I have been blogging on several serious topics up to this point. Just for fun, I want to share something not quite so serious, that a friend sent to me. It keeps its charm and complexity through more than one replay. It was created by Alan Becker in 2003, and can be found at the following link:
http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf
I hope that you have as much fun watching it as I have had. If not for the Internet bringing us all together as a community, we would not have access to knowledge of many things, too many of them serious. Just as much, we would miss some of the joy that human creativity can bring to all of us, for lack of a way to share it. So for a change of pace, please point your mouse, click and play to enjoy.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Meditation Is Practical
This particular blog is meant to be more in the nature of a real blog. I have been getting some feed back from family, who naturally hold the privilege of saying what they really think. One just told me that they quit reading after the third paragraph of the last blog. Another, quite delicately, put it that my blogs are not really blogs. They are right: what I have been doing is very long for a blog, and a bit involved. I started this blog because it was a requirement to write ten 3-page blogs (with citations) for a graduate level class in community social work, connecting the topic to class readings as well. Three pages is long for a typical blog, and connecting a topic back to the textbook increases the length even while it adds perspective. Because of the feedback, and because I am quite simply running out of time to continue with the mini-term paper approach, this blog is supposed to be more like a typical blog, on meditation and its practical side effects.
I started meditating last summer, when I took a short class in contemplative meditation, essentially a form of transcendental meditation. I would never have considered or continued any form of meditation normally, but this was very simple to do, and seemed to have practical benefits almost immediately. After a few weeks I noticed that meditating helped me to think more clearly afterward, especially when I was writing papers or studying. Although emotions do surface during meditation, if I was feeling anxious about something or a little down, meditating for 20 minutes made these feelings more tolerable. Strangely, the hardest thing about meditation was making the time to do it on a reliable basis. Yet the benefits I received after a fairly short period of practice were enough to encourage me to persist.
I didn't understand what was happening till I read a book recommended for my community social work class. It had an intriguing title "How God Changes Your Brain," written by Newberg and Waldman in 2009. It was recommended because it dealt with neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a long word that describes the ability of the brain to undergo structural changes throughout life in response to the environment and to how the brain is used. Permanent changes in the brain occur far more rapidly than previously believed, especially if strongly stimulated. The title aroused my curiosity, as the title almost sells the book, though I would also say that the title was both accurate and misleading.
One of the things emphasized in the meditation class was that it was the continuing practice itself that should be viewed as the goal, not whether any particular state of mind was always achieved. Newberg and Waldman write similarly, finding that it was the actual process of meditation that produced permanent neural changes, regardless of whether or not there was a religious orientation. Meditation is focused attention. It affects specific neural circuits that are also linked to social awareness and compassion, increasing blood flow to the cognitive prefrontal cortex and decreasing blood flow to the emotional centers. Meditation has been found to improve cognition at any age, as well as to decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. However, there is a flip side to this effect. Meditation only does this if the focus of meditation is positive. Meditation with a focus on something unpleasant, such as an angry God, actually damages the brain.
Work and associated activities seem to often require multitasking in our society. To relax and recover, leisure activities seem to be single focus activities, such as playing sports, musical activities, videos, games, reading, painting, pottery, and other creative outlets. Due to neuroplasticity, whatever we chose to do changes the neural connections in the brain. If meditation can have both positive and negative effects depending on where the emphasis is placed, then what happens in the brain with other repetitive activities that require focused attention?
With meditation, because of the neurological pathways activated, there are positive side effects of increased cognition, social awareness, compassion, and a decrease of negative emotions. We live in ever widening communities, and changes we create in ourselves contribute one way or another to the society that we create as a group. If simple meditation became a more common practice, if more of us stopped and focused our awareness on just one positive thought for a brief period each day, then I think it is possible that it could affect others around us, and the communities in which we live.
I started meditating last summer, when I took a short class in contemplative meditation, essentially a form of transcendental meditation. I would never have considered or continued any form of meditation normally, but this was very simple to do, and seemed to have practical benefits almost immediately. After a few weeks I noticed that meditating helped me to think more clearly afterward, especially when I was writing papers or studying. Although emotions do surface during meditation, if I was feeling anxious about something or a little down, meditating for 20 minutes made these feelings more tolerable. Strangely, the hardest thing about meditation was making the time to do it on a reliable basis. Yet the benefits I received after a fairly short period of practice were enough to encourage me to persist.
I didn't understand what was happening till I read a book recommended for my community social work class. It had an intriguing title "How God Changes Your Brain," written by Newberg and Waldman in 2009. It was recommended because it dealt with neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a long word that describes the ability of the brain to undergo structural changes throughout life in response to the environment and to how the brain is used. Permanent changes in the brain occur far more rapidly than previously believed, especially if strongly stimulated. The title aroused my curiosity, as the title almost sells the book, though I would also say that the title was both accurate and misleading.
One of the things emphasized in the meditation class was that it was the continuing practice itself that should be viewed as the goal, not whether any particular state of mind was always achieved. Newberg and Waldman write similarly, finding that it was the actual process of meditation that produced permanent neural changes, regardless of whether or not there was a religious orientation. Meditation is focused attention. It affects specific neural circuits that are also linked to social awareness and compassion, increasing blood flow to the cognitive prefrontal cortex and decreasing blood flow to the emotional centers. Meditation has been found to improve cognition at any age, as well as to decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. However, there is a flip side to this effect. Meditation only does this if the focus of meditation is positive. Meditation with a focus on something unpleasant, such as an angry God, actually damages the brain.
Work and associated activities seem to often require multitasking in our society. To relax and recover, leisure activities seem to be single focus activities, such as playing sports, musical activities, videos, games, reading, painting, pottery, and other creative outlets. Due to neuroplasticity, whatever we chose to do changes the neural connections in the brain. If meditation can have both positive and negative effects depending on where the emphasis is placed, then what happens in the brain with other repetitive activities that require focused attention?
With meditation, because of the neurological pathways activated, there are positive side effects of increased cognition, social awareness, compassion, and a decrease of negative emotions. We live in ever widening communities, and changes we create in ourselves contribute one way or another to the society that we create as a group. If simple meditation became a more common practice, if more of us stopped and focused our awareness on just one positive thought for a brief period each day, then I think it is possible that it could affect others around us, and the communities in which we live.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Community Social Work After the Earthquake in Haiti: Sustainable Development
Haiti has the reputation of being the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Before a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, near the Haitian capitol, there were over 10,000 relief agencies with a presence in Haiti, along with the UN peacekeeping force (Kidder, 2010). The response of governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to the disaster in Haiti has been massive, yet the news is filled with the lack of coordination of aid and difficulties in delivery of available supplies. Granted, the aid groups were affected by the quake as well, but they were also spread out over the country. What is complicating communication and coordination between the earthquake relief effort and the people of Haiti?
Democracy Now (2010, January 22) looked into this question, interviewing people in Haiti while traveling from the capitol to the epicenter of the quake: Léogâne.
