For Parents-to-Be: Part 4 (Detoxing Your Home)

Finally, fourth in my series for new parents (or parents who are new to OllieOllieToxinFree), I offer some basic suggestions to help you detox your home and help everyone breathe easier!

 

1. Avoid scented products (anything listing "fragrance" as an ingredient). Also, beware of certain "unscented" products that use "masking fragrance" to cover up the original fragrance—these can be doubly toxic!

 

2. Avoid fabric softeners, scented dryer sheets and bleach. These products are VERY toxic. There are better options out there: Suck it up and buy the unbleached diapers and natural wipes (Mother Nature brand is great)—I can't find them around here, so I buy from drugstore.com or diapers.com. Bounce fragrance-free, dye-free fabric sheets are okay; Seventh Generation are better. Ecover, ECOS, Sun & Earth, dropps and Seventh Generation make good detergents. Method (Target) is also okay, if fragrance free.

 

3. Avoid ALL pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers (except compost). Pesticides are neuro-toxins (affect the central nervous system), and they don't know the difference between the BUGS and YOU (or your PETS)! For fleas, roaches, ants, etc., use diatomacious earth, boric acid, and nematodes. You can get these from health food stores and pet supply stores.

 

4. Switch to non-toxic cleaning products. For most jobs, white vinegar and baking soda will clean as well as any product. I unclogged our bathroom sink with baking soda, vinegar and hot water and I promise you, it worked better than Drano! I do not recommend Method, Caldrea, Mrs. Meyer's or other super smelly brands. That "clean" smell is doing your lungs, brain and endocrine system no favors. Let it go!

 

5. Drink and bathe in filtered water. Taking a shower in chlorinated water causes the chlorine to go right into your blood stream. Buy a shower filter that easily attaches to your shower nozzle from water-supply stores (check your Yellow Pages).

 

6. Eat organic food when possible. Avoid processed foods, foods with colors and dyes, hydrogenated oils, preservatives, etc.  Also, AVOID products containing "NutraSweet" (aspartame) -- it breaks down into formic acid ("ant-sting poison") and methanol (wood alcohol) in your body! In fact, read Food Rules by Michael Pollan and get Jillian Michaels' Master Your Metabolism. Both will enlighten you in short order.

 

7. Wear natural-fiber clothing (100% cotton, linen, wool, or silk). Clothes marked "permanent press" or "wrinkle resistant" have been treated with formaldehyde that does NOT wash out! Same goes for the flame-retardant PJs. Skip them and choose kid-friendly cotton, such as Hanna Anderson's "Oko-Tex standard 100" organic line. We love them, especially when they're on sale!

 

8. Use only 100% cotton, wool, or pure silk bed linens and blankets. Avoid "no-iron" or "wrinkle-resistant". A good brand is Martex's "Simply Cotton", available at department stores. Wal-Mart also carries 100% cotton "T-shirt" sheets! And if you can find organic cotton linens, all the better because you are supporting healthier agriculture.

 

9. As much as possible, avoid plastics, particleboard, plywood, glues, inks (or look for low-VOC inks), standard paints (try Sherwin Williams' Harmony or Benjamin Moore's Aura or Natura; or even better, Anna

Sova or Real Milk Paint instead), foam rubber, vinyl, carpeting, synthetic rugs, varnishes (look for AFM Safecoat as an alternative), and solvents (try citrus solvents instead). Most plastics contain PVCs but are not labeled as such and these are really bad, especially for young, developing kids. Definitely avoid #3 and #7 plastics, which contain pthlalates (hormone disruptors). Try to find alternatives, for example, replace your PVC shower liner with one made of natural fabric. For more on plastics: http://archive.greenpeace.org/toxics/pvcdatabase/bad.html

 

10. Open your windows as often as possible! Even in the most polluted cities, the outdoor air has been found to be a lot less toxic than the indoor air! Amazing, isn't it?

