Earth Saving Tips from Earth Share

Spring 1997

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR EARTH DAY, APRIL 22

Conserve Our Greatest Natural Resource: Children

What is the future without children? No matter how you look at it, the answer would have to be, "Not much."

Yet in this day and age, pollution and environmental degradation put the future -- particularly the future of our kids -- very much at risk. The environmental dangers that have had perhaps the most profound impact on our children's health include pesticides, lead poisoning and air pollution. Here are some actions you can take to reduce the risk for your children:

Pesticides

Don't use sprays to kill bugs in your home. Decrease the number of insects getting into your home by repairing holes in screens and doors and destroying nests of vermin in your yard. Powdered boric acid mixed with a bit of sugar can become an effective -- and less dangerous -- ant and roach control.

Choose organic fruits and vegetables. If organic is not an option, ask for produce that is locally grown (and will thereby be treated with fewer chemicals to help it survive transport to market). Shop at farmer's markets and food coops.

Practice organic gardening. Avoid chemical lawn services; plant native plants that do well in your region without a lot of chemical intervention, and increase your tolerance for weeds and bugs just a little bit!

Keep all toxic materials in a locked cabinet or garden shed. If you must continue to use pesticides on a limited basis, be sure to remove children and their toys as well as pets from any area where the chemicals are being stored or used.

Lead Poisoning

Test the interior paint in your home. Either a private laboratory or public agency can do the test.

Do not sand or burn off paint that may contain lead. If paint is cracked or peeling, cover it with paneling or another material, or take painted woodwork such as doors and molding out of the house and send offsite for chemical removal. If your paint is peeling, use a wet sponge or mop to clean up the debris.

Never vacuum the dust or chips from lead paint. It will only disperse more lead dust into the air.

Have your tap water tested for lead.

Let your tap water run a bit before using it. Get in the habit of letting the water run for a few seconds when you first turn on the tap in the morning. Never drink hot water from the tap _ heat can cause lead in pipes to leach into water.

Air Pollution

Stay away from smoke. Give up smoking, discourage smoking in your home, ask smokers to smoke outdoors or ventilate rooms in which smoking is taking place.

Support measures to strengthen air quality control in your community. Encourage car pooling, mass transit, and cleaner manufacturing processes.

Plant a tree. Protecting and planting trees will help create natural air filters in our cities and neighborhoods.

Drive a fuel efficient vehicle, walk or bicycle.

Your Child's Health

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, children, far more than adults, have an increased susceptibility to the environmental hazards that wreak havoc on human health. The National Academy of Sciences has also concluded that children need far greater protection from many environmental threats than adults. More than 70,000 new chemical compounds have been introduced in our environment over the past forty years; whether these compounds correlate or not, childhood cancers are up 15% since 1973.

A New Way To Turn Off The Lights

In an effort to reduce lighting bills and cut energy costs, more and more homeowners are installing "occupancy sensors," devices that automatically turn lights on and off in response to the presence of a person or people in a particular room.

Most occupancy sensors work in response to motion or sound: infrared sensors actually detect the infrared radiation -- also known as body heat -- that people naturally generate, and turn lights on or off depending on whether they detect infrared radiation in the space where they're installed.

Occupancy sensors are generally installed on ceilings or walls and come with a controllable switch so that they can easily be deactivated if necessary.

However, the "old" way of reducing electricity use still works:

Turn off lights when leaving room. Get into the habit of always turning off the lights, even if you are only going to be away for a short time.

Use low wattage bulbs to save energy.

Install compact fluorescents.

Did You Know?

Lighting accounts for 30 to 50% of a building's energy use, or about 17% of total annual U.S. electricity consumption. Simply turning off unneeded lights can reduce the amount of energy used for lighting up to 45%. At the same time, using less energy reduces air pollution, global warming and other environmental impacts associated with electricity generation.

Take a Spring Fling -- Use Your Bike!

Now that the days are getting longer and the temperature more congenial, why not dust off your bicycle and consider the twowheel way to get to work or go visiting?

Not only will biking help get you back in shape for spring and summer, but it'll help get the environment back in shape, too. You can travel hundreds of miles by bicycle on no more than a thimbleful of oil. And because you do not burn any kind of fuel but your own, bicycling creates no air pollution. Here are some tips to get you cycling:

Bike to work. If not every day, start with 1 or 2 days a week.

Encourage others to bike with you. Contact a local environmental organization, civic association or bicycling club and volunteer to work with them to organize a special day to encourage people to bike to work. Then recruit several other local groups to help support the event and recruit participants.

Use your bike for shopping, visiting and errands. Make bicycling the standard, environmentally efficient way you get from one place to another. Add a carrier rack or baskets to your bike to make it easier to transport your briefcase or groceries.

Believe It or Not!

If you biked to work rather than drove, you could save 407 gallons of gasoline each year - half the amount burned annually by a typical American car. Apart from walking (and distance permitting), there is no more energyefficient way to get to work than by bike. More than half of all commuting trips are 5 miles or less in length, a distance that could easily be covered by bicycle.

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Earth Share, a federation of America's leading non-profit environmental and conservation charities, promotes environmental education and charitable giving in employee workplace campaigns.

For more tips or to find out how your workplace can help the earth, visit the "Get Involved" section of our website, or call (800) 875-3863.