Social Concerns Committee
Report Social Concerns
Date: 2009-07-23
By: Gary Przyborski
Social Concerns has begun planning for our next upcoming yearly project. One area that is gaining attention is the subject of food & our relationship to it. The topic is a current one with news such as F as in Fat 2009: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America ( http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009/ ) & Type 2 Diabetes in Children & Young Adults: A “New Epidemic” ( http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org/content/20/4/217.full).
Too often humans misjudge the relative threats to our life in part because we tend to discount the importance of long term effects in favor of the immediate; a person might be upset to fly when car travel is more dangerous per mile. The same thing goes with eating. We become accustomed to our level of health & then are shocked when early warning signs turn into difficult to treat disease. Our nation's response so far has been to treat symptoms by popping pills to lower cholesterol or blood pressure levels. Yet, the most sensible thing would be to treat the causes...
Of course this begs the question of whether the individual or the society is complicit. The answer is a mixture of both. David Kessler, the former head of the FDA says in his new book “The End of Overeating” that part of our response is a result of being targeted by food designers who concoct food high in fat, sugar & salt that stimulate the brain to crave more, see onpointradio.com, Controlling the American Appetite.
On the opposite end, some folks have taken bull by the horn & are following a long term calorie restricted diet, which has raised outcries from some health professionals. This month details were released about a long term study of calorie restriction on mammals, see ScienceDaily.com: “Reduced Diet Thwarts Aging, Disease in Monkeys.” The study has found that a reduced-calorie diet “blunts aging and delays the onset of such aged-related disorders as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and brain atrophy.” Pretty amazing!
In conclusion, I think that most everyone could improve their personal health & contribute greatly to their long term health & well being by moderating their food along with an exercise program. One of the best ways to improve your health is to start at slow. Look at what you are eating. Consciously avoid bringing home junk food loaded with fat, sugar and salt. One of the keys is not to get concerned with losing weight fast but making lifestyle changes to eat better, less & get some moderate exercise. With time you will find yourself losing weight & feeling better.
What do we do next?
Join us for our July 26th meeting at noon when we will discuss the focus of upcoming year.
Chemicals in Our Bodies
Kathy Anderson voiced concern at our last meeting because Nestle & others are pumping out water from the aquifer to ship throughout the country-world & how this doesn't make any sense at all. I agree with her. If you are concerned about your local tap water, you shouldn't be looking to bottled water since many of them do not meet standards. And after researching it a bit more I'm stunned that we still have bps-a in our food-water products. This chemical was created as a cheap, artificial estrogen that has found its way into plastic products & is known as an endocrine disrupter, which is to blame for male alligators with female components & three legged frogs. An investigation into bottled water has shown that essentially they are tap water, sometimes with chemicals that do not meet state standards, see http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater/. On Point Radio has an excellent show called Chemicals in Our Bodies- http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/07/chemicals-in-our-water/ where medical professionals discuss this alarming problem that is now effecting human population in profound ways. Many countries have banned these chemicals but the US government has refused to do so in difference to big corporate interests. The Endocrine Society has an excellent paper worth reading about these chemicals that are in many products from baby food, plastic liners, eyeliner to suntan lotion, see http://www.endo-society.org/journals/ScientificStatements/upload/EDC_Scientific_Statement.pdf. Please consider signing the pledge at http://www.takebackthetap.org/.
Suntan Lotion
As many of you already know, suntan lotion has come under fire as a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) determined that of the current some 1000 products, only about 15% provide protection for UV-A radiation. The problem is worse in that some chemicals react with the sun to produce potential cancer causing agents & others are known to be endocrine disruptors. EWG did an exhaustive report that is worth looking at before you buy your next suntan or moisturizer-- http://www.ewg.org/cosmetics/report/sunscreen09/findyoursunscreen/. The surprising thing about this is that the poorest performance was from the most popular brands in the U.S.- Coopertone, Neutrogena & Banana Boat. Here is a link to a CNN article- http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/01/sunscreen.study/index.html.
