If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a three-minute video might be worth, well, a bazillion. If you’re interested in the dangerous chemicals that might be in your house—and what you can do to get rid of them—we suggest watching this deceptively brief film. Thanks to Healthy Child Healthy World, 3:33 minutes later you‘ll have a better understanding of how and why to protect yourself and your family from toxic ingredients in many seemingly harmless household products.

We mentioned the video when it was released, in February, and we still love it and think it deserves a wider viewership. So we caught up with the Program Director at Healthy Child Healthy World, Mandy Geisler.

Mandy Geisler

We created the video internally, as an intro for one of our fundraisers. People really loved it. It’s a great piece to raise more awareness very quickly, in a creative, touching, and also strong way. So we made a website around it to do a bigger push and launch.
We like to offer solutions. We don’t want to scare people, but we do want to educate them on toxins and teach them about the steps they can take that lead to prevention. We have a “5 Easy Steps” program. Manage pests properly, use non-toxic products, clean up indoor air, eat healthy, be wise with plastics. Even if you just take one of those steps you’re doing something great. You can get comfortable with that one and then move on.
One of our best programs is called Healthy Home parties. This year we’re close to sending out 1,500 party kits! People are having parties at their houses to share information and ideas on safe products.

The Healthy Child Healthy World website is a comprehensive resource for further research; e.g., on diseases and conditions (allergies, asthma, autism, cancer among them), chemical profiles from aspartame to xylenes, and relevant legislation such as the Safe Chemicals Act.

Don’t forget to visit Practically Green.com to take the Green Quiz and decide on healthy actions for yourself and your family! Switch to all-natural dish-soap, stop using treated cotton fem-care, wear pure jammies or any of the dozens of other healthy actions on Practically Green, and you’ll get points when you do!