It just so happens that I was in the market for a PVC free shower curtain at the same time I was searching for an organizer for my son's bath toys. (You should know PVC VINYL has been termed the "Poison Plastic" and should be avoided at all costs. Most shower liners, shower mats and various plastic bottles, including children's sippy cups are made from PVC.)
This shower curtain is made from 100% PEVA, is anti-mildew, and eco-friendly. It does not expose your family to dangerous chemicals, and there is no foul smell.
But I'm sorry to say I can only give it four stars out of five because I hoped it would do more than hold my son's bath toys. I figured it would hold all my shampoos, bath washes, shaving creams, etc. It turns out that although the curtain is made of sturdy, quality PVC free materials, the mesh pockets are not very sturdy and will fall off if you try to put a large bottle of shampoo in one of them.
All said and done, at the end of the day it really is the perfect shower curtain/bath toy organizer, and for just $19.99 I really can't complain. Considering most bath toy organizers go for at least that.
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8:46 a.m. - 2009-09-09
sprig toys eco truck review
My son just received his SPRIG TOYS ECO-TRUCK yesterday and I have not seen him this excited about a toy in a long time. This makes me, him and the environment very happy!
These trucks are made in Europe to exacting standards and use the exclusive Sprigwood™ wood-plastic composite. Each truck uses bits of recycled wood & plastic materials to create an earth-friendly toy that is durable, highly mechanical and has less impact from manufacturing on our earth.
Sprig Eco-Trucks are fully equipped with flip-open cabs and easy-grab handles, making each freewheeling vehicle inviting and a cinch to maneuver. The scooping action and rotating chassis of the Excavator turns serious digging into child’s play.
The Loader does the trio’s heavy lifting, and the Dump Truck gets the job done with its tilting cab, locking bed and swing-out tailgate.
The playful, cartoon-like designs of our chunky vehicles make them irresistible to preschoolers, and parents love the eco-friendly, battery-free, kid-powered construction.
Recommended for ages 3 and up, but my son is 2 and it's just perfect for him.
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9:45 a.m. - 2009-08-31
BAREFOOT BOOKS ECO-FRIENDLY GIVEAWAY
This month BAREFOOT BOOKS is giving away a Barefoot Books red tote bag to one lucky winner. This durable, reusable, eco-friendly tote bag features the Barefoot Books logo on one side and the "live barefoot…imagine" tagline on the other. This oversized bag is perfect for carrying a stack of Barefoot books, loading groceries from the local market, or even for holding the essentials for a day trip! Offers a great alternative to plastic bags. Enter to win by leaving a comment on the giveaway ENTRY PAGE. Winner will be selected on September 30th using Random.org.
Good Luck!
green tote shopping bags to three lucky winners. These reusable, eco-friendly tote bags are bright and branded, and offer a great alternative to plastic bags. Enter to win by leaving a comment on the giveaway entry page. Winner will be selected on September 30th using Random.org.
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11:17 p.m. - 2009-08-03
the dangers of pesticides
The following is an article on the exposure and risks of pesticides in our fruits and vegetables, brought to you by an ECO MAMA favorite, the ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP:
Pesticide Health Effects
Every year, new research is published demonstrating the toxicity of pesticides to human health and the environment, often at doses previously declared "safe" by the pesticide industry and the government.
As acknowledged by the U.S. and international government agencies, different pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects, including:
* Nervous system effects * Carcinogenic effects * Hormone system effects * Skin, eye and lung irritation
Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms – insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks to people, risks that have been acknowledged by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.
Ignorance Does Not Equal Safety Even in the face of a growing body of evidence, pesticide manufacturers continue to defend their products, claiming that the amounts of pesticides on produce are not sufficient to elicit safety concerns. Yet, such statements are often made in the absence of actual data, since most safety tests done for regulatory agencies are not designed to discover whether low dose exposures to mixtures of pesticides and other toxic chemicals are safe, particularly during critical periods of development. In general, the government demands, and companies conduct, high dose studies designed to find gross, obvious toxic effects. In the absence of the appropriate tests at lower doses, pesticide and chemical manufacturers claim safety since the full effects of exposure to these mixtures of chemicals have not been conclusively demonstrated (or even studied).
The majority of the U.S. population has detectable concentrations of multiple pesticide residues in their bodies, as detected in biomonitoring studies by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ubiquitous pesticide exposures are further compounded by exposure to hundreds of industrial chemicals that contaminate human bodies and are even found in the developing fetus. The full health effects of exposure to these mixtures of chemicals are not yet known; true public health protection would require a consideration of cumulative risks of exposure to multiple toxic chemicals at a time.
