NEIGHBOURHOOD RESPONSE
THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH how you can help HOW DO YOU TAKE YOUR TEA? With Plastic?
PLASTIC AND OUR ENVIRONMENT
HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS What to do in an emergency
CONTENTS Plastic and Our Environment What Are Microbeads and Why Are They Harmful? The Great Pacific Garbage Coping with Stress Patch How do you take your tea? Plastic Poison: With plastic? Plastic Food Package Affects Your Health Heart Attack Symptoms What to do in an Emergency How Modern Furniture Endangers Firefighters
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PLASTIC AND OUR ENVIRONMENT Plastic is a growing disaster for our Environment. Most plastics are made from petroleum or natural gas, non-renewable resources extracted and processed using energy-intensive techniques that destroy fragile ecosystems. The manufacture of plastic, as well as its destruction by incineration, pollutes air, land and water and exposes workers to toxic chemicals, including carcinogens. Plastic packaging, especially the plastic shopping bag so widely used by us all, is a significant source of landfill waste and is regularly eaten by fish, marine life and land animals, and can have fatal consequences. Synthetic plastic does not biodegrade. It just sits and accumulates in landfills or pollutes
the environment. Just think about that for a minute. The plastic that was used 40 to 50 years ago is still sitting in landfill in its original form. Year by year our plastic waste is building up and hidden in landfill‌ Plastics have become a municipal waste nightmare, prompting local governments all over the world to implement plastic bag, and increasingly polystyrene (styrofoam), bans. Plastic pollution may not even be visible to the naked eye as research is showing that microscopic plastic particles are present in the air at various locations throughout the world and in all major oceans. Plastic is now ubiquitous in our terrestrial, aquatic and airborne environments - that is, it’s everywhere.
Photo: Ocean of garbage in the river banks. People collecting plastic garbage in the one of poluted river in Indonesia, Citarum River, West Java Province (2017). Especially after the rain, many garbage.
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THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH World’s largest collection of ocean garbage is twice the size of Texas There is a giant floating Garbage island in the North Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is so big that it is now visible from California. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch holds as much as 16 times more debris than was previously thought, posing a significant threat to the food chain, according to an international team of scientists. Winds and converging ocean currents funnel the garbage into a central location, said study lead author Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization that spearheaded the research. First discovered in the early 1990s, the trash in the patch comes from around the Pacific Rim, including nations in Asia and North and South America, Lebreton said. The patch is not a solid mass of plastic. It includes about 1.8 trillion pieces and weighs 88,000 tons — the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets. The new figures are as much as 16 times higher than previous estimates. The research — the most complete study undertaken of the garbage patch — was published Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. “We were surprised by the amount of large plastic objects we encountered,” said Julia Reisser of the foundation. “We used to think most of the debris consists of small fragments, but this new analysis shines a new light on the scope of the debris.” The study was based on a three-year mapping effort by an international team of scientists affiliated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, six universities and an aerial sensor company. More: Our trash harms the deepest fish in the ocean More: Humans have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastic since the ‘50s. That’s equal in size to 1 billion elephants.
Sadly, the Pacific patch isn’t alone. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest of five such trash collections in the ocean, Lebreton said. Scientists work with the European Space Agency to take photos of the garbage patches from space. No governments have stepped up to clean the trash, which is in international waters, so it’s up to privately funded groups such as the Ocean Cleanup Foundation to take the lead in getting rid of the garbage. There’s a sense of urgency, said Joost Dubois, a
spokesman with the foundation. “It’s a ticking time bomb of larger material,” Dubois said. “We’ve got to get it before it breaks down into a size that’s too small to collect and also dangerous for marine life.” Since plastic has been around only since the 1950s, there’s no way of knowing exactly how long it will last in the ocean. If left alone, the plastic could remain there for decades, centuries or even longer. “Unless we begin to remove it, some would say it may remain there forever,” Lebreton said.
