Unfortunately, EPA seems to be turning a blind eye to emerging evidence, and is poised to open the floodgates to more pyrethroid products and uses. We need to tell them it’s not a good idea.

Pyrethroids exploded onto the market more than a decade ago, and are now in widespread use on pets, in homes and gardens, and in agricultural fields. But studies exploring our levels of exposure and the long term health effects have only bubbled up in the past few years.

And the findings raise some serious red flags. A 2010 study on exposure levels, for example, found that more than 70% of us have been exposed to the pesticides, with children facing the highest levels.

Children, bees & poisoning incidents

Our colleagues at Beyond Pesticides have been keeping close tabs on the emerging science of pyrethroids, including impacts of low dose exposure on puberty, the prevalence of the chemical in daycare dust, and impacts of the “new” pesticides on bees.

As we reported in GroundTruth last spring, in early February 2011 a careful, solid study on prenatal exposure found that children whose mothers were exposed to higher levels of pyrethroids during pregnancy were three times more likely to have developmental delays.

A few years back, The Center for for Public Integrity reported that the new, supposedly safer pesticides now lead the pack in terms of number of poisoning incidents nationwide, and the number of moderate to serious incidents — more than 6,000 — is significantly higher than any other group of bug killers. Huh. Maybe not so safe after all.

Tell EPA not to ignore the evidence

In early November, EPA issued its evaluation of the “cumulative risk” of pyrethroids and pyrethrins (the naturally derived variety). Astonishingly, they concluded that these pesticides “do not pose risk concerns for children or adults,” and are proposing to green light product expansion.

As our colleagues at Beyond Pesticides note, this finding ignores a wealth of independent data not only on a range of human health effects, but also on the onset of insect resistance.

So not only are the risks higher than originally believed, but now questions about whether the products even work are emerging as bugs evolve to resist them. Sound familiar?

Take Action » EPA is accepting public comments until February 8. Please sign PAN’s petition today, telling EPA that increased use of synthetic pyrethroids is unnecessary and puts children in harm’s way.

A version of this post appeared previously on GroundTruth.

Skip the cans: Limit the BPA in your game day snacks by limiting your canned ingredients, or choosing BPA free alternatives. Soak beans overnight and boil them the next day for baked beans or bean dip. If you’re making chili, avoid canned tomatoes or tomato paste and look for boxed or jarred alternatives. You can also replace canned tomatoes with cooked fresh tomatoes. For beverages, Healthy Child, Healthy World recommends choosing beer and soda in glass bottles instead of canned if possible.

Less packaging: Look for ways to reduce the amount of plastic and packaging you purchase for your party. Save money, and avoid packaging, by buying bulk snacks, sweets, and ingredients. Steer clear of overly packaged convenience produce, like prewashed lettuce, premade carrot sticks, or individually wrapped fruits or veggies. These items often carry a higher price tag. Look for loose produce at your supermarket, or use this tool to find a local farmer’s market. Skip plastic tubs or bags by using minimally packaged ingredients to make one of your favorite snack foods at home, like potato chips or salsa.

Smarter produce: Veggies may not seem like a big part of your Superbowl menu. But a lot of traditional game day foods feature a few pieces of produce: cut up veggies for all those dips, chopped onions and peppers to top off a bowl of chili, celery sticks cozied up next to chicken wings. Remember to rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Wash inedible peels; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife. For edible peels, peeling non-organic fruits and vegetables is an easy way to avoid the chemicals that are absorbed into the peel.

Rethink disposables: If you can lose the disposable silverware and plates, that’s great. If you can’t, what about losing one of them? Keep your disposable plates, but use regular silverware. Use the restaurant trick of keeping a bowl of hot water by the sink and dump used silverware in the bowl so it’s rinsed and ready for the dishwasher. Or add dishsoap to the water and give your soapy silverware a quick scrub and rinse when the party is over. Try bamboo or unbleached recycled paper products for dishes and napkins. Remember to make recycling obvious by clearly marking your recycling bin.

