Modern Hippie Mag » Environment

The Good, the Bad and the Not So Pretty

Jaszy McAllister — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:00:07 +0000

Well eco-peeps we have some news for ya. The good news is that tomorrow is ‘Food’ day and as you’ve come to expect, we have a super yummy raw food dessert from Natalia in our video series In the Kitchen with Natalia of Glowing Temple. I won’t spoil it, but it’s really easy to make and very chocolate-y!

The bad news is that next week Modern Hippie Mag will be offline for a few days, but for a very good reason. We’re going green, people!! We are making the transition to iPage, a Green Certified Hosting Company. iPage reduces its carbon footprint by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) generated by wind power. That means that their servers, offices and data centers are powered by 100% wind energy. iPage’s energy efficiency is equivalent to planting 2,390 acres of trees or removing 510 cars from the road! We’re pretty excited about it!

But that brings me to the “Not So Pretty”.

Although I have complete confidence in the folks over at iPage, I’m gonna be freakin’ out just a tad as we get it all sorted out. Your patience and words of soothing comfort would be greatly appreciated.

I hope that you will still connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also, be sure to catch up on our videos on YouTube and our podcast interviews while we make the transition.

Thanks so much for continuing to support Modern Hippie Mag and for being a part of our community of eco-peeps!!

The Good, the Bad and the Not So Pretty is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Tips to Eco-Style Your Life this Summer

Julie Urlaub — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:00:39 +0000

Summer is here! Spice it up eco style to add the eco sizzle in your summer activities. Individuals aiming to become more sustainable in their own personal life have a variety of eco actions at their disposal. As mentioned in our eco friendly consulting, start with the sustainability concepts are you most familiar. Areas of energy efficiency, waste management, or local and fair trade are familiar topics. You may want to apply sustainability concepts more specific to the summer months. Looking for ideas? Try these on!

Photo by Christa Richert

Organic garden – Organic gardening leads to better health in three main ways:

When you garden organically, you greatly reduce your exposure to pesticides, which have been linked to many severe health problems.
Organically-grown food is more nutritious than food grown using conventional methods.
Organic gardeners tend to use “muscle-power” rather than “machine-power” for gardening tasks.

Green Home Makeover – Transform your home into an eco haven. Express your unique style and with eco awareness. Following are resources offered in our eco friendly consulting classes to help you on your way:

Eco friendly car washing – wash your car the eco friendly way:

Consider switching to a waterless car wash.
Wash on gravel, grass, or another permeable surface.
Use a water-saving hose nozzle. Select a nozzle with an automatic shut-off valve so that water is not continuing to flow as you wash.
Select the right soap. Choose a biodegradable soap that is chlorine- and phosphate-free. Phosphates encourage algae bloom when they enter water and reduce oxygen levels for other aquatic species.
Opt for reusable towels. Swap paper towels for re-usable microfiber towels.

Happy eco summer to you!

Tips to Eco-Style Your Life this Summer by Julie Urlaub originally appeared in the Taiga Company blog.

Julie

Julie Urlaub is Founder & Managing Partner of Taiga Company, a sustainability consulting firm located in Houston, Texas dedicated to accelerating the integration of sustainability concepts in business. Today, Julie speaks, writes, and advises clients on a variety of issues related to the intersection between environmental stewardship, and sustainable business practices. Her writing has been featured in SocialYell’s Corporate Advice, the GreenEcomonyPost, the Business Exchange and, the ThinkGreenAlliance. Connect with Taiga Company on Facebook and Twitter. Also Find Julie on LinkedIn.

Tips to Eco-Style Your Life this Summer is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Sustainable Best Practices

Guest Contributor — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:00:33 +0000

A sustainable best practices program involves a comprehensive and holistic approach that addresses all of the practices of a business that impact the environment. A best practices program assists companies in making changes in their business in multiple areas including air quality, energy, management, transportation, water and waste.

A sustainability initiative involves the development and implementation of green ideas and goals. Crucial to this process is the development of metrics that track and monitor performance in implementing ideas and achieving goals. Also important is the identification and response to challenges, opportunities and threats.

