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3 Easy Ways to Help Your Body and the Environment

The following is from a post by Beth Greer, Super Natural Mom®, who is a syndicated radio talk show host, former president and co-owner of The Learning Annex, Certified Build It Green® healthy home makeover specialist and author of Super Natural Home: Improve Your Health, Home, and Planet--One Room at a Time
by Beth Greer

If you're like most people, a little voice inside your head has probably been telling you for a while that it's time to get back to a more natural way of living and take a more serious look at the toxins in your everyday life. Even so, you may feel confused about the simple, practical things you can do to minimize your exposure and maximize not only your health, but your contribution to a cleaner planet.
What if I told you that making small, simple changes in your everyday routine could make a huge impact on your health and well-being, as well as the health of our planet?
Studies are coming out frequently about how everyday chemicals in our bodies are resulting in health problems like learning disabilities, autism, cancer and infertility. Often, the impact chemicals have doesn't show up for decades, like with tobacco, for example. What is also unclear is what happens inside our bodies when we come into contact with different chemicals from lots of different sources. What are the risks for us and our children? Don't wait to find out! You can do something today, right in your own home. Become aware of what goes IN you, what goes ON you, and what SURROUNDS you.

IN YOU: Your drinking water

If you think the water coming out of your tap is clean and health-giving ... you'd be mistaken. In 2008, an investigation by the Associated Press showed that America's tap water is contaminated with prescription and over-the-counter drugs, including antibiotics, pain medications, antidepressants and sex hormones "in significant quantities." Scientists are concerned that, even in small concentrations, these drugs could harm us over time because water is consumed in such large amounts every day. Our bodies may be able to deal with a big one-time dose of a chemical, but if a small amount is consumed continuously over years ... no one really knows what can happen to our health.

Green Tip #1:
Play it safe: Buy a water filter and fill up your own reusable metal or glass water bottles at home. Get off plastic bottles. 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the U.S. become garbage or end up in a landfill, contributing to global warming.
(To check your local water quality, go to the Natural Resources Defense Council's site at www.nrdc.org and then go to "What's on Tap"? You should be able to access your community's Annual Quality Report, or you can ask your water utility company for a copy of its annual water quality report.)
ON You: Your personal care products
Most of us use at least 10 cosmetic and personal care products a day and according to the Environmental Working Group, people apply an average of 126 unique ingredients to their skin daily. No one really knows what happens in our bodies when we repeatedly expose ourselves to minute amounts of synthetic chemicals from a variety sources. Another way to absorb chemicals in our personal care products is through the mouth. When a drug like nitroglycerine is administered for a heart condition, it is given under the tongue for fast absorption. So are natural homeopathic remedies. So what happens with your toothpaste?

Green Tip #2:
Switch one thing you use most often in your bathroom. Your toothpaste, for example.
Chemicals like fluoride, saccharin, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), triclosan and acetylpyridium chloride are in there. Switch to a natural brand that doesn't contain these chemicals.

SURROUNDS You: Your household cleaners

If you've ever walked down the household-cleanser aisle at the market and your eyes began to burn or your nose became irritated, it's because common cleaning products contain chemicals that can be more dangerous than the germs themselves. Every time your children roll around on the carpet or your pets lick crumbs off the floor, they are being exposed to noxious chemicals. Don't make the assumption that if it's on the grocery shelf it's been tested and is safe. Most of us, unwittingly, buy products for our home with ingredients that are either poorly studied, not studied at all, or are known to pose potentially serious health risks. Of the roughly 17,000 chemicals found in common household products, only 3 in 10 have been tested for their effects on human health. Why? Because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission does not require manufacturers to test household cleaning products before they appear on store shelves.

 

Green Tip #3:
Use hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and baking soda to clean your home. Fill one spray bottle with a 3 percent solution of hydrogen peroxide and a second one with vinegar. Spray one right after the other. Use it to wipe kill salmonella and bacteria on counter tops, appliances, and cutting boards. Do the same for the shower to kill bacteria and viruses. Use baking soda instead of commercial abrasive cleaners. Put it in a grated cheese container made of glass with a stainless steel top that has holes in it, and just sprinkle it on the surfaces and scrub.

original dress- by my daughter-

Welcome to our shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/NervousWardrobe?ref=si_shop

Eating with a Conscience

Organic Food
Eating with a Conscience
to protect health and the environment

Our food choices have a direct effect on the health of our environment and those who grow and harvest what we eat.  That’s why food labeled organic is the right choice. In addition to serious health questions linked to actual residues of toxic pesticides on the food we eat, our food buying decisions support or reject hazardous agricultural practices, protection of farmworkers and farm families, and stewardship of the earth.

