New Jersey’s Experience With Regulated Online Gambling Makes A Strong Case For Pennsylvania To Follow
Since the emergence of a few online casinos in 1996, the growth and popularity of the online gambling industry has skyrocketed at a phenomenal rate.
I have a bad reputation. Oh stop it, not in that way. No, my bad rep comes from my insistence that anyone who comes into our home has to take off his shoes. And wash his hands. And do a little jig. Ok, not that last one.
But I’m hard-ass about the first two and for good reason. Leaving shoes at the door and washing hands can reduce toxicants in the home up to 60%. That’s 60% fewer carcinogens, neurotoxins and infectious bacteria in your home. That’s 60% fewer dangerous chemicals in your child’s bedroom.
We started these practices on the advice of our pediatrician when our first child was born and 12 years/4 children later I’m still pretty adamant about it. And my friends know it.
Yeah, people get annoyed at the no-kicks rule, even if they don’t have holes in their socks or chipped pedicures. But I don’t care! Because I’ve learned that sticking to this practice is an awesome way to:
1) Keep pesticides, arsenic, lead and other hard metals off our bedroom floors (the EPA has found that pesticides on shoes is a real source of toxic exposure for kids)
2) Stop dog excrement and other bacteria from getting on my kitchen tiles (and while we’re on it, scoop up after your pooches, people)
3) Keep grime out of the mouths of babes (they crawl, they touch, they eat)
4) Protect wood floors from getting scratched and carpets from getting muddied (yup, I care about aesthetics too)
5) Avoid howling kids (someone with extremely pointy shoes once stepped on my daughter’s tiny toe and I swear, from the sound of it, she now knows the pain of childbirth)
Same idea for hand-washing. Sure, you enjoyed that peach on the way over here, but I’d rather those pesticides on your fingers not muck up my fridge handle. So come on in, knock off your shoes, head over to the bathroom and wash pesticides, bacteria, BPA (from handling receipts, for example) and germs off your hands. And no shortcuts. Use the soap – that’s why it’s there.
I’ve trained my kids well in both these practices and its all become second nature to them. They take off their shoes and wash their hands without even thinking.
Now I readily admit that I bend the rules sometimes. For our big housewarming party, I really wanted to wear my new stilettos and the hostess in me couldn’t, in good conscience, make everyone else go barefoot. And frankly, flexibility is key, in many aspects of life. Although I did make everyone do a jig.
But really folks, this one is easy. Adopt these simple, yet powerful habits and you’ll reduce toxicants and increase indoor air quality in your home. And, hey, let your reputation precede you.
Если Вы твёрдо решить стать частью игровой индустрии, и окунуться в увлекательный мир гемблинга, то перед этим, стоит ознакомиться с правилами выбора действительно честного онлайн казино.
Confused about environmental health? Perplexed by the influx of information, the array of so-called natural products, the promises of a healthier life?
Luckily for you, I’ve spent years researching the facts and finding the products that can positively impact your life and your health. I’m here to cut through all of the clutter and teach you, your family and your community how to adopt the most practical and effective ways to safeguard against the many environmental hazards of our modern world.
I am available to speak to a wide array of audiences; I bring my lively, interesting and relatable style to children and adults, to schools and businesses, to small local groups and larger community gatherings.
My topics range from eating organically on a budget and cleaning one’s home safely, to painting with the least toxic products and buying the safest furniture. Whether you want to learn about raising your family in an environmentally healthy home, creating the safest school environment or greening up your workplace, I’ve got you covered. I will teach you how to limit exposure to things like pesticides, petroleum byproducts and harmful preservatives. I will explain how to mitigate exposure to carcinogens, neurotoxins, teratogens and endocrine disruptors. I will provide you with valuable information, as well as simple ways to make meaningful changes in your life.
Don’t wait to bring this important information to your community. Click on the Contact link on my homepage and we can move forward toward making your life – and the lives of those you love – safer and healthier.
There’s something kind of awesome about finding a skin care line whose products feel luxurious, keep their promises and are free of the chemicals and toxicants that fill the tubes, bottles and jars of most conventional lines. And if those products don’t break the bank? Well, I’m pretty sure that’s worthy of a celebration. Or at least a blog…
Juice Beauty – the brand to which I now trust my face – is a beauty product line that was founded by Karen Behnke, a California mom and “serial wellness entrepreneur” who, during her first pregnancy, realized that effective and safe skincare was of utmost importance and that the lack of regulation of the personal care products industry had led to some pretty unsavory and unhealthy offerings. Knowing that our skin absorbs around 60% of the stuff we put on it (in other words, around 60% of those unsavory and unhealthy products), her mission became clear.
