A new year …

Happy New year everyone!

I know I have been missing in action since the end of our 100-mile challenge, but time, circumstances and health (nasty carpal tunnel) kept me away from you all.

But I’m back and will try to stay focused and in touch as much as I can. With a new year come new inspirations and resolutions. Keeping this blog current and interesting is one of mine.

WHAT ARE YOUR RESOLUTIONS FOR THIS NEW YEAR?

My husband and I decided to sit down and really think these through this year. We wanted to start out the year with resolutions we knew we had a chance of keeping. There is nothing more frustrating than establishing goals knowing that there is a 50/50 chance you won’t be able to achieve them. So, we decided to be generous with ourselves and set them large enough that they would be forgiving, but tight enough that they felt rewarding. So, aside from the continuing efforts to become as green and eco-friendly as possible, here are the 4 resolutions we decided to work on this year:

• Be more active everyday! I know, not very inspiring, but we decided this year that instead of saying things like “We’ll go to the gym 3 times a week” or “We’ll start running every morning”, we were going to be honest with ourselves and set goals that are more fit to our habits. So, we promised ourselves that we would participate in a form of activity or another everyday : Whether it be a 20 minute walk, a trip to the public pool or simply taking 30 minutes to stretch and do sit ups at the house, we were going to do a little something everyday!

• Only drink coffee on the week-ends! That, to us, will most likely be the hardest one. We want to switch to tea and herbal teas for health reasons of course, but also to improve our sleeping patterns. My husband and I both suffer from restless sleep and we have noticed that on those mornings we don’t drink coffee, we sleep better that night. I know some people are more sensitive to stimulants and we may be some of them. Plus tea has so many health benefits such as :

Anti-cancer properties
Immune system boosting properties
Cardiovascular health properties
Reducing risk of strokes
Increasing metabolic rate and helping with burning fat
Antidepressant properties

And those are just a few that I found. So, although we love coffee, and we wouldn’t want to never drink it, we decided to keep it as a week-end treat.

• Try a minimum of one new recipe a week! One of the daily places where you can get stuck into a routine easily is food. Before you know it, you are eating the same 10-20 foods over and over and that just becomes very boring. So we have made it a point to start looking through cook books (when it’s time to grocery shop) and picking a recipe every week for which we will by all the ingredients for and cook! I look forward to sharing new recipes with you!
  

• Figure out what our absolute target weight is and try to stick to it! That will require finding out from reliable sources what that target weight is, what my body mass index and fat ratio are and working on getting myself fitter and healthier. It also will mean buying a scale! (Which I’ve never owned LOL!)

So there you go!

I would love to hear from you and know what your personal goals are for this year so please share!

Organic Wear Mascara by Physicians’ Formula - A Product Review

So this one will be for the girls out there who, like me, have been looking for ways to wear make up that is better for them and the environment without breaking the bank.

One of my big challenges has been finding mascara that I love and that won't cost me over 20$. I have tried quite a few, all very highly recommended, but all of them seem to have the same problem: After a few uses, they get very clumpy coming out of the bottle. I know, no petroleum so of course they would thicken, but after a few 20$+ ones, I had kind of given up until someone would either come out with one that was more reasonably priced for me to try OR someone would recommend it after more than a week of use.

Well, the first happened and I'm thrilled to share it with you!

Physicians’ formula’s new Organic Wear line is:
100% Natural Origin Makeup that is the first ECOCERT® Certified Organic Line of Makeup in the U.S. It contains 100% certified organic ingredients. They come in an eco-friendly packaging and 100% Recyclable Eco-Brush. The mascara (as are all their products) are 100% Free of Harsh Chemicals, Synthetic Preservatives, Parabens, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Fibers & Dyes. They are also animal cruelty free.

So when I was in the states for a week-end I figured, why not pick one up? It was 9$ with taxes and worse case scenario, I throw it out in a month. Well, it has been almost a month and I have seen no change in the consistency of the cream. It is very light on the lashes (and I have very short lashes) and dries relatively fast compared to other chemical-free ones. And the fact that it is avalable in most drug stores and big name department stores makes it very accessible.

