neonicotinoid the class of the insecticides linked with colony collapse disorder through a growing body of research including a smoking gun molecular mechanism are now being investigated by the european food safety authority which suspects “two neonicotinoid insecticides – acetamiprid and imidacloprid – may affect the developing human nervous system…” how common are they? the USDA “…has detected imidacloprid on roughly 22 percent of the conventionally grown produce samples it tested.” 60% of broccoli! the president of the ottawa river institute has written a great article on how neonicotinoid are used and other adverse effects. maybe a good time to go re-read the excellent UN report recommending that we “Wake Up Before it is Too Late” and transform global agriculture with less dependence on fertilizer and other inputs and by supporting small-scale farmers and strong local food systems. ( relatedly, new research shows nitrates from fertilizer overuse slowly leach into groundwater for at least 5 decades which is much longer than previously assumed ).
Tag Archives: bees
the eric update – day 34: no ROP (yet)! a kilo! wet dogs. and flowers.
eric seems to be stabilizing quickly. he only had 6 alarms today, which is a lot better than the 36 he had just a few days ago – and many of those alarms were induced the nurses “meanie” sessions where they due all manner of not fun things to him. and he’s continuing to pack on the weight; tonight he weighed in at 1020 grams which is 2 pounds 4 ounces and means that he’s finally, officially hit the kilo mark! hooray! his breathing also seems to be getting more regular and stronger, which means that they’ll probably try to put him back on the nasal cannula soon.
we were also surprised to find that his eye specialist came by for eric’s initial visit to assess whether or not he any signs of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). we were surprised because we weren’t expecting to see the eye doctor for another week or two. i guess they like to check micropreemies early and often. the absolutely fantastic news is that the doc says that his eyes are “perfect” right now! that said, the doctor cautioned us that it’s nearly a certainty to see some manifestation of ROP in a micropreemie, so they are going to keep a close eye on him ( ahem! it’s an eye specialist joke! ) in the coming weeks.
other than that, all was quiet on the nicu front. we still haven’t been able to resume the kangaroo care, but hopefully that will change over the next day or so.
and i have photographic proof that kris and i are trying our best to regain some semblance of our normal schedule. today, we had a little free time and we went to the dog park. our city isn’t very dog friendly, in terms of official dog parks, so we had to become members of a private dog park; prior to eric’s birth we were dog park “regulars”, but haven’t been able to find time recently for all the obvious reasons, much to the dismay of our two dogs. so, today, we were finally able to enjoy a little time away from the nicu with the dogs.
and we even stopped to smell the flowers. even if they weren’t roses.
