Stop over at Eco Women where I recently wrote posts on having a vegetarian Thanksgiving (or hosting a vegetarian for the holiday) and Baby’s First Thanksgiving.
Photo from Flickr by Paige Gabert
Great parent web sources July 10, 2009
Head on over to Eco Women today where I’ve written about some great sites for parents.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
A new resource for types of pesticides on our food. June 30, 2009
SAF Baby (Safe Alternatives For Baby and Child) and Eco Child’s Play have both reported on a new web site called What’s In My Food. This site has been created by the a non-profit group, Pesticide Action Network.
What’s In My Food is a searchable database that allows you to see residue data from pesticides on food and information about each of the chemicals. You can check a list of 89 foods or search by pesticide name.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
You’re kidding, Coca-Cola, right?! June 12, 2009
Go on over to Eco Women today where I’ve written about how Coca-Cola, Campbell’s, Del Monte, and other manufacturers of canned foods and drinks, met to come up with a public relations and lobbying strategy to stop the government from banning the use of Bisphenol-A, or BPA, from being used in the linings of metal lids and cans.
You really need to see what they came up with and what you can do about it.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
As if you needed another reason to limit your intake of processed foods May 21, 2009
The New York Times had an article last week explaining how some processed foods that have tested positive with salmonella have so many ingredients, as was the case with ConAgra’s Banquet labeled pot pies with 25, that finding the specific contaminated ingredient became impossible. Therefore, ConAgra and others are having the consumer do the final test to eliminate any microbes with instructions such as this:
“Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”
Other companies don’t even know who’s supplying ingredients for their products and if these suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers.
Nestlé, which acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands two years ago, said they cannot ensure the safety of their items from frozen vegetables to pizzas. General Mills now advises consumers to avoid microwaves and cook only with conventional ovens.
New York Times staff followed the directions on several brands of frozen meals, including ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies, and failed to achieve the required 165-degree temperature. Some spots in the pies were only able to be heated up to 140 degrees even as parts of the crust were burnt.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
I’m speechless…again. May 14, 2009
The other day I saw a commercial that made my jaw drop. Clorox Bleach ran a commercial saying to wash your baby’s bottles and toys in a mixture of water and Clorox to disinfect them. What?!!!
Now, I’m not a perfect “greenie”. It’s like the blog title says – I’m TRYING to be greener. I do my best to make “safer” choices but when the “natural” stuff like cleaners don’t work, sometimes I have to pull out the traditional stuff. I don’t like doing it, and it only happens occasionally, like when I’ve lost the battle with mold in the bathroom. I keep the bathroom window open to ventilate and do it only when I know my daughter will be out of the apartment with me for the afternoon. Many internet sites state that studies have shown the household bleach we use isn’t harmful to the environment or ourselves. Industrial bleach, however, is a different story. But who’s kidding who? If household bleach can irritate or burn skin, I don’t understand how it can’t be harmful.
So readers, I want to hear from you. Would you clean your child’s baby bottles, sippy cups, or toys with a bleach mixture? Do you use a vinegar mixture or soap and water, for example? What’s your choice of disinfectant?
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
Healthy Home Tips for Parents by the Environmental Working Group May 12, 2009
The Environmental Working Group has just announced that they will be releasing a once a month email on “Healthy Home Tips for Parents” for individuals who sign up with them. Each month’s tips will be on one page to make it easy to print out. The June’s issue will focus on personal care products.
“EWG’s scientists and public health researchers created a list of the most important steps you can take at home to promote your family’s environmental health.”
You can sign up for the monthly email here. Just be sure to check off the “Greening the Planet for Kids Health” group so you’ll get the Healthy Home Tips for Parents series.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
National Healthy Schools Day April 22, 2009
Today, I’m pleased to have Janelle Sorensen, the the Senior Writer and Health Consultant from Healthy Child Healthy World, guest post at Trying To Be Greener. Healthy Child Healthy World works to broaden awareness of environmental hazards and its impact on children’s health, advocates for governmental legislation that will protect children from environmental hazards, and so much more.
National Healthy Schools Day
What you can do to make sure no child’s health is left behind
Janelle Sorensen
When my husband and I first toured schools to find the one we wanted to enroll our daughter in, I’m sure I was silently voted one of the strangest parents ever. Why do I feel I was secretly endowed with this title? Because every room and hallway we were taken through, I sniffed. A lot. And, according to my husband, I wasn’t terribly discreet.
I didn’t have a cold or postnasal drip. And, I’m not part bloodhound. I was simply concerned about the indoor air quality. My daughter was (and still is) prone to respiratory illnesses and I wanted to be sure the school she would be attending would support and protect her growing lungs (in addition to her brain). For many air quality issues, your nose knows, so I was using the easiest tool I had to gauge how healthy the environment was.
While air quality is a significant issue in schools (the EPA estimates that at least half of our nation’s 120,000 schools have problems), parents are also increasingly concerned about other school health issues like nutrition and the use of toxic pesticides. Many schools are making the switch to healthier and more sustainable practices like green cleaning, least toxic pest management, and even school gardening. What they’re finding is that greening their school improves the health and performance of students and personnel, saves money (from using less energy, buying fewer products, and having fewer worker injuries among other things), and also helps protect the planet. It’s truly win, win, win.
