Green Things For Which I Am Thankful

These are a few of my favorite green things:

• Canvas grocery bags
• Our new Energy Star-rated windows
• Simple Green
• Seventh Generation products (specifically their baby wipes, dishwashing detergent, clothes washing detergent, and toilet cleaner)
  
• Organix cough drops with compostable wrappers!
• Our compost bucket
• Sea pearls
• Handmade moonpads
• Handmade reusable sandwich keepers
• The Organic Consumers Association
• National Geographic's The Green Guide
• Gaiam.com
• Our Green House website
  
• Our local recycling program
• Paperless bills and bank statements
• My blog readers!

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving.
Love,
Jenny

Bamboo-zled

One of my loyal readers posed a question in response to my last blog entry about cotton's environmental impact: what about bamboo? A lot of people are asking that these days, and the answer is complicated.

Bamboo grows very quickly (up to a foot a day!) with little pesticide and herbicide use and little water. Hence its reputation as an eco-friendly alternative to cotton. Bamboo also produces 30-35% more oxygen than a hardwood forest on the same amount of land, and is an excellent soil erosion inhibitor. But if you've ever seen bamboo growing, you know that it doesn't so much resemble a soft fabric as a bunch of hollow sticks. The controversy about bamboo stems from the process of turning the stalks into wearable clothing.

National Geographic's The Green Guide has this to say:

According to Morris Saintsing, sales development and operations partner of bamboo clothing retailer Bamboosa, all bamboo stalk intended for clothing in the United States is converted into raw fiber at one factory in China. "This is a proprietary process and they have a patent on it," says Saintsing. "It's hard to find out what is going on from an R&D standpoint," he adds. Other sources have compared it to the viscose process used on rayon, which involves sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide, both of which are caustic, and carbon disulfide has been known to cause breathing and sleeping problems among workers. Sodium hydroxide can threaten aquatic wildlife when released into groundwater and streams. Saintsing said that greener ways of creating bamboo fabrics are being tested, but those generally result in a linen-like product that doesn't have the silky texture people are looking for in clothing. Few of the alternatives are in use, but "We're doing what we can to make it a greener process," he says.

Like many decisions we have to make in our quest to be more environmentally friendly, finding green clothing is tricky. Bamboo may not be a perfect choice because of its controversial manufacturing practices. As consumers, we need to pay attention to how our clothes are made so that we can exert pressure on companies when their processes don't match our values. Just as you would try on clothes to make sure they fit, investigate how that bamboo shirt is made before you spend your money on it.

Debunking the Cotton Ads

I am fed up with the cotton ads I've seen lately, touting cotton as the greenest thing you can wear. I understand what they're trying to say: that it's better to wear clothing made from plant fibers than clothing made from petroleum-based fibers. But these ads totally ignore the fact that conventionally grown cotton takes a huge toll on the environment.

Here are the sobering facts:

• Just 2.4% of the world's arable land is planted with cotton, but it accounts for 24% of the world's insecticide market and 11% of global pesticides sold, making it the most pesticide-intensive crop grown on the planet.

• In California, five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton are cancer-causing chemicals (cyanazine, dicofol, naled, propargite and trifluralin). If you read my blog entry on mosquitos, you've heard of naled before.

• In Egypt, more than 50% of cotton workers in the 1990s suffered symptoms of chronic pesticide poisoning, including neurological and vision disorders.

• In India, 91% of male cotton workers exposed to pesticides eight hours or more per day experienced some type of health disorder, including chromosomal aberrations, cell death and cell cycle delay.

• 14 million people in the U.S. are routinely drinking water contaminated with carcinogenic herbicides and 90 percent of municipal water treatment facilities lack equipment to remove these chemicals.

• In California, it is illegal to feed the leaves, stems and short fibers of cotton plants known as "gin trash" to livestock because levels of pesticide residues are so high.
  

