Earlier today, the Supreme Court submitted its ruling that upholds the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act or as we have come to know it, “Obamacare”.  The overall costs of this act in terms of dollars will be hotly debated for years to come, especially in regards to individual mandates and expansion of Medicaid to cover unemployed and uninsured people.  While there is some disagreement about some of the terms of Obamacare, one positive lies in the mandatory provision of preventive services, especially for women and children.  This definitely fits into the category of a green initiative.  

With this provision, many people, young and old,will get the opportunity to get medical services in a physician’s office rather than in the emergency room.  This experience is important because an established doctor-patient relationship in an office carries with it an educational component.  People with established relationships with medical professionals can attest to the availability of reading material available in the doctor’s waiting rooms regarding nutrition, exercise, hygiene, etc., as well as the videos that often are playing on the televisions.  The wait time in the physician’s office is a dedicated learning experience.  Also, the scheduled block of time for each patient provides opportunities to ask the physician or the assistants general health questions and to get referrals for ancillary services, such as counseling, support groups, etc.  On the other hand, appearances in area hospital emergency rooms are often rushed due to the sheer number of people waiting to be seen.

Preventive services are very important because they incorporate a holistic approach to good health.  They encourage us to make the connection between positive changes afforded by clean air, clean water, healthy diet, environmental changes and other green initiatives that help us to avoid health problems.  

We also can expect to see hospitals and medical practices adopt practices to control the increased flow of visitors to their facilities.  These initiatives include the increased use of visiting nurse practitioners and physicians to homes to treat chronically ill patients, the use of computers and video conferencing to maintain remote contact with patients to discuss their conditions and the introduction of more community counseling, lecture series and classes for patients to address health issues.  

Obamacare definitely is a step in the right direction to educating citizens to live green, be green!

 

While most of us take something as simple as showering for granted, others in the third world live without this luxury due to the dearth of available running water. If only there was a way to adequately shower without expending this valuable resource!. Thanks to South African innovator Ludwick Marishane, the paradigm has shifted in the way we look at showering.

Inspired by his lazy friend who saw too much effort required to shower in his rural village of South Africa, Marishane took it upon himself to develop an agent that would replace the need for showering with running water. His patented invention, called “DryBath, helped him win the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year, Award, and is an odorless and biodegradable gel applied to the skin that creates soap suds. In this way, nations are able to reduce water waste that result from showering.

As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention” and none is more apropos than the example of DryBath. Rural South Africa, with its lack of running water nationwide, facilitated the idea of showering without water. And while DryBath will help similar nations preserve the precious resource of water, it has also revolutionized the way we think about showering here in first world nations. The savings associated with using less water with showering is staggering. An average shower uses 2.5 gallons of water per minute, which multiplied by the average family unit of four people and 15 minutes per shower is 150 gallons of water per household per day. Multiply that number, which is for showers only, by the number of households in a nation and you can start to see the irony in the size of the spring on the Poland Spring water bottle.

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DryBath, if it is safe, which is a pretty large assumption we are making here, would be a huge win for sustainability, and would completely alter the way we maintain our personal hygiene. While not a necessity to adopt such technology, utilizing such an innovation would help to preserve this natural resource, and would be another way where we can both live green, and be green.