To highlight the issue, the Healthy Schools Network coordinates National Healthy Schools Day. This year, over three dozen events will be held across the country (and more in Canada) on April 27th to promote and celebrate healthy school environments.
What can you do? Healthy Schools Network recommends simple activities such as:
- Adopting Guiding Principles of School Environmental Quality as a policy for your School;
- Distributing information related to Green Cleaning or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ);
- Writing a letter or visiting your Principal or Facility Director to ask about cleaning products or pest control products;
- Walking around your school: looking for water stains, cracks in outside walls, broken windows or steps, and overflowing dumpsters that are health & safety problems that need attention. Use this checklist.
- Writing a Letter to the Editor of your local paper on the importance of a healthy school to all children and personnel.
You can also help support the efforts of states trying to pass policies requiring schools to use safer cleaners. (Or, initiate your own effort!) There are good bills pending in Connecticut, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon. According to Claire Barnett, Executive Director of the Healthy Schools Network, the key pieces to promote on green cleaning in schools are:
- Not being fooled by ‘green washing’ claims—commercial products must be third-party certified as green (to verify claims);
- Understanding that green products are cost-neutral and they work; and,
- Learning that “Clean doesn’t have an odor.”
She encourages parents and personnel to tune into one of the archived webinars on green cleaning (like the first module for general audiences) at www.cleaningforhealthyschools.org.
The fact of the matter is that whether you’re concerned about the quality of food, cleaning chemicals, recycling, or energy use – schools need our help and support. Instead of complaining about what’s wrong, it’s time to help do what’s right – for our children, our schools, and our planet.
What are you going to do? There are so many ideas and resources. Find your passion and get active on April 27th – National Healthy Schools Day.
Additional Resources:
- Creating Healthy Environments for Children (DVD): A short video with easy tips for schools and a variety of handouts to download and print.
- Getting Your Child’s School to Clean Green: A blog I wrote last year with advice based on my experience working with schools.
- Healthy Community Toolkit: Healthy Child Healthy World’s tips and tools for being a successful community advocate and some of our favorite organizations working on improving child care and school environments and beyond.
- The Everything Green Classroom Book: The ultimate guide to teaching and living green and healthy.
Janelle Sorensen is the Senior Writer and Health Consultant for Healthy Child Healthy World . You can also find her on Twitter as @greenandhealthy.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
No more toxic baths! April 6, 2009
My blogger friend Sommer from Green and Clean Mom wrote a fantastic post the other day on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics issuing a report of known carcinogens (formaldehyde and 1,4-Dioxane) in baby bath products and Johnson & Johnson announcing its Big Bubblin’ Star YouTube campaign.
According to “No More Toxic Tub” Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo contains levels of formaldehyde [200 and 210 ppm] that could be enough to cause skin reactions in sensitive people, like babies with their delicate skin. Now J&J is asking parents to film their “cutest baby” in tub using their products so they can be entered for a chance to win $10,000.
Sommer and a list of other “Green Moms” are trying to get the word out about what you can do to help change things so that we can all know exactly what’s in the personal care products we buy for our children.
Go on over and see how you can get involved.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
Another Non-toxic and organic dish detergent found! April 1, 2009
Last year my first blog post was about my search for the safest dish detergent I could find. What can I say, I was washing baby bottles non-stop then and it made me think about what I was using. 1,4-Dioxane can be found in claimed natural and non-certified organic products, including dish detergents. 1,4-Dioxane is a “byproduct of a process used to soften harsh detergents”, according to the LA Times. This chemical is believed to cause damage to the central nervous system, liver, and kidneys. On January 1, 1988, California recognized it as a chemical that can cause cancer.
I started using Seventh Generation’s Natural Dish Detergent because it seemed to have the lowest traces of it, according to testing by Organic Consumer’s Association. It also seemed to be the easiest to locate. Seventh Generation responded to the findings right around the time of the report and acknowledge that their product contained 1,4-Dioxane and that they want to eliminate it as soon as they can. The stated, though:
“The compound wasn’t highlighted on our web site nor detailed in our corporate responsibility report. In this, we had failed.”
Right after I wrote this post, I learned about Dapple, which does not contain 1,4-Dioxane. Now I’ve learned about another product that also doesn’t contain it.
Babyganics Foaming Dish and Bottle Soap
Yesterday, while I was shopping at Buy, Buy, Baby, I found Babyganics. Babyganics Foaming Bottle and Dish Soap is non-toxic, organic and doesn’t contain 1,4-Dioxane or ethoxylated materials. It’s even concentrated so you use less of it.
Its ingredients are:
Various naturally derived plant based cleaning agents (coconut, palm kernel, corn & sugar based surfactants), water, preservative (less than 0 .1%)
An added bonus is that it was half priced at Buy, Buy, Baby because the cashier said the packaging is changing soon! To find other locations where you can purchase Babyganics products, click here.
Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