Karen’s goal was to create innovative personal care products that, unlike the more familiar ones, were not based on water (which is safe, but dilutes other ingredients) or petroleum (which is not safe due to potential hazardous contaminants), but rather healthy, organic juices. And, along with professional scientists and experts, Karen was successful, developing truly effective juice-based products.
Many collections later, Juice Beauty has over 100 options, including cleansers, moisturizers for all skin types, blemish clearing products and body lotions, as well as the much touted Stem Cellular Collection and Green Apple Peels, all made with a host of safe ingredients (with a total USDA certified organic content of 98%). In fact, the list of ingredients that Juice Beauty will never use – including phthalates, pesticides, parabens and many other endocrine disruptors, carcinogens and skin irritants – reads like a Who’s Who of what not to slather on the skin.
Juice Beauty facial products are now elbowing out many other products on my bathroom vanity. The clean, sleek packaging is chic and the products, as I mentioned, offer good bang for the buck. One of my faves is the SPF 30 Tinted Mineral Moisturizer. This zinc oxide based moisturizer softens my skin well and provides very important protection against the sun’s skin-damaging rays. It goes on rather smoothly and, because it’s tinted, doesn’t cast that telltale white zinc hue.
I’m also really enjoying my Juice Beauty nighttime regimen. I’ve been using the Daily Essentials Nutrient Moisturizer, which is very hydrating and full of vitamins and antioxidants. It’s so rich, that just a bit on the fingers goes a long way on the face. And my eyes are getting some Juice action as well. The Smoothing Eye Concentrate is good for all skin types and tends to the dark-circled and fine-lined area under the eyes (heck, age and parenting will do that to a girl) with grape and carrot juices, as well as other nutrient rich ingredients such as avocado.
As holiday time is upon us, I’m thinking that some Juice Beauty products, stylishly wrapped, would be the perfect gift for my friends, my sister, my mom. I love the idea of being the benefactor of healthy beauty in the form of gift-wrapped boxes bursting with items that are luxe, practical and totally current in terms of the trend toward non-toxic personal care products. And they won’t be presents that are just powerful in the moment; they will be gifts that continuously take safe and excellent care of the skin of the people I love — inside and out.
The highlight of my week was seeing Senator Barbara Boxer, California Democrat and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, stick it to ‘Big Chemical’ with the very simplest of questions.
But I didn’t get that thrill at a hearing in Washington. In fact I was much closer to home, in New York City’s West Village, at the premiere of the very compelling and entertaining HBO documentary Toxic Hot Seat, co-directed by filmmakers Kirby Walker and James Redford. The film was part of DOC NYC – New York’s annual documentary film festival.
In 90 minutes time, Toxic Hot Seat clearly and expertly unravels the history behind our country’s decades-old love affair with flame retardant chemicals and delves into the purported efficacy and dangers of those very chemicals, all the while weaving in the personal stories that triggered the movement to rid these persistent poisons from our homes, our bodies, our lives.
Now, it’s no secret that this sort of stuff automatically gets me going; just the idea of a movie that uncorks the conversation about the toxic soup in which we all live is exciting to me. But this doc will resonate even with those who don’t readily buy into the idea that we’re all a bunch of guinea pigs in a massive, unregulated toxic experiment. The movie is not preachy or forced — it just tells a good, interesting story and offers us the added benefit of an important revelation, however frightening: that the flame retardant chemicals in our furniture, home furnishings, clothes and electronics are not only ineffective and worthless, but actually neurotoxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic, especially to children.
Speaking of which — back to Senator Boxer’s star turn. The film takes us to a July 2012 hearing focused on whether the EPA had the authority necessary to regulate hazardous chemicals. Senator Boxer posed a direct ‘yes or no’ question: Should chemical manufacturers be required to unbiasedly prove that their products are safe for pregnant women, infants and children before they can be sold?
Babies. Children. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, not exactly for the chemical company reps. The first representative, a marketing director from Great Lakes Solutions, a Chemtura business, struggled to muster a response (and when he did, it was begrudging and quiet) and the second, a lawyer representing big chemical interests, was unable to answer the question at all.
This really speaks to the heart of the movie — the fact that we, the consumers, have been living at the whim and will of chemical companies seeking only profit and power, regardless of the devastating consequences. It’s not news that this happened with the tobacco industry, but most people would never dream that companies have been hurting us with basic consumer products that should be utterly harmless. Alas, many chemical companies have been doing just that: they’ve been pushing their chemicals for decades – citing flawed studies and erroneous, outdated flammability laws – and have poisoned our living rooms, our family rooms, our bedrooms.
