Posts from — June 2008

By Paul McGinniss

Lawn care company TruGreen started in 1973. You wonder why they left off the “e” in true. TruGreen later merged with ChemLawn to become TruGreen Chemlawn. ChemLawn speaks for itself. Chemical Lawn. (The Chemical Ali of Lawn care, perhaps?)

Miracle of miracles: TruGreen ChemLawn is now called TruGreen, and the company says the name change was “because one word is all you need for a great lawn. We have shortened our name to make it easier for you to remember that we are the experts of lawn care.” Somehow the corporate marketing department thought that by calling themselves TruGreen (emphasize green) that we would forget that they were putting chemicals on our lawns. Don’t think so.

The Toxics Action Center in Massachusetts asked residents to call TruGreen ChemLawn to inquire about their lawn care service. Through an informal survey anecdotal evidence shows that TruGreen ChemLawn’s customer service procedures make it difficult for potential customers to acquire factual information about the dangers of their pesticide products. When asked, TruGreen ChemLawn phone marketing representatives often did not readily release the names of the pesticides they would use on the customer’s lawn. In addition, the marketers generally did not even know about the public health threats of the products. Written information was often not offered or provided for customers. The TruGreen ChemLawn website has no mention of its roster of pesticide products and their health and environmental impacts. In addition, TruGreen ChemLawn representatives at times misrepresented their pesticide products as “safe”, a possible violation of federal law.

To learn more about all the wonderful green washing going on at Chemlawn—err, I mean TruGreen—a must stop is http://www.refusetousechemlawn.org/

Some of the eco friendly (NOT) things you will find out about TruGreen at the above web site are:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a study of 9,282 people nationwide, found pesticides in 100% of the people who had both blood and urine tested. The average person carried 13 of 23 pesticides tested. The study found that children carried the highest body burden of pesticides. Fat soluble pesticides accumulate over time in our bodies. Pesticides that accumulate in women can be passed to children through breast milk.
• TruGreen ChemLawn is the largest lawn care provider in the United States serving more than 3.4 million households and annually generating more than $1.3 billion in income.
• TruGreen ChemLawn contributes to the yearly application of more than 70 million pounds of pesticides on some of America’s 30 million acres of lawns.
• A USEPA study found that residues from outdoor pesticides are tracked in by pets and people’s shoes, and can increase the pesticide loads in carpet dust as much as 400-fold. These pesticides, intended for outdoor use, will persist for years indoors because they are sheltered from sun, rain and other forces that can degrade them
• 17 of 32 (53%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are possible carcinogens, as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
• 13 of 32 (41%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are banned or restricted in other countries.

By Paul McGinniss

So by now we’ve all heard about bamboo bowls and clothes and furniture and plants for landscaping. But have you ever thought about the possibility of building your entire house out of bamboo? I first discovered this concept on the great web site INHABITAT (http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/06/13/design-a-house-of-bamboo/), which co-organized the Greener Gadgets conference I wrote about for canvas in March 2008.

In 2004. Bamboo Technologies (http://www.bambootechnologies.com/bbhomes.htm) received confirmation from ICC Evaluation Service (http://www.icc-es.org/), a nonprofit, public-benefit corporation that does technical evaluations of building products, components, methods, and materials, that its structural bamboo poles used in it’s “Bamboo Living Homes” complies with the provisions of International Building Codes. This structural bamboo will be included in the International Building Code system for permitted buildings. This was the first time a species of bamboo has been approved as a structural building material in the International Building Code System.

The bamboo is harvested in Vietnam and the houses are manufactured there as well. The company states in a press release: “Prospective home buyers can choose from a range of prefabricated homes, studios, guest houses, vacation rentals, pavilions and gazebos. Bamboo home designs use many interchangeable parts and can readily be adapted, expanded, connected, disassembled or moved. Home buyers view online a gallery of home models and can select sizes, floor plans, options, costs, details and finishes, then preview steps and procedures to purchase a bamboo home at www.bambooliving.com.”

What’s more, Bamboo Technologies has an International Bamboo Building Design Competition (http://www.bamboocompetition.com/), which they bill as “An Architecture Design Competition of Structural Bamboo Buildings and Visionary Designs for Ecological Living.” In 2007, entrants from more than 64 countries entered the competition.

By Joanne Schenker

This month LI Sound featured an article on The Paper Bag, the famous nocturnal musicfest that goes on every June at Mulcahy’s for the last 30 years. Basically, 60 musicians perform unrehearsed music (classics from the ‘70’s and onwards) for six solid hours to 1,400 die-hard fans. After three decades, the concert sells itself – there is no advertising budget…only around 300 people in the band and crew and their friends, plus friends of theirs “and so on and so on”…(I’ll date myself right now by asking if this reminds you of the Faberge commercial from the ‘70’s?) Much of the audience has been attending for 10 years, many over 20. They add as much to the concert in zealous participation, as the performers themselves. Profits are not part of this gig…the payback is purely in the form of wild enjoyment. As long as they can cover the cost of renting the hall, providing beer and hamburgers for the musicians and crew and videotaping the event, they’re all happy campers.

