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Skiers Prone to Sore Calves

Canada is the pinnacle winter wonderland location, with so many incredible places to hit the slopes and go ski Canada. Shin bang and shin bite can turn an exciting day on the slopes into an uncomfortable experience. The rubbing caused by poorly fitted ski boots can make the skin on your calves, feet, and ankles raw from abrasion, which is exacerbated by the perspiration built up from intense activity. The skiers who are often most prone to sore calves are casual skiers, because they’ll likely be using poorly fitted rental boots instead of owning their own. Luckily, both boot issues are preventable.

Soreness Diagnosis

Identifying the type of soreness you’re prone to is the first step toward finding a solution. The most common types of soreness are known as shin bang and shin bite. Shin bang occurs when the tongue of the boot repeatedly hits the front of your calf and can manifest as a sharp pain in a small area in the lower part of your tibia. Shin bite is abrasion-related and is caused by the rubbing of a poorly fitted boot.

Painful Proposition

Sore calves are generally caused by abrasion or repeated impact during your descent. Skiing straight down the fall line quickly builds up an unreasonable amount of speed, so skiers traverse back and forth along the cliff face to control their rate of descent. Turning so frequently causes a lot of rubbing on your calves, because descending at an angle causes your calves to press up against the sides of your ski boot. The abrasion caused by the ski boot gets a lot worse if you’ve got moisture in your boot from perspiration or snow, or if you’re wearing a poorly fitted boot.

Preventative Medicine

The easiest way to address shin bang and shin bite is to prevent either from occurring in the first place. Properly fitted boots are the best solution, because they’ll allow less movement during your run. Have a professional in a ski shop measure your foot to determine the best size, and try on several pairs until you get the proper width and length. Ski boots are only manufactured in whole sizes; half sizes are compensated for with a liner. You’ll need to try on a few pairs to find one that gets closest to your actual size. Tucking a silicone or neoprene pad underneath the tongue of your boot before you lace up is the best way to address shin bang, although a well-fitted boot may be all you need.

Managing Moisture

Perspiration or snow in your ski boot can cause uncomfortably raw skin faster, because your skin naturally becomes slightly macerated when wet. A wool or synthetic ski sock instead of a cotton ski sock can go a long way, because these materials are hydrophobic and dry much faster. Wearing a thin liner sock underneath your thicker boot sock also gives you a defense against abrasion, because the socks can rub over each other instead of your skin.

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What is Waste Disposal?

Every country want to achieve a zero waste, some says recycling could be the answer but no, waste disposal Sydney team can handle that. Be it used plastic bag, broken glass, obsolete cell phone, or used battery cells, they are all used products that require appropriate disposal to limit their harm to the environment. Waste disposal is therefore a systematic action for managing waste from its origin to its final disposal. It includes incineration/burning, burial at landfill sites or discharge at sea/lake/river, and recycling.

WordWeb defines waste disposal as a “unit for getting rid of and destroying or storing used, damaged or other unwanted industrial, agricultural or domestic products and substances.” It also entails proper discard or discharge of the material waste in accordance with the local environmental regulatory framework. Because waste disposal involves a myriad of processes such as collection, transportation, dumping, recycling, or sewage treatment among other waste product monitoring and regulation measures, there are lots of problems associated with waste disposal. Here are the common waste disposal problems and their solutions.

Various Waste Disposal Problems

  1. Production of too much waste

One of the major waste disposal problems is attributed to the generation of too much waste. America alone is responsible for the producing of about 220 million tons of waste annually. In 2007 for instance, it’s recorded that Americans generated nearly 260 million tons of municipal solid waste. This is about 2.1 kg per person each day. The point is; if these are only figures in America, let’s try to imagine the amount of waste produced by the rest of the population across the globe.

According to the World Bank report, the average global municipal solid waste (MSW) generation per person on daily basis is about 1.2 kg and the figure is expected to rise up to 1.5 kg by 2025. It therefore means that every state and local authority suffer the problem of effective waste disposal due to the generation of too much waste. The problem is that the present era is driven by a throw-away consumerism with companies and producers striving to maximize profits by producing one-time use products without prioritizing on reuse, recycling or the use of environmentally friendly materials.

