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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Waking up Obese in American An Excerpt of IPS book by Sandra Kirkland 2009

When the obese comedian Louie Anderson debuted on “The Tonight Show” (NBC, 1962 ) with Johnny Carson in 1984, almost his entire routine was based on his obesity. The most telling part was when he suggested to the audience, "You're probably sitting out there wondering 'Does he know he's that big?'" And Louie answers for them "... like I woke one morning and said, 'Oh, no.'"

Interestingly, 25 years after Louie's debut, obesity has become one of the most pervasive public health problems in the United States. How did that happen? Did we, as a nation, just wake up one day and notice that our children had become obese, that more and more children, teenagers and young adults were being diagnosed with diabetes Type 2? Of course not.

Over the past thirty years, the food industry has learned to use the very pervasive and persuasive marketing weapons long wielded by the tobacco and alcohol industries to advance market share and increase profits. It has been developing slowly and surely as manufacturers of soft drinks, snack foods and other processed and packaged foods were using everything in their marketing arsenal to sell their products and post ever-increasing earnings.

With the help of television and Saturday morning programming, these companies have been bombarding our children with their messages almost every eight minutes, offering prizes and happiness full of sugar, fats and additives. School boards, with their usual budgetary problems, were offered great financial benefits for placing vending machines in their schools. The kids never had a chance. The industry had them hooked before they entered first grade. The companies offered coupons, with "buy one, get one free" and "50 cents off,” to parents to pull their sugar and fat laden goodies through the markets.

Today, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Heart Association and many other organizations and institutions are mobilizing to combat this new assault on our country's health, safety, productivity and economic well being.
Considering the power, influence and considerable funding behind these commodities, the question is, for those of us that know first-hand how insidious and pervasive these industries' products are, how can we ever stop or prevent their products from becoming such huge public health and safety concerns?

Population/Based Environmental Change by Sandra Kirkland for IPS 2009

Tobacco has been woven into our culture since our country's beginning, but with the development of modern technologies and the construction of superhighways, their use, especially among our youth, has become severely problematic. In the satirical movie based on the 1995 book by Christopher Buckley, "Thank You for Smoking," one of the characters states: "We sell cigarettes. And they're cool and available and addictive. The job is almost done for us!" While tobacco has been on the American scene since colonial days, it was not until 1860 when the first cigarettes appeared that smoking began to take hold. After the first cigarette factory opened in 1864, 20 million cigarettes were produce in that year alone.

To ensure future generations of consumers, the tobacco companies began providing free tobacco to soldiers during the Civil War and continued to provide free cigarettes to soldiers in both WWI and WWII. Of the almost 15 million men serving in the armed forces at that time, approximately 51 percent were smokers. It was so endemic that reporters took photos of our war heroes with cigarettes in their hands or mouths, propagating the image of smoking as being almost patriotic. Moreover, the motion picture industry produced hundreds of films, showing our young men fighting for freedom and lighting up.

Given the attitude and the technology available to produce the perfect delivery system of smoke, tars and nicotine, half the population of the United States became addicted. Smoking had become such an epidemic that by 1901, 43 of the 45 states had outlawed their sale. However, restricting sales did not discourage the tobacco companies. RJ Reynolds introduced Camel, the first "modern" cigarette, with Lucky Strike and Chesterfield following later. In 1921, RJ Reynolds spent $8 million to advertise its Camel brand. Not to be outdone, Philip Morris joined in by introducing Marlboro brand to entice the ladies to smoke, causing RJ to go after the women's market with its Lucky Strike brand. Consequently, smoking initiation rates among adolescent females tripled between 1925-1935, and Lucky Strike captured 38% of the American market. Brown and Williamson introduced the filter cigarette, Viceroy brand, in 1936 and ever the innovator, Kool menthol cigarettes eight years later, further opening the door to claiming health benefits for cigarette smokers. Even The Journal of the American Medical Association got on the bandwagon by publishing ads for cigarettes from 1936 to 1956.

Given the addictive nature of cigarettes, is it any wonder that by the 1960s, more than 40 percent of the adult population smoked (National Center for Health Statistics 2005)? How then has it come to pass that present-day statistics show that less than 20 percent of adults smoke? Beginning with the big cancer scare of the 1960s, public awareness, policies and enforcement have come to bear on the national norms that once touted cigarette smoking as an acceptable, almost desirable, behavior.Although it took around 50 years for this huge paradigm shift to an almost “smokeless society” to happen, happen it did. This phenomenon is called environmental/population-wide prevention.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Jan Pugh: Artist in Residence

"I grew up in the 60s when all home decor consisted of taupe, beige and tan. I suppose that must be why I'm so hungry for color," Jan Pugh, ceramic artist and owner of Packer Creek Pottery, declared.

