world tobacco free day

31^st may 2013 is the world tobacco free day

Of the various needs to limit tobacco use a major factor  is the ban of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

31^st may, marks the world no tobacco day, for WHO and partners.  The day highlights the health risks, and looks at effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

Tobacco  is responsible for killing one in 10 adults. This year the focus is on ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

The specific goals would be

• To implement the WHOFCTC article 13 and its guidelines to comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship such that fewer people try tobacco out.
• To identify and counteract the local, national and international efforts to counter tobacco industry efforts to stall or stop ban of tobacco advertising and promotion of sponsorship.

Even before we launch into this the need would be to identify

1. Who are the major tobacco advertisers

2. Direct and indirect tobacco advertising.

what i really wonder about is how much does that warning against tobacco usage really deter the users or does it trigger a curiosity to experiment?

Mama No Soak

 

No more soaking,

The image this conjures?  A woman with a toddler and a bucket of dirty diapers, a toddler in a puddle,

But believe me we have only changed one soak to the other, when I see the fall out of diapers and sanitary towels, I feel like shouting no more soaking pad, and diapers, use cloth,  give it a hot water treatment after wards.

When we say diapers,

The crappy advts. That come with

• “kid sleeps through the night so he grows.”
• Wet diapers lead to serious chest infections.
• Wet cotton diapers lead to rashes.

The great brand of diapers come and the child is free of “unhygienic factors ” so the child is closer to achieving super person status.!!!

Well young parents, before you buy that huggies, biggies and poko-pads, just look around we are second only to china when it comes to population, so obviously we are not hitting the mortality scale.

Some unpleasant truth is

• Diapers are made of sodium polyacrylate –SAP–a chemical so that it absorbs up 100 times its weight in water,
  •  this can stick to the children’s genitals and cause allergic reactions.
  • SAP  was proved to be responsible for Toxic Shock Syndrome
  • The skin irritation caused by SAP lead Staphylococcus infection.
  • In 1985 tests on rats showed hemorrhaging, cardiovascular failure and ultimately death.
  • Many diapers use VOC – volatile organic compounds like ethylbenzene, toluene and xylene. According to the EPA some VOC’s carcinogenic, some cause neurological problems, eye irritation and decreased immunity.
  • Dioxin is a by product of paper bleaching used in disposable diapers and training pants, in the laboratory animals, this showed to be the most toxic, and causing liver disease.
  • 8 billion disposable diapers end in Landfills, in the US alone, this adds the human waste to the landfill.
  • Of course in India we have not yet come up with law against human fecal matter in the household garbage.
  • It takes 500 yrs for these diapers to decompose in a landfill. The non biodegradable products like absorbent vinyl layers, Velcro, absorbent gelling material and plastic packing which makes up 30% of each diaper does not ever breakdown!!
  • About 100 viruses can survive in disposable diaper, or training pant for months. This includes polio virus, hepatitis specially if the child is just vaccinated. It is a biohazard.
  • Dioxins are also persistent environmental pollutants.

I know parents who want to ensure their good sleep, reduction in laundry cycle use absorbent disposable diapers at night. Ladies and gentleman, your child maybe will have to pay a heavy price for your comfortable sleep.

By the way bed wetting is not some life endangering problem most kids outgrow it. The emotional contribution is not yet known but logically nocturnal urination is normal in all young creatures.

If you have a girl child from diaper to sanitary towels her risk persists.

For Dioxin is a great component of the sanitary pad.  So is Asbestos. The Asbestos guys get away as it is not”ingested.”

Dioxin is also linked to immune and reproductive disorders and endometriosis.

Before you feel very smug about the  NO MORE SOAKING just take a check if you are willing to pay the price.

 

taboo-tattoo

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935)

tattoo

If tattoos only lasted for one year, would I want one?

What If they lasted for one month?—um—let me think—

Tattoo the pristine flesh

What is permanent anyway?

This ink only lasts 'til the grave,

Skin and ideas decompose

That which we did compose.

~Corri Alius

Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past. –JACK LONDON, 1883

That’s what I thought tattoo-ing was all about, but professional training insists that I check my options before I put down my options. That brings me to what is a tattoo?

The dictionary says it is:

• A signal sounded on a drum or bugle to summon soldiers or sailors to their quarters at night.

• A display of military exercises offered as evening entertainment

• A continuous even drumming or rapping.

This usage is an alteration of the Dutch taptoe, from Middle Dutch tappe.

Haa—here is the more popular usage. The one of Polynesian origin.

• A permanent mark or design made on the skin by a process of pricking and ingraining an indelible pigment or by raising scars.

• A design made on the skin with temporary dyes such as henna or ink.