  1. Most of the waste is toxic

The majority of the state and local authority legislations are generally lax on regulating the ever-expanding manufacturing industries. On a daily basis, these industries produce toxic products that end up getting thrown away after use. Most of the products contain hazardous and health-threatening chemicals.

A report by the U.S. EPA indicates that more than 60,000 untested chemicals are present in the consumer products in our homes. There are even products known to contain toxic chemicals, such as Biphenyl-A (BPA) – often present in plastic toys, but they are still poorly regulated. Packaging is also one of the biggest and rapidly enlarging categories of solid waste which accounts for 30% of MSW and approximately 40% of the waste is plastic which is never biodegradable. It’s this level of toxicity together with the lax regulatory laws that exacerbates the problem of dealing with waste disposal.

  1. Landfills are a problem as well

Most landfills lack proper on-site waste management thereby contributing to additional threats to the environment. In the long-term, landfills leak and pollute ground water and other neighboring environmental habitats making waste management very difficult. They also give off potentially unsafe gases.

Also, the laws and regulation guiding the operations of landfills are often lax at monitoring and regulating the different types of wastes namely medical waste, municipal waste, special waste or hazardous waste. With this kind of laxity of the laws in landfill waste management, the landfills toxicity and hazardous nature significantly increases to a point where the landfill waste problems often lasts for up to 30 years.

  1. Regulations are based on vested interests

Since waste disposal and management has become a profit making venture, those who advocate for safe, quality and proper management of waste disposal are outmatched by industries in the business. Large enterprises in the waste disposal business dictate all aspects of the market from operating landfills, sewer systems and incinerators to recycling facilities. The corporations simply aim at making profits regardless of the waste reduction requirements or the resultant destructive environment impacts.

As such, they collaborate with vested interest regulators thereby creating a big problem in the effective regulation of waste disposal, which has worsened the devotions to waste reduction and recycling programs. To make matters worse, even some state officials work together with such industry officials to expand landfills, increase waste tonnage, and develop new waste disposal or recycling or treatment facilities to augment profits.

  1. Reliance of dying technologies to reduce and recycle waste

Waste disposal and management facilities as well as state resources have continued to rely on myopic and quickie solutions instead of developing effective recycling and waste reduction programs. Consequently, it has created continued reliance on the use of outdated technologies to deal with waste disposal. The problem is that most states are reluctant and less creative towards advancing novel technologies for reducing the toxicity and volume of waste or enhancing recycling, especially solid waste.

  1. Some of the technologies marked as “green” are not true in actual sense

Recycling technologies such as plasma arc, gasification, and pyrolysis are often marked as “green” but the truth of the matter is that they are not 100% green. These recycling technologies burn up waste with little or no oxygen and for this reason; it doesn’t differentiate them from the traditional incinerators which produce energy from burning waste.

As much as burning waste to produce energy is considered green because it does not involve the use fossil fuel, it still releases toxic materials into the environment. Also like the traditional waste incineration systems, these technologies emit toxic ash into the atmosphere that can potentially harm people’s health and the environment. Therefore, the technologies simply divert concentration from the development of cleaner recycling and waste reduction technologies.

Waste Disposal Solutions

Eco-responsibility – “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle”

Eco-responsibility pertains to the three Rs mantra of Re-use, Reduce, and Recycle. Local communities, authorities and states need to put more efforts towards the education of waste management. Essentially, the slogan can help reduce the levels of unsustainable waste that prove problematic in various environments across the globe. With the implementation and consistent practice of the three Rs, communities and local authorities as well as states will not only be able to manage waste but also move in the direction of achieving zero waste.

More emphasis should be placed on responsible resource use with an objective of avoidance, maximizing recycling and waste reduction methods. Avoidance and waste reduction involves techniques such as repair of broken things instead of buying new, purchasing and re-using second-hand items, and designing reusable and recyclable products.

Effective waste disposal and management

An effective strategy for municipal waste disposal and management can offer improved solutions for the various problems associated with waste materials. It ensures there is gradual improvement of new and cost-effective facilities which aim to encourage higher environmental protection standards. An effective management strategy will also see to it that landfills are purposefully located to ease waste collection, transfer, and monitoring or recycling. This can be achieved through the implementation of waste disposal plan which must include proper monitoring and regulation of municipal solid and food waste, livestock waste, sewage sludge, clinical waste, and construction waste.