I for one recommend it to every one and cannot wait to try more of their line!

What are some of your favourite all-natural beauty finds?

Attitude Eco-Friendly Fabric Softener – Product Review

Hello.

So, following my post on the hidden dangers of dryer sheets from a few weeks ago, we went looking for an eco-friendly alternative in a fabric softener. I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of options that were presented to me, until suddenly I caught a little glimpse of a print on one of the bottles :

“Driven by an ideal : To live and consume responsibly. Our future depends on the choices we make today”

Bio Spectra is a Montreal company that believes in fighting global warming, responsible consumption and good quality, eco-friendly products. Their ATTITUDE line of cleaning products is based on their “CO2neutral” approach which is quite interesting :

“What is ATTITUDE® doing?

ATTITUDE® not only offers quality products that are third-party certified eco-friendly, but also contributes actively in the fight against global warming by offering Carbone Neutral products: products that have GHG emissions equal to ZERO. Thus, by using ATTITUDE® products, you are reducing your personal environmental footprints.

The carbon neutral approach can be translated into three big steps:

• Calculating GHG emissions based on the life-cycle analysis;
• Reducing general emissions;
• Compensating for emissions that cannot be avoided.

The carbon neutral approach quantifies the whole company’s emissions and not only the emissions associated with the production of ATTITUDE® products. The report is a great tool to identify weak areas where emissions are at their highest. Thereafter, these areas are analyzed to determine the most effective ways to reduce the emission rates. We believe that it is possible to reduce our carbon footprint, all the while reducing operational costs, and believe that all self-respecting businesses should adhere to a similar model.”

The product I will be reviewing today is their Ylang-Ylang & Tangerine Fabric Softener. (It also comes in Lavender & Grapefruit). First a few facts : This product is certified EcoLogoM (an Environment Canada program), CO2 Neutral, natural, eco-friendly and biodegradable. It comes in HE formula (of course) so it is specifically designed for high-efficiency machines.

The ingredients are water, essential oils and soy based surfactants. That’s IT! The product is vegan (free of animal tallow derivatives), non-carcinogenic, hypoallergenic, non-tested on animals and free of artificial dyes and fragrances.

We’ve been using it for a week now and it has proven itself wonderful on both clothes that went in the dryer and clothes that were hung to dry. The fragrance is barely noticeable once the clothes have dried. All that is left is a very mild and pleasant smell. I found that 1/3 of a cap is more than enough more a normal sized load which leads me to believe that the bottle will last me way beyond the 52 loads it advertises. And at 7$ a bottle, it is a steal and can make your laundry cycle completely safe for you and your family.

They sell everywhere in North America, many countries in Europe and over in Japan so I really hope all of you will get your hands on these products because they are well worth a try! I’m looking forward to trying their entire line!

What are some of your favorite eco-friendly brands?

Green Living: Improving Health Today and Tomorrow

I’m very honored today to have a guest blogger, Mr. Bill Hawthorne, who represents maacenter.org, a leading web resource for asbestos exposure and mesothelioma cancer information. This organization is dedicated to increasing awareness of the terrible health consequences of asbestos exposure through the distribution of the best informational materials and public outreach efforts.

Green Living: Improving Health Today and Tomorrow

Much attention has been paid in recent years to what seems to be a growing environmental conscience in the United States. Going green used to be considered expensive and a luxury for those who could afford the trend. Now it appears that we are learning that not only is adopting more environmentally conscious attitudes good for our economic situation, but also our….health? Yes, if we dig a bit deeper we can see that dirty industries and backwards policy is actually harming the health of the earth for our children and the health of her inhabitants today.

How Does Environmental Policy Affect Public Health?

