News Picks:

Water Footprint: Find out how much water some of your favorite products use! Did you know that the “Global Water Footprint” for a single apple is about 18 and a half gallons of water? Reduce *your* Water Footprint with these actions.

Fall is coming, is your garden ready? If you’re a gardening newbie and just planted a garden this summer, here are a couple tips to increase your garden’s longevity. The legendary gardening gurus at Rodale have tips on fall garden cleanup that will have you looking like a pro come spring.

The Happy Planet Index: Nic Marks discuses why we should measure success in terms of happiness in this 16-minute TED Talks video, tracking well-being against the amount of resources we use. Though the U.S. does quite well in terms of well-being, it is one of the countries that also uses the most resources. What country should we emulate? You may be surprised!

Multi-Media Pick:

Cafeteria Man: Chef Tony Geraci is on a mission to make-over Baltimore public schools’ cafeteria food. In this 2.5-minute trailer for the movie “Cafeteria Man,” students complain of “mystery meat” and tons of pizza, pizza, pizza. Geraci plans to swap unhealthy mystery food for local produce.

Get PG points for your healthy food actions!

New and Cool Pick:

DIY mini BBQ for Labor Day Weekend: Recycle a container of Altoids Sours into a mini BBQ. All you need besides the tin are some salvaged computer fan guards and a few nuts and bolts. The kids will marvel at making the little cooker, capable of cooking a full sized hot dog or small hamburger patty. The kids will love to use it for some yummy s’mores too! Don’t forget the organic chocolate.

Are you eyeball-deep in back-to-school stuff right now?

Welcome to our world.

Here at Practically Green headquarters, we’re working on a set of back-to-school actions that will make this transition easier and healthier: overall better and fun!

In case you haven’t had a chance to check out Practically Green yet, back-to-school is the perfect entree occasion. Would you like to Carpool to school one day a week? Green your kids’ after-school snack? Use eco-friendly school supplies?

You’ll see right away that each of these positive actions comes with info on why it’s green, and how to do it, when you Switch to a reusable lunchbox, Cover textbooks with a paper bag, or Join an eco-action team at your school. Whatever you decide to do, you can recommend your favorite products, share your stories, and rate your experience.

But that’s not all, because Practically Green is also a game.

Playing is a breeze: When you say Yes, you get points!

To get started, take the Quiz. (It’s one of those tests where you can’t possibly fail and can only benefit.) Get your score. Check off the green actions you’ve already taken, and consider new ones. Earn points. Earn more points! Move up!

If you don’t want to play, that’s fine. You can still enjoy Practically Green. Our goal is to help you take eco-friendly actions in your daily life. Big things, like making your home as energy-efficient as it can be, or creating a healthy and waste-free kitchen (We’ve got 21 ideas on how to accomplish that one, like Switching to Teflon-free cookware, Using recycled paper towels, and Upgrading to an ENERGY-Star dishwasher.)

So, whether you’re ready to investigate trying all-natural toothpaste or obsessed with insulating your roof, Practically Green can help you do it and enjoy the process!

My son is starting kindergarten in a few weeks, but our PTO (which is arguably managed better than most companies) has already assessed all the incoming kindergarten parents’ skill sets and competencies for various volunteer opportunities. No shocker here, I was drafted for the Green Team.  I was enthusiastic because my initial thought was that I could be really helpful given that green living, is well, my day job.

We haven’t even had our first meeting yet (it’s Wednesday), but I’ve already figured out these parents are WAY ahead of the curve.  Led by the dynamic duo of Jamie Scarborough Green and Sun Woo Khang and formed last year, the group has managed to achieve immediate results, including:

* switching from disposable to reusable cups for parent coffees, PTO meetings, etc. One thing I loved is that they asked the whole school to donate old coffee mugs to make this happen–what a great idea!

* switching to compostable disposables for large events ranging from the school fun run to graduation

* developed good relationships and support from Angino Farm (a community farm) and Whole Foods.  The school has a garden supported by students and parent volunteers and Whole Foods helps with composting.

* shared the results of the school’s energy efficiency audit and will assumedly lobby the city for improvements

* set up a Big Tent online community which has parental advice for things like earth-friendly school supplies.  It is also linked with the Greater Boston Green Schools community to share ideas and get inspiration. My personal favorite thing on the site was this video that the kids in the school made to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

The project plan for this year includes improving the quality of school lunch, tackling pesticides, greening over 15 events, pursuing lots of kid and parent education, and potentially joining in broader events like the Waste Free Wednesdays, Green School Days, and Litter Free lunches–and oh yes, finding a HEPA vacuum to be donated to the custodians.

What I noticed from this amazing, intensive project plan, however, is how many initiatives still need a point person.  If your school has a green team,  I am confident that Jamie and Sunwoo’s counterparts at your school are looking for foot soldiers who are willing to tackle a projects large and small. Imagine what would happen if 10-15 parents picked just one Green Team thing to help lead for their school–whether it’s a big thorny issue like pesticide use or being an event “Waste Warrior.”  That project plan would start having “done” next to lots of items.  And fast!  I’m looking at the list and can see several actions that fit my time, skills and interests, and I’m looking forward to checking my first item off the list.

If your school doesn’t have a green team, there are lots of online resources to help get you started, on sites like Greenschools or Eco-Schools.   If you need one more reason? You can get points on Practically Green for joining your school’s green team!

This post was submitted as part of the Green Moms Carnival.

News Picks:

Everyone knows what NIMBY means: “Not in My Back Yard” (raised-eyebrow alert). So what’s IOBY? “IN our backyards”! IOBY is a website that connects environmental projects in NYC with people who want to donate to them and volunteer. ioby believes that “environmental knowledge, innovation, action, and service begin and thrive in our backyards.” Here’s a post on Seventh Generation’s blog that tells more. What a terrific idea for a Back to School project!

SF’s list of green vendors now available to you: For the past five years, the city of San Francisco has instituted strict standards regarding the products their municipal departments buy: they have to be truly eco-friendly. What sets SF’s list apart is that they require manufacturers to fork over information that commercial guides aren’t likely to get. See which products made the cut!

