Category: Health

by George J. Janczyn / Grofsurf’s San Diego / May 24, 2012

The San Diego City Council Natural Resources and Culture Committee (NR&C) approved on Wednesday (May 23) two substantial reports that recommend how recycled water can be used more effectively in the future as San Diego struggles with ways to reduce its extreme dependence on imported water that is becoming an increasingly expensive and less reliable source [link to the agenda].

• 2011 Recycled Water Master Plan Update [link to the report].

By Leon Dale Thompson / East County Magazine / May 24, 2012

More than 50 people called Wednesday, May 23rd, for Sempra Energy Chief Donald Felsinger to come down and address the public’s concerns over the San Onofre nuclear reactors, which have been closed for months due to serious safety problems. (Felsinger was invited last Friday in a written-hand-delivered petition.) The crowd chanted “Donald Felsinger come on down” on this overcast afternoon, with Sempra Energy’s building looming above.

by Debbi Baker / U-T San Diego / May 23, 2012

For the second time this month a green laser was aimed at the eyes of Harbor Police officers patrolling the shoreline.

The officers were about a half-mile offshore of Ocean Beach just before midnight Tuesday when the powerful beam was pointed at their faces, Harbor Police Sgt. Mike Rich said. They notified officers on the land, who searched Sunset Cliffs near Ladera Street for about 20 minutes before locating four men in their 20s on the beach, Rich said.

By John P. Anderson / WalkingMissEva

As anyone that helped our family move in the fall of 2010 can attest to, I have a healthy affinity for plants. Maybe slightly more than healthy, some might say. Either way I’ve really enjoyed having a yard to work in for the past year and have learned a lot about plants. I previously touched on using coffee as a fertilizer, today’s post is about the benefits that eggshells can bring to your yard and garden.

Commentary:

When we started our garden I was really disappointed to see our first plantings disappear almost overnight. Basil, tomatoes, cilantro, and many other seedlings we put into the garden would quickly lose most or all of their leaves. After a few nights of inspection with a flashlight I found multitudes of silverfish, slugs, and snails feasting on the greenery. I was unable to find a quick solution to the silverfish, but eggshells proved to be a strong deterrent to the slugs and snails and I learned they also provide a number of benefits to the soil and plants.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / May 20, 2012

Traveling is a great occupation — for so many reasons, not the least of which is the differences between home and “there,” wherever there might be. In this case, it’s Spain.

In Spain, my normal breakfast of Weetabix with raisins and organic milk is replaced with hearty ham and goat cheese, fresh fruit and coffee with hot milk.

In Spain, our rampant consumerism is replaced with a two-hour midday siesta, when shops are shuttered and families and friends leisurely dine together.

In Spain, my country’s clenched sphincter is replaced with a mobile prophylactic dispensary.

Thirty-two months on the 21^st of May my husband of 44 years passed away from Lung Cancer. He began smoking while still in high school, and before he stopped smoking 34 years later, he admitted to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. I always wondered that if he admitted to smoking 3 packs a day, how many packs did he really smoke.

He would say that if he had known the evils of tobacco he probably would never had had that first puff. That’s what he would say, but is it the truth? Who knows?

He was a charming blue-eyed Irishman that frequently had a twinkle in his eye. He was a leader, not a follower, and I suspect that if he thought it was “cool” to smoke, he would have smoked. But there was no research like there is today; when he finally did stop smoking – 31 years BEFORE he died – he stopped because he finally believed what research was telling him. He thought that by quitting smoking, he was prolonging his life, and the cause of death would never be “lung cancer.”

SEMPRA denies activists access to property to deliver letter outlining their concerns about the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant – (Or Marcia, Carol, Hugh and Ray’s magnificent adventure)

by Carol Jahnkow

May 19, 2012–Representatives of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, Citizens Oversight Project, the Green Party of San Diego and the newly formed Shut San Onofre Working Group were told Friday morning by SEMPRA security officers that they would not be allowed on SEMPRA’s property at 101 Ash Street to deliver a letter directed to SEMPRA Executive Chairman, Donald Felsinger.

