|
|
If you have come this far you are probably someone particularly eager to locate helpful information on how not just to make more thoughtful and informed purchasing decisions for your children's furniture and baby bedding but also for the rest of your home as well.
Some of the information below is scary. There is reason to be concerned, but there are also many opportunities to improve the conditions in our home by switching to safer, healthier products.
Below are some resources we have collected over the years. We will continue to update this list and we hope you find it helpful. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact us.
Key Nursery Recommendations: 5 Easy Steps to creating a safe and non-toxic home for your child
With special thanks to Healthy Child Healthy World and The Collaborative on Health & The Environment (CHE) for much of the content below.
1. Manage pests safely
Though we often encourage children to "go out and play," exposure to common lawn/garden care and indoor pesticides is identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as potentially causing a range of health problems, including asthma, hyperactivity and behavior problems, cancer, learning disabilities, reproductive disorders, and compromised brain development. Rather than stifling healthy activity in children, you can make healthier choices in pest control!
What to do:
- Avoid using unsafe chemicals indoors and outdoors - insecticides, pesticides, weed killers, lawn chemicals, and flea/tick products. Prevention is the best solution. If you do need to eliminate unwanted pests, use non-toxic, pesticide-free products.
- Instruct your garden care professional to STOP using these toxic chemicals. Encourage a switch to non-toxic, pesticide-free lawn and garden products. Also instruct caregivers about the hazards of pesticides, and talk to any off-site school or daycare centers about pest management practices.
- Remove all food sources for the pests through good sanitation and storage habits.
- Block pest entrances by caulking holes, using door sweeps, and keeping window screens in good repair.
- Keep your home clean and dry to prevent pests, particularly in the kitchen.
- Encourage good habits, such as always washing hands after playing outdoors and taking shoes off at the front door. Many chemicals are tracked into our indoor environment on the bottom of our shoes. In fact, one estimate is that 70% of indoor dirt is tracked in to the home from outside.
Resources:
2. Use non-toxic products, cleaners, body care and home furnishings
We bring many products into our homes that are filled with potentially harmful toxins. Luckily, you can make wise and responsible decisions to seriously reduce the amounts of chemicals you invite in your home. Here are three of the main categories that have the most serious affect on you and your child's health:
Cleaners
The synthetic chemicals in conventional cleaning products such as metal polishes, general purpose cleaners, surface wipes, dish detergents, and glass cleaners can cause a range of major heath problems for children and adults, including respiratory irritation, chemical burns, and cancers. Today, American homes contain gallons of toxic substances, most in the form of cleaning products. The average home contains over 1,500 hazardous compounds. Over 150 chemicals found in the average home have been linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological abnormalities.
Resources:
- Book: Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logen
Body Care
The amount of personal care, bath products, and cosmetics used on our skin in a day is quite staggering - shampoo, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, hair conditioner, make-up, lip balm, sunscreen, body lotion, shaving products, and for your baby sunscreen, diaper cream, shampoo, lotion, and maybe even insect repellent. But there is a hidden price to pay for this daily beauty and body maintenance our health and children's health. Industrial chemicals are the basic ingredients of personal care products that contain carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers, degreasers, and surfactants.
Resources:
Home Furnishings & Home Improvement
Much of the furniture manufactured in and for the US is made with harmful finishes, fills, and materials that negatively affect human, environmental, and social health. For instance, many pieces of furniture have polyurethane and contain cushioning with highly toxic fire retardants also known as PBDE's (polybrominated diphenyl ethers). The retardants get into the air we breathe and are known to cause hormone disruption and inhibit normal brain development.
Resources:
Many building materials contain toxic materials. Paints, adhesives and new carpets are among the worst. Visit:
3. Clean up indoor air
Did you know that people in the U.S. spend 90% of their time indoors? It might seem safer and cleaner, but the EPA says indoor air quality is one of the nation's most pressing personal health concerns, since indoor air is often more polluted than outdoor air. In fact, levels of air pollution inside the home can be two to ten times higher than outdoor air (and sometimes as much as 100 times higher).
Indoor air pollution is linked to a host of health effects, including chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, headaches, nausea, fatigue, liver damage, harm to the immune, reproductive, nervous and cardiovascular system, and cancer. Common indoor air pollutants include formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, secondhand smoke, asbestos, lead, and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. Not to worry, it's easy to reduce the risk. Start by replacing products that contribute to the problem, then try some other simple steps.
What to do:
- Simply ventilate the home, especially the bedrooms and nursery, by opening up your windows. Opening windows, even for a short time, makes a big difference. Ventilation is the second best pollution reduction strategy in your home after prevention.
- Change the air filter in your air conditioning and heating units regularly to greatly improve indoor air quality. Schedule a change of the filters as the seasons change, or at least once per year.
- Sanitize and cleanse air with help from indoor plants, and the use of air cleaners and purifiers (with approved HEPA filters). Plants can absorb air impurities. Houseplants that are very good at removing impurities include Areca palm, lady palm, bamboo palm, rubber plant and Boston fern.
