Share and Voice: Jack Black & Global Warming Video

Hey everyone I found this video on YouTube about global warming with Jack Black and I thought it was pretty funny but true at the same time....hope you enjoy it!

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

TO: U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

FROM: Shannon

21Green Falls Road Leaf Town, MN 71111

April 28, 2009

Dear Senator Klobuchar,

I am writing to you to inform you of a serious issue that is happening in our country and I believe you have the voice to make change. Health complications due to weight are increasing in the people of Minnesota and around the U.S. I believe that once the blame is taken away from the companies and manufactures who produce the unhealthy foods, and put on the consumers who choose to not eat healthy, we can make a large step towards a healthier country. The Commonsense Consumption Act of 2009, H.R. 812 proposes that there be a law stating that no legal action may be brought against a food manufacturing companies due to injury someone encountered while being overweight. Many people believe this is a serious issue and I would like you to consider being on our side.

Being able to sue due to injury caused by being overweight is sending the wrong message to our youth. Children need to see adults making healthy choices and taking responsibility for their choices whether healthy or not. While it is unfortunate that people get hurt due to their weight it is not the manufactures fault. Because these people were not forced to eat unhealthy or forced not to exercise they should not be allowed to blame anyone but themselves for the injury. The focus needs to be put education and promotion of healthy living. As a health educator I believe that if I, along with other professionals in the health field work together to promote healthy living at a young age we can decrease the amount of overweight people we have not only in Minnesota but in every state.

I hope to see you vote "yes" on H.R. 812 to ensure the responsibility be put on the consumers who make food choices. We need to protect our children from the path we are headed down and by this bill being passed we can start to make change. In 2004 the health care cost of obesity in Minnesota was $1.3 million, by voting yes and focusing on the education children receive in schools we can reduce this amount as well as all the unnecessary court costs and lawyer fees. I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter and look forward to you supporting this issue.

Sincerely,

Shannon

21Green Falls Road Leaf Town, MN 71111

Source: www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/chp/obesity/pdf/obesityfactsheet2008.pdf -

*FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH COURSE ONLY

Share and Voice: Further Hand Soap

Hey guys I found this cool story to go along with this new hand soap. It's called....

Further Hand Soap

Further hand soap is made by a guy who for years was going around the fine restaurants of L.A. emptying they're grease traps, through the distillation process of grease he made bio-fuel but was left with lots and lots of glycerin. Him and his wife then combined different essential oils and exotic grasses with the glycerin to make hand soap made from bio-fuel!! Now he sells the soaps to the very restruants where he gets the used grease, making a environmentally friendly circle!

Share and Voice: Planetary Parenting

Planetary Parenting

So this topic doesn't exactly relate to me yet but one of my really good friends is about to have a baby and I found a couple good tips to keep your baby clean and green!

Diapers:
There are cloth diapers that can be washed and reused but if your like me and probably would never use cloth diapers they have biodegradable diapers that can be tossed, flushed, or composted!

Food:
The most natural way to go is breast milk and like we saw on the video The Story About Stuff today, breast is best. But, when babies start to eat solid food, home cooked healthy meals are way above baby food from a jar

Fashion:
I know its fun to dress them up and make them look even more adorable but of you can try to use hand-me-downs unless its a special occasion.

*all these are good money savers too*

Hope these were helpful...maybe not yet but maybe in the future!

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

What is the issue/problem?

The problem is that manufactures are being blamed for people being overweight and getting hurt because they are overweight. It is not the manufactures fault for being in business, we need more education and promotion on eating healthy and staying active to ensure less people are getting injured due to their weight.

What current legislation has been proposed to address this?

Commonsense Consumption Act of 2009 H.R. 812 According to THOMAS

On 2/3/2009 it was referred to House Committee and then referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary where is currently is.

Title: To prevent legislative and regulatory functions from being taken over by civil liability actions brought or continued against food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers, sellers, and trade associations for claims of injury relating to a person's weight gain, obesity, or any health condition associated with weight gain or obesity.