Interestingly the practise of tattooing the body is very old, despite the English word being new. The explorer James cook, who gave English lot of Polynesian (mixture of Samoan and Tahitian) words like taboo, gave it English, this was in 1769, it was the sea-faring community that brought this pacific art to Europe and has always been associated with them though some landlubbers do sport it, the current status being

Ink to paper is thoughtful

Ink to flesh, hard-core.

If Shakespeare were a tattooist

We‘d appreciate body art more. ~Terri Guillemets

If you ever wondered why people got tattoos done, then probably it would be for

Love”—likes Dipika and others. Or like the one we see in every other Hindi movie to bring “bichdey bai”

To combat amnesia or Alzheimer’s a’La Ghazani or Deewar

Religious tattoos are very common, even devout Christians are seen going under the needle.

Military service though not very original it’s the most popular next to the sailors.

To make a statement

To be part of sorority

Just for fun. Are all reasons good enough?

After all like Pamela Anderson observed—Tattoos are like stories – they’re symbolic of the important moments in your life, if you belong to the fraction of people who have tattoos the rest are afraid of people with tattoos.

India tattoos have a great presence; it is called Godna in northern India. Middle East and Indian subcontinent still use Henna or Mahanadi the temporary tattoo ink.

My community of Madhwa Brahmin’s has its annual ritual of Mudra dharana, while the young men use Gopichandana () each day as they perform their sandhya vandana, to apply these mudra’s for the spiritual progress of human beings both internal and external.

The pattern goes Urdhva Pundra on the forehead, shanka and chakra on the shoulders, and Tulasi mala round the neck.

After all these meandering if tattoo’s lasted a year I would not want it, how boringly same. If they last a month a henna hand might be worth it, if I can stay still.

Shall I let you in on a secret? I am tattoo-ed on the shoulder, ugly enough to give Sunjay Dutt a complex, at 40+ I can get away with it, because the tattoo-ing is done with my own skin, the surgeon’s call it grafting.

Soda Pop

Should soda be banned in all schools?

Lets reframe the question, “should we ban fountain machines dispensing destruction?”

Jarod Kintz $3.33 asks a question for your life “if there was a fountain machine that dispensed destruction instead of soda, would you grab an extra-large cup?” interesting.

Yet that is precisely what soda is all about. Look at this guy who feels his body needs a boost, he reaches into his pocket, finds a dollar slides into the machine and a con rolls out, he opens the can and guzzles. He feels his energy return he has had his fix for the rest of the morning. The child is only 12yr. Old and his drug is a soft drink, that he has bought from vending machine in his school, never mind the special classes sponsored by his school to warn him about drugs, tobacco and alcohol.

The soda consumption has tripled for the boys and doubled for the girls and accounts for the 10% of the caloric intake. This is not a random occurring coco-cola has a target of 25% annually and the target group kids are the target group as adult market is saturated. Schools have deals with soft drink companies.

AMA has issued warnings on the danger of soft drink consumptions as early as 1942. It was 1998 the first public outcry came about.

Lets look at the ingredients in a soft drink.

• high fructose corn syrup animals exhibit poor development  collagen during growth period. There was also a context to copper deficiency. Animals also exhibited liver problems similar to alcoholics.
• Aspartame used in diet sodas, is a potent neurotoxins and endocrine disruptor. Caffine stimulates the adrenal glands with nourishment causing adrenal exhaustion particularly in children.
• Phosphoric acid that gives the soft drink that bite causes calcium loss.
• Citric acid contains traces of MSG a neurotoxin.
• Water could contain high amounts of fluoride and other contaminants.

Gastro intestinal distress is another is another soda induced problem. This occurs because there is increased acid level in the stomach  the result could be erosion of the stomach lining. Another problem with soda’s they act like dehydrating diuretics like tea, coffee and alcohol inhibiting proper digestive.

Bone fractures and osteoporosis has been linked to soft drink consumption in a study in 1994 in the Journal of adolescent health. This could be that increased consumption of soda has resulted in decreased consumption of milk.

Tooth rot or loss of enamel resulting in yellow teeth is a dental condition which we saw only in elderly patients until the increase in soft drinks. If the bone has to loose calcium, enamel loss has to occur before that. This is because the slightly alkaline nature of the salivary pH is lowered by the acid in the soda.

In india in the yer 2003 a non-profit organization called centre for science and environment, found pesticide levels in coke and Pepsi 30 times more that what is considered safe by the European Economic commission. This report lead to banning of the sale of soft drinks at schools in many states since august  2006 this was unfortunately struck down at the courts.

To quote Chris Rock, “actually ,i think all addictions start with the soda. Every junkie did soda first. But no one counts that. Maybe they should. The soda connection is clear. Why sin’t a presidential commission looking into this? Or at least some guys from National carbonation council.”

The soda industry has fought back saying that there is a positive relation ship between soft drink consumption and exercises, this only means that children participating in sports drank more sodas.