Food for thought: put salad bars in schools! Whole Foods is teaming up with chef Ann Cooper to help schools switch from processed foods to fresh, natural ingredients. Their goal is 300 salad bars in schools by January. Click here to donate to Project Salad Bar, or simply visit your local Whole Foods. Get credit for your fresh food efforts at Practically Green.

Multi-Media Pick:

“The Majestic Plastic Bag” California is preparing to vote on the nation’s first state-wide plastic bag ban, and Santa Monica-based nonprofit Heal the Bay, filmed this nature documentary-style “mockumentary” to boost support for the ban. The state senate is expected to vote by the end of August (aka SOON!). While the votes are tallied, enjoy this gut-busting four-minute video.

Get PG points for switching to reusable bags at the grocery store.

New and Cool Pick:

You thought only your faucet had leaks: When you turn your electronics off, they’re not really “off,” they maintain a “trickle” of electricity, otherwise known as an electrical leak. This great article not only tells you how to track your product’s energy consumption, but also reviews lots of products to help you manage this. For example, Belkin’s Conserve AV power strip automatically turns off your DVD player, in home theatre and game systems when you turn your TV off. The Belkin Conserve Insight measures the amount of energy plug-in appliances draw. Get PG points for saving energy here.

Martha Rose Shulman’s weekday Food column at NYTimes.com is my equivalent of having a personal chef in my kitchen: here’s someone who realizes how busy I am and how determined I am to serve healthy delicious meals regardless. Someone friendly and inventive, impeccably thoughtful, worldly, always aiming to please and never ever full of herself. Oh, and this personal chef won’t fatten me up: she includes detailed nutritional information at the end of every recipe.

You can prowl the archive for hours or make snappy choices. Recipes are organized by ingredient (from A: Apricots to Y: Yogurt) or theme (B: Breakfast Grains to W: Winter Greens) This week’s theme was tomatoes. Next week: picnics. The following: stir-fry (she just bought a new wok). From the intro to “Recipes for Health”:

The easiest and most pleasurable way to eat well is to cook. Recipes for Health offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat.

Martha is a prolific author, including co-author gigs with Wolfgang Puck and Dr. Dean Ornish; she’s given classes all over; she’s great on TV; and she co-founded the professional foodie site Zester Daily. Her newest cookbook, The Very Best Of Recipes for Health, comes out this week. In short, she’s a rock star.

It fits that she has a busy cooking school – in LA. I’m scheming to attend…. It was a treat to have a conversation with her recently — about her column, her life, and Practically Green.

The Times column began exactly two years ago. I want the column to demystify healthy eating and empower people to cook, prepare their own food from fresh ingredients, as opposed to eating out or bringing in. The country has gone astray because we aren’t in control of what we eat! If you have an egg and a vegetable, you can make a meal. The recipes are very simple.

Which recipes have been most popular?

One is the Spicy Quinoa Salad. People seem to really love quinoa. It’s fantastic! The week that Obama was elected, that recipe was #3 on the most emailed list of all of The New York Times! Another recipe people really love is anything with beets. It’s always fascinating to me, but any recipe with beets is popular. [Note: I found 14 recipes for beets.] Sometimes recipes get REdiscovered, and I don’t really know how! One of those is one of the first recipes I did, for oriechetti, tomatoes, arugula and parmesan. It’s just a really great summer recipe.

Spicy Quinoa Salad

I took the Practically Green test and I got a 6 out of 10, and part of that’s because I have a landlord. I don’t know what kind of a dishwasher I have, but I do know that the fridge is Energy Star, because I bought it myself. I composted until my landlord freaked out; he thought it was attracting rats. [Sigh/humph.] I have a garden, and everything about it is organic. And I still compost because we have green baskets in LA – LA’s bureau of sanitation has a great recycling program. If you enter “green bin” in the search box on that link, you’ll get a pdf with the 3 different bins and what you can put in them, including a green one for compost. We put kitchen scraps into the bin that’s there with all the rest on the curb and it’s picked up!

I have a twelve year old. His generation is much more aware. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to eat crap if he gets a chance – he’s a healthy twelve year old. If he’s taking a long shower and I say, “Liam, you’re taking a long shower, it’s time to get out!” nothing happens. But if I go in there and say, “You’re really wasting shower water, Liam,” He’ll get out. They are getting the message.

Aren’t you a little bit hungry now? Motivated? Visit Practically Green for dozens of ways you can make healthy, eco-friendly decisions in your kitchen and at meal-time! Maybe you’d like to start with these three:

• Shop at a Farmer’s Market Each Week in Season (10 points)
• Buy Cereal Without Artificial Colors or Flavors This Week (5 points)
• Eat Meat Only on Weekends (Whoa! 100 points!)

Martha’s website: www.martha-rose-shulman.com Join her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @MarthaRShulman

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Summer went by quickly, didn’t it? And although it’s sad to leave beach days, family barbeques, and all-around summertime relaxing behind, you and your family have another journey to start: the new school year!

This time of the year is always overwhelming. So we here at Practically Green hope to make life a little easier by offering a round- up of all the great green back-to-school ideas we’ve been hearing, our personal picks for eco-friendly school supplies and of course, actions that will earn you points, points, points!

Pencils and Pens.

Let’s start with the small stuff. Staples’ Eco Easy brand offers some great eco-friendly mechanical pencils made from 72% recycled content. They also have pens made from 62% recycled plastic. If you’re looking for something fun, we like O’BON’s colorful fruit pencils made from 100% recycled newspaper. Papermate has cool biodegradable pens and mechanical pencils.

Binders and Folders.

Naked Binder has two-pocket folders and binders made of 100% recycled and recyclable materials and 97% post consumer waste. ReBinder sells folders made of recycled fibers and binders without toxic vinyl material. Staples’ Eco Easy brand has eco-friendly view binders. Check out these folders from Sasquatch with some earthy, interesting designs. Seventh Generation also has great suggestions for writing utensils and notebooks!

Notebooks.

