In the morning I leave for 3 days in the woods with my child and her Continuous Progress Family. I am excited to be in the woods and unplugged with her classmates, teachers, and parents. This Mother’s Day, I am again reminded that it is those “thin places” between this life, and whats to come that really matter.

When I child gives you a handmade paper ribbon award that says, “#1 Mom” with the 1 written backwards, I am accutely aware that “this is it.” This is what matters most…Love. It is in the midst of the chaos and is seen clearly only in those thin places where the lines are blurred between humanity and the divine.

For me, nature provides and abundance of thin place experiences. I am excited to see what is to come.

There are 7 TruGreen warning signs out on my neighborhood this week AND it was confirmed the TruGreen (formerly ChemLawn) now sprays my child’s school.

I need to breathe (from safe inside) through this frustration and practice asanas of “letting go” postures and maybe not spontaneously on a street corner in a dress, but you get the metaphor.

SCOTCHGAURD

PFCs discovered in breast milk
via Minnesota Monitor - Front Page by Tom Elko on 5/5/08

A recent study conducted at University of Massachusetts Amherst found that of 45 samples of human breast milk tested for perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, all 45 yielded positive results. Milk samples were collected in 2004 from nursing mothers in Massachusetts and analyzed for nine different PFCs, including varieties once manufactured by 3M that are found in high concentrations around the Twin Cities. The Charleston Gazette reports that toxicologist Kathleen Arcaro conducted the test as part of an investigation into the links between breast cancer and environmental exposure.
“While nursing does not expose infants to a dose that exceeds recommended limits, breast milk should be considered as an additional source of PFCs when determining a child’s total exposure,” says Arcaro, assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and a member of the Environmental Sciences Program.

In Minnesota, sources of PFCs are abundant. 3M produced pentadecafluorooctanoic acid for us in Scotchgard as well as products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water. The chemical compound has been found in lakes and drinking wells throughout the Twin Cities after seeping from 3M-owned waste sites and years of dumping waste into the Mississippi River. PFCs have also been detected in the bloodstreams of fish in many local lakes and rivers. The company produced PFCs from the 1940’s until 2002 at its Cottage Grove facility.

PFCs are a family of chemicals used in many industrial applications. The chemicals are bio-accumulative in humans and animals and are highly resistant to breaking down in the environment. Research has shown PFCs can be harmful to the liver and other organs in animals,and recent studies have linked PFCs with low birth weight, but no direct health threats in humans have been identified.

“Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, are found in human blood around the world, including the blood of newborns, but this is the first study in the United States to document their occurrence in human milk,” “While nursing does not expose infants to a dose that exceeds recommended limits, breast milk should be considered as an additional source of PFCs when determining a child’s total exposure.”

I met an EcoGrandmother in Wisconsin who has made it her environmental mission to get an alternative lawn sign message out in the public. Kate wants to bring to light the absurdity of allowing a cancer causing, frog mutating, toxin to be sprayed where humans live. I have a batch of her Pesticide Free lawn signs and will have them available to all EcoFriends at EcoMom events.

EPA ordered the companies, collectively an international producer and distributor of lawn care products, to immediately stop selling and distributing two products which can be identified by the invalid “EPA registration number” listed on the package. Invalid registration number 62355-4 is marketed under names including “Garden Weed Preventer + Plant Food” and “Miracle Gro Shake ‘n’ Feed All Purpose Plant Food Plus Weed Preventer.” Invalid registration number 538-304 is used primarily by Scotts Lawn Service, a lawn care company. It is marketed under names including “Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer with .28% Halts,” “Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer 0-0-7 Plus .28% Halts Pro,” “Scotts Lawn Service Fertilizer 14-2-5 Plus .28% Halts Pro” and “Scotts Lawn Service Fertlizer 22-0-8 Plus .28% Halts Pro.”

In an effort to make sure these products are immediately removed from the marketplace, EPA will also issue stop sale orders to major retailers that carry these products.

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, all pesticides must be submitted to EPA for review, evaluation and registration to ensure that they do not pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment. EPA’s review and registration process is internationally recognized. Pesticide products that have not undergone EPA review may pose risks to human health and the environment.

Click on the link to find out what to do with the stash you have in your garage. Do not dump it down drains. You can return it to the store where you purchased it or drop it off at your hazardous waste drop off. My closest drop off is in Bloomington. I have various bags of this stuff in the garage. Yikes!

“A manufacturer such as Scotts cannot ignore the important legal requirement of registering its pesticides,” said Region 5 Administrator Mary A. Gade. “This is a serious violation of EPA’s system for protecting people and the environment from the potential harmful effects of pesticides. EPA will fully investigate this violation and take appropriate actions. We are committed to keeping the public informed about any health consequences and providing information to assure the safe recall of these products as soon as possible.”

