This Week on My Internet Radio Show: What's in your Kids and Grandkids Schools

Go here: WebTalkRadio to listen or download the program.

My guest this week is Kim Martin. Kim is Co-director of Grades of Green, a non-profit organization that helps parents and educators create a healthier environment in their kid’s schools. 

The organization also empowers the kids to become advocates for positive changes in their schools.

Prior to founding Grades of Green, Kim Martin practiced environmental law for more than 15 years. Her practice included all areas of environmental law and her specialty was enforcing the laws.

Grades of Green has been honored with many awards, including the US EPAs prestigious Environmental Award. You’re going to learn about the programs that Grades of Green offers to help parents; teachers and administrators make their schools greener and safer for the children. You’re not going to want to miss this one!

Since I do this show weekly, we can inform you of each show with an email reminder.  Just click here to register.

Grades of Green Website: http://www.gradesofgreen.org/

Protect Yourself and Your Family From Mosquitoes

It's mosquito time again and I’ve printed this information before, but in case you missed it or forgot it, here it is again.

I want to share with you some natural steps you can take to prevent mosquito bites. Yes, you can buy bug spray loaded with poisons, but do you really want that in or on your body when there are much safer options?

One option has recently been approved by the Center for Disease Control. Oil of eucalyptus offers a protection level that is similar to products with low concentrations of DEET. You can find it in Repel's Lemon Eucalyptus.

Two other options were reported in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers found that a soybean based product called Bite Blocker was the most effective and another product called Buzz Away was also effective.

Another natural alternative that I have written about in a previous Teplitz Email Report is a vitamin supplement called Vitamin B1. When you are going to be outside, all you need to do is take 100 mg every six to eight hours and it will protect you from being bitten.

The Army did the original research on vitamin B1 a number of years ago. They sent two groups of soldiers out into the bush for two weeks. One group was given bug goop and the other group took only Vitamin B1. When they came out of the bush, the group using the bug goop was covered with bug bites. The Vitamin B1 group had hardly any bites on them.

A couple of years ago, I went camping with some friends who have hiked the Appalachian Trail. They were willing to experiment and they took the Vitamin B1. Boy, were they surprised when they had no bites at all at the end of the weekend. Another friend was working as a camp counselor in Maine. She wrote me and said the B1 worked great for mosquitoes, and what did I have for gnats?

So you now have more tools to put into your prevention quiver.

An Unexpected Problem With Monsanto’s Roundup

There’s another problem with Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup besides it’s encouraging the growth of super weeds, and the need for ever greater applications of insecticide. The unexpected issue is radioactivity.

It turns out that phosphate ore is mined to produce phosphorus which is used to make glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup.

To get the phosphorus, Monsanto maintains the only plant in the US that refines the phosphate ore.

At the end of the process you are left with molten slag which contains radioactive uranium and radium.

Oh, by the way, Monsanto produces over 200 million pounds of the stuff every year. crazy for the environment!

Understanding The Impact OF Electronic Pollution

We are being exposed to more and more radio-frequency radiation and high frequency transmissions from cell phones, transmission towers, terrestrial antennas, Wi-Fi and Wi-Max telecommunication systems, broadband connections being sent over power lines and our own personal electronic equipment.

Is there a way to turn the clock back to see the difference now versus years ago in the impact of this electronic pollution?

Well, there is. Dr. Samuel Milham has found that Old-Order Amish people, who don’t use electricity, had lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, suicide and cancer.

They also have uncommonly low levels of neurodegenerative disease and not one case of ADHD.

Amazing Facts About Our Ocean

Scientists have recently discovered a new deep-ocean current starting in Antarctica and flowing north which carries oxygenated water into the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Here’s the amazing part. This flow is 3.2 billion gallons per second. This is the equivalent of 40 Amazon Rivers.

Even more amazing is the amount of water flowing in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current–34.3 billion gallons per second! The things were don’t know about our world are simply astounding.

In addition, take a guess as to how many bacterial cells are in a cubic centimeter of ocean water. How about 1 million? These vast numbers of cells produce half of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

Collectively, these bacteria cells weigh more than 240 billion African elephants. And we view ourselves as the top species on the planet!

Federal Government To Purchase Environmentally Friendly Products

By an Executive Order, the government is now required to purchase environmentally friendly products.

