Palisades-News-March-18-2015

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Page 6 Palisades News March 18, 2015 Heard About Town ANN CLEAVES Monitor Your Sprinkler System If we get another rainstorm this spring, remember to turn off your lawn sprinklers or ask your gardener to do so. Cali - fornia’s water supply thanks you. (Editor’s note: If you’ve lost the directions to how to turn off the sprinkler system, many of those instructions can be found online.) Smoking in the Park I observed students going behind the maintenance building at the park and smoking. The ground is littered with pine needles and abuts property along Alma Real. With the towering eucalyptus nearby, it seems that fire danger could be a real problem. (Editor’s note: We’ve alerted Recreation Center director Erich Haas about the situation.) Movies in the Library Once a month the Palisades Branch Library offers a free movie. Last Saturday, I saw the movie about Stephen Hawking that was up for an Oscar [The Theory of Everything]. It seems that more people would like to know about this opportunity. High School Show The Palisades High show Nickel and Dimed was great. The director was Nancy Fracchiolla, who now teaches at Pali. She used to do shows all over town for kids. Why don’t you do a story about her? No Hand-held Devices On Sunday at the farmers market, I watched a woman try to turn a pickup and the horse trailer hooked to it into the bank parking lot. Although she didn’t have her phone to her ear, she was holding it in one hand, talking into it as she was trying to steer the truck—probably had it on speaker. I don’t want to be judgmental, but maybe she should have taken the call after she was safely parked. Incline Fears After last Saturday and all the traffic backed up on Pacific Coast Highway, I’m really worried about the summer and the California Incline closure. I may never make a Dodger game unless I get a hotel room downtown. (Editor’s note: The closure really shouldn’t impact PCH traffic, because the light at the Incline will be mostly green.) ——————— If you’d like to share something you’ve “heard about town,” please email it to spascoe@palisadesnews.com Read the Labels Carefully By JULIA M. BREITMAN Despite the rise in consumer awareness about food processing and labeling, many people have no idea that our personal-care products (such as shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, sunscreen, deodorant, toothpaste, makeup) and household cleaning products can be toxic, too. Just as with our food, we need to read labels on our personal-care and household products, as many contain harmful ingredients that were banned in other countries years ago but are still allowed in the United States. I discovered this more than 10 years ago when I was trying to figure out why three of my children had developmental delays and special needs and what was causing my own thyroid and infertility issues. My research revealed that there are many products on the market that contain harmful ingredients and toxins our bodies don’t know what to do with. My family’s health issues were directly linked to these toxins. We changed our food, household cleaning products and lastly, our personal-care products when I discovered that what we put on our skin goes directly into our bloodstream and reaches every major organ within 26 seconds! Our skin is our largest organ and the primary method by means of which our bodies detox. Unlike food that travels through the gastrointestinal tract where toxins are filtered through the liver and kidneys, personal-care products aren’t filtered when applied to our skin. The average child uses five products a day and an adult uses 15—but many of us are above-average. A little toxin every day during VIEWPOINT the course of a lifetime adds up and has been linked to cancer, hormone and reproductive issues, autoimmune diseases and other health issues. This is why we have to be so careful to place pure, safe products on our bodies. Some harmful chemicals in common personal-care products include petroleum/ mineral oil/baby oil (a byproduct of gasoline that prevents skin from detoxing), formaldehyde, parabens (linked to cancer and early puberty), sodium lauryl sulfates, propylene glycol, PEGs, dioxin (found in triclosan), phthalates, and artificial color and fragrance (leading case of skin irritation). There are more than 1,000 ingredients still allowed in personal-care products in the United States that were banned years ago in other countries. There’s so much we can do to heal our bodies simply by using safer food and products around the home. As a result of my family changing our lifestyle, my children recovered from their special needs, I had a fourth child without any health issues, and my own health issues disappeared. This journey encouraged me to start my own business to teach others about