Town Hall Seattle Book Launch and Event

It seems like every real high point in my life is tempered with some dreadful low. Since my book was released in mid-November, I should be riding a wave of tremendous highs with book signings, radio interviews and other speaking engagements. Instead, I've been riding a wave of tremendous turmoil since my father passed away suddenly on November 30th. I think this is some karmic way for me to stay humble. Or something.

In any event, in spite of the ups and downs, I'm pulling on the upswing and am extremely excited to announce that my Town Hall Seattle book event/launch and signing is still going full speed ahead. On December 12th, I'll be doing a 40 minute or so talk about my book followed by a Q & A and book signing as part of the Future of Health Series at Town Hall. The event is from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm and will be taped by our local NPR station (KUOW) for their Speaker's Forum show.

The University Bookstore (from the University of Washington) will be there selling my book as will WA Toxics Coalition. They will be tabling the event, offering additional information about toxins in the environment and in the products you use. They were instrumental in providing feedback for getting my body burden testing done as well as providing the resources for doing the XRF testing of consumer products that I discuss in my book.

I have a few more organizations that may be supporting the event as well. They are not yet confirmed so I don't want to mention them, but I will in the next week. I also have a list of very exciting radio interviews and TV interviews and book signings on the horizon that I will announce as they are confirmed.

But, make no mistake, my Dad is always on my mind and I dedicate all of this to him. He would have been very proud.

If you live in the Seattle area, I hope to see you there! Did I mention there will be beer and wine?

Non-Toxic Avenger: book review on Skruben

Anne, the mastermind behind Seattle Sundries soaps, has a book review up on her blog of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you. We did a little book to soap barter a week or so ago and, while she's been enjoying my book, I've been enjoying a little Sasquatchin' in the shower. Don't tell my husband.

In any case, go check out the book review. It's got a great perspective coming from your "average" consumer (i.e. not a nutball like me), and you can also find out how my book "will simultaneously educate, motivate and scare the wrinkle-resistant pants off of you".

Non-Toxic Avenger book giveaway

I got a box delivered yesterday full of copies of my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you, which won't be available until end of November 2011 from New Society Publishers and I thought to myself, why not do a book giveaway now before it's released? I'm always doing book giveaways, so why not my own? So, I've decided to do the first (I'm sure of several) book giveaway for a signed copy of my new book!

Ze Book Description!
"Most of us turn a blind eye to the startling array of chemicals lurking in everything from shampoo to baby bottles to the money in our wallets, choosing to believe that government agencies ensure the safety of the products we wear, use, ingest, and breathe in daily. Yet the standards for product safety in North America lag far behind those of other countries. We frequently hear that a substance we've relied on for years turns out to have serious effects on our health, the environment, or both.

After coming to terms with the fact that the autism and cancer which had impacted her family were most likely the result of environmental toxins, author Deanna Duke undertook a mission to dramatically reduce her family's chemical exposure. She committed to drastically reducing the levels of all known chemicals in both her home and work environments, using the help of body burden testing to see what effect, if any, she was able to have on the level of toxins in her body.

Follow Deanna's journey as she uncovers how insidious and invasive environmental toxins are. Learn about your day-to-day chemical exposure, the implications for your health, and what you can do about it. And find out whether the author's quest is mission impossible, or whether she is ultimately able to improve her family's health by taking steps towards leading a chemical-free life."

Ze Rules!
If you are interested in entering the random drawing for my book, please add your name to the comments of this post. You get bonus points for liking the Crunchy Chicken on Facebook. Just let me know if you're a fan of the page in your comments.

You have until midnight PST next Tuesday, November 8th, to enter. And, now for the legal mumbo jumbo: This giveaway is open to U.S. residents, 18+ only. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winner will be selected Wednesday, November 9th and will have 7 days to respond.

Ze Book Excerpts!
And, just to whet your whistle, here are some excerpts from the book/blogs that I've posted over the past year:

• The not so zen yoga mat
  
• Non-Toxic Cleaning: Miele Neptune Canister Vacuum Cleaner review
  
• Fighting the mold monsters
  
• Keeping your drugs out of my mug
  
• Toxins in your tattoos
  
• BPA-free canned tomatoes
  
• I've got a mole in my hole
  
• Annoying the hell out of people
  
• You can't sweat when you're freezing
  
• Environmental toxin testing pow-wow
  

Good luck!!

Non-Toxic Avenger: It's Here!

Just in time to be a Non-Toxic Avenger for Halloween!

I got copies of my book today. They should be available from stores November 22nd, around the same time the electronic edition will be out as well. I have a meeting with my marketing coordinator tomorrow and will be working with my publicist soon. So, I'll fill you in on all the gory details of my book release and interviews as they happen!