Democracy Now found that the main problem with aid distribution is due to the designation of “Red Zones,” which place restrictions on access to many areas based on security concerns. In these zones, aid groups travel in sealed vehicles, out of contact with the people they are there to help. Food is distributed from hovering helicopters rather than face-to-face on the ground. There is a fear of the Haitian people blocking the establishment of good communications with community leaders, as well as a lack of interpreters that could be available within the Haitian population. The people of Haiti have banded together into community groups to help each other, but are frustrated by their inability to obtain things like fuel to move the resources they do have. For instance, there is available water, water trucks and Haitian drivers available to distribute water from wells, but no gas for the water trucks. The local community knows what it has, and what it can do, but communication between natural helping networks in the community and the aid groups is lacking. Instead of following good community social work practice and tapping into the community as a first step, the first concern has been security.
Democracy Now, in another set of interviews on January 14, 2010, detailed the history of Haiti and its relationships to western governments, particularly the US government. The US has had a historically poor relationship with Haiti. In news reports the response of the US has centered around the military first securing control of the airport and putting priority on security concerns, as opposed to the responses from other governments in the area.
The large loss of life in the Haitian capitol, Port-au-Prince, is related to the presence of shantytowns built up along the hillsides and along ravines in the least desirable areas of the city. There has been an exodus of people from the countryside to the city in search of manufacturing jobs. Before the effort to industrialize initiated by outsiders, Haiti had an agrarian economy. The question now is how best to help Haiti rebuild into a healthier, sustainable economy. Haitians lack even the bare essentials of adequate food and water in the city, and survival is at the forefront of their concern. Even without a nearby earthquake, the economic situation of Haitian people crowded into Port-au-Prince would be unacceptable. Their labor and the economic rewards of industrialization have not been for the benefit of Haitians as a people, but for the economic benefit of others (Hallward, 2010, January 13).
Before anything else can happen for the good of the people of Haiti, they need to be able to feed and provide for their own families reliably. Haitians are best served at this time by helping them to help themselves by employing them for the short-term needs of a disaster, and networking with their own community leaders. Following this, a grass-roots redevelopment effort in sustainable agriculture can be the start of an economic base that will benefit the people of Haiti first, and eventually provide excess agricultural commodities to sell and raise the standard of living. Schobert and Barron (2004) describe a successful sustainable agricultural program sponsored by World Hunger Relief in Haiti. It built upon Haiti’s small, subsistence farming tradition, instead of imposing an outside view of economic development built on a supply of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, in cities that cannot provide basic services or safe housing for the numbers of people displaced from the countryside.
The first, most basic step in utilizing community strengths after the earthquake is partnership with the people of Haiti. Community resources should be sought out and built upon, not overlooked due to fear and security issues. For those able to help financially, consider focusing on those organizations that emphasize the community work approach. These NGOs place a priority on employing Haitians and partnering with community leaders. The most effective ones will be organizations with a previous history in Haiti and established community connections. This information is available on the website for InterAction, the largest coalition of US led NGOs in relief efforts. The InterAction listing describes the varied approaches of the NGO’s providing relief efforts in Haiti.
Howard, P. (2010, January 13). Our role in Haiti’s plight [Electronic version]. Guardian (no pgs). Retrieved February 21, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight
InterAction (n.d.). Interaction members respond to the earthquake in Haiti. Retrieved March 2, 2010, from http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti
Kidder, T. (2010, January 13). Country without a net [Electronic Version]. New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html
Schobert, F. M. & Barron, D. A. (2004). Community development in an international setting: The role of sustainable agriculture in social work practice. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 178-191). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Security “Red Zones” in Haiti preventing large aid groups from effectively distributing aid. (2010, January 22). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing
US policy in Haiti over decades “Lays the foundation for why impact of natural disaster is so severe.” (2010, January 14). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/us_policy_in_haiti_over_decades
Democracy Now (2010, January 22) looked into this question, interviewing people in Haiti while traveling from the capitol to the epicenter of the quake: Léogâne.
Democracy Now found that the main problem with aid distribution is due to the designation of “Red Zones,” which place restrictions on access to many areas based on security concerns. In these zones, aid groups travel in sealed vehicles, out of contact with the people they are there to help. Food is distributed from hovering helicopters rather than face-to-face on the ground. There is a fear of the Haitian people blocking the establishment of good communications with community leaders, as well as a lack of interpreters that could be available within the Haitian population. The people of Haiti have banded together into community groups to help each other, but are frustrated by their inability to obtain things like fuel to move the resources they do have. For instance, there is available water, water trucks and Haitian drivers available to distribute water from wells, but no gas for the water trucks. The local community knows what it has, and what it can do, but communication between natural helping networks in the community and the aid groups is lacking. Instead of following good community social work practice and tapping into the community as a first step, the first concern has been security.
Democracy Now, in another set of interviews on January 14, 2010, detailed the history of Haiti and its relationships to western governments, particularly the US government. The US has had a historically poor relationship with Haiti. In news reports the response of the US has centered around the military first securing control of the airport and putting priority on security concerns, as opposed to the responses from other governments in the area.
The large loss of life in the Haitian capitol, Port-au-Prince, is related to the presence of shantytowns built up along the hillsides and along ravines in the least desirable areas of the city. There has been an exodus of people from the countryside to the city in search of manufacturing jobs. Before the effort to industrialize initiated by outsiders, Haiti had an agrarian economy. The question now is how best to help Haiti rebuild into a healthier, sustainable economy. Haitians lack even the bare essentials of adequate food and water in the city, and survival is at the forefront of their concern. Even without a nearby earthquake, the economic situation of Haitian people crowded into Port-au-Prince would be unacceptable. Their labor and the economic rewards of industrialization have not been for the benefit of Haitians as a people, but for the economic benefit of others (Hallward, 2010, January 13).
Before anything else can happen for the good of the people of Haiti, they need to be able to feed and provide for their own families reliably. Haitians are best served at this time by helping them to help themselves by employing them for the short-term needs of a disaster, and networking with their own community leaders. Following this, a grass-roots redevelopment effort in sustainable agriculture can be the start of an economic base that will benefit the people of Haiti first, and eventually provide excess agricultural commodities to sell and raise the standard of living. Schobert and Barron (2004) describe a successful sustainable agricultural program sponsored by World Hunger Relief in Haiti. It built upon Haiti’s small, subsistence farming tradition, instead of imposing an outside view of economic development built on a supply of cheap labor for manufacturing plants, in cities that cannot provide basic services or safe housing for the numbers of people displaced from the countryside.
The first, most basic step in utilizing community strengths after the earthquake is partnership with the people of Haiti. Community resources should be sought out and built upon, not overlooked due to fear and security issues. For those able to help financially, consider focusing on those organizations that emphasize the community work approach. These NGOs place a priority on employing Haitians and partnering with community leaders. The most effective ones will be organizations with a previous history in Haiti and established community connections. This information is available on the website for InterAction, the largest coalition of US led NGOs in relief efforts. The InterAction listing describes the varied approaches of the NGO’s providing relief efforts in Haiti.
