Toxic Dust Bunnies: Environmental Health, Safety Threats from PBDEs
Part 2 – by Nena Baker, author, The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being (North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux “Thirty years ago, about the time that PBDEs were introduced, veterinarians began
Environmental In-Box: Cast Iron Cookware
For top-notch cooking without the worry generated by non-stick coatings, I turn to cast iron cookware. Here’s why: What I Like: No Nasty Chemicals – You get “non stick” without the nonsense of PFOA, the nasty chemical that makes Teflon easy
Coffee Mugs Matter
In 2005, Americans used and discarded 14.4 billion disposable paper cups for hot beverages, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Vermont calculated. That’s so many cups that if put end to end they would circle the earth fifty-five times! Based on
Eco-Friendly Paint Keeps You & the Planet Healthy
Conventional paint contains many volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that “outgas” and escape into the air after they are applied. Indoors, these VOCs cause headaches, nausea, achey bones, and general discomfort. Outdoors, they contribute to smog and air pollution. Whether
Be Safer and Smarter When Dyeing You’re Latest Do
Do you color your hair but worry about the impact hair dye could have on the environment as well as your own health and safety? I wish the information provided were more reassuring, but the truth is– we don’t know
Use Your Closet Clout to Positively Impact the Environment, Society and Yourself
With the changing of the seasons comes the changing of the clothes, the cleaning out of closets, and the charging of the credit cards. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2004-2005 Consumer Expenditure Survey, women spend an average of
Protecting the Environment is a Health Care Issue
The current debate about health care seems seriously lacking in one important way: there’s no focus on the environmental problems that make so many of us sick. Just scan the front pages of this week’s New York Times if you need
Tampons- The Planet’s Most Extreme Case of PMS
If you’re like most women, you’ll use as many as 11,000 tampons during your lifetime. Add to that a couple of thousand pads and panty liners, and the ecological impact of your monthly cycle really starts to add up. Particularly egregious
“In Wildness is the Preservation of the World”
Henry David Thoreau wrote these words in 1862. Today, almost a century and a half later, they are more true than ever before. Mining, forest clear cutting, oil and gas development, and road building are destroying the extraordinary and irreplaceable wilderness
How Eco Is Your Coffee Pot?
Consumers buy more automatic-drip coffeemakers than any other small kitchen appliance, so it’s no wonder they use about $400 million worth of electricity just brewing coffee every year. To make an energy-efficient but still high-voltage cup of java, start with
