Meals in Washington aren’t what they used to be. An initiative to create a more environmentally friendly and health-conscious House has transformed the once fat-filled, waste-producing building into eco-central.  Food, when possible, is brought in from no more than 150 miles away and prepared on-site, from scratch. The menu now offers, in addition to the original fare, sushi, tofu, cous cous, veggie burgers, stir-fry and made-to-order salads. The change has produced some anticipated grumbles, a few raised eyebrows at the price hikes and rumors of less than eco motivations, but regardless, it’s a good move, one you may want to consider.

Meat consumption in the United States, and throughout the world, has risen dramatically in the past several years, much to the horror of the environment.  Americans’ lust for animal protein has spawned a sea of meat factories, which suck up energy, pollute the water, produce greenhouse gases and devour (courtesy of the livestock) the vast majority of the world’s corn and soy. To keep these factories going, rainforests are being destroyed at a rate of 1,250 square miles every five months. The destruction we are generating with our carnivorous obsession is equivalent to if not worse than the pollution we create each time we needlessly drive a Hummer (which is pretty much anytime one is turned on). What’s the solution?

Eat less meat; be more eco. In other words, go the way of the House. Explore your plant-based options, especially those that are home-grown or grown close to home. Think tofu, soy, vegetable, mineral and moderate amounts of animal. You can still eat meat but you don’t have to have it at every meal, and you certainly don’t need the eight ounces the average American sucks down daily. Become aware of the conditions in which your food is produced; find environmentally and animal friendly operations. They exist. They are better, and they help you. Your health is directly linked to the planet’s, so the longer we allow it to crumble, the more quickly yours will, too. Eat a salad once in a while. It won’t kill you; in fact, just the opposite will happen.

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Along the southern coast of Italy sits a city awash in history and tradition. Naples, founded by the Greeks, has long been known for its bevy of cathedrals, hints of past Greek and Roman rulers, and throng of museums, but today, the region’s culture is being overshadowed by a more dominant feature, something that is masking its beauty with a putrid stench and vile view: garbage.

Naples is quickly becoming the landfill of Italy, amassing more garbage in one evening than most cities see in a month.  The population’s normal accumulation is compounded by illegal dumping and burning, as well as insufficient disposal systems and political failings. As a result, the city’s residents are noting a flux of cancers and an increased mortality rate. The men and women of Naples are dying early and painful deaths, thanks to the pollution that is rotting their home.

At this point, you are probably feeling much better about the state of your home and surrounding area. Your city is nowhere near as filthy as Naples, and so you are at nowhere near the same risk as those poor Italians. However, you are still surrounded by pollution, and it doesn’t take nearly as much to affect your health as you may think.

A recent study found that the smallest particles, those one thousandth the size of a human hair, are the most dangerous to the human body.  They cause plaque to build up in your arteries, putting you at risk for a heart attack or stroke, and subsequently harden your arteries, rendering the benefits of good cholesterol moot. Essentially, what this study is saying is that it is the garbage that you can’t see - the pollution filling your air, spilling out of the cars whizzing past your building and flooding your lungs right now – that will kill you. You don’t have to be surrounded by landfills to be at risk.

Take whatever steps you can to minimize the pollution you create. Walk when a car is unnecessary, take public transportation and be mindful of what you are and are not using. Become an advocate for stricter air pollution regulations and encourage those around you to do the same. Then, since your efforts will only reduce not eliminate the problem, protect your heart. Eat well, exercise often and see your doctor regularly. Get a clean bill of health despite the dirt surrounding you.

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There is no doubt that our actions are causing climate change.  There are, however, questions regarding the change’s severity. How much will the temperatures alter? What exactly will happen to the Earth as a result? Should we be as worried as we are? There are no clear-cut answers, particularly to the first two. But the events of the past several months have proven that we do, at least, have a cause for concern.

As the temperatures rise, natural disasters – hurricanes, heat waves, fires, droughts and floods – will become more common and more severe.  The fires that ravaged San Diego County  and the dry spell that had Atlanta scrambling for alternative water sources will be joined by an ever-growing list of crises. Heat-related diseases will become more prevalent as the bugs and amoebas that carry them thrive in the warmer climate. And the air will continue to accumulate more pollution as ozone formulation accelerates. In short, we’ll be assaulted by a growing list of health concerns, ones that we may or may not be prepared to fight.