References
Howard, P. (2010, January 13). Our role in Haiti’s plight [Electronic version]. Guardian (no pgs). Retrieved February 21, 2010, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/our-role-in-haitis-plight
InterAction (n.d.). Interaction members respond to the earthquake in Haiti. Retrieved March 2, 2010, from http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti
Kidder, T. (2010, January 13). Country without a net [Electronic Version]. New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html
Schobert, F. M. & Barron, D. A. (2004). Community development in an international setting: The role of sustainable agriculture in social work practice. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 178-191). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Security “Red Zones” in Haiti preventing large aid groups from effectively distributing aid. (2010, January 22). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/22/security_red_zones_in_haiti_preventing
US policy in Haiti over decades “Lays the foundation for why impact of natural disaster is so severe.” (2010, January 14). Democracy Now. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/us_policy_in_haiti_over_decades
Friday, February 5, 2010
Heavy Metal Florists: Mercury Toxicity in the US Floral Industry
Much has been written on the negative health effects of unregulated pesticides use on workers in the cut flower industry in South America and other developing countries. Close to 80% of all flowers and 92% of all roses are imported into the United States, with South America as the main source (Stewart, 2007; Bergman, 2008). There is no monitoring or regulation on the pesticide levels of imported flowers because flowers are not a food product. Flowers need only be free of pests and diseases upon importation into the US (Tenenbaum, 2002). The health effects of handling and smelling contaminated flowers per se on florist and consumer is not a readily available topic on the Internet or in a literature search.
Although no studies show that contaminated flowers have been shown to affect consumers, Bergman (2008) states that exposure to toxic substances in confined spaces like the average home may have an as yet unknown effect on health. The most found thus far in searching the internet for the effects on florists in this country is a reference to contact dermatitis in floral workers who handle contaminated flowers imported from South America (Harris, 2008). Sanborn et al (2007) discusses dermatitis as the most common health effect due to contact with pesticides, while acute and chronic exposure is known to result in neurological symptoms. As my friend Jill and other florists in two adjacent rural counties in Northern California have discovered, much more than dermatitis can result from handling pesticide-contaminated flowers. Jill is the second of seven long-time florists in Del Norte and Humboldt counties to experience symptoms and test positive for heavy metal toxicity. Jill is positive for an elevated mercury level, while the others have tested positive with combinations of elevated levels of the heavy metals lead, arsenic, cadmium, silver and mercury. The Pesticide Action Network (2009) searchable database for active ingredients in pesticides by chemical name lists 167 active ingredients containing heavy metals, of which 79 contain mercury.
Jill’s first symptom that something was badly wrong came on an ordinary morning in 2004, when she rolled over in bed, and suddenly the whole world whirled and kept on whirling. This is the feeling of severe vertigo, and Jill’s response was to throw up, again and again and again. Severe vertigo is “like being on a rollercoaster all the time” according to Jill. Jill had to be heavily sedated for that week until, just as suddenly, the vertigo, headaches and vomiting went away. Then it happened twice again in 2005. At first, an ear infection was suspected since Jill was a lifeguard as well as a florist, but this was ruled out each time. These acute episodes remained a mystery with a fast onset and end, till in January 24, 2006, when Jill rolled over in bed once more, and this time the vertigo did not go away.
Jill found that she could no longer work, could no longer stand, could no longer do much of anything other than lie in a darkened room with the covers pulled over her head to cut out all light. Her condition worsened. Her symptoms were unremitting and debilitating, and included severe vertigo with nausea, severe and chronic fatigue, constant migraines, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and lack of focus, heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety and excitability. There were psychomotor symptoms such as suddenly garbled speech and sporadic loss of handwriting ability. She was bewildered by the appearance of uncontrollable salivation as well as a metallic taste in her mouth. Jill, along with her husband and her family caring for her, felt that she was going to die. Jill did not know that her strange symptoms of uncontrollable salivation, tremors, and mood disorders were indicative of excessive mercury exposure. Meticulous about her dental health, Jill developed gingivitis and a sensation that her teeth were loosening up (Venes, 2001).
With her husband’s help, Jill determinedly made the rounds of the top medical schools in California, consulting a long list of doctors. She was tested in every imaginable way, with MRIs, EEGs, hormone checks, eye and ear exams, blood and urine testing etc. Finally in June of 2006, a provocated urine test for heavy metal exposure yielded the first abnormal result: very elevated mercury levels, which had not shown up on the initial blood tests. By September, Jill began chelating treatments to try to remove the mercury with a specialist at the Lifespan Clinic at Stanford, still without knowing what had caused the elevated mercury in her body. The usual suspected source of contaminated fish was not probable, since Jill was only an occasional fish eater. In addition, the organic methyl mercury from contaminated fish usually shows up in blood tests, not on urinalysis. Since mercury showed up on urinalysis only, this indicated another source for the mercury poisoning (Hightower, 2009).
In September of 2006, a visiting friend of a friend heard about Jill. She was Dr. Margaret Peet, author of “My Doctor Says I'm Fine: So Why Do I Feel So Bad?” She had recently read an article about the cut flower industry in South American countries entitled “Would a Rose Not Smell As Sweet” by David Tenenbaum (2002). Jill had been a florist for 37 years, the last 19 as a manager in the floral department at Safeway. Margaret connected the similarity in Jill’s symptoms and occupation to those of the South American workers, and sought Jill out to speak to her. She provided the missing link that Jill had needed to make sense of everything that had been happening to her.
Jill has been investigating possible sources of mercury in her workplace. She made contact with another florist in the area who had shown similar symptoms before Jill, as well as five other long-term floral managers who developed symptoms after her. Each showed the same constellation of symptoms, with some symptoms exacerbated by personal risk factors. For Jill, a family history of vertigo migraines contributed to her initial symptoms. For others, primary symptoms ranged from migraines to severe memory loss similar to Alzheimer’s Disease, and included kidney damage, seizures, chronic fatigue, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
The questions cannot help but come up: Why here, in this small rural area? What is different in this area that has resulted in seven long-term floral workers testing positive for heavy metals? Why has this not shown up in urban areas, which do far more floral business? Perhaps a better question would be to ask, how were the seven women able to find out about each other’s similar symptoms? The answer lies in the nature of Jill’s small rural community, where residents know each other and share information readily. Watkins (2004) describes rural helping networks as a web of interconnections and personalized concern for each other, as opposed to urban networks with far fewer personal communications and concerns. Dr. Peet’s drop-in visit with Jill, after learning of her problems from a mutual friend, was an example of this extended helping network. My willingness to advocate for Jill and the others by researching and writing this blog to reach the cyberspace community is another. Each affected florist involved was able to use the extended networks found in rural communities and share information, in the process avoiding the common misdiagnoses commonly given to women from mystified doctors.
Pesticides are neurotoxic, and symptoms are widely variable (Kammel and Hoppin, 2004). Doctors are not trained to look automatically for the unusual, such as heavy metal toxicity, in the first place. It is not that florists from this rural area are any different from urban florists. It is that their interconnectedness provided the additional information that allowed for proper diagnosis of their condition. Florists in urban areas are also exposed, but when their exposure is high enough or of long enough duration for exposure to cause symptoms, they will go to their doctors with mystery ailments that defy diagnosis. They are not aware yet that pesticide exposure and resulting heavy metal toxicity exists in the workplace for florists.
It is worth noting here that heavy metals accumulate in the body, and their levels could be used to provide a persistent biomarker for pesticide exposure, if doctors and researchers are alerted to look for it. The title for this blog and symptom descriptions were chosen with care, in order to provide key terms likely to be used in an Internet search for those searching for such information. The purpose of this initial blog on mercury and other heavy metal exposure in the floral industry is to help Jill get the word out to others about the potential damage to those employed as florists in this country, as well as to those who purchase flowers. As for the rest of us, the only way to stop the use of banned pesticides and other practices in S. America, and anywhere else in the world, is to make it economically unsound by refusing to buy products not certified as safe. Bergman (2008) and Tanenbaum (2002) give information on certification programs in articles listed below.
