Dear Lord, We Give Ourselves to You

Dear Lord, we give ourselves to you

Please make us wise in all we do

May every choice, both large and small

Be made from love; be best for all

We choose to serve. We choose to yield

We choose to let our hearts be healed

We choose to walk the way of grace

With strength we draw from your embrace

We're both your children and your friends

You guide our steps. You mold and cleanse

Lord, make us holy. Make us pure

And fit for use; refined, mature

When we don't understand your ways

We choose to trust. We choose to praise

Our lives are clay in master hands

We trust your heart. We trust your plans

-MM

Safer Schools

 August is back-to-school time for many, and a good time to discuss safer schools and school supplies. Many "school supplies" are items commonly used by people of all ages, whether at home, school, or work, and the principles used to make a school healthy apply to all buildings. Being aware of less toxic options is important for everyone. Here's some help:

• The Healthy Schools Network is a national environmental health organization focused on ensuring that every child has a healthy learning environment. Informational guides, posters and reports can be downloaded or ordered from their Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids Clearinghouse,

• The Environmental Protection Agency provides information on creating healthy indoor environments in schools. They help schools connect through the National Schools Network and provide an “IAQ Tools for Schools” action kit which can be downloaded or ordered free of charge.

• Schools wanting help designing  a non-toxic pest management program can find it on a page associated with The Best Control. The program is available to any school district.

• A group called NonToxic Revolution, concerned primarily with stopping breast and other cancers, offers students help in starting campus clubs.

• The Environmental Working Group  offers information on making healthier choices when purchasing a variety of products, including backpacks, lunch boxes, beverage bottles, markers, pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, paper products, and glue.

• The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice focuses on products made with PVC (vinyl). Their back-to-school guide to  PVC-Free School Supplies lists less-toxic options for a wide range of common items, including binders, name badges, paper clips, pencil cases, glasses, sneakers, cellphones, computer monitors, flash drives, raincoats, and umbrellas.

• MCS America provides a brief and simple-to-understand factsheet with 10 tips for keeping school environments and chemically sensitive students healthy.

Lowering the toxic load is important for people of all ages, but the younger the student, the more important it is to take the issue seriously. Seemingly small changes in an environment can sometimes make a big difference in the mental and physical state of those who inhabit it. Let’s keep our students healthy and give them the best chance possible to grow, thrive, and learn. 

Musings from Outside the Walls

Like many of my fellow toxic illness sufferers, I'm unable to attend church because of the chemicals present in the buildings and on fellow worshipers. I'm very grateful that my church broadcasts the Sunday morning services online, so most of the time I'm able to feel like part of the church family even from my home. Periodically, however, there will be a stretch of months in which the webcast doesn't work, or only works sporadically. We're in one of those phases now, and it stirs up memories, both of my own experiences and of stories others have shared. These bring with them miscellaneous thoughts about needing help to access corporate worship.

These thoughts are in no particular order and are simply what is currently in my mind and on my heart. I've been part of the community of disabled Christians for long enough now that I think I speak for many and I hope my musings will be taken for what they are -- simply an attempt to shed light on things most people have never had reason to ponder. I pray they can somehow be helpful.

1. We greatly appreciate your efforts to include us. We know it's challenging, and we're extremely grateful for those who go the second mile. We pray that God will richly bless you for your actions and we believe that he will. Matthew 25 teaches that when you minister to those in need, it is as if you are ministering to Jesus.

2. Even when accommodations are made that allow us to participate in the life of the church, we feel tense and insecure, because we know that things can change at any moment. It only takes one perfume-wearer to make a previously safe Bible Study group unsafe for those with toxic illness. One added air freshener, one new cleaning product, one application of insecticide -- the list of possible problems is endless. The tenuous nature of accommodation is true for people with many types of disability. (And is true even when the "accommodation" is a webcast.)  A wheelchair-accessible church sanctuary is of limited benefit when the group meeting there decides to meet in a home instead.

3. We often feel unwanted. We don't know what's in your heart, but whether or not it's true, we frequently get the feeling that we're a burden and that our desire to be part of a church is a bother to you. Our natural inclination is to put our heads down and slink away, but we can't do that in this matter. God has told us that we're all part of his body and directed us not to give up meeting together. We must try to connect somehow. Besides, we know from experience how hard it is to maintain spiritual health alone, and we need every bit of spiritual strength available to make it through the challenges of our lives.

4. We feel invisible. At one point several years ago my church promoted fellowship groups with the slogan, "There's room in the group for you."  I found myself pondering the fact that the church leadership probably believed that to be true, because those of us who were unable to attend were largely invisible to them. There didn't, however, appear to be room in a group for me. Was there room for an autistic child, a deaf church member, someone with social anxiety disorder?  I don't know. My personal good news is that several years after I pondered the slogan, a friend did start a fellowship group I could attend, which meets outside on her porch. I can't possibly describe how much of a difference it makes in my life.

