How one entrepreneur is fighting back against government stupidity!

Have you ever felt that there are just way too many rules facing us as we try to run our businesses? This video talks about why stupid government regulations stifle business and how one guy is fighting back

Collaborative consumption as a potential model for a sustainable world

What do we all crave if it is not happiness and part of that is having our needs met, both from fresh foods, good housing, good company and more. In this presentation below consider this new model with an open mind. It is very different from what we have been taught to buy into but it certainly speaks to our humanity on many levels.

How they are doing local food across the pond!! Some great ideas

The post below is about some innovative movements growing in the UK. Take a look!

Matt McD posted before on why a focus on “food miles” over simplifies the local food debate. And Lloyd and Pablo, in their post on the Carbon Footprint of Local Food, have also made the case that local is about much more than location—with means of production, distribution and point of sale all contributing to the bigger picture.

The fact is that food grown close to home is just one part of a much broader rethink of our food system that is already underway. From people-funded farms and backyard agriculturalists through crop mobs and anti-food waste efforts to high-tech clean energy-powered produce distribution and rooftop supermarket farms, there’s room for innovation at every point along the supply chain.

Here’s a neat series of videos on how different parts of the UK are stepping up to the challenge.

What is our country coming to? Housing’s last resort for those who are flat broke.

When we look at the state of our nation closely, the reality betrays a far different situation than the one painted by mainstream media. Homelessness is on the rise. Young families having to move back with mum and dad or grandparents. Unemployment numbers of 20% or more in many places. Cities emptying and halving their populations and for more and more Americans long term stay hotels with paper thin walls are becoming home. Read more below!

A long way down the US housing ladder, beneath the grisly ‘projects’ of The Wire and the trailer parks hymned by Eminem, beneath the slums of New Orleans and the ghettos of Detroit, you’ll find the long-stay hotel. Cheap, not very cheerful, and pretty much a last resort, these institutions provide four walls and a roof, for a few hundred bucks a month. It’s some of the cheapest accommodation you’ll find anywhere in the US, aside from a cardboard box.

Long-stay hotels can be found in almost every major American city. They offer none of the privacy of trailer parks, and even less of the permanency. Guests make do with postage stamp-sized rooms, paper-thin walls, and nylon sheets. You’ll rarely find them listed in tourist guides, even the section of a Lonely Planet devoted to ‘rock-bottom dives’. Staying in one isn’t exactly what you might call a holiday. It is, however, an experience. So says Kalpesh Lathigra, whose compelling photo-essay on the Wilmington Hotel in Long Beach, Southern California, is published on these pages.

A British documentary photographer, he stumbled upon the place while looking up relatives during a family holiday to Los Angeles (it is owned by his uncle, Bachu), and has since re-visited for extended periods, building close relationships with its most colourful and well-established residents.

“The hotel is one of those places with a feel that you know just has to be recorded,” he says. “There’s something in the ether. I remember walking in for the first time, and straight away realising that it had this weird character that cried out to be photographed.

“The carpet looked like it was bought in the 1970s. The doors are this ugly blue. My idea of American hotels and motels was of a place where you came and stayed for a night or two. But here, every room was occupied by someone who had been living there long-term. It felt like one of those places that has a real story to tell.”

Lathigra’s images capture some of the unlovely realities of life at the $150-a-week Wilmington, which is situated a stone’s throw from the industrial fug of Long Beach port, and a half-hour’s drive from the mansions of Beverly Hills and the Hollywood sign. They show peeling paint, filthy curtains, and nicotine-stained walls – not to mention the battle-scarred men and women who have ended up inhabiting the building’s 30-odd rooms.

Every long-stay hotel revolves around rules. Residents must forego drugs (though alcohol is allowed). They must pay their rent on time, and agree not to hog the shared bathrooms. Every 28 days, so as not to breech hotel licensing rules, they must clear everything out of their rooms, and check in all over again. There is no room service and chambermaids are non-existent: guests make their own beds and wash their own sheets.

Yet for all the superficial grimness, there is also a tangible sense of community to the Wilmington. Residents adorn their rooms with rudimentary tokens of homeliness, from family photos to kettles, computers, televisions, stoves and objets d’art.

They build relationships, looking after neighbours’ children and watching each other’s backs. You’d be hard pressed to call their situation happy, but most hold out hope for a better future, and still buy into the American dream.

