10/10/11

Conserving Energy for Better Health

          How does flipping on your light switch affect your health?  To answer this, consider the way electricity is generated.  Typically, plants generate electricity using superheated water or steam to drive the rotation of turbines.  In much of the United States, power plants burn coal and natural gas (NG) in order to heat this water.  Known as fossil fuels, coal and NG unfortunately contain a number of toxic compounds such as mercury.  When plants burn fossil fuels, these chemicals are released into the atmosphere and in turn affect our health.  If you think you’re not at risk simply because you don’t live near a power plant, think again.  These compounds, when released into the air, are rather efficiently transported around the world via jet streams and other weather systems.  That said, since the industrial revolution, global mercury concentrations have increased 3 to 6 times that of estimated pre-industrial levels. 


          To improve health as a population, it’s important to minimize air pollution generated by our energy industry by making an effort to cut unnecessary energy wasting in your home and workplace.  Some tips to reduce such waste are listed below.  Please write other good tips in the “comments” section!

  1. Avoid leaving random house lights on in rooms which nobody is occupying. 
  2. Unplug your cell phone chargers from the wall when you’re not charging your phone (the charger by itself uses electricity). 
  3. Replace your conventional light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs).  They use less power and often last longer!
  4. Don’t blast your AC when you’re not home.
  5. Purchase energy-efficient appliances and unplug appliances that are rarely used.
  6. Push congress to tighten power plant emissions regulations and explore cleaner energy options by contacting your state representatives.
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                                                                                                 -Shahir Masri

6 comments:

  1. Wow very useful information! Keep up the good work hun! Btw where do you stand on chem trails? It's pretty interesting stuff check it out!

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    :)

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  2. Pretty good information on the issue on conserving energy for the benefit of our health. Are there any more other fundamental tips or information on how to minimize excess energy from the outside?

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  3. Wow, through reading this article I really was able to get a grasp of how something so simple as using electricity effects my well-being. I agree with you that people should minimize their usage and I found some tips of my own to use.
    -Avoid using conventional fans and just use a ceiling fan which uses less power (or just use a window)
    -insulate your house to avoid using the heater
    -wash your clothes in cold water
    -load up dishes when using a dishwasher

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  4. To converse energy, I let my clothes dry in the sun like the good old days before laundry dryers. Since its close to the winter time, I stack up on blankets instead of turning on the heater. I try to get daily exercise to assure that I'm not watching TV or on the compute.

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  5. Oh gosh! After reading step 2 from that list I realized that I left my phone charger plugged in which was wasting my house energy! Thanks for the save! I also agreed that we should always turn off the A/C if we're not using it because it requires so much energy to be utilized. Here are some helpful tips to converse energy: Turn your refrigerator down since refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use and clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. This article motivated me to think wiser and help improve the enviornment!

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