 

11. Certain houseplants are beneficial to remove toxins from the air, such as formaldehyde, benzene etc.  The best plants for removing these and other toxins are philodendrons, spider plants, aloe vera, English

ivy, golden pothos, and boston fern.

 

12. Recycle everything you can. Reuse anything you can. Reduce—buy only what you need. It's hard to do in our culture today, but this is what it all boils down to.

 

Have any suggestions to add? Comment it and I'll add it here!

 

For Parents-to-Be: Part 3 (Toxins Alert)

I got started with all the nontoxic and organic stuff because my firstborn had some respiratory issues—probably a mild case of asthma. It raised my awareness of chemical triggers that—no surprise—are really not good for anyone, least of all a little kid.

My research yielded some great sites for seeing how safe the products you use really are. It's quite eye-opening. And I admit, it's a little overwhelming to take it all in and make the changes necessary. However, I think the better educated you are, the better decisions you can make each time you go to the store to buy stuff for your family.

Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database

This site lets you look up products and see if they are good choices or not, based on tests for known toxins in the product. The product list is good but not exhaustive, however you can look at the ingredient list and compare by ingredients. For instance, I was shocked to see that some Mustela products (a favorite of ours) are among the worst choices for baby. I was equally surprised to see that a few other products I use are better than I would've expected. Anyway, it's a great resource to know about. A NOTE: You will see a percentage with each product with respect to the "data gap." This means that testing may be inconclusive on some ingredients and that their confidence level with the score is less than 100%. It makes it harder to evaluate the true health costs, but in my book, better safe than sorry. If there's any indication something is harmful, why not find an alternative?

Chemical of the Day blog by Stephanie Greenwood of Bubble & Bee Organic

Stephanie provides in-depth looks at individual chemicals and explains why she is or is not comfortable with each. Her opinions do not always jive with the Skin Deep Database, but that's a good thing. She is helpful in making sense of the data gap issues you encounter there. She's also totally accessible, so tweet at her or email her with any questions. (Bubble & Bee products are also great.)

EPA's Health Statistics site

If you are suspicious of how toxic basic everyday things really are, check out these statistics. Then go to the EPA.gov site and validate. It will blow your mind. There are products like Teflon that are proven carcinogens but do not have to be removed from consumer products until 2015. The lobbies are so strong that the government can't do the right thing and just pull these off the shelves. Very sad.

www.safemama.com (all about good stuff for moms, kids and moms-to-be)

www.idealbite.com (daily tips but getting more and more commercial) 

www.thegreenguide.com (worth subscribing to)

What sites do you rely on that I've missed? Do tell!

Renovation Education...for you and your contractor

Two years ago, our family embarked on a renovation to make our upstairs family bathroom liveable for tall people (and for people who need to breathe--it was not ventilated), which turned into a complete kitchen renovation, adding another full bath and mudroom, all within the original, modest square footage of a 1915 house. Oh, and we increased the deck from about 10'x10' to 10' x 20.'

I was on a green mission with this reno and tried very hard to find a contractor who could get on board with me. The contractor we chose had a very good reputation and was referred by several people, but he knew pretty much nothing about eco-friendly construction. Once he understood my passion about it, he agreed to work with us as long as I did the research. It seemed like a good plan at the time; well, really, I didn't find any other options. So we started the planning process.

I found an amazing resource on green business practices for contractors (from Building Green), edited it to the basics and gave it to him. Not sure if he ever read it, but I think by the end, he was realizing I was not the only homeowner looking to be greener...and he appreciated that I'd pushed him.

To say it was a labor of love is just the tip of the iceberg. It was expensive, time-consuming, frustrating, scary, nerve-wracking, complicated, detail-intensive and did I mention expensive? He laid out a plan with the standard "allowances" for fixtures and all, but it was not quite in line with the choices I had in mind. In the end, I bought about $20,000 worth of stuff through an interior designer I met and bonded with, another $15,000 on my own and the rest through the contractor (yes, there was more!).

