By following a few poison prevention tips, you can help make your Fourth of July celebrations poison safe.

Do not let food poisoning ruin your summer picnic or camping trips.

Keep “cold” foods cold and “hot” foods hot before and after serving. Thoroughly cook all foods according to standard guidelines. Pack soap and water and wash hands carefully before and after handling food. Put leftover food in the ice chest right away.

Be careful with hydrocarbons like gasoline, kerosene and charcoal lighter fluid.

Follow the directions when using these products. Open containers carefully and keep all products in their original labeled containers. Some liquid fuels, such as torch fluid, look like juice, so keep the products locked up where children cannot see them or reach them.

Minimize exposure to carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide is an invisible, tasteless, odorless gas that comes from burning fossil fuels like natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, methane, propane, oil, coal and wood.

Gas fired barbeque and charcoal grills must never be used inside a house or garage, not even with the door opened. When camping, use only battery powered heaters and lights in tents, trailers, or motor homes. Never use fuel-burning appliances inside.

Know where your boat engine and generator exhaust outlets are located and keep people away from these areas. Never run the engine or generator when people are in the water near the boat. Run exhaust blowers whenever the generator is operating. Never sit, or hang on the back deck or swim platform while the engines are running.

-Use insect repellent carefully and avoid spraying your face.

DEET is a common ingredient in insect repellents and can have harmful effects if used in high concentrations. Always read labels thoroughly before using any insect repellant.

Wear a Medic-Alert bracelet if you have a history of a life-threatening allergic reaction.

Ask your physician about prescribing an emergency bee sting kit to have in an emergency.

Avoid wild mushrooms.

Consider all outdoor mushrooms to be poisonous. Check your yard regularly for mushrooms, especially after rainfall. Remove any mushrooms in your yard and throw them away. Teach children never to touch, taste or eat any outdoor mushrooms.

Call the New Mexico Poison Center for emergency life-saving treatment information, 24-hours a day, toll free at 1-800-222-1222 or call for answers to questions about any type of poison.

These everyday hardships are what Christine Eber, professor of anthropology at New Mexico State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, witnesses each time she returns to Chiapas. Eber has developed a friendship with Pérez Pérez over the last two decades of her research.

Eber returned from a recent visit in the spring semester during which she recorded interviews to incorporate into her next book, which is the life story of Pérez Pérez.

“After knowing Margarita for over 20 years, I have had the opportunity to see the changes through her eyes,” Eber said. “With this book, we would like to reach a broad audience and help them understand the conditions of life in Chiapas for indigenous people.”

As part of these efforts, Eber recently had her first book translated into Spanish. Eber intends to make a bilingual edition of the life story called “Restless Spirits: The Journey of a Tzotzil-Maya Woman.” She will submit the manuscript for publication in fall 2009.

Chiapas has a tumultuous history including long-standing inequalities in access to land and resources, disease and poverty and non-existent health and educational facilities. To combat these setbacks and to support their families, indigenous groups in Chiapas have formed cooperatives that build upon local knowledge and skills in order to market coffee, weavings or other artisan work, Eber said.

“Margarita has been involved in many cooperatives and social movements since she was a teenager. Through her life story, we would like to give a glimpse of the struggles her people go through, and how life has changed in highland Chiapas since the 1960s,” Eber said.

When the armed uprising of the Zapatista movement took place in 1994, Pérez Pérez said she was unsure what it was, but thought that the Zapatistas were going to help change the way of life for the better for indigenous people in highlands Chiapas. She is still committed to the struggles of social injustices but doesn’t see change happening overnight.

“Although I was very excited at first, later as they were saying, ‘We’re going to win, we’re going to win a better life,’ as the years passed, I didn’t see any triumph. I began to think, ‘Ah, the triumph will not come now.’ All we can do is to struggle and struggle more and not give up,” Pérez Pérez said.

“I could die in a week, or in a few months, so it’s better that I not focus on triumph. It’s better just to struggle so that something might change in the future,” she said.

In “Restless Spirits,” Eber is also trying to explore some of the differences and commonalities between women in the U.S. and Mexico. Through the story of how Pérez Pérez and her family have confronted the stresses of poverty and social injustices, Eber hopes to illustrate links between the fates of the people of Mexico and the U.S. in the context of the economic crises in both nations.

Eber is also applying knowledge gained through her research in Chiapas as a member of Las Cruces – Chiapas Connection, a volunteer group with goals to empower women in their communities, find fair trade markets for cooperatives and study women’s issues and the negative effects of globalization. The group, which is a project of Sophia’s Circle, a nonprofit art and cultural organization, grew out of a women’s delegation that Eber organized to the highlands of Chiapas in 2003.

In addition to seeking fair trade markets for weavings, the group seeks funding for scholarships for students in highland Chiapas to attend junior high and high school and study grants for weavers to develop their skills and to teach younger members how to weave.

To view video clips of life in Chiapas captured by Eber in spring 2009, visit NMSU’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/newmexicostateu and browse the keyword “Chiapas.”

“This is the time of the year when gasoline prices peak and that was the case last year in mid-July when prices jumped in most cities to above four dollars a gallon. This year, prices remain nearly $1.50 below their high last summer,” said AAA New Mexico spokesperson Sarah Schimmer.

So far, the lower prices for gasoline are not expected to have a major impact on the number of people traveling over the 4th of July holiday. AAA New Mexico is projecting travel in the Mountain region states, including New Mexico, will see a slight increase of 1.2 percent during this 4th of July weekend compared to last year. AAA New Mexico is forecasting nearly 2.6 million people in the Mountain region will travel. There are nine regions in the U.S and the Mountain region is the only region expected to show an increase. The mountain states include: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Nearly 2.1 million will drive; 250,000 will fly and 250,000 will take a bus or train.

Americans traveling on vacation this Fourth of July holiday weekend will decrease 1.9 percent from 2008 with approximately 37.1 million travelers taking a trip of 50 or more miles away from home. Last year, 37.8 million Americans traveled during the same period; a 10.5 percent decline from the 42.3 million travelers who vacationed in 2007. The July 4th holiday is typically the busiest time of year for auto travel since nearly all school-aged children are out of school at this time and, as a result, parents are more apt to take family vacations at this time.

I’m Erik Ness.