The Organic Choice is Clear
It is important to eat organic food –nurtured in a system of food production, handling and certification that rejects hazardous synthetic chemicals. USDA organic certification is the only system of food labeling that is subject to independent public review and oversight, assuring consumers that toxic, synthetic pesticides used in conventional agriculture are replaced by management practices focused on soil biology, biodiversity, and plant health. This eliminates commonly used toxic chemicals in the production and processing of food that is not labeled organic--pesticides that contaminate our water and air, hurt biodiversity, harm farmworkers, and kill bees, birds, fish and other wildlife.

Food Choices Based Only on Pesticide Residues Fall Short
To help explain the urgent need for a major shift to organic food consumption, Beyond Pesticides has begun the Eating with a Conscience database which evaluates the impacts on the environment and farmworkers of the toxic chemicals allowed for use on major food crops, grown domestically and internationally. We have started with those foods that have been identified widely in the media as “clean.” While the Clean 15/Dirty Dozen list generated by Environmental Working Group is helpful in alerting consumers to hazardous residues on food, food residues are only part of the story. It turns out that those very same “clean” food commodities may be grown with hazardous pesticides that get into waterways and groundwater, contaminate nearby communities, poison farmworkers, and kill wildlife, while not all showing up at detectable levels on our food.

Choosing Organic: For you, the environment and workers
Eating with a Conscience looks at the toxic chemicals that are allowed in the production of the food we eat and the environmental and public health effects resulting from their use.

Choose a fruit or vegetable.

For more information, read the Eating with a Conscience press release or download the print brochure.

::L I N E N::

BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

This video was posted on the 4th by Abby of  infusionfibers.  I went to Millot's site and draged it down to share with you.   I follow her blog and relish her photography, approach to design and most of all her dedication to the eco-life.  In her work and in her appreciation of the world around her on the Oregon Coast, you could find no better source of inspiration.  She says about linen:  "Linen - it's smell, it's physical texture, it's visual characteristics - is one of those things that affects me almost physically - it excites some part of me."

In the world of organic fabrics and fibers linen, for me, is the most sensual.  My wardrobe is packed with it, I quilt with it and make bags with it.  I have blogged about it before, but I want to share the video that Abby posted on her website today.  The Benoit Millot film about flax/linen along with some of his other work can be found on Vimeo.  Do go and look.....look all around, get lost in the site and follow out to others.  Trust me, it's all good!

More About Fabrics....

I have been over at Green Sage Learning Center, and brought back a ton of information.  This part is a history lesson of sorts.....I am sharing with you.  Those of us who work with textiles and have focused on creating green products to sell need to learn what works for us.  We think green, buy green and sell green in our shops and in our homes.  I have learned that once we start we will walk the talk naturally.

At ecoVogue365 blog there is a lot of hip, up-to date and fun stuff. 

Before 5,000 B.C., experimentation with other natural materials produced the first basic woven fabrics and cloths. Then the first cloths came which consisted of plant fibers from hemp and flax and animal fibers such as wool.

For centuries hand weaving was the only production method. The spinning wheel developed in India and the technology traveled to Europe by the 14th Century. Not until 1733 with the invention of the flying shuttle, and the subsequent need for spinning to keep up with it, did production begin to increase significantly. The invention of the steam engine, and its adoption by the textile industry began the industrial revolution. (uh, oh).

 Conventional synthetic fabrics for the home and office....where we work,  sleep, breathe and spend most of our hours are usually chemically treated for fire retardancy, water- and soil-repellancy and permanent press qualities — all of which can outgas VOCs (or volatile organic compounds).

Sustainability criteria include textiles that are not made or treated with hazardous chemicals, use no formaldehyde nor have VOC-emitting materials. 