Toxins in your tattoos

With new research showing troubling findings about toxic chemicals in tattoo inks (including some phthalates, metals, and hydrocarbons that are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors) I thought it would be a good time to repost an excerpt from my book on tattoo toxicity.

The following is a draft excerpt from my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger, that will be coming out in November 2011 from New Society Publishers:

In 2004, the American Environmental Safety Institute filed a lawsuit against a half dozen or so tattoo ink pigment manufacturers, claiming they failed to warn California residents about exposure to hazardous materials in their inks. The lead content found in the ink needed for a medium sized tattoo could contain between 1 to 23 micrograms of lead, which is considerably more than the 0.5 microgram per-day recommended limit. Some inks also contain metals such as aluminum, arsenic, mercury and chromium, in addition to lead. The heavy metals are used to give these pigments their permanent color, not unlike other artist paints, and the type of metal depends mostly on the color pigment as well as the manufacturer.

Considering that one in four adults in the U.S. has at least one tattoo, many of them sporting quite a few, this is an issue that really needs more widespread education on the potential risks. I have two tattoos of small to medium size. Both are in areas that aren’t visible and I have no interest in getting them removed, although it would make sense since I am exposed to the metals from the pigments.

However, there are a few issues with laser tattoo removal. The first issue is that additional chemicals are used on the skin to reduce surface temperature so your skin doesn’t scar. The more commonly used chemical is tetrafluoroethane, which is a very toxic greenhouse gas. The alternative, which is considered to be more “green”, is a carbon dioxide spray, or rather, a dry ice spray, which is better for your skin and the ozone layer .

The big issue with laser tattoo removal is that, when you break down the pigments into small particles, the body has to do something with them. Research done at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) has been studying how tattoo ink breaks down in your body, either from exposure to sunlight or natural degradation, and the main question to be answered is, where does the pigment go? Are they broken down by enzymes or metabolized? At least in one study, researchers found that some pigment migrates from the tattoo site to the body’s lymph nodes . Considering that chemists at the NCTR identified low levels of carcinogens in tattoo ink, what kind of health impact is there in having a tattoo? And, if this is occurring under the normal lifetime of a tattoo, what happens when you try to remove it?

German scientists have shown that, after laser irradiation, the concentrations of toxic molecules from red and yellow tattoo inks increased up to 70-fold . Heat on the pigment triggers a chemical reaction that generates mutation-inducing and carcinogenic breakdown products that get reabsorbed by the body. At this point, it sounds more toxic to get them removed than to just leave them be.

One last point, too. The FDA warns that patients about to undergo an MRI let the technician know they have a tattoo, because it can swell or burn, most likely from the metals in the pigments. Something to keep in mind when I go visit the neurologist for that MRI for the numbness and tingling that I still have in my arms and legs.

Ecomom Giftcard Giveaway

A few weeks ago I was part of a Twitter party on toxins in relation to my upcoming book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you. It hits the presses next month and will be available sometime after October 17th.

This is one of the reasons I haven't been posting lately, I've been busy responding to copy editing changes, proof reading the galley and coordinating endorsements, etc. It's been a lot of fun seeing it all come together and I'm pretty excited about some of the potential endorsements for it.

I'm also working on another book proposal. I'll keep you posted on that one, I should know by the end of the month where it's going. It's an environmentally related book, but more on the wildlife/politics end of things.

In any event, unbeknownst to me, they were doing some giveaways during the Twitter party, one of the prizes being a $25 gift card to the Ecomom website, which sells, well, pretty much everything an environmentally conscious mom would need.

I thought I'd share my good fortune with one lucky reader and do a giveaway of the gift card. So, if you are interested in entering a random drawing for the $25 gift card, add your name to the comments of this post by midnight PST, Sunday August 21st.

Good luck!

Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Twitter Party

I'm going to be participating in tonight's Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Twitter Party.

With the Safe Chemicals Act just introduced in Congress, Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families thought it would be a good time to host a Twitter party on the topic of toxic chemicals. What’s a Twitter party, you ask? It’s basically a fast-paced, lively chat forum for educating and sharing ideas – all in 140 characters or less.

At their Twitter party they will be bringing expert panelists together to answer your questions about toxic chemicals, show you how to protect your family and let you know why passage of the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 is so critically important.

Here are the details – we hope you can join us!

Date: Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Time: 9-10 PM Eastern/6-7 PM Pacific

Topic: Protecting Our Families from Toxic Chemicals

Key Questions Covered:

* Why should we be concerned about chemicals in products we use every day?
* What are the worst chemicals to avoid in products?
* What can we do to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals?
* How will the Safe Chemicals Act protect us?

