Green Options

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When we go to a yoga class, we work to re-oxygenate our bodies with heart opening breathing exercises, inhale deeply, and breath in clean refreshing pure air. Unfortunately, many yoga mats are made of toxic materials that seep into the air. Worse yet, is hot yoga classes are often not ventilated. The best way to purify a yoga studio is to switch to eco riendly mats, educating each yogi that signs up for a class about the benefits of green mats and only carrying them in house. As I’ve said many times before, yoga is one of the most rejuvenating, restoring, enlivening and uplifting kinds of exercise out there. What many are unaware of is just how toxic many yoga supplies may be.  Articles like this one from the Green Yoga Association help clear the air as to what is good for our healing studios.

There are a good many options out there, and I’ll share my long time favorite the Harmony mat (some say they slip more on this rubber mat but personally I like the ability to grip and stretch the mat as I ease into form) which most yoga places carry. From the Jade Harmony Mat site~

Harmony is Green
Harmony is constructed of natural rubber a renewable resource tapped from rubber trees - containing no PVC or ozone depleting substances - perfect for the yogi concerned about the environment.

To be more complete, here is a long list of some green options out there for yoga mats:

The Center for Health, Environment & Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing environmental health harms caused by chemical threats, recently released a report stating that shower curtains made with PVC contain numerous harmful chemicals including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), phthalates (think CA toys), and organotins. These ubiquitous shower curtains are likely to have adverse effects on the nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems.

I don’t have enough hands to count the number of those shower curtains I’ve used in my brief 23 years, but it’s a lot. I’m happy to say I switched to cloth a few months ago after having a conversation about the possible effects of continued exposure to these shower curtains with my friend John Laumer of treehugger.com. I’m glad to see our fears were not confounded. The smell you most often associate with the excitement of a new product is actually a sign of off-gassing, a process by which harmful toxins become airborne through evaporation. There should be no rejoicing when this smell is encountered.

Some interesting findings from the study:

It seems phthalates are cropping up everywhere. A recent article published here, When Getting The Lead Out Is Not Enough, highlighted some of the major health concerns linked to phthalates. Parents by now have heard about the incidence of this toxic substance in toys and baby accessories. Now it looks like we have a new worry.

In the February issue of the journal, Pediatrics, researchers found a link between use of baby skin care product and phthalates.

By MC Milker
The Not Quite Crunchy Parent

And while we’re on the subject of clean air which I wrote about here, let me tackle the problem with commercial air fresheners.

This from a recently released report from The Natural Resources Defense Council.

A recent investigation of 14 common air fresheners by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found phthalates in 12 products, hazardous chemicals known to cause hormonal abnormalities, birth defects and reproductive problems.The offending products included some fresheners marketed as “all-natural” and “unscented.” None of the air fresheners listed phthalates on their labels.

Holiday season fanfare has already begun, and I am reminded of my holiday motto: No more junk toys! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and/or the Winter Solstice, if you have children, you know what junk toys are. Junk toys are toys that will have little educational value, are usually made of plastic, are overly commercial, and end up in our landfills. Green parents often try to make these toys

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Editor's note: In the newest edition of Red, Green and Blue, writers Shirley Siluk Gregory and Jimmy Hogan take a look at the "smaller" concerns of environmentalists, and whether it's worth worrying about such issues when there are much greater and more pressing matters affecting our lives and health.

Shirley: When the Environmental Working Group last week announced its release of an updated and expanded "Skin Deep," its online database of chemicals

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Sandal wearing season is just around the corner and the toes will come out to play. If you're using a splash of color on your little piggies, make sure your nail polish is phthalate-free.