I’m so pleased to announce we are expecting our second child, who is due to arrive in November! It has been almost three years since my first trimester with my son Joshua, and all those early pregnancy symptoms are back and seem to be more extreme than I remember them the first time around. (Or maybe I just have a selective memory.) I have mild morning sickness, which is really more like all-day sickness, but it’s just a persistent feeling of mild queasiness instead of actual sickness. I’m also exhausted, but I think that’s because I have a toddler to care for so I don’t get to rest much. And then there’s one symptom that I had completely forgotten about: shortness of breath.

My classroom is on the third floor of a big school. It’s actually the furthest possible classroom from the parking lot, and it’s a long walk to get there every morning. I’m completely winded by the time I’m halfway up the second flight of stairs and any conversation I’m having stops abruptly. It also takes a long time for me to catch my breath after I get to my classroom. Since I’m a science nerd and I’m fascinated by anatomy and physiology, I decided to do a little research about the changes to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems during pregnancy.

The Heart And Lungs Of Pregnancy

I know that growing a baby requires energy and oxygen, and I remember reading somewhere that a pregnant woman’s blood volume increases. A quick internet search on that topic turned up Ciliberto and Marx’s Physiological Changes Associated with Pregnancy, which was published in the journal Physiology. I love finding full-text articles online for free, and this one is a wealth of information. According to Ciliberto and Marx, a pregnant woman’s blood plasma volume increases 40-50%, while her red blood cell mass increases 20-30%. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body, and all this extra blood helps to give the developing baby oxygen, remove carbon dioxide, and provide nutrients. Even with the increase in blood volume, a healthy woman’s blood pressure typically doesn’t rise during pregnancy. A mom-to-be’s heart also changes during gestation. The heart tends to enlarge slightly, some women develop a murmur, and it is even shifts to the left to accomodate the growing baby. Heart rate increases by about 15%.

The stuffy nose that some women experience during pregnancy is due to a progesterone-induced swelling of the air passages. A mom’s respiratory rate also increases by about 15%, or 2-3 breaths per minute, which helps her get enough oxygen even though her lung volume slightly decreases thanks to the growing baby. So even though I feel like I’m sucking wind by the time I get to the third floor, it’s just my body’s way of making sure my baby gets enough oxygen.

Pollutants And Pregnancy

Every time I feel that shortness of breath I think about all of the pollutants that I could be breathing in. A developing fetus is especially sensitive to toxins in the air, and I want to protect my baby as much as possible. Women who live in urban areas, where there is poorer air quality, are more likely to have babies born prematurely or with a lower birth weight. I may joke that I’d like to have a smaller baby next time, since my son was a full nine-and-a-half pounds, but I’m only kidding. I’d rather have a healthy ten-pounder than a seven-pound baby who is sick. Since babies don’t really need to breathe until after they’re born, the respiratory system matures late in pregnancy and premature babies often experience respiratory distress, which can lead to a lifetime of respiratory problems like asthma. Doesn’t it make sense that a developing baby who is exposed to toxins from air pollution will grow up to have respiratory problems? And shouldn’t we protect our children from a sick future?

Good Choices Aren’t Enough

Since I already have a son, I’ve often been asked if I would like to have a girl this time around. My answer is the same old cliche- “All we want is a healthy baby.” Don’t we all want healthy children? Throughout my pregnancy (and even before) I choose not to smoke, not to consume alcohol, and I even avoid nail polish because of the VOCs. I take the recommendations to skip deli meat, sushi and unpasteurized cheese. Why then, should I be forced to breathe in contaminated air that we know can harm a developing baby?

I make good choices for myself but I’d like some help from our legislators. I can’t hold my breath every time I go to an area that may have less than perfect air quality!

PLEASE JOIN ME: TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

If you’re anything like me, you fall into the category of women who are caring for their children and their parents or grandparents. My aunt and my grandmother are both in their 70s. I’m grateful that they are in good health and are active. But I will confess that I worry about them the most when they are up visiting Lake Erie with their friends. It may sound silly, but I worry because they always tell me about the wonderful local, fresh caught fish they had each trip.

Growing up, I spent a lot of my summers visiting Port Clinton and Marblehead on the Lake Erie coast. Even as I type this, I can see myself sitting in a corner booth of a small Ohio diner watching the fishing boats pull up to the dock to sell their morning’s catch. I ate a lot of fresh caught fish sandwiches with my aunt and grandmother. I know they taste amazing! But what I know now is that those fish are tainted with mercury. Lake Erie is surrounded by coal-fired plants that spew mercury into our air. Mercury in the air doesn’t stay in one place, it is absorbed into the water droplets in the air and circulated through the clouds, and eventually rains down into our lake.

