LILL's LIST

According to an article in Science Daily, scientists have developed a weapon to fight Colony Collapse. The really neat part of this is that the weapon is bees. That’s right. The mite-fighting bees have been specially bred to search out Varroa mites and remove them from the nest.

Varroa mites, aka  “vampire mites” are thought to be a significant contributing factor in Colony Collapse, which threatens bee populations around the world – and thus the human food supply also. The tiny mite establishes itself in the cells that nourish bee pupa, then reproduces inside the sealed cell, so it’s hard for the bees to find it and remove it.

The little blood-suckers then feed on the bees’ lymph fluid and blood and, once established, are very hard to get rid of. The sealed chambers, which are designed to protect the baby bees, also protect the baby mites until they’re large enough to do a lot of damage. One-fifth of Britain’s bee population was wiped out by this little invader last year. Around the world, bees died by the millions and science seemed unable to do anything about it.

Now, though, with the discovery that bees have a gene for hygiene which is more strongly expressed in some bees than others – a clean gene, if you will – they can be bred to be more aggressive about mite-removal. The new breed of bee actually chews through the wax seal and removes the mite-infested pupa, thus killing the baby mites before they can reproduce. And when Mama Mite makes more mini-mites, the cleaner bees come back and wipe them out also.

This can cut down on the mites enough to let the colony survive. While the mites aren’t the only factor in Colony Collapse – pesticides, fungicides and other pathogens may be be factors also – reducing their damage should go a long way toward helping bee populations survive while researchers work to find an answer to the problem.

Source: Science Daily-Bees Fight Back Against Colony Collapse Disorder: Some Honey Bees Toss Out Varroa Mites

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I just read a brochure outlining Safe Eating Guidelines for Fish and Shellfish in Maine. It’s put out by the state of Maine, where sport fishing is a big part of the economy. In it, Maine environmental officials urge that pregnant women and children under 8 limit their intake of some fish to two meals a month.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a warning like that, it doesn’t make me run right over to the calendar and circle the two days I’m going to put PCB‘s, Dioxin, Mercury and DDT on the dinner table.

Nope, freshwater fish caught in Maine have been off our menu for years. Ditto for fish caught offshore near the estuaries where toxins accumulate in shellfish, lobsters and fish.  We do eat wild-caught salmon, chunk light tuna on occasion and shellfish from unpolluted waters.

You might want to check your state’s advisories on fish and anything else you might eat that comes from fresh or saltwater. Also, none of these advisories take into account any of the other toxins our bodies imbibe from water, air and food. This stuff is cumulative and also most likely has a synergistic effect when combined.

And while we’re floundering around in murky waters, let’s not forget to help out our froggy little friends who are sinking fast. Fish and shellfish aren’t the only species that are facing extinction. Take a minute and hop over to Save the Frogs where you can learn more about why we can’t wait to do something about the threat that hangs over the future of whole species of frogs and toads.

Kids will like Cool Facts About Frogs and you can print out posters, donate to the non-profit organization or surf the links to other amphibian resources. Or just revel in the many beautiful pictures of these amazing little creatures and find out what a Caecilian is when it’s at home. Hey, my spell-check dictionary didn’t know what it was, do you?

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Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Crown,Del Monte, North American Metal Packaging Alliance, Inc., Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), American Chemistry Council… These are the companies that met recently to come up with strategies to keep BPA from being banned in CA. According to an article at the Environmental Working Group’s web site, they also put up $500,00 to implement their plans.

One of their ideas is having a young pregnant woman giving speeches around the country in support of BPA’s good points. I’m not exactly sure what good things she could say about something that’s a proven endocrine system disruptor, but I’m sure they’d come up with something. They’re good at marketing slogans. Maybe, “Without BPA, What Would You Have to Worry About?”

At any rate, prepare yourself for whatever  the BPA Joint Trade Association Meeting on Communications Strategy comes up with to keep making money from something that poisons baby formula, soda and canned fruits and vegetables. While you’re waiting, you might want to totter on over to the EWG site and sign up to do some campaigning of your own against Big Business and its slimy tactics. Oh yes, and an email to the companies who think BPA is just ducky wouldn’t go amiss either. Tell them Lill – the DES Daughter – sent you.

Back in the late 60′s , when being green usually meant that you had sneaked a cigarette, I argued unsuccessfully with my mother over wearing makeup. I was for it; she was against it until I reached the magic age of fifteen. For some reason I never did fathom, in those days, that was apparently the age all parents had agreed upon as being appropriate for female cosmetic use. True, some of my more daring schoolmates snuck cocoa colored lipstick into their pockets and applied it on the bus, but most didn’t. However, like me, they couldn’t wait to apply the potions and polishes that their older sisters and cousins wore.

Now, I have a tween, an 11 year old daughter who is already begging me for nail polish, lipstick and anything else that will make her look like Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana. She and I are having some of the same discussions I had with my mother, but because I’m NOT my mother, we hold them a little differently.

Rather than forbidding her to “make herself up like a hussy”, which is what my mother did with me, we talk about why it’s not such a hot idea to paint, polish and perfect herself with the stuff that comes out of those little tubes, bottles and pots. For instance, we talk about what’s in all the glamourous potions that make you look better. We also talk about why it’s good to realize that it’s not necessary to enhance your looks on a daily basis and how looking like yourself is the best thing most of the time.

