corexit.