If you have ever thought you could spit out your old piece of gum on the ground without notice, think again. Technology exists to help stop littering; it can hold you and every other litterbug accountable for dumping your trash on the streets.

According to Wired, a Hong Kong ad agency and non-profit, and Ogilvy, an American company, have teamed up to make an impressive (and kind of creepy) ad campaign that’s targeting litterbugs.

Ogilvy joined up with Hong Kong Cleanup, the nonprofit, to help curb Hong Kong’s massive trash problem. To combat the problem head-on, the firms recruited the help of Parabon Nanolabs, a Virginia company, that has figured out a way to use small traces of human DNA (as small as a nanogram, which is smaller than one billionth of the mass of a penny) to create realistic digital portraits of litterbugs.

“Parabon began developing this technology more than five years ago in tandem with the Department of Defense, mostly to use as a tool in criminal investigations,” reports Wired. “Parabon’s technique draws on the growing wealth of information we have about the human genome. By analyzing saliva or blood, the company is able to make an educated prediction of what you might look like. Most forensic work uses DNA to create a fingerprint, or a series of data points that will give a two-dimensional look at an individual that can be matched to pre-existing DNA samples.”

After DNA is detected, it’s taken to a genotyping lab and the data collection of the offending litterbug begins. The technology used can easily pin-point a person’s eye, hair, and skin color, as well as skin freckling, and face shape. To predict age range, Oglivy uses market research. According to Wired, people who are aged 18-34 are more likely to chew gum, and people who are 45-plus are more likely to be smokers.

Now, this all may seem a bit extreme to catch a litterbug, but that’s the whole point of an ad campaign. In reality, all the people in this project weren’t actually shamed — they gave permission for their likeness to be “published.” And this technology is now only strictly used from criminal investigations. But, like any good campaign, this thing worked and got people talking. Part of the conversation of course is about littering and the whole “if you aren’t anonymous, will you do it” idea. But it also tackles DNA appropriation… Two big conversations from one tiny campaign. It’s all pretty impressive.

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Image of chewing gum on street from Shutterstock

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We are turning to naturopathy more and more for common aches and pains. It seems to go hand in hand with a healthy lifestyle. But is it safe? And how do you make it work along with conventional medicine?

Naturopathy is a system that combines modern scientific knowledge with the healing powers of nature. The focus is on uncovering and treating the cause, rather than treating the symptoms. For example, your elbow hurts and you go to your physician to figure out why. A doctor practicing conventional medicine may give you something for the pain, where a naturopathic doctor would work to figure out the source of the pain and how to heal it.

Western culture has come to rely on quick fixes. Why dig deep when there is a prescription to get you feeling good in a matter of minutes? Because most often the symptoms will return, sometimes bringing disease with them.

Naturopathy uses diet, natural botanicals, healthful lifestyle changes, and sometimes Chinese medicine and acupuncture to prevent and treat disease, and support best health. The “prescription” is based on each patient as an individual. You wouldn’t eat Paleo if meat made you feel awful, right? We are all different and our medicine, especially, should reflect that.

Prevention continues to become more prevalent in medicine. We’ve seen that poor diet and lifestyle choices are linked to health issues like heart disease and cancer. For a better look on how lifestyle affects our genetic predisposition, check out the video “Are Your Genes Your Destiny?“, by Dr. Deepak Chopra.

Influencing better health doesn’t stop at diet and exercise. Things like reducing stress levels and lowering toxic exposure are also beneficial in warding off disease.

Of course, there are many times when conventional medicine is needed. You don’t have to choose between the two. Naturopathic doctors work with conventional doctors and you can benefit from both. Dr. Christiane Northrup is one M.D. who also encourages a healthy mind/body connection, educating women on the link between chakras and emotional and physical health.

Wondering how to get started with naturopathy? Right now, not all states recognize doctors of naturopathy. Currently, 18 U.S .states license naturopathic physicians.

For those without local access to a naturopathic doctor, arm yourself with knowledge and present your questions and findings to your doctor. If they are not willing to hear you out, it may be time to make a switch.

Women have an especially hard time dealing with the issue of combining naturopathic ideas with mainstream medicine. Hormonal imbalances are often dealt with by prescribing synthetics to cover negative side effects. We all know that dealing with hormones is not a one size fits all matter. Ask for hormone testing and don’t be afraid to voice concerns over practices you feel uncomfortable with.

Some great reads on getting started with a healthier lifestyle: “Forks Over Knives” by T. Colin Campbell, “The Hormone Cure” by Sara Gottfried M.D., and “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” by Christiane Northrup M.D.