Social Concerns Updates #17
A fundamental weakness of government is its inability to act for the common good when special interests dictate the discussion & the laws that are made for their own benefit.
Global Issues:
American Clean Energy & Security Act: On 6/26/09, the bill passed the house (219-212), with opposition from Republicans & Democrats (farm states). Although supported by the Sierra Club, the bill fails to address many of the most pressing issues such as coal, concrete. It is considered a success for many energy producing interests. On a fundamental level, it establishes a carbon cap & trade. The bill will not put the U.S. on goal to meet the targets established by the scientific community. Further, the Obama administration opposes efforts in Copenhagen to meet tougher standards that the science dictates. Latest: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/06/a-warning-from-copenhagen/
Some aspects of climate change are progressing faster than was expected a few years ago - such as rising sea levels, the increase of heat stored in the ocean and the shrinking Arctic sea ice. "The updated estimates of the future global mean sea level rise are about double the IPCC projections from 2007″, says the new report. And it points out that any warming caused will be virtually irreversible for at least a thousand years - because of the long residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere.
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-26-climate-bill-senate-politics/
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/06/nasas-leading-c.html
HealthCare: Health care in the U.S. is poor & expensive. As a people we pay on average over 50% more than other industrialized nations. Two basic issues must be solved: expanding healthcare to the whole population & keeping expenses (present & future growth) in check. What is clear is that neither the president or the democratic congress intended to work for a public option, like in Canada or Britain, but are now facing unexpected pressure from citizens, economic experts & medical professionals. Despite national support for a single payer system, those on the committee are against fundamentally changing our current system of insurance companies, limited coverage, high fees, etc. The argument against a single payer system is that it would intrude between the patient & doctor (& insurance company?) & that it would cost upwards of 1.4 trillion over the next ten years. Of course, far more than this is being lost by Americans losing jobs (uncompetitive system) & life savings to pay for basic health needs. For more information & to contact your representatives, see http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/06/getting-serious-on-health-care/.
The Iranian election crises has taken front stage. It is not clear if a pro-democracy movement will end in real change (like in China) or if Iran will continue to be run by Islamic clerics. President Obama turned increasingly aggressive as the crises played out. Congress has already supported covert efforts to destablize Iran internally. More recently, Rep. Mark Kirk ® is pushing to cut off U.S. loan guarantees for some companies doing business with Iran. Rep. Kirk is aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). http://www.alternet.org/rights/140879/obama_'appalled'_by_iran_repression/
Local Issues:
As many of you are aware, the recession/depression, along with the property tax cuts pushed thru by Governor Crist have devastated local county budgets for schools & basic services, including layoffs for teachers. The latest thing is that Seminole County Commissioners are in the process of outsourcing their public library system to a private firm- LSSI, which cuts costs by volume buying books & slashing workers, benefits, & operating hours. Seminole county commissioners kept their request for bid, uncovered by the Orlando Sentinel. See petition: http://keepingpublicseminolepubliclibrary.blogspot.com/.
Bottled Water Kathy Anderson, petition. Bottled water has been found to be contaminated with fertilizer residue, BspA, caffeine. Walmart bottled water was one of those found to toxin levels high enough to violate California law. http://www.naturalnews.com/025993_water_bottled_water_tap_water.html.
- It takes three to five times more water to manufacture the plastic water bottle than actually is contained in the water bottle itself. Because each bottle should only be used one time (so as not to contaminate water with phthalates) this seems to be an inordinate amount of water utilized in the manufacturing process.
- Plastic is a petroleum product so using plastic water bottles depletes this non-renewable resource. The Pacific Institute has calculated that the manufacturing process for making plastic water bottles used in the US consumes roughly 17 million barrels of oil every year.
- Plastic water bottles are not recycled the way they should be. It is estimated that in 2005 only about 12% of plastic water bottles were recycled. This is partly because water bottles are many times not included in local recycling plans. Another factor is that bottled water is often consumed away from home and so is disposed of in mixed-trash containers instead of being recycled. In a 2002 study by Scenic Hudson it was reported that 18 percent by volume of recovered litter from the Hudson River was beverage containers. In landfills, water bottles will remain biodegrading for approximately 1,000 years. Incinerating used water bottles produces toxic byproducts including chlorine gas and ash that contains heavy metals.