We know what mercury does our our children. Today though, I’d like to highlight what mercury does to our children’s grandparents. Since mercury is a neurotoxin, it functions in the degradation of the brain. A child’s brain is impacted by mercury in a way that can hinder the child from  reaching their full potential. An adult’s brain has already developed and is now used to maintain the information necessary for everyday life and beyond.

6 Facts About Mercury:

• Mercury can have an affect on the Central Nervous System, specifically the brain, by concentrating in the cerebral spinal fluid.
•  It can also inhibit the microtubules in the brain which then reduce the nerves’ function and their communication.
• Our brains rely on the communication between the nerves to do things like remembering what it felt like to hold our baby for the first time, or how to sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
• As we age and these memories aren’t so recent, we rely more and more on our brains to retain them.
• Alzheimer’s disease was reported to affect an estimated 5.4 million Americans in 2011.
• Research has shown that mercury can be a causal factor in Alzheimer’s disease…even more so than the concerns of thimerosal being a leading factor in autism!

Of course, I want my family to be able to enjoy their summer visiting Lake Erie. I want them to eat and be as carefree as the day allows. But I also don’t want to worry that their memories could be affected by their unwitting consumption of mercury. This summer, as excited as I am to share my days with family, I’ll be encouraging them to skip the fish and order a burger instead. I know that memories can fade in time, but I’d hate to hurry it along with a side of mercury to accompany their catch of the day!

Illustration: Shane Harrison

PLEASE TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

This is a guest post from Jane West, mother of two boys, ages 3 and 2 and an environmental attorney based in St. Augustine, Florida.

We don’t usually think of climate change as being gender biased in how it impacts human life on Earth, but the vulnerability of women in major disasters is surprisingly higher than the mortality rate of men. Extreme weather conditions are widely accepted by the scientific community to be directly connected to global climate change. When women do not enjoy economic and social rights equal to men, more women than men die in disasters according to a 2006 study by the London School of Economics. This gender discrepancy came to light during the Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Mitch, Hurricane Katrina, the European heat waves and cyclones in South Asia. Why exactly is this the case?  There are several reasons. First, post-disaster, women are usually at higher risk of being bustled off into unsafe, overcrowded shelters due to lack of assets such as savings, property or land.

Second, in the context of events that require mobility, cultural constraints on women’s movement hinders their timely escape. An exacerbating factor is that women often avoid shelters due to fear of domestic and sexual violence. The more poverty stricken the country, the higher the risk to women and their children.

Paradoxically, women are not as engaged as men in the critical area of renewable energy – a key climate change mitigation technology. In many parts of the world, energy is primarily thought of in terms of electricity to operate equipment and infrastructure, gasoline and diesel fuels for motors and vehicles, and the delivery of oil for natural gas. Dealing with mediums such as electricity and fuel is often considered mens work where women are not expected to be involved with power generation and fuel distribution. As a result, women are often absent from discussions about energy plans and policies. However, in many developing countries, most energy currently comes from traditional biomass fuels such as wood, charcoal and agricultural waste. The collection and management of these fuels is strictly within the purview of women in the poorest areas of the globe. It is estimated that close to two billion people in the developing world use traditional biomass fuel for their primary source of energy. Yet women are not engaged with the broad policy decisions on how to transition out of this high CO2 emitting fuel source. So naturally, there is a real disconnect between decisions being made at the highest levels on climate change and the practical application and implementation of those policies by women who are not engaged in the process.

The solution to this paradox sounds simple enough – women in developing countries should be actively engaged in national energy decision making. But translating that solution into reality will be challenging at best. At the very least, the funds that wealthier countries have earmarked for global climate change adaptation should be targeted in a way that recognizes that the situation of women in poverty stricken areas is different from men and as such, different approaches will be needed in order to remain relevant and useful.

The funny thing, you may have just read that whole bit and thought, yeah, well things are different here in the States. Uh, not really. Yes, of course, the vast majority of us are fortunate in that we don’t have to grapple with issues such as foraging for bits of wood to burn. But the truth is, Americans consume some crazy amounts of energy. We drive around running errands, dropping kids off, picking them up, running dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, doing all the stuff we do everyday to make our jobs and home run smoothly…all of which requires vasts amount of energy. In fact, the average American burns up 98,418kW hours per year whereas the worldwide average is only 21,213kW.

