Natural Health and Natural Living

The Green Path

in Glendale Arizona leads trail running sessions for fitness-minded folks. They also sponsor a local volunteer trail restoration group. Check out their cool organic cotton and hemp T-shirts and hats They donate a portion of the sales proceeds to the local Parks and Recreation Department to help with state park maintenance and clean up

Your health and that of the planet

Earth Healers is working to preserve our fragile ecosystems by providing you with the highest quality organic, indigenously grown herbals and other cultural wares of worldwide-origins.
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Victory in key court battle!

Environmentalists won a key court battle recently when a federal appeals court upheld an EPA regulation requiring emissions from diesel trucks and buses be slashed by 90 percent.

The rule was challenged by a coalition of trucking, manufacturing and oil industry groups, according to the Environmental News Service. The rule was issued in the final days of the Clinton Administration, and requires big rig and bus tailpipe emissions to be cut by more than 90 percent. The ruling also upheld a standard for lower sulfur levels in diesel fuels.

Large trucks and buses emit about 2.6 millions tons of nitrogen oxides and about 130,000 tons of particulate pollutants each year, the ENS report said. A variety of public health organizations, both in the U.S. and worldwide, have determined that diesel exhaust or the particulates in the exhaust are linked to cancer in humans.

"Hundreds of thousands of Americans will live longer and healthier lives as a result of these new truck and bus standards," U.S. PIRG clean cars advocate Emily Figdor told ENS. "Our days of tolerating thick, black belches of truck exhaust on city streets and highways are coming to an end."

Supporters of the rule say its effect will be the equivalent of taking 13 million of the nation's 14 million trucks off the road.

-Andy Summa is a writer based in Dummerston, Vermont.

EXERCISE

How much should you weigh??? What is a healthy body fat percentage? If I’m trying to lose weight, how much cardio should I do? Do diet pills really work?

Find the answer to those questions and more in the Exercise sub hub.

IS YOUR BOTTLED WATER BETTER?

By Andy Summa

Bottled water may be no better than tap water, according to a recent study.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is urging consumers to forego bottled water following the release of its study May 3. The WWF bases its claims on a 26 page study by Catherine Ferrier of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. WWF commissioned the study, called, "Bottled Water: Understanding a social phenomenon."

More than half of Americans regularly drink bottled water. The world bottled water market represents annual sales of $22 billion, according to the Environment News Service.

Concerns over municipal water safety combined with clever marketing helps fuel the growth of the bottled water industry, says the study.

But the only difference between some bottled waters and tap water is that one is distributed in bottles, the other through pipes, ENS said. There are more standards regulating tap water in Europe and the U.S. than those applied to the bottled water industry.

�Bottled water should not be considered a sustainable alternative to tap water, as it is not exempt from periodical contamination,� concludes the report. �In addition, tap water is more energy efficient as it is provided through underground pipes, compared to fuel and energy needed for filling bottles and transporting them around the world.

�Tap water is and should remain a public service meant to deliver good quality drinking water.�

Andy Summa is a freelance writer in Sugar Land, Texas.

BASIC BODY SCRUBS

The purpose of a skin scrub is to exfoliate the top layer of dead skin cells. Scrubs can be gentle and soft, suited to sensitive skin (such as a paste of finely ground oat flour and cold-pressed vegetable oil or yogurt), or more aggressive such as with baking soda or even pumice stone powder. A scrub is both stimulating and soothing, and your skin gets a massage as you apply it.

Flours absorb excess oil from the skin and combined with the emollient quality of finely ground almonds or flax seeds the scrubs are very softening for the skin. Brown rice flour is a very nice flour to use because it is a bit grainy and relieves itches you never knew you had. More...

Natural Living and Natural Health