It's that time of year again, and I can't help but think about the ghoulish chemicals our children are coming in contact with. Add to that the 6.9 billion dollars that Americans are spending on one-time use decorations and costumes this year, and my head starts to spin. But Halloween fun doesn't have to be an unhealthy witch's brew. It can be healthy and green too!
We can tackle the two most worrisome chemical exposures -- costumes and makeup -- while reducing our impact on the earth at the same time.
Safe, Eco-friendly Costumes
Many costume accessories, such as masks, noses and fake teeth, are made from poly vinyl chloride (PVC). The Center for Health Environment and Justice (CHEJ) warns that PVC has become known as the "poison plastic" because it is full of toxic chemicals such as phthalates, chlorine, dioxin and lead. A CHEJ study found that this vinyl can release as many as 108 volatile organic chemicals into the air. Some of these chemicals can cause developmental damage as well as damage to the liver and central nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems. So if you're buying a pre-made costume this year, look for the number three recycling code to help you avoid PVC. You may not have the benefit of a label though, so avoid any soft plastic with a strong "new toy" smell.
But seriously, why buy a potentially unhealthy costume that will likely be worn once? You can save some hard-earned money, and the planet too, with these tips:
• DIY: If you're feeling crafty, you could make your child's costume from safe materials you already have around the house. Not sure it's your cup of tea? Check out these simple costume ideas at Parenting.com and the Mother Nature Network.
• Check consignment and thrift stores.
• Consider swapping: Search for a swap in your area or learn how to organize your own at www.GreenHalloween.org.
Non-toxic Face Paint
Just this month, HealthyStuff.org released an unsettling report about the shocking number of toxic chemicals in kid's costume makeup. They tested products from large retailers, in which they detected potent neurotoxins and carcinogens. Here is what they found:
• One in two Halloween makeup kits tested contained detectable levels of cadmium.
• 100 percent of the products tested contained chromium.
• Other metals detected include: arsenic, mercury and lead
Can you imagine slathering those hidden hazards on your child's little face? I can't, and it makes me angry to think I may have done it without even knowing.
Luckily, you can make your own face paints with great recipes from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. And there are a few natural face paints and pencils available if you'd rather not make your own:
• Miss Terra Firma, in partnership with GreenHalloween.org, created a line of non-toxic high performance face paints that are made with only the safest ingredients.
• Nova Natural makes non-toxic face pencils which are made primarily of palm oil.
If you're planning to use your own makeup, be sure to double check it for safety in the Skin Deep Database.
With a little planning and creativity, you can create a safe costume, save a little money and reduce your waste for an all-around green Halloween!
Follow Sloan Barnett on Twitter and on her Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/GreenGoesWithEverything.
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WASHINGTON — A new fast-track planning effort could shave years off the next phase of Everglades restoration, putting more fresh and clean water into the central and southern portions of Florida’s "River of Grass" more quickly.
A restoration task force that met Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., announced a rapid planning effort that, if approved by Congress, could transform how large public-works projects across the country are built. It’s also expected to cut the planning process for the next major restoration project in the central Everglades from six years to 18 months.
“The reality is the ecosystem has continued to degrade,” said Dawn Shirreffs, the Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “We’re running out of time. We don’t have the time to spend six years on a project anymore.”
Thursday’s announcement came out of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to streamline large projects nationwide. The Army corps decided to use the planning process for the next major restoration project, which will provide more a natural flow and deeper clean new water through the central Everglades and Everglades National Park, as a pilot.
Previous plans were overly detailed, expensive and time-consuming, the Army Corps of Engineers found. The time — as well as data — being invested in studies wasn’t leading to a better product, officials said in materials that were prepared for Thursday’s task force meeting.
Also, projects in the Everglades had a tendency to be addressed one by one rather than simultaneously, Shirreffs said. But there are three components of Everglades cleanup, all intertwined, and all best addressed together, she said. Water can’t be moved unless it’s clean, it can’t be cleaned unless it’s stored and it can’t be stored unless it gets to the places designated for storage.
Cleaning up the pollution that's flowing into the Everglades requires reducing the phosphorus in the water to 10 parts per billion. Amounts any higher won’t stop changes in plant and animal life in the Everglades, a delicate ecosystem of marshlands and forests that's home to a variety of threatened species.
Because of high levels of phosphorus, cattails have been taking over the saw grass in the Everglades for decades. The pollutant has flowed from fertilizers on sugar and vegetable farms and the sprawling suburbs of South Florida.