The retreat she shares with her husband in a renovated, former one-room schoolhouse in Graytown, Ohio bears this out. From the moment you step into the entry, you know that you're going to have fun. This same sense of fun and lightness of spirit also infuses her pottery.

"I met clay when I was 14 years old," Jan says. "My mother told me, 'You were also so self-entertained.'

"When I started doing clay in the 70s, everything was beige. Later in art school at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I did chemical studies -- hours of experiments on how to make different colors. I then divorced brown clay and happily married color. This is the 21st anniversary of my love affair with color."

This exuberance for color is manifest in her countryside refuge. Her signature pottery sits next to "finds" of art glass and whimsical wall art. Everywhere you look her signature Packer Creek Pottery creations are nestled in with other fanciful articles.

Yellows and blues converge with pinks and oranges. As Jan says, "It's always summer fun here all year round. No matter how dreary it may be outside, there's always sunshine and light in here."

Her home is a tribute to what an artist's eye can do to transform space and objects into creations of beauty, which is what Jan does every day, changing lumps of clay into individual masterpieces of function and form.

http://www.packercreekpottery.com/collections.html

Americans and Alcohol an excerpt from the book “Environmental Change” ghostwritten by Sandra Kirkland for IPS 2009


When the Pilgrims stepped off the Mayflower onto Plymouth Rock, they brought their gin, ale, wine, and brandy with them. Alcohol was their elixir, their "good-for-what-ails-you” brews as their substitutes for water when there was no potable water and to use as a disinfectant and anesthetic. When the first law about alcohol use was passed in Virginia in 1619, it was not about prohibiting alcohol per se, but against drunkenness. Throughout our history, there have been advocates of total prohibition, but it wasn´t until 1919 that it gained success when the 18th Amendment, also known as the “Volstead Act,” was passed into law. Although this experiment with alcohol prohibition ultimately failed, many policies, such as minimum legal age, excise taxes and limiting advertising, have been in place to control its consumption.
In many communities, alcohol consumption is considered a rite of passage, many cultures use alcohol in their celebrations, and in many instances it is associated with class and income. The alcohol industry is quite skilled at targeting and capturing their audiences, with campaigns that display young people living the "good life," having fun and being very cool. If they can induce people to have that "first drink" at an early age, the industry has another lifelong consumer. However, research has shown that early onset and heavy use of alcohol impairs mental, social and physical development, and the likelihood of those youngsters growing up healthy and whole is limited.
While the alcohol industry realizes billions in profits, our communities bear the weight of billions in direct and indirect costs to cover the fall-out from underage drinking, binge drinking and drunk-driving: first-responders, emergency rooms and hospitals, assaults, rape, STDs, unwanted pregnancies, chronic illness, and lost productivity. In addition to deeply ingrained norms and rituals at work in society, there are so many social, legal, economic, and political entities who benefit to varying degrees from the largess of the alcohol industry that to effectively prevent these outcomes and to contain their costs take colossal, long-term coordinated campaigns for change – the kind of effective environmental/population-wide prevention campaigns that work

Oaxaca’s Animal Activists by Sandra Kirkland for OLL Newsletter 2009


Oaxaca’s Animal Activists   by Sandra Kirkland for OLL Newsletter  2009

"The protection of animals is an essential part of morality and culture of civilized peoples." - Benito
Juarez
When I first moved to Oaxaca in July of 2007, I was appalled by the living conditions of its animals. There were hundreds of injured, starving and sick dogs and cats wandering around its streets. All of a sudden, they disappeared. This was puzzling. Then I found out that they were being rounded up and exterminated by the Antirrabico (Mexico’s version of dogcatcher). This was very upsetting.
Fortunately, Oaxaca and its animals have several organized groups of animal activists committed to working together to achieve their goals of humane treatment of Oaxaca's animals, including  education about proper care and training of animals and providing free and low cost sterilization of all cats and dogs.
My good friend Hilda Toledo Salinas, from whom I adopted two wonderful rescued dogs, is one of those activists. She began her work in animal rescue and protection, Activistas de Proteccion Animal,
in 2004 after retiring from teaching. In July of 2008, she attended an international forum of animal
protection organizations to learn how to be more effective in the fight for humane treatment of animals.
She and Oaxaca's other animal activists have come a long way. Just this year, they have staged three demonstrations, each with more than 400 participants and their pets, to raise public awareness about the local government's handling of the animal overpopulation problem.  According to Hilda and other local activists, the government “needs to abandon its present policies and practices, such as the CATCH-MATANZA (Catch and Kill).”
To replace current practices at the Antirrabico, they have proposed the Program of Urban Animal Care Center for dogs and cats which would provide free or reduced rates for sterilization, medical care including vaccination, and public education about the correct care and training of animals. If Oaxaca would adopt these proposals, it would benefit all its citizens.
For more information, visit http://apaoax.itgo.com.