Plastic Poison: Plastic Food Package Affects Your Health BY MEGHAN TELPNER Plastic is poison. Let’s just cut to the chase: plastic is toxic to the body and to the planet. And as a global population, we have become dependent on this supposedly disposable (or at least recyclable) fabrication of the fossil fuel giants. Leaving the health problems out of it for a moment (though you can check out those below with my fancy infographic), let’s start with the planet - because it’s very possible that all those plastic containers you’re throwing into various recycling bins aren’t being recycled at all. Or when we think we’re buying products made from consumer waste, that’s also not completely accurate. And are we even really doing our part? That same article stated this: Overall, Americans recycle at the lamentable rate of 34.5 percent and recycle plastic packaging at the even measlier rate of 14 percent. So the majority of that food packaging is ending up in landfills, or on the street as litter, where it may eventually get swept into the ocean. There, our wrappers and cans and cups become a much bigger problem — a direct threat to marine life that may ingest it and die. Less than 100 years ago, in the 1930s, plastic moved into the big leagues when chemical engineers learned how to make plastic from petroleum (polystyrene, acrylic polymers and polyvinyl chloride were all made in this way). Most of us under the age of 40 were taught the tune in schools to reduce, reuse and recycle. But I think most of us have forgotten the order - reduce comes first - and perhaps we were never taught what really came ahead of the whole shebang: remove! Whether we recycle it or not, once a piece of plastic is created, it is with us forever.
Every piece of plastic ever created on this planet since plastic started being created still remains in one form or another. According to Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2004 report, “an estimated four to five trillion plastic bags—including large trash bags, thick shopping bags, and thin grocery bags—were produced globally in 2002. Roughly 80 percent of those bags were used in North America and Western Europe. Every year, Americans reportedly throw away 100 billion plastic grocery bags, which can clog drains, crowd landfills, and leave an unsightly blot on the landscape.
About a thousand miles west of San Francisco is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (also called the Pacific Trash Vortex), a heaping floating mass of plastic debris twice the size of Texas. Or how about this image from the Citarum River in the town of Java in Indonesia, now rated as one of the 10 most toxic places in the world. People once made a livelihood from fishing for fish in this river. Now they troll around looking for any valuable trash that can be sold. Plastic is not just in the obvious things like water bottles, bags, and hummus containers, but it also lines our tin cans, is in our shower curtains, and unless it’s packaged in unlined paper or glass with a glass lid, it has likely made contact with every packaged food item in our home. We are coming into contact with and producing too much plastic garbage. Plastic has become an easy goto solution, chosen most often for convenience, not necessity. When we really need to use plastic, we can; however, there are other options for our day-to-day lives that can help us to reduce our consumption and use of it.
Think about this. What if you had to go a whole week, no wait, let’s just go a whole day, trying to consume or use things that have had no contact with plastic? I wish you luck—it’s tough, nearly impossible. A little bit here and there is not the end of the world. A lot here and there will be though. In terms of our health, there are oodles of reasons we might want to avoid foods that come in, are heated in, or hang out for a long time in plastic. The Pacific Trash Vortex, is a mass of marine garbage in the North Pacific Ocean estimated to be located between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. This needs your attention, our collective global awareness and action. Ask the
companies and businesses you love to switch to more sustainable packaging practices, and show off your favourite reusables. And see how and where you can reduce your use of plastic.
1. “The Disappearing Male”, CBC Doc Zone, November 7th, 2008 2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Update on Bisphenol A for Use in Food Contact Applications, January 2010, http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/ publichealthfocus/ucm064437.htm.
WE’RE NOT IN THE 1950S ANYMORE. THE TUPPERWARE PARTY IS OVER. Clearly this is a problem. So how are you enjoying the atrociously horrible K-Cup coffee pod coffee now? Between 2008 to 2013, sales have grown by 78.6 percent annually in the United States, according to the New York Times. And these little pods don’t get recycled because they are made of three different types of plastic that need to be manually disassembled and sorted. Despite plastic bag taxes and other such measures, the plastic problem isn’t shrinking (like the testicles of men who’ve been drinking too much plastic bottled water). It’s growing. Flip over your fave food-storage container. What do you see?