There are two levels of health consequences associated with dirty industry, both direct and indirect. The direct consequences are examples like increased asthma rates in areas with high smog indices. Chlorofluorocarbon release into the atmosphere has shown to decrease the filter of direct sunlight on the planet, resulting in more concentrated ultraviolet light reaching the surface of the earth. Perhaps it is no surprise then that in countries with depleted atmospheric gas, skin cancer rates are among the highest in the world.

The indirect health consequences are harder to see immediately, but closer examination reveals that these are, in fact, perhaps the most hazardous. Bi-products of dirty and backwards industries, such as coal and oil processing, include cancer causing substances like asbestos and benzene. A U.K. study conducted in 2002 indicated that coal and oil industry workers are at a much higher risk of developing mesothelioma (associated with asbestos exposure) and leukemia (traced to benzene and heavy-metal exposure). Dr. David Sugarbaker among many other doctors who specialize in this area understand that these are substances that can be directly traced to antiquated pre-regulation equipment in industries whose environmental hazards are even more inherent.

Can we really afford to continue on the path we were on before? Investment in clean industry means not a healthier planet for our children and grandchildren, but also a healthier place for us to live today.

--June 8, 2009 Written by Bill Hawthorne with the maacenter

Dryer sheets and fabric softeners : Big hazards come in sweet smelling packages

Good morning.

One of our missions while trying to transform our household into a green haven for our family was to replace products as we ran out of them. We figured that throwing away boxes and bottles full of products away was wasteful and it would make it easier on the wallet to go one item at a time instead of suddenly needing to replace everything in our home.

One of the things that have taken forever at getting to the bottom of has been our box of dryer sheets. Why? Because we hang so much to dry that we use them very rarely and when we absolutely MUST use the dryer, we cut them in 2, sometimes 3 parts. So a little box of 70 dryer sheets has been lasting us going on a year now.

When I pulled one out to realize there was only left in there this morning, I jumped for joy at the idea of finally switching to eco-friendly, non-toxic, biodegradable fabric softener.

Then my curiosity got tickled and I decided to look at how bad for the environment dryer sheets really were. I was very shocked and quite scared by the info I found. Not because of the dangers for the environment, but because of danger to us!

According to World-Wire.com, this is a list of some of the chemicals found in commercial fabric softeners and dryer sheets :

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
• Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list
• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders
• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic
• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders
• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

So needless to say, the last dryer sheet went in the trash and I went searching for alternatives.

Fabric Softeners :

Natural health food stores, and even many big grocery stores, will sell natural fabric softeners that are non-toxic and made from plant-based products. They are often times only a few dollars more and will make your clothes just as soft and static free.

Home recipes :

Again, from World-Wire.com here are a few ideas on home recipes to help make your clothes soft and static free without the use of chemicals :

Add a quarter cup of baking soda to wash cycle to soften fabric
Add a quarter cup of white vinegar to rinse to soften fabric and eliminate cling

Reusable natural dryer sheets :

My final suggestion is to check out a great product I found while doing this research. I came across a site for a Canadian company called Static Eliminator that produces a chemical free, hypoallergenic, long lasting and safe reusable dryer sheet that seems just fantastic!


“How does it work?

The technology behind the Static Eliminator Re-Usable Dryer Sheets is a true innovation for the way you do laundry... The weave of the Static Eliminator Re-Usable Dryer Sheets gives them their static fighting power - instead of coating your laundry with harmful chemicals, these unique, re-usable dryer sheets "conduct" the static out of your laundry load. The Static Eliminator removes static and softens fabrics while remaining chemical free and maintaining your dryer warranty.”

So I hope I could inspire you to look for safer alternatives to your traditional dryer solutions. We all want a safer, healthier home and sometimes little differences can have a huge impact!

Happy greening!


What are some of your favorite home recipes for household chores?

Painting our new home : Choosing non-toxic paints

Good morning.

We are only a month away from moving to our new home now and my husband and I went shopping for paint colors yesterday. One of the things we had promised ourselves with our new home was that we were going to paint with eco-friendly, non toxic and VOC (Volatile organic compound)-free paints. So off we went to find such a marvel!