“A lot of them have come from broken families, or bad situations. And this is what they’re left with. It’s pretty much the last resort, the only one they could afford,” says Lathigra.

“But they still have good relationships, play together, listen to music, and party. There’s a weird dynamic: people keep their doors open and neighbours can walk

in and make themselves at home. You could say that they rely on each other for family.”

Every resident has a story. Mike, known as ‘Jesus of Wilmington’, was working as a roofer, but lost his job in the 2008 recession. He is currently doing casual jobs in Long Beach port, hoping to save enough to buy a truck and get his career back on track.

Sandra, who suffers drug and alcohol problems, recently had the children in her photograph taken into care until she can complete a course of rehab. Ron, the dapper gentleman standing in a hallway, is a former war hero who can barely scrape by on his Air Force pension.

“I love America, but there’s this side to it that’s never mentioned to you, and I hope these photos capture that,” says Lathigra. “Here’s a place, a short drive from the Hollywood Hills, where you have people eating spaghetti four nights a week because it’s all they can afford. The US is such a seductive, successful, wealthy society, but it also has these big cracks, and I guess this kind of place shows people fall through them all the time.”

Why we should be concerned about Bats disappearing!!!

Bat populations in North America are declining fast. In this article by Beth Bucynski we learn more about what is happening, where and how to speak up and what are the implications for HUmans and agriculture if this continues.

2006, scientists began to notice that a mysterious disease was decimating bat populations in upstate New York with unexpected speed and thoroughness. Now identified as ‘white-nose syndrome’, bat biologists estimate that this fast-moving disease has now killed as many as 6.7 million bats in North America over the past six years.

White-nose syndrome refers to a white fungus that appears on the nose, wings, and other body parts of infected, hibernating bats.

The new estimate is dramatically higher than the previous one, dating from 2009, that white-nose syndrome had killed 1 million bats on the continent. The disease has spread from Nova Scotia to Tennessee, infecting bat colonies in 16 states and four provinces. In 2010, scientists predicted that unless a cure could be found, white-nose syndrome could completely wipe out brown bat populations within the next 16 years.

“This number confirms what people working on white-nose syndrome have known for a long time — that bats are dying in frighteningly huge numbers and several species are hurtling toward the black hole of extinction,” said Mollie Matteson with the Center for Biological Diversity, which has filed several petitions to save bats and stem the spread of the disease. “We have to move fast if we’re going to avoid a complete catastrophe for America’s bats.”

Bats are nocturnal creatures, emerging from caves and other dark recesses to hunt for insects only at night. Even though they may seem frightening to humans, extinction of the species is an even scarier prospect. The loss of so many bug-eating bats will undoubtedly have an impact on insect populations, including those that feed on human food crops.

Scientists have estimated that bats save farmers between $3.7 billion and $53 billion per year on pesticides by eating the insects that feed on crops like corn, cotton, vegetables and fruit. Since the bat disease has only shown up in the Midwest and South in the last couple of years, the full effects of declining bat numbers on regions more strongly dominated by agriculture than the Northeast may take some time to show up.

The outbreak is the worst wildlife disease epidemic in North America’s history. Congress recently directed the Department of the Interior to allot $4 million for research and management of the disease.

“America’s bats are in the throes of an unprecedented crisis and some species face the very real prospect of extinction,” Matteson said. “While it’s heartening to see some money allocated for white-nose syndrome, today’s new mortality estimates are a wake-up call that we need to do more, and fast.”

For more information on what you can do to help, please visit SaveOurBats.org.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/up-to-6-7-million-bats-dead-from-white-nose-syndrome.html#ixzz1jpHKfJrg

If you like this site and other health sites, take action now to keep them up !!! Our free speech is truly threatened

Our friends at Natural News are uniting fellow conscious citizens to actively oppose SOPA and PIPA which are direct threats to our freedom of speech. These laws up for passage would allow the U.S. government to shut down websites it claims “endanger public health.” Their version of pharmaceutical mind numbing drugs and vaccines health that is.

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, NaturalNews.com went “dark” to protest SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” that is actually a thinly-veiled government censorship effort. We are also protesting PIPA, the “Protect IP Act,” which is similarly destructive in its effects. You may have arrived at this page from our mock “seizure” index page which depicts what might happen if SOPA becomes law.