WHAT FEW OF US EVER THINK ABOUT IS WHAT PLASTIC DOES TO OUR HEALTH. Polycarbonate, something you may have never heard of, contains within its chemical cocktail something called bisphenol A or BPA, something you probably have heard of. One of its prime damaging effects is on the reproductive system. BPA mimics our own hormones, estrogen to be precise (when they come from synthetic sources like plastic, we call them xenoestrogens) and has been linked to all kinds of sex-hormone-related cancers such as prostate and breast cancers. Additionally, it can contribute to early onset of puberty and reproductiveorgan defects, such as smaller-thannormal junk in men. Since the 1960’s, sperm counts have been cut in half and rates of testicular cancer have doubled in the last 20 years (1). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration admits that these bad guys can leach into our food from the containers they were stored in, but it hangs on to the claim that there are safe levels(2). And I am pretty sure it’s safe to assume we all know someone who has dealt with ovarian, breast, prostate or testicular cancer.
How To Do Without Plastic 1. Leave the petroleum for your car. I am pretty sure everything can be stored in mason jars. Instead of mixing petroleum - which is where plastic comes from - with your food, look for alternatives such as glass, stoneware ceramic and stainless steel. 2. Get up close and personal with plastic. All plastics are marked with an identification coding system. This is the number surrounded by arrows (see graphic above). This means that when you do need to use plastics, there are some options that are better than others. Stick with those numbered 1, 2, 4, and 5 - and just try to use them minimally. 3. Get to know the number 7 (polycarbonate) really well. These are the plastics that tend to be very hard and clear, almost tricking us into thinking they’re solid, stable and glass-like. These guys often have BPA in them and include things like food-storage containers, water bottles and plastic tableware (think outdoor dining). You’ll also find this stuff in the lining of tin cans including canned fruits and vegetables, soda, beans and lentils. The more acidic the food in the can, such as with tomatoes, the more leaching that happens. Stay away. 4. Don’t taint your sandwich. No need to wrap food in plastic wrap. Seriously. There are re-usable options. 5. Stop buying things in plastic! Start with the single use plastic items like water bottles, k-pods and takeaway containers. And then be smarter: stock up on reusable water bottles and keep extras in your car, at work, in your bag. In a pinch, find a tap and use it. Make more things from scratch. Bring containers when you’re ordering take-out or grabbing a coffee. No tote bag in your bag at the grocery store? Guess you’re only buying what you can carry.
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How Modern Furniture Endangers Firefighters
Although a causal link has not yet been proven, the association between firefighting and a greater cancer risk began to build about 10 years ago. A meta-analysis found that firefighters have a higher risk of multiple myeloma, and possibly a greater risk of contracting non-Hodgkin lymphoma, prostate, and testicular cancers.
Consumer goods are increasingly made of synthetic materials and coatings. The carcinogens they give off when they burn could be driving high cancer rates among first responders.
From there, more evidence rolled in: Research into Massachusetts firefighters found greater odds of developing brain and colon cancers. Firefighters in their 30s and 40s from five Nordic countries were found last year to have a greater chance of developing prostate and skin cancers.
Tony Stefani had been a firefighter in San Francisco for nearly 28 years when, one January day in 2001, he was out jogging and began to feel weak. “The last mile I could barely run, I had to walk,” he told me recently. When he got home, he urinated blood. He was soon diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma, a rare cancer of the kidney. Chris Miller, a firefighter in Kentucky, had lymphoma 10 years ago. He got chemo, went to rehab, spent six weeks in a hospital, and lost 60 pounds. He took four months off work. The chemo wore him out and made his limbs tingle. It made him sterile. He will be 45 in November. In 2008, Keith Tyson had recently retired after 34 years of firefighting in Miami when doctors found an aggressive cancer in his prostate. He says roughly a third of his department has had some form of cancer in the past three years. “I’m not saying that every single one of those cancers was caused by the job,” Tyson said. “But at the same time ... we have a problem.” Ironically, the most dangerous thing about an occupation that involves running into burning buildings isn’t the flames, but the smoke. Cancer is the leading cause of firefighter line-of-duty deaths in the United States, and according to the International Association of Fire Fighters, about 60 percent of career firefighters will die this way, “with their boots off,” as they call it. There’s a misconception that only the firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 risk developing cancer, because of their exposureto asbestos and jet fuel. But in fact, cancer threatens firefighters everywhere, every day.