Who is affected by this?

Who is affected the most?

The people who are affected by this are the manufactures who market, produce, and sell the unhealthy foods that make people overweight. Also, the people who get hurt because of their weight and feel that they can put blame on the companies who made the unhealthy food instead of on themselves.

Who loses, and what do they lose?

If there wasn't a bill to protect the food companies, the companies would loose a lot of time and money dealing with lawsuits. This may not sound too bad, their rich big time companies right? But I think it would be a waste of time and energy because I don't agree with being able to blame the manufactures for getting hurt while overweight.

Who gains, and what do they gain?

Food manufactures-who are protected from lawsuits. People that get hurt due to their weight- if there is no one to blame but themselves they could take responsibility and hopefully make changes to live a healthier life.

What are the consequences of the issue?

For the individuals mostly affected?
I can't think of a consequences for not being able to bring legal action against food companies if you get hurt because you ate too much of their food. But, I guess for the individuals who get hurt because of a weight problem the consequences would be not having a way to blame someone else for their injuries, also maybe not receiving monetary compensation for winning a lawsuit.

For their families?
Having an injured family member and not having a way to solve it, besides helping that family member get better.

For society?

I think it would send the wrong message to society if there wasn't a bill like this, people can't sue cigarette companies if they get cancer.

What is the economic impact of the issue?

What are the economic costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
I think the economic cost would come from the judges, lawyers, and court fees that would go along with legal action. The people who are injured and the companies would have to pay for lawyers, and who pays for the Judges and court fees? The tax payers in that area.

What are the economic benefits of the issue, and who benefits?

The benefits would come from wasting less time blaming others and making more time to educate and promote prevention in the future. Instead of taking time to sue the food companies these people could educate family, friends, and their community on the "what not to do's and why not to do's"

What is the social impact of the issue?

What are the social costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
The social costs are when anyone thinks it is okay to eat whatever they want no matter the health value and when they get hurt because of their choices they feel like they have someone else to lay the blame on

What are the social benefits of the issue, and who benefits?

The social benefits are similar to the economic benefits, more people could spend time on prevention and education which would lower the number of people getting hurt due to weight

What are the barriers?

What are the barriers to addressing this issue?
The barriers to addressing this issue is not wanting to offend anyone. Weight is a touchy subject for a lot of people, I wouldn't want to offend anyone by saying its their fault and not the food companies but I would want more focus put on early education and prevention methods

How can they be overcome?

I think they can be overcome by people working together as a team. If we have everyone on the same page (I know its not possible to have EVERYONE but the majority) we could make our efforts work in a positive way. If we had all different types of people working towards the same goal I think we could focus on the real problem which is not eating healthy and not exercising.

What are the resources?

What resources will we need to address this issue?
We need to address promoting healthy eating and active lifestyles to grade school, junior high, and high school students to make them aware of the issue and give them tools to prevent health concerns later in life due to being overweight. We would need more school programs and more creative activities to get kids excited about being healthy

Where and how can they be tapped?

We can start with the schools and families, once we have a large group interested in promotion and education of healthy eating and exercise we can work together to find new ways and better ideas to reach our goal.

What is the history of this issue?

What is the history of the issue in the community?
I couldn't really find much information in the history of this issue which leads me to believe it's not too common of a thing, but I think the issue of starting young to help prevent adult obesity and taking responsibility for choices is something that happens in every community. Obesity has grown over the years to become a huge player in pre-mature deaths, diabetes, cancer, and many other health related problems.

What past efforts were made to address it?

Besides the bill currently being discussed I couldn't find any other past efforts made to this issue. I don't believe this issue happens a lot but it must have happened at some point because this bill would prohibit any new law suites and dismiss any pending law suites.