In the interests of readability, additional events and information will be covered in another blog on this topic.
Jill can be reached at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
Bergman, C. (2008). A rose is [not] a rose [Electronic version]. Audubon 110, 46-53. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from http://audubonmagazine.org/features0801/organics.html
Harris, R. (2008). Think that your gift is pesticide-free? Give organic flowers and it will be. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from http://www.naturalnews.com/z023207_flowers_pesticides_Hawaii.html
Hightower, J. M. (2009). Diagnosis: mercury, money, politics & poison.
Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.
Kamel, F. & Hoppin, J.A. (2004, June). Association of pesticide exposure with neurologic dysfunction and disease [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives,112(9):950-8. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/7135/7135.html#lowl
Pesticide Action Network (2009). PAN pesticide database – chemicals. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Search_Chemicals.jsp
Sanborn, M., Kerr, K.J., Sanin, L.H., Cole, D.C., Bassil, K.L. & Vakil, C. (2007, October). Non-cancer health effects of pesticides: Systematic review and implications for family doctors [Electronic version]. Canadian Family Physician, 53, 1713-1720.
Stewart, A. (2007). Flower confidential. New York: Algonquin Books/Chapel Hill, Workman Publishing.
Tenenbaum, D. (2002). Would a rose not smell as sweet? [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), A240-A247.
Venes, D. (2001). Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. (19th Edition, pp. 1279). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Watkins, T.R. (2004). Natural helping networks: Assets for rural communities. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 65-76). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Although no studies show that contaminated flowers have been shown to affect consumers, Bergman (2008) states that exposure to toxic substances in confined spaces like the average home may have an as yet unknown effect on health. The most found thus far in searching the internet for the effects on florists in this country is a reference to contact dermatitis in floral workers who handle contaminated flowers imported from South America (Harris, 2008). Sanborn et al (2007) discusses dermatitis as the most common health effect due to contact with pesticides, while acute and chronic exposure is known to result in neurological symptoms. As my friend Jill and other florists in two adjacent rural counties in Northern California have discovered, much more than dermatitis can result from handling pesticide-contaminated flowers. Jill is the second of seven long-time florists in Del Norte and Humboldt counties to experience symptoms and test positive for heavy metal toxicity. Jill is positive for an elevated mercury level, while the others have tested positive with combinations of elevated levels of the heavy metals lead, arsenic, cadmium, silver and mercury. The Pesticide Action Network (2009) searchable database for active ingredients in pesticides by chemical name lists 167 active ingredients containing heavy metals, of which 79 contain mercury.
Jill’s first symptom that something was badly wrong came on an ordinary morning in 2004, when she rolled over in bed, and suddenly the whole world whirled and kept on whirling. This is the feeling of severe vertigo, and Jill’s response was to throw up, again and again and again. Severe vertigo is “like being on a rollercoaster all the time” according to Jill. Jill had to be heavily sedated for that week until, just as suddenly, the vertigo, headaches and vomiting went away. Then it happened twice again in 2005. At first, an ear infection was suspected since Jill was a lifeguard as well as a florist, but this was ruled out each time. These acute episodes remained a mystery with a fast onset and end, till in January 24, 2006, when Jill rolled over in bed once more, and this time the vertigo did not go away.
Jill found that she could no longer work, could no longer stand, could no longer do much of anything other than lie in a darkened room with the covers pulled over her head to cut out all light. Her condition worsened. Her symptoms were unremitting and debilitating, and included severe vertigo with nausea, severe and chronic fatigue, constant migraines, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and lack of focus, heart palpitations, tremors, anxiety and excitability. There were psychomotor symptoms such as suddenly garbled speech and sporadic loss of handwriting ability. She was bewildered by the appearance of uncontrollable salivation as well as a metallic taste in her mouth. Jill, along with her husband and her family caring for her, felt that she was going to die. Jill did not know that her strange symptoms of uncontrollable salivation, tremors, and mood disorders were indicative of excessive mercury exposure. Meticulous about her dental health, Jill developed gingivitis and a sensation that her teeth were loosening up (Venes, 2001).
With her husband’s help, Jill determinedly made the rounds of the top medical schools in California, consulting a long list of doctors. She was tested in every imaginable way, with MRIs, EEGs, hormone checks, eye and ear exams, blood and urine testing etc. Finally in June of 2006, a provocated urine test for heavy metal exposure yielded the first abnormal result: very elevated mercury levels, which had not shown up on the initial blood tests. By September, Jill began chelating treatments to try to remove the mercury with a specialist at the Lifespan Clinic at Stanford, still without knowing what had caused the elevated mercury in her body. The usual suspected source of contaminated fish was not probable, since Jill was only an occasional fish eater. In addition, the organic methyl mercury from contaminated fish usually shows up in blood tests, not on urinalysis. Since mercury showed up on urinalysis only, this indicated another source for the mercury poisoning (Hightower, 2009). In September of 2006, a visiting friend of a friend heard about Jill. She was Dr. Margaret Peet, author of “My Doctor Says I'm Fine: So Why Do I Feel So Bad?” She had recently read an article about the cut flower industry in South American countries entitled “Would a Rose Not Smell As Sweet” by David Tenenbaum (2002). Jill had been a florist for 37 years, the last 19 as a manager in the floral department at Safeway. Margaret connected the similarity in Jill’s symptoms and occupation to those of the South American workers, and sought Jill out to speak to her. She provided the missing link that Jill had needed to make sense of everything that had been happening to her.
Jill has been investigating possible sources of mercury in her workplace. She made contact with another florist in the area who had shown similar symptoms before Jill, as well as five other long-term floral managers who developed symptoms after her. Each showed the same constellation of symptoms, with some symptoms exacerbated by personal risk factors. For Jill, a family history of vertigo migraines contributed to her initial symptoms. For others, primary symptoms ranged from migraines to severe memory loss similar to Alzheimer’s Disease, and included kidney damage, seizures, chronic fatigue, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.
The questions cannot help but come up: Why here, in this small rural area? What is different in this area that has resulted in seven long-term floral workers testing positive for heavy metals? Why has this not shown up in urban areas, which do far more floral business? Perhaps a better question would be to ask, how were the seven women able to find out about each other’s similar symptoms? The answer lies in the nature of Jill’s small rural community, where residents know each other and share information readily. Watkins (2004) describes rural helping networks as a web of interconnections and personalized concern for each other, as opposed to urban networks with far fewer personal communications and concerns. Dr. Peet’s drop-in visit with Jill, after learning of her problems from a mutual friend, was an example of this extended helping network. My willingness to advocate for Jill and the others by researching and writing this blog to reach the cyberspace community is another. Each affected florist involved was able to use the extended networks found in rural communities and share information, in the process avoiding the common misdiagnoses commonly given to women from mystified doctors.