According to the order, 95% of new government contracts must contain recycled content and sustainable materials.

By fiscal year 2015, the goal is to increase the quantity of sustainable products from 41,000 to 250,000. Hurray for the environment!

That’s quite a commitment. This Executive Order should have a major impact on the development of new sustainable products.

Speaking of commitments to the environment, there is a website that rates companies by their commitment to fighting global warming. There are 22 criteria that the organization uses.

The top six companies in the household products area are L‘Oreal, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark, Clorox and Avon.

Congrats to those companies. To read about the scores in many industries, go to http://www.climatecounts.org/scorecard_overview.php.

Think About Summer Sun…Now, Think Of No Damage From The Sun

Two things about this sentence stand out. One, it’s March and it’s still cold, and two, too much such can cause damage to the skin. Well, it being March is true, but sun damage may become a thing of the past.

It turns out humans lack a key enzyme found in many animals and plants that reverses severe sun damage. Research published in Nature reported that scientists were able to observe the enzyme photolyase inject a single electron and proton into an injured strand of DNA.

These subatomic particles healed the damage in a fraction of a second. After the repair is done the electron and the proton are automatically ejected out of the DNA and back into the photolyase enzyme so it’s ready to use again.

For readers who are old enough to remember it, the statement comes to mind of…”who was that masked man” or in this case…”what was that enzyme.”

We’re Not The Only Ones With Social Networks -Think Plants

Botanists have tried to figure out why some trees don’t grow well near members of their own species while others do.

It turns out that newly sprouted seeds respond to soil-dwelling microbes near the tree’s roots. These microbes can harm a tree’s seedlings so the seeds need to get away from the mother tree.

This has caused trees to evolve methods of dispersal of their seeds by using fruits that get eaten and seeds that get blown on the wind.

There are also plants that fare better when they are surrounded by their own kind. Sagebrush, for example, sends out airborne chemical cues from its foliage and branches that play a vital role in protecting the plants against insect attack.

One study showed that two genetically identical sagebrush plants grown next to each other were more effective fending off caterpillars and grasshoppers than two unrelated plants.

So…the notion of “friending” started a long time ago.

Combining Green Ideas

A reader of OnEarth, Charles J. Cole, wrote a letter to the editor that I thought had some great ideas. He suggested that when we focus on developing renewable energy that we need to use a multipronged approach for conservation. He then gave examples of this approach and I thought one was brilliant.

He’s from Tucson, Arizona, where he’s found that some people are starting to use rainwater for various uses and others are setting up large arrays of solar panels. His idea is to put gutters on solar panels and pipe off the rain into storage areas.

He’s figured since water is scarce in Tucson, which only gets about 12 inches of rain a year, a square mile of solar panels could collect over 208 million gallons of water.

Pretty cool idea!

(Reported in OnEarth Summer 2010)

Kids Brains Are Impacted Just By Seeing Domestic Violence

Researchers at Harvard and Kumamoto Universities found that children aged 3 to 17 years old who saw severe domestic physical violence at home showed reduced development of the visual cortex in the right hemisphere of the brain by an average of 20.5%.

The visual cortex is where information from our eyes is processed. This means that the child may not process clearly what is going on in their environment.

Some other research I read several years ago talked about how children, whose mothers experienced major stress while the baby was in the womb, experienced greater growth at the brain stem. This is where the fight or flight response originates. Children whose mothers experienced a calm pregnancy experienced greater growth in the front part of the brain where higher reasoning is located.

This study on domestic violence further reinforces that our environment affects the way our brain develops.

(Reported : The Virginian Pilot April 26, 2010)

What Time You Go To Sleep May Affect Your Level Of Depression

Brazilian researchers found that people who go to sleep late at night are nearly 3 times more likely to experience depression symptoms than people who go to sleep early and wake up early.

The researchers speculated that there may be an optimal time to fall asleep and to wake up.

My guess is that this may be accurate since it is only a relatively short period of time that we’ve had electricity which has allowed us to stay up far later into the night than our ancestors who had no electricity.

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CONTAGIOUS STRESS

by Keith Wilhelm

Yes. Stress is contagious. Just ask my wife.

What it would be like to come home every day to a grumpy spouse. I used to do this to my spouse. Then I began to notice that she was beginning to become grumpy also. My stress was beginning to affect her. She had finally caught my contagions stress. She was now a grumpy woman.

