We all know by now that climate change is real. With ever higher temperatures, bad air quality, mountains of plastic waste threatening to destroy our oceans…many of us feel a growing sense of rage and helplessness. What can one person do to stop the mindless, ignorant greed that is destroying the most important thing we have: Our home, Earth.

Despite clear indications that we may have passed the point of no return, there are signs of hope. Costa Rico has recently banned ALL fossil fuel. Panama has become the first Central American Nation to completely ban plastic bags, joining sixty other countries who have partially or totally banned single use plastic bags. Many are working to outlaw plastic straws, single use plastic bags and plastic service utensils. Ultimately, it is up to the residents of highly industrialized, wealthy nations to take control and vote with our wallets.

We cannot expect the corporatocracy of the United States to do anything we are not willing to do ourselves. Corporations exist only for their bottom-line. The citizens of the first world must show our willingness to buy green products and forgo those that are damaging our health and environment. The only language known by the greedy is money, so speak to to them by refusing to buy toxic, non-biodegradable, obsolete products. Bankrupt corporations that refuse to care about the future. Stand up for Earth: #VoteWithYourWallet.

WHAT CAN EACH PERSON DO?

#1 BUY SILICONE FOOD STORAGE BAGS & STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS, INCLUDING SHOPPING BAGS, ZIP LOCK BAGS AND FOOD WRAP.

Did you know that plastic in your food might be making you fat? In fetuses, BPA exposure is correlated with an increased risk of miscarriage, low birth weight, and childhood obesity. Exposure to BPA, phthalates, and other plastics additives has been clearly shown to reduce fertility, inhibit male sexual function and sperm quality, impair immune function, and contribute to Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

If you are trying to become pregnant, you might want to avoid ALL plastic food wrap and containers. DEHP, a phthalate found in food packaging, has adverse reproductive effects in doses up to 25,000 times lower than previously imagined. Scientists have proven that reproductive tract malformations occur in the male offspring of mice that fed DEHP in oil. Toxins from plastic bags leach into food, especially when frozen or heated. More so if you microwave food wrapped in plastic.

A GREAT WAY TO REDUCE PLASTIC IS TO PURCHASE FOOD-GRADE, SILICONE STORAGE BAGS.

Did you know that you can buy reusable, food-grade silicone food bags for use at home? These are a great replacement for plastic zip-lock bags. They are washable, reusable and actually keep food more fresh than regular plastic. 

Amazon Link For Silicone Food Bags

Many people bring their own reusable bags to the store, which is an excellent trend. But when you go home and store your food in plastic, zip-lock bags, you are exposing yourself and family to numerous toxins, and these also end up in your body. If that wasn’t bad enough, zip-lock bags often end up in the ocean, choking sea life, soiling beaches or stuck to The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a 600,000 square mile of floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Why contribute to such a mess?

#2 USE BEESWAX FOOD WRAP INSTEAD OF PLASTIC WRAP Smells lovely, reusable and safe. Beeswax Food Wrap is a great alternative to plastic.

Amazon Link For Bee’s Wax Food Wrap

#3 USE ONLY GLASS OR PYREX FOOD STORAGE CONTAINERS.

Plastic from food wrap and storage containers leaches into food, especially if that food is acidic, heated or frozen in plastic. Always store your left-overs in Pyrex or glass containers. Pyrex and glass last longer and withstand the dishwasher without warping. We have had many of our Pyrex containers for years.

Amazon Link To Pyrex Food Storage Jars

#4 CARRY WATER IN STAINLESS STEEL WATER BOTTLES

Besides the horrendous environmental impact of plastic water bottles, there is consensus among scientists that plastics leach into food and water from containers. Plastic water bottles that have been sitting in a hot car or transport truck, almost certainly have contamination. If you carry a plastic water bottle to the gym or hot yoga class, even more plastic will enter your system. One way to lower the amount of plastic chemicals in your system is to carry your daily water supply in a stainless steel bottle. These bottles are pretty inexpensive and last indefinitely.

Amazon Link To~

   Stainless Steel Water Bottles

SOME FACTS:

PLASTIC BAGS: * More than 200,000 plastic bags are dumped into landfills every HOUR! *BPA’s in plastic are associated with early puberty in females, lowered sperm counts, altered functions of reproductive organs, obesity, altered sex-specific behaviors, and increased rates of some breast, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancers. *Even ‘BPA-free’ plastic contains hormone disruptors. A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives states that products as varied as water bottles, children’s cups and food wrap, leach chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen. *According to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, when food is stored in plastic bags, chemicals can leach into the food and then be ingested. This also includes plastic wrap, which is made up of similar components. These chemicals have been linked to tissue changes, genetic damage, chromosomal errors, miscarriage, birth defects, early onset of puberty and hormonal changes. In children, chemical leaching can cause harm to their developing immune system and can result in disrupted hormones and behavioral problems. Add to this respiratory issues, reproductive issues, and cancer.

