12 TIPS FOR
HOW TO LIVE
IN A TOXIC WORLD
Graphic Courtesy of Google Images
Pipeline Spills, Train Explosions, Toxic Releases, Toxic Floodwaters,
Raging Wildfires, Loss of Drinkable Water, Toxic Smoke and Smog Incidents, and
Climate Disasters
are growing more frequent, and
happening to millions of us each year. And more people are finding themselves
‘on their own’, with very little assistance or direction, especially at the
onset. After studying lots of Toxic
and Climate
Disasters, (every flood is both), over a 5 year period, we came up with a list
of 12 tips for ‘living in a toxic world’, (A through L, just for reference, and
not to be interpreted as sequence of action). . We developed this list through
our observations of hundreds of weather disasters, floods, fires, spills,
explosions, mine tailings breaches, and so many natural disasters and
anthropogenic catastrophes, including the lead poisoning of Flint, Michigan,
and many other such incidents. We felt it worthwhile for us to publish this
list to offer some guidance for the many with their worlds turned upside down ,
through no fault of their own, by these sudden (or chronic) disasters poisoning
us and our babies.
A. Trust Your Nose
If it smells bad, it probably
is. When you smell food that has gone bad, you don’t eat it. Everyone knows the
“electrical” smell or “chemical” smell, the smell of a gas leak or oil spill,
or the smell of a forest fire or house fire. Smells are something we never
forget. One never forgets the smells of war, and we’ll never forget the smell
of lower Manhattan, that lasted for over a year, after the World Trade Center
came down.
There are many poisonous gases
that are odorless, but if you smell something bad, that is the time to evacuate
the area if you are able to, even before the danger from exposure has been
confirmed. And if you smell a bad or unusual scent in the water, be suspect.
An expert once told us that the
nose is the best “mass spectrometer”, a scientific instrument that identifies
poisonous gases. Perhaps the reason is that our noses are always available, and
operative, unlike test equipment.
B. Trust Your Eyes
If the smoke or smog reduces
visibility to .75 mile or less, that air is considered “Hazardous”, and if you
can only see 1.25 miles or less, the air is “Very Unhealthy” to breathe,
permeated with a dangerous aerosol of toxic gases and carcinogenic
particulates. (Please read and see the chart in the section 7, Toxic Gases and
Particulates.)
If you see a fire, or an
explosion, or smoke, recognize that, since the air is most likely so unhealthy,
and since dust masks don’t work at all to protect you from the gases and PM10
particulates, this is the time to evacuate the area if possible, and to take
precautions.
Regarding water, many toxics
aren’t visible, but if you see cloudiness or brown or any color in your water,
be suspect, and if you can manage to find an alternative, try not to drink that
water, or to use it to cook or wash.
C. Don’t Trust Everything You Hear
From Authorities
Recognize that what the
authorities tell you is as a result of a meeting between officials, law
enforcement, and politicians, where they decided what to tell you, and what not
to tell you (yet). Even if you hear from the agency charged with disseminating
information, and you believe they are legitimate, and that they certainly
wouldn’t want to be caught in a lie, what they tell you is tempered by their
desire not to “panic” the public, so in the first few days, or weeks, or
months, they might hide behind “waiting for more information”, or “more
testing”, even if they already know more than they’re telling you. Even when
they eventually tell you the water’s safe to drink or the air’s safe to
breathe, and it may really not be, (like when former EPA Chief Christie
Whitman, after 9/11, told hundreds of thousands of families living in lower
Manhattan that the air was safe), realize that, if it isn’t safe, you will not
be the first to know. If you smell something bad, or see something bad, despite
what they tell you, that is the best time to evacuate, if you can, especially
if you have young children to protect,. Waiting for the authorities to tell you
what to do might be too late.
D. Protect the Most Vulnerable
It is especially urgent that we
recognize that even if we have no alternative to exposing ourselves to toxics,
that we make every effort not to expose children, pregnant women, the elderly,
or the unhealthy.
The repetition and length of
time of exposure should also be limited if at all possible. For an example, if
a person has respiratory problems, and they are exposed to smoke, it may
restrict their ability to breathe. And the longer they are exposed, and this
applies to healthy people as well, the more critical it may get. Especially
when children are exposed to toxics in key stages of development, from the womb
through teenager, they are often permanently harmed by toxics.
E. Reduce Toxic Exposure and Detox,
But Don’t “Re-tox”
Where you can, try to limit
exposure and length of time and repetition of exposure to toxics.
If it’s a matter of buying,
using, or eating one product over another, for an example, canned soup/foods
vs. no cans (BPA), go for the non-canned food alternative. Avoid Freak
of Nature Foods - GMOs, Processed Foods, Junk Foods, and Fast Foods. And
try to eat Organic Foods to reduce your exposure to toxic pesticides,
herbicides, chemicals, and additives.
Some of the toxins in this
report are so ubiquitous, that it is nearly impossible to avoid them totally,
but it is certainly possible to reduce your and your children’s exposure, while
doing the best you can, given the toxic world we live in.