Although standardized sustainable best practices are still in their formative stage of development, there are some basic practices that help businesses become more environmentally sustainable.

Air Quality

Simply changing materials selections can dramatically impact indoor air quality. Chemicals are everywhere in a conventional office environment from the paint on the walls to the adhesive under the carpet. To reduce these chemicals use low-VOC paints and other sustainably made office supplies, furniture and equipment. Convert your cleaning products to less/non-toxic chemicals.

Energy

Energy programs can save energy and cost. Most programs pay for themselves within a couple of years. If your business is less that 300 kW then a small business energy audit is the best way for your company to save energy and save money. Global carbon emissions attributable to IT have been estimated at 2% to 2.5% of the worlds total carbon emissions. That is about the same as the airline industry! We know that our day-to-day, in most cases, is dependent upon using a computer but there are some simple things you can do to save energy and money. To dissuade the forecast of McKinsey Research, which indicates that the IT sector will triple it’s carbon footprint during the period between 2002 to 2020 get a Green IT audit!

Management

Sustainability Management is imperative to making and maintaining sustainable changes. Start by putting together a panel or Green Team that has representatives from different departments. Create routine maintenance checks for all appliances. Write policies in your employee manual for energy, water, waste, transportation and pollution prevention. Post signs around the office to educate employees/public about conservation (lights, water, recycling).

Transportation

Track the mileage of all company vehicles. Tracking mileage and examining your travel routes can help you better understand your fuel usage, calculate you carbon footprint and even help you find ways to conserve gas.

Water

Conduct a water audit and develop strategies for water reduction. Tracking water usage and conserving water usage can benefit the environment and the bottom line. Effective strategies include retrofitted faucets with low-flow aerators.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

Conduct a waste audit and develop a strategy for managing waste and recycling. Knowing the waste stream is important because when a facility reduces the volume of waste it generates, it can achieve corresponding savings through decreased hauling fees and avoided disposal charges. Significant saving can be achieved by reducing trash container size and limiting the frequency of pick-ups. “Right size” the trash service by keeping a log sheet to track trash.

Include a recycling program with a good plan including logistics that detail where the materials are being generated and how they will be collected and stored.

Sustainable Best Practices originally appeared on The GREEN MARKET blog.

Richard Matthews is a Marketing Consultant and author of The GREEN MARKET, a blog dedicated to green investing and the economy. Richard hails from Quebec Canada. He enjoys hiking, canoeing, and rock-climbing.

Sustainable Best Practices is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Help the Environment and Save Money with ecofreek

Guest Contributor — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:00:39 +0000

ecofreek is a new company dedicated to advancing the recycling movement by providing a simple method to find free and swap items online.

Many peoples understanding of recycling is limited to just bottles, cans and paper; however, it’s not just trash that can be recycled, perfectly good items like clothing, furniture and electronics can be recycled as well. ecofreek’s mission is to encourage users to reuse pre-owned items, as well as give away items they no longer want, in order to reduce landfill waste.

ecofreek feels that newer is not necessarily better- but that free is better, especially considering the current issue of over-consumption and wastefulness. Also, with the uncertain economic climate, many people are looking for more ways to save money.

ecofreek (founded January 2010) is a search engine that locates free and swap items from over 45 websites; such as, Craigslist, Pennysaver, and public Freecycle sites, making ecofreek the most extensive way to find free items on the web. With ecofreek, users can easily find a free sofa, kitchen table, books or kitten in their area OR trade material or services with someone; for example, trading yard labor for a pool table.

Users can search by a keyword, city, or region (state/country), allowing results to easily be narrowed down. In addition, results can be sorted by how old the listing is, listings with images first, and more. Once the user has found an item they like, they only need to click the listing to be taken to the original posting to contact the the owner.

Unlike many classifieds, ecofreek uses a filter for spam and false listings, and also has an easy way to mark listings to be taken down.

ecofreek’s service is easy to use and full of extra features, such as driving directions so you can see how far away an item is from you. Plus, if you can’t find what you’re looking for at first, you can easily sign up for free email alerts and cell phone text alerts to be notified when a new item is listed that fits your keyword.

