Green Health Spot

5 Things to Do to Save Fuel and Reduce Emissions

Since this blog is all about education and how to lead healthier and less environmentally impactful lives while still enjoying the creature comforts I thought that the last of the trilogy post of the future of fuels should end with some simple tips to save fuel.  To read part 1 and part 2 of this trilogy, click on the links to take you to the posts from the past 2 days.  My thinking goes something like this....many illnesses are caused by environmental exposure to toxins (petroleum products are a huge part of this exposure), if we take conscious effort to reduce exposure we will ultimately help both the earth, ourselves and our loved ones.  Since every little bit counts, learning how to drive to save fuel ultimately goes a long way to reduce CO2 output since we all don't have hydrogen or solar powered cars. 

If you start implementing these behaviors now.  Over the lifetime of your current car, without buying a hybrid you can start today on helping reduce emissions.  Maybe even more importantly for some people these behaviors should reduce the frequency of gas station visits for fill-ups. 

1. Even acceleration from a stop is a great fuel saver.  A corollary to this is to apply even pressure on the gas pedal.  Few people realize that they do a lot of pumping the gas pedal.  This pumping action puts more wear and tear on your car as well as reduce fuel efficiency.
2. Check your tire pressure.  Under inflated tires are both a road hazard as well as a fuel consumer.  There is more power that is needed for the car to overcome the squishiness of the tires.  Keep your tires rotated and know the manufacturer's recommended pressure for the tires on your car. 
3. Regular tune-ups and scheduled maintenance will keep your car efficient.  Replacing faulty oxygen sensors can improve fuel efficiency by 40%.
4. Replace air filters regularly.  This can increase your mileage by 10%.
5. When driving on the highway, keep windows rolled up to reduce drag on the car.  The more aerodynamic your car is, the less fuel it takes to get your car to go.

If you do these simple techniques you'll start to find that your well maintained car will consume less fuel and in turn emit less pollution than before.

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Clean Diesel, Not an Oxymoron Anymore

Yesterday we spoke about the search for high performance cars that is also fuel efficient and has low environmental impact.  Is there such a thing?  What is coming on the horizon?  I found one possible answer in a recent issue of the Audi Club magazine Quattro Quarterly.  Bluetec Diesel. 

Diesel?  Does that word, immediately conjure up the black soot generated from a 70s & 80s Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen or GM diesel powered car?  Or some of those disgusting smelling, pollution generating older trucks that used to be on the road?  Well, it did for me.  It took me awhile to wrap my head around the ideal of diesel being environmentally conscious but it seems that the technology around diesel nowadays can make it one of the most desirable fuels of the near future.  In Europe, where fuel prices have been astronomical for years and whose emission standards are extremely strict, diesel has been a way of life for decades now.  Adding Bluetec to current Audi and VW TDI (turbo diesel injected engines) just makes the already fuel efficient engines more so with added performance.  Bluetec is a system of urea injection, particle filters and nitrous oxide reducing catalytic converters licensed from Daimler-Chrysler so that VW/Audi can use the amazing new technology in their newer diesel cars making Bluetec cars the cleanest diesels in the world. 

In fact, the Bluetec diesel powered cars are so clean running they meet all European emission standards through 2014 and comply with the very stringent Tier 2 Bin 5 norms set in North America so that the diesel cars can be sold in all 50 states and Canada.  These Bluetec engines run clean and extremely efficiently.  It also reduces carbon dioxide emissions from the tailpipe and run as quietly as gasoline engines do now.  Audi’s Q7 SUV has a 3.0 liter TDI version already being sold in Europe.  The new Bluetec version will accelerate as quickly as a V6 gasoline version but use 20-30% less fuel in day to day driving.  Some test drivers have reported that the Q7 3.0 liter TDI seems to feel almost as fast as a V8 version of the gasoline powered Q7.  Excited?  Me too.  I can’t imagine a better world than that which has little or no compromise.  Where we can be both environmentally conscious as well as enjoying the performance and convenience of cars built for speed and giving the driver the sense of pleasure in the driving experience.

What can you do to reduce your car's emissions and improve fuel efficiency?  Tomorrow, some tips on doing your part without the benefit of a hybrid.

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Can Diesel Be a Green Tech of the Future?

