After reading Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh’s post about $40 Bling bottled water (I am still praying that is just a big joke), you may well want to run to your tap and chug down a few glasses of nice, cheap tap water.
But not so fast, my thrifty water-loving friend–if you live in the city or otherwise have access to municipal treated water. While the clear fluid coming out of your faucet is H2O just like the stuff in that naughty $40 plastic bottle, it may have a few things added to the H’s and O’s that could be more costly than any plastic bottle.
Unfortunately, municipal water treatment nowadays means more than just water cleansed of poop, pee, and various other nasty bits of stuff in order to make for a potable potation coming out of your tap. And what municipalities put into the water could be as unhealthy for the planet as they are for you.
Probably the most infamous introduction to municipal water is fluoride. Way back in the 1940s, fluoride found its way into American water systems after scientists discovered that people who ingested fluoride-treated water apparently had less instances of tooth decay. And ever since, fluoride treatment has been standard practice in municipalities worldwide.
Two years later than my daughter, my son has almost completed his toilet learning! It has been different with my boy, as we have resorted to the bare bum method. Feeling the cool breeze on his bottom seems to be the only way he can remember to hold it in until he reaches the toilet. This works while we are home, but he still had accidents in underwear and clothes. Since we are down to one diaper a day just at night, I’ve abandoned the cloth diapers for Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers.
I’ve always professed that every baby should wear cloth diapers; however, with my son wearing one diaper in 24 hours, it takes a long time to make a diaper load of laundry. After a week, these cloth diapers get very rank, and I don’t really want to put them in my washing machine or waste energy and water to wash them more often. Thus, I’ve resorted to Seventh Generation’s Chlorine-Free Diapers, as it is too late in the game (I don’t plan to have any more children) to invest in gDiapers. I do feel a slight pang of guilt using a landfill, aka disposable, diaper, but I rationalize six years of cloth diapering two kids has earned me the right to one disposable diaper a day.
By Tiana Griego •
June 5, 2008
Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Feel Good Style, one of our sister sites on the Green Options network. We thought our readers would enjoy it too!
Fairy Tales all natural, organic hair care for children just launched their new “Summer Hair Care” kit. Fairy Tales Hair Care has created a specialty line of hair care products loaded with fruit enzymes and citrus extracts of lemon, grapefruit, pineapple and orange to help wash away sea salts, minerals and chlorine “green.” An infusion of aloe, sweet almond oil, jojoba and vitamin A, E and D then deep condition and moisturize the hair leaving it soft and silky even after a day at the beach or pool.
The Fairy Tales Hair Care kit includes
Lifeguard clarifying shampoo
Lemon -Aid Conditioner
Coco Cabana leave-in Sun Spray
In addition to the hair care products they also have created a non toxic bug repellant for the little ones. The rosemary Repel Spray contains pure, organic oils of citronella, rosemary, tea tree, lavender and geranium. These great smelling herbs have been shown to repel bugs such as mosquitoes, gnats and head lice!
By Tiana Griego •
June 3, 2008
Fairy Tales all natural, organic hair care for children just launched their new “Summer Hair Care” kit. Fairy Tales Hair Care has created a specialty line of hair care products loaded with fruit enzymes and citrus extracts of lemon, grapefruit, pineapple and orange to help wash away sea salts, minerals and chlorine “green.” An infusion of aloe, sweet almond oil, jojoba and vitamin A, E and D that deep condition and moisturize the hair leaving it soft and silky even after a day at the beach or pool.
By mcmilker •
December 21, 2007
If you are a fan of Seventh Generation products you might find the interview interesting with President and “Chief Inspired Protagonist” of Seventh Generation Jeffrey Hollender on the Huffington Post.
On every package of Seventh Generation’s, non-toxic household products, you can find their corporate motto:
“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions upon the next seven generations.”
By Max Lindberg •
September 17, 2007
What’s riding the rails in your hometown? A few hobos maybe, but also potentially deadly chemicals rumble through America’s communities daily. My hometown paper, The Galesburg Register-Mail, printed a series of articles on the dangers nearly every train brings to a community. And in Galesburg, IL, this is particularly important: approximately 1,000 cars travel through the city daily on two major railroads that cross town, the Burlington Northern and the
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By serenity_ii •
September 4, 2007
Whoo-hoo! Seventh Generation now sells chlorine-free training pants! We hope they work as well as the diapers.
After reading Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh’s post about $40 Bling bottled water (I am still praying that is just a big joke), you may well want to run to your tap and chug down a few glasses of nice, cheap tap water.