Considering that we are some heavy-weight contenders in the energy consumption arena, you would think American women would have a lot to say on the matter in both the public and private sector. Yet a quick glance at the make-up of our top policy leaders on energy, the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, reveals that there are only 5 women out of the 22 members on the Committee. The statistics get even worse when we look at who the CEOs are of the Fortune 500 companies (many of which derive profit from the energy sector) – currently only 12 are women. So even here in our own backyard, deep-impacting policy decisions about energy are being made at the highest levels with very little input from half the population that uses energy! The bottom line is: If you use it (and we all do), engage. Educate yourself on where your energy comes from and make the best decisions you can to lessen the impact of that energy source on our climate. All the cool ladies do it!

Sources:

Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change

Women, Health and the Environment Our Planet

UNDP Environment and Energy

Thank you, Jane!

Poster: Blur-Graphics

PLEASE TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

NEWS RELEASE: Monday, May 14, 2012

CONTACT: Stephanie Cepak, (517) 862-2036

LANSING – Michigan moms and kids delivered a Mother’s Day message to Attorney General Bill Schuette on Monday, telling him to stop supporting corporate polluters like he’s doing in a new federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn important power plant emission controls for mercury, arsenic and other air toxics.

The group of Michigan moms and kids marched to Schuette’s Lansing office to protest the lawsuit and delivered Mother’s Day cards.

Schuette filed the lawsuit on behalf of 19 other states in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, despite previous claims of his advocacy for the Great Lakes. It’s the second time Schuette has sided with corporate polluters regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

“The EPA’s rule will significantly reduce mercury, arsenic and other harmful emissions the power plants have been allowed to discharge into our air and water for decades,” said Elizabeth Hammel-Hauptmann, mother of one and resident of Hamburg. “Mercury is a known neurotoxin that harms the development of children. Bill Schuette should know it’s not okay for families to be exposed to this pollution.”

Mercury from power plants is deposited into Michigan waterways where it is converted into methylmercury and eaten by fish. Pregnant women are urged to limit fish consumption because methylmercury is a neurotoxin that impairs a child’s learning ability.

“Fish advisories are not enough to protect Michigan families from this pollution,” said Alisha Deen-Steindler, mother of two and resident of Royal Oak. He should be fighting for our families, not protecting corporate polluters.”

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will reduce emissions by 90 percent starting in 2015. It’s the first national rule for reducing this type of pollution. Power plants are currently the largest source of mercury emissions in the United States.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

Get a free ride with us to the Chicago hearing on Industrial Carbon Pollution Standards for new coal-fired power plants. We’ll show the EPA that Michigan wants to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants that will protect the health and future of our children and families. T-shirts and lunch will be provided.

What: Chicago EPA hearing on Industrial Carbon Pollution Standards

When: Thursday, May 24^th, vans leave at 8am and return at approximately 9:30pm

Where: Meet at Exit 1 M-6 8th Ave Park and Ride

Contact: Starla smcdermott@momscleanairforce.org

Directions: From westbound M-6, get off at Exit 1, 8th Ave. and make a right/North. Lot is on the right/East side of the road. From Eastbound M-6, get off at Exit 1, 8th Ave. and make a left/North. Take 8th Ave north to lot. Lot is on right/East side of the road.

Questions? Contact: Starla smcdermott@momscleanairforce.org

Hope to see you there!

Primero sacas una foto – bueno, más bien 27– de tu hijo de tres años soplando las velas de su tarta de cumpleaños. ¡Qué mono! Luego las subes a Picasa o a Facebook, o las arrastras hasta Dropbox. Muy sencillo. Muy conveniente. Atención, pregunta: ¿y dónde dices que residen exactamente esas fotos? Solución, respuesta: En La Nube. ¿No es así? Así es. En cualquier momento y desde cualquier lugar podemos acceder al cielo con un aparato y volver a pillar uno de esos retratos. ¡Fium!. Te cacé. Los archivos flotan alegremente por el ciberespacio. Nos aguardan sin prisas. Y el método, además de barato, resulta tremendamente ecológico. O, ¿no?

Si aterrizamos para comprobarlo, observaremos que esas fotos – junto a millones de Youtube videos, correos electrónicos, declaraciones de la renta, juegos interactivos, rayos equis, Tweets, novelas a medio terminar y todo tipo de documentos de esos que creamos, enviamos, recibimos y no borramos nunca; o sea, billones de archivos – están almacenadas en servidores masivos localizados en inmensas centrales de datos que ocupan tremendas extensiones de terreno en algún lugar de nuestro planeta. Lo que hasta ayer venía llamándose parque industrial, vamos. Y, mientras continúe en expansión el apetito insaciable por gozar de acceso instantáneo y permanente a nuestra información personal, el número de centrales de datos que pueblan la Tierra seguirá multiplicándose exponencialmente. Una a una irán creándose macro-plantas sedientas de energía. De muchísima energía. Ávidas de electricidad, vamos, para ser precisos.

