Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

     In HealthyPeople 2020, I found an environmental objective related to environmental health. I found EH-1 "Reduce the number of days the Air Quality Index exceeds 100". This HealthyPeople goal wants us, like the title says, to reduce the number of days the Air Quality Index exceeds 100. Its target is 10 daus, and its baseline is 11 days exceeded 100 on the Air Quality Index in 2008.
     In THOMAS, the search engine for government bills, I found a bill related to this HealthyPeople objective: H.R. 3122. Here is an overview on this bill...

      H.R. 3122 Clean Construction Act of 2011

     Title: To amend titles 23 and 49, United States Code, to establish procedures to advance the use of cleaner construction equipment on Federal-Aid highway and public transportation construction projects, to make the acquisition and installation of emission control technology an eligible expense in carrying out such projects, and for other purposes.

     Sponsor: Rep Hanna (introduced 6/10/2011)

     Recommendation: Vote YES for H.R. 3122 Clean Construction Act of 2011

http://rifuture.org

Who Represents Me

For this week I researched the people who represent us Minnesotans in the political system. As a health educator, it is imortant to know who represents you so that you know who to contact if you ever need advice, have a public complaint, or whatever you need. This is what I found...

President of the United States
Barack Obama
www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Govenor of MN
Mark Dayton
http://mn.gov/govenor
     Office of the Govenor
     130 State Caapitol
     75 Rev. Dr. Martin LUther King Jr. Blvd.
     St. Paul, MN 55155

United States Senators
Senator Amy Klobuchar
http://klobuchar.senate/gov
  302 Hart Senate Office Building
  Washington, D.C. 20515

Senator Al Franken
http://franken.senate.gov/
   60 East Plato Blvd
   Suite 220
   Saint Paul, Mn 55107

United States Representative
Chip Cravaak
http://cravaack.house.gov/
   508 Cannon HOB
   Washington, CD 20515

MN State Representative
Thomas Huntley
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?id=10271
   351 State Office Building
   100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
   Saint Paul, MN 55155

MN State Senator
Roger J. Reinert
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/member_bio.php?mem_id=1167
   100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
   State Office Building, Room 149
   St. Paul, MN 55155

Weekly Reflection: Weeks 1 - 7

   So far in this Environmental Health class I have learned so many things! We have gone over a lot, such as plastic water bottles, the food industry and animal treatment, and learning to blog. My favorite thing to learn about thus far was genetically modified foods. Genetically modified foods seem to me to be just wrong and something I feel needs to be labeled on the packaging the food comes in. It is not proven to be safe, and our children are starting to be born with defects and such. I learned that I am super passionate about this and it is definitely something I want to work on for my Advocacy Project.

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

   For this weeks eye opener, I used Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary and Wikipedia to define some words...

• Antique: "a product from an earlier time"
• Junk: "something of little meaning/worth/significance"
• Flea Market: "an open-air market for second hand articles and antiques"
• Thrift Shop: "a shop that sells secondhand articles"
• Upcycling: "converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of a better quality or higher environmental value"
• Resale Shop: "a local, seconhand thrift store"

These terms above have a lot to do with environmental health. These things can all be reused and recycled into new things or shared among people to not buy so much new things and use the old ones in a new way.  The terms above can be found in many local places. To pick Duluth, MN as an area, you can find these items from these terms at...

• Antique Shop: Father Time Antiques on 395 S Lake Ave #1, or call (218) 625 - 2379
• Junk Dealer: Chesney Auto Salvage located at 6250 Bear River Road or call (218) 206 - 8713
• Flea Market: Beaver Bay Flea Market off Hwy 61 just as you get into Beaver Bay. 
• Thrift Shop: Goodwill located at 4883 Miller Trunk Hwy, or call (218) 727 - 0001
• Upcycling: Cut Loose Creations on 2420 East 6th Street, or call (218) 724 - 5761
• Resale Shop: Plato's Closet located at 5115 Burning Tree Road #315 C, or call (218) 733 - 9455e

Get Your Junk On...
   I visited Junk Market Style online and found some really cool things that were reused into something new. Three of the coolest things I foud were...

