A Mystery, A Wonderment, A Miracle...

C A N C E R   … free of its ravages for 36 years… 

and what has been its plea… but to fully embrace 

Creation, Awareness, Need, Commune, Evolution, Restoration… 

and so here offered … a perspective … 

a journey to wellness ...

As I more intimately observe nature,  and our animal kingdom, the more I appreciate what is to be explored, discovered, and ultimately known.  The expression of plant or animal life,  be it a seed, or an egg, calls for commune to assure its potential bloom or to evolve into a living animal form. Each provides and receives by order of the great intelligence of creation.

There is a mystery, a wonderment, a miracle to all of life. When a most beautiful fish from my Koi pond was taken and attacked by a raccoon, and left on the side of the pond to die, it soon was covered with maggots. The sight was initially horrifying. After gasping at the scene, I questioned, “how” and “why”. Life in its seemingly insatiable quest for receiving, giving, creating, consuming, became astonishing vivid. Yes, there was a clarity, a new appreciation, a new understanding, of the forces and the way of nature. Yes, a clarity as to how this too, may well be the why of illness, dysfunction, disease. 

Thirty-six years ago I was ravaged by cancer. I longed to understand the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ At this very moment an awakened awareness of ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ has brought me to consider the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of a particular site of cancerous growth. A clear explanation has revealed itself. I have come to see disease as the ‘effect’  of that which is compromised, not given its intended and needed  energy, not given creative and acceptable and/or approved outlets for its potential, not supported for its function, not nourished for its needs, not understood for its cell communication, not seen as a part that calls to the whole, not seeing that the science and art of life is the interface of the triune of body, mind, spirit. We are our conception, our birth, our evolution.  How we are cared for, how we are valued, how we are supported, how we meet the challenges of our growth, our development,  how nurturance is provided, how the environment allows the elements of earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, to serve our myriad and diversity of needs, purposes, and visions, are to be placed into awareness. Yes, the ultimate HOW and WHY, the understanding of CAUSE and EFFECT, call for responsive knowing individually and collectively. 

Every living form calls for its survival, its purpose to be fulfilled. We are not separate from being supported by, or destroyed by, each of the five elements, symbolized by the sacred geometry of the Five Platonic Solids. We are the active recipients of each element, that of earth, water, fire, air. When in balance, and in accord with the needs of a living organism, life holds to its myriad of expressions. The fifth element refers to the very spirit of life in its expressive communication, light, and intent. The wisdom of the ancients, that of Egypt, India, China, Early Greek and Roman… calls our attention to the forces of nature, be it of animal, be it of plant, or be it of the celestial realms. Appreciating and understanding the art and science of sound, the art and science of energy pathways, the art and science of the chakra vortexes, have and continue to serve my health, my wellbeing creatively, artistically, professionally, and my ever present awe with life in its myriad of forms, functions, structures, responses, and beauty.

And , YES... “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ~Albert Einstein

Rose Marie Raccioppi, MS FABI

Founder/Director

APOGEE Acu-Tone™

www.apogeeacutone.blogspot.com

February 1, 2019

Insecticides put world food supplies at risk, say scientists

Regulations on pesticides have failed 

to prevent poisoning of almost all habitats, 

international team of scientists concludes

Damian Carrington

The Guardian

Farmers use helicopters to spray insecticide and fertilizer on wheat crops in Henan province, China. Photograph: TPG/Getty Images

The world’s most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals’ impacts.

The researchers compare their impact with that reported in Silent Spring, the landmark 1962 book by Rachel Carson that revealed the decimation of birds and insects by the blanket use of DDT and other pesticides and led to the modern environmental movement.

Billions of dollars’ worth of the potent and long-lasting neurotoxins are sold every year but regulations have failed to prevent the poisoning of almost all habitats, the international team of scientists concluded in the most detailed study yet. As a result, they say, creatures essential to global food production – from bees to earthworms – are likely to be suffering grave harm and the chemicals must be phased out.

The new assessment analysed the risks associated with neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides on which farmers spend $2.6bn (£1.53bn) a year. Neonicotinoids are applied routinely rather than in response to pest attacks but the scientists highlight the “striking” lack of evidence that this leads to increased crop yields.

“The evidence is very clear. We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT,” said Jean-Marc Bonmatin, of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, one of the 29 international researchers who conducted the four-year assessment. “Far from protecting food production, the use of neonicotinoid insecticides is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it.” He said the chemicals imperilled food supplies by harming bees and other pollinators, which fertilise about three-quarters of the world’s crops, and the organisms that create the healthy soils which the world’s food requires in order to grow.