For more information on pesticides, go to http://www.epa.gov/reg5rcra/ptb/pest.
# # #

I found the answer to the question, “Does Edina school district spray cancer-causing pesticides on their school grounds where children and their developing minds and bodies play, breathe and roll around in the grass?”

Yes.

In 1997 Edina was written up in the paper has having integrity to be envied because it did not spray and was viewed as caring more for the well being of the community that turf quality or dandelions.

What happened?

In 2007 the Edina school board amended its “sports turf only” toxic-pesticide-spray-policy to include all school grounds.

Please write a letter to the Edina school board. E-mail Dr. Dressen, Jay Willemssen and the Edina school board members and let them know that you are not okay with the decision to expose any child to environmental toxins of any nature. Read the Toxic Sandbox by Libby McDonald to gain the scientific information about environmental toxins and the adverse affects on developing children. Our kids will be at school in the Edina school district for 7 hours a day, 140 days per year, for the next 13 years.

A child exposed to pesticides over prolonged periods is 6 times more likely to develop soft tissue cancers! Specifically, childhood leukemia. STOP spraying Edina school district and Edina school board.

Edina parents care more about children’s safety and the well being of all living organisms than they do about turf thickness or dandelions!

superintendent@edina.k12.mn.us

jaywillemssen@edina.k12.mn.us

School board members: Idith Almog <ialmog@hotmail.com> or peyton Robb <to-from@att.net>

I received this reply from school board member:

Julie,

Thank you for your advocacy on behalf of children. This is certainly an issue the Board should take a look at and understand. I will recommend we put it on the Board agenda as soon as possible.

Idith

More…

According to the EPA, 95% of the pesticides used on residential lawns are possible or probable carcinogens. In 1989 the National Cancer Institute reported children develop leukemia six times more often when pesticides are used around their homes. The American Journal of Epidemiology found that more children with brain tumors and other cancers had been exposed to insecticides than children without. Studies by the National Cancer Society and other cancers had been exposed to insecticides than discovered a definite link between fatal non-hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) and exposure to triazine herbicides (like Atrazine), phenoxyacetic herbicides (2,4-D), organophosphate insecticides (diazinon, Dursban, etc.), fungicides, and fumigants; all of which have uses as lawn chemicals. This is an important contributing factor to the 50% rise in NHL over the past ten years in the American population. Studies of farmers who once used these pesticides also found alarmingly high numbers of NHL, especially in those who didn’t wear protective clothing. This latest finding also proves the theory that most danger from pesticides comes through dermal absorption, not ingestion. A University of Iowa study of golf course superintendents found abnormally high rates of death due to cancer of the brain, large intestine, and prostate. Other experts are beginning to link golfers, and non-golfers who live near fairways, with these same health problems.

Documented cases of pesticides in groundwater wells are suspect for cancer clusters showing in many towns. In 1989, drinking water in at least 38 states was known to be contaminated. After the herbicide Dacthal was applied to Long Island golf courses, it was detected in drinking water wells at levels twenty times the State’s safety limits. The water also contained a dioxin that is a highly toxic by-product of Dacthal. The New York State Attorney General sued the manufacturer in 1989 to investigate he contamination and develop a treatment program, since ground water is the main source of drinking water for Long Island. Twenty-two other synthetic pesticide poisons have been found in the water so far. However, there is still no requirement or systematic program designed to test for drinking water contamination. As Michael Surgan, Ph.D., Chief Environmental Scientist for the New York State Attorney General, and an advocate for responsible pesticide use, puts it, “If you buy the notion that we have to accept a certain amount of risk from pesticides to safeguard the food supply, that’s one thing, he notes. But with lawns, people are applying (nerve gases and) carcinogens simply for the sake of aesthetics. That’s got to change”.

Synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers are becoming some of the worst water pollutants in America. Discharges into San Francisco Bay from the central valley of California are estimated at almost two tons per year. Phosphorous levels in some Maryland streams have doubled since 1986. And an EPA study found potentially harmful levels of nitrate from chemical fertilizers in drinking water wells nationwide. This can cause blue-baby syndrome, an oxygen-depriving condition in infants that can be fatal. Environmental impacts are also devastating. Ward Stone, a DEC wildlife pathologist, has long studied bird kills from pesticides that were used according to label regulation. Documented cases of owls, mourning doves, sparrows, blue birds, and many other songbirds killed by lawn chemicals are on the rise. Waterfowl like Canadian geese, mallards, wood ducks, and others have suffered even worse. In 1984 there were 700 brant found dead on a Long Island country club after it was sprayed with Diazinon. Pesticide exposure causes shivering, excessive salivating, grand mal seizures, wild flapping, and sometimes screaming according to U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer Diana Conger. Ward Stone likens these birds to miners’ canaries, foreshadowing serious harm to humans from chemical build-up in the environment.

