Microban - It is NOT safe - Go back to school without the pesticides

The poisons we are exposed to are so random and common.  I knew there were problems with "hand sanitizers" but this takes it further....we need to be aware and educated to exposure - especially when our kids are involved.

Send your kids back to school without hazardous chemicals!


August 28, 2009


Dear Supporter,


Take the anti-triclosan pledge today!


A dangerous pesticide may be lurking in your child's insulated lunch bag!

Microban is playing up its products as great buys for back-to-school. But Microban is just one trade name for the pesticide triclosan. Make sure you know the facts about triclosan before sending your kids back to school.

Check the label to see if your child's lunch bags, scissors, rulers, sharpeners, protractors, erasers, pencils, highlighters and permanent markers contain Microban.

Depending on the company that is selling triclosan, it may also appear in products as Microban, Irgasan, Biofresh, Lexol-300, Ster-Zac or Cloxifenolum. Manufacturers use triclosan in lunch bags and other school supplies as an antimicrobial agent to prevent the growth of bacteria.

But triclosan has serious human and environmental health effects. In fact, on August 24, 2009, the Canadian Medical Association called for a federal ban on the use of triclosan in consumer products. Triclosan is a known endocrine disruptor and accumulates in our bodies. It also persists in our waterways and is toxic to aquatic life. Furthermore, triclosan is not proven to reduce illness!
Click here to learn more about triclosan!

It's easy to avoid triclosan and microban. Read the label!
Encourage your schools, workplace, and religious institutions to use their buying power to go triclosan-free and take the anti-triclosan pledge today!

Thanks for taking action, 

Kathy Dolan
Triclosan Campaign Advocate
Food & Water Watch


Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization based in Washington, D.C., works to ensure clean water and safe food in the United States and around the world.  We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.  For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

From: Bart <yaahoobart@...>
Subject: [BayCanaryGrapevine] TV commercial on "hungry pests"
To: BayCanaryGrapevine@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, August 31, 2009, 12:23 AM

Have you seen these ominous sounding TV ads? Creepy voice: "They're here and they're hungry." http://www.hungrypests.com/LBAM.html The propaganda is ramping up. Make sure that Green means NONTOXIC too!

Dear Folks,

 

We will not be having a regular support group meeting on Sept 5 for EHN, but instead will hopefully have a campout at a campsite in Marin or Sonoma County.  I and others have been researching this challenging proposition for the past month or so, and have yet to find the perfect site, i.e. a place with flush commodes, no firesmoke, barbeque smoke, or cigarettes.  Now that's a TALL order.  If you have any brilliant flashes of insight about this, let me know.  We are looking at Olema Campground in West Marin, Bodega Bay Campground, Devil's Gulch Campsite in West Marin, Spring Lake in Santa Rosa, and Steep Ravine near Stinson Beach.  I hope we can really pull this off.  It would be fun and different for us.  Stay tuned....

 

ciao,

 

Louise

Tell the USDA
GE Frankenfoods & Nanotechnology Aren't Organic

From: Zlad <zladislaw@...>
Subject: [MCS-Toxic-Injuries] Fw: Organic Bytes: Nanotech, Obama's Farmers Market and More...
To: "MCS-Toxic-Injuries" <MCS-Toxic-Injuries@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, August 28, 2009, 10:48 AM

 

 