- Avoid carpets where possible - they hold dust, synthetic solvents, and pesticides. New synthetic carpeting, rugs, and carpet backing and padding may emit chemicals for several years. Many other options exist. Natural fiber carpeting (organic cotton, wool, jute, or sisal) are the best option, since they usually haven't been chemically treated, if you want a "soft" flooring surface. Other options include wood (but watch for adhesives, glues and stains), cork, real linoleum, marble, stone, ceramic, concrete and tile.
- Avoid using conventional paints, cleaning supplies, pesticides, furniture made from particle board, and "air fresheners". Cigarette/cigar smoke, mold/mildew, and fumes from off-gassing of home furnishings decrease air quality. Our furnishings are the source of a substantial portion of indoor air pollution. Upholstery fabric, carpeting, carpet padding, building material glues and adhesives, draperies, paint, wallpaper, particleboard and fiberboard all emit a variety of contaminants. Look for building materials, furniture and other products that are low emissions. Instead of using synthetic fragrances to scent your home, try placing orange slices, lemon slices, cloves or any other herb in boiling water on the stove to scent the house.
- Look for non-toxic, naturally derived, and "low or no VOC" alternatives paints, carpets, and furnishings. Read labels carefully. The term "non-toxic" is not a regulated term. Look for specific claims and product ingredients.
- "Air Out" new carpets and home furnishings before indoor use, especially newly painted and newly carpeted rooms. The new carpet smell is most likely unhealthy.
- Change your vacuum bag, and be sure it has a clean filter to prevent the spreading of dust, which can be redistributed into the air.
4. Shop smart eat more organic and healthy foods
Eating organic food reduces the amount of toxic pesticides in our bodies. Organic foods are grown without potentially harmful, long-lasting synthetic chemicals. Non-organic food often contains chemical and pesticide residue. After extensive research, the EPA considers 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides as potential health risks.
What to do:
- Eat USDA certified organic fruits and veggies, or at least avoid those with the highest pesticide residues: apples, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, red raspberries, strawberries, bell peppers, carrots, celery, green beans, hot peppers, potatoes, and spinach.
- Shop at Natural Foods Markets and at neighborhood farmers' markets for locally grown foods. Natural does not mean Certified Organic.
- Wash all fruits and vegetables (even organic) before eating to reduce surface traces of chemical residues, wax, and pesticides on non-organic produce.
- Choose your protein wisely - meat, eggs, milk products, and poultry that are hormone-free, antibiotic-free, free-range and/or fed with vegetarian feed.
- Avoid foods high in sugar, high in fat, processed, and fast foods. Less processed foods are greater nutritional content and are less likely to contain artificial and chemical preservatives.
- Avoid conventional dairy and meats - these are treated with artificial hormones and antibiotics that interfere can affect human health and development.
5. Be wise with plastics
Plastic provides a good amount of affordable convenience. Only recently have we discovered that the hidden cost may be our health. Plastics have the potential to negatively affect health in certain applications.
The use of plastics in food storage and cooking can carry health risks. Plastics have been linked to endocrine disruption in babies, cancers, birth defects, and poor brain/nervous system development. Some petroleum-based plastics leach harmful chemical into foods and drinks, especially when plastic comes in contact with oily or fatty foods, during heating and microwaving, as a result of harsh cleaners, and when exposed to excessive moisture.
Plastics in the home
Safer Choices:
Avoid:
What to do:
- Avoid using plastic containers in the microwave - unsafe chemicals are released when plastics are heated. Instead, use glass or ceramic containers to microwave food and beverages. Pop out frozen food from plastic containers and heat in glass or ceramic.
- Avoid using vinyl (PVC) shower curtains. Use curtains made of natural fibers, polyester or nylon instead.
- Choose safer plastics such as polyethylene (#1, #2, and #4) and polypropylene (#5) which require the use of less toxic additives and are non-chlorinated.
- Look for products which state "no phthalates" or "no bisphenol A (BPA)" these are safer.
- Wash plastic containers by hand with a mild soap instead. Dishwasher's hot water degrades plastics.
- Avoid use of polycarbonate and polystyrene (#3 and #6) baby bottles and sippy cups. If the packaging does not identify the plastic, ask the manufacturer or don't buy it.
- Replace vinyl chew toys made of soft plastic - If you see "V" or "3", it's PVC - don't buy it. Opt for toys and books made with natural wood, paper, cloth, or metal. If you can't eliminate all of your child's PVC toys, then make sure they are cleaned regularly. Wet wipe them regularly.
- Be cautious of cling wraps, especially for microwave use. Wrap foods in butcher paper, waxed paper, or paper towels. Or store food in glass or ceramic.
- Look, be aware of plastic products in your child's surroundings - squeeze toys, rattles, bath toys, cribs, teethers, pacifiers, high chairs, sippy cups, and baby bottles.
- Use alternatives to plastic whenever possible. Use glass, ceramic (lead free), and stainless steel.
Resources:
Additional resources
Organizations worth knowing about:
- The Green Guide: aims to be a practical, reliable and trustworthy source of content for product choices and daily practices that are better for health and the environment.
- NRDC: a large, effective environmental non profit that also has a program focus in health.
- Environmental Working Group: a leading environmental non profit that conducts research and investigations on the toxicity of many consumer products.
Additional website resources:
Books:
- The Complete Organic Pregnancy (Dierdre Dolan & Alexandra Zissu)
- The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler (Lisa Barnes)
Magazines:
Back to top
|
