|
Most homes and gardens are loaded with toxic pollutants that
are making people sick. The USA National Center for Health
Statistics reveals that a staggering 1 in 3-people suffer from allergies,
asthma, sinusitis or bronchitis.
The likeliest ill offenders are synthetic chemical pesticides,
known for causing long-term family health concerns and environmental
pollution. The solution for these conditions should include
reducing synthetic chemicals in the garden by substituting non-toxic
or least-toxic, natural and food-based safer alternatives. Not only are
they primarily less harmful, they are also cheaper. This book is an essential
safer alternative resource guide for every home library.
What is non-toxic to one person can cause harm and be toxic to
another. Hence, the author is reluctant to call anything truly nontoxic,
even if it is a food item, which is why it is recommended to
keep even homemade pesticide products up high and locked under a
safety latch, out of reach of children. Simple non-toxic food grade
ingredients sometimes used in pesticides such as peanut butter, or
lemons can cause an unhealthy reaction in some individuals who can
be toxic to them, and they can even kill.
As we know, vinegar, baking soda, or even water can be harmful
when not used carefully and in moderation. Ingredients mixed with
hot water make them more potent or effective. If used improperly, vinegar
for example can be an irritant if it makes contact with eyes or
skin, or if inhaled when used as a spray. Water can kill a person if they
drink too much. So, although nothing is guaranteed to be truly nontoxic
in every circumstance, when used with common sense, simple
more basic home ingredients are generally known to be harmless, or
much less toxic to the body and the environment than synthetic
chemicals.
Why do people still buy poisons when there are safer solutions to
be found? One reason the Author discovered that consumers continue
to use poisons is the confusion they are confronted with when
deciphering product labels—it’s a huge hurdle which requires labeling
standard changes at the government level and is elucidated in
detail in the her first book: Going Green Using Diatomaceous Earth
How-To Tips.
In the USA, although demand for environmentally friendly products
is increasing, currently it’s very difficult for the consumer to discern
from misleading product labels and identify whether they are
buying a pesticide product that has harmful toxic ingredients, or
whether they are least-toxic or non-toxic. Consumers are left in
doubt to second guess if the contents match the promises and glossy
marketing descriptions or terminology on the label—such as green,
natural, safe, non-toxic, organic, safer alternative, environmentally
preferred or friendly, or hypoallergenic, or inert ingredients, which do
not reflect the actual toxicity or safety levels of the ingredients.
Here is a misconception—inert ingredients listed on a label,
which are regarded as inactive, may in fact be more toxic than the
prime ingredient, or they are added with the intention of making
the main ingredient more potent. Further, inert ingredients do not
have to be listed individually on the label, given protection under
the umbrella of the Trade Secrets Law.
Then, what’s a health conscious or environmentally concerned
consumer to do? When no ingredients are listed on the label, and
when label claims cannot be deciphered or trusted, consumers must
take an extra step to find out what's inside a product by requesting
from the manufacturer a document known as the Material Safety Data
Sheet (MSDS), which must list and publish all federally named
hazardous substances in their product. Even then, it can still be confusing,
as an ingredient such as common vinegar, also known as ascetic
acid will be shown as a hazardous substance on the MSDS.
In the USA, government-sponsored labeling criteria for so-called
green products fall way behind Canada and the European Union.
There is no officially recognized government or industry agreement
on labeling terms such as what non-toxic, natural, or hypoallergenic
actually means.
Scientists at Consumers Union, a nonprofit group that publishes
Consumer Reports knew no clear standards existed in USA and how
confusing and unsafe it is for consumers, so they created an eco-labeling
project which can be found on the website www.ecolabels.
org to help consumers decipher product labeling terminology.
When the World Health Organization estimates pesticide
chemicals will poison over 68,000 people today, we must ask ourselves,
are we sacrificing our long-term health for the instant gratification
of a quick toxic chemical fix and a few dead bugs?
For those who are safety conscious, but choose not to make their
own safer gardening solutions from recipes in this book, thankfully
there are an increasing number of ready-made environmentally responsible
products available, many of which are listed in the Resource
Directory of Chapter Twelve with contact information. Your
purchase helps boost green businesses and enrich the economy—all
for a good cause.
The next part of this Introduction is a further explanation of
Chapter Eleven, which hopefully will be of interest to any parent, animal
owner, or health-minded gardener, and even medical professionals.
Having knowledge of this information may be the catalyst for a
much-needed change in the way we do things to keep our precious
life safer and healthier.
Facts the chemical industry don’t want you to know!
These are facts the chemical industry doesn’t want you to know.
There is a seriously valid reason why most professional Pesticide
Chemical Operators (PCOs) are required by law (in most states) to
wear protective clothing and masks, pass tests, and follow strict procedures
and guidelines when applying chemicals in your home and garden,
or anywhere people and animals have access to the treated area.
They are protecting themselves and their families from certain
health risks, while the companies protect themselves from liability.
Chemical companies face a high risk, knowing exposure to toxic chemicals
commonly used in the home and garden makes their employees
and their families vulnerable to disease, disability, deformity, and death.
We need to know for certain that we are safe—where at least we
should have control in our own abodes. So this book provides hundreds
of safer and effective remedies to choose from that can be used
to replace any professional pesticide poison.
It is a myth to believe that if we don’t touch or drink from a bottle
of chemical pesticide we will not absorb poisons into our bodies.
There are dozens of ways we come into contact with pesticide poisons
and so become contaminated. Once contact is made with a chemical
pesticide, harmful toxins can enter the body in any one, or all of the
three primary following channels, which make us more vulnerable to
the presumed “safety” of our own environment:
1) Absorption through the skin
2) Inhalation into the lungs
3) Ingestion into the stomach
Pets are indiscriminant as to where they play, roll, walk, and sleep
regarding chemically treated areas both inside and outside the home.