How to join the party:

1. Follow @SaferChemicals and our expert panelists on Twitter.
2. Use the hashtag #saferchemicals on all of your tweets.

For a full list of the folks on the expert panel as well as more info on how to participate, check out this blog post.

Oh, and my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you is available for pre-sale at Amazon! Please note that it's not due to come out until November.

The not so zen yoga mat

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What you don't know can hurt you, due out Fall 2011 from New Society Publishers. The book follows my attempts to rid everything potentially toxic from my life.

I have, for almost twenty years, been extremely inflexible. I don't know exactly when it began but it was sometime around the time I started running in my early twenties. With the increase in muscle came a decrease in flexibility in spite of all the stretching I felt like I was doing. I've known people who rarely stretch, but yet who are much more flexible than I am and I've never quite been able to figure out why.

My inflexibility causes me a lot of problems, most notably with my knees when I am running (which I don't really do anymore because of some foot issues) and most painfully with my back. My tight calves, hamstrings, hip flexors and a number of other lower body muscles and tendons all end up pulling on my back, causing me a lot of issues with back spasms and strains. If I stay on top of stretching and make sure I do it every day, then I can keep most of my back pain at bay. Even if I skip a day, I'm setting myself up for pain later.

The recent increase in exercise meant I really needed to stretch twice a day and by that I mean a combination of classic running stretches as well as yoga. The problem with yoga is that most yoga mats are made out of or are backed with PVC. We had three yoga mats in the house because the kids were big into imitating my yoga practice for a while. The mats didn’t get a tremendous amount of use, but they were still present, off-gassing dangerous chemicals (like phthalates, lead and cadmium) into our rooms.

If I stretched in the living room, there was enough padding under the rug that I didn't need a mat. However, if I wanted to do anything that required a sticky mat, it was an issue and I slipped on the rug. Fortunately, there are yoga mats that are made out of non-toxic Thermal Plastic Elastomer (TPE), rather than PVC. If I want to take a yoga class, I could bring my own non-PVC mat, but I’d still be in a room full of people using, most likely, PVC mats.

All that deep breathing just meant that I'd be deep breathing in a room full of PVC particulates. I hated to do it, but I donated all three of our yoga mats. Since I still needed at least one mat in the house, I ordered a TPE-based mat. The one really nice thing about the new mat was the fact that it didn't have that "new mat" smell. And, I ended up avoiding yoga studios until the project was over.

BPA-free canned tomatoes

The following is an excerpt from my book, The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You, due out Fall 2011 from New Society Publishers.

Getting faked out

A while back my husband and I stopped purchasing our favorite organic canned tomato products because of the issue with the BPA lining in cans. Finding an alternative lining for highly acidic foods, like tomatoes, is an issue for manufacturers and for the most part your choices are glass jars or the aseptic packages (those cardboard boxes that look like juice boxes). I could only find tomato paste in glass jars, so if I needed diced or whole canned tomatoes, I had to opt for the one product available in aseptic cardboard, which was Pomi.

Pomi, unfortunately, wasn’t certified organic, but it was an import from Italy where they use a lot less pesticides to begin with and their parent company was a certified producer of organic foods in Italy. It was a trade-off for us as the Pomi products didn’t taste as good as the organic brand we used to use and really liked, Muir Glen.

I had seen news reports saying that Muir Glen (a General Mills brand) was in the process of reformulating their cans and that, starting with the 2010 tomato crop, their tomato products would be canned without the use of BPA. This was great news, particularly in light of the fact that our annual pledge to u-pick tomatoes and can them ourselves in glass never seems to come to fruition here in Seattle where the tomato crop can be heinously paltry. Growing our own tomatoes for this purpose every year turns out to be an enormous lesson in frustration. The microclimate in our yard, just off of Puget Sound, tends to remain cool for most of the day even in the summer and we are generally left with green tomatoes with just a few ripening each year.

However, in early December, my husband popped into the grocery store on the way home from our annual family visit to see the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton in downtown Seattle. Hank went in to pick up some items for making manicotti and, while he was reaching for the Pomi boxes, he noticed that the Muir Glen cans advertised the fact that they were made with “enamel lined cans”. He was excited when he got out to the car as he was thinking that these were the new BPA-free cans. He was so convinced about this labeling that he almost bought Muir Glen instead. But, he knew better. I immediately went home to do some research and find out if, indeed, this was the case.

It wasn’t. Those cans still had BPA in them and, as far as I was concerned, this was extremely misleading advertising on their part. Why mention the lining of your cans unless it was something significant? Most people don’t care whether or not their cans are lined with white enamel. Many people, on the other hand, are concerned whether or not their cans are lined with BPA. In looking around for current information on the cans, I saw that the Safe Mama website had followed up with Muir Glen about a month before this incident and had managed to nail down the gory details.