How about a notebook that looks like giant falcon plumage? O’BON has a large selection of eco-friendly notebooks, like the non-toxic Sugarcane Series, which is made from sugarcane paper, soy-based inks. We also liked Ecojot’s spiral notebooks. And if you’re already at Staples, their Eco Easy brand also has recycled notebooks as well!

Paper.

If you’re looking for recycled paper, Staples Eco Easy has some great choices for filler and white printer paper. New Leaf Paper carries lined and copy paper made from post-consumer waste.

Art Supplies.

Feel like drawing? We like O’BON’s Wildlife colored pencils, made of recycled newspaper; and we can’t wait to try Prang Soybean crayons. Our all-time favorite markers are Crayola’s AP Certified Nontoxic, washable markers.

Backpacks.

How about a TerraCycle backpack made from old drink pouches and cookie wrappers! We also like Lands’ End eco-friendly backpack made from 100% recycled fabric. Grist also has great ideas for eco-friendly backpacks and bags.

P.S. Pop some all-natural hand sanitizer in the backpack, and earn 20 points!

We’re fans of the Environmental Working Group for many reasons, and they’ve compiled a handy green back-to-school shopping list. Want to go beyond your children’s back-to-school supplies? Consider joining greenschools, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to create greener and healthier learning environments through education and awareness.”  They’ll help you tackle important, basic stuff like indoor air quality, healthy food and habits, and reducing, reusing and recycling at your school.

Transportation.

Remember that you can also earn points by walking, biking or carpooling to school. All three actions help reduce emissions and are great ways to get exercise and meet new friends.  Remember to load up on the sunscreen! We have several all-natural brands for you to try.

And now, the last tip we can give you for greening your back-to-school is quite simple: Have a healthy, happy and wonderful school year!

Photo Credit: Flikr, O’BON, Crayola, ReBinder, O’BON, All Terrain, Fast Company

“I’m a working mom taking a stand against yucky stuff in my food, cosmetics, etc. and gradually turning my family towards more eco-friendly, natural choices. I’m learning, so this is about our journey towards going green. There may be a few stumbles so hopefully you can laugh with me not at me!”

With that, Shannon Hoffman Hinderberger burst into the blogosphere on Working Mom Goes Green. She wrote about Practically Green earlier this month, and subsequently posted on adding “10 points to my Practically Green profile by drinking locally brewed beer.” Of course, we wanted to know her story!

Shannon grew up in Nebraska, where her “mom fed us as best she could….   on corn-fed beef, Kool-aid and Velveeta cheese.” She describes her green journey as a series of steps over several years:

Let’s just say I discovered veggies when I arrived in Bend, Oregon, seven years ago. I started getting Martha’s Stewart’s little magazine Everyday Food. There’s a website [and an iphone app], too. I use that as my bible.

Oregon is green, recycling is a big deal, and they rolled out these comingle bins at the same time we bought a house, four years ago. That was the next step. Then I got pregnant. I started to watch what I was eating. I was trying to eat more organic food. Then my son came. [Huge sigh] I had big aspirations. I wanted to breastfeed, use cloth diapers, make my own baby food. I went back to work and everything fell by the wayside. The day-care woman wouldn’t do cloth diapers. There was only one person in town who would, and she was booked.

Anyhow, I started to look at the labels on household products, food, baby products. One day I picked up my husband’s shaving cream and I read the label. I told him, There’s propane in this! He said, I don’t want to put that on my face any more! I thought, I have to do something: I’m going to blog about this.

Sound bites from a few recent posts:

If you don’t have any idea what to do with a certain veggie, ask your friends. I often use Facebook to poll my friends on what to do. You’ll get some amazing results from folks that have tried the veggies.

Announcing her Summer Hair "No-product, No-blowdry" Challenge

I’m not going to hide it. I like Wal-Mart. And I like Wal-Mart even more now that they’ve partnered with Seventh Generation….

If you could only keep 100 items? What would they be? I think this would be easy to do if children weren’t involved. My son alone has more than 100 pieces to his Thomas the Train set!

Son Ben at age Two

Shannon has joined Practically Green’s Motherboard. We hope you’ve enjoyed meeting her as much as we have!

Find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shanlee?ref=ts

Twitter @shanlee

email her: Shannon@workingmomgoesgreen.com

Subscribe to http://www.workingmomgoesgreen.com/

See all Shannon’s links here: http://flavors.me/shanlee – _

Emily Luchetti is a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef and the executive pastry chef at Waterbar and Farallon Restaurants in San Francisco. She’s the author of, most recently, A Passion for Ice Cream and is working on the forthcoming The Fearless Baker, out in Spring of 2011. Emily is an organic food afficionado — and, she’s my aunt!

During a recent visit, Emily agreed to collaborate on a recipe to suit Practically Green readers: easy, quick, healthy, and appropriate for green living.

I use the freshest, best-quality ingredients available and never mask their basic flavors by adding too much sugar. Chocolate desserts taste like rich bittersweet chocolate; peach desserts taste like ripe, juicy peaches.

My mouth was watering already.

The recipe we finally decided on was Bountiful Berry Compote with vanilla ice cream:

Berry Compote
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar (we used sugar in the raw, organic works too)
Large pinch of kosher salt
1 pint (2 cups) fresh organic strawberries, hulled and quartered if small, cut into eighths if large
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 pint (1 cup) fresh organic raspberries
1 pint (2 cups) fresh organic blueberries

To make the compote: Put the orange and lemon juices, sugar, and salt in a large sauté pan. You can add sugar to taste, depending on how sour the orange juice is and how sweet the berries are. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid reduces slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the strawberries, blueberries and butter, gently stirring until the butter is almost completely melted, about 2 minutes. Add the raspberries and continue to cook just until the raspberries are warm, about 30 seconds. Do not overcook, or the berries will break apart.

Scoop some vanilla ice cream into bowls and spoon the berries and some sauce over the top. Or, separately pass the ice cream and compote in two large bowls. Serve immediately.

Strawberries and domestic blueberries are in the “dirty dozen”, and you can get PG points for knowing and for buying organic.