5. We aren't just spiritual takers. We have things to offer too, and with creativity we can often find a way to use our gifts within the context of the church. When we're shut out, the body is missing important parts.

6. We sometimes feel like the poor man in the story that Nathan told King David, as recorded in 2 Samuel 12. The rich man in the story had many sheep and cattle, but the poor man had only one pet lamb. When the rich man needed to prepare a meal for a guest, he took the poor man's lamb instead of one of his own. This scenario plays itself out in many ways. Sometimes a church will have a safe room designated for the chemically sensitive, but healthy church members, who can easily meet in any room in the building, will use the only one available to those with toxic illness, which sometimes makes it unsafe for those who need it most. Webcast problems may be caused by too many people in the congregation using their smartphones during the service they are easily able to attend, preventing those who can only access the service online from participating. Sometimes healthy church members will park in handicapped parking spaces, forcing those who truly need them to turn around and return home.

7. We understand that our lives are very different from yours and that it's hard for you to relate to us. Maybe we don't seem quite real to you, and for that reason it sometimes feels like our needs aren't seen as equal in importance to your own. As truly grateful as I am for the effort that goes into running our church's webcast, I can't quite forget how it got started. I had been unable to attend church and had almost no contact at all for several difficult, lonely years, but the webcast was started because someone who attended every week was going to miss one important Sunday and asked if the service could be broadcast for him. I'm grateful that it got started, for whatever reason, and that the ministry continues, primarily for me. I try not to dwell on the history, but when things malfunction, I remember it and become afraid of returning to exile.

8. We know that there are a lot of good people with a lot of good intentions, but that it isn't always easy for things in a church to change. The channels of communication and authority are not always clear, and how to address needs isn't always obvious. Sometimes we get frustrated with the church as a whole, but when we think of individual people, we think of them with love. If you're interested enough in this issue to have read this far, we think you're great. It would also be great if you could help us find a way to be connected to the church. God designed us for fellowship. We need each other.

If It’s Designed to Kill, Treat it with Caution

For the past couple of weeks, I've tried to make the point that all products designed to kill something should be treated with caution. This week's example of "we didn't know this particular type of pesticide could do that" comes from a study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The authors note that pesticide exposure has been linked to an increased risk of depression, but that most research has focused on insecticides. The recent study focused on herbicides (weedkillers) and found that farmers who used them were more than twice as likely to be treated for depression as those who didn't. The study's lead author, quoted in an article in Digital Journal makes the point that "we should not be ignoring herbicides just because they're targeting plants." 

Fortunately, the dangers of herbicides and other pesticides are becoming more widely understood. Recently, Takoma Park Maryland passed the Safe Grow Act of 2013, which restricts use of cosmetic lawn pesticides on both public and private property. Banning or restricting the use of lawn chemicals is common in Canada, with at least 80 percent of the population living in municipalities with restrictions. Takoma Park's new law is said to be the first local ban in the United States, although some jurisdictions have restricted use of the chemicals around schools or in other public places.

Enacting restrictions in the United States is more complicated than might be imagined because of lobbying efforts by the chemical industry. A fact sheet on state preemption laws explains some of the challenge. None of us need to wait for laws to change, however, before we make healthy choices ourselves. An article entitled Chemical-free Lawn Care notes that more pesticides are applied around homes than on agricultural fields. All of us with homes and lawns get to make a choice. Are we going to contribute to the chemical problem or take a stand for better health in our own little corner of the world?

It’s Complicated

In my last post I wrote about pesticides and I noted that certain types are considered especially dangerous, but that all types should be viewed with great caution. A few days ago, a small wave of articles about bee death reinforced that point. 

The bee population has been declining rapidly over the past years. An article in Science World Report notes that beekeepers lost 31 percent of their colonies in late 2012 and early 2013. Scientists have been working hard to understand what's causing the decline because bees are an integral part of the food production cycle and if they're not available in large enough numbers to pollinate crops, results could be disastrous. Currently, it takes 60% of the country's bee population to pollinate California's almond crop alone.

In the most recent study, researchers fed pollen from seven types of crops to healthy bees, which caused them to experience a significant decline in their ability to fight off a particular parasite. The pollen was found to be highly contaminated with agricultural products, with 35 different pesticides detected. On average, the samples were found to contain nine different pesticides and fungicides each, with one sample containing 21.Scientists were able to identify eight chemicals that were associated with increased risk of parasite infection in the bees.

The research makes several significant points:

• Fungicides, which are designed to kill fungus rather than insects, were thought to be harmless to bees. The study found, however, that bees fed pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times more likely to be infected by the parasite.

• Weeds and wildflowers, from which some bees collect pollen, were found to be contaminated with pesticides despite the fact that they were not directly sprayed.

