Opened Eyes: chemicals

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Quite a bit has been going on this week. I had a BBQ on Sunday celebrating my birthday and my new business. I tried to make it a green event and found a few tips I'll share. I also went to an Earth Day event where I got to talk to people about toxic chemicals in their cleaners. It was a great week. I love how many kids came out to the event it really shows that there is hope for a brighter future.

Here is a photo of Lisa Alexander and I at our booth:

Tips: Small changes for a party that everyone is sure to enjoy and the planet will like more as well.

I know that we always try to do things the easy way when it comes to hosting a party or event at our house. We want less dishes so we use paper and plastic everything, we buy soda, bottled water, and make burgers and hot dogs.

What I planned on doing was having everyone use our plates and dishes but once we counted out how many people were going to come out we found we had to use something else, but I wanted to try to be more green so we found recycled paper plates and used them. We also instead of getting plastic forks, knives, and spoons we sent out our real forks for people to use.

I made homemade sweet tea and filled an already empty plastic jug with my tea and a glass pitcher (which is what I used to serve it in. (pictured below)

The great benefit to this was that there was less sugar than store bough ice tea, and it was much cheaper! And everyone commented on how great it was (score!)

I asked guest to BYOB so we didn't have the added cost of supplying beer for everyone.

I did not find a way around buying plastic cups.

We helped minimize clean up by setting out a bin for everyone to put their cans in.

For food everyone asked what they could bring and told us what they were bringing so we didn't have to cook a whole lot and made some kabobs, fruit salad, and homemade dip. Everything turned out great! To our surprise we only had a few meat dishes and lots of choices for everyone!

A BBQ almost always requires a fire. I love sitting or standing around a campfire with friends. This year a friend of ours found a great way to reduce the amount of wood you use when having a fire, contain the fire well, and it makes the perfect way to cook when camping. Check out the photos below and if you're interested in one for your next camping trip please send an email asking for more info.

I also sent out the invite over Facebook instead of sending out written invites to everyone. I did snail mails some to people who aren't on facebook. So I saved myself an added cost of prints, cards, and postage. And reduced the amount of paper we used.

Website: Earth Day Organizer's Guide

Here's a great site for ways to celebrate Earth Day today and everyday by yourself and as an event.

People: The volunteers at Lacawac Sanctuary

Lacawac Sanctuary is a great place to learn about our ecosystem and enjoy the outdoors. They offer many educational programs. If you're in their area check out what they have going on or just stop in for a visit.

Do you or your children have asthma? Do you get headaches or nauseous while cleaning? Have you ever thought about what's in your cleaners that you use?

I use to gag every time I cleaned because of the fumes, but even so I never thought about my cleaning products as being harmful as long as no one drank them. Then I saw some eye-opening videos and I started to do some digging to find out more. What I found scared me and I hope that by sharing what I've found I'll open everyone's eyes, especially other mothers, that we can all live a little better and healthier and make our world a little more safe and green. I'll have all links at the end of this blog.

The chemicals used in our cleaners have so many side effects that aren't listed on the container...actually most don't list their ingredients at all because they aren't required to. Fragrances are considered trade secrete so the chemicals used to make that scent you may like so much could be what's causing your headaches, allergies, asthma, and many contain phthalates which are know hormone disrupters.

Here are some photos of cleaners I was using before. Notice how they don't list all their ingredients.
What's in the other over 90%?

These chemicals used to make our cleaners have been found and known to be poisonous, cause chemical burns, respiratory irritation, birth defects, cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more. Many are considered to be hazardous waste and are harmful to people and our environment. And that's just of the chemicals that we know of. There are over 80,000 chemicals in the USA but less than 500 have been tested for toxicity.

Yes, we knew that our cleaners are toxic and to keep them away from our children-it says so right on the bottle, yet 90% of all poisoning occurs at home and household cleaners, particularly those containing Bleach, are the number one cause of poising children!!

Every time we turn around there's something new that causes cancer, so while I was surprised to hear that something we use to avoid getting sick can cause cancer, it's not really that surprising. But the good thing is that by knowing about this we can make changes and reduce our risk.

The rest of the side effects really did surprise me and made me worry...