To further explore the notion that this dessert is healthy, I decided to research which vitamins the berries have and why they’re good for you and your family:

Strawberries:
• One cup contains over 100 mg of Vitamin C, necessary for immune system function and strong connective tissue; Calcium, for strong bones; and Magnesium, good for your heart and may protect against some diseases.
Blueberries:
• One cup of blueberries will also give you Vitamin C, a little less than strawberries, but blueberries have fewer calories. They also contain Lutein, important for healthy vision.
Raspberries:
• Have the least amount of calories of the three, and also contain Lutein.

→ Did you know that the pigments that give berries their gorgeous blue and red colors are also good for you? The phytochemicals and flavonoids in them can potentially help prevent certain forms of cancer, and the ones in blueberries may help prevent bladder infections.

Phytochemicals? Flavonoids? Back to researching….

Phytochemicals are natural chemicals in fruits, veggies, nuts, and legumes that positively affect your health. Flavonoids, found in colorful skins of fruits and veggies may work as antioxidants.

Antioxidants protect the cells in your body from “oxidative” damage. As the body uses oxygen, by-products known as “free-radicals” can cause damage to cells. Antioxidants, like the ones in blueberries, are known to repair these free-radicals.

Phew, I need some ice cream after that.

Emily chimed in on how desserts fit into her healthy, practical lifestyle:

Too many people falsely believe that you have to sacrifice desserts to be healthy and physically fit. But the key is moderation, not abstention. Avoid processed foods and enjoy an occasional dessert. I eat well and exercise to stay healthy but also because I want to be able to eat desserts.

You can visit Emily’s website here, check out her books here, and her blog here.

Buy some organic fruit, organic juice, enjoy with a nice bottle of eco-friendly wine, there are PG points for all of that.

News Picks:

Think Green and Young: Children’s clothing and toy store Area Kids has a fabulous collection of eco-friendly duds for your little ones. The store is in Brooklyn, but offers products online. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice the “style” part of your “green lifestyle.”

Calling all Green Entrepreneurs: YouGoods is a design contest that challenges you to submit a product idea that is “practical, unique, and eco-friendly.” Act quickly, submissions are due on the 19th!

Are Chemicals Speeding up Your Daughter’s Childhood? There has been much talk in the news lately about exposure to chemicals such as BPA disrupting girls’ hormones. Hopefully the Safe Chemicals Act and the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act will help to put a stop on this disturbing trend. Click here to get PG points for your chemical free-cleaning.

Mulit-Media Pick:

Save That Stuff can help your business with its recycling needs by providing cost-effective alternatives to traditional waste disposal. See the video below for astonishing visuals of all the waste they recycle! The video is a little long, but everything worth seeing is in the first three minutes. Get PG points for recycling your stuff. Enjoy!

New and Cool Pick:

No more shoving a sponge into your Klean Kanteen: This cool brush made from recyclable materials will save you some serious time and effort. It’s hard to clean sticky drinks out of your eco-friendly reusable water bottle (my water STILL tasted like apple juice for at least three re-fillings), but this nifty brush makes it a breeze. It cleans both the inside and the outside at the same time.

ThredUP is a kids’ clothing swap site that lets parents exchange boxes of outgrown clothing for ones that fit, all in the convenience of your own home. Public relations and Marketing director Karen Fein opened up to PG about how the ingenious “Netflix for kids’ clothing” idea got started — and, of course, about what steps she takes to live a greener life!

How did you guys come up with this brilliant idea?

Founders James Reinhart and Oliver Lubin realized there wasn’t an efficient way to exchange clothing online. All of the outlets available to exchange clothing, such as Ebay, consignment shopping, and craigslist were just really time-consuming and inefficient. When a child outgrows one shirt, they outgrow their entire wardrobe, and if you think about putting all of that on Ebay, a parent has to list all of the items, take pictures of them, set the biddings, monitor the auctions, etc. Parents just do not have the time to do this every six months. The goal was to create an easy way for parents to exchange outgrown clothing for clothes that fit.

How did ThredUp get started, and what did people think?

The site originally started as a men’s and women’s shirt-swapping site. There were a lot of people that really loved it, but it was more of a hobby than a necessity. We realized we could use this same concept for kids to help families cut down on waste and consumption and we were shocked at the response we got! We found that because nothing like this had existed before, people were really waiting for it. People were really excited to share ThredUP with their friends and family, because it’s such an easy way to save time, money and help the environment.

Speaking of the environment, on your website you discuss teaching kids the importance of green living by creating a “thredbank”, can you explain this a little?

If you have an interest in helping your children learn about the importance of sustainable living, ThredUP can help with that. By telling your kids to set aside clothes when they outgrow them, they soon realize that these clothes can be exchanged for “new gifts,” or clothes that fit them. It reinforces the fact that you don’t always need to buy new things, you don’t always need to throw out old things, and that used clothing has value. We encourage parents to get their kids involved in the process and have them create their own “thredbank” of outgrown clothes. It can feel like Christmas morning to kids to get a box of new clothing completely for them, and they can feel proud that they took part in that exchange.

Ok, we want to ask, how green are you?

Our company is incredibly green. Personally, I take all of those simple green steps that everyone should take, like using a thermos instead of a water bottle, turning your water off when brushing your teeth, recycling always, or making sure to turn the lights out. From a clothing aspect, I take part in swap parties and shop at consignment stores. I use the options that are out there for adults right now, to promote sharing what we already have in order to cut down on waste and consumption, rather than shopping for something new and throwing clothes away. (Which I would never do.)

Now that you’ve told us some of your preferred green actions, we’re always curious to know what your least favorite green action taken you’ve taken is, or something you’re working on?

I haven’t quite made the transition to washing my clothes in cold water.

What more do you want to know about being green?

I think that for most people the main reasons they don’t take certain green steps is because they’re not necessarily convenient. It’s always good to learn about ways to go green that are not only incredibly easy, but can also save time and money. If you have those extra benefits, why not take the green option, and why not cut down on waste?

We couldn’t agree more! One last question, is there any way that you track the things you do everyday to be eco-friendly?

Not me personally, but ThredUP is about to start tracking how much waste we are saving in terms of kid’s clothing. We’re making an assumption that for every box of kid’s clothes, half of that box would normally have been thrown out and ended up in a landfill. 20 billion pounds of clothing and textiles end up in U.S. landfills every year, and every 3-6 months kids outgrow their clothing, making it a large part of that statistic.

