Pollution inside our homes

“…Pollution inside our homes….” I remember the first time I read that phrase. Pollution was always something that referred to the outside – we go into our homes to be safe! But according to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html), the pollution inside our homes is 2 to 5 times greater than outside. Think about that. We spend, on average, 90% of our time indoors – work, school, grocery store, movies, home.

Go to Sloan Barnett’s website (http://greengoeswitheverything.com/) and take the body burden test. You’ll begin to see where all these pollutants are coming from: chemicals in our carpets; mattresses; paints; household cleaners (especially ones in spray bottles where particles can float around your home for days); furniture upholstery, wax, and glue; fireplace pollutants; dry cleaning chemicals; pesticides, just to name a few.

The first time I took Sloan’s body burden test, I was more than twice the national average! That scared me, and little by little, we have changed our lifestyle. After getting educated we now use only green cleaners. We use Basic H for keeping most outdoor garden pests at bay. Over time we are replacing our few carpeted areas with natural stone. We now use natural, safe personal products such as baby bubble bath, shampoo, lotion, etc. We can’t be too careful with our health!

Water is another area of concern. Our water comes from a well since we live in a rural area. We don’t have the smell of chlorine in our water nor do we worry about getting those scary quality control reports about “monitoring requirements for your drinking water not met.” What an awful thing to get in the mail AFTER the fact! But we do worry about what chemicals get washed into our water. Our under sink osmosis system died recently. Those are expensive – the filters alone are well over $100/year. Luckily, we just found a fabulous water pitcher filtration system. It filters 56 toxins including lead and costs less than the filters for the osmosis system! Again, you can’t be too careful with your health and that of your family.

This is part of the Healthy Child Blog Carnival about Clean Water and Air Solutions [http://bit.ly/cleanAir] - an effort by Healthy Child Healthy World to help inspire a movement to protect children from harmful chemicals.

Read more: http://healthychild.org/get-involved/events/comments/blog_carnival_clean_water_and_air_solutions/#ixzz0x1Nl4iWg

Pretty But Dead?

This is a great article (below) on some of the dangers of cosmetics. I found it on Healthy Child but it originated on the Environmental Working Group’s website. We don’t normally think of cosmetics as “dangerous.” We are a little too trusting and too naïve. I have heard rumors about lipsticks with fish scales in them. Yuk! What else don’t we know?

And it is not just women. Do you men use deodorant? Toothpaste? Shaving cream? Shampoo? Soap? You get the idea.

http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/test_your_knowledge_of_cosmetics_safety_8_myths_debunked1/

Here’s a related article from the Environmental Working Group. http://www.enviroblog.org/2010/07/being-clean-and-pretty-has-toxic-costs.html

We need to think about what we are doing to ourselves. Is it any wonder that rates of cancer are on the rise? Did you know that, according to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 5 women will die from cancer? For men it is 1 in 4. I, personally, do NOT like that statistic.

Read up. Take action.

I use Shaklee personal care products so I now feel quite safe, but for years, who knows what was in the stuff I used. We bought what was cheap, and, oh lord, what smelled good.

I’d like to find some safe, natural, good cosmetics since Shaklee is no longer selling that line …