- Roughly 94 % of the bottled water in the U.S. is bottled domestically. Of this percentage, approximately 25 percent sold is just reprocessed municipal water according to a 1999 study by the National Resources Defense Council.
- Using plastic bottles that contain Biphenyl A is detrimental to human health. Bisphenol A behaves similarly to estrogen. This means that when enough of this accumulates in the body there will be negative health effects. Biphenyl A has been linked to obesity, diabetes, breast cancer, and hyperactivity.
Social Concerns: Water, Water, Everywhere?
Water is our planet’s lifeblood. Many people in the world have no access to clean water. Yet, much of our clean potable water is used to flush toilets, take long showers, baths, or to water our lawns. Water consumption in the U.S. is the highest for any country in the world, reaching 152 gallons of water per person per day. Part of this is due to agriculture, but in our homes and apartments consumption averages close to 100 gallons of water per person per day.
However, we can lower our average by taking some simple steps to make a difference. First, figure out where you stand by reviewing your water bill. Divide the total consumption by the number of days in the billing cycle & the average number of people who stay in your home/apt/condo; this number is the consumption per day, per person. Replace existing toilets with high efficiency water sense types. With the average person flushing a toilet 5.1 times a day, a change from an old 5 gallon per flush to a 1.28 gallon flush, would save 19 gallons per day, or 6800 gallons per year. Often, local cities & counties will offer to pay part of the cost, upwards of $150 per toilet. If you don't have the money for a new toilet, some people have added plastic water jugs or bricks into their tanks to reduce the water loss per flush.
Replace shower heads with low flow heads with a maximum flow rate of 2.0 gallons per minute (gpm), and then take quick showers over baths. One thing that helps in this arena is a 5 minute hour glass to gauge your water use. And, if you want to do more add a water aerator-restrictor that mixes air with water to limit bathroom sink water use to a maximum of 1.5 gpm.
Don't use potable water to water your yards. Instead use a combination of captured rain water along with low water consumption foliage to replace thirsty St. Augustine. If you have a pool, use a cover to reduce evaporation, and again use captured rain water to make up for losses due to evaporation.
Use low water use front loading washing machines, since they fill a small portion of the drum instead of all of the clothes, saving on average 2/3 of the water used by a top loader machine. Further, these machines use less detergent and often save considerable amounts of energy in the process.
Presently, water is very cheap, any savings in your monthly bill will be in reducing your sewer water charges that relate to your total consumption amount. Remember that any real change often takes place on a local level. By following the steps above in our household, we were able to cut our monthly water use from 55 gallons to 20 gallons per person per day- a 64% reduction in use. For other steps to conserve water, see http://www.epa.gov/nps/chap3.html.
Although this is not a water problem per se, it does relate. Don't buy bottled water. It simply is a dumb idea that has crept into modern life. If your water tastes bad, simply add a large water filter under the sink to filter the water of chlorine & other contaminants. It makes no sense to pump water out of one deep well in some other part of the world & then to have it stuffed into a plastic bottle & shipped vast distances to somewhere else, only to have it used & then discarded into a landfill. One extreme example of this is one bottled water that comes from Fiji & is flown to the U.S. (at great energy expense) to eventually be stacked on a grocery shelf. Kathy Anderson has brought up a petition that addresses this very issue; it will be in the back of the sanctuary should you be interested in having your voice heard.
For those that have asked about my brother David, I wanted to give you a little update. He continues to improve & as of June 21st was walking without a walker with two of us watching him. His strength has vastly improved but he lacks the confidence to walk steadily because of his inexperience of walking without a walker & a real fear of falling. An often quoted figure is that on average one day spent in ICU translates to one extra week in rehab. We are hopeful that he will return to his work before this month is out. Thank you for your prayers and concerns.
