Remove indoor pollution - get a plant!

Houseplants are great natural air fresheners. Many people want to use less chemicals around their home but still want the indoor air to smell fresh. Spray airfresheners can contain naphthalene, formaldehyde, sodium bisulphate, butane, propane, HCFC's to name but a few. Who wants all those chemicals hanging around your indoor air space. Many studies have shown that the air we breath indoors is far more polluted than that outside.

NASA scientists carried out a two year study which showed that the best pollution absorbing device in your home was the simple pot plant! Plants have an amazing ability to remove some toxic chemicals. Here's a list of fairly common pot plants that are great at purifying indoor air:

• Spider plant
• Peace Lily
• Bamboo
• Weeping fig
• Golden pothos
• English Ivy
• Dracaena (red edged, warneck and cornstalk varieties)
• Chinese evergreen

Happy planting!

How to build a worm farm

Worm farms can be used to reduce food waste by feeding the food scraps you would usually throw out to earthworms. Each worm can eat its own weight in food each day, and while this may not sound like much, a few thousand earthworms will be able to handle all the waste food scraps of a family of four. As well as being environmentally friendly, a worm farm is a great project to start with your kids. Tiger worms are best to use. Worm farms are a great choice for composting as they can compost much faster than any other method.
The worm waste can be used in the garden as fertiliser.

Here's how to get started:

• You can buy ready made worm farms at hardware stores or make your own. You can use many things as a container for your worm farm, here is a method using old car tyres. You will need:
  
• Three old tyres
• Corrugated metal a bit larger than the tyres
• SAck or permeable cloth
• Old bin lid that fits neatly over the tyres
• Lots of old newspapers
• Bucket or contain
• What to do:
• Put the corrugated metal is on a slope so any 'worm juice' runs off into the container you put underneath. You can create an artificial slope using old telephone directories or bricks. Cover the metal base with heavy plastic bags or sheeting to prevent it corroding
  
• Scrunch up the newspapers and soak them in water
  
• put one tyre on top of the metal and fill with scrunched up wet paper - put sacking on top of this to form a nest for the worms
• Fill the nest with compost, straw, worms, and manure. (the smell will go away once the farm is up and running)
• cover with a thick layer of wet newspaper
• Put the other two tyres on top and stuff with wet newspaper also.
• add food scraps on top and close the lid
• Make sure your worm farm is kept warm and dry away from the sun. Storing it in a garage is a great place. It needs to be dark for the worms to come up to feed so make sure the top is well covered.
• Food worms like:
• vegetable scraps
• fibre - tissues, teabags, ripped up egg cartons etc
  
• cooked food - dinner time left overs
  
• dust from the vacuum cleaner
  
• sawdust
• cheese
  
• And food they don't like:
  
• citrus fruit
• white bread
• meat
• bones
• onions
• Use the water that drains off as fertiliser for the garden but dilute it with 10 parts water first.
• Feed the worms little and often to keep rotting food smells to a minimum
• Keep the farm moist but not too wet or your worms will drown
• Start your worm farm off gently - with less food and gradually increase what you feed them as their population grows also.

Happy worm farming!!


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Color your way to a healthy diet

We all know that a colorful diet is a healthy diet but do you know why? The more color in your diet, the more antioxidants you get. But what do antioxidants actually do and what are the benefits of each 'color' group.

Antioxidants are compounds that reduce cell damage and prevent hardening of the arteries (which can lead to memory loss, heart disease and stroke. Each color represents a different class of nutrients with its own beneficial properties.

Here's a run down:

White:

The sulphur compounds in onions and garlic are thought to help prevent stomach and colon cancers. Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C and Cauliflower has great anti cancer benefits.

Yellow or Orange

Yellow or orange vegetables such as carrots, pumpkin, mango, corn and melon contain carotenoids - which have cancer prevention properties

Red

Red fruits such as tomato and watermelon are full of lycopene - which protects against heart disease and cancer.

Green:

Lutein can be found in the green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli - this is good for vision.

Purple:

Anthocyanins found in blueberries and blackberries prevent tumours forming and slow their growth.


So now you know why colorful meals look so appealing - our bodies instinctively know they are good for us.

Are your cosmetics making you sick

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Are the chemicals in your cosmetics taking a toll on your health? Ever since Elizabeth I succumbed to lead poisoning from the make up she used to keep her features porcelain white, women the world over have been using poisonous chemicals to make themselves look more appealing.
If you have ever looked at the ingredient list on your cosmetic labels, you'll probably find a lot of long words that don't mean very much to the average woman. Most of which will never be mentioned in the cosmetic companies advertising campaign.
Did you know for example that regular use of talcum powder has been associated with up to a 400% increase in ovarian cancer.
In europe over 1000 different compounds have been banned for use in personal care products but most of these products are still used in the US. Only 10 chemicals are banned in the states and many other non european countries lag far behind.

Here's a short list of chemicals you should avoid at the cosmetics counter:

Lead acetate:

Banned in europe but not in the US, it is used in some cleansers and hair dyes and is a reproductive and developmental toxin.


DEA and MEA (diethanolamine and monoethanolomine)

Have been shown to cause liver and kidney tumours in mice.

Phthalates:

Found in nail polishes, perfumes and hair sprays, phthalates are reproductive and developmental toxins, two of which have been banned in europe.

Paraffin (and other petrochemicals)

Used in many cosmetics from eyebrow pencils to lip balms. Some are known carcinogens others suspected carcinogens. The innocuously named mineral oil is a petroleum derivative which interferes with the skins natural immune barrier and hampers the skins ability to breathe, it can result in premature ageing.

Mercury:

Found in some eye drops and mascaras and a suspected carcinogen. Can be listed as thimerosal.

Formaldehyde:

Used in embalming and as a preservative in many cosmetics. Can cause negative skin reactions. Can also be known as quaternium 15 and diazolidinyl urea.



So, your starting to get a bit worried and perhaps realise you only looking at the tip of the iceberg here? Well, heres a few links to point you in the right direction:

www.usenature.com/skincare.html
Gives a list of companies that sell only natural skincare products. Australian based

http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org/Pages/PhthalateFree.html

a list of phthalate free cosmetic companies

http://www.natural-skincare-authority.com/cosmetic-chemicals.html

a more comprehensive list of chemicals used in cosmetics

www.healthlifemoney.com

If you know of any more please feel free to send an email

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