I am proud to say that if you learn to be stress hardy you can have a much better life. We did and because of it we have now been married for over thirty happy years. We have learned how to deal with our stress together and individually.

Stress can be caught from anyone unless you become stress hardy. This is the process of building yourself up to resist the negative effects of a stressed out person.

You too can learn to deal with your stress and enjoy a happier life because of it.

 

Here are some tips for developing stress hardiness.

Ten Steps For Stress Hardiness.

1. Know that stress hardiness begins with you. Learn to deal with your stress problems and you will be much happier. The happier you are, the harder it is for someone else to cause you stress.

2. Take care of yourself physically. Try this test. Stay up late for a few days and work overtime everyday. Now notice how tired you are, and how hard it is to deal with trouble. What you eat is also very important. A great comparison is putting bad fuel in your fancy vehicle. If you do this it will let you down, run bad and die. Like wise, if you put bad food in your system, your body will give you poor performance and eventually you will die.

3. Counting your blessings. Most of you have heard this before. Well, that is because it works. Begin and end your day by being thankful for what you have and your days will be blessed with feelings of gratefulness.

4. Plan your day. This great little secret will save you enough time in your day to do the important things you need to do for yourself. A plan will help keep you focused and going in the right direction. Don¡¯t forget to plan out of your day things you don¡¯t need to do or can be done by someone else.

5. Start your day off with some peppy, bubbly music. First thing in the morning I like to listen to music that peps me up and gets me going. It¡¯s better than coffee and the only side effects are the bubbly feelings inside. You might find yourself dancing on your way to work.

6. Get involved with helping others. This is the best way to get your mind off your problems. This tip makes you a real blessing to others because we are our brothers¡¯ keepers.

7. Sometimes life deals out a situation that we won¡¯t know how to deal with. Get help from someone before it gets out of hand.

8. Build someone up everyday. Tell them they are great. Say hi and smile to everyone you meet. Spread as many blessings as you can. The reward is unbelievable.

9. Do something for yourself. Start a hobby. I took up drumming and meet some wonderful people in the process. On drumming nights I sleep like a baby and feel great the next day.

10. Always remember that you are a wonderful person. You, like all people, deserve to be loved and respected.”

Author's Bio
Keith K Wilhelm is the Founder of Stresskickers.com and author of an E-book titled "5 Steps to a Stress Free Life."Keith is in the final steps of finishing his new E-book titled "Now What Do I Do With My Life." He speaks on "Stress" and "Discovering Your Dreams." Keith has taught relationship workshops from 1998 through 2000. He has been researching stress, relationships and personal development since 1995. Programs studied include John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" and "Personal Success", Anthony Robbins "Personal Power", Jerry V. Teplitz "Switched On Living" and many many more.

Keith’s Latest Book, now at Amazon, “Now What Do I Do With My Life” – Insight into the Future brings Power to the Present.

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The Surprising Truth About Attitudes In The Workplace

A recently released large-scale study of workplace attitudes reveals that minority employees are just as engaged at work as their white colleagues. These results came from a study done by Sirota Survey Intelligence reviewing over 800,000 employee responses in 40 companies over the last five years.

Both white and minority managers had an 80% and 81% rating, respectively, on a favorable view of employee engagement at work. Regular employees rated themselves favorably with whites scoring 76% and minorities scoring 79%.

On fairness, African-American managers perceive that there is less fairness and development opportunities in their workplace with 61% rating the environment favorable versus 75% for whites. Hispanics reported at 74% and Asians at 68%.

Among regular employees the numbers were even lower, with only 59% of African-Americans rating the workplace favorable on fairness versus 66% for whites.

Finally, Hispanic managers and employees were the most engaged with a rating of 83% and 89%, respectively.

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American Medical Association Backs Organic Foods

The AMA has chosen to adopt a policy supporting a sustainable food system. The AMA has recognized that our industrial food production methods are a significant contributor to increased antibiotic resistance, climate change, air and water pollution.

The AMA sees locally produced and organic foods as a way to reduce fuel use, decrease packaging and waste disposal while preserving farmland. All this leads to cleaner air and lowers the incidence of asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.

If the AMA agrees that organic is good, it’s got to be good!

