Evicting Toxic Chemicals From our Homes
We often spend the first few minutes of every Nature Links class checking in about our lives. What was the highlight of your weekend? What’s on your mind in the past few days? What’s something new you learned or saw recently? A few weeks ago during this check-in time, a seemingly mundane inquiry sparked a world of curiosity. “I just bought this new cleaner for my kitchen. How do I know if it’s safe for me to use?” a participant asked. Her question inspired a deep dive into the safety of the products we use every day on our counters, windows, floors and even our hair and skin. In a recent Nature Links class, participants worked together to learn about some of the most dangerous chemicals we may be exposing ourselves to every day and research alternative products.
Toxic chemicals lurk in unsuspecting corners of our homes, posing a silent but significant threat to our health and the environment. According to a study conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants were found in umbilical cord blood from babies born in U.S. hospitals. These insidious substances can be found in everyday items, from cleaning products to electronics to personal care products we use every day. As environmental stewards and informed citizens, Nature Links participants are uniquely poised to learn and raise awareness about these hidden dangers so we can minimize our exposure to these toxic chemicals and promote safer and healthier living environments.
In our recent class, we began by learning about the most common harmful chemicals found in everyday products in our homes and gaining an understanding of how these chemicals can impact our health. Participants researched BPA (found in plastics), parabens (found often in cosmetics and personal care products and phthalates (found in children’s toys, personal care products and food packaging). We learned about the ways in which many of these chemicals mimic hormones in our bodies and lead to increased risk of infertility, brain impairment and some cancers. Scary stuff! While many of these chemicals have been deemed unsafe, companies that create food packaging, cosmetics and products we use around the home are able to continue using them due to unclear and lenient laws. Companies aren’t always forced to disclose what’s really in their products, while other regulations are frustratingly slow to catch up to new research that has identified harmful contaminants.
While it’s important to stay informed, we try not to dwell on the negative in Nature Links. Instead, we began brainstorming ways to take action. A few incredible resources we’ve begun using are listed below.
Do a makeover of your personal care products- First, EWG’s “Skin Deep” is an online database of nearly 100,000 products you may already use on your body. Search the database for the personal care products in your home and the program will give you a score based on the product’s ingredients and concerns around its toxicity, risk of causing cancer and advancement of allergies.
Stay informed about what you purchase- EWG has another great resource. Their Guide to Healthy Cleaning is yet another database that allows you to search common cleaning products to learn more about their potential to contain harmful chemicals. Remember that cleaner our participant asked about? Turns out it received a failing grade on this database due to a range of chemicals linked to asthma and cancer. Yikes!
Make your own cleaning products- A surefire way to know what’s in your cleaning products is to make it yourself! It may sound daunting, but there are loads of recipes online that can help us make products window cleaner, all-purpose cleaner and air fresheners easily and on a small budget.
In the next few months, each Nature Links participant will take on a challenge—make your own personal care or cleaning product for your home. Take pictures, write down the recipe and let us know how it worked. We’ll be sharing our results in the next few months so check back to see how it went. In the meantime, vote with your wallet! Stay informed about what’s really in the products we bring home with us and don’t spend your money on things that can cause us and our families harm.