Allies & Opponents

Supporters:

Food processing companies

Food manufacturing companies

Food distributors

Tax payers

Opposers:

Injured parties

Families of injured parties

My recommendation

Policy makers should vote YES to this bill to ensure the ability for people to market and sell their products and to force consumers to take responsibility and make healthy choices

Reflection: Weeks 11 and 12

I can't believe that week 12 is come and gone! These past two weeks like all the others have gone by really fast but were fully loaded with an interesting documentary, reading, assignment, and discussions.

During week 11 we watched the documentary Unnatural Causes...is inequality making us sick?which was a very powerful film for me. The film was about people from various parts of Kentucky and the environmental factors that people in different social classes deal with and the effects it has on their health. The film introduced four different people which I thought was a good way for us to relate to the issue. During the last part of week 11 Dr. V walked us through the Healthy People 2010 website and explained how to do the research needed to do our Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS project that was due on Tuesday of week 12.

In the beginning of week 12 our Healthy People/THOMAS assignment was due. For this assignment we had to find an environmentally related issue that we were interested in and find the goal in Healthy People 2010. We also had to talk about the progress of the goal, the emerging issues, disparities, and opportunities & challenges. After we did that we needed to find a related bill within THOMAS and report on the last major action taken, the political representative for the bill, and state whether we wanted to our representative to vote yes or no on the bill. I chose to do mine on goal 19 nutrition and overweight. This assignment was interesting and it was cool to read all of the other postings that people in class wrote.

Overall the past two weeks were very informational and I enjoyed the documentary and our advocacy project. We will be doing more with our advocacy projects later on which I am looking forward to. Thanks for reading hope you all have a good weekend!

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

Healthy People 2010 Goal 19: Nutrition and Overweight

Goals:
1. Increase quality and years of healthy life
2. Eliminate health disparities by race and ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic
status, disability status, and other characteristics

Objective 19-1:
Increase the proportion of adults who are at a healthy weight
Target: 60%
Baseline: 42% of adults aged 20 years and older were at a healthy weight in 1988-1994
*A healthy weight is defined as a body mass index equal to or greater than 18.5 and less
than 25

Progress:
The progress quotient charts shows that we have moved 50% away from the target goal of 60% during the survey dates of 1988-1994 to 1999-2002. Objective 19-1 has decreased from 42 percent to 33 percent.

Disparities:
Race and Ethnicity- The group with the best rate from the baseline was Non-Hispanic/White population. The group with a 10-49% disparity from the best group was Hispanic or Latino.
Gender, Income, Disability- The group who had the best rate was females at a higher income level and without disabilities. Males at a lower income level rated less than 10% compared to women with no disabilities and higher income. Male and females with disabilities rated the worst.

Opportunities and Challenges:
We need national action and community involvement working together to promote healthy diets among all Americans and to ensure the reverse the trend of increased overweight and obesity. We also need to promote policies and programs that support healthy behaviors in youth to meet our goal in the prevention of obesity and diet-related disease in the United States.

Emerging Issues:
With the increase in technology more and more procedures are becoming available to reduce the effects of obesity and weight. It is becoming clear that rather than treatment, prevention may be the key in reversing the trend in increased obesity in the United States.

H.R. 812:
Title: To prevent legislative and regulatory functions from being taken over by civil liability actions brought or continued against food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers, sellers, and trade associations for claims of injury relating to a person's weight gain, obesity, or any health condition associated with weight gain or obesity. In other words...manufacturers, marketers, distributors, advertisers, and sellers should not be able to have legal action brought against them for injury or health problems that arise from someone eating their foods.
Sponsor: Rep. Dan Boren
Last Major Action: On 2/3/2009 it was referred to House Committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

My View: The fault does not lie within the food manufactures, marketers, distributors, advertisers, ect., but rather in the education people receive as children from parents/guardians, schools/teachers, and role models.

My Political Representative: Amy Klobuchar

• By supporting My Pyramid and Coordinated School Health Programs, education on healthy eating should begin with our youth. If a child learns how to eat healthy and stay active they are more likely to carry that lifestyle throughout their adult lives.
• By by writing to our representatives stating our concerns about overweight kids leading overweight adult lives we can raise awareness of the problem. There needs to be more responsibility put on the schools and parents instead of blaming the food manufactures.