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THE LIGHT OVER YOUR HEAD

THE LIGHT OVER YOUR HEAD

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,Dr. John Ott,full spectrum lighting,sunlight and depression,SAD,headaches,eyestrain,afternoon fatigue,sleep disturbances

Now that winter is here, I want to share with you in this month's report the impact of the lighting that's over your head at home and at work.  And you can watch other's share their comments on the lights "over their heads" here: Lighting Research Videos

First, let's look at sunlight. Sunlight is made up of balanced energy from across the entire light spectrum, while regular fluorescent tubes and light bulbs only contain a narrow part of that spectrum.

In recent years a significant body of research has linked the regular lighting to depression, increased stress levels, headaches, eyestrain, afternoon fatigue, sleep disturbances, and difficulty concentrating and learning.

The original research was done by Dr. John Ott in 1960. Ott did time lapse photography of plants growing and blooming for Walt Disney. Due to the difficulties Ott had in getting the flowers to bloom in the middle of the winter, he began to experiment with the variables. From this he discovered the impact that light had on the plant's growth.

Since that time there has been some fascinating research on the effects of light on humans. Let me summarize some of it:

1. In 1980, Dr. Alfred Lewy at the National Institute of Health showed how darkness produces a hormone in the brain that makes us sleepy. He then found that regular indoor lighting is interpreted by the brain's bineal gland as darkness. This means many people will feel depleted after being indoors all day.

2. In 1984, the American Medical Association officially recognized a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It occurs in late autumn and winter when there isn't a lot of outdoor light. The treatment is to be under a bank of natural spectrum tubes. (These natural spectrum tubes will even get rid of the mid-winter blahs.)

3. In the book Light - Medicine of the Future by Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D. wrote that regular fluorescent tubes increased stress and absenteeism.

4. A five-year Canadian study conducted by Dr. Harry Wohlfarth found a link between lighting and levels of stress, absenteeism and overall achievement in the classroom.

So, what's the alternative?  Using fluorescent tubes, bulbs, and flood lights that simulate the natural spectrum of sun light.

Here's some feedback we've received from our clients. I think it's amazing that light can have such a powerful impact on how we feel and function.

FEEDBACK
"My company purchased and installed the lighting throughout our offices. The effect was instantaneous!  Our people commented on how nice the lighting was softer, brighter and less draining than the previous fluorescent tubes."
     Jan Turnbill
     Bottomline
     Adelaide, Australia       
"When I first talked to your company five years ago, I was skeptical of the concept of full spectrum lighting.  We ordered a case of fluorescents for our meeting room as a test.  The results led us to completely relight our entire office building and personal homes with full spectrum lighting."
     Bob Teague
     American Hostess Corporation
     Reynoldsburg, OH
"Since replacing all of the bookstore's lights with the Excella, headaches are almost non-existent and dry eyes are a thing of the past.  We noticed an improvement in our eyes almost immediately. The headaches were gone in a day or two.  Our store is brighter overall. Some of the comments from employees and customers are: 'More natural, more like being outdoors'; 'I like them better, and I think they have improved co-workers moods'; 'I love them, everything looked so yellow before.'"
     Linda Rinker
     University of Wyoming Bookstore
     Laramie, WY
"I absolutely love the new lighting.  What a calming effect it has had within the office.  It's like we have skylights all over the office. Thank you for making a difference in our lives!"
     Kelly Herron
     Builder's 1st Choice
     Columbia, MD
"It is not too often that so many people agree on one item.  With the full spectrum lighting, the entire office work force is in agreement that this lighting has made a positive impact on their work environment."
     Gene Fahrney
     Baker Manufacturing Company
     Evansville, WI

Can you get these results yourself? Well, the best way to find out is to try the lighting yourself. I've talked to my supplier, and he's willing to let you try the tubes, bulbs and flood lights for 60 days. If after 60 days you decide you don't like the lighting, you can return it and receive a full refund. 

PLUS:  These lights are exceptionally long-lived. The light bulbs typically last 20,000 hours (that's the equivalent of 26 light bulbs), and the tubes last 33,000 hours (that's equal to 4 regular tubes).

Because of their long life they all come with the two-year replacement guarantee. (Burn-Out Guarantee)

More information and all details:  http://www.jtv-energy-lights.com

Non-Chemical Way to rid fleas, pests and moles from your yard...