Pesticides are neurotoxic, and symptoms are widely variable (Kammel and Hoppin, 2004). Doctors are not trained to look automatically for the unusual, such as heavy metal toxicity, in the first place. It is not that florists from this rural area are any different from urban florists. It is that their interconnectedness provided the additional information that allowed for proper diagnosis of their condition. Florists in urban areas are also exposed, but when their exposure is high enough or of long enough duration for exposure to cause symptoms, they will go to their doctors with mystery ailments that defy diagnosis. They are not aware yet that pesticide exposure and resulting heavy metal toxicity exists in the workplace for florists.
It is worth noting here that heavy metals accumulate in the body, and their levels could be used to provide a persistent biomarker for pesticide exposure, if doctors and researchers are alerted to look for it. The title for this blog and symptom descriptions were chosen with care, in order to provide key terms likely to be used in an Internet search for those searching for such information. The purpose of this initial blog on mercury and other heavy metal exposure in the floral industry is to help Jill get the word out to others about the potential damage to those employed as florists in this country, as well as to those who purchase flowers. As for the rest of us, the only way to stop the use of banned pesticides and other practices in S. America, and anywhere else in the world, is to make it economically unsound by refusing to buy products not certified as safe. Bergman (2008) and Tanenbaum (2002) give information on certification programs in articles listed below.
In the interests of readability, additional events and information will be covered in another blog on this topic.
Jill can be reached at heavymetalflorist2@gmail.com
References
Bergman, C. (2008). A rose is [not] a rose [Electronic version]. Audubon 110, 46-53. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from http://audubonmagazine.org/features0801/organics.html
Harris, R. (2008). Think that your gift is pesticide-free? Give organic flowers and it will be. Retrieved January 14, 2010, from http://www.naturalnews.com/z023207_flowers_pesticides_Hawaii.html
Hightower, J. M. (2009). Diagnosis: mercury, money, politics & poison.
Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books.
Kamel, F. & Hoppin, J.A. (2004, June). Association of pesticide exposure with neurologic dysfunction and disease [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives,112(9):950-8. Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2004/7135/7135.html#lowl
Pesticide Action Network (2009). PAN pesticide database – chemicals. Retrieved February 4, 2010, from http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Search_Chemicals.jsp
Sanborn, M., Kerr, K.J., Sanin, L.H., Cole, D.C., Bassil, K.L. & Vakil, C. (2007, October). Non-cancer health effects of pesticides: Systematic review and implications for family doctors [Electronic version]. Canadian Family Physician, 53, 1713-1720.
Stewart, A. (2007). Flower confidential. New York: Algonquin Books/Chapel Hill, Workman Publishing.
Tenenbaum, D. (2002). Would a rose not smell as sweet? [Electronic version]. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), A240-A247.
Venes, D. (2001). Taber’s cyclopedic medical dictionary. (19th Edition, pp. 1279). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
Watkins, T.R. (2004). Natural helping networks: Assets for rural communities. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 65-76). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Breaking Cover, Speaking Out
I have a story to tell, one I have never written down before, though I’ve told it at times in pieces, making small jokes about having been raised in a convent. It was a way for people to visualize what it was like to spend eight years in a school taught only by nuns fresh from Ireland the year I entered first grade. The only grade I attended in public school was kindergarten. My kindergarten year was spent with crayons and finger paints, playing kitchen, hula dancing, and learning the alphabet and numbers. I remember being different from the other girls, because my two best playmates in class were boys.
In first grade, my teacher was strange and foreboding in a full-length black habit, giant rosary and starched white bib. Her veil assembly rose half a foot from her forehead into a long peak to support the black veil that fell to her waist, from which no hair was ever visible. She liked to widen her eyes to glare through her coke bottle glasses, nodding regularly at a chosen child, baring her teeth while she gritted them with displeasure. When she crossed her arms underneath her bib, she seemed to expand even further with irritation. What I remember most about that grade was worrying over a small hole I had doodled in the reader without realizing it. I took seriously the bug-eyed threats of “Woe betide ye” if any book was returned in anything but perfect condition. There were lots of books now, carried home every night for homework in the required leather book bag. I was to grow calluses from the handle, alternating the bag from hand to hand for the thirty-minute walk between home and school. I can remember the relief I felt the rare times the bag was light. At the end of first grade, I had earned exactly one A, one D and an assortment in between. My father paid me a quarter for the A, but I was required to give it back immediately to make up for the D. I remember the A was in reading, and my one point of pride in earning it disappeared into tears. He never did find out that I had read the reader start to finish, the first few weeks of class.
It was a harsh lesson, but my 7-year old mind figured out that next year I needed more A’s, and in second grade I worked very hard. My teacher was a tense perfectionist, a relief from the terror of first grade. I remember most a certain assignment early in the school year: to read a chapter in the bible studies book and to spell every word in the chapter by the next school day. The book was not really 2nd grade level, and although I could read it, I struggled with memorizing all the words. I remember lying in my bunk at home, panicked because I could not seem to learn to spell “daughter.” I kept repeating and repeating it to myself to make it stick. My mother came in and heard me, and went out again after understanding what it was I was trying to do. The next day, there was no mention of the need to spell the words in class, and that assignment was never repeated. I still remember it on some level whenever I spell words with “aught” in them. I got the A’s I needed on my report cards, and made my quarters without loosing a single one that year.
The effort in second grade had been difficult, and my 8-year old mind figured out that I would only work hard in even numbered classes. I relaxed the effort to be perfect in third grade. It did not occur to me that this would not be possible to pull off any longer. I got into trouble, not big trouble, but enough trouble to make trouble my dominant memory of third grade. I remember learning to hold out my open hand for the ruler to strike, and not flinching away because that was not allowed and there would be double hits. I remember when I was caught letting my eyes wander out the wall of windows. I had to stand in the corner, while some joined in the punishment with snickers from behind me. There was no dunce cap, but I distinctly remember feeling like there was one floating over my head nonetheless. Nicknames from first grade, because my last name had been hard to pronounce, now resurfaced as taunts from the boys most often in trouble themselves. Towards the end of that year, one of the boys I had played with in kindergarten arranged to meet me after school. I remember wanting to talk, but I could find nothing to say, and he never tried to meet me again. Even at that age, I knew I was different than he remembered, and that he was disappointed. I finished that year, a slightly better than average student.
Some kids left, and a few others came to replace them, but mostly we moved through the grades together as a cohort. Our roles became set, and I was the quiet one who bit her nails and always did her homework. My mother tried every possible remedy to stop the nail biting, especially the one that had worked on her. She was bewildered when I did not even pause at the bitter taste she painted on my nails. After third grade, I gave up my plan to alternate the grades when I made a special effort. I needed to stay out of trouble, and the only sure way to do that for me was to get good grades.
The school decided to assign teachers to classes they had already taught, and my second and first grade teachers repeated teaching our class several times. I learned ways to adapt. I made detailed use of the required assignment notebook so that I never missed any work, making up my own acronym, LBH, for the constant instruction to learn something by heart. I started homework by 5 pm, broke for dinner, and worked till bedtime most nights. My parents were pleased that they never needed to ask me to do my homework. I made up a mind game with the clock on the back wall of every classroom. I would convince myself that the clock hands were moving slow, so that when I could look around without getting caught, there was a brief moment of pleasure when more time was gone than I expected. One of the nuns, who never taught my class, was particularly kind and I loved to be near when she was outside at recess. I would only stand at the edge of the children who constantly clustered around her, because it was hard to get closer. Often, other teachers waved us off when the circle of children grew too noticeable.
