NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff writes about the ubiquity of BPA in our bodies, plus a gaggle of new studies linking BPA exposure to a variety of abnormalities in test animals. If you’ve been following the BPA Saga (including this impressive bit of corporate nastiness by Sigg), you’ll see that the latest research keeps upping the ante on the potential ill effects of BPA exposure in our food and water.

It always seems to me that the American Way of doing business really fails when it comes to protecting people from unknowns like chemical toxicity in products. The presumption in our system is that something is innocent (ie safe) until proven otherwise, and “proof” of either the legal or scientific variety is stunningly difficult to come by when you factor in the nature of statistical Randomness—not to mention the far-too-cozy relationship between industry and regulators, or the fact that the only organizations with enough money to fund large studies on these chemicals are the very companies who sell them.

I’ve always thought the big issue with chemical exposure is not the impact of any one chemical, but rather the rich brew Americans are exposed to only a daily basis as we use our computers, fire-safe rugs, clothing, and furniture, and all the other products of the modern age. What interactions and multiplying effects arise directly as a consequence are anyone’s guess—and virtually impossible to establish via any sort of replicable study.

My guess is future generations will be baffled by our cavalier attitude toward chemical exposures. And they’ll probably have the data, at long last, to show just exactly what the impact of something like BPA actually is. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if we didn’t have to wait a hundred years or more before our various industries switched to safer alternatives?

The New Yorker has a fascinating piece on SPF ratings in suntan lotion. Looks like I may have to rethink my standard SPF 50…

I was reading an article in this month’s Backpacker magazine about thirteen-year-old Jordan Romero, who is on a quest to be the youngest person ever to climb the so-called Seven Summits. While there’s certainly no lack of controversy about Jordan’s story (he summited Aconcagua at 11, and has plans to top Everest next year), what got my interest was learning that the boy and his dad sleep in a hypoxic tent in their Big Bear, CA, home to pre-acclimatize themselves for high altitude mountaineering.

Interesting—especially considering they already live around 7000′ in elevation. I ran a search for these altitude training tents, and came up with something even more interesting: the Altolab Kit, a portable device that reduces Oxygen in the air you breath in order to simulate the effects of high altitude (more…)

I’ve been contending with back pain for much of 2008, beginning with a severe cold last January that had me coughing and sneezing violently for about two weeks, which seemed to injure my back.

Following that, I re-injured my back skiing about two months later.

Throughout the year, my ability to rest and heal was limited, as I was constantly chasing my two-year-old. This November, things took a turn for the worse, so I figured it was time to see a doctor. I was expecting to hear I’d strained some muscle and needed to do some exercises and rest a bit. Instead, I found out I’ve got a herniated disk.

The good news is that surgery is not likely to be necessary. The bulge is mild to moderate, and with a course of medication and PT, may shrink back into place over time, leaving me (ideally) good as new.

I suppose I could think of this as a setback, but actually I think it’s kind of an opportunity: I can write about my back, and my rehab, sharing information to create a real-time, online resource for those of you who struggle with your own low back pain.

Each week, I’ll talk about medications and doctor visits. I’ll write about the newest research on spine injuries, and I’ll document my progress, step by step. I’ll do regular blog posts on the specific exercises and stretches I’m supposed to be doing. In fact, I’ll even create an image library showing photos of my PT exercises so you can try them at home, yourself. I know—I’ll hire sexy models and photograph them wearing Danskin T-back leotards as they demonstrate the exercises!

It’ll be fricking fantastic!!

Ah…who am I kidding? I’m pretty bummed about this. Stay tuned…

For fair-skinned persons like myself, it’s sort of the Holy Grail of sun protection: the concept of a sunscreen that you ingest as a pill rather than slather all over your body.

Interestingly enough, one of my parents’ health newsletters is mentioning a product called Heliocare which promises to do exactly that. It’s a pill. Take it before you go out into the sun, and you get extra protection from the sun.

Now, my parents have a lot of newsletters lying around, many of which date back to the 1960′s, so I first had to check to see if what I was reading was current. It was. Even more intriguing, a 2004 study apparently showed that Heliocare significantly reduced both sunburn and associated skin damage due to sun exposure (more…)

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a study has linked BPA exposure to health issues in humans. Here you Go…

Among the more esoteric search topics that bring visitors to SierraDescents is the question of the scent of HDPE water bottles.

Do HDPE water bottles really smell bad, people wonder? Or was that just a marketing pitch started by the creators of Lexan?

Here at the world-renowned SierraDescents Institute for Plastic Odor Research (SIPOR), I decided to create an elaborate experiment to answer that question once and for all (more…)

Perhaps by now you’ve heard the radio spot on KFI AM 640:

A concerned female voice warns consumers: ‘Soon, many common everyday products could disappear from grocery store shelves all across California’.

What’s the threat, you ask?

Those dastardly Sacramento Politicians are trying to ban BPA—a chemical that has been safely used for 50 years (the ad assures) in plastic products like reusable water and baby bottles (more…)

One of the fun parts of running a website is tracking browser stats. This information is useful in site design (matching your content to your users’ interests). It’s also just plain…interesting.

So I was looking over a list of keywords that brought people to SierraDescents this week when I came across this search phrase: “putting in a diamond on your teeth yourself”.

Now, this may sound crazy, but I think I understand why Google referred this searcher to my site (more…)

LATE SEASON STORMS aside, I’ve been looking forward to ditching the ski gear and switching to hiking and climbing.

After all, summer camping in the Sierra is easier in almost every respect than winter. There is one big difference, however: in summer, we share the mountains with bears.

I must say I ordinarily harbor no ill will toward bears, but as a hiker I find they present an added layer of complexity that I would be happy to do without.

Talk to your friendly forest ranger about bears, and you’ll come away all but convinced bears possess magical powers. That may be an exaggeration, but bears can present a significant threat to both you and your food. With a few simple strategies, however, you can greatly reduce the chances of an unwanted encounter (more…)