Picture Yourself Going Green

By Erinn Morgan

Step-by-Step Instruction for Living a Budget-Conscious, Earth-Friendly Lifestyle in Eight Weeks or Less

Are you looking for simple, budget-friendly ways to help you and your family live a healthier, more planet-friendly lifestyle? Picture Yourself Going Green: Step-by-Step Instruction for Living a Budget-Conscious, Earth-Friendly Lifestyle in Eight Weeks or Less provides you with uncomplicated solutions to help you conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle, and, thus, minimize our impact on the planet. You’ll discover that even small changes can make a difference and that going green is good for our health, the planet, and even our budgets. This book starts off with ten quick and simple changes that will green your lifestyle immediately; you can then follow an eight-week plan that will green everything from your energy use, transportation, and food choices to your wardrobe, beauty supplies, and travel. As you work through the suggestions and changes in this book, you’ll find that simple efforts like turning off lights that aren’t in use, carpooling to work, notching the thermostat down one degree, and taking a shorter shower can be beneficial to your family and the planet. Featuring simple instructions and a colorful layout full pictures and illustrations, Picture Yourself Going Green is packed with helpful eco facts, tips, and ideas to help you along on your green journey.

Published by Course Technology, a division of Cengage Learning

Available at Maria’s Bookshop in Durango and on www.amazon.com.

About the Author: Erinn Morgan is a Durango, CO-based freelance journalist whose writing focuses on sustainability, earth-friendly products, eco-conscious style and trends, outdoor sports and adventure travel. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Skiing, Bike, Natural Solutions, and Delicious Living. She and her husband recently planned and held their own carbon-neutral, eco-conscious wedding on the banks of the Colorado River in Utah's red rock canyon country.

Chapter 11: Greening Your Children

From the moment they are conceived until they reach adulthood, children are extremely susceptible to modern life’s barrage of chemicals and pollutants. The way they live as crawling infants, running toddlers, and fast-growing kids can lead them to greater exposure since they often put their hands in their mouths (and transfer every toxin they touch into their bodies) and play outside in dirt and grass that has likely been treated with harmful fertilizers, pesticides, and weed killers.

There are many ways you can help reduce the body burden of chemicals that your kids must bear. The next few sections offer some key tips for greening their lives and teaching them to love the planet.

In Utero: What to Avoid When You’re Expecting

The best time to clean up your home and your act from harmful chemicals is actually before you even become pregnant. There is no better example of this than the EWG study that revealed the prolific presence of toxins present in umbilical cord blood. Of the 287 chemicals detected, a full 180 are known to cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 have caused birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests.

Tossing the toxic cleaning supplies, losing the lawn fertilizers, pitching the pesticides in non-organic foods, and ditching the carcinogenic chemicals in personal care products will clean up your own health and prepare your body to be a safe haven for your child to be conceived and grow in. Once you are pregnant, you can rest easy knowing you’ve done all you can to give your baby a healthy start and a toxin-free home to be born into.

Many of these switches have been covered in previous chapters of this book, so if you’ve followed the eight-week plan laid out here, you’ve made great strides in preparing for pregnancy and beyond. If you’d like to review this key information on cleaning up relevant areas of your life, head to the following:

Choosing Natural Cleaning Products to Clean Up Air Quality: Chapter 3

Buying Pesticide-Free Organic Foods and Eating Safer Seafood: Chapter 5

Using Natural Lawn Care Strategies to Reduce Pesticides and Fertilizer Exposure: Chapter 6

Choosing Natural Personal Care Products to Reduce Chemical Exposure: Chapter 8

ECO FACT

Is your baby’s bottle BPA-free? Growing concern about the potential health effects of bisphenol A (BPA) led the Canadian government to ban the sale of plastic baby bottles containing the chemical in 2008. The country’s federal ministries of Health and the Environment moved after a report found that BPA, which is used to harden plastic and make it shatterproof, is a danger to people and particularly to newborns and infants. The biggest concerns with BPA are possible effects on reproductive development and hormone disruption. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Union maintain that BPA is safe for use in all applications, including baby bottles, polycarbonate water bottles, and food packaging for canned goods and soups. At the same time, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health-advocacy group, has warned that pregnant women should limit their exposure even to packaging that contains BPA to avoid passing it onto their unborn children. There are many safer baby bottle options today, including BPA-free versions from Green to Grow, Born Free, Medela, Adiri, and Thinkbaby. Old-fashioned glass bottles are also a safe option that has always been free of BPA.

Creating a Healthy Nursery or Bedroom

When a baby is on the way, one of the first things expectant parents are inspired to do is decorate a nursery for their child-to-be. But if you’re using conventional products like paints, carpeting, and wallpaper, you may just be doing your baby more harm than good. Whether remodeling for a precious new infant’s nursery or redoing your child’s bedroom, following a few green tips can help keep them healthy and happy in the long run. Opting for green home improvement products may cost you a little bit more, but they will more than pay for themselves in peace of mind.

1. Paint Clean: Blue for a boy or pink for a girl? Whatever your choice of hue may be make sure it is also derived from paints that are zero- or low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) versions. These can be latex (water-based) paints or even those made of natural materials like clay. If your plans include any remodeling such as tearing down a wall, consider first that if your home was built before the 1980s, it likely contains highly toxic lead paint. In this case, it’s wise to consult a contractor certified in lead abatement.

2. Choose Green Flooring: carpeting can contain a host of toxic chemicals that off-gas directly into your child’s room, polluting the air they breathe. If new flooring is in your design plans, consider opting for healthier, green versions such as bamboo, cork, or natural wool carpeting. If the installation requires glues or other finishes, make sure you use those that are free of VOCs.