Heavy metals and some EDC
chemicals are persistent toxins, in that they remain in your body, but fortunately
your liver and kidneys are very efficient at removing many other toxic EDC
chemicals from your blood, through bodily waste functions. Detox teas and detox
regimens help you detox from these chemicals even more quickly and effectively.
A recent study was conducted on
100 teenage women where their cosmetics and personal products were replaced by
toxin free products from EWG’s “Skin Deep” database. After just three days, the
levels in their urine (reflecting blood levels) of Phthalates were down 27%, Parabens,
down 35%, and levels of Triclosan, down 44%.
We understand that levels of
BPA and BPS naturally lower significantly in just a few days of non-exposure.
All these chemicals are dangerous EDCs, and besides these
cosmetics and health and beauty aid products, there are so many others in
everyday life.
The problem with thinking that detox is a real solution to
chemicals, is that most people “re-tox” as fast as they detox. These
chemicals are so prevalent that unless you consciously avoid them and stop
re-dosing yourself and your children daily, blood levels of these toxins will
vary,but overall they will remain constant, and the harm will also be
constant.
F. Demand Protective Gear and
Equipment
In many industrial, fracking,
mining, or farming operations, protective gear is issued, but unless the
wearing of it is enforced, many workers refrain from using it, due to the
discomfort of wearing it, especially when temperatures and humidity are high.
This is human nature, and can only be countered by education and enforcement.
These are dangerous, often carcinogenic, toxins the workers may be breathing,
ingesting, or absorbing through their skin. Any protection from toxins is
better than no protection, when workers are exposed.
Some respirators are more
effective than others, but dust masks with, with or without exhalation valves,
do absolutely nothing to protect workers or civilians from breathing dangerous
PM10 particulates deep into their lung tissue, and certainly they do nothing to
reduce toxic gases.
Water filters and air filters
(or respirator filters for 1 example) are not effective beyond their expiration
date. It is imperative that they be replaced and maintained. We have heard of
schools, due to budget cuts, that have not maintained lead filters on drinking
fountains for children, whose ability to learn can be harmed. This type of
behavior is unconscionable and should be prosecuted.
G. Test for Toxics
Many toxins are not visible,
are odorless, and are tasteless. The only way to really know that your water or
air is safe is to have your water or air tested. We realize that most will be
unable to afford the luxury of independent testing, but if you can afford to do
it, we recommend it, and if the tests come out positive, but there is a filter
or way to remediate the toxin, and if you can, we recommend you go ahead, and
then re-test..
Even if the authorities assure
you that the water or air has been tested, and are willing to show you the
results of the tests, realize that the tests, or the reporting, may be skewed
to show negative or lower results. Though the costs of independent testing are
possibly too high for individuals to bear alone, they are not so prohibitive,
that a group of families or the community might pay for them to verify or
repudiate official testing. After all, it’s the health of families and children
at stake.
H. Vote
Voting is not the only
solution, and certainly the system and many politicians are corrupt, but
whenever you live in a society, even if merely under the guise of democracy, it
is better to vote, than to not vote. If enough people are educated to the evils
of the Absurd Status Quo, and are able to get politicians into office, who, at
least, give lip service to opposing it, and to backing progressive values, as
opposed to right wing values, chances for laws favoring our health and safety
improve. This not only applies to the US elections, but to elections, local,
regional and national, in every “democratic” nation in the world.
I. Educate
Yourself and Others
Our biggest goal is Education,
and unless it becomes your goal, your family, friends, neighbors, and business
associates may never hear about the toxic hazards around them.. Don’t rely on
media, the national brand, the big name retailer chain, or the government to
educate, or to protect you. That is Fantasy land.
If your friends and family hear
it directly from you, they may actually pay attention, and be concerned about
these toxic hazards. And please stress that these are not conspiracy theories,
that these are real threats, confirmed by real, not corporate, scientists, and
offer them our articles, and the assistance of Google, or any search engine to back it up.
I can’t encourage you
enough to get involved with educating your family, friends, and followers
through social media. Unless people become aware of where the hazards are, and
what to try to avoid, they are defenseless. Without one on one communication,
education programs are often largely ineffective. So you, and as many as
possible, are key in the endeavor of educating the public.
J. Support Political Action
Unless more people are educated
to the real and immediate threats of chemicals and pollution, there will never
be enough activists for large enough scale political actions to make sufficient
impact to effect real change.
Get involved, and also
encourage others to attend events, rallies, protests, and blockades, and to
support the movement with donations. We’ve seen how many small donations can
add up, and make a difference.
(Tear Gas, known as “nonlethal”
force, that is illegal to be used on our enemies in war, is being routinely
used on American citizens, and is also being used in many nations, and could be
harmful, or even lethal, for children, pregnant women and their babies, the
elderly, and the unhealthy, particularly dangerous for people with respiratory
problems, so it is best not to allow them to be in a situation where they might
be exposed.