In this election year and with gasoline prices skyrocketing through the roof we are all becoming more conscious of how reliant we are on our cars and the gasoline that runs them.  An instance of this was my personal experience with public transportation from Palo Alto to Oakland to pick up my new car.  Suffice it to say, it took me walking 1/2 mile to the train station, a train ride to Millbrae where I then transferred to BART that was to take me to on a long, noisy and smelly ride to downtown Oakland where I had to walk another 1/2 mile to the Audi dealer to pick up my new car.  Suffice it to say, it took near 2 hours to get to a place that took only half an hour by car.  True, I could have asked a friend to drive me but I thought that it would be an easy and quick trip via public transport.  Well, it turned out to be an exercise in patience and persistence.  Near the end, I was sorry for wearing the shoes that I did and not bringing a sweater as the temperature difference between Palo Alto and Oakland was about 20 degrees.

As gasoline hits the $4 per gallon mark I think it is about time for some talk about new fuel alternatives on the horizon.  At least in the Bay Area, public transportation is not always efficient or convenient so maybe alternative fuel choices are a more reasonable answer for most.  I’ve had many hours of such talk with my other-half, Jamie.  Jamie is at heart is a car guy.  Make no mistake, he can just as easily speak about boats, computer design and audio systems but he knows his cars.  One of the benefits of a long distance relationship (he lives in Atlanta) is the amount of time we spend on the phone having in-depth discussions on various topics.  Here lies my education about fuels, cars, and hybrids. 

On big concern for both Jamie and I is the seeming trade off between vehicle performance and environmental impact.  His understanding of automotive technology and design tells me that there is really little reason for the trade-off.  Are our choices really just a hybrid or a gasoline car?  What about all the families or active couples that prefer to have a SUV for convenience?  Many people I know have large gas guzzling SUVs and a new fuel option is on the horizon which may actually supersede the hybrid SUV option in environmental impact and fuel efficiency without compromise of performance in torque or horsepower. 

The problem with current hybrids is that the gasoline/electric combination is only economic on fuel in the stop/go traffic of a city.  The soccer mom scenario where chauffeuring kids to and from school, buying groceries and short distance errands are optimal for the hybrid SUV.  Many are finding that the fuel economy no longer holds well on long trips to Lake Tahoe or Yosemite for the weekend.  This is because much of the power that is relied upon to reduce fuel usage hinges on the electric battery packs that relies on being frequently recharged by the braking system in the stop and go traffic.  In town this works and you get X miles to the gallon for your SUV but if you use your hybrid car or SUV in a long highway commute the fuel efficiency really drops and some find that their miles per gallon numbers can be as bad or worse than their plain gasoline counterparts. (and at a much greater upfront and overall repair cost)  Worse, because the weight of a hybrid vehicle is heavier than the equivalent gasoline vehicle it then requires more fuel to get it to go.  There is also the trade-off of power and performance not usually associated with a hybrid.  We Americans rarely prefer giving up our high performance vehicles for an underpowered yet fuel efficient vehicle.

Is there another answer?  Maybe more than one.  I’m of the strong belief that there is no end to engineering ingenuity so I will be expecting to see some no-compromise answers coming on the horizon.  Tomorrow, one car company’s possible answer to the fuel prices; combining fuel efficiency with performance and power. 

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Moving Forward

This week marks the 100th post on this blog and I decided to reevaluate the focus slightly to provide my readers more exposure to a greater range of topics that they can incorporate into their lifestyles.  I will be cycling through a greater number of topics that will engage a wider variety of readers.  Some of these areas of discussion include a meditation/visualization section to help with healing physical and emotional stresses, talk about up and coming technology designed to enhance your life while keeping an eye on the environment and exercises to promote brain and to enhance brain and body function.  Further we will be incorporating various posts on topics that I find interesting in assisting you in maintaining optimal health well.  As our average lifespan continues to increase a key aspect of health and healing will include how to live vibrantly regardless of age.  I will welcome all topic suggestions and hope that my readers continuously submit interesting subjects or suggestions for discussion.

In the next coming months I will also be implementing a section on green living.  What you can do to reduce household, garden and work exposure to various common toxins.  The point for all of this education and discussion is for individual empowerment in health and the belief that an ounce of prevention is truly worth more than a pound of cure.  No matter what your age or what your health condition it is never too late to start on the path to physical and emotional wellness. 