Get PG “stuff” points for using ThredUP! Get five points for getting used clothing with this action, and get another five points for giving away/selling used clothing with this action.

You can find out more information and start swapping on ThredUP here.
Follow ThredUP on Twitter @ thredUP_Kids .

This is not a strictly green story, but I think you’ll want to hear it. Today we heard from our friend Lisa, whose beloved family dog Brutus succumbed to a horrible truck accident last week in Quebec, Canada. We offer our condolences to Lisa and her five-year-old daughter Lydia, who is experiencing “her first glimpse of death and real sadness.”

Here’s the best (and green) part of Lisa’s story. Check out the incredible lovely grace with which she delivered this tragic news: she offered three great recipes for healthy, eco-friendly dog treats. And she signed them,

I hope your dogs enjoy them as much as mine did.

Without further ado:

It’s been hard to get motivated this week but we’re slowly getting back on track. This post is dedicated to our puppy, Brutus.

Brutus loved treats (what dog doesn’t?) and Lydia and I had lots of fun together making them for him.

Making your own dog treats has several benefits, they’re healthier for your dog, you know exactly what’s going into them (and into him, or her) you can customize the recipes (making sure to avoid ingredients that are unhealthy for dogs, such as chocolate, grapes, raisins and walnuts), they make a fun project to take on with young children and your dog will love them.

These are a couple of the recipes that we enjoyed making:

1. Basic Cookies (these are the ones we made when we didn’t have a  lot of ingredients to work with, Brutus never seemed to mind though)

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup softened butter (or margarine)

- 3 cups whole wheat flour

- 1/2 cup powdered skim milk

- 1/4 tsp garlic powder

- 3/4 cup water, room temperature, we usually added 1/2 tsp of dried beef bouillon for extra flavour.

- 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and flour together and set aside.

In a small bowl, dissolve powdered skim milk and garlic powder in the water and whisk in beaten egg.

Gradually stir egg mixture into flour mixture, blend well.

Knead dough on a floured surface until it stays together and is easy to work with.

Roll dough to between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack until hard and store at room temperature in a container with a loose-fitting lid.

All-natural dog-biscuit dough

2. Plaque Busters (these we made when we thought his teeth looked like they needed a good cleaning)

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup powdered skim milk

- 1/2 cup cornmeal, stone ground

- 1/4 cup bulghur (bulgar) wheat

- 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

- 1 chicken bouillon cube

- 1 1/2 cups boiling water

- 1 cup quick cooking rolled oats

-  1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine powdered skim milk, cornmeal, bulghur and flour in a mixing bowl, set aside.

Dissolve bouillon cube in boiling water. Add rolled oats and let stand five minutes. Stir in beaten egg.

Gradually add dry ingredients, half a cup at a time, until well blended. The last cups can be blended with your hands.

Divide dough into two balls to make it easier to work with. Knead each ball on a floured surface, about 5 minutes.

Roll dough to between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick and cut out with cookie cutters.

Place on lightly greased baking sheet and bake 50 minutes.

Turn off and let biscuits cool several hours or overnight, in the oven.

Store at room temperature in a container with a loose-fitting lid.

3. Liver Treats (we hadn’t tried these yet but we’re sure Brutus would have loved them)

These treats are simple – they are just dehydrated liver. They are good for training because they have no fillers and are absolutely irresistible to dogs.

Cut a pound of calves’ or beef liver into strips. Lay them on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, making sure the strips aren’t touching. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 hours (using a dehydrator would probably be more energy efficient), rotating the tray halfway through. Cool strips on the parchment paper on a wire rack. Freeze up to four months or refrigerate up to two weeks.

I hope your dogs enjoy them as much as ours did.

Rest in Peace, Brutus.  You were surely one of the best loved – and best fed – pooches around.

For more eco-friendly pet tips,  try Planet Green’s feature on the subject. And if you’re thinking about switching to eco-friendly pet toys, you might like this action on Practically Green (worth 10 points!).

Read Lisa’s blog, Mom’s Green Shopping List. Follow her on Twitter: @MomsGreenList; and find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/momsgreenshoppinglist

News Picks:

Trash-Free for an Entire Year: Could you live trash-free? We at PG are always trying to find ways to make less trash, and this couple is definitely a prime example. A couple in Oregon found that not only was it possible to live almost trash free for a year, it was “easy.”

Playground Safety Hazard: Please use caution when taking your children to the park for some summer fun. From the 1970s until 2003, some wooden playground equipment was pressure-treated with a substance that (shockingly) contained arsenic.

How Green are Your Favorite Brands: You might want to think before shimmying into a new pair of jeans. A new rating system has been developed for some 100 well-known apparel and footwear brands. Just as appliances have Energy Star ratings, the “Eco Index” will eventually tell consumers the environmental impact of their purchases. The Index hopes to encourage brands to be thoughtful of the environment when designing apparel, and it gives brands that strive to be eco-friendly the credit they deserve.

Multi-Media Pick:

The Environmental Impact of a Pair of 501s: View the life cycle of one of America’s most popular brands of denim. You may be as shocked as we were to find out that to make a single pair of 501s, 3,480.5 liters of water are used. This is the equivalent to running the garden hose for 106 minutes!

New and Cool Pick:

Energy Saving Night-Light: Skip the plug-in night-light to keep those monsters away for the kids and get them a cool, solar powered Sun or Moon Jar! The jar works by being placed in direct sunlight during the day (on a windowsill for example), and automatically illuminates in the dark.

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.

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!

Lisa Borden is a mom of three who lives in Toronto. She runs a small, full-service marketing and design firm in Toronto with a focus on “Eco-logical Services.” Lisa says she spends 70% of her work day on pro bono stuff, for instance this guide to “Eating on the Go.”

She says, “My life and my work, it’s impossible to separate the two. There’s rampant green washing out there. I drive a minivan, I have three kids. Sometimes I drive five kids to karate after school. I don’t apologize for this. I’ll bike. We grow vegetables in our front yard. I can do certain things.”