• In the United States, 1/3 pound of agricultural chemicals are typically used in the production of a single cotton T-shirt.

• $2 billion’s worth of chemicals are sprayed on the world’s cotton crop every year, almost half of which are considered toxic enough to be classified as hazardous by the World Health Organization.

According to Steve Trent, Director of Environmental Justice Foundation, “With no less than 99% of the world’s cotton farmers living in the developing world, the pesticides are applied in fields where illiteracy is high and safety awareness is low, putting both the environment and lives at risk.” He adds, “The dangers faced by poor illiterate children and farmers, to keep our clothes cheap, is unacceptable.”

Organic cotton, grown without pesticides and herbicides, is the only truly green cotton you can wear. If you're not sure who to believe, keep in mind that the cotton industry has a vested interest in getting the general public to believe that wearing conventionally grown cotton is a green thing to do. They're probably a little biased.

A Bright Idea or Not?

CFLs, or compact fluorescent lamps, have been touted as the environmentally friendly way to light our homes and businesses. According to Energy Star, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star-qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Sounds good to me: save the environment, save the pocketbook! My husband and I have been slowly replacing the burned-out lightbulbs in our house with CFLs, and many of my friends have done the same. But we couldn't help noticing the warning on the package:

"Lamp contains mercury. Manage in accord with disposal laws."

Wait a minute. Mercury is a known neurotoxin! Acute exposure to mercury vapor has been shown to result in profound central nervous system effects, including psychotic reactions characterized by delirium, hallucinations, and suicidal tendency. Fetuses exposed to mercury in the womb are at a much greater risk for developmental disorders.

Energy Star says there's no need to worry. CFLs only have a small amount of mercury vapor in them, which is sealed off in the glass tubing. The amount of mercury contained in the average CFL is 4 milligrams—about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. (As a comparison, old-fashioned thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury, equal to 125 CFLs.) Besides, mercury is an essential part of a compact fluorescent lamp; it allows the bulb to be an efficient light source. No mercury is released when the bulbs are intact (not broken) or in use.

I have yet to crack one of these sturdy bulbs, but there are guidelines (too complicated to go into here) you should follow if you do manage to break one. What I want to address is how to properly dispose of burned-out CFLs. I didn't bother exploring my local laws; I wanted to know the most environmentally responsible option.

The EPA recommends that consumers take advantage of available local recycling options for CFLs, because the mercury in CFLs can be fully recovered and reused through the recycling process. I discovered that both Ikea and Home Depot have CFL recycling programs. At Home Depot, you just give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. You can also take expired bulbs to a hazardous waste drop-off location in your community, but then they may not be recycled.

Why would we want to use a product in our homes that has to be so carefully handled? Because according to LighterFootstep.com, using CFLs can actually reduce the amount of mercury released into the environment each year. Half of the power in the United States is still generated by coal-fired plants, and burning coal releases mercury into the atmosphere (about 10 milligrams over the life of an average incandescent bulb). Because of its superior efficiency, a CFL will only be responsible for about 2.5 milligrams. Even if you add the 4 milligrams of mercury contained in the typical CFL, a CFL is actually responsible for putting less mercury into the wild than its incandescent equivalent.

So lighten up. You're doing the right thing using CFLs. Just try not to break them and don't put them in the trash.

My Search for a Safe(r) Deodorant

Deodorant. Anti-perspirant. Roll-on. Spray on. Solid. Gel. So many choices, and so many pitfalls. It has taken me three years to recover from my first foray into the world of "green" deodorants, but I am giving it another try.

Here's what happened the first time around. I was pregnant. I didn't know it yet, and the husband and I were taking a road trip with our neighbors. I had been using a new greener deodorant for a few days, and it seemed to be working okay. (Unfortunately, I can't recall the product name—I think I blocked it out of my memory.) Once I got in the backseat of the car, however, my new product stopped working altogether. Perhaps it was all the sweating from being nauseated the entire trip. Or perhaps it was hormone-related. My husband swears he didn't smell anything, but my unknowingly pregnant nose was telling me that I smelled BAD. And I was afraid I was going to have to burn the shirt I was wearing. Needless to say: FAIL. I threw that product out and resigned myself to wearing toxic deodorants forever.