In 2013, researchers studying 30,000 firefighters in three U.S. cities found the profession was associated with “small to moderate increases” in risk for various cancers, particularly respiratory, digestive and urinary malignancies. The study also found that the risk of lung cancer increased with every fire they fought. “The longer you’re a firefighter, the greater your chance of getting some kind of cancer,” says Susan Shaw, the executive director of the Marine & Environmental Research Institute and a professor of environmental health sciences at the State University of New York in Albany. “These are people who have a gladiator mentality, and they’re really tough. [But] now you have a different kind of danger.” The problem is our stuff. Possessions make our lives cozy and convenient, but when they catch fire, they become noxious fuel. The cancer rates are being driven up, researchers believe, by chemicals that lace the smoke and soot inside burning buildings. Consumer goods are increasingly manufactured using synthetic materials, and fires are more toxic as a result. A century ago, we furnished our houses with wood, cloth, metal, and glass. Today, it’s plastics, foams, and coatings—all of which create a toxic soup of carcinogens when they burn. Fire experts say synthetic materials create hundreds of times more smoke than organic ones; flame retardants alone double the amount of smoke and increase toxic gasses 10-fold. Your TV, your kid’s Barbie, your Saran wrap, your couch: all of them can be poisonous when they’re ignited and their fumes are inhaled.
“Every substance, when it burns, changes its chemical structure,” said Timothy Rebbeck, a professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health. “Particularly when you burn something that’s synthetic or man-made, you’re creating strange compounds that we don’t know what they’ll do.” Among the chemicals Shaw and others suspect might be harmful are benzene, found in furniture wax; the formaldehyde in cleaning materials; hydrogen cyanide, which is used in the manufacture of synthetic fibers; stick- and stain-resistant coatings like Scotchgard and Teflon; and the flame-retardants that are added to the foam inside furniture. In 2012, Shaw had paramedics draw the blood of 12 firefighters after they responded to a fire. Their samples contained three times the level of flame retardants as the general population. Their blood levels of perfluorinated chemicals, which are used as non-stick coatings, were twice as high as those of the World Trade Center first responders. Some flame retardants were phased out in 2005 after studies showed they
were building up in human breast milk, but they were replaced with new compounds. Most new couches contain flame retardants, and researchers know little about their health impacts. “The chemical industry replaces the phasedout chemical but with something similar, but it has one bond difference,” Shaw said. “Scientists are trying to follow the market and figure out, ‘What’s in it now?’ It’s extremely frustrating.” The American Chemistry Council has defended flame retardants. “Protective chemistries like flame retardants help prevent fires from starting, slow their spread, and reduce their intensity,” the industry group said in a statement. The American Chemistry Council has defended flame retardants. “Protective chemistries like flame retardants help prevent fires from starting, slow their spread, and reduce their intensity,” the industry group said in a statement. All people are exposed to these household chemicals, but fires magnify this exposure. When flame retardants and other compounds burn, they create reactive oxygen species—molecules that bind to DNA and cause mutations that can lead to cancer.