In eighth grade, I had my first grade teacher yet again, except now she carried a yardstick instead of a ruler to use around the classroom. She broke it one day over the head of a boy in the class. He was the designated “worst boy,” and he always acted like nothing could hurt him. He talked a little slower than most of the boys, and he never talked about his family. As an adult, he entered a seminary to become a priest, failed that, and later died by his own hand. That was the year I found my own nail-biting solution, by chewing on a tough acrylic thumbnail instead. I was a sensation with my classmates, when I finally grew nails.
Years later, three of the eight original nuns eventually returned to Ireland after what was called “nervous breakdowns,” including my second grade teacher. My siblings and I compared notes only after we were older adults. A brother remembered that he knew they “couldn’t touch me because I was smart and the son of a professional.” One sister surprised herself by turning into an actress to “get them off my back,” and fooled the nuns into underestimating her resourcefulness by making them feel sorry for her. We had all made our individual adaptations to our captivity.
I believe that before any group of people oppresses others outside their group, they have first been oppressed themselves. The nuns did not become the way they were “in a vacuum.” They had grown up in a war-torn society full of black and white, us versus them thinking, and the anger born of misery. In social work, we learn we can repeat our childhood experiences with others, unless we have examined ourselves thoroughly, most effectively with the aid of a counselor. The children who stayed in that school existed in an oppressive environment, forced into their assigned roles, even as oppressed groups the world over are forced into theirs. The entire class community was stressed, powerless as children in that environment. Even the powerless, though, can exercise power, or three of those nuns would have not have needed to go home again. I was lucky that I could go home to a family where I was loved, even though we did not communicate well with each other. I chose to work hard as a form of protection. The boy who did not survive adulthood did not have those advantages, trying and failing to redeem himself from the overwhelming role of the class scapegoat.
There was no parental involvement and the authority of the teacher was absolute. For all practical purposes, the nuns stood in God’s shoes. For me, they were right and I was wrong. Their God and mine was an angry God, who looked down on me with a scowl and knew I was bad even when I bowed my head and prayed. Did I know to tell my parents how I felt? Not in words, it never occurred to any of us to do that. There were signs, such as my extreme nail biting, a behavior now recognized as a sign of anxiety and stress (Venes, 2005). Like all oppressed people, I thought this was the way things were supposed to be, because it was all that I had ever known. Although I did not try to make things worse for others, I also sat mute when others were hurt. Even for adults, sticking up for others in such an environment takes courage, and a belief that something must be done. Some participated with the teacher, such as those who snickered or transferred their pain by treating others badly. This has been done from before the Bible existed, when Eve was written into the story and assigned the blame. It was not till I entered a different school that I found out that it could be any different.
I lost a large part of myself because of that school, and became an entirely different person for many years. My memory contains the evidence of my transformations, from kindergarten through adulthood. My journey back to what my Creator intended me to be has not ended. It still surprises me when my perspective shifts and I see myself for a moment while I am doing something well, as if it was natural for me. I speak out now, sometimes easily and at other times when it is the last thing I would chose to do. What I experienced as a child changed with time into a determination to protect others, eventually calling me into the profession of social work, as described by Hardcastle and Powers (2004). I had been doing social work all my life. I never knew to call what I did social work, till I met a real social worker, and saw how hard she worked for others and how much of her life energy went into that work. She had been there too, and now helped others make it through to the other side. In social work, I suspect that there is a higher than average number of survivors than in the general population, with equal or greater determination to change the way it is for someone else. They cannot change the past, but they can affect the future. To paraphrase Hemingway: All people are broken by life. Some become stronger in the broken places. Some guide others to find their strength in the broken places.
Remembering all the guides along my way,
especially the ones who were careful with me.
References
Hardcastle, D.A., & Powers, P. R. (2004). Community Practice: Theories and Skills for Social Workers, (2nd Edition, pp. 19). New York: Oxford University Press.
Hemingway, E. (1957). A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner.
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1929
Venes, D. (2009). Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. (20th Edition, pp. 1427). Philadelphia : F.A. Davis Co.
In first grade, my teacher was strange and foreboding in a full-length black habit, giant rosary and starched white bib. Her veil assembly rose half a foot from her forehead into a long peak to support the black veil that fell to her waist, from which no hair was ever visible. She liked to widen her eyes to glare through her coke bottle glasses, nodding regularly at a chosen child, baring her teeth while she gritted them with displeasure. When she crossed her arms underneath her bib, she seemed to expand even further with irritation. What I remember most about that grade was worrying over a small hole I had doodled in the reader without realizing it. I took seriously the bug-eyed threats of “Woe betide ye” if any book was returned in anything but perfect condition. There were lots of books now, carried home every night for homework in the required leather book bag. I was to grow calluses from the handle, alternating the bag from hand to hand for the thirty-minute walk between home and school. I can remember the relief I felt the rare times the bag was light. At the end of first grade, I had earned exactly one A, one D and an assortment in between. My father paid me a quarter for the A, but I was required to give it back immediately to make up for the D. I remember the A was in reading, and my one point of pride in earning it disappeared into tears. He never did find out that I had read the reader start to finish, the first few weeks of class.
It was a harsh lesson, but my 7-year old mind figured out that next year I needed more A’s, and in second grade I worked very hard. My teacher was a tense perfectionist, a relief from the terror of first grade. I remember most a certain assignment early in the school year: to read a chapter in the bible studies book and to spell every word in the chapter by the next school day. The book was not really 2nd grade level, and although I could read it, I struggled with memorizing all the words. I remember lying in my bunk at home, panicked because I could not seem to learn to spell “daughter.” I kept repeating and repeating it to myself to make it stick. My mother came in and heard me, and went out again after understanding what it was I was trying to do. The next day, there was no mention of the need to spell the words in class, and that assignment was never repeated. I still remember it on some level whenever I spell words with “aught” in them. I got the A’s I needed on my report cards, and made my quarters without loosing a single one that year.
The effort in second grade had been difficult, and my 8-year old mind figured out that I would only work hard in even numbered classes. I relaxed the effort to be perfect in third grade. It did not occur to me that this would not be possible to pull off any longer. I got into trouble, not big trouble, but enough trouble to make trouble my dominant memory of third grade. I remember learning to hold out my open hand for the ruler to strike, and not flinching away because that was not allowed and there would be double hits. I remember when I was caught letting my eyes wander out the wall of windows. I had to stand in the corner, while some joined in the punishment with snickers from behind me. There was no dunce cap, but I distinctly remember feeling like there was one floating over my head nonetheless. Nicknames from first grade, because my last name had been hard to pronounce, now resurfaced as taunts from the boys most often in trouble themselves. Towards the end of that year, one of the boys I had played with in kindergarten arranged to meet me after school. I remember wanting to talk, but I could find nothing to say, and he never tried to meet me again. Even at that age, I knew I was different than he remembered, and that he was disappointed. I finished that year, a slightly better than average student.