The state was supposed to get to its phosphorus-reduction goal by 2012, but the Florida Legislature pushed back the deadline to 2016. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott met in Washington with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and offered some alternative plans for resolving some of the legal disputes over water quality in the Everglades, but he also said that Florida would need another six years.
The state's plans call for downsizing some construction projects and relying more on water storage on public and private lands. The plan, Scott said, puts to use land that's already in public ownership so that projects can be authorized and built promptly "at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers."
Specifically, the state will be looking for opportunities to use publicly owned land to store and treat water in the Everglades Agricultural Area — where farmlands exist amid the Everglades' water system — and move the water south to water conservation areas and Everglades National Park.
That’s expected to achieve more natural water circulation and tie together the state’s work north of the conservation areas and the Interior Department’s Tamiami Trail bridging project, along the highway that runs from Tampa to Miami, passing through the Everglades.
Last week, Salazar visited the Tamiami Trial project in Miami-Dade County. It’s one of the first bridges in a series of planned spans that would raise parts of the highway above the wetlands and eventually could restore the historic freshwater flow of the River of Grass to levels not seen in 80 years.
The federal government eventually would like to see 5.5 miles of bridges on Tamiami Trail, at an estimated cost of $324 million and to be built over four years. So far, it’s unclear whether money for the bridges will be budgeted, however.
Friday, officials will break ground on a separate project: a 12,000-acre reservoir in western Martin County, Fla., designed to improve the quality of the water in the St. Lucie Estuary and the southern portion of the Indian River Lagoon.
A congressional subcommittee will look next week at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plans to acquire more land in the Everglades for conservation, how it would be paid for and what effect it would have on public access and recreation within the refuge and conservation area.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Everglades restoration imperiled by monitoring program cuts, experts say
via mcclatchydc.com
By Erika Bolstad | Miami Herald
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© 2011 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
We spend a lot of time providing a healthier life for our family. This month we've talked about cleaning up our water, cleaning products, mattresses, our paint and even our bodies. But now it's time to worry about another important member of the family, and one who is often forgotten -- Fido!
Pets are especially impacted by the dangerous chemicals in your home because they live so close to the ground, both indoors and out. So where should we look for the greatest dangers?
Start by thinking about fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. Our pets are exposed to the insecticides we spray on the yard, and the flea shampoos we bathe them in. Many of these treatments contain chemicals that are linked to cancer, allergies, asthma and are suspected endocrine disruptors. For example, many concentrated "spot-on" flea medications contain a pesticide called permethrin, which can cause skin and eye irritation, rashes, inflammation and neurological symptoms. In fact, the EPA is set to begin reviewing these product labels and developing stricter testing requirements for flea and tick treatments that are applied to a pet's skin.
It is obviously still important to prevent infestations, but it is also possible to get the job done using safer methods. Some require more time, but your family will benefit from the lower pesticide exposure as well. Try these tips for safer flea and tick control:
• Groom your pets with a flea comb.
• Trim the lawn frequently.
• Wash pet beds and blankets often.
• Vacuum your home regularly.
• Check the NRDC's GreenPaws Flea and Tick Products Directory before deciding on chemical treatments.
We can keep mosquitos from dominating our dog's turf naturally too. The key here is prevention -- catching them before they grow from larvae into adults. If you've already got a flying mosquito population to deal with, it's best to combine several natural remedies. Here are some pesticide-free ideas:
• Get rid of potential breeding grounds from your landscaping by removing standing water: water buckets, empty plastic growing pots, gutters, clogged drains and bird baths.
• Add bacillus thuringiensis (BT) to the water in ponds, fountains and birdbaths to kill larvae. BT is a harmless natural substance that is safe for pets, fish, birds and wild life but is deadly to all kinds of larvae. It's available at most gardening stores.
• Spray the entire yard (including shrubbery) at least once per month with a mixture of natural pyrethrums, bacillus thuringiensis and neem oil. The mixture also helps to manage fleas and ticks and will destroy sneaky mosquito hideouts in smaller pockets of standing water.
• Enlist the help of a good old bug zapper for flying adult mosquitoes.
By focusing on Fido, you're also addressing yet another source of toxic chemical exposure in your home!
Follow Sloan Barnett on Twitter or on her Facebook Fan page at https://www.facebook.com/GreenGoesWithEverything.
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Down among the pipes and pumps and gauges, amid the incessant cacophony of the water works, talk of rising sea levels no longer resonates as some distant and esoteric political squabble, irrelevant to a city’s delivery of basic of public services.
Two more feet, said Hollywood City Commissioner Dick Blattner, and his city’s water plant no longer functions. Hollywood’s waste water treatment plant, he said, has 20, maybe 25 years before the projected sea level changes render it useless.
