Want to try something kind of fun, kind of crazy, but really important? LA should be a place where people bike to work or bike to the beach, but it isn't.  I have tried cycling in LA, several times and I have had some real  "life in the hands" experiences. Fortunately there are some who are trying to make LA a better place to cycle. One of those people is Ron Milam. You can read more about him and how he can help you navigate your way around LA at:

 http://www.bikesage.com/

April 22nd is officially Earth Day, but isn't everyday Earth Day? Here are somethings you can do everyday to help LA:

Don't drive unless you really have to

Say no to plastic bags and bottles

Turn your lights off during the day

Plant a tree

Explore alternative energy solutions

And here's a great event you can attend on Earth Day to get more ideas:

 http://www.wilshirecenter.com/earthday/

Have a great earthday!

Taking your child to the doctor for shots is a heart-wrenching experience. It is not pleasant seeing your child in pain, or trying to hold them still, and then you start to wonder what they are getting and why you are really doing it. If you follow the vaccine schedule, your child will receive over 25 shots before they reach five. Many parents have decided to forego shots for a variety of reasons, but many of those reasons are not factually based. Many believe that vaccines cause autism, but a recent review of such claims concluded that there is no such evidence. Another concern parents had was exposing their children to a form of mercury, thimerosal - a preservative in some vaccines. Thimerosal had not been proven to be associated with any childhood disease, but parents heard the word mercury and decided that was enough. In July 1999, the Public Health Service agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agreed that thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure. Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative in routinely recommended childhood vaccines.

When children are not vaccinated they are put at risk for illness and death and so are others they come in contact with. Several schools in the region are now experiencing high rates of unvaccinated children and outbreaks have been reported. While it is not easy (on many levels) to have your children vaccinated you should do some serious research if you are thinking about not vaccinating your children.

Please read the following piece in the LA Times about undervaccination:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immunization29-2009mar29,0,3148179.story

Here's some info about childhood vaccines:

http://www.cispimmunize.org/

“How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?”  ~ Charles A. Lindbergh

The City of Los Angeles currently has a tree canopy of only 21%, compared to the national average of 27%. The City of LA and LADWP are currently involved in an effort to plant a million trees. Not only will more trees make Los Angeles greener, they can also significantly reduce energy costs, remove air pollutants, capture storm water runoff, increase property value, promote commercial districts, absorb noise, and encourage more pedestrian foot traffic. The LADWP Trees for a Green LA Program in partnership with Million Trees LA has made it simple for Los Angeles City residents to receive FREE shade trees through the Trees for a Green LA program (TFGLA). Follow these simple steps to enjoy the benefits of cool natural shade, energy efficiency, and clean air:

1. Complete an online workshop.

2. Submit your completed tree order and site plan.

3. LADWP will deliver the trees to your home; you then plant and care for them.

Here's the link to the Online Workshop

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call 1-800-GreenLA (800-473-3652) and select Trees for a Green LA or email us at Tree.Program@ladwp.com.

With the economy's current troubles, many people assume a crime wave is just around the corner. But criminologists say that's just an American myth. In the 1920s the economy was great and the crime rate was high. In the 1950s and '60s the economy was great, but crime rates rose every single year.

Experts say there will always be some people who take to robbing liquor stores in tough times. But those people were already likely to rob stores even in good times, making it a statistical wash. And there's something else: When the economy goes bad, many people move in with parents or relatives, and they stay home more — both of which appear to have a calming effect on crime.
 
So property crime may not go up, but domestic violence and others crimes might. Just a few years after the stock market crashed in 1987, murder rates hit historic highs in cities across the country. But criminologists now believe that peak was the result of the introduction of crack cocaine into cities — and the gang warfare that followed.

But there is one way the economy is already affecting the ability  to combat crime: Police department budgets are getting slashed. Without the money to fight the crime there is, we could see the crime increase we all fear.

