I’m not taking credit for these suggestions. You can read EWG’s original article - 10 Everyday Pollution Solutions. I just wanted to list them here with some thoughts of my own.
- Use cast iron pans instead of nonstick. I have always hated the idea of Teflon. Even before knowing about the toxic, bird-killing gases. The fact is that the stuff comes off the pan. So you know you’re eating it. I recently bought some commercial grade muffin pans. They were all I could find that were not non-stick. Do you know that they actually clean up better than the non-stick variety?
- To avoid chemicals leaching into food, go easy on processed, canned or fast foods and never microwave plastic. Follow this link to read up on Bisphenol-A.
- Buy organic, or eat vegetables and fruit from the “Cleanest 12″ list. You can see a rating of 43 fruits and veggies at FoodNews.org. The 3 most commonly purchased in our house - apples, strawberries and spinach - are in the “worst 12″ grouping.
- Use iodized salt to combat chemical interference from the thyroid. Read more about rocket fuel contamination.
- Seal outdoor wooden structures.Is there arsenic in your backyard?
- Leave your shoes at the door. This cuts down on dust-bound pollutants in the home.
- Avoid perfume, cologne and products with added fragrance. What a great idea. Check the cosmetics database for safer products.
- Buy products with natural fibers, like cotton and wool, that are naturally fire resistant. Find products that are PBDE free.
- Eat low-mercury fish like tilapia & pollock, rather than high-mercury choices like tuna & swordfish. Check the Safe Fish List.
- Filter your water for drinking and cooking. What’s in your water?
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Last week, Catherine over at Breathez wrote about the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act.
Here’s a summary of the act:
- requires that industrial chemicals be safe for infants, kids and other vulnerable groups
- requires that new chemicals be safety tested before they are sold
- requires chemical manufacturers to test and prove that the 62,000 chemicals already on the market that have never been tested are safe in order for them to remain in commerce
- requires EPA to review “priority” chemicals, those which are found in people, on an expedited schedule
- requires regular biomonitoring to determine what chemicals are in people and in what amounts
- requires regular updates of health and safety data and provides EPA with clear authority to request additional information and tests
- provides incentives for manufacturers to further reduce health hazards
- requires EPA to promote safer alternatives and alternatives to animal testing
- protects state and local rights
- requires that this information be publicly available
The numbers reported are frightening. Babies are born pre-polluted with up to 300 industrial chemicals. And over 455 chemicals have been identified in humans. And we really have no idea how these chemicals affect the human body.
Catherine brings up a good point. By focusing on children, it should help gain support for this act.
I’ll be following this act, too. It’s way overdue.
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Recently, someone found this blog by searching Google for:
If you can smell it you’re breathing it in
While I can’t really say why someone was doing that search, I felt that it was a very good point. For years, the fragrance industry has said that the only health issues that fragrances can possibly cause is contact dermatitis. They say it only touches the skin. It isn’t absorbed, it isn’t inhaled.
Logical thinking will tell you that this cannot be true. If you’re smelling something, then it at least got as far in as your nose, right? And even though it was claimed for years that something on the skin was not absorbed into the bloodstream, we now know that cannot be true. After all, that’s how the nicotine patch works. A patch treated with nicotine is applied to the skin and the nicotine is absorbed. Likewise the birth control patch. And the pain patches.
So, most definitely, if you can smell it you’re breathing it in. And it is getting into your bloodstream. Something to think about the next time you or someone else wants to use a fragrance.
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Taken with an iPhone!
My Time: 4:37
Click on the image or here to go to the puzzle.
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I recent ran across this article: The Dirty Dozen Chemicals in Cosmetics.
In the article, Catherine Zandonella, lists 12 chemicals you should avoid in cosmetics:
- Antibacterials
- Coal Tar
- Diethanolamine (DEA)
- 1,4-Dioxane
- Formaldehyde
- Fragrance
- Lead and Mercury
- Nanoparticles
- Parabens
- Petroleum Distillates
- P-Phenylenediamine
- Hydroquinone
It’s scary to think that some of the items in the list are actually in our cosmetics. But, they are. And many of them will have a worse effect on growing babies and children. It pays to read your labels.
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Another Morning Glory puzzle
My Time: 4:53
Click on the image or here to go to the puzzle.
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I just found this article online that should be helpful to many of us. I always see suggestions to use vinegar in cleaning, but this article - Good Housecleaning: Five Non-Toxic, Get-the-Dirt Out Basicsa by Annie Berthold-Bond includes her seven favorite recipes. I especially liked her recommendation:
My rule of thumb about nontoxic cleaning is this: use only ingredients that have been used without harm for so many years that they are “generally regarded as safe”; otherwise they would have long since been abandoned.
I think my favorite is her oven cleaning as I’ve been struggling with how to clean our oven lately.
Gotta run for now so I can print the article!
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One Saturday last July, we were headed to my dad’s house to go to lunch. He called and told me I should bring my camera. And I did, but it was so out of character for him to call and tell me that. It seems that a Morning Glory vine had nearly taken over a bush in his backyard and he thought I should get pictures of them.
I was reminded of this and the pictures I took that day when I recently drove by some Morning Glories in my neighborhood.
My Time: 4:08
Click on the image or here to go to the puzzle.
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