Sometimes the events that
alter history and have enduring impact happen behind the scenes or without much fanfare. Little Steps, Big Impact takes a moment to highlight those significant events and celebrate their contributions.
Little Events that Make a Big Difference
Sometimes history happens when nobody is watching or it isn’t splashed across the media. Little Changes Big Impact highlights the often small but significant events that leave an imprint, initiate change or trigger new policy.
Shifting to phthalate-free products can quickly lower toxin levels
Young women who use conventional foundation, blush, and mascara have higher levels of phthalates in their blood. Phthalates are hormone-disruptors, and can mimic or block hormones from properly signaling in the body, disrupting important reproductive and neurological systems. This is especially important in young women who may be nearing childbearing years. Phthalates have been shown to double the risk of endometriosis and are associated with reduced sperm quality and a lower chance of conception in couples actively trying to conceive.
To reduce the amount of phthalates in your blood, swap personal care products for those without phthalates, parabens, or PFAS (or just stop using them). Products without these chemicals can be found by searching EWG’s SkinDeep database.
When the young women in the study stopped using products with phthalates, the level of some chemicals in their blood lowered up to 45% after three days.
Join the fight to ban phthalates in your state!
Cause of death: Air Pollution
In this landmark case, a coroner in London made legal history by ruling that air pollution was a cause of the death of nine-year-old, Ella. It was the cumulative effect of the toxic air that Ella was breathing in living within 30 metres of the highly polluted road that caused her final acute asthma attack.
So often, we learn history by acts though there are people working for decades before an act is even considered by a government. Landmark rulings often follow years, if not decades, of institutional reluctance to recognize proven scientific truths.
Ella’s mother Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah fought for years to have an earlier autopsy re-examined in light of a clear pattern of seasonal spikes in air pollution. “Action needs to be taken now or more people will simply continue to die.”
Smoking ban leads to drop in pre-term births
The introduction of national, comprehensive smoke-free legislation in Scotland in 2006 is linked with significant falls in preterm delivery and small for dates (gestational age) infants according to a new study led by Jill Pell from the University of Glasgow and published in PLoS Medicine.
According to the authors, although survival from preterm deliveries has improved, these infants are at risk of developing long-term health problems and state “Any intervention that can reduce the risk of preterm delivery has the potential to produce important public health benefits.”
“The results of our study add to the growing evidence of the wide ranging health benefits of smoke-free legislation and lend support to the adoption of such legislation in countries where it does not currently exist.” Source: Library of Science
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Researchers from Mongolia and Canada found that reducing #AirPollution among pregnant women led to better birth outcomes and higher IQ scores in their children.
Pregnant women in this study were either randomly assigned to use a HEPA air filter air cleaner during their pregnancy or not.
It’s clear. Cleaner air = healthier brain development.
Air cleaners are only a partial solution. The ultimate goal is to reduce sources of air pollution to protect ALL children.
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Over 200 schools, parks, and neighborhoods are now free from toxic pesticides thanks to Non-Toxic Neighborhoods, which champions removing harmful chemicals from the spaces where children live, work and play.
Non-Toxic Neighborhood’s first victory in Irvine, CA in 2016 banned the pesticides RoundUp and 2,4-D in the City. This was followed by the City of Irvine adopting a historic and award-winning organic and regenerative landscaping policy in February 2016. Since then, the City of Irvine has maintained more than 570 acres of community and neighborhood parks and athletic fields without harmful pesticides. That is over 6,000 acres of open space and 800 acres of public right-of-way, including street medians and parkways. This victory removed chemicals from 70,000 trees and nearly 1.5 million square feet of facilities. Pesticides like those found in RoundUp have been shown to cause birth defects, slow neurodevelopment, and decrease fertility.
Since the passage of the 1993 Forestry Act that empowered local groups to protect their forests, communities in Nepal have doubled tree coverage.
“Once communities started actively managing the forests, they grew back mainly as a result of natural regeneration,” said Jefferson Fox, the principal investigator of the NASA Land Cover Land Use Change project and Deputy Director of Research at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
The citizens of Nepal continued to pick fruit, find medicine, and collect fodder from the forests while protecting the growth of the trees through managed grazing, restricted tree cutting, and community patrols.
Deforestation accounts for 25% of all man-made gas emissions of CO2. Let’s protect our forests around the world to improve health and wellbeing for humans and the planet.
Read the full study here: https://go.nasa.gov/3E0GBsN