This & that......

Yup! For Profit Prisons!

Our Time

Prison, sadly, has become a booming business.
To change this, Like Our Time

This is an offensive joke, right?

A retailer revealed that they'll actually get more $$ because of this bill [it's actually disclosed].

What's the BIG FREAKIN' DEAL?

Do you shop at The Big Y or Stop & Shop? How do you feel about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they are each spending to defeat expansion of the bottle bill in Massachusetts? If you would like their profits from your purchases to be spent on something other than a lie-filled political lobbying campaign, CALL THEM and let them know that you are a customer and disapprove. The phone number for the Customer Relations office at The Big Y is 1-800-828-2688, Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The phone number for the Customer Relations office at Stop & Shop is 1-800-767-7772, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Please call them both, and feel free to share this to spread the word and generate more calls.
 

 

Maybe they should be concerned about kids going hungry?
Maybe they should be concerned about kids lacking Health Care?

We have defined the Moral Bankruptcy of the Republican Party.
 
How can you call yourself a Republican?

Simple solution! Vote them out of office and let's move into the FUTURE.

 

Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat

Microbeads, found in many cosmetics, are the latest addition to the marine plastics problem. Yes: you may be dirtying our waters every time you clean your face.

—By Susan Freinkel

| Mon Sep. 9, 2013

 

Africa Studio/Shutterstock

 

This story originally appeared on the OnEarth website.

 

In the summer of 2012, when they set out to measure levels of plastic pollution in the Great Lakes, a team of researchers expected to find lots of bottles, six-pack rings, and plastic bags. They expected, too, to discover plenty of microplastics: those minuscule pieces of free-floating plastic that typically result from the degradation of much larger pieces.

 

But these researchers were unprepared for just how much micro-size trash they would discover. Some of the samples they collected from Lakes Huron, Superior, and Erie indicated the presence of as many as 450,000 bits per square kilometer—twice as many as had ever been recorded. And the scientists were mystified by the form that so many of these microplastics took: multicolored, perfectly spherical balls a fraction of a millimeter in diameter.

 

356,000 microbeads are found in one 4.2-ounce tube of a leading facial cleanser

Further investigation solved the riddle. The tiny balls were plastic microbeads, of the kind found in many popular exfoliating facial scrubs. “It was like someone had taken an entire bottle of facial cleanser and poured it into our sample container,” says Sherri Mason, an environmental chemist at the State University of New York at Fredonia, who conducted the study with scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Superior and the 5 Gyres Institute, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

 

 

While microbeads may be less visible than plastic bags, they are no less environmentally problematic. For one thing, they “look just like fish eggs, and thus like food” to a variety of aquatic organisms, says Mason. All marine micro-plastics are troublesome, given their tendency to absorb and concentrate persistent organic pollutants that can potentially accumulate in the fatty tissues of anything that eats them. Moreover, when plankton, lugworms, mussels, or fish fill up on toxic junk food, they may well lose their appetite for healthier fare. Dutch scientists who fed mussels tiny nano-particles of polystyrene found that the shellfish subsequently ate less and grew less.

 

90 percent of floating

ocean debris is made

of plastic

 

It’s bad enough that microbeads are contributing to our ongoing microplastics problem. But unlike most other microplastics, which result from plastic litter that has broken down over time, microbeads are actually designed to go down our drains and through our pipes. Once they do, they’re small enough to pass through the filters in wastewater-treatment systems—and right into lakes, rivers, and oceans.

 

Microbeads have been detected in more than 200 different consumer products; most fall under the category of facial cleansers, but the beads also make their way into soaps, sunscreens, even toothpaste. Manufacturers like them because they’re smoother than many natural exfoliants like salt, apricot pits, or walnut husks. And American consumers like them enough to buy cosmetics containing more than 573,000 pounds of them each year.

 

 

36.5 percent of fish in

the English Channel

have plastic within

their gastrointestinal tracts

 

Now, however, a campaign is afoot to scrub out the scrubbers. Responding to pressure from groups like 5 Gyres, a number of cosmetics companies—including Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and the Body Shop—have pledged to remove microbeads from their products. Eventually.

 

Unfortunately, they say, it will take a few years to find safe and effective natural alternatives. “We’re not happy that P&G is taking three and a half years to phase this stuff out,” says 5 Gyres spokesman Stiv Wilson, citing just one of the protracted timelines.