I had done a bit of research on them before, especially after posting about plants and the way they can help purify the air we breathe indoors, and was shocked by the amount of negative impact one can of traditional paint could have on your health and environment.

According to Eartheasy.com, there are many benefits to using non-toxic paints :

• Health : Reduced toxins benefit everyone, including those with allergies and chemical sensitivities.
• Environment : Reduces landfill, groundwater and ozone depleting contaminants.
• Effective : Low-VOC products perform well in terms of coverage, scrubability and hideability (covering flaws on previous coats).
• Water-Based : Easy cleanup with soap and warm water.
• Little or No Hazardous Fumes : Low odor during application; no odor once cured. No off-gassing. Painted areas can be occupied sooner, with no odor complaints.
• Not Deemed Hazardous Waste : Cleanup and disposal greatly simplified.

Their section on non-toxic paints is WELL WORTH A LOOK and offers a great and extensive list of Natural, Zero-VOC and Low-VOC options. The natural paints even included soy and milk protein based paints. I thought that was simply wonderful! Until I tried finding such brands here in Quebec and hitting my head to a wall. The only one that was anywhere near me was Benjamin Moore and up here, they are so expensive, I couldn’t even imagine buying gallons over gallons. Plus they are in the low-VOC category and I wanted VOC-Free.

So back to square one, my husband and I headed to Home Depot and SURPRISE! We found one!


C.I.L. Dulux, a long standing paint manufacturer from Canada, has come out with their own line of 100% acrylic, VOC and solvent free paints that are eco-friendly and practically odor free. It also comes in eggshell and semi-gloss finishes. The best part is that, any color in their color swatches that is white-based (symbol W/B) can be made from this paint. Now, I understand that adding color pigments may compromise a bit of the “pureness” of the paint, but the solvents and VOCs will still not be there.

So I was pretty happy and cannot wait to start decorating our new home! I will keep you posted on the progress when the time comes.

Have you looked around for ways of reducing harmful materials in your home? Please share!

Where to dispose of CFLs, cell phones and batteries properly - a follow-up

As a follow-up to a comment posted on my previous blog topic, Heating through light : Another reason for using CFLs in your home, I decided to take a few minutes this morning and do a quick search on where we can dispose of certain products such as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), cell phones and batteries.

CFLs :

For all of us in Canada and the US, Home Depot is one of the easiest ways to dispose of CFLs. If you are like me, there are at least 3 Home Depots within a 10 mile radius from your house so drop off is easy. You can grab a disposal bag and bring it home with you, store your used bulbs and take them back. Another big name store to take back CFLs is IKEA. They were actually ne of the first company to offer a take-back program.

Rechargeable batteries and cell phones :

One of the greatest sites I found while surfing the net this morning was the RBRC - Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation that has a wonderful search engine where you put in your postal code or ZIP and they will give you a list of businesses and drop off points with the distance from your house and directions through Yahoo maps.

One place that seemed to come back a lot in the United States is Radio Shack. Again, very widely spread, they are an easy drop off points in most towns and cities. Staples is another common store in most every area that will take back your used products.

In Canada, Canadian Tire stores take back rechargeable batteries nation wide and some take back old cellies. Our equivalent to Radio Shack, The Source, supports the same programs as in the US. I’ve also gotten hits on various other home hardware stores and Sears here in Canada.

Do check out the RBRC site! It is worth having a good list of drop points to not dispose of them in the trash.

Car batteries :

I know that here in Canada, Canadian Tire recycles them. Your best bet is to call your local car parts place and ask them if they recycle. Many of them will and it will prevent them from ending up in landfills.