            Fun Fall Inspired Bracelet - the creator took old rhinestones and charms and compiled them into one beautiful bracelet. This is so appealing to me because it is something anyone can do with old charms from a second hand shop.

Fun Fall Inspired Bracelet

           Today...It's All About The Gourd - the creator of this project took gourds and made them into a lovely floral arrangement. It is cool to me because it would look great on a table at Thanksgiving or anytime during fall to really make your home festive.       

Today...It's All About The Gourd

       Twig Chandelier - the creator of this twig chandelier did an amazing job and is my favorite by far! The took twigs and bent and tied them together in a chandelier shape and then spray painted it. This is my favorite because once it is finished and hung up, it looks so simple and effortlessly beautiful. It would really add something to any room.     

Twig Chandelier

 

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

This Past Week 
  Well, it is the final week of my Eco Chic Lifestyle Change. To remind everyone what my SMART goal was, here it is below...
       "I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home for the next 10 weeks."

  This past week I did GREAT in achieving my SMART goal and did not use any paper napkins in my apartment at all. This was a very hard challenge to meet, and I did struggle a few times, like when I spilled my glass of water at lunch and paper napkins were also close to me. But I did end up going for towels so I did not use the paper napkins, and I still used my cloth napkin for the meal. I kept cloth napkins on the table before I even started my meals, and that really helped me accomplish my goal.

  Through this all, I learned that if you have cloth napkins at the ready, you will use them. I also learned to perservere even in rough situations. I also plan to continue this goal as long as I am able since it is very helpful to the environment and economically convientinet also.


The Entire Process
   So throughout this entire time period, my SMART goal has remained the same ("I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home for the next 10 weeks."). My goal was acievable by me doing certain things to help myself, such as putting cloth napkins in convenient places (such as on the kitchen table), or not putting any paper napkins in an easy-to-reach spot.
    Some things did get in my way, though. These things included me not having any clean cloth napkins, not having one near me in an "emergency" when I spilled a liquid, or things such as that. To fix these issues in the future, I will always have cloth napkins out at the ready on my kitchen table.

   This goal for me was great: it made me feel good about my impact on the environment as well as feeling better about my kitchen since the coth napkins looked so spiffy on it. By not buying paper napkins, I cut back on my material waste, helped save trees, and lessened my environmental impact.Because of all these positive impacts of my SMART goal, I will definitely continue to use cloth napkins in the future and will give cloth napkins as presents so that others can also use them and help reduce their own environmental footprint.

                                                                   http://www.kaboodle.com


 

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group and CoverGirl

   For this eye opener, I digged into the mascara I use: CoverGirl's Professional Remarkable Mascara. I went to the website for Skin Deep Cosmetic Database and entered in the mascara I use. What I found was shocking...a 7 out of 10 was alloted to my mascara...not good.

   On a scale of low, moderate, or high, the "overall hazard" for my CoverGirl Mascara was moderately high, the "allergies and immunotoxicity" was high, and the "use restirctions" was moderate, with the overal health concern being high. Overall, I found out that my is not very safe to use.

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/159521/CoverGirl_Professional_Remarkable_Mascara%2C_Very_Black_200/     

   For my thoughts on this, it is alarming. I have heard before that CoverGirl can be unsafe, and I think that I will stop using CoverGirl products. I don't want to get sick just from my choice of makeup. It's definitely time for a new makeup brand.              

Eco Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

To remind you guys, my Eco Chic SMART Goal was 

              "I will use a cloth napkin for 2 out of the 3 meals I eat daily in my home fro the next 10 weeks."

                                  http://cloud9design.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/ds2.jpg

I did good this past week with keeping up my goal, but like always, had one slip up. I had spaghetti for dinner one night, which turned out to be very messy, and also spilled the saucepan on the table, and my paper napkins were the closest thing in a fast reach. Although I always keep cloth napkins on the table, making my goal very easy, I did not have any on the table at this meal, which was a big mustake since it was spaghetti haha. I put more cloth napkins out right after this, though, and it has been going great. I put cloth napkins at my boyfriends apartment also, which did not work out, and niether him nor his roommates use them. 

For next week I will continue as is and keep cloth napkins readily available on my kitchen table at all times in hopes that I do not use a single paper napkin in my home. This I beleive is an achievable goal.