Soon, the company will be offering merchandise, such as t-shirts and re-usable grocery bags, to give away when users donate (at this stage the company is supported only by donation) .

Craig J. Stadler, co-founder said- “ecofreek encourages people to ask the question: Why buy a new piano, moving boxes or a desk when you can pick up a free one nearby, save money and feel good about helping the environment all at once?”

Nicole Boivin, nicole@ecofreek.com, (510) 768-7952.

Help the Environment and Save Money with ecofreek is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

How to recycle plastic sandwich bags and wrap

EarthTalk — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:00:36 +0000

EarthTalk®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Where do you recycle plastic stuff like sandwich bags, Saran wrap and plastic grocery store wrappers? Can they just go in with other plastics in the recycling bin? There never seems to be any information available about this. – Renee La-Fountaine, Lake Hughes, CA

The reason you don’t hear much about recycling these types of plastic films is that most municipalities don’t take back items intended to wrap food. One exception may be sandwich bags, which are made from easy-to-recycle polyethylene, as long as any hard (i.e. “Ziploc”) components are removed and they are rinsed free of any food debris or stains.

For that matter, if you are going to the trouble to wash them, you may as well dry and reuse them at home a few times before relegating them to the recycling bin. There are even small countertop racks available for hanging plastic bags to dry before reusing them.

Clinging plastic like Saran wrap is problematic for recyclers because the resin that it contains (to give it wrapping power) cannot be re-extracted without massive amounts of energy—more than it takes to make it new from scratch. And given that it’s usually soiled with some kind of food, used plastic wrap should always just go right into the trash.

Other non-recyclable plastic films include dark-colored plastic bags, bags with handles or drawstrings, and anything else designed to be wrapped around food. Since you can’t even rinse or recycle these kinds of plastics, it’s better to avoid them altogether and invest in some reusable containers to store leftovers.

Another option is to use plastic grocery store shopping bags (though they are increasingly being phased out) to wrap your food leftovers in. Many municipalities and most stores that provide such bags accept them for recycling, so once you’re done with them they can be recycled or returned to the store, after which they can be melted down and incorporated into weather- and rot-resistant window and door frames, decking (such as Trex), palettes, pipes and other long-lasting hard goods. Like with sandwich and other bags you intend to recycle, make sure plastic grocery bags are clean before you turn them in for recycling.

If you are a Ziploc bag or plastic wrap fanatic but want to do the right thing by the environment, look for plastic food storage film or bags made from biodegradable polymers. Some popular brand names to keep an eye out for at Whole Foods and elsewhere are Eco Wrap, EcoFlex and BioBag. These plastics—some of which are made from agricultural scraps left over from corn crops—can go right in with yard waste or other compostables and will break down over time accordingly just like cardboard or food scraps. With time major brands will undoubtedly be offering similar products.

But even though there may in fact be “greener” plastic out there, reducing our reliance on disposable bags altogether should be the ultimate goal. Luckily many grocery chains are hip to greening their own operations and image, and are giving away or selling for a nominal amount reusable canvas shopping bags so customers don’t have to choose between wasting plastic and paper at the checkout line.

CONTACTS: PlasticBagRecycling.org, www.plasticbagrecycling.org; Trex, www.trex.com; BioBag, www.biobagusa.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

How to recycle plastic sandwich bags and wrap is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Best bags for your veggies!

Jaszy McAllister — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:00:51 +0000

We’ve all heard the alarming stats about plastic, and even though I felt I was doing my part by reusing my produce bags to discard kitty poop, truth is whether or not you recycle plastic bags, the energy and expense of making them still takes a toll on our environment. So I started scanning the web for reusable produce bags for my veggies, and though I found several different ones, most of them were made of canvas…who can see through canvas? Which meant that the grocery teller would have to open the bags and possibly put their grubby little hands on my veggies (yes, I know it’s illogical, especially given that several hundred people probably put their grubby little hands on my veggies before I even know it!). But I digress. So just imagine my excitement when I found reusable produce bags that are virtually see-through!!