Finally, in the near future we will have an on-line store dedicated to physical and emotional wellness and well-being.  Many people ask about what products to select for their home, which products are safer, how to reduce stress to help trigger the body’s own profound healing ability.  This e-store will help you gain easier access to these products.  Thanks for visiting, stop by often and to check out our new topics.

Do Your "Organic" Products Have Cancer Causing Contaminants?

More and more people are buying 'organic' and 'natural' products at the health food stores such as Whole Foods.  These products are usually more expensive, exclusive and many Americans use their hard earned dollars to purchase these products believing they are healthier for their families than non-organic and synthetic products.  Is this truly the case?  It seems that these products may not be as safe as most people think.  Last week the Organic Consumer's Association (OCA) sent out a press release to report the contamination of many personal care products mis-labeled as organic or natural with a cancer causing synthetic chemical called 1,4 Dioxane. 

USDA Certified Organic products do NOT contain these easily absorbable cancer causing chemical, so look for the USDA Organic symbol on the organic products you purchase.  According to a study published by Environmental Working Group, almost half of all the products tested contained 1,4 Dioxane.  Which included about 57% of baby soaps and 34% of skin lotions.  This might just be the tip of the iceberg for cancer causing contaminants in personal care products.  Preliminary studies indicate that many personal care products contain one or more of two dozen chemicals commonly found in cosmetics known to cause cancer or other health concerns.  In fact, the top ingredient commonly exposed to is called hydroquinone and 94% of women and 69% of men are exposed to it daily in their shampoos, body lotions, make-up etc.  One study listed the top 7 chemical ingredients know to cause cancer as hydroquinone, ethylene dioxide, 1,4-dioxane, formaldehyde, nitrosamines, PAHs, and acrylamide. 

The Food and Drug Association (FDA) is responsible for the regulation of these personal care products but does not do safety testing before the products are sold.  Check out the results of the OCA's testing of organic and natural products for 1,4 dioxane.  The natural "BDIH" certification for German products did not contain this contaminant.  If you want to find out how your make-up, baby shampoo, hair dye, suntan lotion, skin creams etc. measure up for health risks, you can use the database set up by the Environmental Working Group called Skin Deep. 

A few months ago we talked about Lead in Your Lipstick which brings awareness toward heavy metal contamination in one of the most commonly consumed non-food item, lipstick.  Also, read my article on Beauty and Breast Cancer which talks about the preservative Paraben and its relatives.  These chemicals are often accumulating in your fat cells after they are absorbed by your skin.  The FDA does not have the resources to regulate your skin care products so take matters into your own hands and find out what is best for you and your family.

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What is One of the Most Toxic Foods You Can Eat?

Well, if you ask the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) they might say it is farmed Salmon.  In fact, the EPA recommends that you not eat more than one meal of farmed salmon per month.  If the farmed salmon originates from Scotland or the Faroe Islands then the maximum one should eat per month is one half of a serving.  A serving being 6 ounces of farmed salmon.  You read correctly that is in one month, 30 days!  Shocking?  These guidelines are to keep the American public from consuming too many cancer causing chemicals such as things like PCBs and dioxin.

You can assume that if your salmon label does not say Wild Alaskan salmon, your salmon is farmed.  Atlantic salmon that is farmed contains the most amount of chemicals in their flesh compared to wild salmon, beef, pork, chicken and other seafoods.  The heart benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon is offset in farmed salmon as the chemicals found in the flesh are so toxic to the body.  The EPA guidelines are related just to cancer risk concerns, it is speculated that the other health effects related to the chemicals in farmed salmon such as reproductive problems, immune problems, thyroid problems and other endocrine problems might be a greater concern to the general public as these symptoms develop more quickly than cancer.  The Environmental Working Group found in a study of store bought farmed salmon from Washington DC, San Francisco and Portland found enough PCBs in the fish to actually raise the consumer's cancer risk.  The farmed Atlantic salmon had 16 times the amount of PCBs than was found in wild salmon.  PCBs were found to be so toxic that their use was banned in the US in 1976 and has been slated to be phased out all over the world.  PCBs and other chemicals get into the salmon through the feed they are fed. 

When you go to a restaurant and order salmon off the menu, make sure it says wild salmon.  If the menu does not say, it is farmed.  Farming salmon makes it much more affordable as wild salmon prices about as much as a high end cut of beef.  When trying to make healthy dinner choices for your family, choose land animals or wild salmon.  Your family will thank you for it later.