Regular one-time-use batteries :

As much as I would like to believe that people have stopped using these, the average person still buys dollar store discount batteries and most of these end up in the trash! They cannot be recycled unfortunately, but here in Canada, Future Shop/Best Buys have drop boxes and takes them in for proper disposal. I would think that Best Buy in the states would do the same, but I wasn’t able to find a reliable source. They do take in rechargeable ones, but that is as far as I was able to find.

In most cities, if you call the sanitation department, you may be able to find out where to take your non-rechargeable batteries. But the best advice from me would be :

DON’T USE THEM ANYMORE!

On a final note, I did find a company in the United States called Battery Solutions that sells iRecycle kits in various sizes. They come with the safety containers for storage and pre-paid postage for sending your batteries and other things for disposal. They accept :

• Household batteries, both rechargeable and non-rechargeable, such as D-cell, C-cell, AA, AAA, 9-volt, and button cells
• Rechargeable battery packs from: Cell phones, cameras, laptop computers, power tools, etc.
• Handheld electronics: Cell phones, iPods, PDAs, pagers, etc.
• Any other dry-cell batteries.

So I hope that this provided a good follow-up to my previous post that suggested using CFLs in your home to keep cooler this summer.

How easily can you reach a recycling or disposal drop-off point in your area?

Purifying your home with plants - Volatile organic compounds and how plants can help!

So in an effort to help with making my home a better and safer place, I've decided to join 2 of my greatest passions (Horticulture and Green living) and write about plants and their ability to purify your living space.

According to studies conducted by NASA and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the early 70s and 80s, researchers found more than 300 VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that we breathe in everyday. The scary part is that these VOCs were found outdoors and indoors. Not only have these toxins been known to cause allergic reactions, but they can also be linked to illnesses such as cancer.

I had already started looking into in-home toxins and their sources when I wrote one of my first blogs about PVC shower curtains. But after attending an expo where someone was passing out flyers about the top purifying plants to have in your home (which I will get into later), I decided to do more research on how they do it and how to make them work for me. Here are a few things I found out.

Let’s start with sources of VOCs in your homes and how to already take a step towards lowering your exposure. According to the EPA, main sources for these compounds are everyday household products such as paints and solvents, wood preservatives, aerosols, cleansers and disinfectants, bug sprays and air fresheners, stored containers of fuels, automotive products in your garages, hobby supplies such as glues and dry-cleaned clothing to name a few. If you are like me, venturing to be green, you have long since given up toxic cleaning products under your sink and you choose to hand wash and air dry your finer garments. But all of us have painted walls, varnished furniture and some super glue somewhere in case of breaks. We can't exactly start ripping apart our home, so what can we do?

Plants are a great way to help balance everything out. Now all plants can contribute to cleaner air in a home by the simple photosynthetic act of absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen. But certain plants are actually also particularly good at absorbing some of the most common VOCs like :

• Formaldehyde - found mostly in plywood and press wood products, glues, paints, etc.
• Benzene - found in solvents and paints.
• Ammonia - found in many cleaning products.
• Trichloroethylene - found in solvents.
• Pentachlorophenol (PCPs) - found in wood preservatives and some disinfectants.
• Carbon monoxide - naturally produced by the human body, but found in excess due to wood and gas burning stoves and fireplaces, car exhaust (when starting your car with the garage door closed), furnaces, water heaters, generators.

So what are these super plants? According to Gilles Pelletier, indoor horticulturist, (whom I’ve already quoted in my post on home made bug repellants) here are his top plants to have in your home :

• Ficus – To help with neutralizing formaldehyde.
• English Ivy – Very efficient at removing benzene from the air.
• Palms – Many of the dwarf palms have the ability of removing both ammonia and formaldehyde from your in home air. Recommended for kitchens and bathrooms.
• Ferns – Great for most VOCs.
• Chrysanthemums - Are great for trapping trichloroethylene. A must for any freshly painted room.
• Spider Plants – a great purifier for removing formaldehyde and carbon monoxide.
• Philodendrons – Great for removing trichloroethylene and PCPs.
• Pothos – The super plant! Can remove 90% of excess carbon monoxide in 24 hours.