Flip & Tumble

I am so loving my Flip & Tumble Reusable Produce Bags (set of 5/$10.95) from ReusableBags.com! The Flip & Tumble bags are made from breathable, durable polyester, are compact and lightweight with drawstring closure, and resist staining and shrinking better than natural fiber bags. Plus, the fine mesh allows you to use them for smaller bulk items. Keeping them clean is a cinch – simply machine wash and line dry. And let me tell you, I turned some heads at the farmer’s market recently, everyone wanted to know where I got them! They are definitely a smarter and cooler alternative to plastic produce bags!

Reusablebags.com specialize in providing a huge selection of reusable shopping bags and related accessories. And check it out, they’re having a fab Summer Sale! Take advantage of some serious savings on some of their other popular high-quality items:

Reusable shopping bags (starting at under $4)
Stylish, durable water bottles (starting at under $7)
Lunch bags (starting at under $4)
Food containers (starting at under $8)
Items for kitchen & home (starting at under $4)

They also have great deals on reusables from brands like Klean Kanteen, SIGG, ACME, Thermos and countless others!

So do your part, ditch the plastic, buy your own Flip & Tumble Reusable Produce Bags, and be the talk of your farmer’s market!

Jaszy

Jaszy McAllister is the woman behind the curtain of Modern Hippie Mag. She is also the host for ModernHippieMag.com video and podcast interview profiles and a Green Guru for TheGreenGirls.com. Find her on Twitter, @msjaszy. Read more articles by Jaszy.

Best bags for your veggies! is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

5 Ways to a Greener Lawn, and I Do Mean Green.

Guest Contributor — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:00:31 +0000

Okay, so I may not always smile. In fact, sometimes I think my kids actually fear that I might be distantly related to The Wicked Witch of the West…or East…or any ol’ direction for that matter. And it really might be true except that I have not ridden a bicycle with a basket in several years. Or ever. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just sayin’.

Most of the time, I have to say that I am an optimist with good manners and a polite disposition. It takes a lot for a total stranger to irk me and turn me into a loco greenie. Greenie is a fine persona – loco greenie, not so much. This might have been a little bit (and by a little bit, I actually mean a lot) of what happened today.

Those chemical lawn people are relentless and it was not my fault really. They continue to come to my front door with their disapproval of my lawn. Now granted, we do have clover. Not a ton, but noticeable and VERY noticeable (evidently) to many non-greenies.

We do not spray our lawn. We do not necessarily love the clover mostly because of the bees that linger in it. But to the naked eye, it’s just not something that sends us over the edge. Our son has eczema and allergies and his skin is incredibly sensitive to chemicals so we just don’t go there. Besides, we live inside of a home that is ever-increasingly green and natural to the best of our ability. So why then, should our outside be any different?

There are numerous health effects associated with one particular chemical known as 2, 4-D, which is a commonly used herbicide used for spraying weeds on golf courses and in residential landscape maintenance. “2,4-D has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental effects, as well as water contamination and toxicity to aquatic organisms. As the most commonly used “home and garden” chemical, millions of U.S. households especially vulnerable children and pets, are exposed to this toxic chemical. This means that children playing on lawns and fields continue to be exposed to a chemical that has known and uncertain toxicological effects from which they are not adequately protected” (beyondpesticides.org).

Scary, right? I know.

So what do we do? Well, I for one see nothing wrong with some clover, and our kids wear their sandals when they are playing to escape any bee stings. Organic lawns just require a different perspective, It involves giving our lawn the things it needs in order to grow to it’s best potential (kind of like our family) and when given what it needs, the junk just might not thrive. Clover has several advantages including staying green all summer without watering, it never needs fertilized, it out-competes other weeds, and it grows well in poor soil to name a few!

For a healthy lawn that keeps you healthy too – here are some tips!