Take back control of your life. Take back our environment. Do not wait for the laws to change, because they may not change fast enough. Put your health and your family’s health first. STOP USING PLASTIC.

Emperor Hongwu

In 589 AD the scholar-official (humorist?) Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote:

Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.

THROW AWAY MY TOILET PAPER? WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?

Just because we’ve all done things a certain way for a long time, doesn’t mean that’s the best choice today. Toilet paper hearkens back to a more rustic past when we would reach for the nearest pine cone or leaf. Millions of people are happily going paper-free with a healthier and environmentally safer alternative.

Deadly Dioxin

First, let’s take a closer look at what toilet paper is and what it does to your body and our ecosystem. The paper industry uses chlorine and chlorine dioxide to bleach everything from coffee filters to milk cartons, but toilet paper production uses more of these harmful chemicals than almost any other paper product. The manufacturing byproducts; dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are among the most carcinogenic substances on earth. The manufacture of household paper products has flooded these toxic chemicals into our air and water. What many consumers don’t know is that these toxins are also absorbed through our skin. Even low levels of exposure can cause health problems including cancer, Endometriosis, hormone imbalances, immune system impairments, reduced fertility and birth defects.

Dioxins accumulate in our body overtime and cannot be excreted. The more you have in your liver, kidneys and fatty tissue, the more likely you are to become ill.

Consumers in the USA now spend more than $6 billion a year on toilet paper — more than any other nation in the world. That is trillions of tons of toxic, soggy paper going through our sewer systems, as well as the harmful manufacturing byproducts going into our ecosystems.

Add to this the insidious capacity of toilet paper to clog home sewer lines. Toilet paper, feminine products and “wet wipes” are responsible for almost all plumbing issues in single family homes and rental buildings!

THERE IS HOWEVER, A VERY SIMPLE, NATURAL AND EASY WAY TO STOP USING TOILET PAPER

Extremely Inexpensive and Easy To Install

Savior faire Euro cultures have used BIDETS for a long time. Made the butt of humor (sorry) in recent films like “Why Him”, BIDETS are having a sudden, aha moment here in the USA. No longer a separate unit that looks like a child’s potty next to the grown-up one, decent bidets are now inexpensive and easily to attach right to your toilet. The new bidets run the gamut from a simple (but effective) hose line from the back of the toilet with a spray nozzle, to more elaborate units with hot and cold water and many spray options. Or, you can invest in a Japanese, $10,000 élite TOTO Neorest 750H that self-cleans and has the most advanced remote control options for the cleaning wand. (IMO, the simple, hand held spray units are easiest and most sanitary because they spray down: just a thought).

The current trend away from paper is really a return to basics: PLAIN WATER! (Imagine never having a clogged sewer again, and contributing your care to the planet by massively lowering your carbon footprint!)

Moderate Price Bidet

Once you have used one of these devices, you will never want to go back to toilet paper.

Scratchy, toxic, wasteful paper will seem downright primitive. Not only will you be taking better care of yourself, your household plumbing will also benefit dramatically. Paper products account for almost all clogged drainage pipes. If all that wasn’t enough, the environmental cost of toxic toilet paper is huge. Why contribute to the destruction of our waterways?

Americans flush trillions of pounds of toxic paper and waste into sewers yearly!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOILET PAPER

Black and white scratchboard illustration of the inventing of paper by a Chinese man.

Toilet paper was first manufactured for the élite in China starting around the 4th century. Many people however, just used whatever was at hand, which, in this case, often included hand-painted scrolls.

In 589 AD the scholar-official (humorist?) Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote:

“Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.”

(How many works of art tragically went down the drain in this fashion!?)

China was also the first to mass-produce toilet paper in the 14th century. Rolls similar to what we use today were made mainly for the ruling classes. The Bureau of Supplies recorded that in one year, during the Hongwu Emperor’s reign, (1328 – 1398), his family required 15,000 sheets of specially made, perfumed paper for use in the palace privies. Each piece measured 2 by 3 feet.

Apparently the use of books was not uncommon in the West as well. Lord Chesterfield wrote to his son in 1747 about a man who employed…

A common edition of Horace, of which he tore off gradually a couple of pages, carried them with him to that necessary place, read them first, and then sent them down as a sacrifice to Cloacina; thus was so much time fairly gained.