We can look for  natural fiber fabrics — some are manufactured to be biodegradable (for example felt byproducts sold to Swiss farmers who use it as insulation for their crops), or specify fabrics made from recycled content or are recyclable (such as recycled polyesters and nylons).

Over 4 million tons of post-consumer textiles enter the waste stream every year, mostly going to landfill. Only 1 million tons are collected for recycling. About 25,000 tons of new textile fiber is disposed of each year by manufacturers and mills. 

 Be sure to check out the Green Teams on Etsy and shop there often.  Shop using keywork TeamEcoEtsy sellers are committed to reusing, recycling, fair trade, creating with sustainable fabrics, going paperless,

How Green Is Your Orange Juice

Karen Lee, or EcoKaren published this on her blog
and has kindly made the information available to all of us.
"This might not be news to some of you but it was an eye opener for me. At least the numbers anyway. I mean, I knew my orange juice didn’t just appear in the grocery stores like magic and that it needed to be grown and transported but I didn’t think about the details of how it creates such a huge carbon footprint.

So here is the low down on orange juice.

Did you know…..?

To produce a 64 oz carton of Tropicana orange juice emits 3.75 lb of greenhouse gases?

* 60% Agriculture and Manufacturing ( 58% Fertilizer production and application, 30% Natural Gas, 8% Electricity, and 2% Transportation)
* 22% Distribution
* 15% Packaging
* 3% Use and Disposal

According to TIME and NY Times, PepsiCo who owns Tropicana enlisted Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the environmental auditing firm, Carbon Trust to help assess the carbon footprint of each gallon of Tropicana orange juice.

The study found that the biggest contributor to the carbon footprint isn’t the gas guzzling trucks that deliver these delicious refreshing drinks all over United States but the agricultural and manufacturing practices – fertilizer production and application being the biggest.

Ha! Should have known that.

So what do you do?

Drink organic orange juice! Since there won’t be any fertilizers or pesticides used in growing organic oranges, the carbon footprint would be so much less!

In all fairness though, PepsiCo is trying to be greener since this report. Pepsi is working with Yara International and Outlook Resources, PepsiCo will test low-carbon fertilizers at one of its producer farms in Bradenton, Fla. If successful, the greener fertilizers could lower the carbon footprint of PepsiCo’s citrus growers by as much as 50% and reduce the total carbon footprint of Tropicana orange juice by up to 20%. (TIME)
But until then, I’ll be buying organic orange juice…Or squeeze my own OJ at home. They taste better anyway.
Now…only if I can find organic oranges."

My chandelier

How To Make a Windsock Lantern

Summer is NOT over guys...those nice cool evenings are here, when we can go out in the garden and 'set a spell'.    I love this idea from Daisy Janie

Go on over and take a look at her tutorial.  I am going to try mine with a solar light.  You know, the kind you poke in the ground and they soak up sun in the daytime and come at night?  Will let you know how it comes out.

While you are visiting, please look at her organic fabrics....organic cotton sateen & organic cotton/hemp canvas printed with her original designs.  I am going to be using some in my shop for the organic line. 

Soy Fibre 101....

I have a t shirt that is so soft and wrinkle free I was amazed when I looked inside and found it was made of soy!  I googled it and look what I learned: 
Soy protein fibre (SPF) is the only plant protein fibre. It is made from the soybean cake. The residue after extraction of the protein is used as stockfeed. SPF has the physical properties of synthetic fibres. Fabrics from SPF have the following features:

• Lustre. Soybean protein fibre has the lustre of silk with excellent drape.
• Comfort. The fibre is soft, smooth and lightweight.
• Absorbency. Soybean protein fibre has the same moisture absorption as cotton and better moisture transmission than cotton.
• Easy dying. The original colour of soybean protein fibre takes dye well and is colour fast.
• Strength. Soybean protein fibre has higher breaking strength than wool, cotton, and silk, but less than polyester fibre.
• Shrinkage. Soybean protein fibre will not shrink when washed in boiling water.
• Easy care. The fabric is anti-crease, easy wash and fast drying.
• Antibacterial.; Soybean protein fibre has antibacterial properties that resist colibacillus, staphylococcus aureus and candica albicans. Fabrics made from soy protein fibre and linen or other fibres are ideal for functional underwear and summer wear.