 

Lung terrorist alert…

Do I think smoking should be banned in all bars and restaurants?

I presume we mean smoking as in smoking tobacco, and not smoking out the place with pesticide, ritual fumes or burnt food.

Do I want to inhale 4,000 chemical compounds including carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde and other poisons? Four of the chemicals being benzene. 2-naphthylamine, 4- amino biphenyl and polonium-210 all classified as known cancer causing agents?

NO! OF COURSE NOT!

More than thousand people stop smoking everyday – dying.

When a non-smoking person is in the vicinity of a smoker, then it is called as second-hand smoking or passive smoking. About 3000 non-smokers die of secondary smoking.

Secondary smokers exhibit coughing, phlegm, chest discomfort and reduced lung function.

Children exposed to secondary smoke suffer from asthma attacks, and have greater tendency to middle-ear disease.

Four places which are major sources of secondary smoking

• Work
• Public places
• Home
• Car.

Home and car are your areas of control you can do something about the smoke collection.

But business houses are wary of banning smoking as they are scared of losing customers.

If you are a public smoker and whines self-righteously about being discriminated by moral polices, who refuse to accept sucking of burning tubes of paper filled with chemical soaked chopped up leaves—here is my take – you painfully attack our lungs and nasal passage with your perverted public pollution and we are supposed to be positive, pat your back and say oh! You are cool? Forget it! Things are not fine, you are violating our bodies, you give us pain, you are a rapist* until you behave you are the enemy.

Smokers are anti-fresh-arican! Or antipulmonarians, non-humanitarians or just plain lung terrorists. They are sponsors of save the crab campaign, only the crab inhibits the animal body instead of being a beach bum.

Smoking in public areas is like peeing in a swimming pool!

James.H.Lampert asks right when he asks “what right to smoke? Do I have a right to light up a sulphur candle in the middle of a crowd? Or set of 4-gone fogger? What would happen if I ran around with a can of flag, spraying it in the faces of passerby at random? I’d be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, and probably also brought up on terrorism charges, and I’d deserve it mightily, so why do people addicted to inhaling insecticide believe they have a right to spew noxious, toxic, carcinogenic fumes all over the place in public?”

I know people who say everyone has a vice that harms, smoking is no different from other bad habits like over eating, well, I don’t about the rest of the world, but I would rather have an overweight person next to me, than a smoker, drug addict or drunkard.

It’s all one thing – both tend into one scope -
To live upon Tobacco and on Hope,
The one’s but smoke, the other is but wind.
~Sir Robert Ayton of Kincaldie, “Sonnet on Tobacco”

*Rape à “any violation or abuse:

Integrated medicine

No man goes before his time – unless the boss leaves early. To quote Groucho Max,
but this child did, before the age of twenty and she had no boss.
This child lets call her Fleur for any other name would do, was diagnosed Aplastic anaemia, renal failure, her systems were tired. Actually it was the ICU, and the remarkable high medication, chemotherapy all added to her condition.
Very frankly with a tired kidney keeping her on only fluid diet meant overburdening it. A holistic therapy was possible both the Homeopathic doctor and the Ayurvedic doctor were confident with the current allopathic treatment could be supported by either of them other stream they could give her time to heal. The word is heal and not cure.
If the tissue could overcome fatigue it would give a lease to her. But the hospital authorities refused. They are right from their point of view. So what would be the way out here? They were ignorant of the other streams. This is a major arrogance among most practioners of modern medicine.
To overcome this hurdle the government of india has come up with an integrated medicine course. This program is essential to bring an awareness between the streams. Unfortunately the Allopathic doctors think they are above it, and the practioners of other streams tend to use the certification as license to dispense modern medicine. The entire program fails to achieve what it set out to do.
I really wonder how and when we will overcome the tyranny of the machine oriented modern medicine. We do not seem to understand that we are dealing with human beings and not machines.
Can anyone think of a solution?

finding a yoga group

Choosing your Yoga group.
Power Yoga, Hatha Yoga everyone is busy with something. With Kareena Kapoor talking of
But just in case you think Yoga is all about body bending and exercises and throwing in buzz words like Kundalini think again.
Learning a few body contortions from TV viewing or learn-it-yourself books.
Yoga is totality. It is the pathway to achieve ends these end goals could be physical, curative, or spiritual, and is known as shaktikrama, chikitsakrama and the adhyatmakrama. Choosing your yoga group and teacher would depend on this end factor.
There are trained teachers, and some who have attending a weekend class and then vend the stuff on. It is always better to go to a proper trained person its okay to check credentials and certificates.
The next step would be check with people who have undergone the program and ensure that suits your current goal.
The next obvious step is the costing and the schedule.
Once you have completed a schedule it would be a good idea to sign up for a regular group practise. As group practise is a commitment as opposed to solitary practise.