Systemic insecticides. Photograph: /Guim

Professor Dave Goulson, at the University of Sussex, another member of the team, said: “It is astonishing we have learned so little. After Silent Spring revealed the unfortunate side-effects of those chemicals, there was a big backlash. But we seem to have gone back to exactly what we were doing in the 1950s. It is just history repeating itself. The pervasive nature of these chemicals mean they are found everywhere now.

“If all our soils are toxic, that should really worry us, as soil is crucial to food production."

The assessment, published on Tuesday, cites the chemicals as a key factor in the decline of bees, alongside the loss of flower-rich habitats meadows and disease. The insecticides harm bees’ ability to navigateand learn, damage their immune systems and cut colony growth. In worms, which provide a critical role in aerating soil, exposure to the chemicals affects their ability to tunnel.

Dragonflies, which eat mosquitoes, and other creatures that live in water are also suffering, with some studies showing that ditchwater has become so contaminated it could be used directly as a lice-control pesticide.

The report warned that loss of insects may be linked to major declines in the birds that feed on them, though it also notes that eating just a few insecticide-treated seeds would kill birds directly.

One of the last living male dusky seaside sparrows is seen in this 1981 file photo while in captivity at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida. DDT pesticide spraying since the 1940s contributed to the extinction of this species. Photograph: Nathan Benn/Corbis

“Overall, a compelling body of evidence has accumulated that clearly demonstrates that the wide-scale use of these persistent, water-soluble chemicals is having widespread, chronic impacts upon global biodiversity and is likely to be having major negative effects on ecosystem services such as pollination that are vital to food security,” the study concluded.

The report is being published as a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research and was funded by a charitable foundation run by the ethical bank Triodos.

The EU, opposed by the British government and the National Farmers Union, has already imposed a temporary three-year moratorium on the use of some neonicotinoids on some crops. This month US presidentBarack Obama ordered an urgent assessment of the impact of neonicotinoids on bees. But the insecticides are used all over the world on crops, as well as flea treatments in cats and dogs and to protect timber from termites.

However, the Crop Protection Association, which represents pesticide manufacturers, criticised the report. Nick von Westenholz, chief executive of the CPA, said: “It is a selective review of existing studies which highlighted worst-case scenarios, largely produced under laboratory conditions. As such, the publication does not represent a robust assessment of the safety of systemic pesticides under realistic conditions of use.”

Von Westenholz added: “Importantly, they have failed or neglected to look at the broad benefits provided by this technology and the fact that by maximising yields from land already under cultivation, more wild spaces are preserved for biodiversity. The crop protection industry takes its responsibility towards pollinators seriously. We recognise the vital role pollinators play in global food production.”

A Bulgarian beekeeper grabs dead bees during a demonstration in Sofia to call for a moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in April. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

The new report, called the Worldwide Integrated Assessment on Systemic Pesticides, analysed every peer-reviewed scientific paper on neonicotinoids and another insecticide called fipronil since they were first used in the mid-1990s. These chemicals are different from other pesticides because, instead of being sprayed over crops, they are usually used to treat seeds. This means they are taken up by every part of the growing plant, including roots, leaves, pollen and nectar, providing multiple ways for other creatures to be exposed.

The scientists found that the use of the insecticides shows a “rapid increase” over the past decade and that the slow breakdown of the compounds and their ability to be washed off fields in water has led to “large-scale contamination”. The team states that current rules on use have failed to prevent dangerous levels building up in the environment.

Almost as concerning as what is known about neonicotinoids is what is not known, the researchers said. Most countries have no public data on the quantities or locations of the systemic pesticides being applied. The testing demanded by regulators to date has not determined the long-term effect of sub-lethal doses, nor has it assessed the impact of the combined impact of the cocktail of many pesticides encountered in most fields. The toxicity of neonicotinoids has only been established for very few of the species known to be exposed. For example, just four of the 25,000 known species of bee have been assessed. There is virtually no data on effects on reptiles or mammals.

Original Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/24/insecticides-world-food-supplies-risk

A Mother - An Activist - Reaches Out: A Call to Action: Protecting our most vulnerable population, our born and unborn children.

A Call to Action: Protecting our most vulnerable population, our born and unborn children.

by Kristen Hayes-Yearick on Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 11:39am

Jeremiah 1:4-5

“The Lord spoke his word to me, saying:

Before I made you in your Mother’s womb, I chose you.

Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work.

I appointed you as a Prophet to the Nations.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

My name is Kristen Hayes-Yearick, I am a Pro-Life, Catholic, Mother of three beautiful children and a children’s environmental health advocate. As a Pro-Life Woman, I believe in the sanctity of ALL life. As a Catholic, I believe that we have a moral obligation to protect God’s children and creation. As a Mother, I can’t silently watch our most vulnerable population, our born and unborn children, losing or fighting for their lives.

I’m writing to request an organized and unified “Call to Action” from the leaders of the Catholic Church, Catholic organizations and Pro-Life organizations to publicly broaden the definition of the Pro-Life movement to include environmental degradation and the toxic exposures and that are taking and threatening our born and unborn children’s lives. The toxic exposures are directly linked to many life ending, life threatening or life altering diseases in our children. The statistics and studies on environmental triggers to childhood illnesses available to us today are overwhelming. Our youngest generation is the unhealthiest in history. Our children are the first generation expected to not live as long as their parents lived. Our children are the first generation raised on Genetically Modified foods, milk and possibly animals. Our children are exposed to more toxins in their day to day lives than any other generation before them.

The warning signs are present in God’s creatures. There are increased reports of mass fish and bird kills. Intersex fish are showing up in rivers in Pennsylvania, around the Nation and the world. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a “Fish Consumption Public Health Advisory” In the 2011 Public Health Advisory, the DEP states, “Long lasting contaminants such as PCBs, chlordane, and mercury build up in your body over time. It may take months or years of regularly eating contaminated fish to build up amounts that are a health concern. Health problems that may result from the contaminants found in fish range from small changes in health that are hard to detect to birth defects and cancer. Mothers who eat highly contaminated fish for many years before becoming pregnant may have children who are slower to develop and learn. The meal advice in this advisory is intended to protect children from these potential developmental problems.” We’ve heard reports of wildlife with lesions and abscesses on their bodies, in their brains and their organs and yet--we do nothing.

Highlights from the information that I’ve included in the attachment:

-1 in 3 American children have Allergies, Asthma, ADHD or Autism

-CDC reports that childhood cancer incidence continues to rise

-Girls are entering puberty years before previous generations-breast development beginning at the age of 7: increasing their risk for reproductive and breast cancers.

- Male infertility appears to be on the rise, and studies suggest that more boys are being born with genital malformations.

-Chronic Childhood illness statistics continue to rise.

In his 1990 World Day of Peace message, Blessed Pope John Paul II issued a Call to Action for all Catholics, “The most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution. Often, the interests of production prevail over concern for the dignity of workers, while economic interests take priority over the good of individuals and even entire peoples. In these cases, pollution or environmental destruction is the result of an unnatural and reductionist vision which at times leads to a genuine contempt for man.

At the conclusion of this Message, I should like to address directly my brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church, in order to remind them of their serious obligation to care for all of creation. The commitment of believers to a healthy environment for everyone stems directly from their belief in God the Creator, from their recognition of the effects of original and personal sin, and from the certainty of having been redeemed by Christ. Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God (cf. Ps 148:96)..”

It is 2011, twenty one years after Blessed Pope John Paul II “Call to Action” message- what bold steps have we taken as a unified church to answer not only Pope John Paul II call, but God’s call to action? How many Catholics are aware of the position of the church on environmental illnesses and creation care? I recognize that there are wonderful and committed organizations within the church that dedicate their lives to protecting God’s creation and his children, but we need the entire church standing together and showing our strong commitment to protecting the sanctity of all life. It’s time for us to lead by example, God’s example.

In Pope Benedict XVI recent Call to Action he stated: “By acting now, in the spirit of common but differentiated responsibility, we accept our duty to one another and to the stewardship of a planet blessed with the gift of life. We are committed to ensuring that all inhabitants of this planet receive their daily bread, fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink as we are aware that, if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us. The believers among us ask God to grant us this wish.”

