REFLECTION: WEEKS 7 & 8

Woo Hoo! Spring Break has finally arrived! Not that I have anything special planned but it’ll be nice to just RELAX!!! Here’s a snapshot of what went down for weeks 7 and 8.

Week 7:
Last week we were busy, it started with Reading 16 III Winds: The Chemical Plant Next Door. I liked this reading because it was writing in a personal manner. It was about a girl from Buffalo who lived near Borden Chemical. The girl’s family members were all getting sick and she was placing the assumption that it was from the chemical plant. I really liked it because it didn’t really say that was the exact reason why her family was so sick but that there is a possible positive correlation between the two. We all had different views about our interpretations of this reading but overall I felt that the class was assuming a slight correlation between the sickness and the chemical plant.

We also completed an Eye Opener last week. We chose our favorite cosmetic item that we used and typed it into the database of Environmental Working Group. It then told us how healthy our item is for the environment, ourselves, etc... I chose to test out my favorite tinted skin lotion and my results were pretty good! I scored a 3 out of 10. My results showed that my lotion could lead to cancer, and toxicity but not allergies. I was really surprised to see this considering it was organic, just shows that you really have to pay attention to the chemical found in your everyday things. My face lotion was not tested on animals which I was pretty happy to see but lots of other peoples results said that their product was!

During Tuesday and Thursday of last week we watched a documentary called, Green by Laura Dunn. I really liked this movie and was glad I had got this one to complete for my review. In the documentary it talked about Cancer Alley, which is a 100 mile stretch in Louisiana in which 150 petrochemical plants lie. Throughout the documentary Dunn interviewed many different people that live in the stretch. She asked them about what they thought about the chemicals that they’re creating and if they feel there is a correlation between the chemical plants and the illness. The most touching part of the documentary was when the children were interviewed. Seeing children with such rare forms of cancer was so depressing. I really believe in the correlation between Cancer Alley and the illness those children obtained.

Week 8:
This week we read, Chapter 31: Privatizing Water. This reading tied in with our documentary for this week called Thirst. The main concern of the reading and documentary was that people are actually fighting for the rights of water to be owned by different companies. I can’t believe people want to have the privilege of owning water!!! I do not think that anyone should own our water, and have the privilege of charging us high prices for it! There are so many companies that are trying to make a profit on anything that they can think of! On Thursday we were having a few technical difficulties with the movie and never got to see the end. Instead, we had a class discussion on the issues talked about in the documentary and how we felt about privatizing water. The main question was what we’d stand up for in our lives… I am kind of a nerd and feel that everything we’ve talked about so far has been so informational for me that I would probably stand up for it all.

Share and Voice: Kegs are environmentally friendly

It's Friday night and I'm just up blogging and doing homework and thought of this random blog. (FYI: I'm not always this cool but I just got off work and have to be back in t minus six hours=)

Kegs are environmentally friendly, safer, and the cheaper alternative.

According to this article:
Kegs reduce the waste associated with canned beers, and keg registration also provides an easier way for the University to monitor alcohol consumption.

Kegs take up less space and cost half as much as their equivalent volume in cans, which is a benefit that legal students should be able to take advantage of in a responsible fashion.

Attn friends 21+...Next time, consider the environment when drinking with friends and get a keg. ;)

Review of Documentary: "GREEN"

Summary:
The documentary “Green” by graduate student Laura Dunn has been my favorite documentary so far. It focuses on Cancer Alley, the one hundred-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Cancer Alley got its name because 150 petrochemical plants that lie between the two cities. The film focuses on the problem of Cancer Alley and the local people it affects. By particularly providing evidence of what it is like to live on polluted land, being condemned to illness and poverty and not being able to sell their land.

According to a website I found, “Louisiana is consistently ranked among the poorest states per capita in the country, it has one of the nation's worst educational systems, the highest illiteracy rate, and the lowest proportion of people connected to the Internet. Lastly, one-third of the state's children live in poverty.”

The residents interviewed that live in these towns along the Mississippi are confident that there is a link between their health and the petrochemical plants. The saddest part of watching this documentary was the fact that all the young children were acquiring advance stages of such rare cancers.

Another alarming fact is that these big cooperations keep track of their own data and are suppose to report when there is a problem. I remember them comparing this to turning yourself in for a speeding ticket. Except the side effects of this is a little more intense.

The truth is, that no one can realistically eliminate the products of the petrochemical industry because it supplies the key ingredients used in every single nonorganic product. The big businesses are continuing to make money off Cancer Alley because it delivers 25% of the nation's petrochemical product…



New Terms:
Cancer Alley: is an area along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, of Louisiana, which contains numerous industrial plants.

Neuroblastoma: is the most common extracranial solid cancer in childhood and the most common cancer in infancy, with an annual incidence of about 650 new cases per year in the US.

EPA: EPA leads the nation's environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

Louisiana Chemical Industry: Mission is to improve the quality of life through the power of chemistry.

Environmental racism: refers to intentional or unintentional racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, the intentional or unintentional targeting of minority communities for the siting of polluting industries, or the exclusion of minority groups from public and private boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies.

My thoughts:
As I mentioned in class this whole documentary reminded me of the movie, Erin Brokovich. For those of you who have never seen it here is how it all goes down… Erin Brockovich is an “unemployed single mother who becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California Power Company accused of polluting a city's water supply. She finds herself in a series of events that would involve her lawfirm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.” Except in the movie, they go to court and win lots of money and everyone lives happily ever after. I just wish the same thing could happen with the plants in Louisiana.