Control and monitoring of land filling and fly-tipping activities

Thousands of tones of construction and demolition materials are generated by various local construction industries. In most cases, a large portion of these waste materials can be re-used, reclaimed or recycled. With the control and monitoring of land filling and fly-tipping activities in the area of public works, construction and demolition materials can be resourcefully reclaimed, reused or recycled in other projects such as landscaping, village houses, recreation facilities or car parks, or roads. By applying these techniques and monitoring fly-tipping activities, the construction and demolition materials that sometime go into landfills which further worsen the management of solid waste can easily be managed.

Waste Diversion Plans

A multifaceted approach on waste transfer and diversion in terms of more hygienic and efficient waste disposal management can offer tremendous solution to waste problems. To address most of the waste problems, especially landfills and sewer material, the local authorities and state waste management facilities need to formulate waste diversion plans, with an objective of making certain that there is convenient and proper waste disposal at landfills and waste transfer facilities. Measures such as mandating equipment standards and rerouting of refuse collection/transfer can enhance the environmental performance of waste disposal operations.

Improvements of thermal waste treatment

Thermal waste treatments have been proved not to be 100% green as they are normally pronounced. Therefore, to mitigate the problems that come with thermal waste treatments – (issues such as emission of toxic gases with organic compounds such as furans, PAHs, and dioxins); states and researchers as well as green groups and academicians can explore the possible developments with regards to advanced thermal waste treatment techniques. Appropriate and improved thermal waste treatment technology is important as a strategy for tackling the environmental concerns.

Polluter pays principle and eco-product responsibility

Polluter pay principle is where the law requires the polluter to pay for the impact caused to the environment. When it comes to waste management, the principle will require those who generate waste to pay for the suitable disposal of non-reclaimable materials. For the effectiveness of the pay principle, it should incorporate charging schemes on all waste disposal aspects including construction waste and domestic waste through public fill reception facilities.

Eco-product responsibility policy, on the other hand, is a tool for waste reduction, recovery and recycling. It is achieved by requiring producers, wholesalers, importers and retailers to share responsibility for the collection, treatment, disposal and recycling of used products with an aim of cutting back and steering clear of the environmental impacts caused by such products. All these measures must have a view to reduce wastage and encourage re-use and recycling.

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Too Old to Donate Blood?

Can you be too old to donate blood?

In general, you can never be too old to donate blood. Though you can be too young or too thin. Even small donations have an impact that’s the essence of donating to charity.

The American Association of Blood Banks used to bar people over 65 from donating blood, but it scrapped the rule in 1978 after studies found that older people who stored their own blood prior to surgery did well, said Dr. Steven Kleinman, the association’s senior medical adviser. Now most blood banks are happy to accept blood from older volunteers.

“We found over time that individuals who are older do just fine donating blood, as long as they don’t have certain medical conditions that make them ineligible,” said Dr. Ross Herron, the chief medical officer of the West division of the American Red Cross, which collects 40 percent of the blood supply in the United States.

Individual blood banks and states, though, can impose additional regulations. New York, for example, requires hospitals and blood centers to review the eligibility of would-be donors over the age of 75 on a case-by-case basis.

And all prospective blood donors are asked to fill out a detailed health history questionnaire to rule out medical problems that bar them from donating, such as dementia, a recent history of cancer or heart disease, viral hepatitis, H.I.V. infection and heart rhythm disorders like atrial fibrillation. Taking certain medications, including anticoagulants, will also make you ineligible to donate.

Blood banks also require donors to weigh at least 110 pounds, and more in some cases. Minimum weight and height requirements are also typically imposed on younger adults and minors, who often require parental permission. Bloodworks Northwest, for example, requires first-time donors who are 16 and 17 to weigh at least 114 pounds. United Blood Services has both height and weight requirements for donors ages 16 to 22. Young people, especially those who are underweight, are more prone to fainting, the most common complication of giving blood, than older donors.

Blood donors may also be rejected for other reasons, including intravenous drug use or a history of certain infections or travel to areas where certain infections are common. The Food and Drug Administration also bars men who have had sex with men within the past year from donating blood.