Did you know that 1 in 10 children had asthma in 2009? And that asthma is the number one reason children go to the hospital? Have you wondered why asthma rates keep rising? Why are kids with no family history of respiratory problems now coming down with them? For the same reason our air pollution levels are 2 to 5 times higher indoors than outside. The same study found that in some cases the pollution levels were 100 times higher. OK, so outside we have cars and factories yet our pollution levels are higher inside our homes which should be safe. The average house has over 62 toxic chemicals in it! Many of these chemicals irritate or even cause asthma. People who have any respiratory issues or heart problems should avoid cleaning with or even being around chlorine bleach and ammonia because they emit such harsh fumes. The fumes are instantly causing irritation to your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. That's just each of the chemicals alone, combine them together or mix them with any other chemicals (especially oven or toilet bowl cleaners) and now there's a lung damaging gas in the air. Read your labels as they will tell you if your cleaner is a respiratory irritant. Look for words saying, "use in well ventilated area" or anything of the sort. It could even be like this one I found on my old toilet bowl cleaner :

It says in bold "Do not close toilet bowl lid" I know I usually close the lid when I clean because I don't want any toys or other items in the house to go in the toilet...and not only that but is your bathroom ventilated well? I know I don't open the windows or turn on the fan in the winter when it's cold out.

Then it goes on to say "Do not use with chlorine bleach or any other chemical products"

This one is big Hazards to humans and domestic Animals I was surprised at looking back at all my other cleaners I uses to use and seeing that label on most of the cleaners! It says it's "Hazards to humans" yet we're cleaning with these, breathing in the fumes or over-spray, and using them around our kids and pets!!

And it doesn't stop there this one goes on to say that you should use protective eye-wear, gloves, and to wash your hands afterward before going to do anything else!

Here are two more photos of the same product:

Where do you store your cleaners? Before I found a safer cleaner, all of my cleaners were together under the sink...that's not well ventilated.

Look at the First Aid Warning label of this

If on the skin rinse with water for up to 20minutes and call poison control...if inhaled move to fresh air, and if not breathing call 911...just from being in contact with a cleaner...yeah that's scary! And this use to be under my sink! Very happy and relived to say it's not anymore.

Many all purpose cleaners that are to be used on counter tops require you to rinse the cleaned surface afterward to make sure you get most of the chemicals off like I found on this bottle:

So why are we using these cleaners that are so harmful? Because they are what we see advertised on TV and in the newspaper, and what we can clip coupons for, convenience, right? I know that was the case for me. Then I'd look at the "green" cleaners and look at the price and say "That's not really in my budget." So I never switched over to the green cleaners because I didn't know how bad cleaners are for us. Now that I know all I do, I also know that not all green cleaners are safe and the words on the labels aren't verified by the government.

I'm very happy to say I've been able to replace all my toxic cleaners for a great safe, non toxic cleaner and I've been able to save myself a lot of money. There are sites out there to find out how to make your own cleaner but I don't want to make my own cleaners out of vinegar or peroxide or anything like that. It seems like a hassle. But this cleaning system I found is a concentrate, and it comes with spray bottles that have how much cleaner you add to the bottle to make your window cleaner, all propose cleaner, degreaser, and there's hundreds of ways to clean with it. It's easy and hassle free! And it works!

I did my research on this company and found that they are the #1 natural nutrition company in the US, they've planted over 1million trees, and are even used in the White House (and have been since 2008)! And they are one of Oprah's favorite products

By buying the whole Get Clean kit to change over all my cleaners for these safe, non toxic, environmental friendly ones I spent $99, saved over $3,000 and have saved the world of 248 pounds of greenhouse gas, and kept 108 pounds of packaging waste out of the landfills. How awesome is that!! Not only is that part amazing but I've also been able to rest easy with cleaning around my daughter. She now loves to help mommy wash the windows, or clean whatever I'm cleaning and I can give her the spray bottle of Get Clean and let her have fun without worrying about her poising herself. It's awesome to know that we have a cleaner that works, (and it does), and it's safe enough for her to use...it won't even hurt her if she drinks it! That made a world of difference in our home.

To learn more about anything I talked about or to look into switching over your cleaners here are all the sites and videos where I've gotten all of my information.

Children Poisoned At Home

Asthma in the US

Air Contaminants -EPA

video: Household cleaners Cause Health Problems

Bleach

video: Toxic World

Indoor Air Quality - EPA

Asthma Triggers

Asthma Statistics

videos: Real Dirt on Clean part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

video: Oprah and Get Clean

Oprah and going Green