Mothers for Earth

Saving the planet one lightbulb at a time

From left to right: Chrise Birkhahn, Kimberly Pinkson, Robyn Shore, Michelle Battelle, Nicole MacNaughton

Photo by Tim Porter

It’s not easy being green—especially for parents bombarded over the airwaves by directives to consume but conserve; consume, conserve; reduce, reuse, recycle. Kimberly Pinkson of Kentfield, founder of the 11,000-member national web community EcoMom Alliance, wants to help. Born and raised in Marin, she recently came back here to live, saw the discrepancy between our well-meaning citizenry’s eco-intentions and enormous environmental footprint, and resolved to do something about it.

“My father worked with indigenous elders around the world,” she says. “Through him, my sister and I learned about the connection many native peoples have to the environment.” Her sister, Nicole, has been an active member of the alliance since its inception last year.

Their objective is to spread the good news of eco-awareness—affirming that small changes in personal behavior can make an environmental difference. Reminiscent of Tupperware ladies who met in living rooms to bring the revolution of household convenience to American moms, EcoMoms meet in homes full of hope. But Pinkson and her crew are also trying to instigate broader moves on a community-supported level, including composting and a “one night off” event when local families would turn off all electric lights and appliances on an evening of their choice.

Pinkson doesn’t stand on a green pedestal: “none of us is close to being perfect,” she admits. Yet critics who take potshots at her ilk for serving Pellegrino in plastic bottles or driving to meetings in SUVs “are missing the point,” she says. “You have to start somewhere. We just give moms the tools to make sustainable changes in their lives.” Their call to action, dubbed the “EcoMom Challenge,” suggests taking steps such as replacing conventional lightbulbs with CFLs; buying local, fair trade and organic products; planting a tree; rethinking the laundry plan to conserve energy; and even “reusing” those old Blondie CDs to replenish personal well-being. “Play more,” Pinkson says. “Do things that make you feel healthy, good and thriving. It’s all connected. Sustain your home, sustain your planet and sustain yourself.” Check out ecomomalliance.org for more information.

The Edina Energy Fair

Centennial Lakes in the Centrum Building from 1:00 to 4:00. Stop by the EcoMoms table and see the new banner. Available for sale will be the Blue Sky Guide, Bento Zero Waste Laptop Lunch and 5 set Fabkins. Volunteers needed and no experience necessary. Stay as long as you wish.

From EcoSister Margo: “I requested green cleaning from my cleaning gal-now I’m Seventh Generation stocked.” Thanks j
xo

View Seventh Generation product line.

Compelling evidence links the chemicals in household products to cancer, asthma, allergies, multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome-also known as environmental illness-hormonal disruption, reproductive and developmental disorders, and other conditions. Yet cleaning products are exempt from the full ingredient disclosure on product labels as required for food and personal care products and enter the marketplace with little or no testing for potential health risks. Naturally Clean explains. . . Click on Seventh Generation (above) for more.

I told her that Minnesota’s mutant 3 and 6 legged frogs found in our lakes and streams thank her and they look forward to having offspring with proportional limbs. Ribbit, Ribbit!

There are no more excuses because Target now carries Seventh Generation line of natural cleaning products and recycled post consumer paper products. Yeah! Target.

Consider this. Amphibians are such effective indicators of significant environmental variations that many ecological problems may go undetected by our human eyes until significant environmental damage has occurred. The current worldwide amphibian population is declining and the number of bodily malformations is increasing. This may be an early warning to us - an early warning of serious ecosystem imbalances.

WHAT’S TO BLAME

First, consider the extensive use of pesticides across the United States. The chemical runoff collecting in the vast Midwestern farmlands is causing much damage to frog populations. Not only do excessive pesticides and other xenobiotic chemicals affect the sexual development of frogs, but it also makes them more susceptible to often fatal bacterial meningitis as well as some dangerous, parasitic fungi.

Scientists have confirmed that agricultural contaminants may be an important factor in amphibian declines in California. According to an article recently accepted by the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, a study by scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that organophosphorus pesticides from agricultural areas, which are transported to the Sierra Nevada on prevailing summer winds, may be affecting populations of amphibians that breed in mountain ponds and streams.
USGS

This picture is not real as far as I know…

Humans have the capability to improve or correct environmental problems. We also possess the ability to exacerbate the same ecological problems at local, regional and global levels. It’s up to us!

Do Not spray your lawns. Educate yourself on the age old art of natural turf management and integrated pest management. The frogs are being called the environmental equivalent to the “canary in the coal mine.”