If you want to know how much tuna you should eat a week, check our the tuna calculator....it really makes you reevaluate what to order off the sushi menu.

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Meditation Improves Brain Function

One of the most common complaints that I get in my office is the brain fog and memory problems.  Some of these problems are often noticed by people after times of stress on the body or emotional stress.  People forget names and faces of old friends, lose their keys, forget what they had for lunch.  Many chalk this up to aging but I've learned from my practice that much of this is reversible and can be temporary.  Recently, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Alzheimer's Prevention Foundation International found that meditation done daily has a profound impact on brain function.

Surprising findings indicate that meditative techniques performed for as little as 12 minutes a day can profoundly impact the signs of early cognitive decline in people.  During the study, researchers took before and after SPECT scans (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) of the brain.  This high-tech scan measures blood flow to the brain and produces a 3-dimensional image of the brain.  There was a stark contrast between the before scans and the scans taken after 8 weeks of daily meditative practice.  One area of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory.  This too is the area that is first affected in patients with Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disease that eventually robs its victims of all memory. 

The significance of this study implies that there are techniques that people can start to do early on to reverse brain degeneration.  The implications of the research findings can bring hope to many people who have aging parents with Alzheimer's and are fearful of their own brain health in the future.  There too, are environmental impacts on the brain's ability to function.  Concerns such as mercury or lead or other heavy metals should also be addressed.  Heavy metals can alter your ability to deal with stress. A primary concern in our modern world is how to moderate stress and getting out to exercise which should be lifelong lifestyle goals that can have profound impact on physical and mental health in the future.

For those of you who want to learn the simple meditative exercise used in the research study done by University of Pennsylvania researchers, go to the Alzheimer's Prevention Foundation International's website and click on research.

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Lung Age Can Motivate You to Stop Smoking

It's easy for non-smokers to tell our smoking friends or co-workers that they should quit smoking.  After all for us, it seems like a no brainer.  There are few things as studied as the relationship between smoking and the development of lung cancer.  But wait, there's more...how about bladder cancer, heavy metal toxicity, emphysema, COPD, hypertension, heart disease like clogged arteries, stroke, impotence, throat cancer, mouth cancer, kidney cancer, stomach cancer, uterine/cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer?  There are many websites that give us scare tactics about anti-smoking and why someone who is a smoker should quit now. 

But researchers have found that twice the number of people who were given their lung 'age' could resolve themselves to quit smoking for good.  This is because doctors have found that many smokers have undiagnosed emphysema.  Without this important information many smokers can continue to be oblivious to their health condition.  Smoking kills 4 million people a year according to the World Health Organization. Everyone who smokes knows that it isn't a healthy thing to do and some don't care and will stop later or some think they are too young to have health issues from the smoking if they are young. Yes, it usually is harder for many to stop smoking than it was to start.  There is much support out there for smokers who want to quit.  Just knowing that you likely already have diminished lung capacity and hardening of the arteries is information to help those who want to make the choice to stop.

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What To Do About the Drugs in Your Water

Water is one of our Earth's most precious resources and in modern society it is uncommon to give our tap water a second thought.  We assume it is clean, without bacteria, and good for you.  It looks clear, doesn't smell or taste funny, it must be clean.  Right?  Well, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is responsible for the cleanliness and purity of our drinking water, the municipal waters in the US are the cleanest in the world.  Well if any of you have been to Mexico and accidentally got Montezuma's revenge from impure ice or tap water you know that the benchmark is not too high.   In the wake of my praising article of virtually eliminating Lindane out of drinking water in California, we are now up against a larger, but not impossible, task of keeping our tap water safe for drinking.

It may well be that we have the cleanest tap water in the world but does that mean it shouldn't be cleaner?  You undoubtedly have heard of the Associated Press' recent report on the finding of drugs; prescriptive and over the counter, in our drinking water.  It affects, right now, the smallest of creatures who are the most sensitive of our ecosystem.  Things like male fat-headed minnows are turning more female due to the sex hormones in the water.  Antibiotics that were in treatment water sludge fed to cows then their manure is used to fertilize our vegetables where we then surprisingly find antibiotics in our corn, lettuce and potatoes.  Vultures are developing kidney failure because of the medications in our waters that they drink.  Mussels, snails, oysters, fish, birds, zooplankton, jellyfish are all being affected by our drinking water.  Is it blind to think, as the EPA does, that our drinking water is safe for our use as well?