“Think about smoke as a bunch of carcinogens, because that’s basically what it is,” said Virginia Weaver, a professor of environmental health at Johns Hopkins University. “The more synthetics there are in the home, the more chemicals are present in the smoke, and the more chemicals that are carcinogens.” *** Firefighters have between one and two minutes to get ready when they’re called. That’s 90 seconds to don 25 pounds of “turnout gear”—thick pants, a coat, boots, gloves, a hood, and mask. The coat and pants don’t seal together. Smoke snakes up under the coat and clings to the body; toxic soot settles in the gaps between gloves and sleeves. Around their necks, firefighters wear permeable, sweatshirtlike hoods that are porous to chemicals. The suit itself soaks up toxins and later “offgasses” them. Studies have confirmed that firefighters’ gear and skin gets coated in higher levels of potentially carcinogenic compounds, such as phthalates— chemicals that are added to plastics to make them soft—as well as arsenic, lead, and mercury. The extreme heat helps chemicals enter through the skin: With every 5 degrees that body temperature rises, skin absorption rates increase by as much 400%. The gasses creep in through mouths and noses. As a firefighter at a house fire, you wear a mask connected to a can of compressed air that you carry on your back. Each breath is effortful and makes a faint sucking sound. The mask is unbearably hot and uncomfortable—it feels like swimming goggles encasing your entire face. You sweat, and it slides around. Leaving a burning building, the only thing you want to do is rip it off and gulp fresh air. That’s also the worst thing you could do. The “overhaul” period—when the fire is mostly out but the embers are still smoldering—is often when a fire is at its most toxic. Some fire departments have begun stationing safety monitors at overhauls to make sure firefighters don’t take off their masks prematurely.
To reduce their cancer risk, firefighters must remove their gear immediately after leaving a fire and take a shower. (Walking around the firehouse in turnout pants—as
firefighters are sometimes depicted doing in movies and TV shows—needlessly increases exposure.) Ideally, the turnout gear would be laundered immediately. But it requires specialized washing machines that are expensive and not widely available. Marc Bashoor, the fire chief of Prince George’s County in Maryland, said a few of his stations have the washing machines, but they break easily and are expensive to repair. He says the county firefighters’ gear gets professionally cleaned once a year, which isn’t nearly enough, according to Shaw. To further reduce risk, firefighters should have a second set of turnout gear to wear in case there’s a fire while the first set is being cleaned. But that would cost at least an additional $1,500 per firefighter—a sum many pinched municipalities don’t have. In Boston, where fire officials estimate that members of the force are 2.5 times more likely to get cancer than civilians, Kathy Crosby-Bell, the mother of a fallen firefighter, raised $500,000, in part to equip the city’s firehouses with washers and dryers. “This major health threat deserves urgent action on all our parts,’’ Crosby-Bell said at a city council hearing last year. “I’m shocked they don’t have something so basic as a washer and dryer for their gear.” In the meantime, firefighters around the country are educating each other about strategies to prevent cancer despite their departments’ budgetary limitations. Ryan Pennington, a firefighter in Charleston, West Virginia, said he sometimes takes two or three showers after responding to a fire. The tough-guy image of firefighters, their faces smeared with soot, is actually a dangerous one, he says. “We all think of firefighters as gritty folks with black all over faces,” he said. “But really, we need to be the squeaky clean people who could go into an office.” Written by: OLGA KHAZAN SEP 11, 2015
What Are Microbeads and Why Are They Harmful?
environment and human health. This is due to their composition, ability to adsorb toxins and potential to transfer up the marine food chain. These tiny plastics persist in the environment as they are almost impossible to remove. The best way to reduce their impact is to prevent them from entering the environment.
Microbeads are a common ingredient in exfoliating skin products, toothpastes and health goods. Unfortunately, they have a harmful impact on sea life, and their use is already being phased out in much of the world. This article looks at the reasons microbeads have become so popular, and why consumers should be wary of buying products containing them.
The Department of the Environment and Energy is working with industry and state and territory governments to ensure a voluntary phase-out of microbeads from personal care and cosmetic products. The phase-out focusses on microbeads in rinse-off products, which would be reasonably capable of entering the marine environment through normal use.
Why is it important to stop microbeads polluting the environment? Microbeads are small, solid, manufactured plastic particles that are less than 5mm and don’t degrade or dissolve in water. They may be added to a range of products, including rinse-off cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products. Microbeads are used as ingredients in these products for a variety of purposes. This includes as an abrasive or exfoliant, a bulking agent, for controlled timed release of active ingredients, and to prolong shelf life. They are also a relatively cheap ingredient. Microbeads are not captured by most wastewater treatment systems. If they are washed down drains after use, they can end up in rivers, lakes and oceans. Once in the water, microbeads can have a damaging effect on marine life, the
What is Australia doing about microbeads?