They pick up and carry toxins on their fur and paws, then ingest it
while grooming. They track invisible and odorless chemical poisons
into the house, which become deposited into carpets, furniture and
clothing.
Dangerous toxins are then transferred to adults and children
through exposed skin areas by contact with contaminated items such
as shoes, clothing, furnishings, carpets and bedding. Further, we
spread toxins from unwashed hands to our mouths, while preparing
food, or from our skin or clothing while hugging our children, partners
or friends. We also catch whiffs of wind drift from our neighbors’
pesticides.
The fact that most chemical poisons are not easily noticeable
does not mean they don’t already lurk in the air we breathe or exist in
our homes, gardens and bodies at accumulating levels of toxicity.
Due to the fact that pests develop resistance over time to
chemicals, new stronger chemical pesticides increasingly invade
the market, most of which have never been tested by the EPA.
Therefore, it is no surprise many diseases like various types of
cancers are increasing at the same time.
Unfortunately, the majority of the population turn their backs on
such warnings while hoping they don’t become one of these rather
grave statistics.
The following are some concerning—rather hair and eyebrow-raising,
health-related news clips about exposure to toxic pesticides
found in our homes, gardens and environment. Especially vulnerable
are pregnant women, babies and children.
Pregnant women exposed to certain pesticides are found to be
10-times more likely to have a baby with leukemia than mothers
who were not exposed!
“The devastating effects of pesticide poisons are making their way
into the genetics of our grandchildren. An even extremely low pesticide
exposure level to humans is very, very serious!”
This warning above, was given by researcher Dr. Margaret
Sanborn of The Ontario College of Family Physicians and appeared
in a 2004 article by the National Post titled: Pesticide Poisoning Passes
To Grandchildren.
In April 2004, The Hamilton Spectator published an article titled:
Cut Pesticide Use—Doctors warn of links to deadly diseases
but findings disputed by chemical industry group.
Ontario family doctors issued a warning after a major study found
that the uses of common pesticides were strongly linked to many deadly
and debilitating diseases.
Children and unborn fetuses exposed by their parents’ association
with agricultural, occupational, indoor and outdoor lawn and garden
pesticides are subject to greater risk than those not exposed.
Children of pregnant mothers who were exposed to flea and
tick products, and other home and garden pesticides, had significantly
increased risks of brain and kidney tumors, acute leukemia,
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and other birth defects!
Dr. Philip Landrigan for Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New
York, who pioneers in the emerging field of children’s environmental
health, revealed that over 50-years ago, most major childhood illnesses
were infectious diseases, not cancer. Today, cancer has become
the leading killer of children in the United States.
Children exposed to home and garden insecticides are 3 to 7
times more likely to develop Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma!
The American Cancer Society has revealed the risk of Lymphoblastic
Lymphoma in children who have been exposed to home and
garden chemical pesticides, has increased by 12.5-times compared
with children who have not been exposed.
Lymphoma is now regarded as the second fastest rising cancer
in USA!
The Lymphoma Foundation of America (LFA) in May 2001, revealed
mounting evidence that pesticides are a cause of lymphoma,
(a cancer of the immune system). Having increased dramatically, the
LFA now calls it an epidemic striking both children and adults, with
men being at the highest risk.
Babies have detectable levels of poison in their blood streams
at birth, and by adulthood, their bodies have accumulated a scientific
estimate of at least 500-chemicals!
The Grand Rapids Press shockingly revealed this information in a
March 2001, article titled: Federal Study to Measure Pollution in
People.
Lawn sprays can cause a 4-fold increase of cancer in children!
Dr. Marion Moses, author of the book Designer Poisons, declares
there is no young person alive today who is not born without some
exposure in the womb to synthetic chemicals that can disrupt development.
90-percent of children carry detectable urinary residues of a
pesticide that harms brain development!
Other than cancer, asthma is another leading childhood illness,
which is caused by environmental and household chemicals. Alarm
bells warned! As a result, in April 2001, several New York medical
academies jointly hosted a training session for physicians due to such
recent scientific evidence, which urgently needed to be addressed.
One may question—why haven’t we heard more from our own
doctors about the health threats we face through toxic contamination
in our homes and gardens caused by chemical pesticides? Embarrassingly,
many of the author’s peers of doctors and nurses in the
medical profession are generally not well-informed on these statistical,
medical and scientific facts regarding the effects of routine and
accumulated exposure to chemical pesticides.
More alarmingly, most medical professionals never receive training
on this critical subject as a requirement before graduation. Indeed the
Author a registered nurse for nearly 40-years, never received one hour of
training on the short and long-term hazards and effects of chemical pesticide
toxins or safer alternatives! It was only after she could no longer
work as a floor nurse after suffering a disability from back surgery and
complications that she began to research this topic.
Then out of a feeling of obligation and duty, she could not leave
such vital information out of this garden handy hint book—for it is the
core reason behind why changing from toxic to least-toxic or non-toxic
products and methods in the home and garden is so vital.
The information the reader will discover in this book was found by
the author during her research to be not only enlightening, useful, effective,
safer, cheaper, easier and more resourceful, but it was indeed a
wakeup call.
Now with this book of least-toxic remedies you have a starting
place to do something about maintaining the health of all those you
are responsible for, and also your own personal living environment.
Enjoy the hundreds of choices of practical garden tips, solutions,
tonics and tricks. Not only will you save money, time, energy and resources,
you will also save your sanity and enjoy better health!
|