O sea, que al la nube no es de algodón cien por cien. Que tiene licra. Que no funciona con motor de agua, como la que produce lluvia. Que la Nube, para centrarnos: si queremos que funcione hay que enchufarla. Ah, y espera, que también hace falta enfriarla. Tanto servidor en marcha genera una cantidad descomunal de calor y el proceso de bajarle los humos al motor para que no se gripe tira de consumo eléctrico, de tal manera, que hace girar la aguja del contador casi a la velocidad de la luz.

Greenpeace acaba de echar un vistazo a las fuentes de energía que 14 gigantes de la Tecnología de la Información (IT) utilizan para gestionar sus centrales de datos en todo el mundo. Un informe que cita a tres de las compañías con mayor expansión en la Nube (Amazon, Apple yMicrosoft) y las vincula con la obtención de “energía sucia para alimentar sus nubes.” El record de contaminación se lo lleva Apple, gracias a que el 55 por ciento de sus servidores chupan de centrales térmicas alimentadas con carbón. Y las felicitaciones recaen en Yahoo! y en Google por convertir en prioridad de sus empresas la creación de fuentes de energía renovable allá donde instalan nuevas plantas. Reciben una puntuación, en el Índice 100 de Energía Limpia, de 56 y 39 respectivamente; mientras que el último puesto, a punto del descenso, recae en Oracle con un escueto 7,1.

La organización que vela por el medio ambiente pone de manifiesto que, cuando una empresa elige el lugar en donde va a albergar sus servidores, está escogiendo también el tipo de energía con que va a tener que alimentarlos durante un periodo muy largo de tiempo. Si una nueva Nube se instala allá donde la electricidad es producida por métodos altamente contaminantes, su presencia ayudará a perpetuar la fuente de contaminación. Al contrario, si una mega Nube con 800 millones de usuarios decide su ubicación en base a la proximidad geográfica con una central hidroeléctrica, como ha hecho Facebook en Lulea (Suecia); su compromiso garantizará la producción de energía renovable en el futuro. Yahoo! ha utilizado este mismo razonamiento para construir una sede en Lockport, Nueva York, donde por un lado se beneficia de la energía hidroeléctrica y, por otro, se ahorra gran parte del consumo gracias a que los fuertes vientos que soplan sobre el lago Ontario le ayudan a refrigerar sus máquinas.

Las decisiones que hoy adopten los gigantes del sector tecnológico van a impactar de forma definitiva en la conservación del medio ambiente y en el desarrollo de las energías renovables y está bien que organizaciones como Greenpeace presionen en ese sentido. Pero la responsabilidad ha de recaer también del lado de los usuarios. No estaría de más que cualquiera de nosotros, antes de archivar 27 fotos del mismo sujeto, nos planteáramos cuántos de los billones de megabytes que generamos diariamente con nuestros juguetitos electrónicos justifican el estrés medioambiental y el gasto de energía necesario para salvarlos en un servidor que, en teoría está en la nube y, en realidad, se encuentra en un lugar tan específico como Council Bluffs, Iowa. La Nube flota, sí; pero no por el cielo, sino más bien por la superficie. Resulta que era niebla, como la de los cuadros que pintan en China. Y, por mucho que nosotros la imaginemos en el firmamento; alegre, limpia y pura; esperándonos sin prisas a que le reclamemos la foto del cumpleaños desde un teléfono o una tableta… a esta Nube llevamos camino de convertirla entre todos en un indeseable trastero.

Foto: Appolicious

For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth. ~Sanskrit Proverb

During my first pregnancy I went into labor during my weekly yoga class. I was in a very awkward downward dog position stretching my swollen, achy body. After feeling the first contraction I left my yoga mat behind (along with my shoes) and somehow managed to get myself home. Three kids later (my oldest son is 11) I can proudly declare that I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for 16 years. And I’m not alone.

• Twenty million people practice yoga in the United States and that number is on the rise.  

What brings people to yoga?

My husband introduced me to my first yoga class 16 years ago. We took the class together at a local studio. In no time we were hooked. Everyone comes to yoga for different reasons: spirituality, relaxation, health issues, exercise and just sheer curiosity. But a common thread holds all yoga practitioners together-the longer we continue to practice, the clearer the bigger picture becomes: the key to gaining the full benefits of yoga is to breathe deeply both on and off the mat.

Pranayama (the Breath)

One of the eight limbs of yoga (steps to yoga) is pranayama or breathing exercises. Yoga focuses on the importance of breath for two reasons:

1. It is the only way to supply our bodies and organs with oxygen, which is vital for our health.
2. Breathing helps eliminate waste products and toxins from our body.