Obviously I changed my mind about the forever part. I recently went on the hunt for an aluminum-free deodorant that would work at least as well as my old standby, Secret Platinum soft solid (which I have been wearing for over 10 years). I found Dry by Nature Deodorant by Desert Essence at my organic grocery store and started using it a few weeks ago. At first, I only used it on days I wouldn't be leaving the house or doing anything stressful. And I worked my way up to wearing it to an Arbonne presentation I was giving (stressful). I was delighted to find that Dry by Nature works better than my old deodorant. Finally, I thought I had found my new "secret" to staying dry and odor-free.

Then I started researching this article.

The truth is that my aluminum-free product still contains one of the dirty dozen (cocamide diethanolamine), as well as propylene glycol and sodium borate. Propylene glycol, according to Skin Deep, is practically non-toxic when added to food, but it has been found to provoke skin irritation and sensitization in humans with concentrations as low as 2%. So far, I haven't had any negative reactions. Sodium borate, also known as Borax, is not safe to use on injured or damaged skin (so probably not good for freshly shaven armpits). Therefore, I can't in good conscience recommend this product to others.

What I can do is share with you the ingredients you want to avoid, and point you to some alternatives.

Ingredients to avoid in deodorants

• Parabens. See the dirty dozen.
  
• Aluminum. Has been connected to Alzheimer’s disease. Look for aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly (the main ingredient in Secret Platinum, and the culprit of those yellow stains on the armpits of my shirts).
• Triclosan. See the dirty dozen.
• Talc. Often contaminated with asbestos.
  
• Propelyn glycol: See above.

Alternatives to wearing deodorant

• Here's a list (from Skin Deep) of 100 of the least harmful deodorant alternatives/natural deodorants you can try.
• You can also make your own, like this blogger did.
• You can grow out your armpit hair and skip the deodorant. Hair wicks moisture away from your skin naturally, helping to prevent or diminish bacterial colonization. The hair is less susceptible to bacterial growth and therefore is ideal for preventing the bacterial odor that causes us to hold our noses. Interesting aside: Actors Julia Roberts and Matthew McConaughey do not wear deodorant at all.
  

Personally, I'm not quite ready to go au naturale—I don't have the looks of Julia or Matthew to overcome people's reaction to body odor. So I'm going to finish up my Dry by Nature and try again to find something innocuous with which to adorn my armpits. Stay tuned for an update in a few months.

Dying Green

As an atheist, the only afterlife I anticipate is what happens to my physical body after I die. I want to dissolve back into the earth where my particles can mingle with the soil and nourish the microorganisms there. My ego likes to think that maybe some part of me will live on in the plants that grow in that soil and in the animals that breathe the oxygen those plants produce. In any case, the best way for this poetic "dust to dust" circle of life to take place is with a green burial.

Green burial makes sense to me from an environmental perspective as well. After a lifetime of avoiding preservatives in my food and trying to limit the damage I do to the earth, why would I want my body pumped full of embalming chemicals and placed in a nearly impermeable coffin?

According to Greensprings Natural Cemetery's website, each year in the U.S. we bury:

• 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
• 90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
• 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
• 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
• 14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
• 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods (much tropical; caskets)

And that's not even counting all the pesticides and fertilizers conventional cemeteries use to keep their grounds unnaturally manicured.

Green burials, on the other hand, can actually preserve land from development. Trust for Natural Legacies, Inc., a non-profit land trust, explains: "Natural lands owned by the government can always be sold. Tools utilized by the conservation community, such as easements, are relatively untested. There is no guarantee that a group may exist in 100 years to enforce an easement. Cemetery lands, however, are protected against disturbing activities by State law. What's more, if a cemetery organization no longer exists, the local government is often required to take over and protect the cemetery. Because these cemeteries are also public green spaces, it's a win-win situation for everyone."