Now keep in mind that having one or 2 plants for your home will not be enough. While doing research on this, I found multiple sources that recommend an average of 15 to 20 plants in order to have a clean and healthy home. If you are like me, that isn’t much… I have plants on almost every elevated surface of my home (so the cats won’t eat them!). But if this seems like a lot, than concentrate on a few good ones and take the habit of airing out your home. But on a side note : Studies have shown that people that have lots of house plants in their everyday environment are more relaxed and productive, so maybe having lots of plants would be a great way to improve not only your air quality, but your quality of life in general!

Hope this was informative and I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments.

What plants to you generally keep in your home?

Getting rid of bugs in your house plants the natural way

So last week-end, we were at a plant expo and we met a really nice guy who is an interior horticulturist with a green side. His name is Gilles Pelletier and his business is “how to make the most of your urban space” when it comes to plants and urban gardens spaces.

One of his little impromptu information sessions was about natural home made solutions to take care or bugs, fungus and mildew in your house plants. Here are a few of the products and recipes that he suggested :

Garlic :
Insecticide - Takes care of mites and aphids.
Mix 1 tablespoon garlic juice and 1 teaspoon rubbing alcohol with 3 litres (12 cups) of water.
Spray immediately.

Baking soda :
Fungicide and bactericide : Takes care of anthracnose, oidium and mildew.
Mix 4 tablespoons of baking soda and 4 tablespoons of dishwashing soap in 4 litres (16 cups) of water.
Spray every 7 days for 3 weeks.

Potato starch :
Insecticide and fungicide : Takes care of mites, aphids, thrips, and white fly.
Mix 4 tablespoons of starch and 2 or 3 drops of dishwashing soap in 1 litre (4 cups) of water.
Spray. Rinse after a few days to remove the residue.

Mustard powder :
Insecticide : Takes care of mites, aphids and scales.
Mix 1 teaspoon mustard powder and a few drops of dishwashing soap with 1 litre (4 cups) of water.
Spray.

Cinnamon :
Fungicide : Takes care of mildew and crown rot.
Mix 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder in 1 litre (4 cups) of water and let stand until the cinnamon looks like a softer pace at the bottom of the container.
Spray the leaves and water the soil.

Hope this was useful at helping with our little indoor visitors.


What do you use to help control insects indoors?

Bionature Fruit & Vegetable Cleaner : Product Review

To follow up on my organic produce post from this past week-end, I wanted to offer a suggestion to cut down on the amount of impurities and chemicals that might come with your favorite fruits and veggies.


Bionature Ecological Fruit & Vegetable Cleaner is a wonderful product that removes dirt, waxes and chemicals from the surface of your produce. Even when you buy organic, there is still a great deal of manipulation that goes into the selling of the items themselves. A good fruit and veggie wash can remove a great deal of residue and give you healthier foods to eat.


Bionature Ecological Fruit & Vegetable Cleaner is :

• Certified non-toxic
• Biodegradable
• Non-carcinogenic
• Phosphate and NTA Free
• Dye and formaldehyde free
• Made from all plant based ingredients
• Not tested on animals

It works wonderfully and rinses clean in just a few seconds. We’ve had our bottle for a while now and have barely started seeing it go down. One spray per fruit or veggie is all you need and it doesn’t alter the taste in any way. And at 7$ a 1 litre bottle (32 oz), it is a steal.

Now keep in mind : Produce grown with pesticides will not be pesticide free by using this wash. But you can at least eliminate a lot of the harmful residues that stay on the surface of your fruits and vegetables.

If you are elsewhere than Canada and don’t have access to Bionature as a company, go to your local natural food store and ask them about similar washes. You will be happy you did.

What steps do you take to make your everyday purchases healthier and safer?

The Vitamin Wheel : A fun interactive to way to learn how to eat better

I was browsing the web and found this as a little tool to share. I thought it was interesting. Hope all of you will take the time to check it out.