We caught up with Lisa recently and she told us the story of how she became eco-aware:

I had my second child, a daughter. She had a problem with her skin. I got advice from my father, who is a physician, and from the pediatrician, and I also went to a dermatologist who gave me some medicine. I tried it, and it worked. I thought, Wait. Here are serious ointments to be putting on this teeny little thing. This can’t be right: I apply toxic ointment and the rash goes away, it all clears up. But when I stop applying it, she breaks out. I began to feel that I was keeping the toxins locked in this little body.

Meanwhile, I was breastfeeding. I made my own organic baby food. It seemed like the intelligent thing to do. I cleaned the kids’ highchairs with Lysol, with these single wipes. I thought this was so smart! Efficient!  But she still wasn’t getting any better.

Lisa describes her a-ha moment:

So now I started to seriously look into what was in these things I was using in the house. I looked at every single product we used. I thought, I’m up for anything for these children, for my family. There was no amount of money, time, or effort I wouldn’t spend. So I took all those chemicals out of my house. My husband thought I was crazy. My father, same thing. But within a week, my daughter’s skin was clearer. I realized that their bathtub was rinsed out with chemicals. Basically I was having them sit in a warm chemical cocktail every night.

It’s amazing, because if I could be making such horrid errors — me, who is an obsessive researcher, whose friends make fun of her for that — then what about everyone else, people who might not have the time or inclination? Here I was freezing breast milk in a bag with BPA in it, and then putting it into a bottle with BPA. If I was making these errors…. So: I stopped everything. I lost a lot of my business and income stream. I was young enough, and on fire enough — on a business level this was not too good, but I couldn’t do things the same way any more. I watched the success of my daughter. My father and the pediatrician said, you can’t argue with success.

I reasoned that there was no down side – I’m saving time, because I can be cleaning the sink and answer the phone without worrying about spilling something dangerous. I’m saving energy. I’m saving my health and my family’s health. Saving our indoor air quality. And I’m saving the planet! This chain of events was so exciting to me!

You can see Lisa’s video bio and follow her on Twitter @lisaborden

We admire our friend Heather’s systematic/bordering-on-ruthless cleaning out of her cosmetics cabinet so much that we wrote about it several weeks ago. Long story short, Heather was struck when her beloved husband casually inquired (from behind his newspaper) whether she’d ever considered the potentially harmful ingredients in her make-up and skin care collection, which is apparently extensive. Look closely at this photo to see the numerical ratings system that she developed:

Not everyone takes such an organized (okay, draconian) approach when they shift to all-natural cosmetics. At Practically Green we totally understand that everyone will want to make changes at their own pace, one tube at a time if they wish, and over a period of years if that suits them — and not because anyone beat them around the head about it.

That said, we appreciate it when a major retail outlet lends a hand. It can be very frustrating to try to evaluate all those ingredients on product labels, in their 4-point-font size. As we say in the Practically Green Personal-Care Actions section, the best advice may be to stay away from anything with a long unpronounceable name, such as methylparaben or sodium laureth sulfate.

When it comes to personal care items like toothpaste and body lotion, claims like “made with organic ingredients” or “authentically organic” can flummox even the greenest consumer. No federal agency polices organic claims for personal care items — at least not yet — so manufacturers have been able to use these customer-pleasing terms loosely and liberally.  (The New York Times)

Whole Foods is part of the solution to this predicament. With stores in 39 states, Canada, and the UK, the Whole Foods “Whole Body” section is the most profitable area of this retail operation. Last month, we were happy to hear that Whole Foods would demand stringent standards for third-party organic verification by June 1, 2011. That sounds like fair notice to us.

And we were deighted to read this story in today’s New York Times, which describes how Whole Foods plans to execute on its promise. Excerpts:

As of June 1, 2011, any products that make organic claims and don’t get the certification will be removed from the shelves of Whole Foods stores. (The company will continue to carry nonorganic products as long as they don’t make organic claims.)

“We’re trying to make it so that our customers don’t have to switch standards and expectations when they cross from grocery into the body care aisle,” said Joe Dickson, the Whole Foods quality standards coordinator.

The policy, announced June 18, is already shaking things up among companies that make — or claim to make — organic beauty items. Many of these companies rely on Whole Foods for the majority of their sales, so the new rule will have broad repercussions.

“People aren’t going to have two labels in the market, one for Whole Foods and one for everyone else,” said David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a line of products (most of them soaps) sold in Whole Foods and certified as organic by the Agriculture Department. As a result, he said, the Whole Foods policy could become the de facto standard.

“Right now we’re being drowned out by all these cheaters,” Mr. Bronner said. “But this has the potential to be a game changer.”

Dr. Bronner Products

The Times credits blogger OrganicMania for publicizing the issue, in her recent post about her baby’s first real haircut. Organic Mania is one of our favorite blogs. Bravo to OrganicMania and its founder, Lynn Anne Miller, for helping us and everyone else “cut through the hype and figure out when it makes sense to lay out the big bucks for organic and green purchases.”

The dream scenario for organic activists is that the Whole Foods policy will prompt companies to revamp their formulas. But the reality is that, for now at least, many will simply change their labels.

Such is the case at Aubrey Organics, a 45-year-old company that makes everything from deodorant to dog shampoo. While many of its products have already earned organic certification, others have not — and cannot with their current formulation.

“There are just certain things that our raw-materials manufacturers haven’t figured out how to make organic yet,” said Curt Valva, general manager of Aubrey Organics, referring mostly to abrasive soaps and cleansers.

Rather than compromise the strength of its products, the company is instead creating a second brand known simply as Aubrey. “That’s what everyone calls us anyway,” Mr. Valva said. The new brand — without the organic claim — will be available at Whole Foods and alongside Aubrey Organics.

Ms. Miller, the blogger, said that branding changes like this will only sow more confusion. In an ideal world, she said, ‘Mom just needs to look for a trusted seal. If it’s there, it’s organic. If not, it’s not.’

