Last week was environmental week.  Earth day was April 22, 2010.  We sell many homeopathy, natural and organic products so keeping the earth in good shape is important to us.  I am going to list 10 simple things that our eccomerce company does to keep us green.  I believe other eccomerce companies and people could also use these tips because it save us money and preserves the planet.

1)   Using shredded paper for packing materials. 

   This method has been very environmentally friendly as well as wallet friendly.  We still use some packing peanuts but many orders use shredded scrap paper as packing material.  This paper was getting thrown away before being used as packing material.  We can even shred small scraps of paper that are cut from our labels.  When the shredder was originally purchased, the idea that it would pay for itself was never thought of.

2)  Use Water Filters Instead Of Buying Bottled Water

  Buying bottled water is expensive and not environmentally friendly.  In fact, bottled water is not held to as a high standard as regular drinking water.  The bottled water did taste better than tap water so our company purchased the bottled water.  However, recently a water filter was purchased for our company.  Taking plain tap water through the filter, made for great tasting water.  There was no need to spend all the money of the bottled water when the water filter makes the tap water into great tasting water.

3)  Reuse Packing Boxes That Are In Good Condition

  Our company was accumulating boxes like crazy since we order so many products.  It was getting to the point where we had no where to keep the boxes.  We were planning to trash them.   However, most of these boxes were in great conditions.  We have used these boxes to pack our packages.  If the box is in very poor condition, we have to throw away.  However, the majority of boxes are in good enough condition to use.

4)  Receive electronic statements for bills instead of regular mail.

  This has been environmentally friendly.  It also helps use keep track of important documents.  Many documents would get lost in the regular mail or somewhere in our office.  The electronic statements are easy to keep track of.  It also makes for easier bill payment as well.

5)  Print postage online instead of buying stamps or labels.

  We print all of our postage online including usps mail, ups and fedex.  This not only saves time but money as well.  USPS gives us a discount on electronic postage.  UPS and Fedex also give similar discounts as well.  You also do not need to stay in line to drop off your packages.  This is also environmentally friendly as well.  In the past, we would print our packing slips.  We would afterwords go add postage to our packages.  We no longer purchase a large amount of stamps which in turn saves the environment.

6)  Buying remanufacturer laser cartridges

   We have been purchasing remanufactured laser cartridges.  This saves us money and saves a cartridge from a land fill.  The cost is significantly less than a regular cartridge.  We have not seen any drop off in print quality with the cartridges.  We recycle our old cartridges so they can be remanfactured to someone else. 

7)   Buying recycled content paper for printing.

  We have been using high recycled content paper for our printing.  There have been no quality drop with this type of paper.  These papers are readily available.  Many consumers are moving to this type of paper because it costs less and no print quality difference.

8)  Storing important documents in digital storage

  We had a large file cabinet full of important documents.  Documents  would turn up missing.  The main reason is someone was using the document and did not put it back after they were done.  We moved many of our documents to electronic storage.  The best part is that multiple people can access the documents.  We scan documents that we can not get electronically.  People can go to electronic storage to access what ever they need.  We have a file cabinet now that does not hold any relevant information.  We can reuse this space in the office.  

9)  Use a fan to stay cool this summer. 

This can be done in the house or in the office.  You can change the temperature to 80F or 27C.  Small fans can be purchased if do not have the space to put a big fan.  Changing the AC from 75 to 80 saves significant amount of money and electricity.  The less we consume, the better it is for the environment. 

10)  Pay bills online. 

Most bank accounts include free online bill pay.  This also saves stamps and can help you accurately keep track of your expenses.  You can chart your expenses which will make paying taxes a very easy task. 

  I am seeing quite a bit of posts by skeptics attacking homeopaths in Haiti.  A group of homeopaths belonging to the group called Homeopaths without borders went to Haiti in February to help the Haitian population.  One scientist called this group Quackery Without Scruples.  Another scientist called Homeopathy will hurt people in Haiti.  They say homeopaths giving medical advise instead of doctors will hurt the Haitian people.  Another skeptic was criticizing the group because they had to travel to the Dominican Republic before reaching Haiti.  He said this group was so mismanaged that they could not even travel to the Haiti airport.  

  Being critical of homeopathy is a person's right to do.  This practice is not proved or disproved in large medical trials.  However, I think it is just despicable to say homeopaths are going to Haiti with the purpose to harm people with their quackery or they are mismanaging resources that people have given them to help the people of Haiti.  

  The lead homeopath for homeopaths without borders is a medical emergency room doctor.  Dr. Nancy Eos has 30 years of plus experience with emergency room care.  Her group never dealt with serious injuries or amputees.  The group set up two tents beside the clinic.  They had treated 2000 patients in 3 days.  The homeopaths were treating the walking and wounded.  The homeopaths were well received. No one has complained about their homeopathic treatment to date.  The hospital staff and the people of Haiti were very receptive to the team of homeopaths.  They treated things ranging from burns, physical trauma and injuries, fear, dizziness, headaches, urinary tract infections, eye problems and dehydration. 