Dealing with a Loved One in a Hospital
As many of you know, my brother David has been in ICU for forty days. Thank you for the personal concerns that several of you have expressed. Sylvia Friedman and Dutton Ashcraft (Pastoral Care) have been useful in navigating some hurdles. The experience at the hospital has been an eye opener as it's a challenge to get the staff to keep you in the loop for anything other than approvals for some procedure or another. One must be persistent and be willing to have sit downs with hospital staff if they're not returning your phone calls in a timely manner or not keeping you informed. The trick is to be a strong advocate without alienating the staff, and staying focused on the desired goal. The second strength is ties into the adage that love ones with attentive families receive better care.
The other thing is that mistakes happen in hospitals. Despite the care of the medical staff, things are sometimes not checked, a chart is not read correctly and machines breakdown. All of this is upsetting in itself, not to mention the low level of technology that is not able to deal with many common problems. For example, tests for bacterial infections have an error rate of between thirty to forty percent. Another item is a lack of a noninvasive tool to scan the body for the source of an infection. Above a certain degree, they can use x-rays to find abscesses.
One of the things most striking to me is how our perception influences our actions. In this case, an ICU nurse thought that I might consider hospice as tears welled in her eyes. Perhaps he reminded her of a previous patient who died, and although she appeared to be a competent nurse, this bias (in my mind) clouded her ability to see improvements, and even worse to favor drug induced comfort over aggressively working with him toward a complete recovery.
Two weeks early to this incident, I faced some of my own biases. Thinking that your loved one is going to die one day, recover the next, and then on the third day be tied to a ventilator for the rest of his life is an emotional roller coaster. Such an investment in an outcome was too stressful. Decoupling from a positive or negative outcome enabled me to make more objective medical decisions with the goal of achieving a full recovery.
I've mentioned in the Cares & Concerns portion that the UUUS leadership doesn't allow acknowledge of personal items that are outside of your family and friends. Personally, I disagree with this policy but understand that it is done to reduce the number of divisive political statements. I have communicated my concerns and suggestions to the federal government. And, even though our America ranks lower than we would like, especially in regards to a high infant mortality rate, our greatest risk factors are tobacco use and obesity.
The Meaning of Numbers
The numbers are in for the UUUS power consumption for 2008. The results are: 28,192 kWh (2008) versus 36,916 kWh (2007). Probably, most people will concentrate on the $862 savings in the power bill but I'm most interested in the 24% power reduction, the 8,724 kWh of energy never used. Using the Focus the Nation's CO2 multiplier for our local power utility (Progress Energy 660g/kWh), we arrive at a savings of 12,694 lbs (5.8 metric tons) of CO2 never dumped into the atmosphere. Skeptics will argue that this is a figurative drop in the ocean when compared to the 6 billion metric tons spewed into the skies by the U.S. However, if tens of millions of commercial and residential homes started making these changes, the effect would be significant.
One of the other things that we’ve been working on is the UUUS Community Garden. At present, the gardeners have planted two beds and have materials (compost, mulch, etc.) for four more. The beds are assembled as 4' x 8' x 6” foot wooden frames that are laid in place and then cardboard is placed on the bottom (to retard weeds) and then they are filled with the soil and compost before the seeds or seedlings are added. Many people have helped in this endeavor but special mention should be made of three individuals- Cat Rigby, Mike Christle and Greg Pettengill. Cat Rigby is FUCO's Green Chair and has done something similar at their church. If you've met her, you know she is full of energy. She gave us some good advice, seeds and plants, and most of all some real help. Mike Christle has showed up for many of these work endeavors and gives of himself selflessly. He is not afraid to work. We all really appreciate his efforts in Social Concerns and Public Relations. Finally, Greg Pettengill is a passionate gardener and someone you are all going to hear more about. Greg drives from Mims to help us out, and he really does, with his mind and his muscles.
I don't have much more at this time except an open invitation to join us at Social Concerns and find out a lot more of what is happening behind the scenes. We meet on the last Sunday of the month. The next meeting will be January 25th. I wish all of you a merry holiday.