Leave your grass clippings on the lawn, they are full of nutrients
For a natural fertilizer, apply grass clippings and compost regularly through the growing season
Aerate you turf! Renting an aerator can help control thatch and involves removing small soil plugs in your lawn to prevent soil compaction. “Compaction greatly reduces the pore space within the soil that would normally hold air. Roots require oxygen to grow and absorb nutrients and water. Compaction reduces total pore space and the amount of air within the soil. It has a negative impact on nutrient uptake and water infiltration, in addition to being a physical barrier to root growth. This results in poor top growth and lawn deterioration” (mastergardenproducts).
Throw down some seeds! By sprinkling some grass seed over your lawn, you can encourage new growth while “choking out” the weeds (another advantage of clover!)
Wear your shoes to avoid the bees and then “build a bridge and get over it” -when chemical guy comes knocking….be on with your merry green way!

I am not sure I made a friend this afternoon when our chemical guy came around (Sorry chemical guy if I seemed annoyed), but sometimes it can be a challenge to give explanations of why and how I am green when on the spot. So even if I seemed like I should be on a bike with a basket (a’hem), it’s all in the name of green. I can deal with the occasional (or frequent if you are really counting) knocks at my door, and next time I am going to be smiling and proud!

Be Green, Be Proud. Love your weeds!

Lynn

Lynn Stone is the founder of the go-to green living blog for parents, SmilingGreenMom.com. Lynn’s goal is to help others “be the best green they can be” through her affordable tips and encouraging posts. A contributing writer for multiple blogs and websites, Lynn enjoys cooking, garage sale shopping, traveling, relaxing with her family and dreams of owning an eco-friendly log cabin one day! As a former competitive swimmer, she values wellness and living an active lifestyle and hopes to one day participate in a triathlon. Follow her on Twitter, @SmilingGreenMom and Facebook.

5 Ways to a Greener Lawn, and I Do Mean Green. is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

GE’s Investments in Green are Paying Off

Guest Contributor — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:00:02 +0000

General Electric Co. (GE) said revenue from its green products and services will grow at twice the rate of total company revenue in the next five years.

GE recently announced that its plan to pour $5 billion in investments into energy efficient and environmentally oriented projects has been met a year ahead of schedule. It also said it is committed to spend an additional $10 billion by 2015.

GE’s portfolio of greener products and services is now up to 90, ranging from aircraft engines, locomotives and wind turbines to energy-efficient home improvement loans.

GE’s annual report indicated that revenues from its “ecomagination” program increased 6 percent to $18 billion in 2009 and that it has reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.
The company said its $5 billion investment has generated revenue of $70 billion (GE’s revenue totaled $156.8 billion last year).

According to Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, and Steven Fludder, vice president of ecomagination. “We are doubling down to drive even faster impact and to deliver our contribution to a 21st century energy transformation.”

GE is helping to solve the world’s biggest environmental challenges while driving profitable growth for GE and its customers.

GE’s Investments in Green are Paying Off originally appeared in The GREEN MARKET blog.

GE’s Investments in Green are Paying Off is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

5 Ways to a Greener Website

Julie Urlaub — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:00:32 +0000

After all the energy audits and establishing sustainable business strategies have been done, don’t forget to include your Web site. Corporate sustainability managers are looking to use the company Web site to communicate and engage with key stakeholders. Doesn’t it make sense to have the website reflect sustainability values?

Resources to make your website Green, Sustainable, Eco-Friendly:

Web Hosting:

Photo by H Berends

There are web hosts that are powered by solar panel, wind, or some type of combination of traditional and natural power.

Green web hosting typically involves several of the following elements:
Servers directly powered by renewable energy.
Energy use offset using a carbon credit.
Energy use offset using a Renewable Energy Credit (REC).
Hosting servers optimized for energy efficiency.

Offset Your Carbon Usage:

Companies like CO2Stats will “offset” your dirty energy use by contributing a proportionate amount to a program that will remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or insert renewable energy into the grid equal to your non-renewable energy usage. The program also claims to drive traffic to your site and help you improve its energy efficiency.

Green Energy:

Your computers, servers, and data centers will need to consider green power.

