Although most parents in the U.S. consider home cleaners pretty safe, most are anything but safe. In fact more the American Association of Poison Control Centers notes that 1.25 million kids younger than six years of age are unintentionally poisoned in the home each year by things you’d expect (pain relievers and cough and cold medicines) but also lots of stuff you’d not suspect such as cosmetics, personal bath care products, and basic home cleaners. Furthermore, Studies by the Environmental Working Group conducted research that shows that nearly 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants can be found in the umbilical cord blood of newborns. That is insane.

Million Baby Crawl, a new campaign launched and sponsored by Seventh Generation hopes to get some of these toxic chemicals out of your child’s life for good though. It’s about time too. Congress passed that nation’s chemical regulatory law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TCSA) 33 YEARS AGO and as of right now, the EPA has managed to test only 200 of the more than 80,000 chemical compounds developed for products used in the home. Way to go congress.

Additionally, the EPA has zero authority to gather information to evaluate a chemical’s risk because product manufacturers are not required by law to give that info to the EPA or to even prove a chemical’s safety as a condition of use. We aren’t doing very well at all when it comes to protecting our children – at least not from a whole country standpoint.

Join the campaign!

Seventh Generation and supporters of the Million Baby Crawl think that chemical manufacturers should be required by law to conduct safety testing before a chemical is used in products. As a parent, I’m sure you agree. You can help support the effort by doing the following…

• Visit Million Baby Crawl and create a crawler that represents why you want chemical reform. The Million Baby Crawl will help to present the Kids Safe Chemical Act to Washington by collecting signatures from Americans who support toxic chemical reform.
• Post about the Million Baby Crawl at your own blog.
• Follow the Million Baby Crawl discussion on Twitter #mbcrawl.

Until chemical laws are passed you still have a choice though. DON’T clean with conventional toxic cleaners. Make homemade green cleaners or buy safe green cleaners.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Because of this, Seventh Generation has teamed up with the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) to dedicate one day as “Let’s Talk… Period” Day which aims to place more focus on this important issue and to educate women about ovarian cancer. Another goal of this event is to raise the donations needed to help educate women on the signs of ovarian cancer.

If you go to the “Let’s Talk… Period” Day website on September 1st (yes tomorrow) and register your email address, Seventh Generation will make a $1 donation to the OCRF, with an overall donation of $22,000 representing the women that will be diagnosed this year. The website has information on ovarian cancer signs, symptoms, risk factors and prevention, because the best way of prevention is through education.

As a thank you for logging in and participating, Seventh Generation will be giving each registrant a coupon for their organic cotton tampons that are not bleached with chlorine, free of rayon and don’t contain added perfumes or dyes. See the video below to find out what’s in most tampons…

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Makers of laundry detergent in the United States, Japan, Canada and some European countries no longer include phosphate as an ingredient. I know many people with clean clothes, so phosphate-free laundry detergent must be working.

Including phosphates in dishwasher detergent is still popular in the US and other countries. That doesn’t make sense to me. The practice was widely discontinued in laundry detergent since the phosphate was causing algae blooms that smothered aquatic life and otherwise made lakes and streams unhealthy and smelly.

The good news is that some US states are starting to ban dishwasher detergents with high levels of phosphates.

If you’re still buying dishwasher detergent with phosphates, look at the alternatives. I’m currently using Ecover tablets and love them, but I’m going to try them out a while longer before posting a review. I have reviewed Seventh Generation’s powder, and Jennifer reviewed the gel.

Method is another alternative, but I haven’t tried their automatic dishwasher product. Jennifer is planning a review of Biokleen dishwasher powder. Other phosphate-free dishwasher detergents are available as well. If you’ve tried a phosphate-free detergent you liked, please let us know.

A word of caution: Always read the ingredients in any product claiming to be “green,” “eco” or “earth-friendly.” A true green product will list its ingredients, and bleach, which can irritate your lungs, shouldn’t be one of them.

