Green Options

Swimming in pools treated with chlorine can increase kids’ asthma risk according to a recent study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Belgium researchers also found that kids who swam in indoor and outdoor chlorine-treated pools had a higher risk of other allergies including hay fever and allergic rhinitis.

The study compared chlorine pools with a healthier and more eco-friendly option, pools sanitized with copper and silver. Researchers suggest that the chlorine causes changes in the airway, promoting the development of allergic diseases. While more research is still needed, 20% of Olympic swimmers have asthma. Interesting, right?

Nitrous oxide, more commonly known at your dentist’s office as laughing gas, is now the most prevalent man-made substance damaging the ozone layer. And it’s a greenhouse gas. Sadly, the joke’s apparently on us.

Nature is not entirely defenseless against rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A class of elements called halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc., often occurring in pairs) are emitted into the atmosphere via ocean spray, where they destroy ozone (O3), a significant greenhouse gas and aerosol that promotes warming.

Highly toxic by ingestion or inhalation of the dust, it can also poison a person through exposure to soluble forms, inhalation of its vapour, or eating fish contaminated with it. It’s mercury. We all know mercury for its presence in thermometers. And we all know what it means for the mercury to be rising (as is currently a major global issue). But what does it mean when mercury is falling?

Britain’s largest water company has been fined £125,000 ($180,000), after polluting London’s River Wandle to such an extent that it wiped out twenty years of painstaking conservation work in a single day.

The shocking incident occurred in 2007, when Chlorine escaped from a Thames Water sewage treatment works, killing most of the fish along a 3 mile stretch of one of the city’s most iconic urban rivers. Local residents tried to save some of the distressed fish by transferring them from the river into buckets of clean water, but they were too late. One man rescued a large number of eels, but found they were bleeding from the gills and they all later died.

In the not too distant past I called for an outright ban on using vinyl in any and all craft projects in Crafting Vs. Vinyl (Round 1). I then followed that up with Crafting Vs. Vinyl (Round 2) and explored some possible alternatives to the toxic plastic, but had no such luck on finding a substitute to clear vinyl, a material that is used in many crafting projects.

Gidget recently inquired about PEVA as a possible clear plastic alternative. I jumped at the chance to look into this plastic, which I had not heard of, to see about its potential for crafting and how it rates in relation to PVC.

Gidget pointed out that IKEA was selling clear plastic shower curtains and that they were made out of PEVA, not PVC. I happened to be at an IKEA the other day and was able to look over said shower curtain. Indeed, it said 100% PEVA. It was clear and light and flexible. The biggest difference that I noticed right away was its lack of smell! It was also thinner and a bit more cloudy (but still clear) than PVC, but still flexible and pliable enough to be run through with a needle and thread.

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.

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!

 

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.

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.”