August 21, 2009 Organic Bytes #188 Nanotech, Obama's Farmers Market and More... Health, Justice and Sustainability News from the Organic Consumers Association In This Issue Quote of the Week: Roundup Researcher - "I will not shut my mouth" Alert of the Week: Tell the USDA GE Frankenfoods & Nanotechnology Aren't Organic Alert Update of the Week: Swine Flu and Vaccine Nation Gardening News of the Week: Vegetable Gardens Grow Employee Morale Local Food News of the Week: Obama's White House Farmers Market Video of the Week: The Organic Vegetable Gardeners of Havana Via Organica News of the Week: Lower Cholesterol on Mexican Eco-Tour Web Forum Discussion of the Week: Do You Support Universal Health Care? Headlines and Articles of the Week Quote of the Week Roundup Researcher: "If I know something, I will not shut my mouth." Dr. Andrés Carrasco, an embryologist who works in Argentina's Ministry of Science's Conicet (National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations) responding to criticism over his research which found that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide caused brain, intestinal and heart defects in amphibian fetuses. GRAIN: Seeds of Information, July 2009 LEARN MORE ALERT OF THE WEEK Tell the USDA GE Frankenfoods & Nanotechnology Aren't Organic Last week, we gave you news of a report issued by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Information Network, "The Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production," that argues "Governments should change their regulations to allow producers to gain organic certification for biotech crops grown with organic methods." READ THE USDA REPORT In May, we alerted you that the National Organic Standards Board was considering an official ban on nanotechnology in organic, but felt stymied by their concern that "Under the current definition, most nanotechnology would not fall into the category of excluded methods." Every day, we post new evidence at OrganicConsumers. org that genetic engineering and nanotechnology present dangers to human health and the environment. .. Please take action to (1) oppose the USDA's cynical attempt to promote genetic engineering as potentially organic and (2) push the National Organic Standards Board to take a strong stand against the use of nanotechnology in organic. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology aren't organic! TAKE ACTION Alert Update of the Week Swine Flu and Vaccine Nation Despite 30,000 emails from Organic Bytes readers, and mounting global concern, government bureaucrats and the corporate media continue to gloss over the undeniable fact that massive factory pig and poultry farms are incubating deadly viruses that could cause catastrophic mutations in the so far mild Swine Flu Epidemic (H1N1/09). At the same time, media and health officials downplay the importance of safe and proven organic and holistic precautions - strengthening our immune systems with healthy organic food, medicinal herbs, homeopathic remedies, lifestyle changes, and stress reduction - while cheerleading for the likely ineffectual and hazardous Big Pharma vaccines currently being rushed to market. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE REAL CAUSES OF SWINE AND BIRD FLU OCA Needs Your Help! OCA needs your (tax-deductible) donations to Promote Organics and Fight Factory Farms and GMOs. For the next week, every dollar you give will be matched by a generous grant from The Sky Factory in Fairfield, Iowa, a national sponsor of the OCA. PLEASE DONATE Gardening News of the Week The Wall Street Journal Reports Vegetable Gardens Grow Employee Morale Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on a new trend in employee benefits: office gardens. According to Paul Teslak, a professor of organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business, a garden is a cheap and easy way for a business to: Encourage camaraderie among co-workers Help in recruiting Differentiate itself from its competitors Boost workers' morale Relate better to customers Expand a health and wellness program LEARN MORE Local Food News of the Week Obama Wants to Set Up White House Farmers Market While answering a question at a health-care forum, President Obama mentioned that he and the First Lady are looking into setting up a farmers market just outside the White House, to sell food from the White House garden or from local farmers: "So, you know, Michelle set up that garden in the White House? "One of the things that we're trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers' market outside of the White House - I'm not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside - (laughter) - but right outside the White House. (laughter)" "That is a win-win situation. It gives suddenly D.C. more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue-maker for local farmers in the area...those kinds of connections can be made all throughout the country, and has to be part of how we think about health." LEARN MORE Video of the Week The Organic Vegetable Gardeners of Havana Cuba once pursued a highly industrialized, chemical-intensive, fuel-thirsty form of agriculture - not so different from the kind of farming that supplies most of the food in the US and Europe today. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, Cuba's oil, chemical fertilizer, and pesticide supply disappeared. Almost overnight, Cuba faced a major food crisis. Cuba by necessity had to go back to basics to survive - rediscovering low-input, self-reliant, organic farming. WATCH THE BBC VIDEO HERE Via Organica ("The Organic Way") News of the Week Healthy Living and Lower Cholesterol with Indigenous Nopal Greetings from Via Organica, an organic restaurant, store, farm and learning center in San Miguel de Allende. One of the things OCA's Via Organica staff has learned working with organic-minded campesinos (small farmers) in Mexico are the tremendous health benefits of native organic plants and foods. Little known to most Americans (except for Latinos), for example, the nopal plant (prickly pear cactus) can lower cholesterol and prevent or treat diabetes, two of the most common health problems among Mexicans, and in fact all North Americans. Tasty and nutritious as a green vegetable ("nopalitos" ), used as a type of flour in tortillas, or consumed as a nutritional supplement, the nopal cactus is an amazing plant, requiring no watering (cactus have the ability to absorb moisture from the air), no chemical fertilizers, nor pesticides. If you can't find them, ask your local coop or organic food store to carry nopal products. LEARN MORE ABOUT OCA'S SISTER ORGANIZATION VIA ORGANICA LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF NOPAL Web Forum Discussion of the Week The Health Care Debate Last week, we updated readers on our Whole Foods campaign, adding CEO John Mackey's opposition to health care for all to our list of complaints, which already included Whole Foods' opposition to workers' rights and the fact that only about 1/3 of its sales are of certified organic products. While most of our readers want health care for all, a couple of readers expressed their support for Mackey's libertarian ideals of freedom and self-sufficiency. Where do you stand on the health care debate? READ MORE AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION READ LAST WEEK'S ALERT Headlines and Articles of the Week 1) Water Safety News of the Week: How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your Water Glass? Syngenta's Atrazine herbicide is routinely sprayed on non-organic corn crops, golf courses, and manicured lawns, but unfortunately laboratory experiments indicate that the popular weed killer causes horrific birth defects, low birth weights and menstrual problems - even at so-called "safe" concentrations meeting current federal standards. Atrazine is banned as a dangerous poison in the European Union, but still perfectly legal here in the land of chemical-intensive farms and cheap corn-derived junk food. LEARN MORE 2) Wellness News of the Week: Healthy Foods That Help Avoid Swine Flu Boost your immune system and ward off the swine flu by eating lots of protein, bright orange and bright green vegetables, Vitamin C-rich foods like peppers, spinach and citrus, and iron-rich foods like apples and greens, and raw garlic. LEARN MORE 3) Science News of the Week: Drug Resistance Scares the Hell Out of Scientists Eighty percent of all antibiotics consumed in the United States are used as animal feed additives, to fatten animals up and to enable them to survive the daily hell of filthy, disease-ridden factory farms. There is mounting scientific evidence that factory-farming of chickens, pigs and cattle is incubating and spreading dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. The bottom line for seriously ill people who might die without antibiotics, is that these drugs no longer work as well as they used to, and may soon not work at all - largely thanks to corporate agribusiness and indentured politicians in Washington. Why is it that routinely feeding antibiotics to farm animals in Europe is banned, whereas it is still perfectly legal in the US? LEARN MORE 4) Op-Ed of the Week: Nicholas D. Kristof - Food for the Soul Industrial farms are calorie factories, without any soul. They produce unhealthy food, massive environmental and greenhouse gas pollution as well as dangerous antibiotic resistance. LEARN MORE 5) Movie Trailer of the Week: 'Tapped' Pulls Plug on Bottled Water Craze 'Tapped' traces the evolution of bottled water from its hoity-toity Perrier days to its present ubiquity, and succeeds at making the industry reps look like total jerks. 'Tapped' does a solid job of covering every aspect of this damaging industry and inspiring more outrage than despair. LEARN MORE LOCAL NY NEWS OF THE WEEK NY--Get Involved Locally Learn more about OCA related action alerts and other news in NY here. Join NY discussion groups in our forum. Post events in NY on our community calendar. Message from our Sponsors Uncork the Organic with Frey Organic Wine Twenty-nine years of organic grape growing and wine making by the Frey Organic Wine family has kept over 12 thousand pounds of toxic chemicals from being introduced into soils and waterways. Such chemicals not only affect the environment, but also find their way into wines. One hundred percent of conventionally produced European wines contained measurable levels of residual pesticides, according to a study by Pesticide Action Network, Europe, from March 2008. As a family-owned and operated business, Frey Vineyards is committed to producing the highest quality wines from 100% organic and Biodynamic grapes. Our wines are pure and clean, made with no added sulfites or other preservatives. Visit our website for more information and specials up to 30% off! LEARN MORE   Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power! Organic Bytes is a publication of Organic Consumers Association 6771 South Silver Hill Drive - Finland, MN 55603 - Phone: 218-226-4164 - Fax: 218-353-7652