Children Are Especially at Risk
Protecting our families' health from chemical exposures can start with minimizing children's exposure to pesticides. It is now well established that pesticides pose a risk to vital organ systems that continue to grow and mature from conception throughout infancy and childhood. Exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals during critical periods of development can have lasting adverse effects both in early development and later in life. The metabolism, physiology, and biochemistry of a fetus, infant or child are fundamentally different from those of adults; a young, organism is often less able to metabolize and inactivate toxic chemicals and can be much more vulnerable to the harmful effects of pesticides. The nervous system, brain, reproductive organs and endocrine (hormone) system can be permanently, if subtly, damaged by exposure to toxic substances in-utero or throughout early childhood that, at the same level, cause no measurable harm to adults. The developing brain and endocrine system are very sensitive, and low doses at a susceptible moment of development can cause more of an effect than high doses. It is especially important to reduce pesticide exposures of babies and young children so as to minimize these risks.
Doesn't The Government Regulate These Chemicals?
When consumers realize the magnitude of the health threat posed by pesticides, they naturally wonder: Doesn't the government regulate these toxic chemicals? The answer is that, unfortunately for human and environmental health, government action has been far too slow. It is important to remember that the government said that highly toxic pesticides like DDT, chlordane, dursban and others were safe right up to the day the EPA banned them. And considering that we are talking about toxic chemicals whose effects on children's health may be irreversible, no delay is justifiable.
The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 was designed to require protection of infants and children from pesticides. This law produced several notable achievements and fundamentally improved the health standards in pesticide law by requiring explicit protection of infants and children. But a lot remains to be done, especially in protecting human health from pesticide mixtures and chemicals that have endocrine disrupting properties. Not surprisingly, pesticide makers and agribusiness groups have been fighting strict application of the statute, particularly provisions that require an extra 10-fold level of protection for infants and children.
What Can I Do to Reduce My Risk?
Addressing the risks of pesticide exposure first and foremost requires information, which is frequently made unavailable to the general public by the government agencies. To counteract this trend for secrecy, EWG believes that:
People have a right to know what's in their food, so they can choose foods with less pesticides.
The government can and should take steps to dramatically reduce the number and amount of toxic chemicals, including pesticides, in the food supply.
Each of us can opt for food safety today by choosing to purchase produce low in pesticides and by buying organically-raised fruits and vegetables as frequently as possible. With this first step we can protect our families' health and preserve our own future and the future of the environment from the harmful effects of pesticides.
Click HERE to see where your favorite fruits and vegetables rank when it comes to their exposure to pesticides.
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2:51 p.m. - 2009-07-29
food inc.
How much do we really know about the food we buy at the local supermarkets and serve to our families? Award-winning filmmaker, Robert Kenner knows. He worked for six years on the recently released documentary, "Food Inc."
In Food, Inc., Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Please check out this clip from the movie and take your family to see this very important film.
If you're not able to see the film, here is a list of ten things you can do to change our food system:
1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.(You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out.(Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home).
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. (Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.)
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. (Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.)
5. Meatless Mondays — Go without meat one day a week. (An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.)
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. (According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market. (Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.)
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from— READ LABELS. (The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.)
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. (Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.)
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.(Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.)
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11:03 a.m. - 2009-07-28
is your sunscreen safe
After many tireless hours of research and testing, the results of the ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP's study on sunscreens is in. Please do yourself and your family a favor and check the safety of the sunscreen you are currently using. What you may THINK is harmless, may very well be making you ill and not be giving you the kind of protection you need.
Also it has been discovered that sunscreen is one of the many products on the market containing chemicals that are effecting the hormonal development of babies and young children. And that's just the beginning of the harm it is doing to ourselves and those we love.
I was of course pleased to discover that my sunscreen of choice for my entire family, JASON EARTH'S BEST BABY CARE CHEMICAL FREE SUNSCREEN, is a good one. Of course there are many to choose from, but plenty to avoid.
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I am a vegetarian, an environmentalist, wife and mother to a little boy who inspired me to educate myself and others about the environment. I worry about the planet and what will become of it and our children's futures if we don't make the necessary changes NOW.
Welcome to ECO MAMA. This is a blog about the environment, and tips on living a greener lifestyle. This is important for both your family and the planet. We are going to learn together. Enjoy your stay and visit often!