Noise (unwanted sound) is another not so pleasant feature of the urban environment. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Americans cite noise – more than crime, litter, traffic, or inefficient government – as the biggest problem affecting their living environments. 138 million people in the US are regularly exposed to noise levels labeled as excessive by the Environmental Protection Agency. Noise clearly causes stress and can negatively impact mental and physical health. Noise has been shown to activate the sympathetic and endocrine systems (fight or flight). While many do what they can to avoid excessive noise, humans are not physiologically prepared to turn noise off ; people are wired to respond to sound for survival purposes. Noise leads to hearing fatigue and tinnitus; annoyance; interference with social behavior; interference with speech communication; sleep disturbance; decrements in school and work performance; psychiatric problems; fetal development problems; and cardiovascular disease.

Children are especially sensitive to noise. High levels of classroom noise have been shown to affect cognitive
performance. Reading and memory have been reported to be impaired in schoolchildren who were exposed to high levels of aircraft noise. Some studies have shown higher stress hormone levels and higher mean blood pressure readings in children exposed to high levels of community noise.

Roadways are responsible for most of the noise in urban environments, but airports have also been shown to be uniquely associated with noise related physical and mental health problems. Environmental noise regulations usually specify a maximum outdoor level of 60 to 65 decibels - dB(A), while occupational safety organizations recommend that the maximum exposure to noise is 40 hours per week at 85 to 90 dB(A). The threshold for sleep interference is 45 dB(A) or lower. One exposure to levels above 140 dB(A) can permanently damage hearing. The following are the decibel levels of common noise exposures:
 
• 0 dBA: softest sound a person can hear with normal hearing
• 10: normal breathing
• 20: whispering at 5 feet
• 30: soft whisper
• 40: quiet residential area
• 50: rainfall
• 50: large office 
• 60: normal conversation
• 70: freeway traffic
• 75: washing machine
• 80: alarm clock
• 80: ringing telephone
• 85: vacuum cleaner
• 85: noisy restaurant
• 90: blender
• 90: truck
• 95: hair dryer
• 110: shouting in ear
• 110: crying baby
• 110: motorcycle
• 115: subway
• 120: thunder
• 120: jet plane (at ramp)
• 120: ambulance siren
• 120: rock concert
• 166: handgun

Reducing the number of cars on the road here will help our ever worsening noise problem. Riding your bike to wrok once a week is a "sound" way to make the noise less noisy.

The environment truly is becoming a problem and us Angelenos are not only at risk of being harmed by the environment we are also responsible for the environmental problems we face. Over the past two decades many have been striving to get a “handle” on the environment; there is a real fear that our planet is quickly deteriorating. The Urban Environmental Accords, where various cities agreed to work toward improving water and air quality and reducing waste, is a sign of a collective interest in preserving and improving the environment in urban centers. The accord dictates that cities will take the following actions:
  
•Increase the use of renewable energy.
 
•Adopt a citywide green house gas reduction plan to reduce emissions by twenty five percent by 2030.
 
•Establish a policy to achieve zero waste to landfills and incinerators by 2040.

•Adopt a citywide law that reduces the use of disposable, toxic or non-renewable products.

•Implement “user-friendly” recycling and composting programs.

•Adopt a policy that mandates a green building rating system that will apply to all new municipal buildings.
 
•Adopt urban planning principles that advance higher density, mixed use, walkable, bikeable and disabled-accessible neighborhoods which coordinate land use and transportation with open space systems for recreation and ecological restoration. 

•Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in low-income neighborhoods.
 
•Ensure that there is an accessible park or recreational open space within half-a-kilometer of every city resident by 2015.
 
•Conduct an inventory of existing canopy coverage in the city and plant and maintain canopy coverage in not less than fifty per cent of all available sidewalk plating sites.
 
•Pass legislation that protects critical habitat corridors and other key habitat characteristics (e.g. water features, food bearing plants, shelter for wildlife, use of native species, etc.) from unsustainable development.

•Develop and implement a policy which expands affordable public transportation coverage to within half-a-kilometer of all city residents in ten years.

•Implement a policy to reduce the percentage of commute trips by single occupancy vehicles by ten per cent in seven years.
 
•Every year, identify one product, chemicals, or compound that is used within the city that represents the greatest risk to human health and adopt a law to provide incentives to reduce or eliminate its use by the municipal government.