Marcia Patt, Hugh Moore, Carol Jahnkow and Ray Lutz were told that instead, a security officer would come out to the street to accept the letter on behalf of SEMPRA Executive Chairman, Donald Felsinger. Three San Diego Police Department cars with 5-6 officers observed from across the street.

By Michael Greger, M.D. / HuffPost / May 18, 2012

Yesterday was a good morning to wake up and smell the coffee. The New England Journal of Medicine published outcomes from the the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, which found drinking coffee was associated with living longer in both men and women. This is not only the largest study ever to look into this question, NIH-AARP is one of the largest prospective (forward-looking) studies ever performed on nutrition and disease, following more than a half million people for a dozen years.

This follows on the heels of an editorial published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition entitled “Coffee Consumption and Risk of Chronic Diseases: Changing Our Views,” which reviewed the growing evidence that for most people, the benefits of drinking coffee likely outweigh the risks. Though the study published today found no significant relationship between coffee consumption and cancer, a recent analysis of the best studies published to date suggests coffee consumption may lead to a modest reduction in overall cancer incidence. Each daily cup o’ joe was associated with about a 3% reduced risk of cancers, especially bladder, breast, mouth, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, liver, leukemic, pancreatic, and prostate cancers.

These next couple of days will see San Diego streets swell up with protests of different sorts, as nurses, janitors and anti-nuke activists and their supporters stage demonstrations across the City.

Thursday, May 17th: San Diego Janitors Continue Hunger Fast and Hold 12-Hour Vigil at Civic Center Plaza

San Diego area janitors will hold a 12-hour vigil with community and religious leaders at Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Diego, joining hunger fast participants fighting for health care for themselves and their families. Throughout the day, community volunteers will be visiting hunger fasters at their base camp at the Church of the Brethren in San Diego, where volunteers are working hard making preparations for Friday’s march and rally at La Jolla’s UTC.

Friday, May 18th – Rally for a ROBIN HOOD TAX! at NBC Building

Also on Friday, May 18th – Anti-Nuke Activists to Present Demand Letter to SEMPRA Chair

Wednesday, May 23rd – Rally at SEMPRA

With more and more doubts about San Onofre’s safety and future being raised on a nearly daily basis, San Diego and Southern California activists are converging on utility giant Sempra as a focal point for their protests here locally. And there are apply pressure that is mounting across California.

For instance, activists will be presenting a “Demand Letter” to Sempra Energy Chair Donald Felsinger on Friday, May 18th. And a rally is being held at Sempra headquarters in downtown San Diego on Wednesday, May 23rd – part of a state-wide coordinated day of actions at utilities. Actions will also be held in Irvine, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fresno – all to demand a nuclear-free California.

By Joe Flynn

Dear Grover Norquist:

Top Ten Reasons why most people would not want government reduced to the size they could drown in a bathtub, as you so smugly recommend.

10. A water main has broken in front of your house, and you don’t have enough water to flush your toilet, let alone, drown anything in the tub.

9. Neighborhood kids have piled rocks in a sewer manhole plugging the line and what appear to be date expired Baby Ruth’s are floating down the street.

8. Your residential neighbor is in the process of constructing a building in his front yard, which coincidentally, blocks your prized view of the ocean.

Engineer warns that tube plugging and low power operation are risky “non-solutions”

By Friends of the Earth / May 15, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Southern California Edison avoided federal regulatory guidelines when replacing defective steam generators at the San Onofre nuclear power plant — a costly mistake that can’t be fixed by plugging the tubes that carry radioactive steam or by operating the plant at reduced power, according to a new report released today by Friends of the Earth.

The content of the report by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen details the significant design changes that should have triggered a license review which would have uncovered problems that subsequently led to serious damage and the release of radiation from the defective equipment at San Onofre in January.