Visit our other green sin posts this month:

•Raid on Spiders
•Why Buy Recycled Paper
•Leaving Unused Appliances and Chargers Plugged In
•Reasons to Carpool
•Driving an SUV (choice added by reader)
•Recklessly Use the Printer

Algae bloom photo via flickr/soil-science.info photostream.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

I’ve always used powder. Actually, I’ve mostly lived sans dishwasher in my life, so technically, I’ve mostly used my good old hands and some dish soap. However, for the last year I have had one, and I’ve used powder the whole time – usually whichever eco-brand that’s on sale. I’ve never had issues and my dishes are always clean. Why powder? No clue. Growing up my mom did, so maybe it’s habit. In any case, the other day I decided to go nuts and buy some gel, see what all the fuss is about.

I bought the Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwashing Gel in Green Apple, it also comes in lemon, but I like apple scents. Following are the eco-benefits noted at the Seventh Generation website:

• “Non-toxic
• No chlorine bleach or phosphates
• No dyes
• No NTA or EDTA
• Safe for septic & greywater systems
• Not tested on animals
• Kosher certified”

While Peggy’s powder came in a box made from 100% recycled paper (minimum 40% post-consumer), mine of course came in a bottle. I’m thinking that this may be a good reason to favor powder – the packaging is more eco-friendly.

My bottle notes that it’s 25% post consumer recycled plastic – which is not as good as Peggy’s box. Although, they do have a recycling reminder on the bottle, I’m betting that the lid, like most lids, is not recyclable.

Also like Peggy’s powder, this product discloses all ingredients, the big point of which is that there is no chlorine bleach or phosphates – take that lazy “eco” gel Palmolive.

How the green apple gel did:
I should point out how I ran my dishwashing experiment.

• I had some pretty dirty dishes and I didn’t rinse any of them. Normally I would, but, I figured if I’m running a review, let’s run a review. I had a blender covered in raspberries, a dish with mashed potatoes still stuck to it (for two days), and to really give it a go, I ran my stove top covers as well. One of my stove trays I had to pry off the stove (I know, I hadn’t cleaned the stove in a while). In any case, that’s a lot of grease and gunk.
• Ran a full load on regular.
• I followed the directions on the back of the bottle, “Fill dispenser 1/2 full.” It said use more for soiled dishes but I didn’t.
• No rinse aid. The bottle recommends a rinse aid for hard water, which I don’t have.

And the results…

CON: I thought it might smell more like green apple, like fill my kitchen with a lovely scent – it didn’t. It also didn’t smell bad though. I’m betting that they make the scent light, because they don’t have a free & clear gel, also, it takes preservatives to add fragrances. I would have liked more scent though.

PRO: It cleaned everything well except the mashed potato bowl; which frankly, should have been rinsed, also keep in mind that I didn’t use as much as they said. It got my stove top cover nice and clean and grease free. Considering it was so yucky that I had to pry it off, that’s not bad.

PRO: I had a few spots on two white coffee cups on the top rack. All the white plates, on the bottom rack were streak-free. Streaks and spots don’t bother me too much, unless they’re excessive, and I’ve found that’s due to water, not cleaner.

CON: It was super easy. I really like gel vs. powder. Although, I won’t be buying gel again because of the packaging. Seventh Generation notes, “Currently, we have 25% post-consumer content in all our laundry, dish and spray-cleaning bottles. We are working at significantly increasing this in 2008.” That’s good news, but until then, the powder is better container-wise for the planet.

My final score: Overall, I can’t recommend the gel when a perfectly good powder, in a more recyclable container is available. That said, if you really cannot live without gel detergent, then I do recommend this product. The green apple gel worked well, smelled ok, and eco-wise is way better for the planet compared to traditional conventional gels like Palmolive or Dawn. It was well priced too, at just $4 for 45 oz. Since you use very little it’ll go a long way.

Have you used this product? Let me know what you think in the comments.

[photo via Amazon]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family