This is crucial for all NaturalNews readers and fans to understand: If SOPA becomes law, NaturalNews.com will be shut down. In fact, the proposed law contains a specific provision — section 105 — which allows the U.S. government to shut down websites it claims “endanger public health.”

Given that NaturalNews openly and repeatedly advocates things like natural sunlightandvitamin C– both of which the government has said are dangerous — our website could be seized by the government under SOPA. And that doesn’t even consider our public stance against routine vaccinations, processed food chemicals and dangerous prescription medications (which the government is always trying to push on the public to kill people before they live long enough to collect social security).

If passed into law, SOPA would shut down NaturalNews, InfoWars, Drudge, Lew Rockwell, Reddit and many other alternative news websites

Make no mistake about the seriousness of this issue: If SOPA (or PIPA) becomes law, it will sooner or later result in the government seizure and shutdown of virtually all alternative news websites — especially those that disagree with the criminality of the current corrupt political regime in Washington.

Imagine an internet without NaturalNews.com. Imagine the liberty movement without InfoWars.com. Imagine the entire world wide web being “sanitized” by the government to remove any websites that do not agree with the government’s official position on finance, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, pharmaceuticals and vaccines. That’s what we’re facing if SOPA becomes law: A virtual wipeout of all truth across the internet, leaving only theliesof “official” government information… the Ministry of Truth, in other words.

The Internet is the vehicle for restoring freedom and crushing tyranny

* A d v e r t i s e m e n t
*

Why is the U.S. government working so feverishly to crush independent, truthful information on the internet? Because the globalist controllers realize that the internet is the last bastion of freedom in a world run by global elite corporatists.

While the global elite own and run the mainstream (corporate whore) media, and they own Congress, and they own all the influential non-profits such as the wholly corrupt American Cancer Society, they do not yet control the internet! This freaks them out, especially when they see so much truth being produced by liberty-loving individuals who are exposing the neocons, the socialists, and the criminal-minded thugs who run Wall Street and the White House.

They are desperate to crush internet freedom and SOPA is the tool they hope to use to accomplish that. This is why your opposition to SOPA is absolutely crucial. It’s also why internet giants such as Wikipedia and Reddit have joined in this one-day protest against the tyranny of SOPA and what is fast becoming a government-sponsored “information terrorism” campaign against free speech.

Take action NOW – or you will lose internet free speech forever

This is an absolute must:Take action today to voice your opposition to SOPA. Here’s how you can do that:

Click this link to email your Representative:

http://house.gov/htbin/findrep

(Use the little envelope icon that appears to the right of the picture to send them an email.)

And click here to email your U.S. Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

(Use the “web form” link.)

Send your representatives and Senator a short message that covers the following fundamental points:

* You oppose SOPA.
* You will not support or vote for any candidate that supports SOPA.
* Urge them to vote against SOPA.

You can also call the capitol switchboard at: (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representatives.

Obama may sign SOPA even if he says he opposes it

It is crucial that you take action now, because even though SOPA has been “shelved” and Obama has withdrawn his support for it, remember that Obama also promised he would veto the NDAA, yet he quietly and sneakily signed that on New Year’s Eve, stripping Americans of their due process rights (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html).

Just because Obama says he opposes something doesn’t mean he won’t sign it! And believe me, the tactics of all these evil minions in Washington is to operate in darkness, meaning they will delay SOPA when people are paying attention but then, a few months later, after public awareness has waned, they will insidiously attach it to some spending bill and quietly make it law. One day you will wake up and all your favorite websites will simply be GONE. Remember, the government hasalreadyshut down 84,000 websites with no due process (http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mista…).

That’s why you need to voice your opposition to SOPA right now and take a stand for internet Free Speech.

If you don’t, you may very well wake up one day and find NaturalNews.com shut down, InfoWars.com removed from the ‘net, and then your only remaining news options will be CNN, Fox, MSNBC and all the other sources of complete mind-controlled drivel that the corporate “sellout” establishment wants to drill into your head.

Finally, share this article on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Spread the word about SOPA. Encourage others to take action. Remember: The internet is the last bastion of freedom in our modern world. If we lose the internet, the corrupt criminals and tyrants who run Wall Street and Washington D.C. will have total, unrelenting control over all information, and your freedom will be suffocated under a police state agenda of total disinformation.