Whole Foods Flagship store in Austin, Texas

We focus on solutions at Practically Green – and not on lousy news — but this week, an astounding alert about lead in fruit juices and packaged fruit simply won’t go away. We share it with a dismal sensation: how could juices labeled organic, and sold at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and other grocery stores we trust, possibly be harmful?

We don’t know the answer to that question, yet, but we’re glad that the Environmental Law Foundation is on the job. In case you’re not familiar with the ELF, here’s its mission:

The environment is the place where we live, work and play. Given accurate and complete information, and the opportunity to make a choice, people will choose products or actions which improve or do not degrade the environment. However, not everyone in our society has a choice about the quality of his or her environment. Those who most need the Environmental Law Foundation’s resources are those who lack choice and lack access to the political and economic power that ensures choice.

On July 9, the ELF filed a pre-suit complaint against dozens of fruit-juice and packaged-fruit companies:

“Notices of Violation of California Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law, alleging the toxic chemical lead was found in a variety of children’s and baby foods.  The specific food categories included apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail.”

Please scroll to the end for the full list of juices and fruits that didn’t make the grade. The ELF website includes the full story, press release and useful links:

California Department of Health, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch,www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/CLPPB/Pages/FAQ-CLPPB.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Why not change the blood lead level of concern at this time?” (June 1, 2009), http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/policy/changeBLL.htm

Toxicological Profile for Lead, U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services, Public  Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2007, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13.htm

We thought the answer to this FAQ would be especially helpful to Practically Green blog readers:

Q. Sometimes my child’s lunch has 3 different items that are from your list!  What should I do?

A. The most important step you can take is to become informed.  Find out about the levels of lead in the fruits, juices and other items your child consumes regularly…. Decide for yourself and your family whether there are more protective alternatives you can choose.  Stay informed and support efforts to clean up our food supply.  And remember, the American Academy of Pediatrics has long recommended placing limits on the amount of juice consumed by children.

The list of the good and the not as good: http://www.envirolaw.org/documents/ProductsTestedforLeadFINAL.pdf

If you have further information or perspective on this, please comment. Thank you.

Drawing the Line

We’ve had a red, white, blue, and green holiday here, drawing the window shades (it’s a heat wave), using our new Skoy cloths, hanging laundry out to dry, and composting every last carrot shaving. I even detoxed my sponge in the microwave for the first time ever (high for 60 seconds).

On the whole, my delightful (and eco-obsessed) husband and I are in agreement on such household matters, but I am learning that there are certain actions that will never take seed in him.

For example, every time I go into our bedroom I see that the shades have been opened, even at noon in a heat wave. Who can blame him? He wants to see the view. I say nothing, simply close the shade again.

For another thing, he rinses every dinner dish so completely that there’s absolutely no need to then place it into the dishwasher. You can put his dishes right back in the cabinet. I have explained to him that his obsessive rinsing is not only unnecessary, it’s wasteful (of water, of the energy to heat the water, of washing the same dish twice, of his time), and he nods, and he keeps doing it his way.

Which brings me to my point: There will be times when your loved ones do not do what you want them to do, no matter what. They may have their reasons (e.g., the view; or maybe he’s solving the world’s problems while he’s rinsing those dishes) — or they may not. Regardless, it’s important to know where you draw the line. I do not wish to be a bossy nag, of course!! And probably you don’t either. But still.

Last week I caught up with our thoughtful friend Lisa Thomson, who writes the marvelous daily blog Mom’s Green Shopping List. Among other things, we talked about this very subject: where to draw the line with one’s spouse. Here’s Lisa’s story, which is about drawing the line and a whole lot more:

What I want to tell people is, you don’t have to change everything overnight. You can do it slowly, one thing at a time. My husband and I have a paper towel war. He wants paper towels. I stopped buying them. I wouldn’t get them. I said: Go buy them yourself! He hates going to the store. So for six or eight months we’ve been without paper towels. I have a basket of rags in the kitchen, another basket at the top of the basement stairs going down to the laundry. It’s fine, he’s used to it. So, I tried to get him to stop using Kleenex to blow his nose, but he won’t do that. Not happening. I stopped bugging him on that.

It took me eight years to get pregnant. Finally I got pregnant — and right away my husband was diagnosed with chronic leukemia. He was given five years to live. Our family doctor recommended a book called Foods That Fight Cancer. This book was amazing to me. I realized for the first time that foods affect your body: whatever you put in your body affects you. I completely changed how I eat, how I cook. Specifically, we eat a lot of blueberries. We use lots of spices – turmeric, cumin, ginger. We eat greens, broccoli, cauliflower. We avoid processed food and sugars. Sugars feed cancer.

I read labels on everything. I can spend a lot of doing this in a store – I get asked three times if I need help but No, I’m just reading the labels.  I like to read books, too. Right now I’m reading Building Green, Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls, 101 Ways You Can Help Save the Planet Before You’re 12! (It’s very good.) Global Warming for Dummies, Ecological Gardening.

My daughter Lydia, aged four, is so aware that if I leave a light on for an extra minute, she’s on me. We were walking the other day — Lydia, our dog Brutus, and me. She said, look, Mom, there’s a blue butterfly on Brutus’s nose! I said, Oh, I wonder where that came from. She replied, It flew down from Saturn because Saturn had to cut down all their trees to make toilet paper. She has the biggest imagination.

Lydia and a caterpillar

Visit Lisa’s website MomsShoppingList.com, visit her Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter @MomsGreenList.

Have a terrific Red, White, Blue, and Green long weekend, everybody! Here are a few snippets for a great holiday. First, of course, we hope you’ll head to PracticallyGreen and answer a few quick questions for suggestions of things you can do to make your life healthier and safer for you and your family — this weekend and anytime.

In a BBQ frenzy? Dive into Self magazine’s special burger section for mouthwatering recipes from beans, turkey, and spices. How about Rosemary-Sage Burgers With Apple Slaw and Chive “Mayo” or Portobello-Black Bean Burgers With Corn Salsa? YUM! http://www.self.com/about/burgers

Annie Leonard at a shoot for her new movie

Got sunburn? Stay indoors and watch The Story of Stuff, Gasland, Food, Inc. and get ready for Annie Leonard’s new movie, The Story of Cosmetics, releasing at the end of the month.