Lose the shoes: Lower your toxic chemical exposures by asking your guests to leave their shoes at the door. Lead-contaminated soil from the outside creates the majority of lead dust inside our homes. Leaving your shoes at the door can cut your lead dust levels by 60 percent, and also reduce your exposure to pesticides, dust mites, and more. Create a designated space for shoes by the door and make it obvious to your guests by putting up a sign, placing a mat in the space, or putting a few pairs of your own shoes there.

More Non-toxic Tips Tuesdays:

• Take BPA Off of Your Grocery List
• Five Tips for the Non-toxic Chef
• A Green Makeover for Your Cleaning Supplies

Do you have any green Super Bowl party tips or recipes? Leave them in the comments, or visit our Facebook page and share them with the MomsRising community.

Last week Michelle Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Rachael Ray announced new nutrition standards for school lunches, the first major change in school meals in over 15 years.

The program allots an additional six cents per school lunch—the first real increase in 30 years.  The new standards call for more whole grains and produce, as well as less sodium and fat, and are the first to be enacted as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign, which was signed into law last year by President Obama. It will affect the nearly 32 million kids who participate in subsidized school lunch programs each day—many of whom get half their daily calories from these meals.

What’s different? Milk goes low- or no-fat, portion sizes shrink to limit calories, and fresh fruits and vegetables are offered every day, among other recommendations echoed in the Eat Healthy section of our 5 Easy Steps.

What’s not? Potatoes are unlimited—although now the majority will be baked, rather than fried—and tomato sauce still makes pizza a vegetable. “It was a bit unfortunate that some groups had powerful friends in Congress and basically tried…create some confusion with these standards,” Vilsack said in a virtual press conference that I attended. “Our response was to set up minimum requirements. You have to have a minimum level of dark green vegetables, you’ve got to have a minimum level of red or orange or yellow vegetables.”

“OK, so Congress left pizza a vegetable,” Ray said. “But we are changing the game today. That [lunch] tray is going to have leafy greens and colorful fruit on it. If one of the other vegetables happens to be pizza or French fries in some schools that day, it doesn’t negate the fact that on the tray there…will include vegetables and fruits.” (For more specifics, check out WebMD’s excellent breakdown of the new standards.)

Regarding organics, Secretary Vilsack said they encourage organics but will leave the decision about integrating to the individual school districts. But he responded to my question about Genetically Engineered foods by saying they would leave this up to “consumer choice.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask him how we can have a choice, given the fact that GEs are not required to be identified on labels—yet are now in 80% of processed foods.

Or to ask if he was aware that 93% of Americans now say they want GE foods to be labeled. (Are you one of them? Sign the Just Label It petition today!)

Sigh. I guess we have to start somewhere. And these new standards are definitely better for our kids.

Hopefully that pizza will have a whole-wheat crust.

P.S. Congratulations from all of us at Healthy Child Healthy World to Mr. Wells’ 4th grade class at the Park School in Brookline, Massachusetts for changing Universal Pictures’ mind about eliminating green content from “The Lorax” movie. As our founder Nancy Chuda wrote last week, when the kids saw the trailer, they realized that the environmental themes–which, as any parent who’s read this story at bedtime knows, are the bedrock of the story–were largely missing. To restore the original meaning to the film, Mr. Wells’ class put together a video and petitioned Universal to add more environmental messaging to their website. And this week, after more than 57,000 people signed their petition,  the Universal webpage was updated to reflect the students’ requests. Dr. Seuss once wrote, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” We’re inspired by these kids, who cared enough to make it better. A lot.

Here is Dena’s wrap up of the series:

Toxin A Day Wrap Up

By Dena Fleno, CT Working Moms Blogger

Whew… that was exhausting!  I’m sure you are thinking right about now that this is completely overwhelming, so many things to remember, look for, learn about.

I felt, and still feel the same way.