Some kids left, and a few others came to replace them, but mostly we moved through the grades together as a cohort. Our roles became set, and I was the quiet one who bit her nails and always did her homework. My mother tried every possible remedy to stop the nail biting, especially the one that had worked on her. She was bewildered when I did not even pause at the bitter taste she painted on my nails. After third grade, I gave up my plan to alternate the grades when I made a special effort. I needed to stay out of trouble, and the only sure way to do that for me was to get good grades.
The school decided to assign teachers to classes they had already taught, and my second and first grade teachers repeated teaching our class several times. I learned ways to adapt. I made detailed use of the required assignment notebook so that I never missed any work, making up my own acronym, LBH, for the constant instruction to learn something by heart. I started homework by 5 pm, broke for dinner, and worked till bedtime most nights. My parents were pleased that they never needed to ask me to do my homework. I made up a mind game with the clock on the back wall of every classroom. I would convince myself that the clock hands were moving slow, so that when I could look around without getting caught, there was a brief moment of pleasure when more time was gone than I expected. One of the nuns, who never taught my class, was particularly kind and I loved to be near when she was outside at recess. I would only stand at the edge of the children who constantly clustered around her, because it was hard to get closer. Often, other teachers waved us off when the circle of children grew too noticeable.
In eighth grade, I had my first grade teacher yet again, except now she carried a yardstick instead of a ruler to use around the classroom. She broke it one day over the head of a boy in the class. He was the designated “worst boy,” and he always acted like nothing could hurt him. He talked a little slower than most of the boys, and he never talked about his family. As an adult, he entered a seminary to become a priest, failed that, and later died by his own hand. That was the year I found my own nail-biting solution, by chewing on a tough acrylic thumbnail instead. I was a sensation with my classmates, when I finally grew nails.
Years later, three of the eight original nuns eventually returned to Ireland after what was called “nervous breakdowns,” including my second grade teacher. My siblings and I compared notes only after we were older adults. A brother remembered that he knew they “couldn’t touch me because I was smart and the son of a professional.” One sister surprised herself by turning into an actress to “get them off my back,” and fooled the nuns into underestimating her resourcefulness by making them feel sorry for her. We had all made our individual adaptations to our captivity.
I believe that before any group of people oppresses others outside their group, they have first been oppressed themselves. The nuns did not become the way they were “in a vacuum.” They had grown up in a war-torn society full of black and white, us versus them thinking, and the anger born of misery. In social work, we learn we can repeat our childhood experiences with others, unless we have examined ourselves thoroughly, most effectively with the aid of a counselor. The children who stayed in that school existed in an oppressive environment, forced into their assigned roles, even as oppressed groups the world over are forced into theirs. The entire class community was stressed, powerless as children in that environment. Even the powerless, though, can exercise power, or three of those nuns would have not have needed to go home again. I was lucky that I could go home to a family where I was loved, even though we did not communicate well with each other. I chose to work hard as a form of protection. The boy who did not survive adulthood did not have those advantages, trying and failing to redeem himself from the overwhelming role of the class scapegoat.
There was no parental involvement and the authority of the teacher was absolute. For all practical purposes, the nuns stood in God’s shoes. For me, they were right and I was wrong. Their God and mine was an angry God, who looked down on me with a scowl and knew I was bad even when I bowed my head and prayed. Did I know to tell my parents how I felt? Not in words, it never occurred to any of us to do that. There were signs, such as my extreme nail biting, a behavior now recognized as a sign of anxiety and stress (Venes, 2005). Like all oppressed people, I thought this was the way things were supposed to be, because it was all that I had ever known. Although I did not try to make things worse for others, I also sat mute when others were hurt. Even for adults, sticking up for others in such an environment takes courage, and a belief that something must be done. Some participated with the teacher, such as those who snickered or transferred their pain by treating others badly. This has been done from before the Bible existed, when Eve was written into the story and assigned the blame. It was not till I entered a different school that I found out that it could be any different.
I lost a large part of myself because of that school, and became an entirely different person for many years. My memory contains the evidence of my transformations, from kindergarten through adulthood. My journey back to what my Creator intended me to be has not ended. It still surprises me when my perspective shifts and I see myself for a moment while I am doing something well, as if it was natural for me. I speak out now, sometimes easily and at other times when it is the last thing I would chose to do. What I experienced as a child changed with time into a determination to protect others, eventually calling me into the profession of social work, as described by Hardcastle and Powers (2004). I had been doing social work all my life. I never knew to call what I did social work, till I met a real social worker, and saw how hard she worked for others and how much of her life energy went into that work. She had been there too, and now helped others make it through to the other side. In social work, I suspect that there is a higher than average number of survivors than in the general population, with equal or greater determination to change the way it is for someone else. They cannot change the past, but they can affect the future. To paraphrase Hemingway: All people are broken by life. Some become stronger in the broken places. Some guide others to find their strength in the broken places.
Remembering all the guides along my way,
especially the ones who were careful with me.
References
Hardcastle, D.A., & Powers, P. R. (2004). Community Practice: Theories and Skills for Social Workers, (2nd Edition, pp. 19). New York: Oxford University Press.
Hemingway, E. (1957). A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner.
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1929
Venes, D. (2009). Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. (20th Edition, pp. 1427). Philadelphia : F.A. Davis Co.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Words My Mother Gave Me
If
by Rudyard Kipling
My Mother gave me the original copy of this poem many, many years ago. I have kept a copy posted somewhere ever since then. It has never stopped meaning what I think my mother meant it to be: a guide for what she wanted me to become. It is old-fashioned, written a hundred years ago, but still applicable in this world of people struggling to find the right direction. And yes, we both recognized that it was gender stereotyped, but that was a rhyming thing, and not to be taken literally in my particular case. I can hear my mother saying "It's the thought that counts."
For those of us on the sight-challenged side, just click on the image for a larger view.
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Cyberspace Community and the H1N1 (Swine) Flu
There’s a lot of information out on the Internet these days about H1N1 Flu, originally termed Swine Flu, till pigs got a bad name from it. There is lots of advice about it circulating in my email box from well-meaning friends. With H1N1 flu cases spiraling upwards in communities, the medical system is unable to adequately respond to the perceived need for protection and treatment. Limited supplies of vaccine and antiviral medications are in the news everyday, while more people get sick and some die. People are searching and conferring with each other in their communities, and in the cyberspace community, with ideas focused on avoiding the Swine Flu and becoming ill.
Chain emails are often anonymous. Sometimes when something is particularly good or bad, I join with those interconnecting rivulets of emails, and either forward with a comment or send it back and argue with it. Emails proliferate, because anybody can get involved. Emailing seems safe and familiar, akin to ordinary writing to someone we already know. Blogging, on the other hand, is not so comfortable to do. Blogging is talking to someone we may never know, throwing something out into cyberspace in hopes of making a ripple of difference, risking censure and criticism as well as the chance to get the message out to more people than on our email list.
I just spent some effort trying to educate one of my helpful, forwarding friends about something questionable she sent. The advice I sent back is an old topic with me, a piece of advice I keep giving out individually. She is not alone in her efforts to help others by forwarding information she considers helpful. The problem is when the information has not been critically examined before sending it onward. So, since I have made the effort for my friend, I might as well expand that effort perhaps more productively and turn it into my first blog for my Community Work class. Please bear with me while I pontificate. I hope to make this initial foray into cyberspace worth your time in reading it.