The lesser developed countries will, of course, be the most affected by these changes. They have the least amount of health resources available to them and as such, are less able to cope with growing concerns. However, your position in the developed world should not remove global warming from your consciousness. Climate change will still affect you, if only in the sense that your food and water will be of poorer quality and your air more difficult to breathe. Besides, the lesser developed countries are not the ones with the most carbon emissions. That would be us. I would hope that you would, then, feel some type of moral responsibility, some type of motivation to act. It’s likely too late to stop global warming, but it’s not too late to slow it. Give the world a little more time to prepare for the onslaught of health problems that will accompany the rising temperatures.

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Not too long ago, I talked about the positive aspects of living in the city and how New Yorkers are living longer as a result. That still holds true. The life expectancy in New York City is still higher than in the rest of the country, and the urban tendency to walk rather than ride is helping out health. However, there are other aspects of city life hurting rather than helping its citizens. One of those is air pollution.

Every year, the United States releases 3 million tons of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere.  These chemicals infest our air, hurting crops, plants and animals, causing haze and acid rain, and in turn polluting our waters. In short, they wreak havoc on the environment, much as they wreak havoc on our health. Air pollution is not simply the cause of itchy eyes and burning noses; it is the cause of 3 million worldwide deaths, annually. It is a key contributor to birth defects, immune system defects and cancer. Everyone breathes it in, and everyone is affected by it. However, those in urban areas feel its effects the most.

Recent studies focused on the correlation between various health problems and urban air. What they found was all the same. The more urban air pollutants you breathe in, the worse off you are. Children, for example, predisposed to asthma are nine times more likely to develop the ailment if they live within 75 meters of a main road.  Women exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide during the first and final weeks of their pregnancy are 10 to 25 percent more likely to give birth prematurely.  And young, healthy adults experience increased occurrences of inflammation, blood clotting and oxidative stress when the level of air pollutants increases, putting them at a higher risk for heart disease.  And those are examinations of only three groups in urban settings. Nearly half of our world lives in a city. Imagine the findings if we examined every subset for every illness. It would be, undoubtedly, terrifying.

Now, the question is, why am I telling you this. I am not attempting to force you out of the city, nor am I encouraging you to start wearing air masks so as to avoid taking polluted breaths. I am trying to make you aware, aware of what you are doing every time you opt to drive three blocks rather than walk or neglect to recycle, adding to production emissions. I am telling you that you are not just hurting the environment; you are hurting yourself and those around you. There are steps that you can take to reduce air pollution. Take them. If you don’t know what they are, the Environmental Protection Agency has suggestions.  So read them, and then take them. You breathe in more than 3,000 gallons of air every day;  help make the next gallon a little cleaner.

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Since 1900, cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States every year but one (1918 - when pneumonia overtook heart disease). So, that’s 106 years out of 107 in which heart problems have killed more Americans than anything else.  Yet, we continue to make choices that increase rather than decrease our risk.  For example, rather than eating fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains and low-fat dairy products, we consume starchy, fat-filled, calorie-packed, nutrient-lacking foods. Instead of moving for 30 minutes each day, we watch TV, play video games and go online. And, rather than avoid tobacco smoke, we crowd into smoke-filled, cramped bars and restaurants for hours each week, inhaling a great deal of carcinogens regardless of whether or not we’ve actually touched a cigarette.  The list goes on. Every day we learn of another factor that heightens our chances of cardiovascular disease. And today, that factor is global warming. 

Most of us already know that more heart problems occur during warmer weather. The 2003 European heat wave, after all, claimed 35,000 more people than expected in the first two weeks of August alone. And the majority of those deaths were due to cardiovascular complications. The reason for this is that when humans are hot, we sweat. Sweating, in turn, increases our heart rate and lowers our blood pressure. This is extremely dangerous for people, particularly older people, who have a weakened cardiovascular system. They are put at a higher risk for disease. Therefore it’s only logical to conclude that if the Earth’s temperature rises so will the cardiovascular disease rate.

And that is exactly what doctors around the world have done. They have begun warning that a warmer climate, over the next 50 years, will lead to more heart complications. So, this means that in addition to everything else we’re doing, or not doing, to protect ourselves from heart disease we have to add “stop global warming” to the list, which really isn’t such a bad idea, anyway. Doing a little something for the environment never hurts. No matter what the temperature, you still live here and things like CO2 emissions are going to hurt your home and your health. So, take a walk instead of a drive; recycle. Use a reusable water bottle; go green. Save the Earth; save your heart.

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Face it. Bottled water is so last year. It just isn’t cool to walk around with a disposable bottle anymore. Everyday the bottled water resistance builds, and the love for tap follows suit. More and more people are saving their money and turning on the faucet when they’re thirsty. And many of them prefer the taste. In a recent taste test, Time Out magazine served Londoners seven types of water, six bottled and one tap. The winner: tap water from the Thames and River Lea. Even better, most of the reviewers felt that the bottled water tasted like tap. What does that tell you? Do we suffer from the Starbucks phenomena where it must taste better simply because it costs more, but when blindfolded there’s not a shred of difference? I’d say so.