How does the cost compare? A conventional funeral—including the embalming process and a metal casket—can average $6,500, plus another $2,000 for cemetery charges. In contrast, at Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina, prices range from $250 for a scattering of ashes to $1,950 for a body burial.

Speaking of ashes, I used to think that I wanted to be cremated. I found out that the cremation process releases dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and possibly mercury from amalgam dental fillings back into the air and ground. Greenspring's website claims that you could drive about 4,800 miles on the energy equivalent it takes to cremate someone—and to the moon and back 83 times on the energy from all cremations in one year in the U.S.

If I meet my demise in Maryland, there are no green cemeteries inside state lines. Here's a list of the green cemeteries I discovered in the US:

• GreenSprings Natural Cemetery - 93 acres in New York, opened in 2006
• Forever Fernwood - 32 acres in California, opened in 2004
• Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 350 acres in Florida. Opened in 2002 .
  
• Ramsey Creek Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 32 acres in South Carolina. Opened in 1996.
  
• White Eagle Memorial Preserve - 20 acre cemetery is set within 1300 wild acres.
  
• Foxfield Preserve - 43 acres in Ohio
  
• Honey Creek Woodlands - Georgia
  
• Eternal Rest Memories Park - Florida
  
• Cedarbrook Burial Ground - Maine
• Steelmantown Cemetery - New Jersey
• Praire Wilderness Cemetery - Colorado (under construction)
• Ethician Family Cemetery - Huntsville, Texas

I'd like this blog entry to act as an official notification to my family of what I want done with my remains when the time comes: I direct that my remains be buried in a "green cemetery" according to the standard practices associated with "green burial," including burial in a natural setting without embalming, in a simple pine coffin or a biodegradable shroud. If it sounds primitive, well, that's kind of the point. You can see what a green burial can look like on this YouTube clip from HBO's Six Feet Under (includes adult language and situations, so beware).

Thanks for being my witnesses,
Jenny

Busy Summer Note

I just wanted to let my readers know that I am taking on a freelance project that will literally occupy my every working moment until late August. So I will have to take a short hiatus from my blog until then. I will be back in September with new articles about green funerals and making your own cleaning products.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your summer,
Jenny

The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act

After reading my last blog entry, you may be wondering how cosmetics manufacturers get away with putting unsafe ingredients in their products. I was recently dismayed to find out that the law that governs our nation's chemicals "is widely regarded as one of the weakest of all environmental laws on the books today" according to this article.

The law, known as the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), was originally passed in 1976 to declare 62,000 chemicals safe. However, there were little or no data at the time to prove that these chemicals were, in fact, safe. Since then, 20,000 chemicals have been added, also with no proof of safety.

Happily, a new law is being considered: the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act (KSCA). It includes the following provisions:

• requires that industrial chemicals be safe for infants, kids and other vulnerable groups;
• requires that new chemicals be safety tested before they are sold;
• requires chemical manufacturers to test and prove that the 62,000 chemicals already on the market that have never been tested are safe in order for them to remain in commerce;
• requires EPA to review "priority" chemicals, those which are found in people's bodies, on an expedited schedule;
• requires regular biomonitoring to determine what chemicals are in people and in what amounts;
• requires regular updates of health and safety data and provides EPA with clear authority to request additional information and tests;
• provides incentives for manufacturers to further reduce health hazards;
• requires EPA to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal testing;
• protects state and local rights; and
• requires that this information be publicly available.

The article I cite above points out: "We are at a tipping point, where the pollution in people is increasingly associated with a range of serious diseases and conditions from childhood cancer, to autism, ADHD, learning deficits, infertility, and birth defects. Yet even as our knowledge about the link between chemical exposure and human disease grows, the government has almost no authority to protect people from even the most hazardous chemicals on the market."

