Mendolonium

Some of my clearest memories of my grade school years are of lying in bed reading myself to sleep.  I loved the dark, still, quiet solitude of being the only one awake in the house.  I still do.  I was probably born a night owl and Thomas is almost assuredly one as well.

That said, I am one tired owl these days.  A couple of years ago I could stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading or cooking and compensate by sleeping in on the weekends.  Despite Thomas’ relatively late rising time compared to other toddlers there really is no sleeping in with him.  He also co-sleeps with me from about 5:00 am until he wakes up so my sleep from 5:00 am on is, shall we say, rather compromised.

Therefore, I am resolving to go to bed earlier.  For me this means in bed by 11:00 pm.  I am sure this sounds laughably late to some of you, but in a world with no one else around I would probably tend towards going to bed around 2:00 am.  I also realized that this has the added benefit of saving electricity and heating energy (in the winter) as well.  Not only will I be in bed, but it will be TVs and computers powered down, lights out, and heaters off by 11:00 pm.

This isn’t too say that I won’t occasionally stay up until 2:00 in the morning engrossed in a book or baking a cake, I just want to make it a treat rather than the rule.

Right now the California State Assembly is considering passage of a bill, SB 1713, which would ban the chemical Bisphenol A from many products in California including cans, formula containers, baby bottles and toys. As someone who suffers from a severe, incurable autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis), potentially triggered by chemicals in our environment such as BPA, I am passionate about the passage of this legislation. Today I sent a letter to our state assembly member, Anthony Portantino urging him to vote YES on SB1713. Below is the text of the letter:

Dear Mr. Portantino,

Regarding SB1713…

Yesterday I received a mailer headlined “Don’t Let Sacramento Politicians Remove Products From Your Grocery Bag”. The mailer urged me to “tell you to vote No on SB1713″.

I was so troubled by the misinformation, outright lies, and scare tactics in the mailer that it had the opposite effect that it had intended. I am writing to ask you to vote YES on SB1713 and ban Bisphenol A (BPA) in California.

BPA was first developed in 1936 as a synthetic hormone. Today it is primarily used to make hard plastics (polycarbonates) such as baby bottles and to line food containers such as canned goods. Numerous studies have shown that BPA leaches from the containers into our food, exposing us to large cumulative levels of BPA throughout our lifetimes. Over 100 scientific studies have shown that BPA has adverse health effects including:

-Behavioral changes including hyperactivity, an increase in aggression, and increased susceptibility to drug addiction
-Diabetes and obesity
-Early puberty
-Down syndrome
-Reduced sperm count
-Breast and prostate cancers
-Impaired immune function
-Brain damage associated with impaired learning and memory

Canada recently (April 2008) imposed a similar ban on BPA to that being proposed by SB1713. The Canadian ban has not resulted in a dearth of affordable food and products. Instead, it has given consumers the ability to feed their families conveniently, affordably, and safely. With the passage of SB1713 California would become the first state in the nation to ban BPA in cans, formula containers, baby bottles and toys setting a precedent for the rest of the country.

I would be happy to speak with you or your office further about this issue and provide references for the studies that I mentioned above.

As a concerned mother and a scientist I urge to vote YES on SB1713. Thank you.

Please consider taking the time to write or call your state assembly member regarding this issue.  You can find out who your representative is at the California State Assembly homepage. To find out more about BPA and its adverse effects visit Environment California’s BPA page.  So very few people ever take the time to write or call about any issue that it only takes a couple of dozen people to make a difference.

We all know that it is, in general, more sustainable and environmentally friendly to cook your own meals (from local ingredients, of course) than to go out to eat or get takeout.  That said, we love to get takeout here occasionally, but I feel guilty every time it results in a tiny mountain of styrofoam and plastic trash.

As of two weeks ago we began to “just say no” to disposable containers and began to use our own containers for takeout.  For our weekly farmer’s market excursion I brought a set of unbreakable plates, utensils, and napkins for our pupusas; taking the place of styrofoam plates, plastic utensils, and bleached paper napkins.   It doesn’t stop there.  We don’t go out to eat often, but next time we go out I will bring a pyrex container rather than use disposable take home containers.

I think that this is a case where you can have your cake [and bring it home] to eat it too.

When Jeff and I first met, he had a much more developed sense of environmentalism than I did. Not only was he supportive of and well informed about large scale environmental issues such as climate change, he acted responsibly on a personal level. Jeff walked or biked to school and he always turned off the lights when he left a room. Over the course of our twelve year relationship we have both become more environmentally aware and active, however, it always seemed that Jeff was willing to do more than I was.

Until now.

I have finally gone and done it – started using cloth toilet paper.

From a practical standpoint it has been easy. I bought a small covered trash can, labeled it “cloth”, and set it in the bathroom. I have about 100 cloth wipes for Thomas that I haven’t been using (we have about 200 total) and set them in the bathroom as well. I’ll wash the cloth “toilet paper” with a load of diapers that I wash a couple of times a week. Simple.

It began as something of a joke. I had read about using cloth toilet paper over a year ago on another blog. As we began to make more dramatic changes towards leading a sustainable life I joked that “it’s not like I am going to start using cloth toilet paper”. Well never say never.

Everyone has less than sustainable practices that they will hold onto. For me it’s a long shower every day and eating too much sugar. I’ll give up takeout, walk everywhere, turn off the heater…and yes, I’ll even use cloth toilet paper, but I really don’t want to give up my long showers or my daily dose of ice cream if I can help it. So that’s why cloth TP is this week’s “change of the week”. It’s really not that big of a deal to me, but it is one less impact on the Earth and one more step towards self-sustainability.

Are there any “crazy” changes that you are thinking of making?