Review of Documentary: Unnatrual Causes

We just watched the Documentary titled Unnatural Causes. This film was about the inequality of money in the United States and the effects it has on our health. The first statistic that hit me was that the U.S. is responsible for spending almost half of all the health dollars spent around the world and 47 million people in the U.S. do not have health insurance. This film examined the different areas in Kentucky that had varying life expectancies from district to district. For example, in district 5 life expectancy is 69 but in district 16 the expected life span is 79.3. That's over 10 years difference withing the same state!

I enjoyed how the film introduced us to different people who all lived in different districts with different lives. One story that was sad to hear was about a lady who lives in a poorer district named Mary. Mary only eats 1 meal a day towards the end of the month just to make sure her 3 children get what they need. Not being able to provide for your family and having to worry about where your next meals are going to come from is extremely stressful and this film discusses the correlation between heavy stress and being unhealthy. When people are under stress their brains release a hormone called cortisol which helps the body deal with situations but when someone is under too much stress for long periods of time, the cortisol starts to decrease the immune system. When an immune system is threatened, a usually normal healthy person is less likely to be able to fight infections.

The film made several comments on how things in our country need to be changed. There are other countries who are not as rich and the U.S. but have a longer life expectancy and in this film the U.S. is compared other countries. I do agree that something does need to change and maybe we need more equal distribution of wealth but I'm sure it is not as easy as it sounds. This documentary really opened my eyes to another issue and this idea that-just because somebody doesn't make a lot of money they are without the opportunity of living a life as long as their rich neighbors....?

Reflection: Weeks 9 and 10

Well...two more weeks have come and gone. These past two weeks were a little different than the previous weeks but it was a nice change!

During week 9 we learned about advocacy and the 7th responsibility as health educators which is to advocate for health education. For our first part of the advocacy project we were assigned to post about our local political leaders, their names, and contact information. Also during week 9 we learned tips on how to take good pictures for our photo essay that was due during week 10.

During week 10 we didn't meet for class because Dr. V was in Florida for the APPHERD convention-lucky gal! It was nice to have one less class for a week and it gave me more time to focus on other classes and my photo essay. Our directions for the photo essay was to find something that interested you and had something to do with the environment. When this was first assigned I thought this was going to be quite a challenge. I thought about what I was going to do for about a week and my first idea was to compare the pollution in west and east Duluth. Unfortunately we had a snow storm during week 10 even though its APRIL ~ all the snow covered the ground and I needed to find a plan B. I decided to look for all the different recycling bins around school and the city. This was fun and opened my eyes to how many places there are to recycle.

The last two weeks were fun and out of the ordinary so I am looking forward whats to come in the next couple weeks! Thanks for reading...have a good week!!

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Hey Everyone! For my photo Essay I decided to go on a hunt to find all the different ways people choose to recycle. I found many different types of recycling bins on campus and around Duluth. We all know how important it is to recycle and I think these pictures prove how easy it is.

This is a recycle bin for cans and inkjets, in the Humanities building

These are 2 bins to recycle paper located in the Writing Dept. at UMD, the smaller one is for mixed paper.

These are a couple different containers in front of the library at UMD. The bins are for paper, cans, and plastic bottles.

This is another variety of

recycle bin in a hall at UMD.

Two other types of bins in the library at UMD.

This is a hallway in the Humanities Dept. showing three different bins.

This one is totally different from the rest but I seriously found this in my neighborhood.

Unfortunately, some people have recycle bins but do not put them to use :(

I never noticed how many recycling containers there are around us but after this Photo Essay, I see them everywhere. Like these pictures show, it is really easy to find a place to recycle, even if you don't have access to a fancy blue container for your recyclables you can make your own. The sad thing is to see some of these containers not in use. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures and keep on recycling!