The email I have received most often is entitled “Fight against The Swine Flu H1N1” (sic). This email is a mixed urban legend, and is discussed at: http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/prevent.asp
Overall, the information given was not unreasonable; some was accurate (though the doctor quoted did not write it), while part was folk wisdom. The email was correct in that the point of entry into the body is the throat via nose and mouth. However, rinsing the viruses off with anything, whether salt water or Listerine, is not as effective as destroying the infecting virus. Viruses are not like dust or pollen. Pollen and dust irritate the respiratory tract by allergic reactions to simple contact with the outside of cells. Thus, removal by rinsing helps to reduce the allergic reaction.
In contrast, viruses cause damage from inside the cells, in order to reproduce. Contact results in entry into the cell, followed by replication, or “proliferation,” as termed in the email. Infected cells shed more viruses when replication is completed and the cell self-destructs. Neither salt water nor Listerine affect the virus when it is inside the cells of the human body. Maybe they do rinse to a limited degree if the virus is momentarily not attached or inside a cell. A virus is not a cell and does not have a cell membrane. A virus is classically just genetic material wrapped in a protein coat, with no life outside a host cell. When the virus infects a cell, the protein coat is shed and just the genetic material goes in to replicate (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/virus.html).
Salt water gargling does soothe a sore throat, like a saline rinse of the eyes, but does nothing chemically to the virus in infected cells. Gargle instead with 50:50 hydrogen peroxide and water, for at least 30 seconds, twice a day, and at least 2-3 times more often if you have a sore throat. If there is a sore throat, there is some stinging as hydrogen peroxide acts on living tissue. The reason diluted hydrogen peroxide works better as a gargle is that it kills viruses by destroying the infected cells on the surface of the throat. It is an oxidizing agent, oxidizing to water and oxygen. Do not use the 3% solution available in most stores straight from the bottle without diluting it. It is too harsh. It also helps reliably with canker sores and gum irritation. It helps with the Humboldt crud, which is probably a viral bronchitis. A side effect is a gradual, gentle whitening of the teeth.
Before posting this blog, I also researched some of my ideas, to provide some backup for them. Below is a list of those sites I found most useful or interesting. Included with this list is information about the Spanish Flu, which also affected young adults more than older adults, due to young adults having better immune systems and stronger reactions. I also researched the use of hydrogen peroxide, and would caution against most of what I found on the Internet. Considering the oxidation effect of hydrogen peroxide on living cells, do not swallow hydrogen peroxide. Rinse your mouth but not your throat afterwards. There are mouthwash formulations in some stores that are essentially flavored 1.5% hydrogen peroxide, if the taste of plain hydrogen peroxide is unacceptable, but expect to pay a premium price.
Thanks for your time in reading this. If you found it useful, post a comment for me and tell your friends. If you can add to this information, then all the better.
FDA Advice on the Flu:
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm092805.htm
Information on viruses and flu virus:
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/fluscimed.html#top
An explanation of the H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu & suggested treatments:
http://www.medicinenet.com/influenza/article.htm
A detailed description of the Spanish Flu of 1918:
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/index.html
Important precautions on the use of hydrogen peroxide:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/peroxide.asp
Chain emails are often anonymous. Sometimes when something is particularly good or bad, I join with those interconnecting rivulets of emails, and either forward with a comment or send it back and argue with it. Emails proliferate, because anybody can get involved. Emailing seems safe and familiar, akin to ordinary writing to someone we already know. Blogging, on the other hand, is not so comfortable to do. Blogging is talking to someone we may never know, throwing something out into cyberspace in hopes of making a ripple of difference, risking censure and criticism as well as the chance to get the message out to more people than on our email list.
I just spent some effort trying to educate one of my helpful, forwarding friends about something questionable she sent. The advice I sent back is an old topic with me, a piece of advice I keep giving out individually. She is not alone in her efforts to help others by forwarding information she considers helpful. The problem is when the information has not been critically examined before sending it onward. So, since I have made the effort for my friend, I might as well expand that effort perhaps more productively and turn it into my first blog for my Community Work class. Please bear with me while I pontificate. I hope to make this initial foray into cyberspace worth your time in reading it.
The email I have received most often is entitled “Fight against The Swine Flu H1N1” (sic). This email is a mixed urban legend, and is discussed at: http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/prevent.asp
Overall, the information given was not unreasonable; some was accurate (though the doctor quoted did not write it), while part was folk wisdom. The email was correct in that the point of entry into the body is the throat via nose and mouth. However, rinsing the viruses off with anything, whether salt water or Listerine, is not as effective as destroying the infecting virus. Viruses are not like dust or pollen. Pollen and dust irritate the respiratory tract by allergic reactions to simple contact with the outside of cells. Thus, removal by rinsing helps to reduce the allergic reaction.
In contrast, viruses cause damage from inside the cells, in order to reproduce. Contact results in entry into the cell, followed by replication, or “proliferation,” as termed in the email. Infected cells shed more viruses when replication is completed and the cell self-destructs. Neither salt water nor Listerine affect the virus when it is inside the cells of the human body. Maybe they do rinse to a limited degree if the virus is momentarily not attached or inside a cell. A virus is not a cell and does not have a cell membrane. A virus is classically just genetic material wrapped in a protein coat, with no life outside a host cell. When the virus infects a cell, the protein coat is shed and just the genetic material goes in to replicate (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cells/virus.html).
Salt water gargling does soothe a sore throat, like a saline rinse of the eyes, but does nothing chemically to the virus in infected cells. Gargle instead with 50:50 hydrogen peroxide and water, for at least 30 seconds, twice a day, and at least 2-3 times more often if you have a sore throat. If there is a sore throat, there is some stinging as hydrogen peroxide acts on living tissue. The reason diluted hydrogen peroxide works better as a gargle is that it kills viruses by destroying the infected cells on the surface of the throat. It is an oxidizing agent, oxidizing to water and oxygen. Do not use the 3% solution available in most stores straight from the bottle without diluting it. It is too harsh. It also helps reliably with canker sores and gum irritation. It helps with the Humboldt crud, which is probably a viral bronchitis. A side effect is a gradual, gentle whitening of the teeth.
Before posting this blog, I also researched some of my ideas, to provide some backup for them. Below is a list of those sites I found most useful or interesting. Included with this list is information about the Spanish Flu, which also affected young adults more than older adults, due to young adults having better immune systems and stronger reactions. I also researched the use of hydrogen peroxide, and would caution against most of what I found on the Internet. Considering the oxidation effect of hydrogen peroxide on living cells, do not swallow hydrogen peroxide. Rinse your mouth but not your throat afterwards. There are mouthwash formulations in some stores that are essentially flavored 1.5% hydrogen peroxide, if the taste of plain hydrogen peroxide is unacceptable, but expect to pay a premium price.
Thanks for your time in reading this. If you found it useful, post a comment for me and tell your friends. If you can add to this information, then all the better.
FDA Advice on the Flu:
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm092805.htm
Information on viruses and flu virus:
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/fluscimed.html#top
An explanation of the H1N1 Influenza A Swine Flu & suggested treatments:
http://www.medicinenet.com/influenza/article.htm
A detailed description of the Spanish Flu of 1918:
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/index.html
Important precautions on the use of hydrogen peroxide:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/peroxide.asp
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