Because soybean protein fibre is sine, soft and smooth as well as absorbent it is ideal for products that are worn close to the skin such as underwear, sleepwear, sportswear and children's and infant's clothes, bed sheets, towels and blankets.

When soybean protein fibre blends well with other fibres giving more features. When mixed with cashmere it provides a smooth quality as well as increasing the easy care properties. As a wool / soy protein fibre it reduces shrinkage and increases ease of care. As a silk blend it improves the properties of silk and prevents the fabric from sticking to the skin when wet.

Now tell me, would you want anything else next to your baby soft skin? Not me...I am off to find more wonderful things to wear from this natural miracle fabric.

Bamboo 101

I looooove this fibre....yummy and soft, no wrinkle, wash hang to dry....t shirts, sheets and towels.  Sweet!


Bamboo fabric (truly viscose-from-bamboo) is made from the pulp of bamboo grass. It's softer than cotton, has a gorgeous drape & a silky feel that looks luxurious but feels like pajamas! I do enjoy an occassional indulgence in the ultra-soft bamboo fabrics. Oh, how the soft fabric cradles my body and how it makes me feel...

Because it grows so fast - 1-3 feet every 24 hours - bamboo is one of the most renewable resources on the planet. It also produces 40% more oxygen than a hardwood forest on the same amount of land.

Bamboo is also "naturally organic." Bamboo grows like a weed (people who plant bamboo in their yard can attest to this fact after their yard becomes a bamboo forest!) and it doesn't need any pesticides, fertilizers or irrigation to enhance it's prolific growth. This is a huge step up from cotton, which requires the intensive use of pesticides & irrigation (even organic cotton - yes, organic farms still have to use pesticides, they just have to be approved. Not to mention the irrigation

Used in everything from flooring and construction to bed sheets, bamboo is quickly becoming a popular choice for environmentally conscious people around the globe.

But above all else, people continue to be amazed at how comfortable bamboo clothing is. Like a blend of silk and cashmere, viscose from bamboo feels great on the skin. Bamboo also has a benefit that silk and cashmere will never have... it's cruelty-free! That makes bamboo clothing perfect for vegetarians!

Let's Talk About Hemp...

I have introduced a new line of bags in my Etsy shop made from eco friendly and sustainable fabrics such as hemp, linen, organic cotton and bamboo.

I wish to buy hemp.  It is not grown or manufactured in the U.S. .....soooo, I need to send my  dollars out of the country since our government in it's effort to keep us drug free simply flat out banned the growing and harvesting of cannabis.  In researching the fabrics I am using I am learning a lot about growing, harvesting, manufacturing and arcane laws.

Hemp bags with coconut husk buttons lined with bamboo-cotton. 

 

Surely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. For too many years, emotion-not reason-has guided our policy toward this crop. And nowhere have emotions run hotter than in the debate over the distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana.  Please read this article which is intended to inform that debate by offering scientific evidence so we can distinguish between myth and reality.

Finally....hemp is one of the easiest and sustainable  crops to grow.  Anything that can be made from cotton can be made from hemp.  Cotton is one of the most environmentally destructive agricultural crops. In pesticide use in the US alone, it is staggering – 125 million kilograms annually. Worldwide, cotton production used 50 percent of the world's pesticides/herbicides. 

Pesticides are possibly the greatest toxic threat to contaminating our soil, air, water and natural communities because they are often permanent and they bio-accumulate, ie their toxicity increases as they are consumed up the food chain. Many pesticides are known carcinogens, and can also cause immuno-deficiency disorders. Added to this, pesticides have a petroleum base and their excessive use perpetuates our dependency on oil. (Courtesy: Binhai Times).  You may want to take a look at Hemp 101 .

I am more and more tuned into what we, as a family, are doing to work with our environment as well as getting chemically engineered products out of our lives.  With my antennae up I am taking in more and more information and adding that to what I already know....which I find was surprisingly little.   So I am taking the liberty of chunking up my blog with this information.  Sorry, but this little corner of the world is mine.

In the next few weeks, I will pass along information about household cleaners, organic gardening and re-cycling.

Please, if you have something to add...I would welcome it.  The comment section is open to everyone.  Let's share what we know.