TIP TALKSNewsletter
of the Toxics Information Project (TIP)
Spring
2004
Director’s Message
GARDENER OR NOT – THE LESS TOXIC LANDSCAPING CONTEST COULD BE FOR
YOU!
We all have a
stake in less toxic surroundings. Many
of you who agree with our concern about the use of lawn pesticides feel good
about the fact that you yourselves don’t use them. And that is great. I wish
it meant that you are therefore safe from the health effects they can
produce. Unfortunately, we don’t live
in non-toxic bubbles – we live in a world where we share the air and water with
many others who don’t see things the way we do.. Especially, there are the dreaded Chem-Lawn-using NEIGHBORS! And they are likely to be quite touchy about
any criticism of their lawn care practices. And they are likely to not want to hear unpleasant or scary
information about health consequences of pesticide use. What to do?
Sorry, no quick,
simple, guaranteed answer. However, one
of our major goals this Spring and Summer is to come up with some helpful,
persuasive materials to pass along to both neighbors and friends. We at TIP will be seeking such ourselves,
AND the upcoming Less Toxic Landscaping Campaign Contest will actually offer
one category that focuses on aids to convince and convert the overly toxic.
I mentioned the
three classes of Contest entries in the Winter newsletter. Now, we are working on filling in the
details of each, as well as deciding on prizes, judges, publicity, where and
when to hold the LTL Contest Awards ceremony.
PLEASE consider whether you can help with any of these! If you’re not sure what you might do, call
me to talk about it. I have some
concern about explaining the Contest to people, since it is somewhat different
from any that are commonly held. The
important thing is that it addresses the three big questions about Less Toxic
Landscaping: WHAT is it? HOW does it work? WHY care?
The WHAT question
can be answered resoundingly with a photograph of your own beautiful lawn or
garden, lovingly tended without harmful chemicals. However, you can also just dream up a wonderful less toxic
landscape design and send us a drawing of your concept. Another way of showing what can be done with
native plant species and/or healthier lawn types and methods is through building
a model of one. This is something that
is likely to appeal especially to groups or classes working with young people,
since it is similar to many science projects.
The HOW-TO
category is a really good one for anyone who has ever gardened organically. All it takes is one little tip on something
that you tried that worked for you. To
make it even easier, you could even piggyback on someone else’s wisdom – submit
an idea that you got from someone else, or read somewhere. If it makes sense, and seems practical, it
could win.
Finally, the very
important WHY? question. In a sense,
each of us committed to less toxic living knows a good answer to that. Something convinced us of the importance of
not using pesticides – what was it?
And, any way of communicating can be used here. You could do a “Why Less Toxic Landscaping?”
poster or cartoon. If you are more
comfortable writing than with art, come up with a poem, or an informational
article, or a letter to someone about how you feel about the poisons around
you.
****************************************************************************
THE PROPOSED CONTEST TIME LINE
JUNE: We hope to have more details, including at
least some of the prizes, available at the RI Sustainable Living Festival on
June 5. We will be starting to accept
applications at this event, describing the proposed entry. We’ll also be contacting organizations,
camps and and teachers about possible group participation. Consult with me with any questions about
an idea you have for a submission.
JULY AUGUST &
SEPTEMBER: Time to be working on
Contest projects, articles, gardening and lawn examples. Some teachers might like to use the Contest
as a back-to-school activity. Judges
will be looking over preliminary descriptions and some early entries to begin
the evaluation process.
OCTOBER: All entries should be in by October 1. The judging will be completed and prizes
will be awarded at a special event around the second week of October.
***************************************************************************
NOTES ON TIP ACTIVITIES
The May Day
Gardening Fair at the Rochambeau Library happened, mostly as planned, with a
tremendous amount of help from some very good people. I especially want to thank Kate Lacouture, who, despite the
demands of mothering two small children spent a lot of time and energy working
preparing for the Fair with me. She
also gave a talk and slide show on “Alternatives to Lawn”. Another great contributor was Susan Masket,
who produced a beautiful “Support Less Toxic Landscaping” banner to hang
outside the library. I will never
understand how she got the logo design on it so perfectly! Thanks also to Kate’s Mom, Marni Lacouture,
for leading a tour of the neighborhood in search of wild plants to admire. And to Paul Thompson of Thompson Organic
Landscaping, for leading a discussion on “Organic Lawn Care”.
I can’t begin to
mention all the folks who helped with gardening tips and with the children’s
activities – we had two tables going with seed starting and bug-making,
especially busy in the earlier part of the day! Participating exhibitors included: RI Wild Plant Society, Southside Community Land Trust, Northeast
Organic Farming Association of RI, RI Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC),
Save the Bay, RI Dept. of Environmental Management, Thompson Organic
Landscaping, Gro-Pro Organic Landscaping, RI Tree Council, RI Beekeepers
Association, and the wonderful Worm Ladies of Charlestown. Special thanks to RIRRC for their donation
of a Garden Composter, which we raffled off for the benefit of TIP!
At our own TIP
tables, we offered not only information, but the new Less Toxic Landscaping
lawn signs, bumper stickers and organic T-Shirts for sale. We now have all of these up on our website,
so people can see them and order by mail, for themselves or as gifts. We are very happy with the logo design. See the LTL Contest Flyer, attached – and
circulate or post it to encourage participation! The joyous group depicted includes a Mom, daughter, dog, bird and
a boy, all enjoying a clearly less toxic lawn.
The caption encircles them: Have
A Healthy Habitat – Support the Less Toxic Landscaping Campaign! (The bumper stickers just say, Support Less
Toxic Landscaping). Tote Bags with the
same logo are on the way. Prices are $3
for lawn signs & stakes, $2 for bumper stickers, and $18 for T-Shirts. They are a great way to help TIP with this
important endeavor!