If this issue is important to you, call your congress people and request that they co-sponsor the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. It only takes a few minutes to ask, but it may make a major difference in how our children are protected well into the future.

Thanks,
Jenny

"The Dirty Dozen" of Cosmetics

Now that I've shared some products that I believe are good for your skin, I want to share with my readers some of the chemicals that are not. Health advocates have identified twelve ingredients (known as "The Dirty Dozen") that consumers should try to avoid, whether they are found in an "organic" or "natural" product or not.

1. Antibacterials
Label alert: triclosan
Here's a simple fact about washing: you wash with soap and water to get dirt and germs off your hands. So why do you need to kill germs if they are no longer present? Antibacterial soaps can be harmful to the environment when overused. They kill non-resistant bacteria, leaving resistant strains to proliferate (think MRSA). Triclosan, the active ingredient in hand sanitizers, has been detected in breast milk, and one recent study found that it interferes with testosterone activity in cells.

2. Coal Tar
Label alert: FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Green 3Coal tar is a known human carcinogen, meaning it is "directly involved in the promotion of cancer or in the facilitation of its propagation" (according to Wikipedia). This is one ingredient you may not see listed on packaging, because it's often present in other forms. You want to look out for coal-tar-based dyes such as FD&C Blue 1, used in toothpastes, and FD&C Green 3, used in mouthwash. Coal tar is also used as an active ingredient in dandruff shampoos and anti-itch creams.

3. Diethanolamine (DEA)
Label alert: DEA, lauramide diethanolamine, coco diethanolamide, cocoamide diethanolamine or coconut oil amide of diethanolamine, lauramide DEA, lauric diethanolamide, lauroyl diethanolamide, lauryl diethanolamide
DEA and its chemical variants are common ingredients in cosmetics and shampoos, where they are used as to create a creamy texture and foaming action. DEA is a possible hormone disruptor, is a possible carcinogen, and depletes the body of choline (which is needed for fetal brain development).

4. 1,4-Dioxane
Label alert: ingredients that include the terms "PEG," "-xynol," "ceteareth," "oleth," and most other ethoxylated "eth" ingredients; sodium laureth sulfate
This is the same chemical I wrote about in my last blog entry, an ingredient that many "organic" companies are being sued for including in their products. 1,4-Dioxane is a known animal carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen that can appear as a contaminant in products containing the chemicals listed above. Manufacturers can remove dioxane through a process called vacuum stripping, but a small amount usually remains.

5. Formaldehyde
Label alert: diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, quaternium
You read that right. The same preservative we use to keep dead things from smelling can be found in baby soap, nail polish, eyelash adhesive, and hair dyes as a contaminant or break-down product of diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, and quaternium compounds. As you can imagine, formaldehyde has a long list of adverse health effects, including immune-system toxicity, respiratory irritation, and cancer in humans.

6. Fragrance
Okay, this one's tricky, because not all fragrance is bad. The problem is that the catchall term "fragrance" may mean phthalates, which act as endocrine disruptors and may cause obesity and reproductive and developmental harm. Look for essential-oil fragrances instead.

7. Lead and Mercury
Label alert: hydrated silica, lead acetate, thimerosol
Neurotoxic lead may appear as a naturally occurring contaminant of hydrated silica, one of the ingredients in toothpaste, and lead acetate is present in some brands of hair color. Brain-damaging mercury, from the preservative thimerosol, can be found in some mascaras and vaccines.

8. Nanoparticles
Label alert: zinc oxide, titanium dioxide
Microscopic nanoparticles, which may penetrate the skin and damage brain cells, are rising in popularity with manufacturers of cosmetics and sunscreens. Most problematic are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, used in sunscreens to make them transparent. When possible, look for sunscreens containing particles larger than 100 nanometers. You'll probably have to call companies to confirm sizes, but a few manufacturers have started advertising their lack of nanoparticle-sized ingredients on labels.