It is sad, scary, and a tad mind-boggling that we have to spend so much time, energy, and brain power trying to make informed decisions about the simplest of things… like soap.  There are so many questions that come up?

Why are companies putting these chemicals in our products?

Why are they so reluctant to take them out?

Why can I not just trust that the product on the shelf is safe and doesn’t have the potential to harm me or those I love?

Simple answer… because they can.

The regulating agencies can say that certain ingredients can or cannot be in certain products, but there is absolutely no oversight to make sure that these regulations are followed through on.

It’s like handing your kids a pint of ice cream and an apple to choose from, walking away and hoping they make a healthy decision.

They have highly paid, powerful lobbyists who make sure that legislation continues to go their way.  But we have power too, the kind that also comes also with money. It’s called purchasing power.  We can say we are not going to buy their products unless they clean up their act.

In the end…

What I want readers to come away with from this series is a bit more knowledge and the spark to make some changes in the way we look at the things we use.  You don’t have to completely overhaul your life and have a panic attack every time you walk in the store to buy shampoo.  Small changes can do a wonder in the long-term.

Believe me, I am the first to tell you that I am not perfect when it comes to Cleaner Living everywhere possible.  I do not compost, I eat junk food more than my waistline would like, I REALLY like red lipstick, I use disposable diapers, I get manis and pedis, and my kids have had McDonald’s enough times for them to recognize the golden arches from afar.

But I am trying to make small changes in our lives that we can stick to and feel better about.  I can take some of the worst offenders and eliminate them or dramatically decrease them from our every day use.  I can send a message to manufacturers that I want safe products for my family.

And you can too.

I said I would compile a list of all of the ingredients we talked about to look out for so here it is in alphabetical order.  The toxin is in parentheses next to it:

• _eth_ such as sodium laureth sulfate (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• 1,4 Dioxane (carcinogen)
• 2 Bromo-2 nitropane- 1,3 Diol (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• 5-Bromo-5-Nitro-1,3 Dioxane (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Anti-bacterial products (can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• BHA (Butylated hydroxyanisole- carcinogen)
• Butylated hydroxyanisole (carcinogen)
• butylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• ceteareth (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Coal Tar (carcinogen)
• DEP (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• diethyl phthalate (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• DMDM Hydantoin (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• ethylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• formaldehyde (carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Fragrance (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• Hydroquinone (carcinogen, skin irritant)
• Methenamine (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• methylene glycol (formaldehyde+water- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• methylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• oleth (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Oxybenzone (carcinogen)
• oxynol (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• PEG’s (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• Phthalate derivatives (Phthalates- hormone disruptor)
• polyethylene (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyethylene glycol (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyoxyethylene (possible contamination of 1,4 dioxane- carcinogen)
• polyurethane foam with a label reading TB117 (Tris fire retardant- cancer, hormone disruptor, neurotoxin)
• propylparaben (Parabens- carcinogen)
• quaternium-15 (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Retinol (Retinyl palmitate- carcinogen)
• Retinyl palmitate (Retinyl palmitate- carcinogen)
• Sodium Nitrite (nitrosamines in foods- carcinogen)
• Toco- roots (may contain hydroquinone impurity- carcinogen, skin irritant)
• Triclocarban (hormone disruptor, can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• Triclosan (hormone disruptor, can promote antibiotic-resistant bacteria)
• Urea (formaldehyde releasing preservative- carcinogen, skin irritant and asthmagen)
• Vitamin A (carcinogen)

I hope that this has been helpful to some of you, and that you can take at least one thing from this series and make a few changes for a healthier tomorrow.

Read all of her posts here.

And we need your ears too! Tweet with us @MomsRising in conversation on Twitter starting at 9:00 PM EST tonight.

If you don’t tweet, please join the conversation right here on the blog! Leave your comments under this blogpost during and after the speech. Let us know what you heard and what you think of the speech. We’ll be reading every comment–we want to know what you care about, what you think about the President’s remarks and what our national priorities should be for families in 2012.