 

While he and others wait, the anti-microbead movement looks toward other consumer markets, including Asia. In the meantime, America: how about just using some soap and a washcloth?

 

 

Susan Freinkel

Susan Freinkel is the author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Her previous book, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree (University of California Press), won a 2008 National Outdoor Book Award. She also writes for magazines including Health and Discover.

 

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/09/microbeads-cleanser-ocean-pollution

 

 

Keep Toxins Out of Our Oceans

The information below highlights what we're doing to ourselves, our home and our environment with TOXIC CHEMICALS.

Recently, FEBREEZE was considered and this horrifying list of ingredients was discovered:
 

Febreze Ingredients

Below you'll find a list of just some of the 87 chemicals found by the EWG in Febreze Air Effects, listed in order of their toxicity to humans:

• BHT - Known as a neurotoxin, endocrine disruptor, immunotoxicity, non-reproductive organ system toxicity, skin eye and lung irritator
• Acetaldehyde - Known to cause cancer, toxic to reproduction and development, immunotoxin, non-reproductive organ system toxin, skin, eye and lung irritator
• "Fragrance" - One of the three ingredients actually disclosed, it's a neurotoxin, immunotoxin and allergen
• Propylene Glycol - Causes cancer, allergies, toxic to immune system, accumulates in the system, non-reproductive organ system toxin, is classified with "enhanced skin absorption" and irritates the skin, eye and lung
• 1,3-Dichloro-2-propanol - Carcinogenic (causes cancer)
• Limonene - Allergen, immunotoxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Methyl pyrrolidone - Toxin to reproduction and development, allergen and immunotoxin, non-reproductive organ system toxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Alcohol denatured - Also disclosed in the ingredients of Febreze, it's linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, organ system toxicity and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Butylphenyl methylpropion al - allergen, immunotoxin and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Ethyl acetate - linked to developmental/reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, organic system toxicity and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Geraniol - Linked to allergies, immunotoxicity, organi system toxicity and and skin, eyes and lung irritation
• Linalool - allergen, immunotoxin, and and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Benzaldehyde - neurotoxin, and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Diethylene glycol monoethyl ether - non-reproductive organ system toxicity
• Ethylhezanol - developmental and reproductive toxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• Hexyl cinnamal - allergen, immunotoxin and skin, eyes and lung irritator
• And way too many more....

You can find the EWG's full report on Febreze and other common cleaners here.


Unfortunately, if you check SNOPES, they provide false assurance about the safety of FEBREEZE because they only considered the ingredients disclosed on the product. With the list of chemicals above, do you really want to risk its use when there are safe alternatives available?

 

1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling shared David Suzuki's photo.

Keeping toxins out of your home will help keep toxins out of our oceans.

To see all 7 habits for a healthy ocean, visit: http://ow.ly/nLmOg

Habit for a healthy ocean #5 - Keep toxins out of your home. Even a tiny amount of some household chemicals can have a huge impact on ocean health. Keep our oce...ans safe by choosing green alternatives to toxic cleaning products, and never pour bleach or motor oil down the drain - find out about safe disposal programs in your area. Our Queen of Green blog has more tips for keeping toxins out of your home: http:// davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green

To see all 7 habits for a healthy ocean, visit: http://ow.ly/nLmOg

 

 
National Wildlife offered the article below about SAVING ENERGY and MONEY that included this section:

Make your own cleaning products. Baking soda, water and vinegar and maybe a little cream of tartar provide almost all the basic ingredients for good cleaning, “especially if you keep at your cleaning chores so they don’t become monstrous,” says Rangan. Baking soda dissolved in water, for example, is a good all-purpose cleaner for kitchens and bathrooms, while vinegar removes soap residues and can be added to the rinse cycle in your washing machine to brighten and soften clothes. Homemade cleaning products also are far less toxic—better for the environment and for your family’s health. Annual savings: $50 to $100.

 

Green Consumer

Ten Ways to Save Energy and Money, Too

06-01-2009 // Gabrielle Redford

- See more at: http://mobile.nwf.org/Home/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Green-Living/Archives/2009/Green-Consumer.aspx#sthash.ZKuE4TiL.dpuf