Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

I often wonder why our beauty products do not come with warning labels; most of them are filled with toxins harmful to our bodies and our environment. Ingredients such as parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, germall, coal tar derivatives, urea, phthalates, toluene, formaldehyde, mineral oil, propylene glycol, triclosan, DEA, TEA, MEA, synthetic fragrances, PEG, BHA, and petroleum. Many of these ingredients have been confirmed to cause a wide range of cancers, reproductive concerns, allergies, and a sizeable list of health problems. Furthermore the ingredients which pollute our bodies also pollute the environment.To see the health effects of your current cosmetics check out the Environment Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. In the search field of the website, type your brand of cosmetics, or simply type one of its ingredients. Information will appear using a 1–10 ratio scale; 10 being the most harmful brand or ingredient.Your skin is your largest organ. It is porous; everything you apply on your body seeps into your pores. Therefore, what you put on your body is as important as what you put in it. Why not use beauty products kind to animals, kind to the planet, and kind to you?

What’s the solution?After much research concerning cosmetics which are safe, yet provide the desired results, I’ve found a great website to share: Holistic Beauty.

Ontario plans to ban the use and sale of garden pesticides; that equates to over 300 products and 70 chemicals.  Unfortunately, golf courses, farms, and forests will be exempt. Home Depot has already pulled garden pesticides from their shelves in Ontario.

Sources:  The Globe and Mail, 

Placing a phalaenopsis orchid (shown here) removes toxic xylene from the air which comes from the electrical equipment around you including TVs and computer monitors. UK based Style Wll Save Us (SWSU) has a great book review out on this topic called Eco-friendly Houseplants - 50 Indoor Plants That Purify the Air in Houses and Offices. 

I discovered the peace lily absorbs alcohol, acetone, trichloroethylene, benzene and formaldehyde. The lilies are also known to help reduce allergies. No wonder I’ve seen them as ‘get well soon’ arrangements in hospital gift shops.  Indoor gardening brings oxygen, beauty, and joy and removes toxic icky particles from the air.

So where do these problems in the air start? Well, trichloroethylene is released in printers. Formaldehyde is traced back to gas cookers, upholstery, wood stains, curtains, floor coverings, varnishes and ceiling tiles.  Acetone is in many cosmetics. Benzene is common in carpets, paints, varnishes, adhesives and wallcoverings and alcohol is present in perfumes and mouth wash. The houseplants reviewed purify the air better than any expensive air purifier by absorbing the bad air and sending out oxygen to heal and invigorate. I was eager to test this fact so I went out 

While eco-friendly fabrics are showing up in more and more designer collections and stores, we often don’t hear enough about the dyeing and finishing processes that accompany them. Conventional dyeing methods often involve toxic chemicals, harmful to the wearer and the environment.

I recently hosted an event at Pivot where Chicago designer Annie Novotny of Frei Designs demonstrated how she naturally dyes some of her garments and accessories with pomegranate juice. First, select a 100% pure juice (no sugars or additives). Pour the juice in a large bowl and add some vinegar and water. The vinegar helps to set the color and also adds brown into the hue.

Editor’s note: As a user of the Diva Cup for the past two years, I’m excited to share this guest post by Juliana Tran, a student in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. It was originally published to the course blog on March 11, 2008.

Every month it comes and goes, effecting women (and those around them) in their personal health, hormonally, emotionally and on a broader scale, in their environment.

Yes, I am talking about menstruation.

Menstruation is an issue that does pertain to both men and women. There is not an issue of menstruation itself, something that I feel should be celebrated, and not something taboo, uncomfortable, and feared. Unfortunately, there is an issue with the toxicity and disposability of the way women “take care of this problem”.

So, how is it relevant to men? If you have a women in your life, mother, sister, daughter, significant other, show them you care about their personal health by telling them about the consequences of using disposable products!

Editor’s note: Cleaning can be a messy business, with all of the chemicals in traditional housecleaning products. Today, Joel at Life Goggles takes a look at a greener, non-toxic cleaning system (which is reasonably priced, also). And, if you like the product reviews we’ve been featuring from LG, make sure to check out their Great Green Giveaway competition… you might just win some of these cool items. Today’s post was originally published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008.

Eco-Me is a company that provides 100% natural eco kits. I call them “starter kits,” as they’re an easy way to get started using more environmentally-friendly products. In fact, you mix these yourself so you know exactly what has gone into them.

They currently have five kits: Home, Body, Baby, Dog and Cat kits. Not owning a dog or cat (or baby for that matter), it was the Home kit that I was sent for review.

Containing two empty reusable plastic bottles, a reusable tub, a microfiber cleaning cloth, natural fiber scrub brush and a small bottle of Home Blend essential oil, the large box bag it comes in was pleasantly light. The two bottles are for “All Purpose Spray Cleaner” and “Wood Polish Spray Cleaner” with the tub being for “Home Scrub Cleaner.” Each one has really simple instructions on the side and a measurement guide. For example, pour white vinegar up to this mark on the label, water up to this mark, and then 1 unit of essential oil.

Health officials are asking people who use any kind of medication, from over-the-counter cough medicines to high powered pain killers, to find another way to dispose of unused meds. Kitty litter is suggested, or coffee grounds, even doggie poop or anything that would make the drugs less than easy to fall into the wrong hands.

The Associated Press article quotes a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration spokesman, who says these meds are not to be taken lightly, and the problem is growing. I recall being told to flush the meds down the toilet, and we did that, but it’s proven to be the wrong solution for disposal. Antibiotics, according to the article, and hormones are being found in waterways along with other drugs, raising questions about public health and environmental factors.

Some take-back programs have been initiated in several communities, and thousands of pharmacists will be handing out fliers with their prescriptions, informing users of the dangers associated with flushing or just leaving the unused meds in a cabinet or drawer. Anyone, including children, who has access to a person’s home could potentially walk away with the drugs, exposing themselves to serious health consequences.

So, for now, keep a sealable plastic bag on hand, fill it with whatever you can find, even the yukkie stuff, and dispose of your unused medicines in a safer manner. And even with those precautions, health officials are concerned about the thousands of tons of medications entering landfills and sewage disposal plants, seeping into groundwater and streams.

Carol J. Boyd, director of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research and Gender, stresses that the public needs to know of the dangers associated with random disposal of unused drugs. She’s quoted as saying, “What’s not easy is, we don’t know if it’s working.”

A few months ago, in an effort to green up my health and beauty products, I ran across National Geographic’s The Green Guide. The site included a handy wallet-sized guide called The Dirty Dozen in Personal Care Products, which allows me to pick products that don’t contain harmful chemicals.

Then last week, my issue of Whole Life Times included a tear-out seafood guide. It lets me know what to

[...]

BP’s been feeling the heat over their plans to increase their dumping of ammonia and industrial sludge into Lake Michigan and have backed away from the plans, for now. Nice work greenies!

Here’s BP’s press release over at Earthtimes, via Earth2Tech

Mmmmmm… there’s nothing more refeshing on a hot day than a nice big bottle of cold Bisphenol A.

Via Ecofriend, via Environmental Graffiti

Whenever we drink from a plastic bottle, no matter what it’s carrying, a harmful chemical named bisphenol A (BPA) enters our body along with the liquid. Six months ago, the European Food Safety Authority (ESPA) stated that human exposure to the element in under safety limits and posed no health risks, however,

[...]

Plenty, it turns out… and not generally things we want. This week, Naturalpath takes a look at the many additives that enter our food supply. For instance,

Most of the crops in the United States are grown with the aid of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and some of these are potentially harmful to the environment and people. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 30%

[...]