There’s a great natural, non-chemical way to get rid of fleas and many other pests around your home in your backyard. It’s by using a tiny bug called a ...

... nematode.

This bug specializes in eating all kinds of grubs. In its earlier stage a flea is in the grub stage.

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,get rid of fleas,nematodes,moles,non-chemical pesticide,natural pesticide

As soon as the nematodes finish eating all the grubs in your lawn, they will die. This will rid your property of all kinds of bugs as well as fleas! (Moles love grubs, so when the grubs are gone, so are the moles!)

The nematodes come on a sponge and since they are microscopic, you’ll never see the millions of them there.

Just spread them on your lawn and let them do their work! To order the nematodes you can go to Yardiac, & search for "nematodes".

Try this before you try chemical pesticides, you'll be happier and so will your children and pets. There are natural ways to take care of pests while protecting the environment!

Bookmark

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Bank Relights Entire Building with Full Spectrum

Bank Relights Entire Building

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One of our clients, a bank in Indiana, did some experimenting with the full-spectrum lighting that I talk about at many of my programs.

At my suggestion, they lit the lower level of the bank offices, where there are no windows, with full-spectrum lighting.

The feedback was so positive that they have now relamped the other two floors of the building!

For Video Testimonials from business and individuals, you can watch them all here: Full Spectrum Videos

Feedback From A Reader On The Full Spectrum Lights

Feedback From A Reader On The Full Spectrum Lights:

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,Full spectrum sunlight,full spectrum flourescent,full spectrum lights,seasonal affective disorder,depression,serotonin and sunlight,carey hansen

I just received an email from Carey Hansen in Green Bay about the impact of the full spectrum fluorescent lighting she had purchased from us at http://www.jtv-energy-lights.com

She was excited because it got rid of her seasonal affective disorder illness, which causes severe depression. Here’s what she said:

“Just wanted to let you know that earlier this year I purchased lighting for the office I work in. Normally in fall I suffer from SAD… this year I had little or no affect from the change of seasons.
The only thing I can attribute it to is the lighting. If I hadn’t tried it I wouldn’t have believed it!!!  I am definitely sold on how much lighting can affect a person. Thank you sooo much!”

       Carey, you are welcome.

Researchers from the University of Toronto reported in a study published in Archives of General Psychiatry have figured out what is going on in the brain. They did brain scans of volunteers and discovered that levels of serotonin were lower in autumn and winter than spring and summer.

Because sunlight regulates a protein controlling serotonin levels, lack of sunshine means less serotonin, which is the bodies "feel good" chemical.

A Non-Chemical Way To Get Rid Of Fleas, Pests and Moles In Your Yard

There’s a great natural, non-chemical way to get rid of fleas and many other pests around your home in your backyard. It’s by using a tiny bug called a ...

... nematode.

This bug specializes in eating all kinds of grubs. In its earlier stage a flea is in the grub stage.

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,get rid of fleas,nematodes,moles,non-chemical pesticide,natural pesticide

As soon as the nematodes finish eating all the grubs in your lawn, they will die. This will rid your property of all kinds of bugs as well as fleas!  (Moles love grubs, so when the grubs are gone, so are the moles!)

The nematodes come on a sponge and since they are microscopic, you’ll never see the millions of them there.

Just spread them on your lawn and let them do their work! To order the nematodes you can go to Yardiac, & search for "nematodes".

Try this before you try chemical pesticides, you'll be happier and so will your children and pets.  There are natural ways to take care of pests while protecting the environment!

Bookmark

Technorati Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,get rid of fleas,non-chemical pesticide,nematodes,moles

Stop Getting Catalogs And Save Some Trees

>Stop Getting Catalogs And Save Some Trees!!

It seems like the Post Office is mostly delivering bills and catalogs to our homes. Would you believe, 19 billion catalogs a year are shipped?

If you’re like me, you toss most of them and just browse a few. Yet each catalog represents trees that were cut down and energy expended in the paper-making, printing and shipping operations.

While a number of companies are now using recycled paper in their catalogs, there are too many catalogs going into landfills.

Now you can do something about it. There is a website, www.catalogchoice.org, where with just a few clicks you can stop unwanted catalogs from coming to your home or office.

Save your catalogs for about one month as you will need to enter the names of the ones you want to stop receiving. Just imagine the impact if we all eliminated just 25% of the catalogs coming to our mailboxes!

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