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Image of Naturopathic Medicine sign via Shutterstock

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The privacy watchdogs have been barking hard this season. In case you’ve been off-the-grid, here’s the controversy from the world of social media that preceded one perhaps even larger about DNA research…

This week, Facebook automatically gave its users’ personal information to sites like Yelp and Pandora. Now, you and your FB friends can see each others’ bitchiest restaurant reviews, and worst, one-hit-wonder indulgences whether or not you ever intended to reveal these to one another.

Last month, Google raised privacy concerns when it automatically revealed its email users’ closest contacts to the Gmail public, through the launch of its Google Buzz product. Google Buzz was supposed to have taken over Digg, Twitter, and everything else social media by now but hasn’t, quite partly due to public backlash.

Now, imagine it’s not your social map, preferred menu or your pop cultural sensibilities being scrutinized and seen by the public. This time, it’s your actual hereditary material! We’re talking public, deoxyribonucleic acid blues.

One Native American tribe, the Havasupai, sued and won their legal battle against researchers from the University of Arizona who were using their DNA to run tests for things the tribe never authorized.

According to several legal news sites, the Havasupai initially donated DNA samples agreeing to a project that was supposed to focus on their tribe’s high incidence of diabetes. But the samples kept getting tested. Other matters, besides diabetes vulnerability, became a question subject to the scientists’ inquiries including the tribe’s supposed geographical origins, and their collective mental health.

The environmental implications regarding how a specimen gets used are as staggering as the ethical and legal ones.

Fishing rigs in Japan, for example, may state and are authorized to fish for whales in order to study whale population changes and marine health, or to hunt whales within a quota. But they sometimes sell the whales they “accidentally” catch, or catch for “scientific study,” as whale meat on the black market.

Should they be allowed to re-sell the grand creatures they kill for food if the intent was scientific study? Isn’t it wasting them, not to eat them if they’ve already been hunted?

Or does a scientific and accidental allowance create a black market and culinary demand, as well as disrespect for endangered species?

Finally, if you gave your DNA up for one study, why not the other?

Use the links and resources below to get informed, and talk to us about how much intent matters when it comes to science and knowledge gains for the greater public. Comment below or holler on Twitter @ecosalon.

Basic Reading:

– “The geneticist responsible for the research has said that she had obtained permission for wider-ranging genetic studies. Acknowledging a desire to ‘remedy…wrong that was done,” the university’s Board of Regents agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 of the tribe’s members, return the blood samples and provide other forms of assistance to the [tribe]. Legal experts said [the settlement] was significant because it implied that the rights of research subjects can be violated when they are not fully informed about how their DNA might be used.” – Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA, a New York Times news feature

– A Discover magazine blog post asking what will happen to DNA samples that were gathered before the idea of consent was formalized in regards to DNA research, now that this case was won.

– “The vast majority of the world’s countries are against the killing of endangered animals in but Japan issues itself a “scientific whaling” permit using a loophole in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) bylaws to continue commercial whaling. Every year since the moratorium they escalate the “takes” or kills in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to include more and more protected and endangered animals.” – A HuffingtonPost blog entry by Louie Psihoyos

Further Resources:

A privacy-focused blog that takes a strong side with the Havasupai tribe

Researchers’ perspectives on the matter of consent and DNA samples, via Swiss DNA Bank

Clashes between environmentalists and the whaling industry continue in New Zealand, a news feature at the New Zealand Herald

Image: micahb37

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and trends by EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

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Most people know that breathing in polluted air isn’t good for their health. It can irritate the lungs, cause allergic reactions, trigger asthmatic attacks and is considered to be a contributing factor in lung cancer development.

But now a new study also indicates that breathing polluted air can interfere with your DNA, altering and reprogramming genes and creating an increase risk of developing cancer and other diseases. And it doesn’t even have to be long term exposure – the study found that it only took three days to alter the DNA of the steel-foundry workers participating in the study.

Before and after blood samples from the workers showed a significant change slowing down in the methylation  (a biological process in which genes are organized into different chemical groups) rate of four genes that researchers think act as tumor suppressors.

While it’s true that steel foundry workers are exposed to about 10 times more particulate matter than most of us, researchers say the same changes can occur in city dwellers.

The good news is that researchers believe that these changes in DNA methylation are reversible, possibly with something as simple as folic acid, a vitamin that”Ëœs already found in many foods.

Image: A6U571N

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