When is a salmon not a salmon? It sounds ridiculous, but that’s one of the most important issues in the food world, where the gloves are off in the fight about genetically engineered foods.

Genetically engineered or modified foods—known as GE foods or GMOs—have been unnaturally altered at the molecular level. The DNA from different sources or even different species are combined together to create a new set of genes that are thought to confer an advantage, such as more rapid growth or resistance to cold.

And, according to Healthy Child board member and food activist Robyn O’Brien, who appears in this video, some GE foods are designed to release insecticides inside the plant and to withstand increasing doses of pesticides. That’s right, insecticides and pesticides linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, birth defects, reproductive disorders, kidney and liver damage, according to Dr. Phil Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who also serves on our Honorary Board.

Produced by the Just Label It coalition, of which Healthy Child Healthy World is a proud partner, the video reflects American’s growing concern about GE ingredients, which are in 80 percent of conventionally processed foods, according to the Washington Post, yet aren’t required to be labeled in the U.S.—unlike Russia, Brazil, Australia, China, Japan, and 15 countries in the European Union.

A poll conducted by ABCNews last June found 93 percent of people think the government should require labels on genetically modified foods, and 52 percent believe genetically modified foods are unsafe.

States are also taking up the cause: Fourteen states have introduced legislation requiring labels on genetically engineered foods. But, in a setback, last week the California Assembly failed to pass legislation to label genetically engineered fish.

More than a half million people have signed the Just Label It petition to date—nearly three times more signatures than have ever been sent to the FDA on any topic. The labeling movement has so much traction that Gary Hirshberg, the visionary CEO of Stonyfield Farms, recently stepped down to focus on labeling advocacy work.

Oh, and about that salmon—which kicked off the hubbub in the first place. Makers of genetically modified salmon are currently seeking US FDA approval to sell their fish as salmon. If approved, the new salmon, dubbed “Frankenfish” by opponents, would become the first genetically engineered animal to enter the market.

We have a right to know what is in our food. We have a right to make informed choices and decisions about the kinds of food we feed our families. Without a label, we simply can’t exercise these rights.

And a fish might no longer be just a fish.

Taking toxic chemicals out of your home can feel incredibly overwhelming. But you don’t have to throw everything away, and you don’t have to throw out your budget. Take small steps. Make changes that make sense for your budget. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Over time, I stopped making that frenzied, and ultimately unhelpful, race through my apartment. Instead, I found simple, inexpensive (often free) changes I could make to take toxic chemicals out of my home. Recently, we discussed easy tips to give your bathroom a non-toxic makeover. This week, lets take a look at simple solutions for taking toxic chemicals out of your kitchen

Cleaning supplies: Give your kitchen cleaning supplies an inexpensive nontoxic upgrade by making DIY versions (don’t worry: these are simple, two ingredient fixes):

• Garbage Disposal Cleaner: Try this recipe from the Smart Mama–Combine water and distilled white vinegar in ice cube trays and use the frozen cubes as a homemade disposal cleaner.
• Sink cleaner: Use Savvy Brown’s sink cleaning solution by scrubbing a dirty sink with a simple mix of vineger and baking soda.
• Oven cleaner: A simple paste made from baking soda and water is an excellent oven cleaner. Follow these steps from Healthy Child, Healthy World to clean your oven the non-toxic way.

Cooking materials: One easy way to reduce toxics in your cookware is to think about which pot or pan you use the most and focus on making that the safest. If you are in the market for new cookware, try these tips on materials from Planet Home:

• Glass: Ovenproof glass is “inexpensive, reusable, and recyclable.” While it’s great for baking, most glass can not be used on the stove.

• Ceramic: Make sure it’s lead-free, and skip painted ceramic dishes in particular unless you’re certain that they don’t contain lead.

• Stainless steel: Aim for completely stainless steel if possible; these versions are the least likely to leach components into cooking foods.