Spread the word. Take action. Protect freedom! Protect the People against government censorship!

Learn more about SOPA:
Wikipedia explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Details about PIPA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

Mashable.com: Why SOPA is dangerous:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Full text of the bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:

Sergey Brin, Other Notable Founders Speak Out Against SOPA

http://www.webpronews.com/sergey-brin-other-notable-founders-speak-out-ag…

William Gibson Calls SOPA “Draconian”

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/01/17/william-gibson-calls-sopa-draco…

The Guardian: Stop SOPA or the web really will go dark

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/17/stop-sopa-…

Stop American Censorship:

http://americancensorship.org

Reddit.com SOPA page:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/

Infowars: SOPA dead on arrival

http://www.infowars.com/dead-on-arrival-sopa-shelved-indefinitely-obama-s…

Boycott against GoDaddy (Victory! GoDaddy pulled their support for SOPA)

http://godaddyboycott.org

SOPA-related videos:

What’s holding your thyroid prisoner?

In this post by Dr Brownstein, a gifted doc I have studied with, you will learn more about the dangers of Bromine and how its presence in so many areas of our lives is impacting our thyroids. Taking iodine rich foods such as Enerfood, supplements such as thyrobust and consuming good mineral rich salt can help greatly. Check out this article below!

Bromine Toxicity Passed from One Generation to the Next
An interesting article reported that fish exposed to low levels of common flame retardants pass the chemicals along to their progeny. Scientists found that while the parents’ health effects were minimal, the exposures reduced hatch rates and altered the thyroid hormonal system in the next generation.

The effects were worse if the offspring were exposed to the same low chemical levels as their parents. What were the chemicals? Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE’s) were the chemicals studied. PBDE’s are used widely in our environment as a flame retardant. They are found in many consumer products such as clothing, furniture, mattresses, curtains, foam, and electronics. PBDE’s are found in large amounts in automobile seats and many children’s products. (Environmental Science and Technology. 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es2026592).

Comment:
PBDE’s contain bromine as part of their molecular structure. Bromine is a toxic substance that is a known goitrogen. It has no known therapeutic value in the body. To date, I have tested over 500 patients for bromine levels. Unfortunately, I have found bromine toxicity occurring in a surprisingly large amount of my patients—nearly 100% of those that I have tested.

If this study is replicated in humans, this could explain, in part, why we are seeing such a rapid rise in chronic health problems. Perhaps this rise in health issues is due to our increasing exposure to toxic agents such as bromine. In our modern society it is hard to avoid some sources of bromine. However, food sources of bromine can easily be avoided. Bromine is commonly found in food and drink. Food made with brominated flour or drinks with brominated vegetable oil can be avoided. Avoid baked products that contain brominated flour. Mountain Dew and AMP energy drink are examples of two sodas with bromine. Some Gatorade products also contain bromine.

Supplementing with iodine can help the body release bromine. On the other hand, bromine exposure can cause the body to excrete iodine. It is important to ensure that your iodine levels are adequate so that your body can keep bromine levels to a minimum.

Ingesting adequate amounts of unrefined salt is also helpful. Salt helps the body excrete bromine.

More information about these therapies can be found in my books—Iodine : Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It and Salt Your Way To Health.

Can the ancient discipline of yoga really be so dangerous?

I felt I had to comment on this article by Lisa Collier, itself a commentary on an article that appeared in the New York Times very recently. As always there are a plethora of opinions on whether yoga is really good for you. My experience, and mine is personal, is that yoga, when practiced wisely and when learned from a well trained teacher, is not only safe, it is potentially transformational in its benefits, if practiced diligently. It offers much more than just the physical exercise, which is very beneficial in itself. It also offers techniques that bring you a very good feeling of calm and peace, something so lacking in our modern fast paced world. What’s more it also has a side to it that works with the breath, using it to greatly improve your lung capacity. When you look at the ten well known codes of conduct in yoga; the Yamas and Niyamas, you find concepts that you will find in all of the most revered spiritual texts of the world. However, when yoga is mindlessly practiced as a sport instead of a transformational practice, in a spirit of competition rather than self development it can indeed be dangerous. It is at once dangerous and transformational. All depends upon how you approach it and who you learn from.