9. Parabens
Label alert: methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl-, isobutyl-parabens
Parabens are common preservatives that appear in a wide array of toiletries. A study found that butyl paraben damaged sperm formation in the testes of mice, and a relative, sodium methylparaben, is banned in cosmetics by the European Union. Parabens break down in the body into p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which has estrogenic activity in human breast-cancer cell cultures.

10. Petroleum Distillates
Label alert: petroleum, liquid paraffin
Possible human carcinogens, petroleum distillates are prohibited or restricted for use in cosmetics in the E.U. However, you can find it in U.S. brands of mascara, foot-odor powder, and more. Remember that petroleum means oil, so eliminating these ingredients from your medicine cabinet helps us become a little less dependent on fossil fuels.

11. P-Phenylenediamine
Label alert: 1,4-Benzenediamine; p-Phenyldiamine, 4-Phenylenediamine
Commonly found in hair color, this chemical can damage the nervous system and cause lung irritation and severe allergic reactions. That's why the instructions on hair color always tells you to do a patch test first. Now you know why I'm no longer a redhead!

12. Hydroquinone
Found in skin lighteners and facial moisturizers, hydroquinone is neurotoxic and allergenic, and there's limited evidence that it may cause cancer in lab animals. Unfortunately, It may also appear as an impurity not listed on ingredient labels.

I found this information in The Green Guide, a magazine from National Geographic. They offer a wallet card that you can download and carry in your purse for quick reference at the drug store. You can also visit Skin Deep to check the other hard-to-pronounce ingredients in your favorite products.

Thanks again for reading, and stay healthy!
Jenny

Companies I Love: Arbonne International

When it comes to skin care, the label "organic" doesn't always mean what you might expect. Avalon Natural Products, Whole Foods Market California, Beaumont Products, and Nutribiotic are currently being sued by the Attorney General of California for containing 1,4-Dioxane, a known carcinogen. Jason, Kiss My Face, Nature's Gate, Juice, Giovanni, Head, Dessert Essence, and Ikove are also facing a lawsuit for incorrectly using the word organic to describe their products.

I recently became an Arbonne International independent consultant. I want my readers to know that right up front. But the reasons I decided to become involved are the same reasons I'm featuring the company and its skin care products in my sustainable living blog.

• Arbonne products are botanically based.
• None of their products are tested on animals, and everything is 100% vegan. There are no animal products or by-products in any of the formulas.
• Arbonne products do not contain dyes or chemical fragrances. As my sponsor and best friend Ashley Fuchs explains, "If the product smells like a lemon, it's because it has lemon in it."

The company's motto, "pure. safe. beneficial." really means that. And as the lawsuits I mentioned earlier demonstrate, skin care companies misuse labels all the time. "People get really caught up in words like organic and chemical-free, but even plants contain chemicals. A store-bought product may be pure, but not beneficial or safe," Ashley points out. The Arbonne website adds, "Many botanical ingredients used in Arbonne’s products are organic, from the perspective of having been grown without harmful chemicals or pesticides. Not all ingredients are available as organic which is why we cannot make such a claim. Know that we always choose organic when it is available."

The more I find out about Arbonne, the better I like it. I did have one question for Ashley, though. Why are the products so expensive? "They're actually less expensive than you think," she answered, "because they last for months. There are no fillers; it's pure ingredient." Apparently, many companies use filler ingredients to increase the volume. Ashley explains, "A large bottle of your average lotion may contain a small percentage of pure ingredient, but the rest is waxes and mineral oils, so you have to use a ton of it."

On a personal note, Ashley continues, "I believe in paying for quality. My body is not the place for me to cheap-out. You have to make a conscious choice to honor your body as a precious machine. The skin is the largest organ in your body, so you're saving money in the future by keeping it healthy."

I have to agree. If anyone wants to know more, feel free to email me. I enjoy promoting companies whose products I believe in.