Chugi Sticks

In India and parts of the Middle East, water and the left hand are traditional, (hence the custom of the left hand being “unclean”). In Japan, flat sticks, called chügi, were scraped from left to right over the soiled area. In ancient Rome, a sea sponge on a stick (called a ‘gompf stick’) was available to those who used the public toilets. Manners of the day considered it polite to quickly swish the sponge off in a bucket of salt water before the next person sat down. Wealthy Romans used wool and scented water. Ancient Greeks employed stones called ‘pessoi’ and pieces of clay.

Sand, grass and corn husks served the purpose for most of human history.

Joseph Gayetty, an inventor from Pennsylvania, was the first businessman to commercially produce toilet paper, bringing his aloe-infused, hemp paper to the market in the USA in 1857. Curiously prescient, he called his product “The Greatest Necessity Of The Age”. His advertising campaign warned against using printed material (like newspaper) because the ink was toxic!

An enterprising young man named Seth Wheeler from Upstate New York obtained the first US patents for toilet paper in 1883. The smooth, over-processed paper of today, requiring many manufacturing chemicals, took many decades to produce.

Which leads us to the paper and plastic clogged streams and oceans of today. Toilet paper has also begotten the phenomenon known as “fatbergs“, congealed mounds of toilet paper, wet-wipes, and cooking fat, sitting like massive artery clogs in our city sewers. In 2013, a “fatberg” weighing 17 tons was found under London Road at Thames water in London.

Let’s all do our part, and be cleaner and healthier as a result. Bidets are easy to install and can upgrade our lives and living spaces wonderfully.

LOVE TO ALL.

 

 

35% FOOD GRADE HYDROGEN PEROXIDE (H2O2 has one more oxygen atom than water). If you do not have this versatile product in your home, get some. (You can find it on Amazon, as well as in some health food stores.)

35% food grade hydrogen peroxide is not the same stuff in the brown container from Rite Aide everyone has in their medicine cabinet. Most commercial peroxide at only 3% H2O2, is generally a low-grade and usually impure, containing toxic stabilizers such as acetanilide, phenol, sodium stanate and tertrasodium phosphate. The difference in strength and efficacy between 35% Food Grade and drugstore peroxide is vast. Sort of like the chasm of potency between a lite beer and absinthe.

35% food grade peroxide oxidizes, killing germs on anything it touches. Consumed in a very diluted concentration, it can neutralize toxins, kill parasites, and clear other pathogens from the body. Plus it breaks down into oxygen and water. Since most of your body (over 99%) is made from just four elements: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, hydrogen peroxide is already a basic part of your anatomy.

Just be aware that this is STRONG stuff. Keep away from children and animals, just as you would with bleach. If it gets on your fingers, it will turn them white and burn for a few minutes, but do no permanent damage. DO NOT EVER USE IT UNDILUTED, ESPECIALLY WHEN INGESTING IT.

(By contrast, BLEACH is a caustic, toxic chemical, a lot more dangerous.)

Some Ways To Use 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide:

  1. BEST NATURAL AUTOMATIC DISH-WASHING SOLUTION: A tablespoon or two of Oxiclean mixed with a 1/3 cup 35% peroxide, leaves dishes clean, shining, sanitized & your dishwasher free of gunk. BY FAR better than any commercial brand. Environmentally safe.
  2. USE INSTEAD OF BLEACH: Makes laundry clean-smelling, does not leech color (if used in small amounts) softens, sanitizes. A bit more expensive than supermarket bleach, but worth it.
  3. CAN BE ADDED TO ANY HOUSEHOLD CLEANER: Put a few tablespoons of 35% hydrogen peroxide in any spray cleaner. This will remove toxins, parasites & pathogens from any surface. Gets rid of odors, mold, germs and leaves everything shining clean. (Be sure to rinse surfaces that pets & children will walk on or touch.) It is non-toxic, but better not to get on paws or little hands.
  4. A FEW DROPS: (VERY DILUTED!!!) In your portable water bottles (don’t use in plastic) try stainless steel or ceramic lined bottles. 3 to 5 drops of FOOD GRADE hydrogen peroxide per liter of drinking water (add only to spring or distilled water) will oxygenate your water and purify it. Also energizes by oxygenating your system.
  5. ADD A CUP TO THE BATH: One of the best ways to absorb oxygen from H2O2 is in the bath. This is also great for skin conditions.
  6. READ UP: There are many testimonial about 35% peroxide for health, a cleaner home, and a safer way to sanitize. Get rid of bleach in your home altogether. Completely outdated and not a Biohack tool.
  7. MANY SITES WILL TRY TO SCARE YOU AWAY FROM THIS VALUABLE PRODUCT. IF YOU HAVE FEAR, KEEP READING UP. DON’T TAKE ONE PERSON’S WORD FOR IT.