This is such a sad situation because I feel that there is nothing we can do to prevent this from happening. I mean I can try and not purchase things made of plastic but that probably wouldn’t last very long. It’s so easy to go on and live your life without considering the damage that these plants are causing when it’s not in your backyard.

A women on the documentary said, “Some people could sell a soul for some green,” and I think that’s true. What do you think? Is there anything we can do to help this situation? Lastly, do you think that environmental racism is an issue in Louisiana?

Here's a link to the Cancer Alley Blog- Check it out!

That’s all, thanks for reading. =)

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

For this weeks Eye Opener we had to choose a cosmetic that we use everyday and put it into Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. From there you get to see how healthy and environmentally friendly your product is=) I chose to test out my Organic Wear Natural Origin Tinted Moisturizer Light to Normal. My results were pretty shocking! These are the results that I got from my face moisturizer.

Ingredients in this product are linked to:
	Cancer
	Developmental/reproductive toxicity
	Violations, restrictions & warnings
	Allergies/immunotoxicity
	Other concerns for ingredients used in this product: Neurotoxicity, Persistence and bioaccumulation, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Multiple, additive exposure sources, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Enhanced skin absorption, Contamination concerns, Occupational hazards, Biochemical or cellular level changes

SCORE= 3

moderate hazard (out of 10)

health hazard sun hazard

This manufacturer::
	Compact for Safe Cosmetics signer
	Conducts animal testing

My Thoughts:

Ok so considering this product is organic, I thought it'd do a little better than a three on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. I use the tinted face lotion in place of foundation and face lotion. (Which is a pretty good thing because foundation scores are way worse than a three.) Something else that shocked me was that Physican's Formula products have not signed the compact for safe cosmetics. The Compact for Safe Cosmetics basically states that they would try to use safe ingredients. Also, that they promise to use ingredients that were known not to cause health problems.
But I'm happy to see that they don't do animal testing with this tinted moisturizer... That's good at least. And although this isn't the best product, I still plan to use it everyday. It good to be aware of the possible risks of these products but we've all adopted them into our everyday lives so it's hard to think about not using them. I plan to be more aware of the products I use on my body. In the future would consider finding healthier products for both the environment and my body. Here's a link to the the companies who have already signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Check it out=)

Share and Voice: Organic Hair Products

Organic Hair Products:

Ok so last semester in Women’s Health Issues (which is the best class ever-fyi) we learned about organic products. I found that they were better than other products because they are:

• Extremely friendly with the environment
• Totally natural
• Becoming more easily available
• Last but not least… paraben free! Parabens are found in practically every product you already have. To learn more about parabens and why you should avoid them check out this website.

I know that they are a little pricey but I really wanted to try them, so I asked for them for my Birthday.=) So far I’ve tried two different brands: Yes to Carrots and Kiss My Face. I like how they don’t make me my hair feel so waxy like other ordinary brands do. I have also noticed that I barley use any conditioner with these brands. The Kiss My Face shampoo and condition are herbal scented so it is actually relaxing to wash your hair.


If you have questions about these, two you should let me know. Otherwise, just try them. What do you have to lose?

P.S. Both brands can be found at Target and Walgreens=)

Share and Voice: Wisconsin Motorcycle =)

Hey guys, I got this in an email and had to share it with ya'll =)

With gas prices going up, I had to purchase a new form of transportation, so I bought a WISCONSIN MOTORCYCLE...

A COWASAKI !!!

Hope you all had a great weekend, see ya in class. =)

REFLECTION: WEEKS 5 & 6

The last two weeks have really opened my eyes to watch I’m putting in my mouth, here’s why…

Week 5
Last week we all were assigned to read chapter 15, “Feeding the World.” This article purposed that there is a lack of food in the world and that it is becoming a problem. Also, how we have to start making changes before they get worst. Along with that we were all assigned to complete an eye opener. I choose the CSPI Eating Green Calculator which really did make me question my diet. In the end, I took the pledge to eat less meat, cheese and eggs throughout the week. =)

Along with the CSPI eye opener we also watched the documentary Diet for a New America, created by John Robbins. It stressed that our current eating habits are basically killing us, the environment and animals. One thing that is contributing to this problem is the size of American’s food portions. An example of this is that in one meal an American’s portion of meat is what five people would eat in another country. The documentary also stressed some of the unreasonable living situations animals are currently going through such as living in confined areas. This was severely shocking for me because I always imagined farms to be like the one I grew up on.

Week 6
This week we watched the documentary, “The Future of Food.” Which touched on the problems “round up” is causing and how common genetically modified foods are showing up in our food and we don’t even know it. We were also assigned a reading to do and I ended up with “The Population Bomb.” The main concern there was that there is a declining availability of critical natural resources and services, changing composition of the atmosphere, and the loss of biodiversity. I didn’t realized that the earth could is only able to support 2.1 billion people and that we surpassed that mark in 1940!

What I’ve Learned:
Well, overall I never considered what I was eating was affecting the environment negatively. I love meat and cheese and probably always will but I never realized how bad it was for the environment to be eating them so often.
I did take the CSPI pledge to reduce my consumption of meat and cheese however I could never give it up forever. Because like Jessica Simpson's shirt says..."Real Girls Eat Meat." =)
Have a great weekend guys-See ya Tuesday!