If you are gassed, besides milk
and other ways to mitigate the pain, try to evacuate the area, so exposure time
is shortest. CS gas is an endocrine disrupter. The longer and more often your
exposure, the more potential there is for harm. Often protesters are penned in
with no escape from the tear gas, as the militarized law enforcement did to
protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. For these reasons, try to never allow the
most vulnerable to be exposed. Despite their good intentions, safety is the
priority, and there are many other ways these people can effectively
participate.)
K. Support Legal Action
Besides fighting the threat of
toxics through education and political action in the streets, legal action can
be very effective in our struggle. Despite the corruption, there are still laws
and courts in the US, and in many nations, and occasionally Justice prevails.
And though often the deck is
stacked against us, and despite our good evidence and sure cases, the decisions
end up against us, but still there continue to be victories. We applaud the
Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the
Environmental Working Group, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and many more fine
organizations and the many attorneys, who in lieu of more lucrative opportunities,
dedicate themselves to protecting our wildlife, our water, our air, our soil,
and human health. You can be an essential part of this legal action by
supporting these efforts through small donations.
We are celebrating three recent
climate victories in various parts of the US, where judges have acknowledged
violations of trust by either the Nation or the State to our children and
future generations by not protecting them from the harm presented by Climate
Change. There were no clear settlements to any of these cases, but these
victories could become important precedents to future legal actions with more
substantial effects. These suits are examples of the people, teenagers, taking
the government to court, and winning on the basis of US Law and the
Constitution.
More and more of us are finding
that we must subject ourselves to arrest, often mass arrests, by standing in
the way of pipelines, oil trains, and any of the various polluters outlined in
this article. We’ve referred to this in our previous article, Thumbing Their
Noses at Society, as “Blockadia”, as presented by Naomi Klein. When we’re
arrested, lawyers are instrumental in gaining our release, and also for that we
thank them.
L. Prepare for Disasters
Though we are not “Preppers”,
and we’re sure you could get much more thorough advice from the experts, we
can’t stress enough the subject of Preparedness for Climate or Toxic Disasters.
It is fact that these disasters are statistically happening more often, more
severely, and to more people, so it is important that we realize they can
happen anywhere, even to us.
Disaster Assistance often
“comes slow”, so it is important for you to prepare some supplies, and items
like flashlights, and battery-operated radios, and water to drink, and water to
flush toilets (1 ½ to 2 gallons for each flush), and possibly some dried foods,
that don’t require refrigeration. And it is important for you and your family
that you come up with a plan of how and where to meet, and possibly a land
telephone line to leave messages, in case cell phones and Internet become
unavailable.
Whatever you do to prepare for
whatever disaster you face, it will be to your benefit.
Message to our
Readers
This post was originally published as Part 10
of a larger, comprehensive Woodstock Earth report on the subject of Pollution
entitled, Living
in a Toxic World. Rather than break down the discussion by the three types,
Air Pollution, Water Pollution, and Soil
Pollution, we decided to break it down by the same Toxins found in all forms of
Pollution. Please read Part 1 of the article, where we introduce our thesis,
and any parts that may interest you. In each part you’ll find news stories,
many of which are catastrophic, though, in most cases, have not yet broken into
the mainstream, but are of such magnitude, that we believe, someday, each of
them will. We also invite you to download the 3 books in Part 14, 1 of them
being Pope Francis’ Encyclical, and view some of the 7 videos we chose to
include in Part 15.
Part 1: Core Article
Part 2: Burn Pits
Part 3: Toxic Threats in Air, Water,
and Soil Pollution
Part 4: Toxic Heavy Metals – Lead,
Mercury, Arsenic, and More
Part 5: Toxic Radioactivity
Part 6: Toxic Chemicals and EDCs –
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
Part 7: Toxic Gases and Particulates
in Smog and Smoke
Part 8: Toxic Medicines in the Water
Supply, Bio-hazards and Bio-pollution
Part 9: Toxic Asbestos, Silica Sand
and Talcum / Baby Powder
Part 10: How to Live in a Toxic
World
Part 11: LIVING IN A TOXIC WORLD
–Final Thoughts
“The Limits to Growth”
Part 12: Revolution
from the Toxic Status Quo – Politics
Part 13: Message to
our Readers
Part 14: Priceless
Documents
Part 15: Videos
We thank all of our US and
international readers (from over 150 nations). We really do
appreciate you taking the time to read our articles.
And we extra-appreciate when you refer them to friends. That’s where our readers can really make a difference. Whether we really are able to forward the Revolution
against the Status Quo, that is poisoning our babies, ourselves, our future
generations, our Climate, and all life on Earth, depends largely on whether we and others can get this story out, and
make citizens of the world aware, and get them out to vote. We love getting
feedback. Our email address is: woodstockearthblog@gmail.com, or if you prefer Twitter, you can use: @Mikethemikeman1.
For the sake of our people, our families, and Mother Earth, we encourage all of
you, as charter members of Woodstock Earth, to spread the word and help get
these stories out.
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