Here is to eating better and staying healthy and green!

Produce and pesticides : What to buy organic if you can't buy it all

As I’ve mentioned before when I started this blog, I know how hard it is to try and make all the changes needed for a greener lifestyle. Sometimes it can be very overwhelming and trying to do it all at once can just be frustrating. Not to mention that suddenly buying everything organic can mean a major adjustment to the grocery shopping budget and going at it gradually can help you slowly incorporate smarter, healthier choices, without breaking the bank.

But where to start?

I’ve decided to start with produce. I did a little research and came upon quite a few varying resources for produce and their high or low pesticide ratings. So I considered the sources themselves and decided to compare them and it seems like many sites seem to agree with the EWG's (Environmental Working Group) Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides – Dirty dozen and Clean 15.

According to the guide, here are 12 fruits and vegetables that you should buy organic :

1. Peach
2. Apple
3. Bell pepper
4. Celery
5. Nectarine
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Grapes (Imported)
11. Carrot
12. Pear

And here are 15 fruits and vegetable that are lowest in pesticides :

1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet peas
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato
15. Sweet potato

For a full listing of all tested produce, click here!

Now, I list these with some reserves. I have found some contradictory information on other sites. The same main culprits are often there, but they sometimes have different rankings. I guess the first steps for all is to really start reading labels and packaging. Study what is available to you, look for healthy alternatives.

In the best of worlds, we would buy everything from organic sources, but if you can’t, try and concentrate on the ones that are most damaging and go from there.

Shop smart and be healthy.

Which produce do you already buy organic?

Mmmm... I love the smell of PVC in the morning!

So when my husband and I redecorated the bathroom. We had promised ourselves that we were done with plastic shower curtains. They are hard to clean, get stained and just didn't fit our aesthetic anymore. So we bought a beautiful cotton, retro, paisley dream of a curtain and loved it from the beginning... But it was only meant to be an outside curtain, was not waterproof, so we bought a dollar store liner.

Without thinking about it, we waited, as with every other plastic shower curtain we had bought in the past, for the horrible smell of brand new liner to go away and finally it did and all was well. That is, until I stumbled onto a Los Angeles Times article from last June that made my hair stand on end.

Turns out that a study done by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice on 5 different unopened polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic shower curtains bought at major department stores found that they all contained high concentrations of toxic volatile organic compounds that have been linked to many health issues including liver damage, central nervous system damage, respiratory and reproductive system damage and cancer. According to this study, one of the curtains tested released as many as 108 of these dangerous compound and they stayed in the ambient air, lingering, for several months.

If you are interested in getting more facts, please go and download this fact sheet from www.besafenet.com

Now what are our alternatives?

Well after this, the first thing we did was to go in search of a cloth liner. Having read online about organic cotton curtains and all, we started wondering how waterproof they would be. We wanted to be eco-friendly, but still wanted our shower liner to be functional.

We ended up finding this great this great Hotel Fabric Shower Liner for only 10$. But it was made from polyester and my first reaction was "That's not eco-friendly?" Or is it???

According to an article on Digital Journal.com, turns out that polyester is not as contrary to a green life as one may think. Although polyester in its production uses more energy than cotton because of the transformation the materials have to go through, once the product is made, it uses a fraction of the energy for the upkeep.

Lets say we take cotton (taking for granted that at this point, we have picked a fabric made from organic cotton that has not been heavily spread with pesticides through out its growing cycle) : Clothes and products made from cotton will need to be washed at higher temperature water, will need to be tumbled dried for longer, will often need to be ironed, and will have a shorter life span than a polyester blend. Most polyblends are made to wash in cold water and can be hung to dry, drying in less time, do not wrinkle, and in such cases as a shower curtain, will last forever.

Now don't get me wrong : I LOVE natural fabrics. But in trying to make my home a greener place but keep it efficient and simple, I think this may be a nice alternative.

Hope this was enjoyable for you guys and keep aware!