Namaste,
Jenny

Update on Mosquitoes and Cats in the Garden

I finally procured a copy of the "Request for Exemption from Adult Mosquito Control Services" form. It's rather anti-climactic in that there is no essay question asking you to explain why you don't want your area sprayed. (Okay, maybe I'm the only one who would actually want to write that essay.) You simply fill out your name, address, and phone numbers, add your signature, and then mail it to the Department of Agriculture.

The form is supposed to include a page that explains what the Maryland Department of Agriculture's policy is toward people like me who don't want our yards sprayed with adulticides. Of course, this page is missing. According to the Department's website, however, "an individual may have his/her owned or leased property excluded from nuisance mosquito control. This exclusion will include a buffer of approximately 300 feet around the property."

As for getting my neighbors involved, I haven't taken that step yet. But the website does say that "if the number of individual objectors and/or the location of the excluded property precludes an effective mosquito control adulticide service for a community, the service will be suspended." In other words, if I convinced enough people to object, our entire neighborhood would be excluded from spraying.

By myself, I cannot cover the entire development, which contains approximately 3700 homes. So I have decided that my next step will be to contact my homeowner's association board of directors and ask them to address it. I hope to find someone on the board who agrees with my point of view. Again, I'll update my blog with what happens next.

As for the cats in the garden, I've found that if I refresh the orange peels once a week or so, the felines stay away. Now if only citrus worked to repel the slugs and snails who are eating my purple dragon. But I have some tricks up my sleeve for them as well.

Thanks again for reading!
Jenny

A Simple Way to Keep Cats out of the Garden

I planted my very first flower bed on Friday. My tiny masterpiece features a fledgling ghost fern, a lamium purple dragon, and georgia peach coral bells. I painstakingly mixed the existing dirt with rich, organic planting soil. I carefully de-potted the plants and shook out the roots before tucking them into their new home. Then, I spread mulch around and stood back to admire my work. I should have taken a picture, because the garden would not be so pristine for long.

Friday night, one of the neighborhood cats decided my flower bed would make a great litter box and nearly dug up my fern. I consider myself a cat person, but I am not going to tolerate poop in my plants.

Even after living with cats for 11 years, I still had no idea how to deter them from digging in the dirt. I discovered from a couple of different sources that cats are repulsed by the smell of citrus - specifically, orange peels. A natural skeptic, I did not really believe such a simple solution would work, but I thought I'd give it a try. After all, the other suggestions were either toxic (mothballs, which are considered a carcinogen) or ridiculous (sitting in wait with a garden hose).

On Sunday, I cut up one orange's worth of peel into tiny pieces so as to spread it as far as possible. (I am not a fan of oranges, so I didn't want to eat a whole bunch of them.) I sprinkled the peel all around my garden, which is probably 1' x 5'. It is now Wednesday, and I am happy to report that the neighborhood strays have not ventured back into my flowers! Sometimes the simplest - and least toxic - option really does do the best job.

Birds and Bees and Mosquitos and Fleas

I am a mosquito magnet. I joke with my friends that if they want to avoid mosquito bites, then they should stand near me - all the bugs will flock to me instead of them. You might think that I should be concerned about West Nile Virus, but I'm actually much more concerned about the measures my county plans to take to control the mosquito population.

Up here on the East Coast, the local media treat WNV as if it were akin to the plague. The truth is that "Most individuals infected with West Nile virus will not have any symptoms or signs of illness. People who do develop illness may experience mild symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches; occasionally a skin rash and swollen lymph glands may be noticed.... Less than 1% of persons infected with the virus may develop more severe disease with symptoms such as high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, paralysis, and, rarely, death. People > 50 years of age have the highest risk of developing severe illness." (This is from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's West Nile Virus fact sheet.)