But what about all those disgusting “things” in tap water? Well, if you’re a loyal reader, as I’m sure you are, you’ll remember back in June when the Lucky Blog talked about FDA and EPA water regulations (if your memory is faulty, click here and read up). Bottled water companies are not held to the same standards as public water facilities. And, some bottled water (America’s most popular included) is actually tap in a to-go container. Not exactly what you thought you were paying for is it? If you still need a little more convincing, consider this: work is constantly being done to further clean the water coming into our homes. Dendritic Nanotechnologies Inc. recently received the go ahead from the United States Department of Defense to use its technologies to purify water. It will initially target perchlorate, a contaminant found to impede women’s health. It will also rid the water of several metals including copper, lead and chromium. Of course, they did just get started, so some patience is needed. Meanwhile, water filters are always great options for your home. Still holding out?

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China’s waterways are smeared with the dense tint of pollution, their air thick with smog. Chinese women are facing an increased risk of breast cancer.  But it’s not for the reason you think.  The increase of breast cancer in Asian women is associated with the westernization of their diet.  Meat, sugars and all those processed foods are filling many of their plates, rather than the previous consumption of a high vegetable and soy based diet.  Yet, many countries are turning a disapproving eye toward China and their lack of social responsibility when it comes to health and environmental safety issues.  China is recoiling, citing unfair treatment within the world trading system, for once not in reference to the anti-dumping provisions they are often held subject to.

The U.S. FDA is turning away one shipment after another from the environmentally wayward country, and for good reason.  But there is a fine line between naivety and turning a blind eye.  It’s hard to imagine that China has only recently taken to shipping low-quality, sub-standard products to the U.S. and other countries – even harder to imagine that the biggest health and safety crisis in the U.S. lies with the contamination of these products alone.  Thoroughly inspecting imports is only one small, well publicized step in what needs to be made a nationwide awareness of the growing health and safety crisis within the U.S., not to mention worldwide.

We are the same country whose vise president swayed public officials to side step previously mandated endangered species policy, leading to the death of nearly 70000 salmon between California and Oregon in 2002.  Apparently, it’s ok to kill our own fish and leave them floundering along the shore, as long as our irrigation systems are working properly.  And our own FDA has pulled previously approved pharmaceuticals from the shelves, Vioxx and Zelnorm, and increased restrictions on approved drugs such as Avandia and Actos.  Yet the Chinese government has just executed the former director of their State Food and Drug Administration for accepting bribes to approve unsafe and fake drugs.  The last time I checked, Ex-Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski, Martha Stewart and Enron officials are all alive and kicking; no examples here.  So what are we to do, as we point our most prominent finger at the Chinese suppliers for sending us contaminated goods, from a polluted nation?

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Hold your breath; the surgeon general may have another box to label. This time the culprit is that handy laser printer you keep on your desk.  An investigation conducted on a variety of laser printer models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air.

Research at The Queensland University of Technology tested more then 60 machines and found that one-third emit ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material, so small that they can infiltrate the lungs and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses. Fantastic!

Even worse news if you work in an office, tests conducted in an open-plan office showed that the health risks increase five-fold during working hours with heavy printing use. The problem appears to be even worse with new cartridges and heavy graphic printing. So what can we do?

The experts recommend printers are kept in well ventilated areas and it probably wouldnt hurt to utilize some sort of air filtration system to further purify the air. Ink jet printers appear to be safe, #2 pencil and paper might not be such a bad idea either…

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You peruse the store shelves for the perfect vitamin, then stroll over to the pharmacy counter to pick up your prescription.  You have a headache, so you grab a bottle of ibuprofen on your way to the checkout.  You pay the cashier as he tosses all of these items into a plastic bag, and you’re on your way.  One single shopping trip revolves nearly entirely around plastic.  Plastic is great, you say to yourself.  Look how many uses it has.  But in a world that is rapidly accumulating more waste than it can bear, the focus needs to be shifted from single to multiple use. 

But now you’re thinking to yourself that you can recycle everything that you just purchased.  But can you?  And will you?  Just like the plastic bottle tops that have to be removed from soda containers, many prescription and vitamin bottles do not belong in your recycling bin.  A vast majority of these containers are made by a different process than most other plastic materials.  They are more durable, but also require a different melting point than other plastics, and therefore won’t be recycled by a majority of centers.  Check with your local recycling center to see if indeed they do recycle vitamin and pill bottles that come bearing the #1 and #2 markings.

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