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Top Tips

• This Sunday help spread the word about the importance of recycling! America Recycles Day is a great opportunity to make simple changes in our everyday lives that better the life of the planet.

• Hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year? Plant Green and The Daily Green have some helpful tips on how to green your holiday while staying in budget, staying on time, and satisfying all your guests with delectable dishes.

• Daydreaming about your next vacation, but worried about the carbon footprint you will leave behind? Here are some companies making an eco-conscience difference in the travel industry.

Recent Research

• New studies show that diets high in soy may alter female fertility, trigger early puberty, and disrupt development of fetuses and children. Genistein, the main isoflavone found in soy has been found to have hormone-disrupting properties. Heather Patisaul, a developmental biologist at North Carolina State University, likens the effects of genistein to Bisphenol A, which has been found to harm the brain and reproductive development of children. On the flipside, soy has become popular in the American diet with health benefits from reducing the risk of heart disease to lowering cholesterol all with the backing of the FDA.

• Recent research has found that chronic exposure to air pollution increases a baby’s chance of developing lung infections. Bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the lungs is the most common lung infection sending infants to the hospital during the first year of life. Catherine Karr, an academic pediatrician at the University of Washington, Seattle states "infants and children as being susceptible to health risks from low-level, day-in, day-out exposure to contaminants”, even in regions not suspected to have high air pollution levels. Children who contract bronchiolitis in the first year are also at higher risk of developing asthma and heart problems later in life.

Other News

• More heart-wrenching news from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, scientists believe the site now to be twice the size is was just a decade ago. Roughly the same size as Texas twice over, the patch is dominated by plastic debris, but also by the toxins PCBs and DDT which get absorbed by plastics. The immediacy of this disaster becomes clear as fish mistake the debris for food allowing the toxins to leach into their body tissue who in turn get eaten by larger fish and eventually by humans. Scientists believe this to be only one of many garbage patches in the world’s oceans. Project Kaisei, a non-profit group is studying ways to clean up the patch by turning plastic into diesel fuel.

• The Environmental Working Group recently looked at the cleaning supplies commonly used by schools, finding that out of 20 cleaners, 6 chemicals were linked to asthma, 11 are know human carcinogens, and 450 have yet to be assessed for safety. EWG is using this information to persuade governing bodies to require cleaning supply companies to disclose all ingredients in their products in efforts to improve environments for children and educators. To get your school on a greener cleaning regime try the guide from Healthy Schools Campaign.

• The American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates adopted a resolution calling on the AMA to work with the federal government to enact new federal policies to decrease the public’s exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). The resolution, introduced by The Endocrine Society, reflects the findings and recommendations of The Endocrine Society’s peer-reviewed Scientific Statement on EDCs released by the Society this past June. Adoption of this resolution means that it is now AMA policy and is wholly supported by the House of Medicine.

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