Hot controversy is raging in cyberspace about a New York Times article called “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” with medical practitioners and yoga devotees taking vehement stands for and against this popular workout. The article is being flamed on Facebook, and normally zen-like yogis are up in arms.

The Daily Beast quoted one yoga teacher describing the article as fear-mongering, while a yoga publication contended that The New York Times is trying to “wreck yoga” with an article that “cherry picks a few extreme events.”

The number of Americans who twist themselves into pretzel-like postures in search of mental and physical benefits has soared from 4 million in 2001 to 20 million in 2011. But is the exploding popularity of this ancient workout causing an epidemic of injuries and even disabilities? Or is William Broad’s article slim on science, as critics charge? Here’s a look at the debate.

Follow these 7 simple tips to manage your chronic pain
Is Yoga Harmful?

The article quotes a yoga teacher, Glenn Black, who advises “the vast majority of people” to give up yoga because it’s simply too likely to cause harm. Yet Black, whose clients include celebrities and prominent gurus, continues to train students in this supposedly dangerous activity, while warning that even celebrated yoga teachers “injure themselves in droves.” He cites two cases in which an Indian yogi broke three ribs during a spinal twist and a leading American teacher lost movement in her hip joints.

Black is also quoted as saying that clients often seek him out after being hurt in other yoga classes, due poorly trained teachers who have jumped on the yoga bandwagon and who push students beyond their physical limits, with increasingly difficult poses, such as shoulder and head stands.

Yet Black also acknowledges that he has no formal training himself in determining which poses are helpful or harmful for students.

Find out how stretching can ease your chronic back pain
Is there any scientific proof that yoga causes damage?

The article claims that many commonly taught yoga positions are “inherently risky.” As evidence, Broad cites a 1972 “article” in British Medical Journal reporting that certain yoga poses might cause stroke in relatively young people due to hyperextension of the neck, as can also occur during whiplash. However, the “article” is actually a letter to the editor and not scientific proof.

Broad also describes several bizarre case reports from medical literature, including a 28-year-old woman who had an apparent stroke after doing a yoga pose called the “upward bow,” leaving her with harrowing disabilities. That calamity occurred in 1973. Broad also reports that ER visits due to yoga injuries are “rising quickly,” with the Consumer Product Safety Commission reporting 13 such visits in 2000 and 46 in 2002 (the most recent year listed). That’s actually lower than the number of Americans struck by lightning each year (about 270).

What are the health benefits of yoga?

Numerous studies have shown both short- and long-term benefits of yoga, with research presented at the 2011 meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine finding that people who practice yoga regularly have lower rates of joint pain, headaches, and stress compared to people who perform regular cardiovascular workouts or strength training. Other documented health benefits of yoga:

* Asthma relief. Several studies, including a randomized 2009 study of 120 patients, find yoga’s deep rhythmic breathing can improve asthma.
* Better sex. A study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that practicing yoga for 12 weeks improved women’s desire, arousal, satisfaction, and orgasms. Among the poses used in the study were triangle pose, snake, and half spinal twist. Doctors in India found that yoga outperformed medication in treating premature ejaculation in men.
* Non-surgical relief for shoulder injuries. A 2011 study by Loren Fishman, MD and other doctors found that a yoga-based maneuver (a chair-assisted headstand) can help people with rotator cuff tears recover—without surgery.
* Easing menstrual pain. Another randomized 2011 study reports that three yoga postures (cobra, cat, and fish poses) effectively reduced the severity and length of menstrual cramps in young women.
* Stronger bones. Another of Dr. Fishman’s studies found that a routine of 10 yoga poses helped improve bone density in older women with osteoporosis, the brittle bone disease that can lead to fractures.

Read more about how yoga improves your sex life
What’s the bottom line on yoga?

A few case reports from the 1970s hardly prove that yoga is inherently more dangerous than other types of exercise. In fact, many other sports have a far greater rate of injuries: Witness the millions of concussions that occur every year during football, soccer, and other team sports. To avoid getting hurt during yoga, Dr. Fishman advises finding a well-trained teacher and avoid overtaxing yourself as you gradually master the poses.

Unquestionably, overzealous students who are learning a new sport of any kind, including yoga, can risk injuring themselves if they try to do too much too soon. But given yoga’s many health benefits, with a few sensible precautions, there’s no reason why the 20 million Americans who practice yoga should give it up.