3. Steer Clear of PVC: Products made with polyvinyl chloride plastic contain a host of harmful chemicals, including VOCs and phthalates, which can pollute the air quality in your child’s room. If you have a window in their room that requires covering, install wood or metal versions instead of plastic roller shades. In lieu of harmful vinyl shower curtains, opt for healthy organic cotton or bamboo versions. Also, be sure to avoid any wallpaper made with PVC.

4. Consider Toxin-Free Furniture: Much of today’s furniture, even that made for nurseries or children’s bedrooms, contains harmful pollutants such as formaldehyde and fire-retardant chemicals. Tests have actually shown that the latter, which has been linked to neurological and developmental impairments, learning disabilities, and cancer, are also present in baby products such as portable cribs, strollers, and high chairs. The best way to avoid these harmful elements in your home is to purchase products from companies that focus on creating healthy, green options. You can also check with product manufacturers to discern what goes into the items they produce.

5. Use Better Bedding: When shopping for linens for your little ones, choose natural, un-dyed, untreated sheets. Permanent press and other treated products can contain formaldehyde that off-gasses into the air and is inhaled while children sleep.

Buying Safer Toys

In recent years, children’s toys have been a hot topic of concern to parents across the country. In 2007, the discovery of a large number of toys made in China containing lead-based paints led several behemoth toy manufacturers to recall millions of toys. Lead is a serious neurotoxin and the paints that use it as an ingredient can easily be chipped off and ingested by a child.

But the ills of kids’ playthings don’t stop at lead. In fact, the consumer action guide,  HYPERLINK "http://www.HealthyToys.org" www.HealthyToys.org, lists the main chemicals of concern as lead, chlorine, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury. Sadly, there is little regulation to monitor, label, or eliminate these toxins from our children’s toys.

Carcinogenic chlorine, which appears in toys made from petroleum-based PVC, has been detected in kids’ products like plastic books, bibs, and backpacks plus plastic packaging and toys. Phthalates, an industrial group of chemicals that add flexibility and resilience to products, are also present in PVC. Even at low levels of exposure, phthalates can cause hormone disruption, asthma, and breast cancer. A 2005 Centers for Disease Control study of the human population found that phthalates were present in almost everyone, with particularly high levels in children aged six to 11. While phthalates have been banned in toys and baby products in the European Union, Japan, and even the state of California, there continues to be no federal regulation by the U.S. government.

The heavy metal cadmium, which has been shown to cause developmental effects and is a known human carcinogen, has been found on painted toys and kids’ PVC products like toys, lunch boxes, and bibs. Mercury, which has been found in vinyl backpacks and bath toys, affects the kidneys and is toxic to the nervous system.

While the presence of chemicals in your child’s toys may seem like an overwhelming concept to deal with, there are a few, simple steps you can take to create a healthier playtime. First off, you’ll want to replace the PVC toys that they play with regularly; these could include bath toys, squeeze toys, and dolls.

When buying new toys, choose safer solid wood products, preferably unpainted, treated with non-toxic finishes. While the use of wood does deplete valuable trees from the planet, the products made from wood will be more durable and last longer than other types of toys, which end up in landfills faster.

Cloth and plush toys can also be safe options, as well as games and puzzles made of paper. If you are set on buying a soft plastic toy, be sure to verify that the product is phthalate-free.

For extra help with these issues, head to  www.HealthyToys.org or  www.greenpeace.org for product ratings, toy company report cards, and safety testing information. Past and present toy recall information is available through the Consumer Product Safety Commission website:     http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html.

GREEN ON THE CHEAP

The materials needed for kids’ craft projects are also perpetrators in the chemical crime. Some glues and paints emit VOCs into the air and even crayons have been found to contain asbestos. For safer crafting, choose water-based paints, simple construction and scrap paper, and other natural options for your child.

Teaching Kids to Love and Respect the Planet

Your own children—or those that are in your life via friends and family—will soak up the green knowledge you impart and take it forward with them in life. The earth is theirs for the future and their generation, with all their earth-friendly knowledge and acceptance of things like renewable energy and chemical-free foods, will likely take far better care of it than the past few generations have. These few tips and ideas will help you to teach your children well and sign them up for your green plan at home and beyond—and help you build memories that will last a lifetime.

Hold a green meeting. Sit down with your children to discuss your desire to go green—if you present it in a fun way, they’ll likely be excited about the unusual changes ahead. This is a great time to discuss plans like starting a recycling program and reducing energy usage at home.

Encourage them to reduce. Their energy consumption is one of the best things they can reduce right away. If you have more than one child, you could even run a competition to see who is the best at turning the lights in the rooms they leave throughout the day.

Motivate them to recycle. If space permits, set up simple, clearly marked bins in the kitchen (i.e. “paper,” “glass,” “plastic”) and challenge them to toss recyclables in the correct spot. You can also let them help set these items out on collection day.

Take them outside. Let your kids experience the beauty of Mother Nature firsthand—take them hiking, canoeing, or sledding. Their outdoor adventures will make it quite clear why the earth is so worthy of preservation.

Design a garden. If you have the space, build a garden for them to plant flowers or fruits and vegetables in your back yard. Nothing will solidify the beauty of nature’s process more than watching something grow that they have planted. If you live in an apartment or in the city, take them to a community garden where they can participate in the process.

Ride bikes together. Teaching your child how to ride a bike is one of the best things you can do for the planet. This skill will stay with them always and may even inspire them to bike to school or work in the future.

ECO FACT

A study by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) found that a large number of children’s soft vinyl lunchboxes contain high levels of lead, most of which is present in linings where this toxin can come into contact with food. To avoid this problem altogether, CEH recommends that parents buy products from those companies that have committed to sell only lead-safe lunchboxes. A few examples include Ingear, Fashion Accessory Bazaar, Lisa Frank, and Big Dogs.