Should we wait until more research comes out before we take action for ourselves?  Those in other countries will also want to know that similar studies in Pakistan, China, UK, Canada are finding shocking and depressing results.  The key to prevention is awareness.  Read up on the environmental impact of this on the health of other species and understand that because humans are at the top of the food chain it will take longer to see how these findings relate to human health.  Don't wait the 5, 10 or 20 years it will take to further substantiate what we already know intuitively to be true.  That medications that were not prescribed to you should not be ingested no matter how little if you expect to remain healthy.  In this time of MRSA multi-antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria killing young and healthy persons, and the exponential incidence of autism it is clear that any governmental agency's rules will be too slow to change to keep up with the growing amounts of evidence that chemicals, drugs and environmental pollutants are affecting our health now.

Filter your water with a reverse osmosis filter

They run about $150-250 and if you're not handy you can get a plumber to install it for another $100 or so.  Faucet filters and pitcher filters are not sufficient for drugs in your water so don't get that false sense of security that using a pitcher filter with a carbon filter will give you.  Some reverse osmosis filters waste more water than others, try to find one that conserves more water.

Bottled Water Beware

Many bottled waters are just tap water put into a bottle so don't be fooled into thinking that you are safe from the contamination.  Know that many 'spring' waters that come from underground springs and are not checked for contamination.  If lakes and streams are getting small amounts of medication contamination you can assume that underground streams can as well.

Juice, Sodas, Coffee, Tea, Wine and Beer

If these are your primary sources of fluids, make sure that you know if the water used to make these are thoroughly filtered.

Don't Dump Your Unused Medications into the Toilet

You can't help eliminating the medication by products in your urine or bowel movements but to do your part, recycle unused medications by giving them to your local pharmacy so they can dispose of them correctly.  Yes, what little you can do to help will go a long way toward keeping our environment safe.  Read the EPA guidelines for safe medication disposal and the FAQs on their website for more information.

Tell Your Friends

Tell them what to do...filter, use clean bottled water, dispose properly.  It's a start before your local government gets on the band wagon, you can help your community by starting now. 

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How to Make Money and Save the World

Stonybrook Farms makes a terrific organic yogurt that I usually eat most mornings.  This morning I found on my yogurt top this offer for a free book if you collect 25 yogurt tops and send it into the company.  I went to the website to check out the book and it looks quite promising.  For all of you out there who are entrepreneurs and are looking for your work to mean something and to have a positive impact on the earth.  Here is a good first step. 

The book was written by the President and CEO of Stonybrook Farms, Gary Hirschberg. The book's official title is Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World. There are audio and hard cover versions of the book.  You can find them on-line at Amazon or Borders and at your local bookstore.  I'll be getting the book this weekend and let you know what I think of the content and recommendations.  If you have read the book and have thoughts, please let me and our readers know by writing a comment to this post.  Also, if you live on the East Coast, Gary will be speaking at a lot of different locations.  Here is his speaking schedule.  Hopefully he comes out to the West Coast.  Lastly, here is Stonybrook's Guide to Guide to Offsetting Carbon Dioxide Emissions for your business. Happy reading.

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Migraine Management Through Diet

Yes, you can do something to help your migraines and diet changes are one of the best ways to help reduce or eliminate your migraines before they start.  Patients often ask me about the use of an elimination diet to help the reduce the body's inflammation levels that can bring on a migraine.  About 75% of migraines are food or diet related and eliminating foods that your body has a sensitivity to will reduce or eliminate your migraine incidents.  Common foods that trigger migraines are:

• Aged cheeses
• Red wine
• Chocolate
• MSG
• Peanuts
• Caffeine (coffee, tea and chocolate)
• Food additives (preservatives in deli meats or food colorings)

However, delayed sensitivities or IgG food reactions can bring on or exacerbate a migraine tendency.  These foods are usually unique to you because everyone has their own blueprint of foods they might be sensitive to or allergic to.  Some of the most common foods that one is can develop a sensitivity toward are