Pope Benedict XVI goes on to say, “Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II devoted his Message for the World Day of Peace to the theme: Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation. He emphasized our relationship, as God’s creatures, with the universe all around us. “In our day”, he wrote, “there is a growing awareness that world peace is threatened … also by a lack of due respect for nature”. He added that “ecological awareness, rather than being downplayed, needs to be helped to develop and mature, and find fitting expression in concrete programmes and initiatives”

Previous Popes had spoken of the relationship between human beings and the environment. In 1971, for example, on the eightieth anniversary of Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum, Paul VI pointed out that “by an ill-considered exploitation of nature (man) risks destroying it and becoming in his turn the victim of this degradation”. He added that“not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace – pollution and refuse, new illnesses and absolute destructive capacity – but the human framework is no longer under man’s control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family”

This daily barrage of chemicals makes individual awareness and good choices imperative. We can choose which foods, cosmetics, cleaning and household supplies we allow into our homes. However, there is an enormous difference between making bad choices for ourselves and the choices that are being made for us. How can we protect our children? These little ones are not little Democrats or little Republicans, they are children who are utterly dependant on us to make the right decisions for their future. How can Mothers protect their children, if they don’t know their children need protecting? The era of apathy and complacency has ended. We must reclaim our position as stewards of God’s creation, to unite, to build bridges, to focus on our similarities instead of our differences. God is calling his church to reclaim his creation and protect his most precious creations, his children. The time is now!

I have met with a Pennsylvania State Representative about possible Pesticide legislation. I am meeting with another Pennsylvania State Representative about possible Pesticide legislation in July. I am actively reaching out to our elected officials to lobby for protection of our God given natural resources that are necessary for life. (air, water, soil and food)

Our goals should be simple--I humbly request that:

-We organize Archdiocese Children’s Environmental Health-Creation Care Councils

-We organize Diocesan Creation Care Councils

-We have our Priests, Religious women, Religious men and the Laity connect with environmentalists within their congregations.

-We establish Children’s Environmental Health/Creation Care groups to educate our congregations about the environmental threats facing our children and communities today.

-We Incorporate Creation Care and Children’s Environmental Health issues into the Homily at masses at least six times a year.

-We organize Children’s Environmental Health/Creation Care rally’s/walks/conferences/fairs to bring much needed attention to the issues. (Could we choose Blessed John Paul II's feast day, October 22nd, to honor his commitment to protecting and defending the Sanctity of all life)

-We incorporate Creation Care into our Catholic Schools

-We establish Creation Care (Environmental) groups/clubs at our Catholic Schools.

-We hold Politicians accountable that go against the teachings of the church. (Pro-Abortion, Pro-Euthanasia, Pro-Capital Punishment and Pro-Industry Deregulation/Pollution) Contact Politicians, as a unified voice, to visibly show where the unified church stands on the particular issue.

-We need to research, recognize and acknowledge the roll that Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Genetically Modified foods play in fertility, conception, implantation and pregnancy loss.

-We need to research, recognize and acknowledge the roll that High-Volume Slick Water Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking) plays in contaminating water, air, soil and food. This is a common global threat to humanity.

-

We need to research, recognize and acknowledge the roll that pesticides, herbicides and fungicides play in childhood diseases-- cancers, Autism, ADHD and Birth Defects. ( to name a few)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your time and consideration. I have included our story on pages 69-76. After my family was repeatedly exposed to an Organophosphate Pesticide, Dimethoate 4EC, that killed our 90lb Golden Retriever and caused profound health issues in my family, I was lost, angry, confused and afraid of the unknown. I wasn’t prepared for that situation. I wasn’t prepared for my son to stop talking. I wasn’t prepared for the light going out in my sweet boys eyes. I wasn’t prepared for him to be diagnosed with PDD-NOS. I wasn’t prepared for daughter to develop Raynaud’s Disease, cysts in her thyroid and chest pain. I wasn’t prepared for any of the health issues that appeared. On my journey, I have found where my faith and science come together--as one. I have spent the past six years battling health insurance companies, trying to open the minds of our Physicians in reference to pesticide and chemically induced illnesses in children and adults, researching pesticides, studying policies and raising awareness. I have prayed long and hard asking God to show me his will. What did he want me to do with our experience, the research, studies and statistics? I prayed for Blessed John Paul II to intercede on behalf of our children asking God to direct me according to his will. This collection of resources, studies, articles and stories have been invaluable on my investigative journey from our past, to the present and as a window into our future. I took the time to highlight sections of the studies, articles and resources to make it easier for each of you to glance over it. I know that I have included a lot of information, but it’s only a raindrop in an ocean of issues plaguing the world. I hope that you’ll take the time to look over the overwhelming evidence to the gravity and urgency of the issues that human beings and all of God’s creations are facing today, tomorrow and in the future.

May God Bless each of you,

Kristen Hayes-Yearick