Fish farms

Aqauculture or fish farming can be bad for the environment. Shrimp farms in Asia result in the destruction of mangrove forests, which provide hospitable environments for young fish and prevent coastal erosion. Salmon farming pollutes the ocean with fish poop (Yes, I said poop! Does this make the blog edgy? No?! P**p!!!), excess feed, antibiotics, and other contaminants. It's so bad that the Environmental Defense Fund goes tsk, tsk.

In addition, fish farming could be bad for you. Some studies have found that farmed salmon (particularly from Europe) have higher level of PCBs and other industrial pollutants. Other farmed fishies are probably loaded with anitibiotics, pesticides, and chemicals that promote growth and control disease. (On the plus side, you might save on prescription drug costs. Yay, I guess.) Some farmed fish outside of the US have banned substances, and the FDA barely checks the quality.

It's not all bad, though. If done responsibly, aquaculture can relieve pressure from overfishing, and it does require less energy than raising land animals (the moo'ing kind).

You can sometimes determine the origin of your supermarket fish by looking at the country of origin labeling (COOL). But there's no oversight. For some weird reason, restaurants and fish markets are not required to tell you anything.

Here are some clues that the fish is farmed:

• The packaging brags: "Ocean-raised." Pffft, that's just double-speak for "farmed."
• "Atlantic salmon," farmed. How do I know that? Easy, we killed off the wild population already.
  
• Salmon sold from November to March. It's off-season. Sure, the salmon could be wild, but it's frozen.
  
• Most smoked salmon. But canned Alaskan sockeye (also called pink, red, and blueback) is probably wild.
• Most shrimp, mollusk, catfish, tilapia and trout.
  

Go fish

We all know about how we're supposed to eat 4-6 ounces of fish two to three times a week, but what kind of fish? In addition to the pesky mercury thing, PCBs, red tide, and other contaminants, there's that collapsing fish population issue.

In general, fishies lower on the food chain (like herring, mackerel, and sardines) are fine. I myself am rather partial to the Chocolate Fish from New Zealand, but local fishmongers don't sell them. Pity.

If you are buying canned fish, look for logos bearing the Marine Stewardship Council logo, which certifies that the fish was caught using sustainable pole-and-line methods.

Anyway, if you want fancier fish, check out these three great resources:

• Environment Defense Fund Seafood Selector tells you which fish is bad for the environment and you. Well-organized info.
  
• Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch shows you which ones you should avoid and provides alternatives.
• Blue Ocean Institute Seafood Guide is not stingy with details and tells you exactly why the fish is good or bad for you. It comes with scores and color coding. Great site for nerdier fish lovers.

H20 is the awesomest owie ointment

The best treatment for a booboo is running water. You can also wash the surrounding skin with soap, but not the wound itself (soap can damage injured tissues, and so can soup, actually).

What about the antiseptic juju in scientific looking brown bottles? Besides costing you money, they inflict more damage. Double booboo! Hiss!

• Benzalkonium chloride? Not as bad as other antiseptics, but soap neutralizes it. And if the best thing you can say about a thing is "not as damaging as others...," you might as well use water.
  
• Betadine? Better than iodine, but also slows down healing.
  
• Chlorhexidine? Not as bad as other antispetics, but high concentrations can increase inflammation.
  
• Hexachlorophene? Squashes enemy comabatants and civilians alike. Kills microbes and damages the skin.
  
• Hexylresorcinol? Kills them bugs awright, but friendly fire also damages the skin
• Hydrogen peroxide? Sorry, this one is bad for you, too. Damages the skin and slows healing. On the plus side, you get to use up the manly man Hello Kitty band-aid that you bought because they were on clearance.
  
• Iodine? Like your neighbor's chihuahua, it's irritating and also slows down healing.
  
• Mercurochrome? Tsk, tsk. Bad. See the "mercu-" in the name? That's why. Banned for a decade, so I'm not exactly sure why you would still have this. Dispose of it. But not down the toilet! Properly, please. Go to your nearest hazardous waste disposal center.
  
• Merthiolate? Another genius product with mercury.
• Mommy's kiss? Probably does nothing to your hurt spot, but devastating for your reputation as tough guy. 
• Povidone iodine? See betadine. Or let me just save you the effort. Also not good.
• Rubbing alcohol? Great for testing macho-hood and pain tolerance, but not so good for your hurties. It is indiscriminate about its killing. Microbes, skin cells, whatever. "Die! All Die!" sez the rubbing alcohol. It also dries out your skin and applies for subprime loans. However, cleaning needles and intact skin with it is OK.
• Spit? Uh, no. Good for other stuff, tho. Deserves its own blog article!
  

How about those antibiotic ointments? Bacitracin and neomycin could help with minor wounds, but some people are allergic to them.