healthier choices and to offer safer alternatives for personal-care products used regularly in the home. The reality is that most people don’t care about healthier products until they or someone they love has health issues or their doctor tells them they have to change their lifestyle. My goal is to reverse this mindset with education— one family at a time. (Brietman is an executive area manager for Arbonne International and a mother at Marquez Elementary.) Thought to Ponder “‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding. ― Alice Walker, American author and activist Founded November 5, 2014 ——————— 15332 Antioch Street #169 Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 (310) 401-7690 www.PalisadesNews.com ——————— Publisher Scott Wagenseller swag@palisadesnews.com Editor Sue Pascoe spascoe@palisadesnews.com Graphics Director Manfred Hofer Digital Content and Technology Kurt Park Advertising Jeff Ridgway jeffridgway@palisadesnews.com Grace Hiney gracehiney@palisadesnews.com Advisor Bill Bruns Contributing Writers Laura Abruscato, Laurel Busby, Danielle Gillespie, Libby Motika Contributing Photographers Wendy Price Anderson, Bart Bartholomew, Shelby Pascoe ——————— A bi-monthly newspaper mailed on the first and third Wednesday of each month. 14,500 circulation includes zip code 90272 and Sullivan, Mandeville and Santa Monica Canyons. Online: palisadesnews.com All content printed herein, and in our digital editions, is copyrighted.
Palisades News March 18, 2015 A forum for open discussion of community issues Page 7 Daylight-Saving Time Rationale Questioned If someone told you a national policy would increase the risk of having a heart attack and getting into a traffic accident, would you blithely go along with it? Never question it? Welcome to Daylight-Saving Time. Repeated studies have shown that traffic accidents increase on the Monday following the start of DST, and the risk of having a heart attack increases in the first three days after switching to DST. Maybe California should join Arizona and Hawaii and leave the clocks alone. DST was called “fast time” when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law in 1918 to support the war effort. Writing for the History Channel (“8 Things You May Not Know about Daylight-Saving Time”), Christopher Klein points out, “In fact, the agriculture industry was deeply opposed to the time switch when it was first implemented. The sun, not the clock, dictated farmers’ schedules, so daylight saving was very disruptive. Farmers had to wait an extra hour for dew to evaporate to harvest hay, hired hands worked less since they still left at the same time for dinner and cows weren’t ready to be milked an hour earlier. Agrarian interests led the fight for the 1919 repeal of national daylight-saving time, which passed after Congress voted to override President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. Rather than rural interests, it has been urban entities such as retail outlets and recreational Hard Facts about Measles Vaccination Ryan Morelli’s letter [“Objections to Editorial and Cartoon about Measles”] in your March 4 edition suggests that the measles vaccine has caused more deaths than measles itself between 2004-2015. While I do not know Mr. Morelli’s background, I have been a pediatric RN since 1989 with an advanced degree in health service administration. I am currently a pediatric triage nurse at Cedars-Sinai. I feel I am qualified to comment on his letter. The writer quotes his facts from the VAERS database, which is co-sponsored by the CDC and the FDA. What he fails to cite is that VAERS clearly states that “no cause and effect relationship is established between vaccines and resulting deaths. The event (of severe adverse reaction/death) may be related to underlying disease or a condition, by concurrent meds or by chance.” According to data from the World Health Organization, 15.6 million deaths from measles were prevented by the vaccination between 2000-2013. The National Vaccine Information Center, which uses data obtained from VAERS, states that since 1990 there have been 329 deaths linked to the measles vaccine. Those statistics are overwhelmingly in favor of vaccination. There is no money to be made on vaccines for the physician. The only vested interest health professionals have in pushing vaccines is that they save lives and prevent debilitating complications. The reason there were no cases of measles in the U.S. between 2004 through the start of this year is because EDITORIAL businesses that have championed daylight saving over the decades.” Despite the repeal, some cities—including Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York—continued to use DST. During World War II, DST was called “War Time” and was implemented after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After the war, states