Kids bouncing off the walls? Plan a trip to your local library! Massachusetts libraries have a “Go Green at Your Library” summer reading program, featuring a special program for teens: tnk grEn (Think Green) .

Going on a trip? Ask if your hotel offers eco-friendly amenities, such as opting out of daily housekeeping service – for a $5/day credit! Read about two Phoenix hotels who’ve jumped aboard the burgeoning movement of green travel hosts.

Annika and Kerry

Beach reading: Eco-awesome designers Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager run London’s Junky Stylish fashion label. They make wedding dresses from men’s white button-downs and set up an O.R. in NYC last week to transform unwanted maternity wear, tuxes, kimonos, and pinstripes into high-fashion garb. Isn’t it somehow patriotic to remember our British cousins on Independence Day?  In the July 5 New Yorker magazine. Or pick up the book, Junky Styling: Wardrobe Surgery.

We’re huge fans of Alexandra Zissu and fascinated to be having a conversation with her about conscious green living. Zissu lives in New York City with her family. She is a writer, editor, speaker, a self-described green-proofer and the author of The Conscious Kitchen (2010) and The Complete Organic Pregnancy (2006). She’s expecting “twins” in 2011: two books are due out – one with Jeffrey Hollender, who is the co-founder of Seventh Generation; and the other with her grass-fed and organic butcher. Her “Ask an Organic Mom” column is featured on TheDailyGreen.com.

I go around to talk about The Conscious Kitchen, and sometimes a total newbie will say, ‘I can’t do this, it’s too much.’ My advice is, take a few first steps.

To begin, learn a little bit. That’s what my book is for. It’s small, to fit in your purse, to take with you when you shop. Conscious means being aware.

Then, open your cabinets. What’s in there? Where’s it from? Peru? Argentina? What are the ingredients? Read labels! I find them fascinating. I love going into supermarkets to read labels. I can’t believe some of this stuff is actually food.

Next, look in your fridge to see what you have in there. After all, you brought that there! Would you prefer to have something else? You know, it’s not so easy to switch out your couches and mattresses, but it is really pretty easy to change your food. Make a list of what you want to have in your kitchen. Find out where you can go to get it easily. Obviously we don’t want to make fifteen different shopping trips, we’re all busy. But chances are you have a good market near you. You can decide to change Today! I find food is very empowering. [For Zissu’s current thinking on choosing meat, see her recent post at www.dinneralovestory.com]

From there, as long as you’re in the kitchen, why not look under the kitchen sink?! I mean, really! You can drastically improve your exposure, to toxins, instantly, by using safe and healthy products for cleaning your house. Why not? The green products cost exactly the same, they work just as well! Seventh Generation is great, they even have a disinfectant now. There are many other brands to choose from – or you can make your own! Then your kids can help you clean! My four year-old daughter just loves to clean the glass table top.

On indoor air pollution:

It’s hard to be up in arms about something that’s invisible. The oil spill is so visual, and that’s one reason people are so angry about it. But there are things spilling and gushing out in our houses, too! I know that’s a terrifying thought. It’s a huge, huge problem. But again, nobody put those products there except you! It’s amazing — we are willing to spend our hard-earned dollars on these harmful products, we bring them into our homes, and then they pollute us — and our families. I think it’s a no-brainer: simply replace those products.

Other easy things to do – this one is free. I love things that are free. Take off your shoes! It’s the personal-hygiene equivalent of washing your hands. Simply remove your shoes when you come in the house. If you live in the country, you could be carrying in pesticides and dirt; if you live in the city, you could be bringing pesticides and dirt, and also things like car-exhaust residue. I just read that Brooklyn, New York, has the second-highest pesticide content outdoors of all American cities — second only to LA. It’s because of all the treatment to get rid of roaches and rats. So just do it, it’s free: Take off your shoes.

Visit Practically Green to switch to all-natural cleaning products, choose organic food, or learn more about the “dirty dozen.” You can even get points for taking off your shoes!

And do visit http://www.alexandrazissu.com/, friend Alexandra on Facebook  at http://www.facebook.com/alexandrazissu, and tweet with her @ alexandrazissu

Are you a guinea pig?

Sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes it seems we have to be super vigilant about every single thing we put into our mouths or onto our skin – or onto our lawns, or into our water. Take atrazine, a widely used herbicide. “Low-level exposure to it can turn male frogs into functional females,” according to the Environmental Defense Fund. Sweet.

Frying pans, baby bottles, lightbulbs, stain-resistant sofas, painted windowsills, even tampons – dangerous chemicals lurk in just about every product you can think of.

To the rescue: EDF and a team of like-minded, influential partners have formed the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition, “a nationwide effort to pass smart federal policies that protect us from toxic chemicals.” The initiative targets a thirty-year-old law, “the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, which does not adequately protect Americans from toxic chemicals.”

The Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Health Report details the serious illnesses and conditions now thought to be attributed to chemicals:

Much has changed since TSCA became law more than 30 years ago. Scientists have developed a more refined understanding of how some chemicals can cause and contribute to serious illness, including cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, neurologic diseases, and asthma.

Chronic disease is on the rise

More than 30 years of environmental health studies have led to a growing consensus that chemicals are playing a role in the incidence and prevalence of many diseases and disorders in our country, including:

Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers, which have increased by more than 20% since 1975.[2]

Breast cancer, which went up by 40% between 1973 and 1998.[3] While breast cancer rates have declined since 2003, a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is now one in eight, up from one in ten in 1973.[4]

Asthma, which approximately doubled in prevalence between 1980 and 1995 and has stayed at the elevated rate.[5][6]

Difficulty in conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy affected 40% more women in 2002 than in 1982. The incidence of reported difficulty has almost doubled in younger women, ages 18–25.[7][8][9]

The birth defect resulting in undescended testes, which has increased 200% between 1970 and 1993.[10]

Autism, the diagnosis of which has increased more than 10 times in the last 15 years.[11]

To find out more, please visit: http://notaguineapig.org/

And for dozens of ways to curb exposure to chemicals in your life, visit Practically Green. You’ll sleep a little better.