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| The Age Old Dilemma of Sponge Sanitation | |||
| (Sunday, 03 October 2010) Written by greeniac10101 | |||
| A 2007 University of Florida study concerning disinfecting sponges in the microwave made the media circuit shortly after it was announced. New York Times, BBC, WebMD, and others fawned over the prospect of being able to completely sterilize their kitchen sponges in two short minutes. A 1999 study claimed that many bacteria were killed after 15 seconds and only E. Coli could survive longer than 30 seconds. This was the message that was circulated in my home of 14 students. 30 seconds to kill almost everything, and 40 seconds to kill everything. One Google search later, I discovered there may be a few caveats to that rule. The FSU study insisted that you must wait two minutes to effectively disinfect, but a CBS news article entitled, “Microwaving Sponges Might Not Kill Germs,” even scrutinizes that claim. Sharon Franke, “kitchen technology and appliances director at Good Housekeeping Research Institute,” claimed that people should not take part in nuking their sponges because it is not reliable between different types of microwaves and can be dangerous. The FSU study initially failed to mention that the sponges must be thoroughly wet, thus resulting in a number of microwaves ruined by internal combustion. This issue has since been noted on their webpage. As a “safe frugal alternative,” Franke recommended “adding about a teaspoon of bleach to a cup of water, letting the sponge sit in the mixture for five minutes, and then germs will be gone.” Since Kitchen sponges are “the No. 1 source of germs in the house and as many as 80 million Americans contract food-borne illnesses each year,” we must obviously take this threat seriously. But what is the best course of action? Shall we risk fire or partial sanitation, use the personally unpopular bleach, or throw out sponges as soon as they seem “contaminated.” Whatever is a Greeniac to do? I find the attached video particularly informative, but it does not give a “frugal” solution other than a bleach solution. I especially enjoy how Franke uses baking spoons to measure out 3 Tbs bleach then places them on the microwave, but is concerned that microwaving might not be sufficiently sanitary. Let’s keep track of those spoons and make sure they get washed themselves! I guess my personal conclusion is to microwave damp sponges very carefully and hope they are safe (at least they are cleaner than they were), or bring them to a boil for 5-10 minutes and likely face a similar dilemma. Thoughts? http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2407324n http://news.ufl.edu/2007/01/22/zap-the-bugs/ http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20070124/microwave-kills-germs-sponges http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/health/27real.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6293735.stm http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/07/health/healthy_living/main2444155.shtml |
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| Nutrient Starved Soil leads to nutrient poor people | |||
| (Friday, 02 May 2008) Written by greeniac13 | |||
| This is old news, but it's still TRUE. Nutrient starved soils lead to a nutrient poor people. THE basic wealth of an agricultural society is the soil. Viewed in that light, the Philippines is on the brink of a much worse form of bankruptcy than is generally realized. Galloping soil impoverishment has all but exhausted the country's reserves of fertility, while current crop production presents a correspondingly dismal picture of soaring inputs and slumping yields affecting every sector. The population clearly reflects the symptoms of spiralling decline in the agricultural base, with shocking child mortality and malnutrition rates and a proliferation of deficiency-related diseases like anaemia and goiter. Cancer surgeries do a brisk trade in every rural hamlet. Many people do not have enough food. Those who do have enough suffer nonetheless, because the food itself no longer contains the nutrients essential for health -- the soil can no longer supply them. Not enough is being done to reverse the trend, largely because of top-level refusal to admit there is a problem. White hybrid rice, white bread, yellow hybrid corn and a soft-drink -- a meal free of nutrition The official picture is a rosy one of brave advances made in the face of difficulties and setbacks which all originate abroad, such as declining foreign markets and the rising cost of imported fertilizers. But snubbing the problem will not solve it. Confidential reports by foreign agronomists working in the country have predicted general crop failure within three years, and independent soil tests support this prediction. "A crash program to refertilize the soil on a national scale, starting now, might succeed in turning it around in about five years," a western soils scientist said. That would leave two hungry years in between. The country's urban elite, though they may pay lip service to the Malacanang Palace mythology of national well-being, are beginning to realize this, and the dread word famine is being whispered in exclusive business clubs and around society dinner tables. How has this happened? Ignorance, negligence and basic misconceptions about the nature of soil fertility and the production of healthy crops (faults which are by no means confined to the Philippines or to Southeast Asia) have all played their part. Very little is, in fact, understood about the complex interactions between living and dead matter in the soil that make plant growth possible. What is clear is that fertility has to be maintained: what a crop removes from the ground has to be replaced, or the soil becomes depleted. That may sound elementary but it is far from universal practise, and in the Philippines it has become downright rare. Just how the crop's uptake of soil nutrients is best returned to the soil is a different question. Here nature, the supreme farmer, provides the best examples. Nature's best farming practises are to be found in forests, which can maintain themselves for thousands or, in the case of tropical rain forests, millions of years without decline. Several rules are immediately clear: click this link to read the rest of the article http://journeytoforever.org/keith_phsoil.html posted by Gina Forsyth |
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| Getting people active | |||
| (Monday, 19 November 2007) Written by greeniac10732 | |||
| I recently created a website at www.motiv8you.com in order for people to find a diet or activity partner. It is our company's belief that when people can find other people to be active with, they will get out and do so. Check out the site and create a profile to start finding other people in your area to be active with. To your health, Aaron |
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