The movie engages a host of people who tell us this sobering tale from many angles. Among them are firefighters, most notably San Franciscans Tony Stefani (who I had the great pleasure of meeting) and Karen Kerr Stone, who have struggled with illness and loss as a result of high level toxic exposures faced by firefighters country-wide; Patricia Callahan, the award-winning Chicago Tribune investigative reporter who co-wrote “Playing with Fire,” a series which exposed, among other things, chemical industry deception; Arlene Blum, an environmental health chemist who has dedicated her life to pushing for safer chemical standards; Andrew McGuire, a burn victim and grassroots lobbyist; and Hannah Pingree, a young mother and one time politician from Maine. One of the climaxes of the movie was seeing many of these scattered players physically united in Washington, empowered by truth and connected by the common passion to push for reform in order to save lives.
The timing of this movie could not have been more appropriate for me and my family. We are currently looking for new furniture and I’m dedicated to only buying from furniture companies that have pledged to buck the trend and not use toxic flame retardants (instead they use wool, often organic, which passes all flame tests). But the search is not easy, because most furniture companies still feel compelled to abide by the outdated flammability laws which require the use of the toxic retardants. The good news is that very soon – starting in 2014 – it will become somewhat easier to find safer furniture, as stricter guidelines and even some bans (depending on the state) on the use of toxic chemicals will be set in motion and companies will expressly have the option to opt out of abiding by old flammability laws.
After the movie I had the honor of talking with one of the directors, Kirby Parker. We bemoaned the fact that not enough people are aware of the problem – something her movie is setting out to change. We discussed that although the fight is a tough one, and one that will not find success overnight, it is of great importance to our nation’s health. If sweeping change is to happen, then the demand for safe homes has to be loud and clear; we all must insist on healthy spaces for ourselves and for our children. And if the groundswell develops, the furniture companies that provide us with the settings in which we live our lives will have a real impetus to leave the past – and the chemical companies – behind and institute permanent, positive change.
Toxic Hot Seat premieres on HBO on November 25th at 9pm.
Those who know me think that I’m just a degree shy of bonkers when it comes to protecting my kids from the sun. But because studies have shown that 1 in 5 Americans will develop some type of skin cancer in the course of a lifetime, I believe that I’m more sane than most.
Even though fall is upon us and winter will soon be rearing it’s head, the sun still shines – and if you don’t live in subzero temps and aren’t walking around with your entire head covered, at the very least your face will certainly be exposed to the sun on a regular basis.
The best way to avoid sun damage – whether in the form of sun spots, aging skin, sun burn and, of course, skin cancer – is to truly limit sun exposure. Yes, the sun provides us with Vitamin D which helps us absorb calcium, but those who are deficient can eat foods and take supplements in order to get those benefits, and excessive, unprotected sun exposure confers much more harm than good.
In the warmer months, if you try to get your kids to avoid the sun’s dangers by keeping them inside from 10am to 2pm (when the sun’s at its strongest), dressing them in long-sleeve shirts and pants, and forcing them to wear sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats, you’ll have a mutiny on your hands. And in these colder months, kids enjoy plenty of winter sports activities and the sun’s reflection off of the snow right unto a young face can be a recipe for a painful sunburn. And, of course, if a beach vacation is on your holiday schedule, be aware that the sun reflects right off the ocean too.
Unfortunately, it ain’t as obvious as grabbing any old sunscreen off the shelf at your local store. It turns out that the sun’s rays aren’t the only thing that’s messing with your children’s bodies as they build sandcastles or go snow tubing. It’s also the chemicals inside many bottles of sunscreen that should cause parents to lose sleep.
So in keeping with reality and safety, I offer some basic – but very important – info for safeguarding your kids from the sun. Committing these guidelines to memory is really a walk in the park. And the tips are sure to protect your family when you’re taking, well, a walk in the park…
Some great brands of effective and safe sunscreens are Badger, The Honest Company, Aubrey Organics and Vanicream. These products might cost a bit more than the conventional sunscreen, but considering you rub the stuff into your kids’ skin regularly (well, you should be), it pays to make sure the product getting absorbed into their bodies is safe.
Keeping your children from getting burned by the sun is of the highest priority. So when the outdoors comes calling and your kids grab a bathing suit or a pair of ice skates, keep them safe from the sun and from chemicals. It’s the rational thing to do.
Игровые автоматы super jump, игровые автоматы ярославль. Среди особенностей игры в рулетку необходимо выделить её параметры.
5 years ago I decided to get fit by testing my Advanced Intermediate swimming skills. Yeah, I wore the proverbial Scarlet AI on my forehead for endless summers at camp (c’mon, unless you’re a 10th grade lit teacher, you can allow me some creative license here). Alas, those lake lifeguards never did promote me to Advanced, leaving me to flutter-kick in vain.