How media manipulation destroys the fabric of our country and world

In this fast paced world where many are struggling to keep their heads above financial tsunamis, destructive natural phenomenae and social distress, time is becoming an ever more precious commodity and so many rely on newsflashes to form their opinions and even to vote. We have been trained to believe what those in authority are telling us, even if the implications are dire for us and the very fabric of our existence. In this featured video it becomes plain and apparent that those who control mainstream media in fact support those who stand to gain from whipping up we the people into believing their deadly charade.

What chemicals are contributing to making us fat?

No matter how much you try, does it seem harder and harder to keep weight off. Well part of the reason is that we are exposed to so many chemicals on a regular basis.

In her book ‘The 21st Century is Making you Fat’ former Ecologist Editor Pat Thomas details the full range of industrial and everyday chemicals known to encourage us to get fat

Organochlorines
Include the pesticides DDT, chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor and the now banned industrial lubricants PCBs, as well as dioxins and chlorophenols. High levels of organochlorines have been found to alter metabolism in the body and essentially stop us losing fat.

Organophosphates
Organophosphate pesticides, such as malathion, dursban, diazinon and carbonates, constitute 40 per cent of all pesticides used. These chemicals are mainly utilised inside buildings, as opposed to in agriculture. They are neurotoxic (harmful to nerve tissue) and hormone-disrupting.

Carbamates
Including aldicarb, bendiocarb, carbaryl, propoxur and thiophanate methyl, carbamates are used extensively in agriculture, forestry and gardening. They are suspected hormone-disrupters.

Organotins
These include tributyltin (TBT) and the mono- and dibutyltins (MBT, DBT). These chemicals have many applications, including as stabilizers in PVC, catalysts in chemical reactions. They are also found in glass coatings, agricultural pesticides, biocides in marine anti-foulant paints and wood treatments and preservatives. Organotins are damaging to the thyroid and immune system and potential hormone-disrupters.

Bisphenol-A (BPA)
An oestrogen mimic used to make clear, hard, reusable plastic products; it is also used in the manufacture of polymers, fungicides, antioxidants, dyes, polyester resins, flame-retardants and rubber chemicals, and some dental resins.

Phthalates
Hormone-disrupting chemicals, these are produced in large volumes and are commonly detected in ground water, rivers and drinking water, as well as in meat and dairy products. Around 95 per cent of phthalate production over the last few decades has been tied to the PVC industry. Phthalates can be found in many plastics and consumer products – everything from hair spray and nail varnish to plastic water bottles and T-shirts.

Polybrominated flame-retardants
These are added to many products, including computers, TVs and household textiles to reduce fire risk. They are also found in baby mattresses, foam mattresses, car seats and PVC products. Office workers who use computers, hospital cleaners and workers in electronics-dismantling plants are at particular risk from these chemicals. Polybrominated flame-retardants are oestrogen mimics and can also affect the thyroid.

Benzo[a]pyrene
A common food pollutant that belongs to a family of chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is derived from coal tar and enters the atmosphere as a result of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. In animals it has been shown to cause weight gain in the absence of any detectable change in food intake. It is possible that other PAHs may have a similar effect.

Solvents
Neurotoxic chemicals that include xylene, dichlorobenzene, ethylphenol, styrene, toluene, acetone and trichloroethane are commonly found in human blood samples. They are necessary for a wide range of industrial processes and are found widely in adhesives, glues, cleaning fluids, felt-tip pens, perfumes, paints, varnishes, pesticides, petrol, household cleaners and waxes.

Cadmium
This is principally used as a protective plating for steel, in electrode material in nickel-cadmium batteries and as a component of various alloys. It is also present in phosphate fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides. Cadmium in the soil is taken up through the roots of plants and distributed to edible leaves, fruits and seeds, and is eventually passed on to humans and other animals, where it can build up in milk and fatty tissues. Cadmium is neurotoxic and a potential hormone-disrupter.

Lead
Professions that put their employees at risk of exposure to this neurotoxin include lead-smelting, -refining and -manufacturing industries, brass/bronze foundries, the rubber and plastics industries, steel-welding and -cutting operations, and battery manufacturing plants. Construction workers and people who work in municipal waste incinerators, in the pottery and ceramics industries, radiator-repair shops and other industries that use lead solder may also be among high-exposure groups.

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