In summary, the fact was that they did not have BPA-free tomato products in cans yet on the shelves and that they wouldn’t until sometime in 2011. Once they knew the date of production, the cans packaged after that production date could be considered to be BPA-free. Oddly enough, the customer service rep asked the writer from the Safe Mama whether or not she would like the cans labeled as BPA-free. Hopefully, with enough customer feedback, Muir Glen will know to label their cans with actual useful information. Until they start labeling the cans as BPA-free, it will still be a crap shoot which ones have BPA and which don’t. Even looking at the expiration date (a later date is more likely to not have BPA in them) doesn’t guarantee anything.

---

Do you worry about BPA in the lining of your cans or do you never buy canned tomatoes? If you can find them, Eden Organics just started selling their tomato products in amber glass jars from Ball. I have yet to see them in stores.

Sanre Supple Sunshine product review

During all of my searching for non-toxic products for my book project, one of the biggies I was trying to avoid was the chemicals in sunscreen. I generally use an SPF of at least 30 on my face every day of the year, regardless of the weather. I freckle and mole a lot and need to protect my skin so, even though I live in the shadiest of places, I still need sunscreen.

The stuff I was using at the beginning of my book research contained all sorts of scary crap and a whole bunch of ingredients that I didn't even know about since they don't need to be listed if the manufacturer doesn't want to. The short list was parabens, phthalates and PEGs (for maximum hormone and endocrine disruption with a little carcinogenic action thrown in for good measure). In addition, the chemical sunscreen in it was one of the more scary ones, the kind they recommend you don't use on kids.

So, I went in search of the seemingly impossible - a facial day moisturizer that had a safe sunscreen in it that didn't have any toxins in it either. My first stop was to search through the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database and see what they had listed. Each year they do a workup on sunscreens, based on the latest data on the chemicals being researched as well as the latest products.

One product stood out for me - Sanre's Supple Sunshine. I bought some last spring and have been using it off and on (depending on where I was in the book project). Needless to say, I've been using it exclusively for the last 5 months during the day.

The ingredient list is short (and organic): safflower oil, grape seed oil, beeswax, coconut oil, aloe vera, lavender, rosemary, red thyme, patchouli, hyssop and, most importantly, the zinc oxide ingredient they use as the sunblock is a non-nano particle mineral.

Without going into a huge diatribe on chemical sunscreens that get absorbed by your skin versus the nano-debate with mineral sunscreen (you can get all that info from EWG or my book), suffice it to say that it's a freaking miracle that this exists. When I started searching I think we had something like 7 different sunscreens in the house, all of them having some sketchy ingredient in them and, with some of them, all of the sketchy ingredients.

Now, this stuff is a little thicker than what I was used to and it takes a bit of rubbing going in, but it does absorb well and it smells great (don't be put off by the patchouli in the ingredient listing - I can't smell it at all and I'm super sensitive to it). I'm just now at the point of needing to reorder it. It's a small jar and not cheap, but it lasts a fairly long time and I wouldn't want to run out of it. More importantly, I'm willing to pay more for a "clean" product than something cheaper and full of chemicals or something cheaper, but doesn't work very well.

Bottom line - go analyze your moisturizer with SPF. Make sure it uses a mineral sunscreen rather than a chemical one (zinc oxide is better than titanium dioxide). If it's a mineral sunblock make sure it not nano-particle in size. Make sure it doesn't have retinyl palmitate in it (more on this in another post) and doesn't contain oxybenzone, "fragrance", "parfum" or anything ending in -paraben. If it does, head over to the cosmetic database and find one that works for you. Finally, I'll be reviewing some safer sunscreens for the body in the next few months as well.

Please note: I am in no way being compensated for this review and have no connection whatsoever with Sanre.

Body Burden Detox Challenge

I'm over a week into my month long detox to further reduce my toxic body burden for my book and many of you were interested in following along for the last two weeks of my detox. So far, things have been going well except for some uncomfortable symptoms that I can't tell whether or not they are due to the detox process or the change in diet, etc.