Well, the frigid waters of Silver Lake wouldn’t recognize me now, as I swiftly crawl/backstroke/breaststroke through the water and use kick-boards, fins and stabilizers. In swimming, I’ve found amazing benefits for my body, mind and soul.
Studies have shown that regular swimmers are biologically up to 20 years younger than their actual ages. That’s reason enough to hit the local pool. And so you could just stop reading here. But don’t! Because then you’ll miss some other neat facts:
As for the intangible benefits of swimming, bullet points would give short shrift to the powerful impact that swimming can have on one’s emotional well being; I know this firsthand. Swimming offers me a real escape from the stresses and responsibilities of life. Underwater I’m in my perfect, private zone – it’s intense, relaxing and buoyant all at the same time. It’s an incomparable feeling that I look forward to every day.
For those joggers or gym buffs who think it’s tough to exercise without some musical inspiration, I offer you the SwiMP3 by Finis. You’ll get your Rolling Stones or Pink or Daft Punk even as the water rushes past — it’s pretty damn cool.
As an important aside, if you have no choice but to swim in a chlorinated pool (as opposed to a saltwater pool or one which utilizes ultraviolet disinfection), make sure that the pool is cleaned and emptied regularly, shower before and after hopping in and hydrate yourself with filtered water before you take a dive.
So, grab a bathing suit, a swim cap, a pair of goggles and find yourself a pool. You won’t regret it. And as for you camp lifeguards – wherever you are – who kept me from the holy grail of the Advanced swim group? Your lanyard whistle necklaces really weren’t that cool. But I don’t hold a grudge.
This post first ran on the Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy website.
I once thought that turning 40 would be a significant milestone in my life. Like most people, I assumed that the act of marking time by focusing on the calendar was the main, fitting way to celebrate progress, the perfect way to celebrate life. My “landmark” birthday would surely be meaningful in its own right.
But many things happened on my way to 40. Experiences, both emotional and profound, rushed in and capsized my notions about which moments I would honor with my time, my attention and my memory. Instead of standing on deck, squinting toward the distant shore of an upcoming birthday, I gradually found myself celebrating moments that were organically swirling at my feet.
The awakening began with the birth of our first child, 12 years ago. Within 5 1/2 years, our brood grew by 3 more. In that intense and overwhelmingly busy time, I began to shed the idea that any one day was destined to be more relevant than all others just by virtue of its place on the calendar. Of course, a birthday can be a special, exciting time – for adults and certainly for children – but, in my life, the memories that have endured having nothing to do with candles on a cake. I don’t recall my 27th birthday, but I remember my first son’s toothless grins that appeared every time we played Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I’ve forgotten how I celebrated my 29th birthday, but I recall my second son’s childlike awe in the Museum of Natural History. Is my 30th birthday vivid? My 33rd? No and no. But I will always remember how adorable my daughter looked in her first pair of pink converse sneakers, as well as my 4th child’s very early ability to dance right on beat.
Becoming a parent was a powerful lesson, but it was only part of my education. In April of 2011, my husband and I were blindsided by the fact that our young son’s low grade fever, a fever that surfaced and abated several times over 2 weeks, was a symptom of something far more insidious than a virus or infection. At 8 years old, our child was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and our world was turned on its head. But amidst all the worry and fear, I reaped the benefits of my ever-blooming understanding that there was magnificence in life’s more modest moments; suddenly, no other insight was more important or more true. My ability to hear euphony in a child’s unexpected, silly reaction or my appreciation of a deep connection built while explaining away a child’s fear were the most beautifully wrapped gifts I opened during some of my darkest hours.
August 6th, 2013, was chemo day for my son. It was also my 40th birthday. Sitting in the pediatric cancer center, bearing witness to incomparable levels of sadness and strength, no one aware that it was my big 4-0, I knew unmistakably that for 12 years I had been following an authentic map, one that had allowed me to unearth the real treasures in my world. On this map of life, the most meaningful milestones are not the days marked by birthdays or anniversaries, but those seemingly quotidian experiences I share with my children, my family, my friends — snapshots that, in reality, are not insignificant at all. Turning 40 paled in comparison to the brunch that I shared with my daughter early in the summer before she left for sleepaway camp; the walk I took with my eldest son recently, our arms linked; the fun basketball game I played with my youngest child; the way I was able to make my son laugh during that chemo week, even when he was feeling so horrible from the meds. I know that thosetypes of moments are the big ones — the ones that will most enrich the years I’m given and provide me with the fortitude to navigate the frothy, unforgiving waves that might crash against my vessel. Those are the milestones of a life well lived.