To breathe is to live, and without breath there is no life. A natural extension of this is that clean air is needed to take a successful and cleansing breath.

Why clean air?

Yoga is a combination of asana (postures) pranayama, and other practices that all work together to purify our body. But the current state of the environment makes this very challenging as our bodies become polluted by the harsh toxins present in the air we breathe. This is why it is so important for our bodies and our children’s bodies to breathe clean air.

Every year I spend a few days at one of my favorite places on the planet, Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, located in the gorgeous Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. It’s my temporary escape from the ongoing demands of everyday life and the pollutants in today’s environment.  During my short time at Kripalu, I practice yoga, relax and eat some of the most amazing food. Yoga is about creating balance not only our personal lives, but in the world. Getting involved and working together to make the world a better place is all an extension of yoga on the mat. While at Kripalu, I’m reminded of the importance of the breath and the need for all of us to join together, on and off the mat…to TAKE ACTION for cleaner air.

Air Pollution And Yoga Don’t Mix

Whenever we are confronted with a challenge, both on and off the mat, yoga provides us with the tools to create positive change. Air pollution is one of the larger, looming issues we all must combat that directly affects us during our yoga practice and throughout life. Whether our yoga practice is sporadic, consistent or virtually non-existent, yoga paves the way for action and change. Air pollution and yoga can not coexist.

All of us at Moms Clean Air Force have combined forces to fight for our right to clean air.

WILL YOU JOIN US AND TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE?

Credit: Green Parenthood

It’s simple, really. Not flowers, or dark chocolate.

Action.

I’m really not sure why it is so hard for our country to act in the best interest of its most vulnerable – our children. Maybe it is because babies don’t vote. Children don’t have any money. They don’t have a lobby. Our children don’t make large donations to PACs, and they don’t run multi-national corporations.

But they will. And they will be the ones taking care of us when we are old and in need. They will be the ones dealing with the problems we as a generation could not solve. Global warming and the extreme weather that results. The diminishing middle class. Poverty, fractured families, and poisoned air, water and soil (the list goes on).

We will need them. And now, our nation’s children need us to stop putting corporate interests in front of precaution. When babies are born pre-polluted with industrial chemicals from the air, water, and products we use, we are poisoning our collective future.

This piece is written by Congressman Charles F. Bass (NH-02):

This Mother’s Day weekend, many families across the state will spend time together enjoying all that New Hampshire’s natural resources have to offer, such as hiking, boating, visiting the beach, or other outdoor activities. I remain committed to ensuring our state’s scenic treasures are preserved for future generations to be able to enjoy, and support conservation programs and other initiatives that strike the right balance of environmental stewardship and economic growth.

Part of those efforts includes ensuring that our state, and the rest of New England, does not continue to be the tailpipe of the nation. That’s why I voted against legislation last fall that would delay the implementation of important clean air protection measures that would make the rest of the country catch up to what is already being done here in New Hampshire.

The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to implement what are known as the Air Toxics Rule and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule to help keep harmful pollutants like mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases out of the air we breathe. Unfortunately, under current regulations, coal plants in the Midwest are able to release these types of emissions into the air and they are able to travel to New Hampshire. I voted against numerous attempts to block these rules from going into effect and am pleased to say that so far efforts to stop the EPA on this issue have been unsuccessful. I think there is bipartisan agreement in our state that important environmental protections already in place to reduce toxic air pollutants should continue.

I am committed to finding a workable solution to achieve cleaner air and preserve the economic competitiveness of the United States in the global marketplace. Improving energy efficiency is one step in that process, and as a result, I have introduced bipartisan legislation with colleagues from all over the country to decrease domestic demand by using innovative methods and financing to encourage advancements in energy efficiency technologies.

As I spend Mother’s Day with my family and take a walk outside in my backyard in Peterborough, I think of how fortunate I am to have these natural treasures in my home state, and why we need to be responsible stewards of our environment. I want New Hampshire’s children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy them for years to come, and will continue working to preserve them.

Best wishes to all of you for a safe, enjoyable, and memorable Mother’s Day.

Charles F. Bass represents New Hampshire’s Second District in Congress and serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  You can reach him at http://bass.house.gov

Thank you, Congressman Bass!

Photo: Piscataqua River, Seavey Island, NH via Coastal Living

PLEASE TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE

LEARN MORE:
All I Want For Mother’s Day Is…
Mercury Mama’s Clean Air Dream
A Worried Mom Does Better Research Than The FBI

PLEASE TAKE ACTION WITH MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE: EPA COMMENT ON CARBON POLLUTION