Other durable, nontoxic materials include cast iron, copper, and enamel-coated cast iron. If you are currently using pans with a nonstick coating, make sure to replace them once the coating has been scratched or torn.

Tap water: If you’re in the market for a water filter, the Environmental Working Group’s  water filter guide will help you choose the filter that’s right for you and your budget needs. If not, there are a few easy tips you can use to make your tap water safer:

• Always cook with and drink cold water from the tap.
• Let water for a minute in the morning before you use it.
• The Green Guide recommends placing an open container of water in the fridge for a few hours, which helps filter out chlorine, and let water run for a full minute before you use it for cooking or drinking.

Wash everything thoroughly: The best way to detox your fruits and veggies is to make sure they’re thoroughly cleaned so that you’re not consuming any chemicals that are lingering on the skin. This is especially important for non-organic produce.

• Rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Not sure how to time 30 seconds? It’s about the length of time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice in your head.
• Wash inedible peels; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife.
• Try a scrub, but don’t waste money on pricey commercial versions. Check out this guide to washing produce by Mama in the Kitchen; it has two simple, vinegar based and salt based scrubs that you can make at home.

Making the most of your produce: Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of any healthy diet. Try to choose the healthiest produce for your budget, and make it last, with these easy tips:

• The Dirty Dozen is a list by the Environmental Working Group of the most highly pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables. If you can’t buy organic versions of these items, that’s okay. Try to reduce your consumption of them if possible and make sure to stringently follow the cleaning tips listed above. Or, swap out Dirty Dozen items with produce from the Clean 15; this list from the Environmental Working Group shows the conventionally grown fruits and veggies with the least pesticide contamination.
• This guide shows you how to store fruits and vegetables so they’re less likely to spoil quickly, and how soon you should eat them after purchase.
• If you find a great deal at your local supermarket on organic produce, why not create your own frozen food? The National Center for Home Food Preservation gives you a rundown of how to freeze specific fruits and vegetables so you can store and freeze your produce safely.

Photo from Flickr user nubby tongue

However, as the years go by and as I grow up, the red envelopes eventually disappear and along with it, the fairy-tale like wishes for my parents’ long life, good health and good fortune. Although we wish our parents good health and longevity out of tradition, respect, and wholehearted goodwill, as Asian American immigrants, many of us already know these wishes do not always reflect the reality of the upcoming year. To what extent do we act on these wishes and can they even be achieved with the current state of America and especially in the case of Asian American immigrants?

My mother, who just turned 60 last year, has been working multiple jobs to make ends meet throughout all of her life. One main job that particularly detriments her health is working in the nail salon industry where she constantly interacts with unsafe chemicals. In this industry, toxic chemicals such as Formaldehyde, Toluene, and DBP—the toxic trio—are continuously released at much higher levels than what is determined to be “safe” by the FDA. Formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen and all of the chemicals have been shown to cause many hazardous health problems. Although this is the reality, there is currently no pre-market safety regulation of toxic chemicals in general.

This is particularly bothersome, because the Vietnamese American community faces these health burdens disproportionately: up to 80% of the nail salon workforce is Vietnamese. I’ve grown up with this industry and every Vietnamese person I know is connected to this industry in one way or another—either by being a worker themselves or having an immediate family member who is a nail salon worker. I see the toxic work environment affecting my mother every day as I helplessly witness new aches and pains as well as other neurological effects, such as headaches and dizziness. Through her myriad of health problems, her most recent complaint is not being able to extend her right hand at times. Is there something that can be done for her health?