The Department conducted an assessment of progress toward the voluntary phase-out and found that industry is on track to successfully phase out microbeads. The Australian Government is committed to eliminating remaining microbeads from the Australian market and will examine options to broaden the phase-out to other products. We will be working with the state governments and Accord Australasia, the national industry association representing manufacturers and suppliers, to finalise monitoring and compliance protocol to support the continued success of the phase-out. As part of this process, we will commission a further independent assessment of microbeads in the retail market in late 2018, as well as research on microbeads entering the marine environment. How do I know if microbeads are in my products? Microbeads may be found in some products. These include toothpaste, sunscreen, facial scrubs, body wash, cosmetics such as foundation and blush, and other care products. If you are concerned about microbeads in your
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COPING WITH STRESS Today’s workforce is under pressure to be more productive for the following reasons: • Companies and industries are competing in the global market for global dominance. Many are in fierce competition to modernise the productive processes and be more competitive with a leaner workforce. • Heads of household have to work harder to provide for their families due to inflation and the slow recovery from the economic recession. • Recruitment and replacement of the aging workforce is always a threat for those who are not as productive as before. The expression “survival of the fittest” is as relevant today as it was decades ago. The worker who has good mental and physical health is poised to meet the increasing demand for higher productivity. It is the responsibility of every worker to invest in his health so that he is able to perform optimally and hence aim to be a top producer and an invaluable employee for his company. The company on the other hand should have HR policies that enable the worker to eat healthy meals, have ergonomically safe equipment, personal protective gears and adequate rest and recreation. Factory and industrial workers should have a pre-employment medical done followed by annual health assessments. Where there could be a likely link between the working environment and a worker’s illness, then it is the employer who should facilitate the worker’s healthcare needs.
Here are Twelve Tips to improve your health and fitness: 1. Eat nutritional food and maintain a healthy weight. Nutritional foods should have high nutrient content i.e. lean animal protein, carbohydrate with a low glycemic index and healthy vegetable oils. Source of vitamins should be from fresh fruits and vegetables. 2. Exercise daily for at least 15 minutes. The form of exercise does not have to be strenuous but should work muscle groups that are not used much. If you have a heart condition or any other chronic disease, discuss your proposed exercise routine with your doctor. 3. Reduce intake of salt, sugar and caffeine 4. Limit use of oils and fats. Foods which are steamed, baked or broiled is preferred to fried and deep fried foods. Avoid foods that are fried in reused oils.
5. Increase daily portions of fruits and vegetables. It is recommended to have 3-5 portions daily. 6. Keep hydrated throughout the day with water and low sugary beverage. 7. Avoid nicotine, second hand smoke and recreational drugs 8. Practice safe sex with a faithful partner. 9. Manage your time and get adequate rest and sleep 10. Control stress 11. Tale a vacation every year 12. Do a medical and screening tests (appropriate for your age) annually. Even with the best of Work Place Wellness initiatives designed to support workers in their quest for optimum health, the matter of each worker taking personal responsibility for their health must be emphasized. Article by Dr Sonia Copeland
Here are Twelve Tips to improve your health and fitness: 13. Eat nutritional food and maintain a healthy weight. Nutritional foods should have high nutrient content i.e. lean animal protein, carbohydrate with a low glycemic index and healthy vegetable oils. Source of vitamins should be from fresh fruits and vegetables. 14. Exercise daily for at least 15 minutes. The form of exercise does not have to be strenuous but should work muscle groups that are not used much. If you have a heart condition or any other chronic disease, discuss your proposed exercise routine with your doctor. 15. Reduce intake of salt, sugar and caffeine 16. Limit use of oils and fats. Foods which are steamed, baked or broiled is preferred to fried and deep fried foods. Avoid foods that are fried in reused oils. 17. Increase daily portions of fruits and vegetables. It is recommended to have 3-5 portions daily. 18. Keep hydrated throughout the day with water and low sugary beverage. 19. Avoid nicotine, second hand smoke and recreational drugs 20. Practice safe sex with a faithful partner. 21. Manage your time and get adequate rest and sleep 22. Control stress 23. Tale a vacation every year 24. Do a medical and screening tests (appropriate for your age) annually. Even with the best of Work Place Wellness initiatives designed to support workers in their quest for optimum health, the matter of each worker taking personal responsibility for their health must be emphasized. Article by Dr Sonia Copelandlobal market for global
dominance. Many are in fierce competition to modernise the productive processes and be more competitive with
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How do you take your tea? With plastic?