Looking back, I'd like to share my thoughts on the materials we ended up with and decisions we made. First, the "green" products we chose:

• SolaTube sun tunnel: Love it. We got it with the light kit for evenings and it's just great. It's installed through the roof and obviously needs to be in a sunny spot.
• Dual-flush toilets: We chose Sterling, an affordable Kohler line. They're fine, but do get a little dirtier than other toilets. If you can afford Toto, they have a special non-marking finish that would be worth the investment.
• Reuse of materials: We pulled the tub out of the upstairs bath and used it in the new bath off the mudroom. We re-used an old pantry door in that bathroom, too. All our interior doors were refinished or painted and reused (original chestnut solid core doors--why wouldn't we?!). We kept our existing refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave.
• Benjamin Moore Eco-Spec paints: All our primer and paints were very low-VOC and required only one coat in all cases. If we were doing it now, we'd use BM's Natura line.
• SpectraLOCK PRO grouts: This epoxy grout is high-performance and GreenGuard certified to be low-VOC.
• Energy Star windows, sliding glass door, exterior light fixtures & dual-fuel stove: These were all smart choices. The windows and door were Pella's mid-range line--not the architectural stuff, but not contractor grade either. A big investment, but we got a tax credit on this part.
• Plastic Lumber 's LeisureDeck for decking/railing: I just tried to link to it and found out they no longer do decking. I had to get it shipped to my contractor, but it was much better than most options at Home Depot or Lowe's. It was made almost entirely of recycled soda bottles. The color options were standard. Maintenance is really just cleaning it from time to time. One drawback--it does get really hot in the summer on bare feet.
• Low-flow faucets: We had low-flow kits installed on all our faucets and both shower heads. You can't really tell. The only place it doesn't make sense is for the tub filler.
• AMS Safecoat Polyureseal BP: Best stuff on the market. We redid our hardwood floors with it when we moved here three years ago. We used it in the remodel to coat the stain (which was not eco-friendly, but we were not around while it was off-gassing). Both contractors who used it were skeptical, but ended up loving it. It does carry a premium price tag.
• Greenguard-certified drywall: We were able to get Georgia Pacific DensArmor Plus, which is nontoxic in terms of offgassing (low-VOC). An easy decision and not expensive.
• KraftMaid Cabinetry: Full disclosure here, I got a good deal on these because my client at the time repped this line. I still did my research, calling the plant and speaking to a product specialist, who insisted that they were green but that they didn't have them certified because they couldn't figure out what certification really mattered. Lame excuse. I'm sure they are not the worst out there, but the packing boxes and custom inserts (like the pull-out pantry) absolutely reeked. I love the look and the price, but if you're really sensitive, go for all-wood custom cabinets. Period.
• Recycled or donated old cabinets, radiators, fixtures, etc., many to Habitat for Humanity. I went around before the demo and put sticky notes on everything we wanted to keep and where they were supposed to store them.
  

Now, the less green choices and why:

• Granite Countertops & Marble Bath Surfaces: We loved several recycled options that were less hard on the earth (Eco-Terr slabs, IceStone & Enviroglas), however, when it came to price, ease of fabrication, resale value and maintenance, granite and marble were the best choices for us. We could have done soapstone instead of the granite in the kitchen, but I doubt it would have been more local and there were no remnants of anything to be had (I did try that route, too).
• Conventional Water Heater: We pushed and pushed for an on-demand water heater, but the plumber and the contractor insisted we would hate it because our gas line was so far from the upstairs bathroom...and we'd be wasting a lot of water running it to get it hot. We finally capitulated and added a second 40-gallon heater. We are still bummed about this decision.
• Slate Floors/Backsplash in kitchen and mudroom: One thing we really wanted was stone floors in this area. Slate is a building material consistent with the period of our house. I know there are quarries in Pennsylvania, but I was basically told it's not sold here. Where they are shipping...what it looks like...I could never find out. So we chose China Multi-color tiles that hopefully will last 100 years, rather than tile someone would rip out in 20 years, and again in 20 years, and again, all contributing to solid waste issues. We LOVE this floor. It's the standout of the whole project and really works in our house.
• PEX Plumbing Lines (out only): We paid for copper in, but were basically told there was no other option except PEX for the rest of the plumbing. I did some research, but could not make headway on this one and decided maybe it was not a battle to fight.
• Bathroom Tile: I wanted recycled tile, but the price tag was crazy. Triple or four times the cost of standard ceramic, porcelain or glass tile. So we got new tile. Bummer, but we simply could not justify the price tag.
• Most of the Lighting: Our recessed light fixtures were chosen more than halfway into the project, and honestly, I was getting beaten down. The ones we got are probably not energy-efficient, but we figured we'd use eco-friendly light bulbs in them. We also installed low-voltage undercabinet lighting, which is halogen, so not great, but we use them sparingly and they do make a huge difference when working in the kitchen.
  