• A class of pesticides called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths, but the new research shows that banning those chemicals is unlikely to solve the problem without additional steps. In an article entitled Scientists Discover What's Killing the Bees and It's Worse Than You Thought, a researcher is quoted as saying that  “The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to believe. It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”

Hopefully, the study's results will lead to some significant changes in the types and amounts of pesticides currently used. As I've said many times, however, none of us must wait for government action before making changes in our own use of pesticide products. Seemingly small decisions really can make a difference to the health of those who apply the chemicals and all who come in contact with them, whether they be of the honeybee or human variety.

Protecting the Children

I'm returning to the blog world after a hiatus caused by a computer crash. I would love to celebrate my return with an upbeat, positive post, but I can't quite make myself write it. As much as I would prefer to put it far from my mind, I just can't ignore the story of what happened to 23 children in India last week. They went to school, ate lunch, and died. Their lives mattered and we owe it to them to learn what we can from their tragedy.

Although some initial reports on the story speculated that the children died from bacterial food poisoning, it didn't take long for officials to blame pesticide contamination for the deaths. Authorities have now confirmed that cooking oil used to prepare the lunch was contaminated with an agricultural pesticide. At this writing, it’s still unknown how the pesticide contaminated the oil, but one theory is that the container which held the oil may have been previously used for storing the dangerous chemical.

There are thousands of potentially harmful chemicals produced, but few are as potentially dangerous as pesticides, which are specifically designed to kill. As I noted in a previous blog post, the chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz was a pesticide. Organophosphates (the type implicated in the India poisonings) are especially dangerous, but all commercial pesticides are capable of causing great harm.

Unfortunately, the incident in India is not unique. In 1999, children in Peru died in very similar circumstances. Schoolchildren between the ages of 3 and 14 ate a school-provided breakfast which was later determined to be contaminated with an organophosphate insecticide. Of the village's 48 children, 24 lost their lives to the chemical that day.

Pesticide-related deaths are not just a third-world problem, and the types of pesticides causing fatalities are not always what people might imagine. A report by The Center for Public Integrity notes that products (pesticides) used to treat head lice have been linked to "conditions ranging from headaches to death."  In an article entitled "The Hazards of Treating Head Lice", a mother shares the heartbreaking story of losing her son to leukemia and the association she believes exists between head lice treatment and his condition.

No, these are not pleasant stories. They are hard to think about and hard for me to write about. But surely these stories teach us something. They teach us that the issue of chemical toxicity is not just an academic one, but one with real-life consequences that can be larger than we might imagine. Most of us don't handle agricultural chemicals regularly, but it's common to use other types of pesticides without much thought. Do you immediately grab a can of bug spray when you see a bug in the house?  Do you use "weed and feed" type products on your lawn to discourage dandelions?  If so, I urge you to rethink those practices, if not for yourself, then for the children who might come in contact with the chemicals. A fact sheet on Weed and Feed notes that children are especially at risk from lawn chemical dangers because they play on lawns, put their hands into their mouths, and take in more chemicals in proportion to their body weight than adults do.

We can't change the tragic events that killed the children in India, Peru, and elsewhere, but we can do our part to make the world safer from chemical toxins. Let's not just read the headlines and move on. Let's pause, pray, and put into practice what we know.

To Compromise or Not to Compromise: That is the Question

Legislation introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg just weeks before he died continues to be the focus of much discussion and dissension. To recap, the Toxic Substances Control Act has been in effect since the 1970s. Under the TSCA, chemicals don’t have to be proven safe before they enter the market. The Environmental Protection Agency must prove a chemical to be unsafe before it can be banned, but there are challenges (such as the difficulty of acquiring needed information from manufacturers) that make that task difficult.

Senator Lautenberg addressed the problem by introducing the Safe Chemicals Act, but the bill failed to attract bipartisan support. Then, a bipartisan compromise bill (the Chemical Safety Improvement Act) was drafted by Lautenberg and Senator David Vitter. Environmental and public health advocacy groups are divided over the Lautenberg-Vitter bill; with some supporting it and some saying they can not endorse it until it is strengthened.

According to various news reports on the issue, here’s where things currently stand:

• The compromise bill came as a surprise to many chemical safety advocates, including Senator Barbara Boxer, who has emerged as its strongest opponent.

• Boxer is a friend of Lautenberg’s widow, who has urged her to support the bill.

• Boxer has accused some of the bill’s supporters of not fully understanding it. They deny that charge and state that they support it because it has a better chance of passage.

The organization Safer Chemicals: Healthy Families urges people to ask lawmakers to strengthen the Lautenberg-Vitter bill. They provide an easy way to do that on their “Take Action” page.Taking a minute to visit the page and send an electronic message is another way to let our elected representatives know that the issue of chemical safety is important to us. This vital issue finally has a little bit of traction, and I pray that some sort of improvement to the TSCA will make it across the finish line.