In any case, here's the breakdown of what I'm doing. I'll be writing posts all this week explaining most of the following sections (except for the obvious ones). If you have questions, just ask! When the challenge starts on the 15th, you can do as much of what I'm doing as you feel comfortable.*

Food and Drink

• No alcohol
  
• No coffee or tea (regular or decaf)
  
• No processed foods
  
• No fried foods
  
• No refined grains or sugars
  
• 60 - 70% total food intake is fruits and vegetables
  
• Focus on cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower)
  
• 15% protein sources (lean meats, beans, nuts, seeds)
  
• 15% grains (brown rice, oats, quinoa, buckwheat)
  
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil (or flaxseed oil) per day
  
• All food is 100% organic
  
• No dairy (or, if you must, choose non-fat)
  
• 2 - 3 liters of water (dependent on sweating) a day
  
• Yogi Detox Tea
  
• Juicing

Detox Actions

• Sauna or hot bath (Epsom or Bentonite clay) at least 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes
  
• 30+ minutes cardio exercise every day
  
• Daily dry skin brushing
  
• Detox foot pads
  
• Professional massage - at least 30 minutes once a week

Supplements
(Choose organic supplements, follow recommended dosages on bottle or less, depending on what you can tolerate)

• Ginger
  
• Turmeric
  
• Cinnamon
  
• Chlorella
  
• Vitamin C (1,000 mg per day)

Remember to use all non-toxic body care products, household cleaners, make-up, etc. during this time. You don't want to add in more toxins while you are trying to remove them. I'll go into more detail on this later this week. Also, make sure you get at least 7 - 8 hours of sleep a night.

If you want to officially participate, feel free to sign up in the comments of this posts. Otherwise, you can follow along and just check back this week for more posts detailing the how to's of this program.

*I am not a physician nor do I play one on the Internet. If you have health concerns, please consult a doctor before embarking on any kind of diet, exercise, supplements, or sauna routine.

You can't sweat when you're freezing

I started my month-long body burden detox program for my book on January 1st. I figured it was fitting to embark on it for the new year. Plus, I need to get it done so I still have time to do my follow-up body burden lab testing and get the results before my book manuscript is due in April. In other words, I couldn't stall any longer short of not doing the detox altogether.

I won't go into great detail in this post about what I'm doing for the detox, just suffice it to say that I'm somewhat wimping out on the sweat therapy portion of the program. I'm still doing some, but it's not the 4 hours a day in the sauna thing that was prescribed. I'm not going that route for several reasons (which I go into in the book) but I am still doing some detox bath and sauna stuff in addition to the rest of the program.

Yesterday, I decided to start the week with a combo sweat therapy bath with some Epsom salts thrown in for good measure. Epsom baths are purportedly detoxifying and provide some generally needed magnesium. The sweating helps "unlock", if you will, toxins that are trapped in your body fat. All the other things I'm doing help usher out these released toxins from my body. In any event, the last time I took an Epsom salt bath (last summer) I got overheated and dizzy and I was afraid of doing that again. So, this time I set the water temperature at a more reasonable level.

The problem is, with our house being Freeze Yer Buns temperatures, instead of sweating, the water cooled off quickly and I was quite cold. So, I added more hot water. That lasted for a few minutes and then I was cold again. Oh well, I guess I got the Epsom bath part accomplished for the day. So much for the sweat therapy. Tomorrow I have a treatment lined up and will definitely be sweating there.

My detox plan combines a bunch of different things including a restricted diet, lots of water, exercise, supplements, sweat therapy, detox treatments and other things like lymphatic dry brushing. Since I'm not doing the full-blown sweat therapy I'm planning on doing a once a week vegetable and fruit juice fast.

If any of you are interested and want to join me for the last two weeks of the month in a portion of my detox plan, I can fill you in on the diet and exercise stuff I'm doing and I can set up a mini-challenge. It's a great way to kick off the year and shake off the post-holiday malaise!

Organics and leaving the sanctuary

As part of my book project on environmental toxins, I've been cutting all sources of pesticides and toxins from my diet. That means that anything conventionally grown or containing artificial colors and flavors are out. This also means that I have to be very careful not to slip into old habits and absent-mindedly eat something that doesn't fit these parameters.

One of the biggest issues has been eating out or grabbing something on the go. We rarely eat out as it is, but the problem is that there are generally few restaurants, even in Seattle, that serve an all-organic menu. Even if there are organic items on the menu, that doesn't mean that the whole meal is organic. It's the same story with coffee shops. Even if the coffee beans are organic, they don't always offer organic milk and, if you want to eat something there, inevitably you are more likely to find vegan options over organic ones.

The other big issue when going out is going to the bathroom. It sounds strange, but I've started carrying my own liquid hand soap in a little reusable container. Why? Because most public bathrooms don't stock non-toxic soap.

Instead, these soaps are heavily perfumed (in other words, contain endocrine disrupting phthalates), are chock full of the anti-bacterial triclosan and contain various estrogenic preservatives known as parabens. And, don't get me started on air fresheners in these bathrooms - that cloying stench of artificial fragrances that invite another dollop of phthalates into my bloodstream.

