Creating Healthy Environments for Children.

green | July 1st, 2009 - 12:08 PM

healthy childHealthy Child Healthy World are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit inspiring parents to protect young children from harmful chemicals.They are leading a movement that educates parents, supports protective policies, and engages communities to make responsible decisions, simple everyday choices, and well-informed lifestyle improvements to create healthy environments where children and families can flourish.
Healthy Child Healthy World’s 5 easy steps

Step 1: Manage pests safely

Though we often encourage children to “go out and play,” exposure to common lawn / garden care and indoor pesticides is identified by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as potentially causing a range of health problems, including asthma, hyperactivity and behavior problems, cancer, learning disabilities, reproductive disorders, and compromised brain development. Rather than stifling healthy activity in children, you can make healthier choices in pest control!

Step 2: Use non-toxic products- cleaners, body care, home furnishings

We bring home a wide variety of products that can contribute to making our family and home sick and filled with potentially harmful toxicants.  We put them in our grocery bags and they can be found in many home and life-style stores as well.  Luckily, there are a number of safe and healthy alternatives to these products, which allow you to make informed and wise choices in your marketplace to seriously reduce the amounts of chemicals you invite in your home. Cleaners, body care items, and home furnishings are the three main categories that can have serious effects on you and your child’s health.

Step 3: Clean up indoor air

Did you know that people in America spend 90 percent of their time indoors? It might seem safer and cleaner, but indoor air pollution is linked to a host of health effects. Common indoor air pollutants — which are exacerbated by smoke, mildew, and gas — include formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, secondhand smoke, asbestos, lead, and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. Not to worry, it’s easy to reduce the risk. Start by replacing products that contribute to the problem, then try some other simple steps.

Step 4: Shop smart – eat more organic and healthy foods

Eating organic food reduces the amount of toxic pesticides in our bodies. It’s grown without potentially harmful, long-lasting synthetic chemicals and is approved by the FDA after meeting rigorous standards. In conventional grown food, however, synthetic or chemical means may have been used to fertilize soil, control weeds and insects, and prevent livestock disease. These non-organic foods often contain chemical and pesticide residue. What’s the goal? It’s simple: Eat organic foods.

Step 5: Be wise with plastics

Plastic provides a good amount of affordable convenience. Only recently have we discovered that the hidden cost may be our health. Plastics, which are used in much of our food storage and cooking, have the potential to negatively affect health in certain applications. Some petroleum-based plastics leach harmful chemical into foods and drinks, especially when plastic comes in contact with oily or fatty foods, during heating and microwaving, as a result of harsh cleaners, and when exposed to excessive moisture.  Luckily, we can all make safe choices.

Check out Healthy Child Healthy World’s website for a wonderful website with suggestions to healthier choices in greening your world and your children’s too.

There are also videos showing greener ways.

If you’ve ditched your conventional polish (furniture polish is highly poisonous if ingested), you can buff your wood with natural oils. Jennifer Taggart with The Smart Mama makes her furniture polish.

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One Response to “Creating Healthy Environments for Children.”

  1. code name max » Talk on Green Trash Can says:
    July 2, 2009 at 8:48 PM

    [...] a greener environment for healthy children.  Show them that there is more to life than watching the screen for [...]

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