STAY TUNED FOR
NEWS OF OUR LESS TOXIC LANDSCAPING RESOURCE GUIDE!
Hoping
for Health,
Liberty Goodwin,
Director,
Toxics
Information Project (TIP)
CANARY CORNER
CANARIES IN
FLIGHT
By Liberty
Goodwin, TIP Director
A few days after the May 1 Gardening
Fair, my husband, Paul Klinkman, and I boarded a Southwest Airlines plane to begin
the arduous journey across country to California, lured by the presence there
of my adorable just-turned-one-year-old grandtwins, Max & Maia. Unfortunately, this trip and others like it
are a classic example of the tremendous difficulty of living life as a “canary” in our society. You’ve all heard about the dangers of
bacteria and viruses during air travel, the possibly nasty air coming through
the vents – but that is actually the least of my worries. Southwest actually has, they have told me, a
good HEPA air filtering system on their planes. No, the hazards for me and other “canaries” are the fumes from
the engine while the door is still open – and fellow passengers. The first, I deal with by wearing an “I Can
Breathe” charcoal filtered mask until they close up and outside fumes
subside. The second is far more
problematic.
The simple fact is that there are literally
thousands of synthetic chemicals used in personal care products these days,
mostly in the form of “fragrance”, a term with only the vaguest, meaning. Despite popular belief, regulation of these
chemicals is virtually non-existent – partly because companies that use them
are protected by “trade secrets” laws from disclosing them. There can be as many as 300 such in a single
product, all anonymous. They are used
not necessarily to provide the scent, but commonly to make it stronger, carry
further, last longer. And, oh, my, do
they work!!
Problem is, there are health effects and reactions to these
chemicals that can include: watery or dry eyes, double vision,
sneezing, nasal congestion, sinusitis, tinnitus, ear pain, dizziness, vertigo,
coughing, bronchitis, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, asthma,
anaphylaxis, headaches, seizures, fatigue, confusion, disorientation, incoherence,
short-term memory loss, inability to concentrate, nausea, lethargy, anxiety,
irritability, depression, mood swings, restlessness, rashes, hives, eczema,
flushing, muscle and joint pain, muscle weakness, irregular heart beat,
hypertension, swollen lymph glands, and more.
(From Candida Research and Information Foundation, Perfume Survey,
Winter 1989-90)
Much, much more information about these effects and other concerns
can be found in articles on our website that are also available as
handouts. (See the TIP Materials List,
attached). I don’t want to get into
this in detail here. However, in
relations to the question of flying, it is important to note that these kinds
of immediate reactions have been documented – without even looking at the potential
longer term health concerns associated with fragrance chemicals.
The message I really want to share now is one of accessibility
issues, and what you, as a caring, decent human being can do to spare
“canaries” like myself from distressful reactions in public places, especially
very enclosed spaces such as planes.
The latter are among the worst challenges because one cannot simply
leave if becoming ill. I should also note
that for at least one group, exposure to these chemicals can actually be life-threatening
– asthmatics are know to have attacks triggered by fragrance, and there is
always a danger that such an episode could be a severe one.
Let me tell you about my strategy for in-flight survival. We fly Southwest because they do not have
assigned seating. We can pre-board (my
chemical sensitivity is a recognized disability), sit near the front to
minimize the number of people to whom I’ll be exposed.
Then I don my mask and my husband tries to “screen” those who will
be sitting directly in front of or next to us.
If necessary, he asks if they have used fragranced products that day,
and if so, politely requests that they select further back in the
aircraft. Only one such passenger has
refused this accommodation. The penalty
for me – I had to wear the mask all through the flight. While it is the most comfortable available,
it is not pleasant to be unable to remove it for as much as five hours in the
air. And, of course, since it covers my
nose and mouth, I can’t eat or drink with it on.
This latest trip, unfortunately, was an unlucky one on outbound
leg. An airline employee objected to
our asking the passengers about fragrance, became hostile and tried to get me
to leave the plane. He even threatened
to have the police remove me, when I quietly stated that I was going to see my
grandtwins, had a valid ticket and was not moving. Finally, another, more reasonable customer service person,
brought in by the first, reached agreement with me on the rules. Even he was completely focused on the rights
of the other passengers to sit where they pleased, as opposed to my right not
to be made sick. But he agreed that we
could ask people to voluntarily move to another seat. This was, sadly, the third time an airline staff person gave me
difficulty. One actually told me that I
should have had her do the asking. On
another occasion, we were sitting in the middle of the plane and, just before
taking off, a woman reeking with perfume changed places with the person in the
seat in front of me. I appealed to the
flight attendant, who brought a “disability expert” to talk with me. This person’s only contribution was to
threaten to remove me from the plane if I was not going to “be okay”. She delayed the plane for 20 minutes with
this discussion, and
I wound up having to wear my mask (then a latex paint respirator –
less comfortable than the new one) all the way to Kansas City.
The strange thing about all of this is that an easy remedy is
available, used over and over for other situations – but noone has ever been
willing to use it. If a family with
children comes on the plane, and no seats together are available, an
announcement will be made requesting that someone offer to switch seats to
accommodate them. This could easily be
done to remove me – or the fragranced person – from our proximity to one
another.
Please, when you are traveling, think before you apply that skin
lotion, that hand cream, any fragranced product (and most of them are – read
the small print on back of the label).
Surely for the relatively short period of an airplane trip, you can do
without them. Be aware that an
estimated 15 to 30 percent of all individuals have some kind of reaction to
fragrance. You may even be one of
them. Next time you get a headache,
think about whether there is something in the air. And if you happen to see someone like me trapped near fragrance
fumes – maybe offer to switch your seat?
God and the canary will bless you for it.
********************************************************************************************************
