Thursday, May 27, 2010
Chemicals in your Home
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
This is an abridged article from Toronto Star of May 2010, "Secret ingredients found in perfumes" by Noor Javed
They make you smell like an exotic flower, but popular perfumes and body sprays may also be dousing you with small amounts of chemicals and trigger allergic reactions and disrupt hormones.
Toronto based Environmental Defence and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in the US tested 17 popular fragrance products and found they contained a total of 38 secret chemicals not listed on the label. On average, each product had 14 of those chemicals.10 of them are known to cause allergies and 4 have a potential to disrupt the hormone system. Many of them are classified as allergens by the European Union, says Rick Smith of the Environmental Defence. "The problem is that they are listed under a generic name "fragrance" and Canadian laws do not oblige the cosmetic manufacturers to be transparent."
People with chemical sensitivities may suffer from nausea, headaches and skin reactions if exposed to strong scents. That's why they are limited even in staying in places with other people, such as theatres and street cars.
TASK: Check this website and discuss about your findings.
LANGUAGE TASK:
Find the past participles in the text and decide which of them are used as:
1. passive forms
2. adjectives.
They make you smell like an exotic flower, but popular perfumes and body sprays may also be dousing you with small amounts of chemicals and trigger allergic reactions and disrupt hormones.
Toronto based Environmental Defence and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in the US tested 17 popular fragrance products and found they contained a total of 38 secret chemicals not listed on the label. On average, each product had 14 of those chemicals.10 of them are known to cause allergies and 4 have a potential to disrupt the hormone system. Many of them are classified as allergens by the European Union, says Rick Smith of the Environmental Defence. "The problem is that they are listed under a generic name "fragrance" and Canadian laws do not oblige the cosmetic manufacturers to be transparent."
People with chemical sensitivities may suffer from nausea, headaches and skin reactions if exposed to strong scents. That's why they are limited even in staying in places with other people, such as theatres and street cars.
TASK: Check this website and discuss about your findings.
LANGUAGE TASK:
Find the past participles in the text and decide which of them are used as:
1. passive forms
2. adjectives.
Teddy Bear in One Hand, Lipliner in the Other
This is an abridged article by Douglas Quenqua from Toronto Star of 3 May 2010
The choice between prohibition and harm reduction has long divided parents on pricky issues: forbid alcohol or supervise the inevitable kegger? Preach abstinence or buy condoms?
Now the struggle shows signs of coming to a new front: the cosmetic counter.
Regular use of cosmetics is rising sharply among tween girls, according to a new report from NPD Group, a US consumer company.
Meanwhile, women of all other age groups, including teenagers, report using less makeup, according to NPD. The economy seems to be playing the role, says karen Grant, senior beauty analyst with NPD, with women cutting back on beauty products to save money and unemployed women feeling less compelled to do their face every morning.
"They're not sneaking any of this stuff", Grant said. "They're doing the shopping with their moms, they're getting the money from their moms and families. It's becoming almost part of the family exercise."
Poor adult judgement or progressive parenting?
As with most such issues, it depends on whom you ask. Stacy Malkan, author of "Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry" said that parents have been fighting a losing battle with the beauty industry, which now aggressively markets to children.
Discussion questions:
1. How do you feel about the fact that children before teen years ("tweens") are using make up?
2. What could be possible consequences of premature aging?
3. In your opinion, what is "progressive parenting"?
4. What could be drawbacks of "conservative parenting"?
5. From a cultural point of view, how does raising children in your country of origin differ from Canadian ways?
6. Find out who you can contact in case you have issues raising your children in a new country.
7. Find out about health risks in using cosmetic products. If your class is interested, you can invite WHEN in Toronto for a presentation on this topic.
The choice between prohibition and harm reduction has long divided parents on pricky issues: forbid alcohol or supervise the inevitable kegger? Preach abstinence or buy condoms?
Now the struggle shows signs of coming to a new front: the cosmetic counter.
Regular use of cosmetics is rising sharply among tween girls, according to a new report from NPD Group, a US consumer company.
Meanwhile, women of all other age groups, including teenagers, report using less makeup, according to NPD. The economy seems to be playing the role, says karen Grant, senior beauty analyst with NPD, with women cutting back on beauty products to save money and unemployed women feeling less compelled to do their face every morning.
"They're not sneaking any of this stuff", Grant said. "They're doing the shopping with their moms, they're getting the money from their moms and families. It's becoming almost part of the family exercise."
Poor adult judgement or progressive parenting?
As with most such issues, it depends on whom you ask. Stacy Malkan, author of "Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry" said that parents have been fighting a losing battle with the beauty industry, which now aggressively markets to children.