Social Concerns and Green Sanctuary Updates and Thoughts…...
Acting Now for the Long Term
On November 4th American voters rejected free-market, conservative ideologues in favor of centrist & liberal candidates for many reasons: An unending war on terror has had a high cost to our collective & personal civil liberties, values, finances, not to mention the human cost in America & abroad. Our environment suffers more than ever while exported jobs, a financial meltdown induced recession & runaway medical costs eat away at our social strength.
Of course, we can feel our current situation as either dire as our 401K’s shrink or optimistic that business will change for the better. To me, either system is flawed since it is based in our transient emotions & times we live instead of our actions. It's easy to forget that deep down a series of actions has lead us to this current moment. Now maybe a good time to revisit frugality, study and work in a whole new manner of discovery. We may also want to consider those things that give our lives meaning. For many our loves are family, work, hobbies, or community.
One constant in life is change. Whether it is personal loves-losses or our collective gains-falls, change is the currency of our lives. We can bob up & down on life's waves or take action to set course for those things we truly desire- whatever they may be. Because in the end one of the ironies in life is that our perceptions limit us. More than our money, our careers & our friends-lovers, we are something intangible with possibility.
The holiday season is a good time to reflect on what things we can do today toward another future. This season we may cutback on our gifts but we may decide that there are others who are in a more difficult time. When we do act, we'll find that there are many opportunities to proceed through the creative use of our time & resources. In the end we may feel better for our actions, but more importantly we are doing the things that matter most to us & building a future to live in.
Speaking of the near future, our community garden has been planted thanks to our garden committee. Hopefully, with some care we will reap some broccoli, tomatoes and other things that can be shared with the UUUS family. The Social Concerns group is thankful for all of those that took part. I'd list them here but I'm afraid I'll miss someone.
As part of the UUUS green efforts, building power use is down 25% when compared to last year. November's bill shows a 34% reduction in daily power use (65 kWh vs. 99 kWh), a $72 saving over 11/07. November's savings are hurt by the 14% longer bill period (32 days vs. 28) but offset by an 8% reduction in daily temp. Here is the latest Progress Energy Listing... (shown on the web, but not reproduced in the newsletter). Overall, the Triple U has experienced a 25% reduction in power use this year, resulting in a total savings of $837 over 2007.
At present, we're still missing Kathy Anderson who is recovering from hip surgery. Hopefully, we'll be getting back our energetic member to our December meeting. If you are interested in Social Concerns in general, touch base with one of our members & show up for one of our meetings that are held on the last Sunday of the month at 11:45 AM, w/ the next meetings on Nov 30th & Dec 28th.
The UU Alliance:
The Triple U & FUCO(First Unitarian Church of Orlando) have begun working together on several projects: Central Florida Mass Transit, Amendment 2, the UUUS Community Garden & sharing some UUUS technology with FUCO. The purpose is to help both FUCO & UUUS to work together to make us and our community stronger. If you wish to get involved in FUCO's Social Concerns, please see Serving Community & then Social Outreach on their site, or http://orlandouu.org/content/blogcategory/127/192/. For more info on our Green Alliance, see our Going Green section.
Charitable Involvement
Ongoing Food & Clothing Drive for the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida
UUUS Share the Plate Program http://www.universityuus.org/sharetheplate.html
- Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida http://www.centralfloridahomeless.org/
- Office for Farm Worker Ministry http://www.offm.org
- Planned Parenthood of Central Florida http://www.plannedparenthood.org/
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida www.foodbankcentralflorida.org
UUSC (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee)
- Holiday Greeting Cards http://www.uusc.org/holidaycards
- Guest at Your Table
- Justice Sunday http://www.uusc.org/ia/justice_sunday/index.html
- Equal Exchange Fair Trade Products
We are partnered with Equal Exchange for Fair Trade products, including Coffee, Tea, Cocoa, Chocolate, Pecans, etc. and part of every purchase goes directly to fund the programs of the UUSC.nvironmental Concerns
Updated 2009-7-24