Old habits and exposures are hard to avoid but, over time, I'm learning to change my behavior to avoid them. It's been hard and I'm trying not to go a little too bonkers with it. But, if you see me in the bathroom just rinsing my hands, holding my breath and turning a shade of purple, don't be surprised.

Do you pay attention to food ingredients when you go out to eat or just throw caution to the wind? What about something so simple as soap and air fresheners in public or restaurant bathrooms?

I've got a mole in my hole

The following is an excerpt (edited for this blog) from my book on toxins in the environment that will be coming out in Fall 2011 from New Society Publishers:

Our front yard, for the past week or so, has slowly been turning into molehill central. It started last weekend with two dirt lumps popping up near the fig tree. When I went for a walk later that Sunday, I was at least pleased to see that we weren't the only ones sporting dirty lumps in our lawn. The neighbors on either side of us were each inflicted with their own pair of molehills. Over the next few days, I woke up to another molehill and then another. It got to the point that every morning we were greeted by an additional molehill, all in a linear path heading out to the street. Over the last week, we have acquired nine dirt piles in our lawn.

I looked into what could be making these mounds. I didn't think we had many burrowing animals in our area and narrowed it down to the rather populous (at least in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest) Townsend Mole, aka Scapanus townsendii. The evidence left behind seemed to fit the crime. It could also have been a gopher, but they are relatively rare around Seattle. A Townsend mole, which is about 8 to 9 inches long and black in color, has a general population density where the typical city lot has one or two moles. Why we've never had them before is surprising although I've seen plenty of neighbor's lawns exhibiting some inhabitants.

According to Sunrise Pest Management, Townsend moles feed primarily on insect larvae, earthworms, slugs, centipedes, roots and seeds. We certainly have an abundance of those in our front lawn. When I was searching for solutions to our mole issues, I ran across a laundry list of things people do to try to deter them ranging from using poison, insecticides, smoke bombs or even burying razor blades. I don't want to kill-trap the mole and I certainly don't want to poison the little fella, even if he is making a mess of my yard. Any chemical agent or poison surely would affect the environment and wildlife from both land and sea, as the run-off from our yard goes directly out to Puget Sound and I can't imagine what mole bait and poison would do to the local fish populations.

Sunrise Pest Management does do an environmentally (and critter friendly) treatment that entails a natural treatment that makes the mole's food source taste bitter. Since the moles don't like sour patch worms, they leave in search of other food. Better still, the worms and other insects are unharmed. I sent them an email to get a quote and see if it was worth the cost to have them come out and do an initial treatment. If it is going to be expensive, I figure I'll just rake over the mounds, stamp down the tunnels and hope for the best. It's not like our pesticide free lawn was immaculate in the first place. Since we've never used synthetic chemicals, herbicides or pesticides on our yard, let alone water it, the lawn is already pretty lumpy. So, what's wrong with a few extra bumps?

Another option is a castor oil based treatment that I found on the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife website. I could save myself the money if the mole doesn't cease and desist and go with this completely non-toxic, cheap treatment instead:

Homemade Mole Control

Commercially available castor oil–based repellents have been scientifically tested on moles in the Eastern United States with some success. In theory, the repellent coats earthworms and other prey with castor oil. This renders the prey distasteful and, if eaten, gives the moles diarrhea. The moles supposedly then leave the treated area in search of a new food source.

The formula for the castor-oil repellent can be made by using a blender to combine 1/4 cup of unrefined castor oil (can be purchased at most pharmacies) and 2 tablespoons of a dishwashing liquid. Blend the two together, add 6 tablespoons water, and blend again. Combine the concentrated mixture with water at a rate of 2 tablespoons of solution to 1 gallon of water. Use a watering can or sprayer to liberally apply the solution to areas where moles are active. The above mixture will cover approximately 300 square feet.

The repellent will be most effective where it can be watered into the moist soil surrounding surface tunnels made by moles. Areas that receive extensive irrigation will quickly loose the repellent to leaching. For best results, spray the entire area needing protection; moles will burrow under a perimeter treatment.

The repellent may need to be reapplied before moles depart. Once moles move elsewhere, the solution usually remains effective for 30 to 60 days.

I'm not sure if I want to give my mole a bad case of the squirts, so I'll see if he decides to move on to someone else's property. But, if he continues as he has, he'll be leaving Le Château Duke on the Poop Express.

Photos courtesy of Sunrise Pest Management

Buying a grass-fed cow share

My husband and I discussed last night the possibility of buying a 1/2 cow and splitting it with my foodie brother. We have the chest freezer and the interest in integrating more lean, grass-fed and finished beef over other sources of protein. The cost savings when buying, literally, in bulk are much more than buying a little at a time.