Those are the realities that ought to trump mindless chatter about global warming on cable television. Of course, city and county commissioners trying to fill the holes in this year’s piddling budgets aren’t particularly anxious to contemplate a massively expensive crisis a couple of decades away. Nor do they want to get drawn into the ferocious U.S. debate between climate scientists and climate deniers over whether the burning of fossil fuels has contributed to global warming.
Except, no matter the cause, the earth’s getting hotter. Ice caps are melting. The warming ocean’s expanding. South Florida, built to 20th Century sea level specifications, can’t simply ignore the water lapping at its infrastructure.
Just last week, Richard Muller, a physics professor at the University of California, a revered climate skeptic, funded in part by climate-denier sugar daddy Charles Koch, admitted that his Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature team’s study of global temperature readings had come up with findings that coincided with research he had previously doubted.
“Our biggest surprise was that the new results agreed so closely with the warmingÿ values published previously by other teams in the US and the UK.,” Muller wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues, and we didn’t know what we’d find. Our results turned out to be close to those published by prior groups. We think that means that those groups had truly been very careful in their work, despite their inability to convince some skeptics of that.”
“Even if people don’t accept the science, there is plenty of evidence that something is going on. Just look at the facts,” said Blattner, a member of the Broward County Water Resources Task Force. “I have been bringing this up for months.”
The Hollywood commissioner said the older cities clustered along South Florida’s coastline must start planning for the inevitable problems. Low-lying neighborhoods will be inundated unless local governments find some new way to get rid of storm waters. Blattner worries that his city’s most prestigious neighborhood, the Lakes area, faces perpetual flooding.
Cities must find new well fields in the western reaches of South Florida before the encroaching sea pushes salt water into the local aquifer. “Plans should be developed now,” he said.
Without some planning, and soon, coastal cities like Hollywood, with waste-water plants on sites that were chosen back in the middle of the 20th century, are headed toward an utter dysfunctional system, without the means to treat or get rid of its own sewage.
Not much help will be coming from Tallahassee, where climate denial has been embraced as a political truism. But local governments can’t dawdle, hoping the skeptics are right and the thermometers are wrong.
Last week, Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions released a study on the specific effects higher temperatures and the rising sea would have on coastal towns and on city services. FAU, using Pompano Beach as a model, calculated that the costs to salvage water and sewer services would be counted in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hollywood may be even more vulnerable.
The water task force is composed of elected officials and technical experts from around the region. “The technical folks get it,” Blattner said. The politicians, he said: not so much.
Among the political leaders (with the notable exception, he said, of Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs), “I have not seen any willingness to address this.” Blattner wants city and county governments in South Florida to devise regional water and sewer plants designed to deal with the rising sea levels. Instead, individual cities are planning and building separate utilities, oblivious to the coming crisis. His committee has seen plans for water treatment plants that will be located, he said, in areas that are clearly “doomed.”
“Buildings will go up, plaques will be installed to recognize the vision of local officials,” he said. Except that vision will be very short sighted.
via miamiherald.com
One of the most pressing problems facing South Florida today...
FY2012 Projects: Northern Everglades – Payment for Environmental Services
Alderman-Deloney Ranch, 147 acre-feet, Okeechobee County - Two culverts with riser structures installed in drainage ditches will retain water at a higher level in 322 acres of two natural isolated wetlands.
Buck Island Ranch, 1,573 acre-feet, Highlands County - Thirty-seven culverts with riser structures installed in drainage ditches will retain water in the ditches, pastures and wetlands of 3,748 acres of agriculturally improved pasture.
Dixie Ranch, 856 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Three water retention management areas in the Chandler Hammock Slough and Turkey Slough area will have stabilized water control structures to retain excess stormwater in on-site ditches and wetlands.
Dixie West, 315 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Two water retention management areas will have stabilized water control structures to retain excess stormwater in on- site ditches and wetlands.
Lightsey Cattle Company, XL Ranch, 887 acre-feet, Highlands County – Seventeen water control structures and 20 sheetpile ditch weirs will reduce runoff, increase water storage and maintain higher groundwater levels on adjacent pasture. The project will also incorporate an existing 580-acre reservoir into the total 765 acres of water management service area.
Lost Oak Ranch, 374 acre-feet, Polk County – Multiple, stabilized water control structures will retain stormwater on the ranch and reduce excess volumes of runoff reaching Lake Kissimmee.
Triple A Ranch, 397 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Construction of a 104.6-acre aboveground impoundment will provide additional on-site runoff retention.
