U.S newborn death rate is poor and slipping

Here are some low-lights from a new report about the death rate of newborns worldwide taken from Health Freedom Alliance:

"Babies in the United States have a higher risk of dying during their first month of life than do babies born in 40 other countries,.

United States dropped from No. 28 to No. 41 in the rankings of newborn death risk. It is now tied with Qatar, Croatia and United Arab Emirates. And behind South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel.

One of the bigger challenges in the U.S. is complications from preterm birth. The U.S. rate of preterm birth is double that of countries in Europe and Northern Africa."

There are many chemicals in our environment that can cause premature births, and ours remains a highly exposed population.

7 billion people

The world's population will hit 7,000,000,000 (7 billion) people on Halloween. When I was born, right after World War II, there were about 2.5 billion people on Earth.

What is the maximum number of people the Earth can support before things fall apart and only the very rich have any quality of life?

What kind of world are we leaving for our children? Good night.

Possible tech issues on our web site

The CIIN web site is getting a little revamp. And for technical reasons (most of which I am clueless) the site may be down at times until things are fine-tuned and running normally again.

In case you don't know yet, CIIN now has a Twitter account under @ourtoxictimes. The entries there are not earth-shaking, but we try to keep people up to date on some basic activities -- such as when the newsletter goes to press and when it's mailed out.

Also, CIIN will be closed from September 27th until October 11th. We're going to try to take a trip during part of that time -- rest up during the other part of that time.

MCS Lemons-to-Lemonade Project

This comes from Cynthia Wilson, Executive Director of the Chemical Injury Information Network.

The Lemonade Project

Many members of our [MCS] community are house-bound. Some have risen to the occasion, but how? How are people who are fully or partially house-bound able to handle it? Specifically, how do they spend their time, what projects or hobbies have been helpful, have they found ways to be productive given their situation, have they found ways to create a business or a specific project, or anything else they can think of.


Dr. Robert Mayer, author of the recent, well received book Strategies for Surviving Chemical Sensitivity, The Basics, is planning a series of articles for our monthly newsletter Our Toxic Times on how people with MCS are coping — showing the most resilient aspects of the MCS community and possibly showing others how to live successfully within the confines of the illness.

For example, a woman in the northeast, photocopies educational material and distributes it to individuals in need. She's absolutely dedicated to informing those around her. "I can't do much, but I can do this," is one of her most elegant refrains.

For those who would like to write out their stories, they may be sent to: Lemonade at CIIN, PO Box 301, White Sulphur Springs, or emailed to lemonade@ciin.org. Please provide contact information, so if Dr. Mayer has questions he can contact you. If you think you need to be interviewed (by phone or email), please send a note to CIIN or email with your contact information, the best time to contact you, and a brief description of your own lemonade.

Die-off of bats is growing

I'm sure you have heard about the die-off of honey bees, and how serious that can be for agriculture. Well there is an equally serious die-off going on, especially in the NE states. It involves bats, particularly the Little Brown Bat. And it is serious enough that those who know are worried about those and other bats becoming extinct in the NE.

Most people don't know that bats are important in pollinating crops. But most people know about bats' appetite for mosquitoes and other insects. I just read that 1 million bats (the approximate number of bats that have died from what is called white nose syndrome in the past couple years) will eat 660 metric tons of mosquitoes in 6 months; 1,200 tons in a year. And that does not count the other, crop destroying or disease carrying bugs they eat.

I'm not sure this post falls under the heading of "toxins", but I find the bat problem very interesting and scarey. And, BTW, the bat die-off has reached as far west as Oklahoma.

One last thought: How many mosquitoes are there in a pound?

Two bad old terms for MCS resurface

I cannot believe it, but some people are calling "Environmental Illness" the newest name for MCS. It's not. It's an old term from the days when no one a clue what MCS was. All people knew back then was that something in the environment made some people sick.

And on top of that, Cynthia heard someone calling MCS "Chemical Allergies." That is a truly crap term. It mixes technical inaccuracy with confusing terminology. MCS is not an allergy; it is not immune system mediated. Best current research says it is a metabolic and neurologic disorder, probably rooted in damage to the Redox System.

The Redox System is made up of several systems (or sub-systems) that deal with breaking down toxins in various parts of the body so they can be flushed out. When the body cannot break down and eliminate toxins, even very small amounts of toxic chemicals can wreak havoc and cause damage. Sound familiar?

3 Books for Sale at CIIN

Speaking of the print vs digital world, CIIN sells 3 books on its web site:

1. Dr. Mayer's book, "Strategies for Surviving Chemical Sensitivity, the basics" This is a new book that has been out less than a year, and has gotten very good feedback from our members.

2. Cynthia's book on chemical injury, "Chemical Exposure and Human Health" which is probably the best work on chemical health issues ever written by a lay person. It is no longer in print, but CIIN has gotten a few used, good condition copies.

3. The workbook from the San Francisco workshop on a case definition for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. At 730 pages, this is the best collection of papers on MCS, and our supply is limited. It was the starting point for the doctors and researchers who came to San Francisco.

CIIN is now on Twitter

We just signed up to have Chemical Injury Information Network on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/ourtoxictimes

CIIN has been slowly entering the digital world because it is so prevalent and wide-ranging. The drawback, of course, is that so many of the chemically injured cannot participate on the internet, either due to the chemical smells from the plastics and resins in computers, or because of electrical sensitivity which often accompanies MCS.

We have no intentions to ever do away with the print version of our monthly newsletter Our Toxic Times. In spite of its cost and labor-intensive requirements, the paper version is our mainstay and our connection to our members. It's not going away.

So there you go. If you have access to Twitter, please check us out.

Apps I like

For no apparent reason, I want to take note of a few small applications I like. Bear in mind that I am still using Windows XP. Here they are in no particular order:

PrintKey 2000 - It makes the usually useless PrintScreen key really handy for copying whatever is on your screen.

Agent Ransack - A very fast search tool for finding files on your computer. It blows the doors off of Windows built-in search feature.

eCleaner - For copying text out of e-mails and other places, and getting rid of all the extra crap that gets copied like indent marks, formatting marks, and headers.

UK's Kalender - A very functional but not overly tricked out calendar program.

I've also used these (except the Kalender)on Vista machines without problems. In some ways, Vista and Windows 7 seem to have usable alternatives built in.

"green" is not MCS-friendly

The "Green" building movement and green products in general do NOT address the needs and concerns of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Green building and green consumer products are a good change from the toxic way we had been doing things,and it may save a lot of people from the living hell of MCS. However, those who suffer from MCS will find themselves disappointed and likely hurt by confusing "green" with MCS-friendly. Don't do it.

There are many good sources of MCS-friendly products if you take the time to look for them. One source of such sellers is the monthly newsletter Our Toxic Times published (since 1990) by the Chemical Injury Information Network.