Interestingly enough, when I was discussing exposure to toxins in food sources with the environmental medicine physician I am working with for my book, he suggested that I eat less butter and dairy and more grass-fed lean meats. The reasoning behind this is, toxins are stored in body fat, cows and other animals included. When you eat high fat animal products, you are ingesting those accumulated toxins, mostly PCBs, DDT, DDE and the like. Contaminants that are known to cause health problems.

I was somewhat surprised at the fact that, even during an intense toxin depuration program they designed for me, it was still recommended to eat grass-fed beef, mostly because of the high levels of omega 3 fatty acids which are important in ridding the body of toxins during a detox. Of course, organic vegetarian sources are the best (as far as toxins go) like beans and legumes for protein and olive and walnut oils for fats. I'll be eating a lot more of both since I'll be seriously limiting the amount of white flour based products like bread and pasta that I'll be eating for a while.

Anyway, I'll be hunting down a local source using the fabulous Eat Wild website, which lists all the pastured meat products available in our area.

Have you ever gone in on a cow share? What did you think?

Body burden toxin testing

Today wraps up the initial round of body burden toxin testing that I'm doing as part of the research / project for the book I'm writing that will be published next year by New Society Publishers.

Last week I did the blood tests for the testing panels for chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, volatile solvents and toxic metals. I also did the fabulous 24 hour urine collection for testing toxic elements. Today I'm sending in the urine test for the phthalates and parabens test panel. I also got our drinking water tested for a whole host of contaminants including bacteria as well as our paint tested for lead.

I thought the 24 hour urine collection was a pain, but the phthalates and parabens test just about reduced me to tears since you restrict the amount of fluids you can drink for 24 hours before doing the "sample". Ten bucks says I get a migraine today for dehydration and exposure to scented "natural" lotion and other, allegedly, natural products.

I should be getting the test results back over the next few weeks and I'm curious to see how I stack up to the average person's body burden. Next step after that... see how much I can reduce my load by eliminating exposure. And a few other nutty things.

Stay tuned!

Keeping your drugs out of my mug

The following is a draft excerpt from my book on toxins in the environment that will be coming out in 2011 from New Society Publishers:

My husband came home from the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance the other day with a brochure on the proper disposal of prescription drugs. It was extremely timely since I was working on researching contaminants in our drinking water and prescriptions drugs were clearly something to think about. It was also pertinent because we have innumerable prescription drugs from my husband’s various cancer treatments and stem-cell transplants to dispose of.

Drugs such as birth control pills, mood stabilizers, steroids, antibiotics and narcotics flow unfettered through our waterways and, unfortunately, sewage treatment plants aren't engineered to remove them. They end up affecting the fish and aquatic animals and, ultimately, come right back around as our drinking water. No amount of chlorine in the drinking water is going to remove these contaminants so, in the end, it comes full circle and those used (and excreted) drugs that get flushed, get shared by everyone. Not too surprisingly, the brochure specifically says not to flush them down the toilet.

There are two recommended methods for the disposal of prescription drugs. I was somewhat amused by their first suggestion, but the idea is to mix unused prescription drugs with an undesirable substance such as used coffee grounds or used kitty litter, put them in a zip lock bag and throw them away.

This method is really to prevent children and pets (and possibly dumpster divers?) from snacking on the drugs. I'm not sure how effective this is, particularly if you have a dog, since they would regard the kitty litter and pills as a nice, tasty snack of Kitty Roca.

The runner-up method is to take them to a pharmaceutical take-back location, but they strongly encourage the first option, according to the federal guidelines. I don't know what they do with the drugs at the take-back locations, but I'm assuming they aren't flushing them down the toilet.

Unfortunately, you can't return narcotics or controlled substances to the pharmacies on the list - those drugs have to be returned to a law enforcement agency. I guess they don't trust the employees of the take-back locations to manage my huge bag of high-street-valued narcotics from when my husband was very ill.

I also don’t know what hazards there are from the degradation of the plastic entombed pills n’ poop in the landfill and the leaching out into groundwater but I suppose, at the very least, it's a less direct route than merely flushing them down the toilet where they end up readily in the waterways and in tap water.

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Aside from proper disposal, the best thing is really, to take all of your medicine as prescribed by your doctor or, better yet (if possible), avoid them in the first place by staying healthy and relying on other, less toxic, ways of managing your health.

To find a take-back location in your area, check with the DEA's collection site database where you can search by zipcode or city/state.

What do you do with old prescription drugs? Or, what do you take instead of pharmaceuticals to deal with health issues?