Kudos to Mike Guido, the creator of this little bit of Woodstock. With over 30 years experience as a professional musician, he has performed in rock bands, swing bands, jazz, reggae, even basement bands…you name it, he’s done it. For the past 26 years, he has played bass guitar, woodwinds and sings with The Jim Small Band. He also plays saxophone with the Stanton Anderson Band and has been the bassist with the Town of Babylon All Star Jazz Band for 14 years. He has taught music for over 30 years, 15 of them in Long Island’s public schools. He is currently teaching Concert Band, Jazz Band and Music Workshop classes at Island Trees Memorial Middle School in Levittown.

So, music is definitely his bag.

He’s got a great sense of humor, as well. Last year’s theme for the concert was The Dirt Bag…one can only imagine …mudsliding as in the days of Woodstock, perhaps? This year The Sleeping Bag rules. Although from 10 pm to 4 am on June 26th, Mulcahy’s will not see any shut eyes. Red eyes, yes. Sore throats, yes. But no sleepers.

Last night we were honored to be part of a Health and Wealth Seminar, Holistic Solutions for Health and Wealth, designed to help people bring balance to their lives. North Coast Financial Group presented the seminar with us at H on The Harbor in Port Washington.

Attendees got to learn from Dr. Andrea Gould of Lucid Learning, Dr. Christy Russell-Shae of Simply Vibrant and Gail Grossman of Om Sweet Om Yoga various ways to begin to add balance to our very hectic lives.

There were a number of aha’s for me, and I could from watching the other attendees the got some as well. My aha’s were:

Taking a couple of minutes from a busy schedule in a crowded room to do a guided mediation led by Dr. Gould – I’m so wound sometimes, last night being one that I have the attention span of a 2 year old, but she was able to get me up the hill.

From Dr. Russell-Shae my aha was that my eating habits don’t show up well in a Kirlian photograph, energy pictures, luckily much of what I eat is at least organic

Gail Grossman in a few short steps had us do a yoga pose that would work my tight hip out and I also was proud I could still rotate in my chair – being the husband of a certified Yoga instructor, I probably should be there already. But hey we all move at our own pace.

H on the Harbor was a great space cool and calming, the attendees I met were great and we’re excited for the next one. As Matt said we working to create a “canvas community.” I looking to seeing at our future events.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine

My wife, Adele, headed for New Orleans yesterday on business. She needed to leave at 6am Sunday morning to catch her flight. Thus begins a week’s journey for me, my daughter Candice and son Jake.

As Adele left, Jake stirred woke up and was asking for Cheerios by 6:10am. We were now fending for ourselves and off I went to get his breakfast. Fending is a strong word, I help out around the house, but as Adele puts it - me looking for something amounts to opening a door, scanning the area and then calling “Adele, I can’t find…” So getting Cheerios at 6 in the morning is not a fluid exercise for me.

Trying to get a jump on the day’s heat I took Jake out to ride his new bike around 8am. We got him an early birthday present on Saturday, a cute, red little 12” bicycle. After helping him pedal a couple of times (he’s not even two yet), then pushing him around for a few minutes he got too heated and wanted off. Jake was content to crouch under a tree near our house and toss pebbles into a drain for awhile

Then we were off to pick Candice up from Drivers Ed which ended at 10:30.

From there we headed off to Northport. The Northport Arts Coalition had Sunday in the Park happening, but after a little while the heat was too much, even in the shade, so we headed home.

The rhythm of our day revolved around the heat. Candice left for work around 4pm and Jake and I headed out one more time, only lasting a few minutes again.

As my day, that began at 6am and wound down around 8:30 pm, came to an end with Candice returning home from work I had a chance to reflect on the happenings.

A lot of things went through my mind; just how much Adele does for us and how much we rely on her. What it really means and how important it is to be involved your kid’s lives – even if it means just going through the ebbs and flows of the day. How fortunate most of us are, that on a day like yesterday, to have the ability to retreat from the heat into the comfort of our air conditioned homes.

My night ended watching Expedition Alaska on Planet Green. It led to more reflection as the people on the show spent time in various parts of Alaska examining what effects, if any, climate change is having. Sadly they all found dramatic effects.

As we live our daily lives I hope we each take a moment to appreciate just how fortunate we each are, regardless of our circumstances. And then to take another moment to consider what steps we can take today so the next generations, won’t have to spend summers and winters retreating from extreme heat and cold due to climate changes.

Tom Pellicane, Publisher – canvas Magazine