•Promote the public health and environmental benefits of supporting organic foods .Ensure that twenty per cent of all city facilities (including schools) serve locally grown and organic food within seven years.

•Establish an Air Quality Index (AQI) to measure the level of air pollution and set the goal of reducing by ten per cent in seven years the number of days categorized in the AQI range as "unhealthy" to "hazardous."

•Develop policies to increase adequate access to safe drinking water, aiming at access for all by 2015.
 
•Protect the ecological integrity of the city’s primary drinking water sources (i.e. aquifers, rivers, lakes, wetlands and associated eco-systems).

•Adopt municipal wastewater management guidelines and reduce the volume of untreated wastewater discharge by ten per cent in seven years.

Such efforts reflect a growing understanding of the far reaching effects that the environment can have on people’s lives and ultimately the success of a city. They also reflect an understanding that everyone contributes to the world’s environmental problems on some level and that everyone can do something to improve the environment.

If you are interested in working on some or all of this issues then contact me, Jeffrey Tipton, at 213-952-9723 and I can help point you in the right direction.

Bottled water is under attack and it's about time. The bottled water industry has been raking in billions of dollars over the years selling a lie.  The water one gets in bottled water is not better than tap water - it often is tap water - but putting it in a plastic container actually makes it more harmful to health than tap.  The bottled water industry has scared people into believing that tap water is dangerous, but it is their water that is dangerous to both consumers and the environment.
 

It's heeeeeeere. The flu season has officially begun in California. Cases have already been identified (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm) and one can be certain that more are coming. The recommendations have been expanded this year. The changes for this year are:

Annual vaccination of all children aged 5--18 years is recommended. Annual vaccination of all children aged 5--18 years should begin in September or as soon as vaccine is available for the 2008--09 influenza season, if feasible, but annual vaccination of all children aged 5--18 years should begin no later than during the 2009--10 influenza season.

Annual vaccination of all children aged 6 months--4 years (59 months) and older children with conditions that place them at increased risk for complications from influenza should continue. Children and adolescents at high risk for influenza complications should continue to be a focus of vaccination efforts as providers and programs transition to routinely vaccinating all children.

Either TIV or LAIV (live virus) can be used when vaccinating healthy persons aged 2--49 years. Children aged 6 months--8 years should receive 2 doses of vaccine if they have not been vaccinated previously at any time with either LAIV or TIV (doses separated by 4 or more weeks); 2 doses are required for protection in these children. Children aged 6 months--8 years who received only 1 dose in their first year of vaccination should receive 2 doses the following year. LAIV should not be administered to children aged <5 years with possible reactive airways disease, such as those who have had recurrent wheezing or a recent wheezing episode. Children with possible reactive airways disease, persons at higher risk for influenza complications because of underlying medical conditions, children aged 6--23 months, and persons aged >49 years should receive TIV.

Essentially anyone can get the flu vaccine if they aren't allergic to eggs and have not had a reaction to the flu vaccine in the past.

Palisades Integrative Medical Clinic (www.integrativeclinics.org) has plenty of vaccine available this year and is giving shots everyday in October and November.

Call 213-952-9723 for more information.

The last major quake to hit L.A., the Northridge earthquake, which occurred on January 17, 1994, registered 6.7 magnitude on the Richter scale and killed approximately fifty people, and also injured over 9000. Of the fifty who died, it appears that twenty died as a result of a heart attack.

The Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995 demonstrated how damaging and deadly earthquakes can be in urban settings. The Kobe quake killed 5,096 people and injured 26,797. One-fifth of the city's population was left homeless and more than 103, 521 buildings were destroyed. Most of the deaths and injuries occurred when older wood-frame houses with heavy clay tile roofs collapsed. The collapse of these buildings was followed by the ignition of over 300 fires within minutes of the earthquake. Response to the fires was hindered by the failure of the water supply system and the disruption of the traffic system.

There is much that one should do to prepare for an earthquake yet most do nothing. Do you know what to do when the earth starts rocking? Are you ready?

Follow the plan:

http://lafd.org/eqbook.pdf