Toxic Free Talk Radio Archives
Cell Phones, Brain Tumors, Labeling and Your Right to Know
Today I have two guests speaking on the health effects of cell phones and the problem of insufficient product labeling.
I invited Ellen Marks to be a guest today after posting a press release last week about how she and others protested cell phones at a San Francisco store by placing warning labels on the phones. Ellen is founder and director of the California Brain Tumor Association which focuses on prevention and on the wireless radiation issue being a possible cause of deadly brain tumors. Ellen entered into the cell phone/brain tumor world when her husband was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. Her husband and Senator Kennedy had their seizures and same diagnosis 10 days apart. Ironically, her son had worked for the Senator. Her suspicions concerning both her husband’s and the Senator’s long term cell phone use to the same side of the head where the tumors developed led her to worldwide experts. Upon sending them her husband’s cell phone records and medical records they confirmed that her husband’s glioma is “more likely than not” attributable to his long term ipsilateral cell phone use. Ellen has testified before Congress on the health effects of cell phone radiation, attends International Expert Conferences on this issue and has appeared on the Dr. Oz Show, Larry King Live, The View and many national newscasts. Not only is she educating others but by “going public” many other victims have reached out to her and she has brought the victims together to have their collective voices heard. www.cabta.org
Ellen then invited Representative Andrea Boland to join us as well. Rep. Boland serves in the Maine House of Representatives and is considered a national expert on electromagnetic radiation health and safety hazards of cell phones, smart meters, and other wireless devices. She introduced the first legislation in the world to ask for warning labels on cell phones to alert users to keep them away from the head and body, especially those of children and pregnant women. She has spoken on the subject in Washington, Vermont, Portland, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She received the 2011 National Health Freedom Hero Award for her work supporting nutritional supplementation, advancing wireless health and safety, and promoting the public’s right to know. www.maine.gov/legis/house/hsebios/bolaam.htm
Rediscovering the Natural World
Today my guest is Marcie Cuff, author of This Book Was a Tree: Ideas, Adventures, and Inspirations for Rediscovering the Natural World. Because this show is about toxics and alternatives to toxics, part of my mission is to encourage everyone to become more aware of the natural world, which supports all life. For decades I have looked to nature for life-enhancing ways to live, as a toxic-free alternative to industrialism. Marcie doesn’t wear a bonnet, carry a hatchet, eat hard tack or forage for wild herbs, fruits and nuts each morning. She prefers, instead, to wear spandex and a superhero cape and drink tea while planning clandestine small-scale seedbomb planting attacks in neglected neighborhood vacant lots. Between seedbombing excursions, she and her family live atop 0.013 acres of paradise just north of Manhattan. When she isn’t writing, digging in the dirt, or shop vac-ing the basement after a heavy rain, she is raising two small wild girls and a menagerie of pets with her clever and mesmeric husband. On any given day, Marcie’s small house is teeming with a maelstrom of rowdy kids, powerful ukulele ballads, disorganized experiments in various stages, and a potpourri of fort-building, dress-up bins and early-risers. 
Before earning her M.A. in Secondary Science teaching and writing THIS BOOK WAS A TREE, Marcie had plunged into a whirlpool of prerequisite employment—everything from organic lettuce farmer, to tropical rainforest field technician, to stuffed animal designer, to Alaskan tent-dwelling goose researcher. Her award-winning blog MOSSY is devoted to families who share a love of slowing down, simplifying, getting dirty, and finding hands-on connections to art and nature. www.marciecuff.com | www.mossymossy.com
Honoring Rachel Carson–The First Author to Write About Toxics–For Earth Day
Silent Spring is a classsic environmental book, but it was also the first popular book to write about the toxic effects of pesticides to human health. Today I have two guests who have studied Carson’s life, to tell us more about her life and works, and how she contributed to our modern awareness of toxics.
Rachel Carson is one of my inspirations and heros, because she stood up for our rights to live in a toxic-free world when nobody else was talking about it. So today I want to honor her.
Linda Lear PhD is the author of the acclaimed biography of Rachel Carson, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, and numerous articles on Carson. Lear’s biography of Carson was awarded the prize for the best book on women in science by the History of Science Society and has been translated into eight languages. www.rachelcarson.org
Patricia DeMarco PhD has been a Rachel Carson scholar since 2005, with service as the Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Homestead Association and as the Director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University. She writes and speaks extensively on the environmental ethic of Rachel Carson and her relevance to modern times. She is currently writing a book titled “Pathways to Our Sustainable Future.”
Building Homes That are Healthy…and More
Today my guest is Jan Flanzer, CoFounder and Managing Director of Healthy Home Builders in Scarsdale NY. We’ll be talking about the the toxic-free materials used to build healthy homes. Jan grew up in a real estate oriented family, but took another direction for her career. When she became sick from toxic chemical exposure, she re-evaluated her life and decided to build homes that are not only safe, but a joy to live in. HHB creates properties that are distinguished by understated elegance, thoughtful floor plans, and meticulous detail. The guiding principles for the firm’s projects are to be mindful of how their buildings will become part of the fabric of their community. No two projects will necessarily be alike, as the aesthetic of each home is attuned to the history and architecture of each neighborhood. They believe that indoor air and water quality are overlooked aspects of sustainable development. The firm’s core principle is to pioneer the use of materials, systems, and design to protect the health and wellness of its occupants through improvements in indoor air and water quality. They carefully test and select construction materials in order to incorporate non-toxic or minimally-toxic products. Their buildings combine architecturally-contextual exteriors with clean building technologies. By minimizing energy usage and harmful chemicals, they strive to provide homeowners with a better and healthier interior home environment.
