Tricky Triclosan - It's Everywhere and it's Nasty

Best known as the active ingredient in antimicrobial hand soaps, triclosan is also used as an antibacterial agent in toothpaste, deodorants, laundry detergent, facial tissues, antiseptics for wounds, and medical devices.
It is used as a material preservative to ward off bacteria, fungus, mildew, and odors in household items like toys, paints, mattresses, clothing, toilet bowls, and furniture fabric.
Now the Environmental Working Group has called triclosan a toxic pesticide, with ominous hints of carcinogenicity, and has demanded that federal agencies ban it from consumer goods.
"A toxic pesticide linked to serious health problems should not be in our soap or toothpastes," contends EWG scientist Rebecca Sutton, Ph.D. "It's time to ban triclosan from all personal care and household products."
For more go to: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/tb/10269

Cell me about it

Do you have old cell phones sitting in drawers or cabinets? Maybe you mean to take them to the police station to use for that program for women who are victims of domestic violence or maybe you plan to take them to Best Buy or Office Depot for recycling, but forget each time to actually go to the store.

Here's a trio of great-grandmotherly motivators to do the right thing -- store credit, cash or a charity.

See, Flipswap (http://flipswap.com/) lets you trade in your old phone one of three ways:

• Credit from a nearby dealer (the Web site has a locator)
• Cash through an online trade-in (after entering information online, Flipswap sends you the box to send in your phone and then sends you a check)
• A charitable donation through an online trade-in (works the same as the cash to you, only the check goes to the charity)

The company then sells the phones to people who want them, usually in poorer countries. Reduce, reuse, recycle -- what a great call!

Screen -- Save It

Good news - screen savers are toast.

Turns out those flying toasters were contributing to a worldwide problem -- global warming. On modern (LCD) monitors, they're not even necessary. They just drag on resources.

So, turn off the flying toasters and select "blank" from your screen saver menu. (This will make a blank screen come up instead of your regular screen saver.)

Factoids:

• A screensaver can use 100-300 watts of power. Sleep mode uses 10 watts.
• When Australian phone company Telstra removed corporate screen savers from the 36,000 computers in its offices, it estimated the CO2 cut to be equal to taking 140 cars off the road for a year.
• Flying toasters haven't been funny in, like, 10 years anyway.

Gar-lickin' good

OK, so it may not be breath-freshening, but garlic can do some pretty important things. The herb lowers blood pressure and cholesterol and inhibits blood clotting. It's also a powerful germicide and may protect against some carcinogens.

Garlic is better for you in its natural state - raw or lightly cooked - rather than dried as powder or in capsules. Simply chewing the stuff isn't practical, though, so here is a recipe for garlic soup to eat on its own or as a base for other soups.

Ingredients:

• 8 cups vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 whole head of garlic
• cloves peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• Pinch of dried sage
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. To the vegetable stock, add the olive oil, bay leaf, garlic, thyme and sage.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt to taste.
3. Strain and serve.
4. Enjoy!

Oregano is anti-swell? Do tell!

Oregano doesn't only give a pizza its typical taste. Researchers at Bonn University and the ETH Zurich have discovered the spice also contains a substance that appears to help cure inflammations.

The researchers administered the active ingredient - beta-caryophyllin (E-BCP) - to mice with inflamed paws. In seven out of ten cases, symptoms improved. That means E-BCP might possibly help disorders such as osteoporosis and arteriosclerosis.

E-BCP is also found in basil, rosemary, cinnamon and black pepper. Read the rest at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com:80/articles/112876.php.