Reducing risks when eating out

The right to know.. What's in the stuff, where is it from?
Occasionally restaurants specify the origin or the quality of their produce. Free-range eggs being the most commonly declared product in Manly. Most other ingredients, one has to trust, but one can not engage in informed consent. If one does not want to consume food with detrimental health effects, there is very little information provided.
” In Australia alone, more than $1 billion worth of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides are applied each year.“ Part of food literacy might also be that one would like to know the origin and treatment of the food and the ecological footprint of the resource. In various cities people eat local now, even restaurants offer locally produced foods.

Menus with imagination and consideration would be appreciated. Instead it often is the usual fish&seafood-mash up, platters full of lobster by the kg or just meat. Vegetarian dishes containing protein are as rare as organic vegetables on the menus.

Bugs in food and water can cause sickness and death - Sydney 'Gastro'
“In Australia, there are an estimated 5.4 million cases of food-borne illness every year ” In Queensland for example it has “...caused an estimated 10 deaths and 750 hospitalisations in the state every year.” In Sydney, customers do not seem to have a right to know which eateries did not pass as “ the names were best kept secret as revealing them could damage the businesses unnecessarily.“

“Over 80% of foodborne gastroenteritis due to ‘known’ pathogens is caused by pathogenic E.coli, norovirus, Campylobacter and non-typhoidal Salmonella. 32% of all gastroenteritis may be transmitted via contaminated food. Foodborne gastroenteritis results in about 1.2 million people visiting the doctor, 300,000 prescriptions for antibiotics and 2.1 million days of work lost each year.” (pdf) Water as well as food is of course a medium of possible transmission.

Hygiene – as infrastructure and practice
A measure for good hygiene in eateries (or anywhere) are the bathrooms. Facilities and updated cleaning are essential. There seems to be a general decline in the tradition of washing hands (properly, video), often the infrastructure to do so for staff and clients is also lacking.
Recently it was overheard in Manly that a small boy wished to wash his hands after a pee. His male carer convinced him that it is not important. With eateries that do not offer a lavatory one is forced to use the public ones which are in dubious states.
Having (lap-)dogs on seats or eating off dishes is common and a health hazard.

Olfactory assaults
As most bathrooms lack windows some businesses offer 'air freshner sprays' in each cubical. This practice seems more hazardous (pdf) than the previous fumes, the artificial volatile chemical vapours have been distributed into the small confined space. Some of the effects of Volatile Organic Compounds are: ”Eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; damage to liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans”

More cocktails to inhale
Other ambient pollutants in Manly are of course air and noise pollution from motor vehicles, which often gets topped up with gas/fire heaters (even unflued inside). Occasionally 'romantic' candles add to the cocktail of pollutants. “ Paraffin-based candles.. tend to use wicks which are made with a metal core like zinc or possibly lead." Passive smoking is still an issue, while trying to smell and taste your food. As reported before, most eateries reserve the fresh-air area for people polluting the air. Just where the air is to enter the premise, the combined toxic fumes of the smokers enter the 'non-smoking part' and accumulate there.

Mental spam pollution – while having a drink
Apart from many neon-lit 'convenience' places springing up, another new form of enforced attention grabber has sprung up. Huge screens peddling 'solid state spam', unwanted and unwelcome messages "

It would be advisable to have ecological and ethical audits for businesses, as well as for municipalities, to encourage an open transparent communication with their clients that is sustainable and reciprocal.

See also: Manly Restaurants and Eateries - a Wishlist

Links:
-"...Three-quarters of the world's fish stocks have been over-exploited, mainly by commercial fishing"
- Disclosure on industrially 'farmed fish'
- Choosing sustainable seafood, ca
- Food, Mindfully
- Public rating of restaurants, web 2.0
- One Los Angeles menu boasts dishes where 90 percent of the ingredients were raised within 400 miles.

Consuming Manly - 'in the Lap of Luxury'

The Australian Conservation Foundation put Manly on the map as one of the greediest and most wasteful suburbs. Patterns of consumption are quantified in terms of greenhouse pollution, water usage and the ecological mega-fauna footprint (land/resources required to sustain a person's lifestyle). A mentality of 'more is better and big is best' is depleting the Earth's resources for generations to come.

“The newest status symbol for the nation's most affluent families is fast becoming a big brood of kids.” 'Competitive birthing' is complementing the perpetual house-renovating/flipping, 2-3 cars, (mostly 4x4s) and packs of dogs (varying with fashion). Many home functions are outsourced such as food to Cafes and Eateries. Large amounts of food are being returned there, at home the waste economy continues. “ This report has highlighted the crucial relative importance of consumption of food and other consumer products, which far outweigh the direct impacts of energy and water use in the average Australian home...The eco-footprint of this volume of wasted food is greater than the footprint of all household expenditure on transport combined” (ACF report,pdf)

Sustainability, inter generational equity or consideration for other species are not on the mind of the 'I, me & myself'.

We are told, that everyone can do their bit..."facilitated and coordinated by an ambitious and effective framework of government regulation and support.”(ACF,pdf) In a systemic deregulated and privatised civic and economic turbo environment that is pushing the hype of consumerism at every corner, it might just be a well-meaning bit of hot 'recommendation'.

As the basic fabric of this society is based on individual possessiveness and the private good, the concept of the public good and the idea of sharing goes against the grain of the acquisitive Homo economicus. Any form of regulation is seen as a restriction of the individual's neo-liberties. 'Education', dead-tree information & litany falls on sealed ears.

This affluent society is based on the exclusion of others from the national riches. Some take the prerogative to grab the 'lion's share'. In a stratified system members seek to privatise and maximise a chunk of the world's resources. The anti-products are shared generously. The jubilant victors' celebrations/parties over the gains do not tolerate being disrupted by 'restraints'. The 'top of the heap' does not believe in limiting its right to luxury and exclusiveness.

After “liquidating the planet's ecological resources” they sure will 'discover' another two to three spare planets to 'harvest'.
Images: 'Lap of Luxury' images, Manly Beach promenade

Scents 'to die for'

Beauty is serious business. Many are nearly embalmed in perfumed goods. Like tobacco, the mainly synthetic fragrances are hard to dodge. Here are some of the scented products that are utilised from head to toes:

• Hair – shampoo, dyes, styling agents and perms can have hazardous chemical in them.
• Nails – hardeners, acrylic, polish, acetone, remover,
• Perfumes - mostly of synthetic sources in various personal care products or pure can pose health threats to the wearer or the environment.
• Clothing can also contain high levels of formaldehyde. But as there are no standards in Australia for it, 'she'll be right'...
• Scented paper tissues, toilet paper etc (as seen in the bush everywhere...)

A lot of personal care products are not evaluated and do not declare their ingredients on labels (trade secrets) and regulating authorities can not advise on the toxicity of the product.Some can be poisons to offspring.

Make some informed choices for a toxic-free environment.

-Guide to Less Toxic Products
-Search the Cosmetic Safety Database
-Fragrances Products Information Network
-The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics :"Our goal is to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems, and replace them with safer alternatives."
-The Environmental Working Group aims 'to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment'
-Book: Get a Whiff of This: Perfumes (fragrances) - the Invisible Chemical Poisons