With this New Year, if health is something we believe in, a step we can take to ensure our New Year wishes are not made in vain is to advocate for safer products. We can do a few things: 1) At your favorite nail salon, ask for toxic trio free products!  2) Support the Safe Cosmetics Act, which will require pre-market safety assessments for personal care products like nail salon products!  3) Join efforts with organizations like the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative (www.cahealthynailsalons.org) to advocate for the health of our communities. I will be working with the CA Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative to fight for policy changes in the cosmetics industry to produce safer products and I hope you will join too. Without these efforts, my mother, and countless other low-income Asian American families, would not be able to support their family in an economic, safe, and sustainable way. I hope that we will all challenge what it means to be ‘healthy’ and ‘prosperous’ today, as we make our New Lunar Year wishes to our family and friends.

The RESTORE Act, or Senate Bill 1400, was introduced by Gulf Coast Senators as a effort to send 80% of the fines BP will pay from this disaster back to the Gulf Coast for environmental and economic recovery.  It has passed through committee, but we now need it to pass a vote of the full Senate. Sending this money to the region that suffered can make a huge impact on Gulf economies and make the area more resilient to future disasters.  The Gulf produces nearly half of the U.S. domestic energy supply, holds seven of the nation’s ten largest ports, and produces two-thirds of the nation’s shrimp and oysters.  The health of these resources truly impacts the entire nation.

What we need from you:

Mobile Baykeeper, in conjunction with the Women of the Storm, needs friends in Non-Gulf Coast states to fax and/or phone their two US senators. Ask for the staffer on environmental or governmental affairs, and urge the senator to support the RESTORE Act.  You can find the names and contact information from Senators in all 50 states here.  Our goal is to make contact with Senators by February 3, 2012.

Message:

• The Gulf Coast provides energy independence, commerce, ecotourism, and national security to the entire nation. Restoration of Gulf resources is critical for the region as well as the nation.
• If most of the fine dollars are not designated to environmental and economic recovery of the Gulf Coast, they will disappear into the federal budget.  Applying BP fine dollars to Gulf restoration will create thousands of jobs and make the area more resilient to future disasters.
• When a disaster of this magnitude strikes, the entire nation must support the affected area.  The Gulf Coast’s environment, economy, and communities bore the brunt of this disaster, and these fines should go back to the Gulf Coast to fix what has been broken.  The next disaster could be in that Senator’s state; we would want citizens of that state to get fair and reasonable support.

Sample content for fax or phone call:

“Senator (NAME), I support the RESTORE Act because I know the importance of the Gulf Coast to (Senator’s State), the United States and around the world.  I hope you will support it too.”  Then add a version of the message points above.

Feedback:

Please email me at therrington@mobilebaykeeper.org the states in which you have made contact with friends to call their senators and the information you and your friends have received about senatorial positions on the RESTORE Act so we can keep track of our activity.  Thank you so much for your help.  We are grateful to have your support and hopeful that we can work together to pass the RESTORE Act in 2012.

The meeting place, however, was not the school cafeteria or the local library. It was the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and our “mom committee” included the likes of Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, Mocha Moms Co-Founder and President Emerita Cheli English-Figaro, Mocha Moms National Co-Director of Community Service LaShaun Martin, Julie Diaz Asper of LATism, and of course EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Thanking the EPA for Clean Air on January 18, 2012

The immediate reason for the gathering was for MomsRising, joined by Mocha Moms and LATism, to deliver to Administrator Jackson thousands of thank you cards from parents across the country, who are grateful for and ecstatic about the EPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. These standards will protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic pollutants, such as arsenic, acid gas and cyanide, preventing an estimated 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis. As an asthma mom, I’m certain that a couple of those asthma cases that will never happen has my daughter’s name on them.

But however great the new standards, this particular mom committee’s work is far from done. Businesses and other profit-motivated interests will continue to do their best to weaken the standards and prevent the EPA from enforcing a host of other regulations that protect American kids from environmental hazards like unsafe food and contaminated water. Moms and dads will have to continue to be vigilant and active in order to make sure that our kids’ health remains the United States’ top priority. If we don’t, who will?

While local PTA meetings and fundraising drives will remain a big part of my life, I’m making time for the national mom committee for clean air. All you moms and dads out there, please join me. Only by working together can we make sure this project succeeds!