Willaway Cattle & Sod, 229 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Construction of a 60.1- acre aboveground impoundment will provide storage of excess runoff for later recycling as irrigation for sod.
For more information:
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Just the Facts: Dispersed Water Management Program - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/jtf_...
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List of the FY2012 Projects: Northern Everglades - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/pay_...
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Northern Everglades and Estuaries Protection Program - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/o...
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Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project - http://www.fresp.org/
As part of my continuing series on Public-Private Partnerships as a way to creatively solve environmental and economic problems, I wanted to show you a picture of one in action! Storing water on ranches likes this one in Highlands County benefits both the ecosystem and the economy.
Also, if you haven't signed up to follow the South Florida Water Management District on Twitter, I highly recommend you do so: @SFWMD.
Doing the laundry is simple enough, right? Sort by color, choose your water temperature, add the detergent, set the cycle -- and then off you go to brew a fresh cup of tea, for a job well done.
Except that as you sit and sip, you recall the rash on your arm a few days earlier after you wore your dark green blouse to work. Or what about the itchiness that your son started complaining about a few weeks ago after wearing his favorite t-shirt? On an impulse, you walk back down to the laundry room, reach for the laundry container, look at the ingredients -- and wonder what is actually in that product that gets your whites so dazzling, and gives everything that fresh smell.
Maybe it's time we all took a closer look at what we're adding to our laundry.
Clean Laundry Naturally
It's only natural to want our clothes to be clean. The problem is that what we use to clean them is anything but natural. When I talk with people about switching to healthier household cleaners, they're most reluctant to change their laundry detergents -- they're just too hooked on the smell to make the change. But what if they knew what was in that smell?
Recent findings in a study done by the University of Washington show that air vented from machines using the top-selling scented liquid laundry detergent and scented dryer sheets contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens. Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including seven hazardous air pollutants. Of those, two chemicals -- acetaldehyde and benzene -- are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level.
So make the change today. Switch to a non-toxic, biodegradable, plant based detergent. I promise you won't miss the old stuff.
Toss the Dryer Sheet
The "fresh" scent of fabric softeners usually serves as a disguise for a surprising array of toxic chemicals. In fact, recent studies reveal that among all household products, one of the most toxic is fabric softener.
Dryer sheets often contain toluene, trimethylbenzene, and styrene -- which are neurotoxins according to the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. To make matters worse, dryer sheets are exposed to heat from water, dryers or ironing, which can make them emit hazardous vapors. So you see, it's not the spin cycle that's making your head spin...
Adding a quarter cup of baking soda to the wash cycle will soften your clothes nicely, and a little white vinegar will prevent static cling. Of course if you prefer a sheet, many green alternatives exist on the market.
Green Your Washing Machine, Too
While you're greening your clean, don't forget to consider your washer. Look for a front-loading, Energy Star machine the next time you're in the market for a new one. New washers on the market today can cut your energy, water and detergent use, which saves you money in the long run.
Top-loading machines use about 40 gallons of water per load, while Energy Star washers use only about 25 gallons. Top-loading washers have to be filled to keep the clothing wet while the agitator works the water around. Front-loaders, on the other hand, work their magic on a horizontal axis that saves both water and energy.
By the way, many cities will give you a rebate when you buy one of these machines because of the water and energy savings. You might check out the Department of Energy's Make a Clean Change -- Recycle Your Old Washer program, which promotes rebates on energy-efficient models.
Follow Sloan Barnett on Twitter and on her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GreenGoesWithEverything.
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To expand the effort following the pilot Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project (FRESP), the District issued a solicitation in January 2011 aimed at ranch owners in the Northern Everglades region. A total of 14 proposals were evaluated and ranked in response to the competitive solicitation. The eight approved projects were determined through a Governing Board-approved negotiation process.
The selected ranchers will receive financial assistance in making the best use of existing infrastructure and/or developing new, simple infrastructure that will increase water and nutrient retention capabilities. All projects will be monitored under an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund to document that the contracts, known as Payment for Environmental Services (PES), are meeting the water retention goals.
“The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Florida, a supporter and contributor to the Northern Everglades – Payment for Environmental Services (NE- PES) initiative from the beginning, is excited and proud to be a part of one of the nation’s largest market-based payment for environmental services programs,” said Carlos Suarez, state conservationist for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “We anticipate that the NE-PES program will contribute toward sustaining cattle ranching as an important industry throughout the region, maintaining important wildlife habitats, improving wetlands and keeping working lands working.”
The Dispersed Water Management Program Northern Everglades – Payment for Environmental Services is being implemented in coordination with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the NRCS, World Wildlife Fund and UF/IFAS.