Energy Star Program
How to green your electricity: More tips to improve consumer and corporate energy
EPA’s Green Power Partnership

Computer and Server Recycling:

Computers only have a limited shelf life, so what happens to those out of date pieces of hardware?

Computer Recycling & Reuse: Various resources
Ten Tips for Donating a Computer
How to: Recycle Your Computer

Social Media for Stakeholder Engagement:

As viewed in our professional consulting, many websites succeed in presenting basic information about their business sustainability programs by offering access to stand-alone annual sustainability report. However, we encourage clients to leverage social media for stakeholder engagement. Engaging stakeholders is not only a means of building sustainable business, but it is also a powerful way to master clear communication of the environmental business initiatives your company is pursuing.

Resources: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/05/12/resources-to-create-a-green-website/

5 Ways to a Greener Website originally appeared on the Taiga Company blog.

Julie

5 Ways to a Greener Website is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.

Minimizing Cell Phone Radiation

EarthTalk — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:00:43 +0000

EarthTalk®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: OK, so are cell phones emitting dangerous radiation or not? If so, which phones are safer that others and what do we do to minimize exposure? — Luke Alderman, Santa Fe, NM

The jury is still out as to whether or not the radiation emitted by cell phones can cause negative health effects for callers. Mobile phones emit signals to communicate with cellular towers via radio waves, which are comprised of radio-frequency (RF) energy, a form of electromagnetic radiation.

courtesy Thinkstock

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) limits the amount of radiation any phone sold in the U.S. can emit to what it considers a safe level of 1.6 watts per kilogram of body weight (a measure of the energy absorbed by the body when using a wireless device). But some health practitioners are concerned that even this level of exposure may be too high, resulting in people unwittingly exposing themselves to potentially harmful radiation every time they make or take a call.

Such radiation is known to heat up living tissue it comes into close contact with by a fraction of a degree, but this level of temperature increase is less than that caused by exposure to direct sunlight, and the brain’s blood circulation typically disperses this excess heat quickly by increasing local blood flow.

Some recent studies have found higher risks for brain and salivary gland tumors among people using cell phones for 10 years or longer, while other research has found little if any risk. Other research has looked at the reproductive, cognitive and sleep effects of RF energy at levels similar to what cell/smart phones emit. Results have been mixed. More studies are now underway to resolve whether or not cell phones are safe for people to use, but some electronics manufacturers aren’t waiting around to cut down on the radiation emissions of the phones they make and sell.

If you are in the market for a new cell phone, check out the nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s (EWG’s) rundown on which of the thousand or so popular cell/smart phone models give off the most and least radiation. Levels vary widely, from as little as 0.3 to the legal limit of 1.6 watts per kilogram of body weight. Sanyo’s Katana II, Samsung’s Rugby, Nokia’s 7710, and the Blackberry Storm, among others, get top marks from EWG for giving off lower amounts of radiation (in the 0.3 range). Meanwhile, more than a dozen different cell/smart phones (including some of the most popular models such as Motorola’s Droid, Blackberry’s Bold 9700, LG’s Chocolate Touch and HTC’s Nexus One by Google) are categorized as “worst” by EWG for giving off larger amounts of radiation (pushing the 1.6 limit). Apple’s iPhone 3Gs is in the middle of the spectrum, leaking between 0.52 and 1.19, depending on usage.

Regardless of which cell/smart phone you use, you can minimize your exposure to RF radiation by taking a few simple precautions. For one, using a headset (these give off significantly less radiation) or speaker phone keeps the phone itself away from your head. Also, your phone emits far less radiation when used to text instead of call—and the phone isn’t next to your brain when texting—so the more you tap (just not while driving, please!) instead of talk the better. Also, a poor signal (fewer bars) means that your phone has to work harder—and emit more radiation—to connect up to a wireless tower, so wait to make that call until you are somewhere with a stronger connection.

CONTACTS: FCC, www.fcc.gov; Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org.

Minimizing Cell Phone Radiation is a post from Modern Hippie Mag your online resource dedicated to hip, healthy conscious living & environmental sustainability.