There a lot of things you can put in a mug, but none quite as comforting as tea. We are unequivocally a nation of tea lovers with 42 per cent of Australian adults buying it – only slightly less than the 45 per cent who buy coffee. While most of us take a hot cuppa for granted, some people believe tea bags are not so hot for our health and the environment. Loose leaf versus bag Humans are lazy by nature and our tea-drinking habits are no exception. It takes four minutes and a teapot to make a loose-leaf brew, but for a timepoor individual the convenience of a bag is too good to pass up. But we could be compromising flavour in our rush for an afternoon tea. “Traditional tea bags, due to their limited space, often contain lower grade, smaller pieces of tea ‘dust’ or ‘fannings’ that are left over from when higher grades of tea are gathered,” says naturopath and founder of Bodhi Organic Tea, Lisa Guy. “When you brew full-leaf loose tea there is plenty of room for the leaves to unfurl and move about freely in the water, which results in a more full-flavoured, richer tea.” Loose leaf may be better for the environment, too, as some tea bags aren’t fully biodegradable. A spokeswoman for Twinings said they used three different types of tea bags, with varying degrees of biodegradability. “The material used in Twinings pyramid tea bag range is fully biodegradable and compostable,” she told Fairfax Media via email. “The material is derived from maize starch. The starch is treated by an enzyme to create the compound poly-lactic acid which has a ‘plastic’ character which can be spun into filaments.” However their standard square tea bags – used for teas such as Earl Grey, English breakfast and green tea – are “heat sealed”, meaning that a thin
film of polypropylene is applied to seal the two sides together. Their “string and tag with sachet” range also contains polypropylene and a small amount of acrylic copolymer emulsion, a plastic-based glue that bonds the bags together. The way tea bags are manufactured varies depending on the brand, but according to The Guardianabout 70 to 80 per cent of bags are made from compostable paper while the remaining 20 to 30 per cent contains heat-resistant polypropylene. This is to prevent the bag breaking mid-dunk, but it does mean that small pieces of plastic mesh are left behind in the soil when you compost the bags. The Twinings spokeswoman said: “We would not recommend that tea bags are used directly on the soil as a fertiliser or soil conditioner, as they are likely to take a longer time to breakdown. We would recommend that they are composted in a compost bin, or wormery first to optimise the availability of any nutrients for the plants.” As well as environmental concerns, questions have been raised about the potential impact of the plastics on human health. The plastic in tea bags is made from food-grade nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET), both of which are considered safe because of their high melting point, which reduces the possibility of leaching. Lipton tea, for instance, assures consumers that its pyramid tea bags made of PET are “the same food grade material clear water and juice bottles are made of and ... are microwave safe”. Yet one 2009 study found that water drunk from water bottles made from PET may contain “a substantial quantity of estrogen-mimicking pollution”. While the health risks posed by these chemicals are still unclear, if you’re turned off by the idea of drinking tea brewed in plastic, a few extra minutes spent making a pot of loose leaf could put your mind at ease. Health benefits of tea In better news for tea lovers, there are plenty of benefits that come from drinking tea, particularly of the green variety. A number of studies have found that high levels of the antioxidant catechin in green tea are associated with antiviral, anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory effects. Research has also found increasing your consumption of green tea may reduce the risk of liver disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, depression and possibly some forms of cancer. Before you move on to greener tea pastures, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki points out that the studies don’t provide conclusive evidence. Very few human studies have been conducted, and he refers to those that have as “low-grade observational studies” because they don’t take into account factors such as family history, wealth and diet.