Preparing Your Own Food? Learn How to Have Food Ready When and Where You Are
Today my guest is Tammy Creditcott, author of Make Ahead Paleo. Even if you don’t eat Paleo, Tammy will help you with the logistics of preparing food every day as part of a busy life. The key to staying on an out-of-the-ordinary diet is having food on hand when you’re hungry and when you’re out, and that’s what this book is about. Tammy Credicott is a recipe developer, food photographer, public speaker, allergy-friendly cooking instructor, and the national bestselling author of Paleo Indulgences, Make Ahead Paleo and The Healthy Gluten Free Life. Tammy has a passion for understanding health and wellness as it relates to nutrition and has used this knowledge to help her family overcome health issues such as celiac disease, multiple food intolerances, eczema and ADD. She lives in Bend, Oregon with her husband and two daughters. www.thehealthygflife.com.
How Smoke From Fireplaces, Wood Stoves, BBQs and More Contribute to Outdoor Air Pollution and Affect Our Health
My guest today is Mary Rozenberg, Co-Founder of the Burning Issues website, a project of the nonprofit organization Clean Air Revival. We’ll be talking about particulate pollution in outdoor air, how you are contributing to it, and how it is affecting your own health and the health of others. Since 1987, Mary and members have been working tirelessly to improve ambient outdoor air quality through the reduction of Fine Particulate Pollution. The most common sources of deadly Fine Particulate Pollution are residential wood burning (RWB), restaurant wood burning, coal burning, forest fires and agriculture burning, and diesel and auto exhaust. It is estimated that 72,000 people die annually in the United States from the effects of these fine particles. Once emitted they are impossible to clean up. More than half of the fine particulate is caused by fewer than 10% of the population using the dirtiest fuels for recreation and heating. Their principal activity is public education, including the collection and dissemination of the latest science information regarding health effects, economic impacts, and individual actions to reduce and stop solid fuel combustion. Burning Issues also actively does particulate monitoring and has published the results. burningissues.org
The Dangers of Exposure to Radiation and How to Protect Yourself
Toxicologist Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, a regular guest who is helping us understand the toxicity of common chemicals we may be frequently exposed to. Dr. Gilbert is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and author of A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals.
He received his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 1986 from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, is a Diplomat of American Board of Toxicology, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. Dr. Gilbert has an extensive website about toxicology called Toxipedia, which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture. www.toxipedia.org
The Logic and Science Behind the Paleo Diet
My guest today is Liz Wolf, author of Eat the Yolks, an excellent book that gives all the logic and science behind the Paleo diet. Liz is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP™) certified by the Nutritional Therapy Association who is passionate about dismantling widespread nutrition myths and discovering the truth about food. 
She works with individuals, businesses, and nonprofits to develop nutrition programming based around real, whole foods, and she documents her personal adventures in cooking, nutrition, and homesteading on her much-loved blog. When she’s not enjoying fresh eggs from her free-range chicken flock or hanging out with her goats, dog, or husband, she’s serving as ambassador for her favorite nonprofits: Steve’s Club National Program, which provides athletic training and mentorship to at-risk youth; and The First Twenty, an organization dedicated to improving the long-term health of America’s firefighters. www.realfoodliz.com
Nourishing Traditions: Bringing Traditional Foods to Modern Life
My guest today, Sally Fallon Morell is author of the bestselling cookbook Nourishing Traditions and The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care. She is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation. We’ll be talking about how Dr. Weston Price researched traditional cultures to learn about nutrition and what we really should be eating for good health. Sally is a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her lifelong interest in the subject of nutrition began in the early 1970s when she read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price. Called the “Isaac Newton of Nutrition,” Price traveled the world over studying healthy primitive populations and their diets. The unforgettable photographs contained in his book document the beautiful facial structure and superb physiques of isolated groups consuming only whole, natural foods. Price noted that all of these diets contained a source of good quality animal fat, which provided numerous factors necessary for the full expression of our genetic potential and optimum health. Ms. Morell applied the principles of the Price research to the feeding of her own children, and proved for herself that a diet rich in animal fats, and containing the protective factors in old fashioned foodstuffs like cod liver oil, liver and eggs, make for sturdy cheerful children with a high immunity to illness. And since she has been educating the world on how to enjoy this diet deliciously. www.westonaprice.org
The Flooring that Improves Indoor Air Quality
Today my guest is Priscilla Bergeron, Communication Manager at Lauzon Exclusive Hardwood Flooring, maker of Pure Genius flooring, the world’s first air-purifying smart hardwood floor. This green-focused company, based in Papineauville, Quebec, Canada, actually owns its own forest, bringing its products from “Forest to Floor.” An avid environmental supporter, Priscilla was closely involved in the launch of Pure Genius. With a degree in Business Administration, Marketing, her experience includes brand and marketing management for a range of consumer products, including coatings and hardware items, always working with brand teams to ensure minimal environmental impact of the products she represents. www.lauzonflooring.com