All in all, it was quite the learning experience. I am glad we don't have any other renovations planned anytime soon. But I can already see that eco-friendly options and knowledgeable contractors are increasing in the region. In fact, a co-worker just built a "green" house that would be LEED Gold, if he filed and paid for it (not an inexpensive proposition). The contractor (Haubert Homes) did it for a reduced fee scale, in order to get the experience and learnings under their tool belts.

Green your mind and your grass will follow

Our neighbors take great care to ensure that their pristine lawns are kept up perfectly. No pressure, but I have actually seen the guy next door out picking leaves up off the lawn one at a time. With two small kids, my husband and I don't have all the time in the world to spend on yard work. However, we've taken some small steps to get a respectable-looking lawn in a green and nontoxic way.

First, we bought an electric lawn mower. We talked about getting an old-fashioned push mower, but our yard is big enough and, in some places, steep enough, that it would have been extremely difficult. It charges in our garage and we can mow the entire front, back and side yards on one charge. It's quieter than a gas-powered motor and, of course, there are no fumes. We love it.

Second, we let the grass grow pretty high in between cuts. This allows the grass to be stronger and blot out the weeds on its own, so that's an added benefit to just using less energy than if you're mowing all the time.

Third, we use the clippings for mulch and compost. It works great and costs nothing, and it's easy to do.

You may have guessed now that we do our yard work ourselves, but we have discussed hiring a service to get some of the stubborn parts under control. Recently, a coworker told me he was using NaturaLawn and just loves it. It's apparently completely "organic, eco-friendly and nontoxic" and it doesn't cost a fortune. We are considering it, but hoping our DIY efforts will pay dividends and we won't have to spend money on a service.

I'd be curious to know if any of you readers out there use this service and learn what you think about it.

Coke's new bio-bottle: sweet irony

A headline yesterday read: New Coke Bottle Made Partly of Molasses and Sugar Cane, which totally made me laugh. Considering Coke is sweetened with High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and not something natural like sugar cane, the irony was too much.

However, as you read further into the article, it seems that Coca-Cola, the company, is creating this bottle to use on their "natural" brands, including Vitamin Water (admittedly one of my eco-vices) and Dasani (filtered water people pay top dollar for, in a plastic bottle, no less).

People, the solution here is not to green the bottles; it's to lose the practice of bottled beverages altogether. Argh. This seems so obvious to me. There is a mass of plastic bottles in the Pacific the size of Texas—you've seen this, right?

If you are having a hard time replacing the habit of plastic bottles with reusable ones, here are my top picks for reasonably priced, good-looking, functional alternatives on the go:

SIGG now 20% off on this site with code "ECO20"
Kleen Kanteen this is one of my favorite sites, too, for eco-fun things
Nalgene for those who don't like metal (I happen to prefer stainless)

The Wasteful Mr. Whipple

Green America's newsletter caught my eye today with the following stats:

"When you choose paper made from recycled material, you're choosing a product that helps save the planet. One-hundred-percent recycled paper uses 44 percent less energy to produce than virgin paper, produces 38 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 41 percent fewer particulate emissions, 50 percent less waste water, 49 percent less solid waste and, of course, 100 percent less wood."

