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Health & Fitness

Your answers today, Earth Day?

Earth Day turns 43 today, April 22, 2013.  

Although 40 is the new 30, I had assumed more would have been accomplished by now.

In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day to shine a spotlight on the complete absence of laws against polluting our air and water.  That same year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created. Those two accomplishments seemed huge at the time, and by history’s standards even today. We had turned a new page, very loudly it seemed, after reading the landmark Rachel Carlson’s “Silent Spring”!

Earth Day Yesterday
Less than a decade later, during my junior year in college, I interned for a Congressman on Capitol Hill. My assignment was the Clean Air Act. There in the Rayburn building, I gladly attended months of Environment subcommittee hearings on improving the legislation.
 
What came of the proceedings, to me, was a 30-page paper that I titled, “Clean Air: The View from the House.”

What came of them to the country were amendments that seriously strengthened the Clean Air Act, without which smog-reduced Los Angeles and near-pristine Pittsburgh as we know them today would not have been possible. 

Still, despite improvements in air quality and water quality, and countless campaigns to reduce our collective carbon footprints, so much still needs to be done. Today, I am realistic about all of this in ways that very optimistic undergrad never could be.

However, although no longer so naïve or so liberal or so ready to believe everything that’s printed or posted, I still believe that it makes practical sense to be a responsible caretaker of our planet.

Earth Day Today
Forty-three years later, the argument can be made that today’s Earth Day challenges may be taking new, more insidious forms.

Some examples:

Smokestacks may not routinely spew out noxious chemicals across our major cities, but the BP Oil spill happened three years ago, not 43. Has this been cleaned up? Will it ever? An article in the current Newsweek, “What BP Doesn’t Want You to Know About the 2010 Gulf Spill” recounts the 87 days it took to plug the largest oil leak in world history and its ongoing environmental and very human repercussions.  

My answer to this? I had a solar energy system installed on my home, reducing my personal dependence on fossil fuels 

Cosmetics and other personal care products are filled with phthalates, triclosan, and parabens, formaldehyde, and certain fragrances and musks. 

Consider both sides of this argument: One side says most of these substances exist in our natural environment and that certain levels are in fact safe and have not been proven to be harmful. The other side says these additives are endocrine disruptors, interfering with hormones essential for development and some are linked to various cancers. Still, the likes of cosmetics giant Johnson & Johnson announced earlier this week that it will “remove carcinogenic chemicals and other potentially harmful substances from nearly all its adult toiletries and cosmetic products worldwide within 3 to 5 years.”

My answer to this? When in doubt, leave it out.  I try to find personal care and other products that do not contain high numbers of chemicals, none where possible. See the non-profit watchdog Environmental Working Group’s searchable Skin Deep Database, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com, which details the ingredients in roughly 80,000 bath and beauty products, from shampoos to cosmetics. 

What are your concerns this Earth Day?  What are your answers to this? POST THEM BELOW!

For more on "green" topics, check out a few previous GoGreenGal items such as Dawn of a New Earth Day, and look for future columns.


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