From: donnaskuhn <donnaskuhn@...>
Subject: [BayCanaryGrapevine] Re: holidays and sensitivities
To: BayCanaryGrapevine@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, August 24, 2009, 7:33 PM

 

i read this earlier today and realized i haven't really been around my extended family much since i became sensitive or more sensitive. i don't suppose it would go too well or be too much fun to be honest. i've come back to this post tonight because i am leaving california due to the lbam program (i just wrote pogrom) and i was startled to find out today that my daughter has not told any of her friends i am leaving in 2 weeks. i said this would be a good opportunity to educate them: no, nobody is going to understand. a normal person would not have to leave. so i am not a normal person, so to a teen i guess that is a horror when it's your parent.

the only other thing that comes to mind is i was talking to my sister about perfume and she said it makes her nauseous and gives her a headache. i said my limbs go numb, my father made a face like i was crazy. she asks people who work for her not to wear perfume but when we discussed masks she said she hates "those" people (who wear masks.) i can't see myself making myself sick for these people even if they are my own flesh and blood.

i guess it depends on who the people are. if you go for awhile you will be sick, maybe mildly. still trying to wrap my mind around how impossible it may be for people to change their body products for your well-being. it hurts.

--- In BayCanaryGrapevine@ yahoogroups. com, Sena Miller <meekrats@.. .> wrote:
>
> I wonder how others deal with holidays and other family get-togethers
> when we are extremely sensitive and must be around others who are not.
>
> As coping mechanisms, do you just avoid the group, go for a while, wear
> your masks...?
>
> Thanks for any information/ ideas.
>
> sena
>

http://safegreenschools.blogspot.com/2009/06/osha-policy-protective-gear-for-school.html

Is Your School a Safe Green School Yet?

Sunday, June 14, 2009

OSHA Mandates Protective Gear for School Employees

With the development of medical diagnostic ICD 9 & 10 codes for "Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity" and "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities" by the World Health Organization (WHO), the medical community in the USA is shifting to develop protocols for environmental medicine training for patient care management for staff and clients. Schools may face a barage of employees with doctors notes to request protective gear to shield their exposure to non-ionizing radiation from energized machinery such as computers, laptops, copies machines, telephones, cell phones, etc. which this OSHA ruling makes provisions for. Thirty six Governors and Mayors across America proclaimed MAY 2009 as Electromagnetic Sensitivity and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity month. Bill 117, in the Ohio Legislation, proposes to make this an annual event because of the serious environmental health crisis in the state. PEOPLE'S Magazine, April 13, 2009 ( page 82), posts a CLASS ACTION SUIT NOTIFICATION against all Manufacturers of "Bluetooth" technologies. Owners of these technologies are encourage to contact interested parties. Schools may advise their employees of such civil intent also.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION. . . 

http://360-institute.blogspot.com/2008/06/it-is-osha-mandate-for-employers-to.html

Posted by SAFE GREEN SCHOOLS at  6:01 AM 

---

From: Bart <yaahoobart@...>
Subject: Re: [BayCanaryGrapevine] Service Dog to Detect Scented Products
To: BayCanaryGrapevine@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 9:37 PM

I'm sorry I can't offer you any help in making this actually happen. But I'm glad to see this idea surface. I've been thinking about it myself only a few days. That dogs could warn us, steer us from harmful scents. That many of us are officially disabled and a service dog would be appropriate. That a dog would make our disability visible and give instant validity. I saw a TV news report on convicts training dogs and it got me thinking. Dogs are trained for specific smells FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT all the time. Like you, I don't know where to go with the idea. Here's some leads that I found. Here's an article that might provide a lead. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/19/MNGVD9C5OQ1.DTL HEARING DOGS: The San Francisco SPCA Hearing Dog Program Contact: Ralph Dennard 2500 Sixteenth Street San Francisco, CA 94103 E-mail: rdennard@... Tele: (415 )554-3020 (Voice) TDD: (415) 554-3022 (TDD)) (Serves CA and Nevada) FOR THE BLIND http://www.guidedogboard.ca.gov/about/faq/faq.shtml Haven't found where the police dogs are trained but I'm pretty the police department does that internally. Make sure that Green means NONTOXIC too! --- On Sat, 8/22/09, sadamelia <jettyrock@...> wrote: From: sadamelia <jettyrock@...> Subject: [BayCanaryGrapevine] Service Dog to Detect Scented Products To: BayCanaryGrapevine@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 9:03 PM   Hello: I am interested to talking with anyone who has a service dog, trained to detect chemicals, scents etc. My allergic reactions to scented products: perfume/cologne, hand lotion, hair gel, etc, have gotten to the point that they are life threatening. Recently I ended up in a hospital isolation room with an out of control allergic reaction. Additionally I have ended up in the ER 3 times in the past 5 months. Currently I need to have someone with me when I go out in the community to alert me to avoid anyone wearing scents. I would like to be able to do with with a service animal instead. Does anyone have a service animal and/or know of anyone who uses a service dog for this purpose? Thanks for your assistance

From: sadamelia <jettyrock@...>
Subject: [BayCanaryGrapevine] Service Dog to Detect Scented Products
To: BayCanaryGrapevine@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 9:03 PM

 

Hello:

I am interested to talking with anyone who has a service dog, trained to detect chemicals, scents etc. My allergic reactions to scented products: perfume/cologne, hand lotion, hair gel, etc, have gotten to the point that they are life threatening. Recently I ended up in a hospital isolation room with an out of control allergic reaction. Additionally I have ended up in the ER 3 times in the past 5 months. Currently I need to have someone with me when I go out in the community to alert me to avoid anyone wearing scents. I would like to be able to do with with a service animal instead.

Does anyone have a service animal and/or know of anyone who uses a service dog for this purpose?

Thanks for your assistance