• Dairy products (cheese, milk, ice cream, sour cream, half and half, yogurt etc.)
• Corn (including corn derived products, see list)
• Eggs (chicken)
• Soy products (tofu, soy milk, miso, textured vegetable protein, meat substitutes etc.)
• Wheat (flour, whole wheat found in breads, pasta, pastries, bagels etc.)
• Sugar (cane especially but can be related to honey, maple syrup and other things that affect blood sugar)
• Yeast products (baker's yeast and brewer's yeast)

Doing a 2 week elimination of these foods will give you a strong hint whether or not your migraines are related to foods or other reasons.  Note here that although I've listed the most common food sensitivities there are hundreds of patients that I've worked with and found have very different foods they are sensitive to via IgG food sensitivity testing.  Magnesium supplementation is important as well.  If you find that your frequency or intensity of migraines are reduced during the elimination diet, the I suggest that your doctor test your for food sensitivities.  My favorite lab for this test is ImmunoLabs which does an excellent and reliable food sensitivity test that is extremely accurate (which is not always the case for tests from other labs).  I don't suggest that you just stay on such a restricted diet as it makes life a lot less fun.  So find out what your food sensitivities are as migraine sufferers don't need to continue on their painful path.   Most migraine sufferers will have more than 5 foods they are allergic to or sensitive to and in this case, the food impact are all additive to the likelihood that a migraine can develop. 

If you think you might be developing migraines from foods or diet, find a doctor that can help you identify these foods and then help you desensitize from the reaction.  In our office we use NAET which is an acupressure allergy elimination technique that permanently eliminates a food sensitivity in 1-4 treatments.

Just a note, that often women who get migraines only around their menstrual periods will find that eating regularly (by this I mean every 2 hours before you get hungry) to keep your blood sugar level will go a long way to keeping migraines away.

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A Step in the Right Direction: After the Ban of Lindane

Cleaner water, healthier children, improving environment.  That is all what has happened from the ban of pharmaceutical lindane by the state of California.  In 2002 California banned the use of Lindane, a pesticide and medical prescription for the treatment of head lice and scabies.  The reason for the ban was that Lindane was due to the impact on our water supply.  Of increasing concern is the accumulation of pharmaceuticals in the waste water either by people dumping their prescriptive drugs into the toilet or just through excretion of the medications in the urine or feces.  The water, though treated and filtered do not complete extract these pharmaceutical and they often reenter our food supply via contamination of fish, seafood, and vegetables or fruits watered by our treated waste water.  This has immense impact on our environment and eventually our own health. 

Classes of drugs that have been found in wastewater include anti-inflammatories, anti-hypertensives (beta-blockers), cholesterol lowering drugs, antibiotics, oral contraceptives, anti-depressants and anti-nausea drugs.  Included in this list was Lindane.  Althought there is technology that can filter out the medication residue, not all municipalities can afford such technologies and therefore much of it can end up back in humans without us knowing about it. 

Lindane's toxicity is well known and its popularity as a medical treatment has been decreasing since it's height of usage in the 1940's.  When used as a medication, acute lindane exposure included symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, seizures, headaches, numbness, and in some cases, death.  Because if it's toxicity and it's level of effectiveness, it is less effective than first line therapies such as permethrin or malathion, it was recommended by the FDA to be prescribed only as a second line of therapy for lice.  In California in 2002 it was decided to be banned as a pharmaceutical. 

Interestingly, in 2007, a study done by UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) researchers found that the wastewater concentration of lindane went from 36 ppt (parts per thousand) in 1999 in Los A ngeles county down to almost non-detectable in 2006.  In 1998, there were 135 calls per 100,000 to the poison control center regarding lindane toxicity, in 2006 there were 2.  Prescriptions for lindane went from 114,000 in 1997 down to 37 in 2002.  Alternatives to lindane were working very well and few doctors missed the use of lindane and our environment benefited from the shift.

As the green movement progresses and awareness grows of the environmental impact of our actions.  We will see increasing moves toward a cleaner future.  Currently the US FDA has not banned the use of pharmaceutical lindane  but the pesticide is under review by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and which may lead to a worldwide ban on the substance.  In the meantime, do your part by not flushing medications down the toilet and know the toxic side effects of medications that you put into your body so that you can understand both the pros and cons affecting your health.  Talk to your doctor and together you can decide on what is safest for you.

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