Going from blogger to writer

Any time someone asks me what I do for a living, my knee-jerk answer is always "software developer", because that's my primary job and what I've been doing for the last 15 years. I have a degree in Computer Science and have done different development work from web application design to software architect and that's what I get paid for professionally.

So, when someone asks me what I do and it's in relation to my work on environmental issues, I never know what to say. Obviously, software engineer doesn't make sense, but I still don't feel like I can claim being a writer. I even have a hard time saying I'm a blogger. I usually just say, "oh, I write a blog." Which is dumb, because my blog is ranked in the top 2,700 blogs, so I should qualify as a blogger, at the very least.

Except recently, I've learned to start saying I'm an environmental writer. Especially since I'm taking a 6 month sabbatical from work starting next week to finish writing my book so it seems totally reasonable to claim I'm a writer, no? I mean, I have a publisher and all, some entity silly enough to pay me an advance, right? Yet, the word "writer" still gets stuck in my throat and won't come out.

I think it's mostly because when I think of "writer", I think of authors. Of real books. Or fiction writers or, really, anyone beside myself. Because I don't feel like I've yet earned the title of writer. But, I suppose writing almost daily posts for three and a half years sort of qualifies. And, when my book is published the title will feel more fitting.

But for now, I still feel like I'm a softbloggeriter.

Tattoo toxicity

The following is a draft excerpt from my book on environmental toxins that will be coming out in 2011 from New Society Publishers:

In 2004, the American Environmental Safety Institute filed a lawsuit against a half dozen or so tattoo ink pigment manufacturers, claiming they failed to warn California residents about exposure to hazardous materials in their inks. The lead content found in the ink needed for a medium sized tattoo could contain between 1 to 23 micrograms of lead, which is considerably more than the 0.5 microgram per-day recommended limit. Some inks also contain metals such as aluminum, arsenic, mercury and chromium, in addition to lead. The heavy metals are used to give these pigments their permanent color, not unlike other artist paints, and the type of metal depends mostly on the color pigment as well as the manufacturer.

Considering that one in four adults in the U.S. has at least one tattoo, many of them sporting quite a few, this is an issue that really needs more widespread education on the potential risks. I have two tattoos of small to medium size. Both are in areas that aren’t visible and I have no interest in getting them removed, although it would make sense since I am exposed to the metals from the pigments.

However, there are a few issues with laser tattoo removal. The first issue is that additional chemicals are used on the skin to reduce surface temperature so your skin doesn’t scar. The more commonly used chemical is tetrafluoroethane, which is a very toxic greenhouse gas. The alternative, which is considered to be more “green”, is a carbon dioxide spray, or rather, a dry ice spray, which is better for your skin and the ozone layer .

The big issue with laser tattoo removal is that, when you break down the pigments into small particles, the body has to do something with them. Research done at the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) has been studying how tattoo ink breaks down in your body, either from exposure to sunlight or natural degradation, and the main question to be answered is, where does the pigment go? Are they broken down by enzymes or metabolized? At least in one study, researchers found that some pigment migrates from the tattoo site to the body’s lymph nodes . Considering that chemists at the NCTR identified low levels of carcinogens in tattoo ink, what kind of health impact is there in having a tattoo? And, if this is occurring under the normal lifetime of a tattoo, what happens when you try to remove it?

German scientists have shown that, after laser irradiation, the concentrations of toxic molecules from red and yellow tattoo inks increased up to 70-fold . Heat on the pigment triggers a chemical reaction that generates mutation-inducing and carcinogenic breakdown products that get reabsorbed by the body. At this point, it sounds more toxic to get them removed than to just leave them be.

One last point, too. The FDA warns that patients about to undergo an MRI let the technician know they have a tattoo, because it can swell or burn, most likely from the metals in the pigments. Something to keep in mind when I go visit the neurologist for that MRI for the numbness and tingling that I still have in my arms and legs.

Environmental toxin testing pow-wow

I have to tell you, I'm pretty excited after yesterday's meeting with a doctor of environmental medicine who specializes in environmental toxins. After talking with him (and three interns), we are designing a rather broad panel of body burden tests for me to undergo as part of the research and study that I'm doing for my book.

Right now they are arranging with multiple labs for blood, urine, hair and, possibly, fat tissue samples to test for an array of toxins that I have lurking in my body. Once we've identified which profiles I want to do, they'll order the test kits and we'll go to town. I am really interested to see what the results are.

I'll also be working with this doctor to help design therapies in the next phase of my book project to rid myself of toxins, mostly targeting heavy metals, chlorinated insecticides and PCBs. I already have preliminary information on how to do this, but will wait to get started until after I do all the testing.

Most importantly, this doctor is very excited about the project and is extremely interested in the outcomes, particularly how I've designed it. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what's going on with that as it moves forward!