“In the overwhelming majority, they can be interpreted as showing that people who have healthy lifestyle habits tend to drink green tea,” he writes, “so drinking green tea is more a result of the healthy lifestyle, rather than the cause of the health benefits.” In other words, green tea is certainly good but may not be a miracle cure-all. There are many other herbal teas that may be beneficial to wellbeing. Guy suggests a ginger tea can ease digestive ailments and morning sickness. Licorice and ginseng teas have been used in China for thousands of years to alleviate stress and adrenal fatigue. Brewing loose leaf: 101 Brewing the perfect cup of tea is all about getting the timing, temperature and duration right. And this depends on the variety of tea or herbal tisane you’re using. “White and green teas should be brewed at around 70C and black around 85C,” Guy says. “The amino acids responsible for tea’s flavour are released at a lower temperature. Steeping tea for too long or using boiling water will result in more tannins being released, resulting in a bitter and more astringent tea.” To make sure the water isn’t too hot, you can either turn the kettle off before it reaches boiling point, or pour the boiling water into the tea cup or pot first,
and allow it to cool slightly before adding the tea. “White tea should be steeped for one to three minutes, green steeped for one to two minutes, and black tea for 45 to 60 seconds without milk. Or for a stronger, richer tea served with milk, two to three minutes,” she says. Herbal teas should also be brewed for different lengths of time. “A general rule of thumb, if it is a flower or leaf you can pour boiling water over your herb and then infuse it for three to four minutes,” Guy says. “Harder herbs like seeds, roots and barks will produce a richer tasting tea and will draw more therapeutic properties by brewing them for longer. A decoction – which is when you simmer your tea in a pot for five to 10 minutes – is ideal for teas made up of these tougher herbs like that found in chai.” When you have tea blends containing leaves and roots you have to find a happy medium with your brewing time. Guy recommends using about one teaspoon of tea for each cup for most teas, or two teaspoons a cup for light and fluffy teas such as chamomile. Guy suggests brewing tea is the perfect time to practise mindfulness. Channelling your inner Geisha can help you to relax and lead to an enriched drinking experience that will “engage all of the senses”, she says. By Neela Shearer Sydney morning Herald 27 September 2016
Heart Attack Symptoms What to do in an Emergency
Pain and discomfort that go beyond your chest to other parts of your upper body, like one or both arms, or your back, neck, stomach, teeth, and jaw Unexplained shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort Other symptoms, such as:
Do you know the symptoms of a heart attack? This is a life-threatening emergency that requires quick action. Don’t ignore even minor heart attack symptoms. Immediate treatment lessens heart damage and saves lives.
Cold sweats Nausea or vomiting Lightheadedness Anxiety, indigestion Unexplained fatigue Women are more likely than men to have additional issues, like neck, shoulder, upper back, or abdominal pain.
Recognizing the Symptoms
What to Do When They Happen
These vary from person to person. Not all heart attacks begin with the sudden, crushing chest pain that most of us have heard about. In fact, some cause no symptoms at all, especially those that happen to people with diabetes.
If you or someone you’re with has chest discomfort or other heart attack symptoms, call 911 right away. While your first impulse may be to drive yourself or the heart attack victim to the hospital, it’s better to get an ambulance. Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can start treatment on the way to the hospital. They’re also trained to revive a person if their heart stops.
They may begin slowly, with mild pain and discomfort. They can happen while you’re at rest or active. How severe they are can depend on your age, gender, and medical conditions. Warning Signs Common ones may include: Chest discomfort that feels like pressure, fullness, or a squeezing pain that lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
If you can’t reach EMS, drive the person to the hospital. If you’re the one with the symptoms, don’t drive yourself to the hospital unless you have no other choice. Many people delay treatment because they doubt they are having a heart attack. They don’t want to bother or worry their friends and family. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.