Green Options » cleaning products

Household Products To Get Ingredient Labeling

Cate Nelson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:37:16 +0000

I spent the first weekend away from my sons ever at BlogHer ’09 in Chicago. And my favorite session—hands down—was the Green Bloggers session. (Why yes, it was nice to meet the writers I adore!)

There, while we discussed good resources for product ingredient lists and standards, an audience member dropped what sounded like a bomb to all of us in the natural parenting, green cleaning and organic living world:

On January 1, 2010, all household products will have full ingredient lists on their labeling.

How did this amazing change in chem-laden products come about? Blame Thank Canada.

Here are the deets on these requirements.

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The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

Sonya — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:05:09 +0000

A new report claims that the increasing number of ‘all-natural’ and ‘organic’ products on the market may be guilty of “the seven sins of greenwashing”.

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing released its report The Seven Sins of Greenwashing today. The report defines greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.”

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Formaldehyde from Citrus Cleaning Products

Linda Kincaid, MPH, CIH — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:01:48 +0000

Cleaning products and air fresheners can produce formaldehyde. UC Berkeley researchers found that chemicals in pine oils and citrus oils react with ozone in the air, producing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a strong eye, nose, throat, and lung irritant. Formaldehyde is also an asthma trigger and a carcinogen, according to the EPA.

Formaldehyde can cause red watery eyes, sore throats, skin rashes, and sinus infections. Persons with asthma are more likely to have asthma symptoms when exposed to formaldehyde. Health effects appear in many persons at about 0.1 ppm. Formaldehyde concentrations in some homes can exceed 0.3 ppm.

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Embrace Eco-friendly Child Care

Low Impact Living — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:46:12 +0000

You care about the environment and also your family’s health. So it’s time to embrace eco-friendly child care!

Many daycare and child-care centers around the U.S. are embracing eco-friendly ways, and it’s not a day too soon. That’s why we’re building a huge directory of eco-friendly child care centers around the country. We have over 120 listed so far and we’re adding more every day. Check them out! And if you know of one you’d like to add, please send us an email to feedback@lowimpactliving.com.

The State of Oregon’s Environmental Council has taken a pioneering role in certifying child-care centers with their Eco-Healthy Child Care program. Child care facilities qualify as “Eco-Healthy” by completing a 25-element checklist that highlights 25 steps facilities can take to ensure a safe place for children. Eco-healthy child care centers commit to reducing a child’s exposure to toxins and other environmental health hazards.

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Eco-Pregnancy Makes for Healthy Babies

Low Impact Living — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:14:21 +0000

Many women discover the green lifestyle when they are expecting, or become moms. Wanting to do the best you can for your child includes considerations that you make before your baby is even born – after all, that’s why you’ve given up wine, right? Everyone knows that eating right and getting enough rest will help both mother and baby be healthy, but the green movement has opened our eyes to the effects that the world around us can have as well.

Back in 2005, a frightening study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found chemicals in the blood of the umbilical cords from 10 newborn babies. These chemicals were linked to cancer, birth defects, and hormone disruptions, and included lead, mercury and PCBs. Since then, moms-to-be have demanded more information about reducing the impact of the chemical soup that we all live in.

We Are What We Eat

According to most studies, it’s not clear whether organic food has higher nutritional value than its non-organic counterparts. Regardless, one thing is for sure: organic food contains fewer chemicals. Organic food is grown without artificial fertilizers, conventional pesticides, or sewage sludge, and processed without ionizing radiation and food additives. That stuff is gross, whether you’re pregnant or not. To label a food product organic, it must be certified by the National Organic Program, which is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A USDA Organic seal indicates that the product contains at least 95% organic ingredients, so look for this label.

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Stocking the Green Office: Sustainable Supplies

Megan Prusynski — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:58:17 +0000

Before you can open your doors for business, you need an office. Stocking your office with needed supplies is a great opportunity to show your green side and make sustainable choices. From furnishings to paper clips, there are eco-friendly options out there for every office need.

Whether you’re working from home or from a downtown high-rise, you can conserve paper, reduce energy use, and produce less waste by keeping the environment in mind for all your office purchases. In this article, I’ll share ideas for stocking your green office and sources of green office products.

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How Big is still Green?

Lee Welles — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:16:39 +0000

Like many of you, I’m very aware that what goes on my skin, in my hair and on my floors and countertops, also goes down the drain and into the world! I distinctly remember a moment, while congratulating myself for using a great, organic body care product, that I looked at the label and realized that bottle had traveled about 3000 miles! Then I squinted and saw that Unilever was distributing the product and I was no longer giving my money to the small, eco-friendly company that I thought I was!

This New York Times article has me again pondering the crossroads of eco-friendly products and economies of scale.

While I’m a big fan of the cleaning power of baking soda, vinegar, Borax and lemons …a decent homemade shampoo is still beyond me! It took me a while, but I found a skin care line that I like; not only because the ingrediants are simple and organic, but because the packaging is recycleble.

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Healthier living

serenity_ii — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:48:57 +0000

The road to going green is, in my mind, quite mixed with the road to going healthier. Getting rid of our aluminum cookware is divided into the same category of my thoughts as using cloth napkins or recycled-paper towels. So what are we doing to get green & healthy now?

* Today Bill put in another CFL. A flood bulb in our family room went out and I figured we’d replace it with an LED, but now there’s talk of replacing the whole fixture, so I don’t know what will happen.

* We have a crop of probably 5-7 raspberries a day. A locally grown, antioxidant-rich snack for Bill (the seeds bother me and our son doesn’t eat the majority of fruits & veggies unless they’ve been pureed by Gerber). We also got about a serving of popcorn from this year’s crop. The pumpkin plant keeps blooming, but the pumpkins just don’t form.

* For my birthday, I got two stainless steel pans (there is aluminum in the bases, unfortunately, but it’s completely clad in steel), an iron pizza pan, and an iron skillet.

* We’re getting rid of clothes, books, chairs, cookware, etc. It’s a little late for a garage sale and I don’t have the patience for Freecycle at this point, so we will probably donate them. But we might sell some of the stuff online.

* As we use up yucky products, we’re replacing them with green products. We’re already using BioShield toilet cleaner. When we use up our 409, we’ll be using Bi-O-Kleen multipurpose cleaner. By the way, where do we get the borax or whatever to make that homemade multipurpose cleaner that was featured on GO? I haven’t seen that anywhere. The thing is, I don’t want to waste the old products we have left, but I also don’t want to use them if they’re toxic. . .

* We adopted my grandma’s table and chairs when she moved into a smaller room in her retirement home. Just arranged those in our dining room today, in fact. I don’t think we’ve ever had any new dining room furniture.