and localities were free to choose when and if they would observe DST. Time confusion led Congress to establish the Uniform Time Act of 1966, stating that DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. States could pass a local ordinance to be exempt. The current DST schedule was introduced in 2007 and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, starting on the second Sunday in March and ending on the first Sunday in November. How much energy does the country save by moving clocks an hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the fall? In the 1970s, a U.S. Department of Transportation study concluded that total electricity savings associated with daylight saving time amounted to about one percent in the spring and fall months. By contrast, in the summer months, economists at UC Santa Barbara have calculated that Indiana’s move to statewide daylightsaving time in 2006 led to a one-percent rise in residential electricity use through additional LETTERS TO THE EDITOR measles was eradicated due to the vaccine. Guess what? It’s back and it is time to start protecting our babies, our children who cannot get the vaccine, and our immune-compromised friends and neighbors. There is no downside unless you have a medical reason to not get the vaccine. Please vaccinate. The alternative can be tragic. Sue Marguleas, RN, MPA Dog Also Attacked Thanks for the article, “Doggy Politics in the ‘Hood’” by Marci Slade Crestani, February 18. My 12-pound dog has been attacked by large off-leash dogs three times. I asked a man to leash his dog this morning; he ignored me. I asked a man last week to leash two dogs; he ignored me. I now carry pepper spray whenever I walk my dog. Patty Detroit Cost for Technical Support For Incline Project Is Outlandish I thought I had become inured to the outlandish price tags on public projects, what with the surcharges for nepotism, graft, fraud, mismanagement and downright incompetence. Even I was shocked, however, to learn, from the cover story in the February 4 issue [“California Incline Update”] that Wallace, Roberts & Todd will be paid “almost $3 million” [according to Santa Monica City records] to provide 365 days of “technical support” to demand for air conditioning on summer evenings. Additionally, there are no current studies to document the increased demand for energy during evening hours for electronic devices such as cell phones and computers. There are no studies to document the effect on the increasing number of people who work split and evening shifts and the amount of energy savings, if any. The California Energy Commission did a report on the effects of Daylight-Saving Time on California electricity use in 2001. The study concluded that both winter daylight-saving time and the summer season double daylight-saving time would probably save marginal amounts of electricity. That same year, the California state legislature sent a Senate Joint Resolution to the White House and Congress asking to be allowed to extend DST year-round, but it was never acted on. A 2007 California report stated that DST effects had no statistically significant effect on total daily electricity use in the month of March 2007. And according to a 2013 Rasmussen Report, only 37 percent of Americans see the purpose of DST, compared to 45 percent the year before. Maybe it’s time to re-examine a policy instituted during World War I that today has questionable energy conservation effects. the Incline project as “engineer of record.” Apparently, the time and expertise of this firm is worth $8,219 per day or $1,027 per hour for an eight-hour workday. Given that the median income, even among the affluent, highly-educated citizens of the Palisades, is less than $100 per hour, I am left to wonder how those elected to represent our interests sleep at night after approving such high expenditures of our hard-earned tax dollars. Lisa Wolf In Response to ‘No Monday Breakfast’ I read in the March 4 “Heard about Town” column that locals are bummed about the lack of places to eat breakfast. Please let Palisadians know that The Yogurt Shoppe on Swarthmore is open for breakfast. We offer 20+ different cereals (and yes, some healthy) along with regular and flavored yogurt, granola options, oatmeal, a wide variety of fresh fruits and choice of milk (oh, and we also offer shakes). Open daily for breakfast 7 to 10 a.m. and 8 to 10 a.m. on Sunday. Kevin Sabin (Editor’s Note: Additionally, Tivoli owner Sohail Fatoorechi has started opening at 8 a.m. daily for people who need a meeting place for breakfast.) Palisades News welcomes all letters, which may be mailed to spascoe@palisadesnews.com. Please include a name, address and telephone number so we may reach you. Letters do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Palisades News.
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