Imagine if you could help reduce the pollution in the world and at the same time assist in maintaining healthy ecosystems worldwide. Are you interested?
First of all lets look at the issues that you directly have control over.
The chemicals that we ingest for pain relief, cholesterol control, maintaining blood pressure diabetes and chemotherapy drugs. All of which are literally flushed out of our bodies and down the toilet eventually make their way back into our water systems and oceans.
These drugs even though currently in microscopically proportions are increasing along with the increase in the world’s population. There is close on 300 million community prescriptions a year in Australia, add on top of that the drugs from supermarkets and those brought over the counter. This doesn’t include the thousands of Australians on chemotherapy at any one time.
Apparently there are 4,000 pharmaceuticals used worldwide. Some of these are manufactured in third world countries. This brings another problem from the refuse produced by these manufacturing plants.
Then there are the cleaning products we use to disinfect and clean and bleach and remove stains. These also go down the drain. Consider the chemicals sprayed on crops which also make their way into the water ways from runoff. So what can we do about it? David Suzuki coined the phrase think globally act locally. I believe by giving thought to the impact on our planet from what we do in our everyday lives will bring about a resolve.
Did you know there is a soup-island in the pacific that is comprised of plastic rubbish, known as the Pacific Garbage Patch? It’s a swirling plastic soup in the north pacific gyre. A gyre is an area in the ocean where all currents meet. The garbage patch in the north pacific is the size of Texas.
Did you know that a third of the sea turtles die from rubbish dumped in the oceans? Sea turtles don’t have the ability to vomit. They ingest soft plastic as it looks like jelly fish. As they can’t vomit it stays in their bodies and kills them. Do we really understand the degree of damage rubbish is doing to our planet, our Health and the impact on generations to come?
This is where you come in. Maintain a healthy weight with healthy eating and lifestyle will reduce disease. By keeping fit and healthy eating you will reduce the need for drugs during your life. Don’t by any means stop taking your prescribed medicine but assess how you can become healthier.
In a lot of cases the need for medicines can be reduced by simply maintaining a healthy weight, healthy eating and lifestyle. Consider growing your own organic produce. If space is an issue then use pots. Please find below a links to previous blogs with ideas for assisting in creating a healthier you.
Take 3 is an organisation asking beach users to pick up three pieces of rubbish when they leave the beach, which is not theirs. Their slogan is, Take 3 for the Sea. I take three pieces of rubbish from the beach after a swim. I don’t care that I am picking up after someone else. I do care that I am saving marine life. Please find a link below to the Take 3 website. http://take3.org.au/main/page_home.html
The saying for every action is a reaction is very true. You literally have the fate of the world in the flush of a toilet and in the use of every cleaning product. Let us all aspire to be healthy considerate consumers and create a positive imprint on the world when we leave.