Compare the symptoms of WNV to the possible side effects of permethrin, which is the chemical my county uses in residential spraying. You may have seen permethrin before - it's used in indoor flea control products, head lice shampoo, and termiticides. Pretty disturbing, considering that "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified permethrin as a carcinogen because it causes lung tumors in female mice and liver tumors in mice of both sexes. Permethrin inhibits the activity of the immune system in laboratory tests, and also binds to the receptors for a male sex hormone. It causes chromosome aberrations in human and hamster cells." (This is from the Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.)

Additionally, the Coalition reports that "Permethrin is toxic to honey bees and other beneficial insects, fish, aquatic insects, crayfish, and shrimp. For many species, concentrations of less than one part per billion are lethal." Personally, I'd rather weather some aches and pains than risk killing off even more bees and adding harmful chemicals to the Chesapeake Bay.

I plan to write the Maryland Department of Agriculture to request that my area not be sprayed. I won't be satisfied, however, if they still spray all around me. My goal over the next couple of weeks is to talk to my neighbors and see if I can't get them to write the Department as well. I'll let you guys know what happens. (If you want to find out what your county is doing to control pests this summer, call your state's department of health or agriculture; you can also search online for your state's government web page and navigate to one of those departments.)

In the meantime, I plan to use mosquito repellent to protect myself from the pesky critters. When my daughter was born, I sought an effective repellent that would be safe for her to use as well. I settled on Bite Away by Southeast Beauty Inc, which you can order from Gaiam.com. It's basically soybean oil mixed with a little safflower, coconut, lemon, grapefruit, and lime. Because it is oil-based, it is a bit greasy, but it seems to be pretty effective in my experience. If it works for me, it'll probably work for anybody!

Happy Memorial Day!
Jenny

My Calling

I went to church on Sunday. I know this may come as a shock to some of you, but I should clarify that it was a Unitarian Universalist church. The topic of the service was finding your calling: discovering your passion, your skills, and then figuring out how the combination of the two can fulfill a need in society. This message came on the heels of a conversation I had with Mom that morning, about how life in America is at a turning point. We can no longer afford to live the way we've been living. If we continue to drive our SUVs all over and eat processed foods that have been shipped from far away, we will not only bankrupt our finances, but our environment and our own health as well.

Over the past several years, I have pursued sustainable living practices. This is an ongoing journey, and one that I enjoy sharing with others. It is my passion. And writing is my skill. So I thought, why not combine the two and create a blog where I can share what I've learned - and continue to learn - with my friends and family all over the world?

Here's my disclaimer: I am not an expert in environmental science. The last "real" science course I took was my freshman biology class. In high school. Earning an English major in college did teach me how to conduct research. I spend a great deal of time reading about organic food standards, pesticides and other chemicals, harmful ingredients in everyday beauty products, and carcinogens in household cleaners. I'd like to share with you, whom I hope will become my faithful readers, what I learn.

This blog, then, is about my getting down to earth. Realizing that we have to change in order to survive. Facing reality. Eating real food. Buying locally. Driving less. Slowly changing for the better. I hope that you'll stay in touch with me by following my journey, and by sharing yours.

I'll leave you with some words from a book that changed my worldview in college: New Woman, New Earth by Rosemary Radford Ruether.

"We seem to be awaiting a planetary rebirth which can come about only when massive catastrophe decisively discredits the present systems of power. We scarcely know whether either the physical or the spiritual resources exist to make such a creative leap beyond disaster. So it is with fear and trembling that we even try to dream of new things.... Perhaps this...demands a letting go of that self-infinitizing view of the self that culminates in the wish for personal immortality. One accepts the fact that it is the whole, not the individual, which is that 'infinite' out of whose womb we arise at birth and into whose womb we are content to return at death, using the human capacity for consciousness, not to alienate ourselves from nature, but rather, to nurture, perfect, and renew her natural harmonies so that earth might be fair, not only for us and our children, but for all generations of living things still to come."

Namaste (I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me),
Jenny

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