Recently, she found some water-based, “non-toxic” nail polish at a health food store and you might have thought she’d found the holy grail. Excitedly, she showed me the beautiful colors it came in and assured me that there was nothing harmful in it. Then I got her to look at the label and we saw that there was polyurethane in it.  She pouted. I went to look at organic honey. She came over to me and asked if she could get it and only wear it once in a long while for special occasions.

I thought about it and said she could. Her face lit up like the sun and she floated out to the car and then to our hotel where she applied two coats of the magic elixir to her fingernails and toenails. That was two days ago and most of it has worn off, but she hasn’t asked me if she can reapply it and the bottle is still in her backpack. If she does ask, I’ll remind her that it’s only for special occasions and has an ingredient that isn’t good to put on her skin more than once in a long while.

I’m sure I’m not the only one facing the cosmetic clash with a daughter. Now, however, girls start wearing makeup and nail polish when they’re toddlers and no one seems to think anything of it. I even know Green mamas who let their tots smear their lips with bright lip gloss that has artificial flavors, colors and petroleum products in it. These are the same mothers who won’t let their kids have anything with corn syrup in it. I don’t get it.

It seems to me that, along with issues about self-esteem, body image and feminism, girls need to know what kind of chemicals they’re putting on their skin. Educating them about carcinogens and endocrine disruptors like parabens, phthalates and BPA is just the start of it. What about the animal products in some cosmetics and the animal testing?  What about petroleum products, hormones, nano particles and all the other things that are on the label?

And it isn’t just girls. Boys use cosmetics too, even if the products have “manly” names and black, chunky bottles to make them more acceptable to boys. Even harmless-seeming things like hair gel, shave cream and deodorants have things in them that they need to know about and think about before using.

A bright spot in all of this is that most teens and tweens are eco-conscious and can be reached on that level. So, that’s where I’m trying to make a connection with my daughter. She cares about the planet and the animals and plants on it. She knows that what we’re putting into the air, water and soil is hurting the earth. She’s all for going green when it comes to products that we buy. I’m just hoping that it will carry over into her choices for personal care products and cosmetics in future, both for the planet’s sake – and hers.

Sometimes I feel like the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, running just to keep up with developments in Green products. Bisphenol-A is discovered, then it’s banished, then we find out it didn’t really go completely away.

We learn which companies to trust – then find out that some of them have been lying on their labels or just leaving ingredients out of their label list. What’s a concerned consumer to do?

Take 1,4-dioxane, a known carcinogen and petrochemical. Now, wouldn’t you think that companies like Seventh Generation, Ecover, Method, Nature’s Gate and Aura Cacia – to name just a few – would do the right thing and list it on their products that contain it? And how can they get away with NOT listing it if it’s in their products?

Well, there’s a little loophole in the labeling laws – one that I wouldn’t expect ethical companies to take advantage of – but they do. 1,4-dioxane is considered a “contaminant”, not an ingredient. So, it doesn’t have to be listed as an ingredient. It’s produced as a by-product when a process called “ethoxylation” is used to cheaply make products milder when they contain harsh ingredients.

So, it’s in the product, but they don’t tell you it’s in the product, so you don’t KNOW that it’s in the product and that makes everything all right. Right? After all, consumers won’t mind when they find out that they’ve been putting this carcinogen in their dishpan, in their washer, on their kids, on their pets and on themselves.  And, so what if a little bit of it gets into the environment and filters through to the water table and into the soil. It’s not on the label, therefore, it’s not really there and it can’t hurt anyone, right?

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty burned up about this. If you can’t trust supposedly ethical, Greener than thou companies like Seventh Generation and Ecover, who can you trust? I’ve been paying more for their products over Clorox and other mega-companies who’ve just jumped on the Green bandwagon, because I wanted to support the companies who were Green before it was popular. Now, I’m rethinking that whole idea.

Do they really deserve my loyalty if they’re willing to lie by omission about a known carcinogen? I expect this kind of thing from mainstream manufacturers who have been doing it for years and getting away with it. It’s not a shock when I find that Dial, Lever, Johnson and Johnson, Ajax, Palmolive and Olay, for instance, also sell products with 1,4-dioxane in them and don’t list it on the label.

I need to hear from these companies that they’re not going to do this kind of thing again. I want to be assured that they’ll tell me everything – and I do mean everything – that’s in their products, no matter if it’s an ingredient, a contaminant or something that leeches out of the container into the product.

In the meantime, if you’d like to make sure that your personal care and cleaning products don’t contain 1,4-dioxane, The Organic Consumers Association, where I got most of this information, has a really nice Pocket Safety Guide to Personal Care and Cleaning Products that you can print out and take with you when you shop.They also have a lot of information on this and other subjects of interest to Green consumers.

Or, if you’d like to read about alternatives to products with carcinogens and hidden ingredients, you can stop by “Best of Mother Earth” where my friend, Karen recommends and sells several. I’d like to thank her for her post which alerted me to the 1,4-dioxane scandal in products from “natural” companies and for all the posts she writes about something she’s passionate about – the earth and all who live on it.