Discussion questions:
1. How do you feel about the fact that children before teen years ("tweens") are using make up?
2. What could be possible consequences of premature aging?
3. In your opinion, what is "progressive parenting"?
4. What could be drawbacks of "conservative parenting"?
5. From a cultural point of view, how does raising children in your country of origin differ from Canadian ways?
6. Find out who you can contact in case you have issues raising your children in a new country.
7. Find out about health risks in using cosmetic products. If your class is interested, you can invite WHEN in Toronto for a presentation on this topic.
Under This Cloud, Life Chugs Along
This is an abridged article by Christopher Hume from Toronto Star of May 2010
Although volcanic ash from Iceland has paralyzed air traffic across Europe, it hasn't paralyzed Europe. But what if the jet stream flowed west, not east, and smoke was blowing across Canada? The results would be catastrophic.
Why? Because in North America, we have no other serious forms of transportation. Take aviation out of the picture and what's left? The answer, sad to say, is precious little. Other than cars and trucks, we would have few alternatives.
Europe, by contrast, is connected by formidable network of trains, high-speed intercontinental lines, intercity service and local commuter lines.
Despite what Canadians might like to believe, Europeans, whether Germans or Swedes, love their cars every bit as much as we do. But judging from the number of people in Berlin who get around by transit and ride bikes, which have their own lanes throughout the city, it's understood that one of the great advantages of urban life is that you don't have to drive everywhere.
In this way, the New World and the Old World have traded places.
Discussion questions:
1. What does author mind in North America?
2. What does he refer to as "precious little"?
3. What would have happened if the ash had blown west?
4. In which respect is the New World old now?
5. As a new Canadian, what do you think about driving everywhere?
Look at the phrases below and try to reconstruct the text that the author wrote in continuation of the above excerpt:
fall behind
lag technologically
distant past
antique system
sleeping ticket takers
outdated equipment
mechanical failures
Alberta tar sands
PLEASE SEND THE BLOGGER SOME SUCCESSSFUL STORIES. THANK YOU!
Although volcanic ash from Iceland has paralyzed air traffic across Europe, it hasn't paralyzed Europe. But what if the jet stream flowed west, not east, and smoke was blowing across Canada? The results would be catastrophic.
Why? Because in North America, we have no other serious forms of transportation. Take aviation out of the picture and what's left? The answer, sad to say, is precious little. Other than cars and trucks, we would have few alternatives.
Europe, by contrast, is connected by formidable network of trains, high-speed intercontinental lines, intercity service and local commuter lines.
Despite what Canadians might like to believe, Europeans, whether Germans or Swedes, love their cars every bit as much as we do. But judging from the number of people in Berlin who get around by transit and ride bikes, which have their own lanes throughout the city, it's understood that one of the great advantages of urban life is that you don't have to drive everywhere.
In this way, the New World and the Old World have traded places.
Discussion questions:
1. What does author mind in North America?
2. What does he refer to as "precious little"?
3. What would have happened if the ash had blown west?
4. In which respect is the New World old now?
5. As a new Canadian, what do you think about driving everywhere?
Look at the phrases below and try to reconstruct the text that the author wrote in continuation of the above excerpt:
fall behind
lag technologically
distant past
antique system
sleeping ticket takers
outdated equipment
mechanical failures
Alberta tar sands
PLEASE SEND THE BLOGGER SOME SUCCESSSFUL STORIES. THANK YOU!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
STORY OF BOTTLED WATER
The author of the Story of Stuff, having had about 10 million viewers,made another amazing video.
http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/
http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/
1. MORNING RUSH
Open this comic strip and discuss the pictures. It is possible to exploit this visual material for the lowest levels as well as the highest ones. For those with better speaking skills, you can discuss what in Jo's morning is an environmentally friendly/unfriendly behaviour. For more on plastic bottles, look under the tag "Plastics" for more material. The comic strip number 2 is a followup to this one.
PLASTIC BY THE NUMBERS
A very comprehensive article on the Greenopolis website, about recyclability of different plastic designations:
http://www.greenopolis.com/goblog/joe-laur/plastic-numbers-what-choose-what-lose
http://www.greenopolis.com/goblog/joe-laur/plastic-numbers-what-choose-what-lose
Sunday, May 2, 2010
SPRING WORDS
These word clouds with spring vocabulary will be handy and fun for your literacy students. You can create your own on wordle.net.
title="Wordle: Untitled">
alt="Wordle: Untitled"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
title="Wordle: Spring">
alt="Wordle: Spring"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
title="Wordle: Untitled">
alt="Wordle: Untitled"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
title="Wordle: Spring">
alt="Wordle: Spring"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
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