This quote was in the context of an article about Mr. Ellie Pooh's paper, which is made from 75% elephant dung and 25% post-consumer paper. Really. I'm not sure I have a need for more stationery at the moment, but I've tucked that away for future reference.

Here's something to think about though: What would be the impact of giving up your fluffy, ultra-white toilet paper? I found that someone in Australia already did the math for me.

We use Seventh Generation toilet paper and it's quite satisfactory. It's not bleached, made from recycled content, soft enough and not too expensive. No, it's not perfumed, it's not white and it's not softer than a baby bear's bottom. But it does the job without being uncomfortable. While you're at it, try their recycled unbleached paper towels and Marcal's paper napkins made from 100% PCW. Both can be composted, too!

Spastic about plastic

Alex and I long ago stopped microwaving anything plastic and recently have stopped washing any plastic in the dishwasher. While there is dispute about plastics and exposure to heat -- do they leach or not? -- we aren't taking any chances.

Most of the plastic we use is related to the boys, from sippy cups to plates to small storage containers. Chances are, many of the cheap plastic DO break down and release toxins when heated. Besides, they discolor and warp and sometimes they even smell funny. If you are curious about good and bad plastics, here's a decent guide.

We are gradually switching to all glass containers for food storage. This is not an inexpensive proposition, but I have to say it feels a bit luxurious to use pretty glass containers for our leftovers. I prefer the type you can use in the freezer, dishwasher, microwave, anywhere. Most have plastic lids, so we still have to hand-wash those, but I've found some with glass lids. I figure while I'm finding ones that work and aren't crazy expensive, I'll share the findings here. Please feel free to comment on your favorites.

Crate & Barrel "refrigerator dish" (this has a glass cover)
Crate & Barrel round set by Frigoverre (I have these and like them; other sizes available
Greenfeet.com also has a nice selection (and if you join, you get 10% all year long)
Pyrex is another good option, available through Amazon and others

I can't believe I learned something on Regis & Kelly

After enjoying an interview with my favorite Bond -- Daniel Craig, I started folding laundry and zoning off. John Giddings from HGTV's "Designed to Sell" was up next, talking about ways to save money around the house. First, a programmable thermostat and then power strips. Check, check. Then he said you can lose efficiency through outlets on exterior walls. Have to admit, this was news to me. A cheap little piece of insulation is sold at hardware stores -- just put it between your switchplate and the wall to seal it up. Neato. It is definitely that panicked big heating bill time of year.

Next, I opened my laptop to check email and found an article called "Locate Air Leaks" in my TerraPass enewsletter. This got me thinking about how much energy my old house is likely wasting. The big, architectural windows in the front, as well as those in the attic, have not been updated (it's a 1915 house). These fixes are on our list, but it will be costly to achieve the same look in new windows. We know we don't have a lot of insulation, but we do have double-layer brick and plaster construction. Well, did I mention our dual-flush toilets and low-flow faucets? At least we're saving water.

Anyway, the TerraPass article talked about one guy who got a free energy audit from his utility company. I went to PPL and UGI to see if we could get one. Maybe, but I couldn't find any such thing on the websites. I tried to log in on PPL to do the online evaluation, but I couldn't remember my password. I also apparently answered my security question wrong, so I was locked out (on the first try). I hope their power plants have security as serious as this!

Another comment grabbed my attention. "Richard" noted that his bathroom fans were letting warm air escape because they don't have a positive closure. I, too, have noticed this and wish someone at Nutone would get wise to it. I can't live without a fan in the bathroom in the warmer months, but I've actually thought of sealing it off during the winter. I don't know of any other fix.

My solution is assigning "make house more energy efficient" to the husband. I'm instead going to focus on saving the world with my green ideas.