Below is the picture of Haiti outside the medical clinic.

  Other trips are planned to Haiti.  A free homeopathy clinic is in the process of being setup to help the people of Haiti.  An update on the March mission will be put up shortly.

  Quackwatch is a popular skeptic website on alternative type medicines.  They have been critical of many type of complimentary therapies including homeopathy.  They have their own website dedicated to criticisms of homeopathy called www.homeowatch.org.  There are 25 websites run by the quackwatch organization.

Dr. Stephen Barrett owns these websites and masquerades as a consumer advocate and as a doctor.  Barrett has sued 41 people and/or companies in many different alternative medicine type of professions such as chiropractic and homeopathy.  He has not won a single case to date but he continues to file lawsuit after lawsuit.  In court, it was revealed that Dr. Stephen Barrett is not even a licensed medical doctor.  He had failed the psychiatric exam for certification.    

Many people believe quackwatch is run by a certified doctor and that information posted on these sites are factual.  Dr,  Barrett has spoke on cnn and the today show about quackery.  Stephen Barrett  has no formal legal training but claims to be competent in medical law.  Courts found quackwatch websites to be biased and unworthy of any credibility.

Stephen Barrett latest trial loss happened in his own hometown in Pennsylvania.  He was suing a chiropractor for defamation.  The judge threw the case out entirely after hearing that he had already sued 40 other people and organizations.  Quackwatch is having a great deal of financial issues.  Certainly suing so many people could not be cheap.  In 2008, his corporation in Pennsylvania was dissolved.  He has moved to North Carolina.  The quackwatch websites take donations.  Since they have no corporation, no one is sure where this money is going.  The website says these donations are going to website operations and research activities.  What type of research is this dissolved organization doing?  Does research activities mean frivolous lawsuits?  

Sources

http://www.canlyme.com/quackwatch.html 

  There has been much controversy about the placebo effect and homeopathy.  Most skeptics believe that the placebo effect is really what is making the person feel better.  They believe that  homeopathy did nothing at all.

  Some recent trials were done with placebos.  The results were interesting and quite contrary to popular belief about placebos.  Out of 464  studies, 26 meet the researchers criteria about placebo trials.  The researchers wanted to see how much improvements patients made with their placebos.  Patients actually showed no improvements when taking the placebo for their conditions or diseases.  The type of condition or disease did not show any relevancy.  However, patients did show a strong relationship between treatment effect and placebo effect.  An example of this would pain relief.  Placebos seemed to be effective in this type of study since it is subjective.

   Further studies need to be done to confirm that the placebo effect is not as strong as once previously thought.  Larger studies will be done to get a conclusion on the placebo effect.

References

  Homeopathy is the second most popular form of medicine today.  Homeopathy founder was Samuel Hannehman.  He was of German descent.  This practice was founded in 1796.  This article is going to list some little know facts about homeopathy.

1) Homeopathy has been used by the British Royal Family over several generations.  The royal family still uses homeopathy today.

2)  Homeopathy is part of National Health Service in Britain.  Homeopathy services are covered by this government service.  Homepathy has a high satisfaction rate among patients in the United Kingdom.

3)   The largest trial in homeopathy ever done was with Oscillococcinum.  The trial was done in two parts.  The first part was a prevention trial with 1100 people. It showed oscillococcinum does not prevent the flu. The second trial was with 700 plus participants to see if oscillococcinum would shorten the duration of the flu.  This trial showed oscillococcinum did shorten the duration of the flu by about 6 to 8 hours.

4)  75% of homeopathic sales are in combination remedies in the US.  The other 25% are with single remedies.  Combination remedies combine many homeopathic remedies to treat one condition.  Single remedies are used to treat specific conditions according to the person's needs.

5)  EU countries spend close to 1 billion dollars on homeopathic medicine.  Homeopathy is very popular in Europe.  France is especially popular for homeopathy.  Most pharmacies in France carry homeopathic medicines.

6)  India is the largest consumer of homeopathic medicines.  Close to 100 million people use homeopathy in India.

7) Many celebrities are homeopathy supporters.  These celebrities include Cindy Crawford, Cher, Tina Turner, Catherine Zeta Jones and Paul McCartney.  

8)  The market for homeopathic medicine continues to grow all around the world.  Skeptics have made many attacks to stop the growth.  However, growth still continues.  In the US, 230 million dollars worth of homeopathic medicines were sold in 1996.  Each year that number has grow by approximately 15% in the US.  

9)  Homeopathy medicines cost less than over the counter drugs.  They are also much less expensive than pharmacetical drugs.  The typically homeopathic medicine can be purchased at around $10.

10) Homeopathy uses several different types of substances to produce remedies.  Some substances are herbal such as Arnica. Other substances are poisonous such as Arsenic or Mercury.  However, all substances are diluted to the point that they will not harm the consumer.

  If you know some other facts about homeopathy, list them in the comments section.